Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 28
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 June 27th 2008.
Well, the Mummer’s Dance that we’re protecting has been just as eventful as we thought it would be. Nothing’s ever going to be easy for us, after all. But in this case, I guess it’s a good thing. We need to impress the Tuatha, and overcoming some titanspawned obstacles is just the thing to let us do that. But before I get into all the details of the Mummer’s Dance, I gotta talk about some stuff that happened earlier in the day.
First off, Adam, Elisa, Keiko, Anna, and I went to meet with Claire. We also met her daughter, Alice, who didn’t like us much. Especially not me. That surprised me…most people find it very easy to like me. ^_^ I think it boils down to the fact that Claire has always believed in the old ways and the supernatural, both of which have had a huge impact on her life. Alice, however, has little patience for those things, and it seems like she feels her mother is being led even further astray by us.
Claire, on the other hand, is more than willing to cooperate. It seems like a mixture of fear and admiration for us, and I’m certain she believes that some, if not all of us, are fae…me especially. ^_^ She’s awfully attracted to me…not necessarily romantically, which is good, but she’s certainly drawn to me. And that bothers Alice. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it. Alice will just have to live with it.
You know, it’s too bad she’s having such issues with us. She has such a wonderful name! You’d think a girl named Alice would be eager to venture down the rabbit hole into the realm of the unknown, but apparently she didn’t inherit her mother’s sense of wonder.
Aside form Alice’s disapproval, the meeting went well. We discussed the route the mummers would take and agreed on the number of people we would bring. Claire said we’d have to travel on foot since vehicles would ruin the spirit of the Dance, but that was no problem at all for us. We decided that T-Bone and Elisa would dress as mummers so that they could follow the mummers into the houses they’d be visiting so that they could film (and protect) them inside as well as outside.
All in all, things went pretty smoothly. Once the arrangements were made, we all parted ways. I’m not sure what everyone went off to do, but I did call to check up on Ray and let him know what the plan was. He said he’d be on standby, but wouldn’t actually join us for the Mummer’s Dance. Sigh. >_<
I’m really worried about Ray. He’s been spending even less time with us than he used to. It’s like he’s avoiding us. Or avoiding me. I desperately want to talk to him, but he’s not really cooperating. I may have to force the issue, because it’s really starting to hurt me that this huge gap is forming between us. Maybe it’s all in my imagination…but I don’t think so.
Anyway, after filling Ray in, I picked up Quinn, Kimiyo, and Sera (leaving Tabby and Keiko in charge of the shikome) and headed out to spend the rest of the day with Aife. We went to meet her band and play some music together. It was great! I had a blast. I think we all did. Aife’s a talented drummer, and the rest of her band is good too. If they can keep improving and can find a good way to market themselves, I think they can really go places. Oh, and for the record, I think most of the band is more-or-less aware of Aife’s fae heritage.
There was one awkward moment when I arrived to pick Aife up, though. I heard her arguing with someone else who sounded a lot like her. It turns out she has a twin sister named Scathach. Scathach wasn’t happy about Aife’s association with the rest of us. Scathach sounded fairly calm and level-headed as she argued…much more so than Aife, but she was still pretty obviously displeased. Anyway, once Aife let me in, I was introduced, and Scathach was courteous, if not warm. I did my best to make a good impression on her, and I think she softened a bit as we said our goodbyes and left, but she strikes me as very stubborn.
Aife says that Scathach lives alone in a swamp on a nearby island. She’s sort of a hermit and has as little as possible to do with the modern world. In other words, she’s very traditional and so she doesn’t really approve of Aife’s radical lifestyle. I know how that is. I’ve had plenty of people disapprove of me over the years. So it gave me and Aife a bit more common ground to connect over. I would like to get to know Scathach better. It would be nice to draw her out a bit more and help her understand her sister better. ^_^
As it was, Scathach joined us for the Mummer’s Dance (along with Aife and Siobhan, of course), though she mostly lurked in the background. Meanwhile, the rest of us played the part of documentary crew to the hilt. In addition to the regulars (excepting Ray, of course), I brought Keiko as my personal assistant and Tabby masquerading as a film student.
In a way, I’m glad I brought Tabby, but for the same reasons I’m kinda regret that she ever met Claire. You see, after she studied Claire for awhile, Tabby tapped me on the shoulder and enthusiastically whispered that Claire has the right kind of spirit to become a shikome elite. In other words, if I were to turn her, she could become as potent as Tabby. When I learned that, I licked my lips in anticipation of turning Claire. I just couldn’t help myself. But then I shook my head. I can’t turn Claire. Not unless she truly wants it. And though she’s quite enamored of the fae, I doubt she’d want to become a shikome. So I told Tabby that Claire is off-limits unless I say otherwise. I’d really like to turn her and acquire another elite shikome…but I can’t. Not as things stand.
Besides, Alice already hates me enough as it is. I am curious, though…if Claire has the right spirit, does her daughter? I’ll have to introduce Tabby to her to see.
As we were preparing for the dance, Adam and Anna told me a bit about their day. Apparently they’d investigated Adam’s prophecy, searching for ways for Anna to hunt and kill the titanspawned hound she has to slay. They discovered that the stone circles that dot the islands are actually a system of teleportation focuses, and that it’s possible to travel between them if you know the trick, which Adam did, of course. They could be very useful to us in the future, but didn’t really help narrow down the location of the stones Adam saw in his prophecy.
Afterward, they flew out to a nearby island, a place that was hidden away until only recently. It’s a beautiful, forested island with a temple dedicated to the moon on it. Anna immediately fell in love with the place, especially since only someone with a close association to the moon can find the temple at the island’s center. Anna kept talking about it like it was “her” island. I didn’t say anything to her…I didn’t want to burst her child-like bubble of enthusiasm…but I doubt the island is “hers” no matter what she thinks.
Anyway, the Mummer’s Dance got underway on schedule and with no problems. The mummers slowly made their way across the countryside and the rest of us followed. All went well for awhile until Adam and Anna spotted mysterious figures moving around in the mists ahead of us while the mummers were at one of the houses along the route. They rushed ahead to investigate while I stayed behind to look out for the mummers with T-Bone, Elisa, Pierre, Keiko, and Tabby. I also called Ray to let him know that it looked like there was going to be trouble, and he flew in to help out as quickly as possible.
Our enemies turned out the be some sort of leprechaun that was tainted by Crom Cruach, the Tuatha titan. They were using illusion magic to mask their appearances, so they looked just like us. There were only five leprechauns, but as they charged into our midst (and among the mummers, who were leaving the house, it quickly became confusing who was who. Fortunately, most of us managed to pierce the veil of the illusion, so while T-Bone and I worked to protect the frightened mummers and get them back into the house where they’d be safer, the others killed the leprechauns.
The titanspawned leprechauns commanded some nasty magic. As they fought, they kept opening maggot-filled sinkholes in the ground beneath our feet. I think both Adam and Anna had to deal with maggot pits, but they were easily able to leap free before sinking in up their waists in maggots. I wasn’t so fortunate. I’m not as quick as they are, so even though I noticed the hole opening beneath me, I couldn’t get out of the way in time. Next thing I knew, maggots were crawling all over me. It was repulsive…though maybe not as much as it might have been if I wasn’t Izanami’s daughter. I felt them starting to burrow into my flesh, and that was it. I vaguely remember shrieking something like, “Ugh! I can’t believe my mother is covered with these things all the time!” Then I summoned up my mastery over life and death channeled death into the maggots, killing most of them instantly. It was satisfying, though I still had to brush a bunch of dead maggots off of me. They ruined one of my favorite pairs of stockings! >_< *cry*
To make matters worse, the corrupted leprechauns apparently explode in a shower of viscera and maggots shortly after they die…which made life hard for us when they starting running into the midst of the mummers. Fortunately, Adam, Ray, and the others were able to fling the bodies far from the rest of us before they exploded. And once that was done, the immediate crisis was over.
There were still likely to be more enemies waiting for us, but even so, the Mummer’s Dance had to continue, so I encouraged Claire to rally her followers and keep going. They were all nervous, and by this time they knew the fae were involved. I decided to use that to my advantage. I told Claire that what she was doing was important to the fae, and that she had to continue. They’d chosen her for this important task, and she couldn’t let them down. I called for Aife to back me up, and she did so. But as she spoke, her eyes changed and she looked a lot more like a real bean-sidhe than she does normally. It was an impressive effect, and I think it added a hell of a lot of impact to my words.
After that, Claire agreed. She and her followers had a new sense of determination, and set off again to continue despite their fear. Meanwhile, Scathach and Aife began arguing quietly again. I didn’t intrude, but overheard their argument. Scathach was angry that Aife had revealed her fae nature, but Aife argued that she had no choice if she was to encourage the mummers. Aife also told Scathach that she’d been commanded to do so by a goddess (me), which was more-or-less true. I had no idea I had such influence over Aife…but I’m glad that she did what she did. It helped get Claire and the others moving again. Scathach wasn’t convinced, though. She feared that showing Claire proof of the fae would destroy her faith (because who needs faith when they have proof?), and that Claire’s faith was something beautiful and important…something that shouldn’t be risked.
Scathach made some interesting points. I’m not sure how much I agree with her, but I have begun thinking about what our relationship is to faith among the general press of humanity. Maybe I should bring it up with Adam or Ray.
Anyway, we set out to continue the Mummer’s Dance, anxious that there’d be more trouble ahead…