Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 37
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 Nov 2nd 2008
Big things are happening right now. I’d like to go into detail, but my wife is going to go into labor any time now, so I’m running around making sure she’s comfortable and ready. I’m so excited! My little girl’s about to be born! Echo’s awfully quiet, which is something new for her. She talks a lot (it’s one thing she’s known for), so it kinda scared me when she clammed up and became really quiet and started wandering around making sure everything was ready for the birth. Cila assures me it’s okay, though. Apparently all of Echo’s strength and spiritual energy is going to her womb—to the baby—and so she’s got to conserve her strength. I’m still worried, but also really, really excited!! ^_^ Anyway, that’s why I can’t write more than a brief summary of recent events this entry. I’m really, really distracted right now!
I’m at Pierre’s estate in Trinidad right now. It’s a very nice place, tended by zombie servants and several of Pierre’s beautiful daughters. Pierre asked us to come down and help him and Elisa because they’ve come under attack from enemies. Pierre doesn’t know exactly who’s behind the attacks, but they’ve targeted him and Elisa. They seem to be after Elisa’s baby, but they’ve also hit Pierre’s cults in Trinidad and Haiti. What’s more, someone attacked Louis (T-Bone’s werewolf friend), probably to try and get at T-Bone. Sounds like it’s a Loa thing. And whoever’s behind it has been using Cheval to possess and use people, including Pierre’s daughters, to strike at Pierre and Elisa. Scary, huh?
When we arrived at Pierre’s place, Ray burned through a lot of his inner stores of energy warding the place against everything he could think of, from zombies to baka (these frightening shapeshifters that we believe our enemies are using). He also summoned a kami and made it a watchful spirit to keep an eye on things and report if anyone begins acting strangely. I have to admit that I’ve been so anxious about Echo that I haven’t been much help in preparing our defenses.
Since we didn’t have much to go on, Adam performed a prophecy, and from what he says, things are fairly complicated. Someone is trying to get at Pierre (and probably T-Bone), and we think that ultimately he or she serves Gran Bois, one of the Loa titans. That’s bad. >_< Apparently, they’ve arranged for the assistance of forces related to the Aztec pantheon, and the efforts to acquire Elisa’s child are an attempt to cash in on that deal. After all, the servants of the Atzlanti titans see the child of a demigod as a very valuable sacrifice. >_< As a result, it looks like we’re dealing with all sorts of other Atzlanti titanspawn, including strange undead women demon women known as tzitzimime (Ray’s apparently dealt with them before), snake people, and some sort of powerful Aztec dragon. It looks like we have our work cut out for us.
Ultimately, we think that Gran Bois is trying to eliminate some scions, namely T-Bone and Pierre, before they become gods and can really pose a threat to him. Pierre in particular is dangerous because he’s sired a lot of kids who could potentially become scions themselves once he’s achieved godhood. And whoever is in charge of taking out Pierre and T-Bone seem really, really clever. Adam’s had his work cut out for him staying ahead of our opponent in this case. That’s scary. We’re dealing with a master strategist in this case, and from what we’ve seen already, that could make things difficult to say the least.
Anyway, shortly after arriving, Pierre received a message (delivered via zombie) from our opponent. I was shocked to see what was in the message. There was a picture of Suchette (the leader of the New Orleans vampires) captured and confined under a window open to the sky. It was only a few hours until dawn…and so we only had a short time to go rescue her. Unfortunately, the message gave us four possible locations where we might find her. We had to either split up or rely on Adam’s ability to unravel mysteries to figure out where Suchette really was. It was all part of our foe’s master strategy. Either way was bad for use, since we’d either have to weaken our forces or waste one of Adam’s most valuable assets. But we had to do something. Suchette is a very good friend of mine, and I was not going to let her die like that.
We decided to split up to check all the sites, fully realizing the risks. We figured that if something really bad happened, at least Ray could teleport in to help out, and usually that’s enough. ^_^ T-Bone and I took the jet (and Ray’s followers and my shikome) to a military base in Cuba, Elisa and Pierre took Adam’s flying car to a site in Jamaica, Adam and Anna rode Charlie and Rommel to a site in Barbados, and Ray tool Chase to investigate a place in Haiti.
During the flight to Cuba, T-Bone and I discussed a number of things I don’t have time to go into here. Since our talk in which he unburdened himself to me, we’ve been getting along famously again. During our conversation, I asked about Robin’s sociopathy and whether he might be able to help her get over it, given his kinship with madness. He didn’t really know if he could help or not at the time, but promised to look into it. I hope he can help. Like all my shikome, Robin is important to me, and her happiness (not to mention Tabby’s) means a lot to me.
In order to get access to the hangar where Suchette might have been trapped in Cuba, T-Bone and I masqueraded as a Cuban general and his aid. I played the part of the general, using my shapechanging abilities to look like someone completely different for the first (well…second) time ever. I think I pulled it off quite nicely, and T-Bone covered for the fact that I don’t speak a word of Spanish. You know, I need to develop my ability to operate as a perfect imposter more. I can definitely see it being useful in the future. ^_^
When we arrived at the hangar, we found that Suchette wasn’t there. Five tzitzimime demon women jumped us…but they didn’t stick around. When they saw who we were, they just…left, flying off like shooting meteors. It was weird…but it made perfect sense once we’d heard from the others.
Adam and Anna actually found Suchette in Barbados. Suchette was unconscious when they found her, but she was otherwise okay. They freed her from the reinforced glass case that held her just as the sun was rising. It’s a good thing one of her vampire abilities lets her turn into an insect, because that’s the only way Adam was able to hide her from the sun (he put her in a closed pocket in his coat). I was so relieved to hear that she was okay.
Everyone else was confronted by tzitzimime just like we were, and they left all of us alone. All of us, that is, except Pierre and Elisa. They immediately attacked Pierre and Elisa, who tried to get away in Adam’s car. Tzitzimime can take the form of shooting stars, and they streaked after the car attempting to force it out of the sky. Fortunately, Ray teleported in on a bolt of lightning to lend his aid to their escape, and Elisa was able to outmaneuver the tzitzimime with her fancy driving. So no worries, everyone is safe and the Elisa’s unborn baby is okay. ^_^
When we returned we found a number of Pierre’s zombies beating the hell out of some of the local villagers who were attempting to invade Pierre’s house and burn it down with gasoline. They’d been possessed and forced to become arsonists by whoever is pulling the strings. According to Pierre, our opponent must be pretty powerful since he/she was able to possess eight people at once. >_< In any event, the townspeople stopped their assault when we arrived and their possessor withdrew. Sadly, one girl was killed, and several were badly wounded. I did what I could for them and helped calm their confusion. We told them they’d been possessed, and they seemed to accept that as they went back to their homes.
Once that was taken care of, I took Suchette from Adam. She was dormant (and still and insect) since it was daylight, so I arranged a comfortable palette for her in Pierre’s wine cellar and left a spare cell phone with her along with a note for her to call me as soon as she wakes up. I’ll be glad to see and talk to her again, but right now I’m just glad she’s okay. While I was doing that, Ray set up more wards and left instructions with his followers to keep people away from the estate as non-violently as possible. After all, these poor villagers aren’t in control of their own actions when they’re possessed, so we can’t exactly hold them accountable for trying to burn down Pierre’s house.
I charged my shikome with guarding the interior of the house, in the unlikely event that something did get inside. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave them outside to help with crowd control…that would likely have ended poorly. And besides, Ray’s guys have that angle covered, especially with Konoko, his new oni girl, on the scene. I will say that having both Tabby and Audrey commanding the shikome makes controlling them much easier.
Once the defenses were bolstered, we talked more about what to do next. We quickly agreed to go back to the place Adam and Anna had found Suchette to try and track our enemies from there. It probably wouldn’t lead back to the mastermind behind this whole operation, but it might give us leads we can use to find out more about who exactly that mastermind is and how to deal with him (or her).
I didn’t go with them to follow up on that plan of action, though. I couldn’t, not with Echo in the state she’s in. I want to be with her when she gives birth, and I think she’ll need me. The others understood and left me in charge at the house while they went to follow up on whatever clues they could find. I think Echo and I will be safe enough here. We have a small army of followers protecting us, and I can handle a lot of things on my own…maybe not with violence, but I have my ways. ^_^
So that’s where I am now. I’ve been anxiously waiting for Echo to go into labor, mostly doing things to relax and keep my anxiety-level down, like sunbathing with Cila and Konoko or writing this entry. At this point, though, I’m pretty much glued to Echo’s side. It won’t be long now…
Next entry, I’ll be a mother! Wish us luck! For now, though, I’ve got to go. Echo needs me.