Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 32
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 Aug 22nd 2008
Our work here is done. We’ve accomplished the task set before us by Odin and Artemis. That is, we’ve successfully opened negotiations with the Tuatha, bringing them into the fold, as it were, with the other pantheons. ^_^ I think we made a damn good impression. We only performed like three different “missions” for the Tuatha over the past week or so. That’s gotta be worth something. Of course, I’ve already covered most of that. Really, after meeting with Morrigan and Lugh, there was only one last thing for us to do.
We ended up meeting with several members of the Tuatha (again in the garden park). Lugh was there, as were Manannan mac Lir and a few others. T-Bone hit on Brigid pretty shamelessly. They essentially told us that we were good to go; they’d begin cooperating more with the other pantheons. But they wanted us to do one last thing for them as a further token of our goodwill (well, that and because they’d have a hard time doing it themselves).
Basically, a small group of formorians had set up operations in upstate New York, somewhere in the Catskill Moutains. They were using rare herbs, the stagnant water from Magh Slécht, and corrupt magic to brew a concoction with the power to render titanspawn invulnerable to the Tuatha and their servants. Needless to say, that was BAD. But Lugh and Manannan didn’t think we’d have any trouble dealing with them. So we agreed to take care of things and flew to New York.
After getting some gear together, we hiked into the Catskills using GPS coordinates given to us by the Tuatha. It was a long hike, but nothing too tiring. I mean, we are demigods after all, and this isn’t the first time we’ve done something like this. I mostly listened to music and chatted with my friends. Anna and I had an odd conversation about her pegasus, Charlie. For some reason she thinks he should be really, really smart and should talk and wear glasses and read stuff…it was a little confusing. She said he should sound like Mr. Ed. Riiiight. *sigh* I tried to convince her that her Charlie’s already very intelligent, and that the glasses and all would just be undignified, but she was pretty stubborn about it.
I shouldn’t give Anna such a hard time. She’s charming, in her way. T-Bone sure seems to like her.
Oh yeah, speaking of T-Bone, I heard from Aife that he pissed off Siobhan. Apparently she granted him the inspiration to produce the finest music of his life, but he wouldn’t give up the crucial bit of his soul that he more-or-less promised in return. In T-Bone’s defense, he didn’t exactly stop her from taking what she could when they were together, but when she tried to collect the rest of what she considered the debt due to her, he was pretty rude about it. That’s what Aife said, anyway. Sadly, T-Bone probably was rather callous to Siobhan. He’s been like that lately…treating people like they’re little more than things for him to use and play with it. It upset me.
Umm…anyway, back on track. We hiked through the mountains, following the GPS coordinates, and eventually began running into signs of the titanspawns’ presence. They’d set traps for intruders. Fortunately, Elisa, Adam, and Anna have sharp eyes and easily saw the traps they set for us. There were tripwires, pit traps, razorwire, and even explosive traps set with dynamite. And a lot of the traps were staggered so that an attempt to bypass one would lead right into another. It was very clever, almost certainly the work of the leprechauns that were working with the formorians.
Ray and I hung toward the back of the group and let our more perceptive companions scent out the traps. It’s not like we could really find them. Instead, we chatted and I let him listen to some of my music. It was really nice, being with him like that. ♥ ^_^ ♥ And after the first couple of traps, he decided to play it safe. He swept me off my feet and carried me the rest of the way, floating a foot or two above the ground to avoid any pits or tripwire the others might have missed. ^_^ He’s so wonderful.
As we neared the GPS coordinates, we crossed another hidden line of defense: a camouflaged tree fortress manned by some nasty looking leprechauns. T-Bone handled that one for us. He asked Wash, his tree-possessing ghost companion, to take control of the tree and deal with the leprechauns. It was quick but ugly. The leprechauns never even saw what hit them. The tree behind them just crushed them like bugs with its thick, log-like limbs. It was pretty gruesome.
Shortly afterward, we heard noises and a low bubbling sound come from up ahead over a rise in the mountainside. T-Bone and Elisa scouted ahead and reported that we’d found what we were looking for. It was a mountain hollow, a kind of clearing where the formorians were brewing their concoction in a huge cauldron. There were five formorians in all. Four were tough, but T-Bone’s magic showed that they were of lesser power than the fifth, who was also protected by a magical spell that would turn the first few attacks against him back on his attacker. He seemed to be a sort of mystic of some sort, so he probably had some potent magic to sling around too.
I told the others that I would take care of getting rid of the lead formorian’s shield. After all, my own ability to hurt something pales in comparison to my defenses, even if my own attacks turned back on me, it’s not like I was going to do any harm to myself. And my attacks would still knock out his shield. But, over my protests, T-Bone said he’d take care of it.
In the end, the basic plan was for the sneakier members of the group to sneak in and launch a surprise attack, with the rest of us (basically me, Tabby, and Pierre) leaping in to assist once the element of surprise was lost. Ray, Anna, Adam, and Elisa focused on the lower-powered formorians, waiting until T-Bone had removed the magician’s shielding magic before attacking him. Unfortunately, T-Bone managed to hurt himself pretty badly attacking the lead formorian. And he knew it was going to happen. That’s chaos for you. >_<
Anyway, I was worried about the lead formorian’s magic, so as soon as his shield was down and T-Bone wasn’t attacking him anymore, I strode forward, looked him straight in the eye (he only had one….the rest of his face was covered in mouths…yuck) and revealed the full extent of my beauty. Naturally, he was instantly enraptured. It made me feel sick to my stomach, though. That many mouths dropping open and drooling over me? Gross.
Anyway, I was able to keep the mystic at bay until Ray and the others tore through the rest of the formorians. Then they all struck him at once and pretty much killed him instantly. Meanwhile, Wash, who had possessed another big, tough tree, smashed the cauldron, spilling its contents across the ground.
After the battle, we found a hidden burrow with the formorians’ arcane notes and a few other odds and ends, but nothing particularly important. Adam memorized the notes (the formula for making the concoction they were brewing) and learned that the brew would only work on those corrupted by the titans. Then we destroyed the notes. Hopefully Crom Cruach won’t try this again anytime soon…but if he does, at least the Tuatha can rely on their allies from other pantheons now, right? ^_^
On the way out, we had Wash destroy the traps so that no one else could stumble into them. Sure, that meant destroying a few trees too…but Wash is a ghost. He was fine. And that was that. Mission accomplished.
I didn’t go back to Boston instantly, though I was dying to see Echo again. Instead, I followed the others back to Ray’s dojo in Harlem. I’d never seen it before, and I really wanted to see Ray’s home. It was nice…if a bit militant (I mean, the place is laid out like a fortress, but I’d expect nothing less of Ray). He has a beautiful Japanese garden, though, a little like the one I have behind the house in Red Mountain. But Ray’s built small Shinto shrines to many of the gods we’ve met and that have made a good impression on him, or to some of our honored enemies. Among others, there were shrines to Raiden and Susano and a gravestone for a Solomon Grundy. You know, it doesn’t come across all that much, but Ray’s a deeply spiritual guy! ^_^
Anyway, part of the reason I stopped in at the dojo for a night was because Ray had agreed to train my shikome (and my youkai, too). I’m so glad he agreed to train them. I think he’ll be good for them…the shikome specifically, that is. I know I’ve instilled the Amatsukami sense of duty in them, but I think he’ll really bring that virtue out in them. And with his training, they’ll become a lot more effective in a fight. If nothing else, it should help them defend themselves better.
So I left my followers with Ray for the next month, during which time he’ll teach them fighting skills and the samurai arts (you know, calligraphy, flower arranging, etc.). Tabby and the youkai have strict order to keep the shikome in line, and I made sure Kaori and the others understand what I expect of them too. I think they’ll behave. And if they don’t, they know I’ll back any punishment Ray delivers. And I warned Ray of the various shikomes’ quirks and vices. Tabby and Keiko should be able to keep them in line. And it will be nice to encourage more cooperation between Ray’s posse and my crew.
And you know what? I’m really looking forward to a month to myself with Echo…no one else around. It’s long overdue. ♥ ^_^ ♥
In other news, Ray and I discussed pooling our resources to buy a private, corporate jet for our group to use. You know, the kind of luxury aircraft wealthy executives fly around in. Mad Dawg said it should be like Tony Stark’s plane from the Iron Man movie, and that works for me. Only there won’t be any poles, or pole dancing flight attendants. Though Pierre did offer, which pretty cinched the “no poles” clause. We won’t need to hire a pilot because Juanita can fly it, and I’m sure I can convince Keiko or Sera to learn how as well. It’ll be nice to have a plane of our own to cruise around the globe in.
Oh yeah, you remember me hinting about Elisa’s big secret recently? Well…she’s pregnant! She’s going to have Pierre’s child, so he made the announcement, though of course I already knew. She and I talked a lot about becoming mothers. It was a nice way to bond. And I think Pierre asked Ray to protect the child, because Ray was extra-watchful around Elisa during our last little mission. Anyway…Elisa and Echo will probably give birth around the roughly same time. I can’t help but wonder what it will be like…and worry that I may not be a good mother for my child. >_<
But enough worry. Right now, I’m just looking forward to sitting back and relaxing with my lovely Echo. I’m planning to go back to Japan to visit Hinako and Sayuri and to meet Keiko’s daughter, Teruko, in a month or so, and of course I’ll likely have an opportunity to meet privately with Miko before too much longer (that’ll be fun >_<). In the meantime…I’m just going to take it easy, write some music, play some clubs, and enjoy myself. ^_^