Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 65
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 Dec 13th 2009
So, where’d I leave off last entry? Oh yeah, we’d reached the Celestial Bureacracy’s camp in Tien and were taking a few hours to prepare ourselves before infiltrating the enemy lines to go deal with a massive titan furnace that was generating the fire-borne power fueling Surtr’s churning engines of war. If we could do that, a large portion of Surtr’s firepower would be neutralized and the tide would turn in our favor. You know, it’s actually every bit as dangerous as it sounds. But, resourceful sorts that we are, we’ve made it though okay so far. ^_^
Before we left, a rather tengu-like Chinese youkai (yaoguai?) named Chiang Pu laid out maps of the entire battlefield and pointed out to us where we were to go and what was likely to lie in store for us. We’d be setting out under the cover of the morning mists, so infiltrating the enemy lines wouldn’t be too hard as long as we kept quiet. We’d make our way through the mountains, taking advantage of the cover they offered to find and destroy Surtr’s furnace.
We did take time to prepare, though “prepare” seems to have meant different things to each of us. T-Bone was worried about the ferocious heat that Surtr’s minions generate with their very presence, something the rest of us have the divine fortitude to withstand. After conferring with Chaing Pu, he was able to acquire a sleek fire-proof suit. I’ve never seen T-Bone look so cyberpunk! ^_^ It was pretty cool. Meanwhile, Elisa and Pierre disappeared to cuddle. Adam got hijacked by Syn, who dragged him off to a tent and sated her lusts on him. I mean, my gods they were loud. And violent, by the sounds of it. That’s one thing that does not appeal to me about the Aesir; they have a tendency toward bluster and force, even (apparently) during their lovemaking. The occasional rough sex is fine and all, but I prefer gentler, more tender lovemaking. *Sigh* Just thinking about it makes me miss Echo, and Yi…
Speaking of Echo, I found a quiet spot and used the art of Tsukumo-gami to contact her, Rose and Miko (who had arrived back at Red Mountain by that time), just to chat for awhile. Rose is doing well. I just can’t get enough of her adorable face and those brilliant, expressive, rose-colored eyes! ^_^ And Echo misses me. I miss her too. At least I can still hope to see Yi at some point while we’re here in Tien.
Miko seemed a bit sad. I think she’s still disappointed that she couldn’t stay with me on this mission. T_T I hate seeing her upset. She’s the sunlight of my existence, the part of me that cherishes the light and everything it symbolizes. Seeing her sad makes me sad. T_T
Anyway, after a few hours, the dawn began to creep into the valleys if Tien, and we set out on our secret mission, leaving Sera behind to greet Charles upon his return and Tabby there to protect her. Xi Wang Mu also stayed behind as Guan Yu’s resurrection anchor in case he falls in battle. We moved into the mountains, using the thick mist for cover. Of course, the mists obscured our sight as well, except for mine. Thanks to the blessings of Amaterasu’s sun, I was able to see through the mist just fine, so for the first bit of our journey, I was the group’s eyes.
Our first obstacle was a tall, thick, tangled fence of nearly molten barbed wire, glowing red-hot. It marked the edge of the titans’ positions, and the post was defended by eight of Surtr’s so-called “Trogdor” tanks (seriously?), a handful of patrolling fire giant infantry, and three vigilant taotie masks. Fortunately, the mists hid us from them, so we were able to bypass the fence relatively easily, either by shadow-stepping through to the other side (me) or just leaping over (everyone else). There was a weapon’s depot just beyond the fence, and though we briefly discussed leaving it be and getting on with our mission, we just couldn’t pass up the chance to hit the enemy where it hurts. With a look of destructive glee in her eyes, Elisa snuck into the depot and quickly rigged some of the explosives inside to explode, and by the time they went up in a thunderous explosion (taking out a few of the tanks and giants), we were well behind the fence and on our way deeper into the mountains.
As the mists began to clear, Adam and Elisa spied, tucked away in a sheltered vale down a long and winding path, a group of roosting dragons. There was an ammunition dump there, and the dragons were being rearmed by diligently working fire giants before being loosed to carpet bomb our lines again. We decided not to do anything about them, though. It was too dangerous, and the sooner we arrived at our true objective, the sooner we could shut down a large portion of Surtr’s forces and turn the tide of the battle.
I hope Charles is okay.
Anyway, an hour or so after the dragons, we came across a deep valley. There was some sort of forge-built arms factory in the valley, churning out ammunition and tanks for the battle. There were something like fifteen Trogdor tanks forming up to there, getting ready to deploy, I guess. Fortunately, a long bridge of (again) red hot metal stretched across the valley and over the factory, giving us a convenient way to avoid the enemy below. The bridge was guarded by a fire giant falconer with a blazing firebird perched on his arm, but the sun was still low in the sky and the shadows still long, so we were all able to shadow step beyond the danger. Well, all except for T-Bone, but he easily evaded the notice the bridge guardians as he slipped invisibly by them.
Our next hurdle was another bridge, this one a ridiculously long rope bridge stretching from one mountain pass to another across a vast valley. This bridge was also guarded by corrupted celestial hounds, two at each end. What was even more worrisome, however, was what was happening below. In the valley beneath the bridge, forces belonging to Hun Dun (that bastard whose avatar we killed in Hiroshima) were massing and helping to prepare another of their chaos-ridden lord’s avatar’s for battle. Adam muttered the name Chi You, then whispered a message and sent it on the wings of magic to Syn, warning her that another titan avatar was preparing to join the battle.
We’d better hurry. I don’t want Guan Yu and Charles to have to face two titan avatars at once. That would be bad. >_<
Adam assured us that he’d done all we could do for now, and we decided to hurry onward. This time, though, I couldn’t see a good way across the bridge. Adam and Elisa had the keen sight to pierce the distance to the other side, so they could shadow-step through with no problem. Pierre could use Cheval to ride in Elisa’s body. And T-Bone could just sneak across (though he’d have to deal with the corruptive aura of the hounds). I didn’t have any of those tricks…but I had one that worked just as well. After assuring the others I’d be fine (and asking T-Bone to stick close to me while we crossed the bridge), I turned myself into one of Hun Dun’s black calamities, a rough, shapely (it is me, after all ^_^) silhouette of abrasive blackness with two glowing red eyes. The celestial hounds didn’t even look twice as I simply walked between them like I was on some errand for their master, and though I too had to shrug off their unpleasant aura, both T-Bone and I made it across without incident.
And then, a short while later, we encountered an obstacle that couldn’t be bypassed so easily, at least not by the whole group. In the distance, Adam and Elisa spied a high metal wall patrolled by three fire giants, one of whom was carrying a massive forge-built cannon (Adam said it was a rail gun, but don’t those work off electromagnetism? I would have associated that sort of weapon someone like Daitokuji, not Surtr. Then again, I don’t really know that much about Surtr’s modus operandi). The wall held a massive metal gate, but it was closed.
I offered to head in and have a quick look around by gliding under the gate through the earth, and discovered that there was an artillery base there with several more tanks dug in behind emplacements inside, as well as a few more patrolling giant infantry (some of whom led perceptive giant hounds around on thick chains). Fireballs kept arching over the base and onto the main battlefield from catapults or something even further behind the lines. There was also a communications tower manned by a giant who kept singing the Trogdor song over a big radio for the benefit of Surtr’s troops (again, seriously?)
Still, the place was so big it looked like we could handle small pockets of its troops without getting involved with the others, so that’s what we did.
First, the others decided to assault the gate while Pierre opened it from within (traveling through the earth like me to get there). Meanwhile, I made my way through the earth to the communications tower and neutralized the radio giant with my dazzling beauty. ^_^ All of which worked like a charm. Adam sniped the cannon-bearing giant on the walls and with two well aimed shots managed to kill him before he could bring his cannon to bear. Meanwhile, Elisa blew away another and T-Bone help throw the remaining giant off-balance, allowing the rest to finish him off by the time Pierre had the gate open. And while they were doing that, I disconnected the radio so that even if the radio giant did pull his jaw off the floor and snap out of his trance, he wouldn’t be able to send out a distress call.
The others quickly caught up with me and wiped out my fire giant admirer fairly quickly. Then we just had to make it through the rest of the base and escape through the opposite gate. Sadly, we’d been noticed by a black calamity, which had fetched a couple of patrolling giants and their hounds to ambush us. With all the artillery noise in the base, we never even heard them coming. >_<
The fight was brutal, especially since we weren’t expecting it. I immediately fascinated the hounds to keep them out of the fight until we’d dealt with the giants, but then the black calamity tried to charm me. I was not going to put up with that, so it totally failed, but it really pisses me off when the bad guys use my own tricks against me! >_< One of the giants swung his axe and beheaded me, messily, but I shed my corpse and ended up unharmed. Elisa shot the black calamity, but then Adam was flung through the air by a crushing blow from the other giant’s axe. Blood was splattered everywhere, and I rushed to Adam’s side, cradled his wounded body in my arms, and licked some of his blood off his cheek before kissing him to heal some of his wound. When I finished I couldn’t help but say, “Yum,” ^_^. His blood was pretty tasty. ^___^ Pierre helped finish healing Adam, so within a few moments, our strategist was back to full health.
Aside from that tense moment, the rest of the fight, though difficult, went our way, and once we finished the remaining giants and the hounds, we hurried to the opposite gate. Pierre forced it open with his massive strength, and then we made a break for it. We couldn’t afford to waste our strength or our time fighting more giants, so most of us shadow stepped, earth traveled, or sprinted away as fast as possible, quickly putting the base behind us.
And now we’re approaching Surtr’s forge and its guardian, a fire giant named Burnheat, from what we’ve been told. If these other fire giants have been tough, I don’t even want to think about how dangerous Burnheart’s going to be…but hopefully fate is on our side.