Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 35
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Oct 10th 2008
Can you say “breakthroughs?” Because that’s what we’ve had over the past day or so here in Glastonbury. We’ve discovered the identity of some of the titanspawn infesting the town and have dealt with the person we think is the ringleader, at least locally. But our problems aren’t over. We still have to slay some very dangerous titanspawn, and we haven’t even begun to zero in on the ama-no-jaku, who could be hiding just about anywhere.
I left off with the group of us at Dead Dog Farm having just talked to Audrey. T-Bone had discovered a suspicious-looking black van in the vicinity, and we went to check it out. Adam must have gotten a premonition of something, though, because he got a very serious look on his face and said that he and Anna had to go take care of something, and then they left, leaving T-Bone, Pierre, Elisa, Ray, and me a little perplexed.
We closed in on the van very quickly. T-Bone picked up and carried Pierre and Elisa (weird, huh?) while Ray, as usual, carried me (those two being our speedsters, it only made sense). You know, I like it when Ray carries me around. It’s nice being so close to him, feeling how much he cares. I think it’s one way he shows his affection, since he can’t really do it openly. You know how he is. ♥ ^_^ And…how things are between us.
We tried to approach the van stealthily, but Pierre gave us away and the van tried to speed off. Ray jumped in front of it and commanded the driver to stop, but the driver just hit the gas…so Ray punched it. ^_^ When the driver burst from the van, it wasn’t human. It was a foul-looking bat thing – one of the camazotz vampires we’d heard about. Ray, Elisa, and Pierre managed to subdue it, but not before it actually hit and wounded Ray! These things must be dangerous. We forced it to return to its human form (which was really freakin’ hot, by the way) so that we could question it, but only after T-Bone and I convinced it that if it even looked at us wrong, Ray would rip its arms off. I mean, according to Elisa and Pierre, camazotz can be ridiculously manipulative in their human forms, so we didn’t want to take any risks.
Since T-Bone’s the most manipulative of us, he did the interrogating. We learned that the vamp we had captured part of group of six others led by a powerful camazotz named Cactli. The group currently laired in Dead Dog Farm’s silo, but he’d been sent out to find a more suitable place for them to hole up during the day since Dead Dog Farm attracted too much attention (more on that later). At the time, the vamp’s friends were hanging out in One Eyed Jack’s, the club T-Bone had found out about, but he didn’t seem to know anything about any ama-no-jaku.
One we’d gotten all we could out of him, Ray killed him and we left the two halves of his body out where the sun would destroy them and prevent him from ever returning. Then we headed back to Dead Dog Farm. By the time we returned, Adam was back, but Anna wasn’t. He claimed that they’d run across some titanspawned menace threatening local wolves and that Anna was still dealing with it, but that it wasn’t anything major. We all assumed they’d really just been getting some ♥alone time♥ on the job.
Ray and I summoned the farm’s kami while Adam investigated the rest of the farm. The farmhouse itself looked like the sort of place people came to party or hide out for awhile. There were hidden stashes of supplies all over the place, and it looked like some of the dingy beds had been used recently, but otherwise there wasn’t anything special there. The silo, on the other hand, was indeed a camazotz lair. A dug out cave beneath it is where they hide during the day. They had some boardgames in there. We took them and left a taunting note about it outside the silo. ^_^ They also had a hit list of people in town that they planned to kill. Several names were marked off already, including Madeline and Denise. We took the list too.
As for the farm’s spirit (I hesitate to call it a kami)…it looked like a rotting dog corpse. We got some really useful information from it. Most importantly, the farm itself seems to act as a metaphor for the entire town, so anything that happens there is somehow echoed in the larger scheme of the town, but exactly how it is echoed is always uncertain. Hell, the fact that we talked to Audrey there is going to have repercussions of some sort. That means it would be very dangerous for us to take any sort of overt action at the farm itself. At the same time, though, the farm seems to draw people and things to it. It’s like a nexus of fate.
We asked the spirit about the battle between Belphlamelech. I mean, according to the White Lodge, the Black Lodge champion killed a bunch of their agents there, which was part of the issue fueling the current conflict. The spirit answered that Belphlamelech didn’t kill the agents. He fought them there, and he defeated them, but he didn’t finish them off, as I guess that would have broken the agreements between the lodges. But them a shapechanger that looked like Belphlamelech came back and slew the agents. The shapechanger was a svartalfar (a dark elf). Adam knew about dark elves, and assured us that they were deceptive servants of the titans who mastered illusion, among other things. The camaztoz’s hit list included a note from someone named Rolf who was calling the shots, and putting two and two together made it pretty obvious that Rolf was the dark elf who had apparently helped instigate the whole mess to begin with. Finding and dealing with him became priority one.
But first, Ray used some of my black lipstick to draw wards on the silo and farmhouse so that the camazotz wouldn’t be able to get back into their lair, not quickly or easily, anyway. That may cause echoes in town too, but at least it will force them off the farm and into some other hiding place. We plan to come back during the day, track them to their new hiding place, and attack them when we have daylight on their side (I could make daylight too, but if they can hurt Ray, then they’re way to dangerous for me to be drawing their attention like that, and besides, if it’s daylight, they can’t flee as easily). I just hope they don’t decide to kill off a local family or something and take their house. That would be bad…
From there, Elisa used her tracking abilities (since Anna wasn’t around) to find Rolf the dark elf. Ironically, he was staying at the Great Northwestern, one floor above us. When I discovered that, things started to click for me. Rolf the dark elf was Mr. Eckard, the older South African gentleman who was such a prominent figure in town (and the heart throb of many of its women). We figured out which room was his, and Ray and Elisa did a little peeping tom reconnaissance (peeking in through the exterior window). He seemed completely unprepared for us, and in fact was getting rather intimately involved with a young Chinese-American woman (turns out she’s a local girl named Josie Heyword).
We decided that there was no time like the present, and so we prepared ourselves for a difficult battle. We powered up our divine abilities and I bolstered everyone’s health. Ray kicked in the door, catching Mr. Eckard by surprise. He only had time to drop his human guise and summon up a gold sword, shield, and suit of armor before I raised my camera, made some comment about photos for the tabloids, and hit him with a Heavenly Flare. He was completely stunned by the flash of light, and a split second later he was eviscerated and beheaded by Ray and Adam. It was brutal. We all just stood there for a few seconds wondering if he’d used some trick or something…but he was really dead, and it had really been that easy. That’s teamwork for you! ^_^
Of course, zombies popped out of the closets and attacked us immediately afterward, but we took care of them rather handily. According to Adam, the dark elf’s sword, shield, and armor were enchanted, but they would bring a curse upon anyone who tried to use them and wasn’t svartalfar. He also had a ring that could make you invisible, but it suffered from a similar curse (think Lord of the Rings). So we kept the items, but I think they’re getting thrown in a vault somewhere in Ray’s dojo or something. Rolf’s corpse also offered us another trophy, and I took this one. A lock of the dark elf’s hair, if braided into my own, will allow me to see through all but the most powerful of illusions. Pretty damn cool, huh? ^_^
T-Bone took care of calming down Josie and comforting her. In fact, he disappeared to his room with her, so it’s pretty obvious how he “comforted” her. After cleaning up our mess, Pierre raised Mr. Eckard as a zombie (he’d reverted to his human guise in death) and ordered him to walk around and be seen in town (especially at One-Eyed Jack’s) a bit before walking off into the mountains. So that’s how we got rid of the body and gave ourselves what passes for an alibi, I guess. I mean, local law enforcement might not be a real threat to us, but it could certainly become annoying as we continue our investigation.
It was still the middle of the night, and things were certainly heating up, so we decided to go visit One-Eyed Jack’s, the dark club that passes for the town’s chief underworld hotspot. T-Bone was still busy with Josie, but we left word with our followers to tell him where we’d gone, and he rejoined us a bit later (about the same time I finished up with Audrey, actually, but I’ll get to that). The place was much darker than I expected. In fact, it was the dark reflection of the harmonious, peaceful spot Adam found in the hills just outside of town when he checked out the windmills. We knew there had to be one. I don’t know if that will mean much as we try to resolve the rest of this conflict, but at least we know where both spots are now.
The whole place was decorated in red and black, just like the Black Lodge. It was shadowy and dark…the atmosphere wasn’t exactly what I like, but it had it had a delicious quality all the same. It made me think of Miko, in a way. The first floor was basically a restaurant and bar, but dark rooms with open doors lined the walls, and inside those rooms were people satisfying their lusts, hidden from view by the darkness yet exposed to those in the restaurant outside by the open doors. The second floor was more of a club, though it also had a few of those darkened rooms as well. The main upstairs room held several tables, though, and leashed to some of these were sensuous women in black leather catsuits that covered their entire bodies except for their mouths and the tips of their breasts. They were apparently local women looking to anonymously pick up some extra cash as bondage victims (though Adam discovered that one of them has some mythic heritage…she may have been a nymph!). It wasn’t really anything I haven’t seen before, but like I said in my previous entry, it’s a bit too fetishistic for my tastes.
Upon entering the club, I caught sight of Audrey drinking at one table, so I excused myself to speak to her while the others headed upstairs. She was still upset about our encounter at Dead Dog Farm, but I wanted to go ahead and lay the seeds for turning her into a shikome. Speaking of which, even though I have Ray’s blessing on it, Adam isn’t happy about it. That doesn’t change my intentions, though.
Anyway, I sat down at Audrey’s table and asked her again if she wanted me to help her get out of Glastonbury. I explained that if she’d be willing to stick with me, then I can show her a life where she’ll never be bored again, a life that will give her the opportunity to really make difference in the world and stop wasting herself. I offered her a life that could make even the gods themselves take note of her. She was drunk and suspicious and was under the mistaken impression that I wanted to sleep with her (she gets that a lot), but despite all of that, I know I piqued her interest. She’s worried about her father and the trouble he’ll cause if she disappears or something happens to her, so I’m not going to turn her just yet. Hopefully she’ll decide she wants what I’m offering on her own. And if she doesn’t…well, I’ll turn her anyway. It’s for the best. ^_^
T-Bone arrived as I was finishing with Audrey, so we went upstairs to join the others. In the club upstairs, the remaining camazotz were gathered around one table. They seemed a bit suspicious of my friends…so I guess Ray and the others hadn’t exactly been subtle in asking questions. But that’s to be expected. Ray and Pierre especially tend to draw attention. The bondage girl leashed to their table seemed a little confused too. I don’t think she’s accustomed to people coming in and not wanting anything from her. They’d been trying to ask her questions, but of course she couldn’t answer them. Communication by bondage girls was forbidden by club rules, which makes sense since the girls were trying to remain anonymous.
Just as T-Bone and I were arriving, a man with long hair and a harsh frown spun a chair around and sat at the table with my friends. It was Thomas Carroll, the P.I./hitman hired by Ben Horne to get things done around town, including a few choice murders. It was immediately obvious that he knew about the supernatural, more than his boss does, apparently. And he wanted to know what we were up to. I think he was sizing us up to figure out whether or not we were going to be a problem for him.
We ended up heading out of the club so that we could talk out of earshot of the vamps. Mostly our discussion centered around figuring out how big a threat we’d be to each other, but in the end we more or less agreed to work together for the good of the town, and he shared some interesting info with us. Of course, he freaked out and almost started a gun fight when Adam forced him to blurt out some information. He didn’t like that at all, and warned us to stay out of his head…but I calmed him down enough to convince him to stay and finish our conversation.
Anyway, Tom’s basically a ghost who has managed to possess his own body. So he’s kinda like a crazy zombie investigator. ^_^ He’s been involved in a lot of the weird stuff going on in town lately, but he’s not responsible for it. He’s trying to keep the peace and restore harmony to the town. He talked a bit about some sot of giant bug-things that he fought and killed…some kind of titanspawn that I assume are connected to the Crusher-of-Cities. They can apparently wear the skins of people they kill to appear human, but the disguise slowly wears away and falls apart before long, so of all the titanspawn infiltrators in town, they’re the least effective. He tracked them to their nest and wiped out one small colony, but there may be more.
You know, it just occurred to me that if these things are connected to the titan, then they might be emerging because of the titan’s stirring. And if that’s true, then wherever they’re coming from might be the same place where a part of the titan’s body has been revealed. We really need to look into that.
Among the things we learned from Tom is that Ben Horne probably doesn’t know about a lot of the supernatural stuff going on in the town all the time, and Tom tries to keep it that way. Even so, I think that talking to Ben Horne might be a good idea. According to Tom, I shouldn’t have any trouble getting in to see him. Ben has a thing for attractive women (as if his promiscuity hadn’t tipped us off to that already). I might take care of that tomorrow morning before we go off to eliminate the camazotz. A few feminine wiles can go a long way. ^_^
Anyway, right now I’m resting in the hotel with Echo. We took the rest of the night off since there’s not much more for us to do until tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have things cleaned up in Glastonbury within the next couple of days, but I’m still a little worried about the ama-no-jaku. I hope we can find them soon, and before they do any more damage… >_<