Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 14
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 14th 2007.
My life just got exciting again. I had a feeling this might happen when T-Bone left that message about going to New Orleans to settle accounts with his past. Actually, we kinda stumbled into the search for an ancient relic that a lot of people are trying to get their hands on. And we’ve ended up in the middle of some sort of New Orleans horror show, what with the voodoo vampires, werewolves, uber-zombies, and satyrs we’ve had to deal with. Okay, so the satyrs aren’t really scary…but they might indicate that Pan’s involved in this business, and that is scary. Anyway, aside from the satyrs, I feel like I’m a little in my element.
So, before T-Bone called me with a plea for help, I was just catching up on the club scene. I’ve had a lot of performances lately, and I’ve been loving it. Keiko’s still working on getting things set up to talk to the owner of the industrial park we need to fix in Chicago, so there’s been no major progress on that end of things. Amy and Tabby have been adjusting to their new lives as shikome quite nicely. I have to keep an eye on them, of course…but they listen to me and try to behave. Maybe I am taking after my mother, because they’ve become something like handmaidens for me. Whatever that means.
Oh, one other bit of shocking news. When I saw Adam again (I hadn’t seen him since Chicago), he kinda looked at me funny. Of course, I know he has a serious thing for me, and I am more beautiful now than ever before, but it wasn’t a “smitten” look. It was a “what the hell happened to you?” look. Like me, he can tell how someone died just by looking at them. And apparently, I had recently died of massive heart failure. My heart had basically burst, causing my immediate death. Wow. What a shock. I died? I pulled out my compact and checked myself in the mirror, and he was right. I just hadn’t seen it before because, well, I hadn’t really looked. And then it hit me. Right as my love-making with Persephone came to an end, I remember a terrible pain in my chest, and then I blacked out. I must have died from sheer pleasure, and then Persephone brought me back. What an incredible way to go! And I can’t even begin to express how inspiring it is to have died. Just thinking about it sends delicious little chills down my spine!
Anyway, I got a call from T-Bone late one night while I was in the bath. He sounded pretty excited…or at least as excited as he ever sounds. He said that some things had gone down in New Orleans and that he needed our help. He also said he was being tracked by a werewolf, which totally got my attention. So I agreed to get in touch with the others and we’d all try to meet him at a hotel in New Orleans.
And so we did. Of course, by the time we arrived, the hotel wasn’t such a good place to meet anymore. T-Bone had run into some Tonton Macout zombies there. I don’t know a whole lot about them, but they are bigger, badder, and tougher than normal zombies. Not good. Well, not for people like me and T-Bone. Ray, Anna, Adam, and Elisa didn’t seem to have too much trouble dispatching them, though.
When we discovered that the hotel wasn’t “safe” anymore, we agreed to meet at Pierre’s boat, which was docked in the harbor. Of course, T-Bone was afraid that his werewolf stalker wouldn’t have much trouble find him there either, but we couldn’t really do anything about that, and it was a lot safer than anywhere else we could think of. Of course, anywhere with Ray, Elisa, Pierre, and Adam is pretty safe if you’re on their side. Anna’s a different matter entirely…
Oh, speaking of T-Bone, he looks sharp! Somehow, during his visitation by his father, Kalfu, he became really handsome! I mean, he is hot! Dahlia just melted when she saw him. I think she’s smitten all over again.
So, we met at Pierre’s boat and T-Bone briefed us on what had been happening to him. Apparently, when he was leaving a club after a gig, some guy showed up and handed him a briefcase before being gunned down by a bunch of submachine gun-toting goons belonging to a local gangster warlord. T-Bone’s way to sly for that kind of opposition to be much of a threat to him, so he was able to get the suitcase to safety without being hit, and somehow drove off the goons (he didn’t really tell us how he did that, but he’s always played his deck of pornographic cards close to the chest..and yeah, he has a porno poker deck. I gather they’re important…if tasteless). That’s when he met Louis the werewolf mercenary, who has since been tasked with tracking T-Bone down so that the bad guys can send more goons after him.
Anyway, I’m not really clear on the details, but the briefcase contained a map of some sort and a set of directions written in Greek. The directions are complicated as hell, and help one navigate some sort of trap-filled ancient city called Kaymakli. The city, which I believe is supposed to be in Turkey, is supposed to hold an extremely valuable artifact, and a lot of people want it. The only problem is that it lies beyond a door that will kill anyone who tries to pass through it unless they are already dead. The dead can pass right through, but if they ever try to leave, then they’ll be destroyed. Fun huh? The only way to get through the door without dying is to have a key, which is some other artifact that we haven’t found yet. In short, you need both the map (with directions) and the key in order to find the artifact. We have the map, now we just need the key. And according to Adam and his oracular talents, the key is somewhere nearby. We just have to find it.
Oh, and you know what’s really cool? Legends say that a group of vampires were tricked into going through the door by some of their rivals. The vampire community at large was worried about their legends drawing too much attention, so they decided to basically hibernate (Tabby calls it “torpor”) to avoid the attention of vampire hunters. Some didn’t agree, though, and weren’t going to resign from the world like that, so the others tricked them into going through the door, and then they couldn’t leave. Problem solved. Damn, vampires are crafty.
Adam also received a prophecy about the whole situation. He said that somehow a group with the child of a wine god and a fire god led by a scion of Set (maybe?) was somehow involved in everything, and that a child held the key to an item that would allow the fallen Shepherd to return to the stars. If we can find the child, then, we should find the key. The prophecy also showed that a child of darkness held the map that would lead to the item. It was pretty obvious that that was referring to T-Bone.
Our info-sharing session was winding down when five or six Tonton Macout zombies showed up and made their way to the gangplank to board Pierre’s boat. I also got my first look at Louis the werewolf when T-Bone pointed him out. He was standing casually across the street some distance form the boat, just watching. He’d led the zombies to T-Bone, and that’s really all he was supposed to do, so he just sat back and watched the rest unfold…until the satyr showed up. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Adam, Anna, Ray, and Elisa charged the zombies and made short work of them. I could also see that Amy and Tabby’s bloodlust spiked when they saw an opportunity for absolute violence, and so I caught their attention, indicated the zombies, and said, “You’ve behaved yourselves extremely well, girls. Have fun. You deserve it.” And so they also threw themselves at the zombies, both piling onto one that the others weren’t attacking. It seemed like they enjoyed biting and clawing the hell out of it, but they really didn’t do much. They just aren’t strong enough, and those uber-zombies are tough! But, at least my handmaidens got a little of the violence out of their systems.
As Adam, Ray, and the others finished off the zombies, T-Bone asked suddenly if I could take a picture of Louis. So I did. I later gathered that it had something to do with his cheval powers, but at the time I didn’t have a chance to ask, because another stranger appeared on the scene. It was a man dressed in a trenchcoat. He played a set of pipes with such primal fervor that it began to drive away our inhibitions. With the zombies gone, Amy and Tabby immediately started making out with one another, and T-Bone leered at Anna and probably would have done something very unwise if he hadn’t shaken off the effect. The rest of us managed to keep a clear head, though it wasn’t easy. Pierre was standing just a little in front of me at the time, helping to protect the gangplank from intruders. He looked soooo good right then. I wanted him bad. I’d never really thought about him like that before, but he is pretty handsome, and awfully charismatic. Even so, he’s not mine, and I’m not about to move in on Elisa’s territory. She and Pierre make a good couple, and I value both their friendships, so there’s no way I’m going to do anything to ruin that. I’m just glad I remained in control.
And that’s when it hit me. Pan flute! The guy in the trench coat must have been a satyr! I mean, Mara has told me a lot about fauns and satyrs, and Adam’s prophecy said something about the fallen Shepherd, which could only be Pan, so the guy in the trench coat must be one of the fauns that went with Pan when he left the realm of the gods. I actually called Mara and asked about it when things calmed down a bit, and she seemed to agree that the satyrs we encountered might be working for Pan, which isn’t good. The artifact we’re now seeking might be exactly the sort of thing he wants, and if Adam’s prophecy is any indication, Pan might try using it to reclaim his place among the gods…
Anyway, when it seemed apparent that we wouldn’t fall to the pipes’ effects (except for T-Bone, Amy, Tabby, and some of Ray’s followers who happened to be there; Keiko and the rest of my girls were getting us all checked in at another hotel), the satyr decided to flee. Actually, I think Louis had a little to do with that too, because when he saw the satyr, he immediately turned into a huge black wolf and chased him like something from the Wild Hunt. Before the satyr fled, though, I took a picture of him too. Of course, he doesn’t look like a satyr in my picture. He just looks like a guy in trench coat…
Some of the others started to chase after Louis and the satyr. T-Bone, Pierre, Elisa, and I stayed put on the boat, and T-Bone asked if he could use my camera. It’s digital, so I didn’t have prints of the pictures I’d taken, but the image on the digital display was apparently good enough for whatever T-Bone wanted to do. Thank…Raiden?…for digital technology. Photography is so much easier and better now than it used to be! He sat on the deck and stared at the picture like he was in a trance. Later he explained that he was able to “ride” Louis’s consciousness to see where he went.
Meanwhile, Adam caught up with the satyr, who turned to face him…until Louis showed up. The satyr decided the odds weren’t good and fled with Louis hot on his tail. Adam decided not to follow (Louis and the satyr were faster than he was anyway). But that was okay, because T-Bone could see exactly where they were going with his cheval powers (and my picture!). Louis followed the satyr all the way to the swamps, where he joined two more of his kind. One of them was a pretty impressive looking satyr with glasses. He carried an impressive-looking tome of some sort, and a mystically glowing machete. He confronted Louis, who called him Wilbur (which is really funny to me, for some reason), and though the werewolf threatened the satyrs, he decided to back off. I guess Wilbur is a force to be reckoned with. T-Bone’s magic told him that the legend surrounding Wilbur was pretty severe, and Louis probably knew it. They obviously had some history.
So, we had satyrs, and werewolves, and crime lords…there was a lot going on. By this point, Pierre and T-Bone, who knew more about the local crime scene (and had actually spoken to Louis, in T-Bone’s case) had figured out that the people sending Louis and the zombies after the briefcase were a couple of tenuously allied crime lords known as Papa Screech and Blade (whose real name is Jacob Anderson). Louis was getting orders from some guy named Mr. Washington, who works for Blade. It was obvious by this point that they’d keep sending people after T-Bone and generally making our lives unpleasant until we did something about them, so after a short discussion, we decided to cut straight to the chase. We went to meet with Blade directly. After all, we had something he wanted, so surely he’d be willing to talk, right? Of course, were aren’t stupid, so we left the briefcase safely on Pierre’s boat, hidden off shore and protected by Pierre’s zombies, Ray’s followers, and my girls, who I called in from the alternate hotel they’d found for us to stay at. I kept Amy and Tabby with me. I mean, I’m still a little uncomfortable with the idea of leaving them alone even though I’m confident that Keiko, Sera, and the others can keep them in check.
Pierre and T-Bone knew where Blade resided, so we went there even though it was pretty late a night by then. T-Bone buzzed in at the gate, but the guard told us to go away, claiming that Blade was sleeping and wasn’t interested in seeing him. So I leaned in and added a bit of a woman’s touch. ^_^ I told the guard that we had important information for Blade, and that he would absolutely want to see us as soon as possible. I cinched it with a bit of my divine charisma, and that convinced the guard, who let us in.
We were received in an impressive, opulently decorated parlor. An absolutely gorgeous, dark-skinned woman greeted us. She was stunning. As stunning as I am, in fact. That put me on guard…if she’s that beautiful, then she probably has feminine wiles like I do, and that could be more dangerous than I thought the others were really prepared for… Though my own performance in combat has been anything but impressive, so I thought I might have been worrying for nothing.
Blade soon joined us. Of course, he hadn’t been sleeping, and he carried a katana (I think he’s actually a Wesley Snipes wannabe!) and was accompanied by a bunch of gun-toting goons. I don’t think we expected any different. I know I didn’t. Anyway, we briefly discussed why we had come. T-Bone told Blade up front who he was, but Blade didn’t seem impressed. We quickly figured out that even though he was trying to get the briefcase and its contents, he’d left most of the details to his underlings…specifically Mr. Washington. But when he learned that we had access to the briefcase, things turned sour.
I don’t know why things went sour. We were trying to have a nice discussion with Blade. If you ask me, I think he felt threatened by the presence of so many obvious heavy-hitters, like Ray, Anna, and Pierre. I know it might be safer to take them with us on diplomatic missions (Ray definitely saved our asses during the fight that ensued), but I can’t help but wonder if their presence doesn’t help derail otherwise peaceful negotiations. I mean, there is such a thing as negotiating from a position of power, but I also think that coming to a meeting with your whole arsenal is just asking for the other side to misinterpret your intentions…
Anyway, like I said, things went sour. The fetching woman who greeted us did know some of my tricks, and she used her compelling presence to enrapture us. Or most of us, anyway. I know Ray was unaffected (which turned out to be exceptionally fortunate), and I think Adam might have been unaffected too. The machinegun goons prepared to fire, Blade pulled a pistol, and the dark-skinned beauty attacked Ray.
And that’s when Ray showed off one of his new talents. He leapt into the air and slammed back down hard with his sword, sending a shockwave through the floor that splintered planking and knocked all of us down and out of our entrancement with Blade’s lady. From that point on, were able to react. I was pissed. I was angry and embarrassed that another woman had used my own tricks against me. I fully intended to return the favor to the woman, but by that point she was grappling with Ray, trying to keep him from going after Blade, I suppose. She wasn’t even looking my way.
But Blade was. He aimed his pistol at me and prepared to fire. I didn’t have a lot of time to react, so I used my divine appearance on him. I didn’t even have time to get up from Ray’s shockwave, so instead I hiked up my skirt a bit and gave him a coy “damsel-in-distress” look designed to make him melt. And it worked. He stopped, enraptured with my beauty. But…he managed to pull the trigger in the instant before my beauty possessed him, and shot me right in the chest. Thank Izanami that I’ve grown more resilient to such things lately. I wasn’t dead, not even close. It didn’t even hurt that much, thanks to my divine stamina, but I hate getting shot, and bludgeoned, and cut, and otherwise smacked around in combat, dammit.
I know it’s an old complaint, but still. Sigh.
Even wounded, I was still able to keep Blade enraptured. The others fought hard as well. Elisa fired off a few shots, and apparently she has some of the sun’s power too, because she was firing laser-like bolts of light at our foes. But really, the fight only lasted a few seconds before the hungry dead showed up.
Yep. Hungry dead. These were not the huggable kind of zombie.
Adam and T-Bone had already sensed a powerful mortal fleeing from the rooms above us. We guessed that was Papa Screech, who has a reputation for commanding the dead. Apparently, he didn’t care much about Blade’s fate, because he commanded a pack of flesh-eating zombies to descend upon Blade’s chateau and the surrounding houses like something our of a Romero movie. I guess he was scared of us, scared enough to sabotage his own alliance with Blade. The zombies broke in through the windows and quickly swarmed us all. Blade’s guards were torn to pieces. His ladyfriend transformed into some sort of bug and flew away. Pretty smart, if you ask me. The thing is, turning into an insect tipped me and a few of the others off to what she was. She, and Blade, are vampires…a type of voodoo vampire with the power to change into insects.
It was then that Ray demonstrated another new power. He created an impenetrable, invisible barrier to keep the zombies and Blade at bay. I realized that Screech had probably made a big mistake, and that Blade might be willing to team up. If I could talk to him, maybe I could get him to agree to a truce long enough to deal with the hungry dead, and then…well, we’d see where it went, and what that small amount of trust might get us. So I freed him from his entrancement, but before I could say anything, he too changed into an insect and flew away, leaving us to deal with the zombies on our own.
Protected by Ray’s barrier, we fled the house only to find more of the hungry dead outside. They were beginning to attack other nearby houses. So while Ray, Anna, Pierre, and our other strong companions uprooted trees to seal as many zombies as possible inside Blade’s house (so that Elisa could set it on fire…she’s such a pyro), Adam, T-Bone, Elisa, and I went to try and rescue the neighbors from the walking dead.
I also took a moment to check on the rental car where I had left Amy and Tabby. I was worried about them. They…weren’t there. Fortunately, their bodies weren’t there either, so it looked like they got away. I hope they got away. The only problem is that I’m not sure I can trust them to wander around on their own without getting into some sort of trouble.
…to be continued