Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 53
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 Jun 11th 2009
It’s been about half a day since I wrote last. I think we’re leaving for Ireland soon to stay one step ahead of our pursuers. While there, I’m hoping to be able to help Tanith show the Tuatha (or their servants, at least) that she really is a worthwhile addition to their forces. I also need to track down Siobhan and have her renew my follower geas. Anyway, those are concerns for later. For now, let me update you on the excitement of yesterday afternoon.
We decided to reserve a conference room for Hod and Demeter’s meeting (and I made sure to get the nicest they had). Once that was done, we just had to wait for the goddesses’ arrival. So Elisa, Pierre, T-Bone, Tanith, Sera and I took Hod to the hotel’s five-star pool while Tabby took a turn looking after Ophelia (she’ll be ready to interact with mortals again soon, but not quite yet…^_^). Sunbathing by the pool’s huge windows felt so good and let me recharge a bit of my power. Hod even seems to enjoy kicking back a bit, and I had fun talking to him. His sour attitude was a bit of a downer, but it wasn’t that bad. Actually I enjoyed his dry humor.
While we were entertaining Hod, Ray and Adam checked out the formorians’ freighter. I wasn’t worried about them until Adam called and told me that we shouldn’t worry about the big explosion that was about to rock the harbor. O_O. He hung up without giving me much more detail. When I spread the word to the others, Elisa threw a sarong on over her bikini, grabbed her gun, and sprinted toward the waterfront.
Sure enough, a few seconds later there was a huge explosion from the harbor where the formorians’ ship was.
It turns out they’d discovered a stinking, fleshy nest of Crom Cruach titanspawn. There was a room full of the cast-off remains of several bulbous eggs, some bizarre hoof prints, and what appeared to be a ritual chamber. That’s as much as they could investigate before they discovered a room full of fachan, gory half-men who were actually quite a challenge. I’m glad I wasn’t there to face them. They sounded disgusting, if compellingly macabre. In fact, they were so atrocious that their terrifying visage was seared into Ray’s mind, and he couldn’t shake it. Just fighting the fachan left him drained and dispirited, and as the day went on, I could see he was distracted. Still, I know a bit about how these things work. He’ll get over it in a day or so. In the meantime…poor Ray. >_<
Facing such dangerous opponents (and fearing something worse might lie within the ship), Adam decided to blow the freighter up by igniting its fuel reserves while Ray held off the fachan. It worked like a charm, though apparently both Ray and Adam had mere seconds to flee the doomed ship before it went up in flames. We could see the explosion from the hotel! No sooner had the explosion occurred than I called Adam, desperately worried that he or Ray had been hurt. But no, as usual they were just fine. ^_^ And by the time Elisa got there, the boys had pulled themselves from the water and were deciding whether or not to go check out the fishing boat that the other giants (the ones serving Surtr on the Jormungandr-drilling oil rigs) had come in on. Naturally, Elisa decided to tag along, and en route Adam filled me in on the details via cell phone.
Anyway, the giant’s boat didn’t have much of interest in it, but it had been mined by servants of Crom Cruach with mines set to go off if the giants returned. Elisa disarmed the mines and they laid claim to the boat. Meanwhile, Ray spoke to the kami of one of the mines and learned that they’d been set by a fearsome creature called Nuckalavee, a skinless fusion of man and horse. He’s in charge of Crom Cruach’s fachan and has about twenty-five of them (O_O) under his command. Minus the five we know Ray and Adam killed on the formorians’ boat, that still leaves twenty…
Upon leaving the boat, though, they ran into a strange red-headed man who quickly introduced himself as Loki. He wanted to help with this whole Hod thing. After all, it’s really in his best interest to forestall the advent of Ragnarok too, since he gets blamed for it. But Adam, Ray, and Elisa didn’t entirely trust him (which is only wise), so aside from accepting the service of a couple of his wolf warriors to look after the giants’ boat, they refused his aid.
Loki did tell us more about Nuckalavee. Apparently he can only be harmed by iron weapons, and such weapons are likely to break if used with enough force to actually harm him. And as for the eggs Ray and Adam found on the formorians’ ship…Loki thinks those might have hatched more of Crom Cruach’s giant maggots. Not fun. >_<
You know, we really get more than our fair share of maggots. T_T Why not spiders? I can deal with spiders. I like spiders. But no, it’s maggots. I wonder if it’s an aspect of my fate, being a daughter of Izanami?
Just for the record, Loki’s involvement in all of this is very hush hush, so we’ve hidden it from Hod, Demeter, and Persephone.
The wolf-warriors did call to let us know that some of those time-warping dogs were on the boat a bit later, though. They fled rather than fight the dogs (probably wise). I guess the dogs were trying to ambush us there and, as usual, arrived off-time. Those beasts are a serious threat, but it’s kinda comical how they’re almost always either too early or too late! ^_^
Anyway, about 7:15, Echo’s flight arrived and Sera picked her up and got her to the hotel shortly before Demeter and Persephone arrived around 8:00. ^_^ Echo can’t be away from Red Mountain long unless I’m nearby, or else she begins to sicken, so it’s important to keep her close on trips like this, but we had plenty of time to get her to the hotel. She doesn’t really start feeling the effects of separation for a few days. Still, I felt better just having her by my side again. ^_^
Demeter and Persephone arrived and we greeted them at the hotel lobby. Persephone seemed somewhat put upon, like she didn’t really want to be there. She was behaving more like a teenager than I’m accustomed to, but when she saw me she immediately brightened up. Of course, I did go out of my way to make myself as fetching as possible for her. ^_^
Demeter was suspicious of our intentions, but once we’d adjourned to the conference room, I explained things as honestly as possible and did my best to smooth things over. After I explained things with my friends backing me up, Demeter and Persephone were pretty willing to help us out. They agreed that keeping Hod away from the competition was probably for the best, and they felt pretty confident in our ability to protect him from the servants of Crom Cruach. What they didn’t seem especially confident about was their ability to cover for us and stall the other gods. We asked Demeter and Persephone to try and buy us some time, but they confessed that they might not be able to do so, not with irresistible Baldur calling the shots. >_< Even so, they agreed to give it a shot. Every little bit helps, right?
During the meeting, Demeter gave us enough additional information about Crom Cruach that we were able put together the pieces of what we are up against. Essentially, Crom Cruach has three legendary creatures arrayed against us. The first is Fish Eye, the formorian we killed earlier. He’s not dead, of course, just out of action for a day or so. The second is Nuckalavee, a very dangerous foe. And finally, there’s the Earthshaker, a colossal king wyrm and probably the thing that was attacking those oil rigs. Each of the three has geasa that render them invulnerable to all but one form of attack and preserve them from death unless certain conditions are met. Unfortunately, the secrets of their weaknesses are closely guarded. We knew Nuckalavee could only be hurt by iron and that Fish Eye could only be hurt by blunt weapons, and Demeter told us the Earthshaker could only be harmed by weapons crafted or wielded by someone of Native American heritage. Looks like Elisa’s our ace-in-the-hole against that beast.
With that information in hand, Adam felt he had enough to consult the fates, and so he constructed simple, sympathetic sculptures of Nuckalavee and the Earthshaker out of the complementary fruit in the conference room. I gotta tell you, it was pretty weird, but he was so focused on it that I couldn’t help but take it seriously even if it did look a little ridiculous. Anyway, the mysteries of fate revealed to him the way to kill both Nuckalavee and the Earthshaker, but the demands of leanring just that much left him unable to learn Fish Eye’s sanction.
To dissolve Nuckalavee’s protection, he has to be present while a woman is giving birth yet he must be unable to do anything to harm the mother or child for the duration of the birth. Youch. That sounds ridiculously dangerous. I don’t know how we’re going to pull that off…
Getting rid of the Earthshaker’s protection is easier. A Native American and a Caucasian must kiss for around 16 seconds within the wyrm’s sight. I guess the Earthshaker is an aspect of Crom Cruach’s history in the Americas. We all looked at Elisa for this, and one of the guys asked Elisa if she minded kissing me for awhile in the middle of a fight. It sounded like a plan to me. That’s the sort of thing I frequently do in these sorts of fights. Elisa didn’t mind per se, but when I asked if she’d rather have me fly Quinn in so that she could kiss Quinn instead, she nodded. After all, she’s actually in a relationship with Quinn. Quinn’s also pregnant, which is worrisome. She’s not close enough to her due date to help us with Nuckalavee’s geas…and I’m not sure I’d want her to anyway. But I don’t relish the idea of bringing an innocent and uninvolved pregnant woman into this sort of danger either. At least Quinn’s already deeply entrenched in this divine madness. >_<
Anyway, with that, Demeter and Hod locked themselves in the conference room to hold their top secret council on the state of the oncoming Winter of Fate. We weren’t allowed to participate, unfortunately, but according to Demeter, that’s mostly because doing so could get us tangled up in all sorts of fate that isn’t ours to bear. Not yet anyway.
Meanwhile, Ray, Elisa, and Pierre went back to visit the giants in the hospital. I think Ray’s really trying to recruit them to the side of the gods. That’s excellent! I really, really hope he succeeds! ^_^ See, Ray really is a total sweetie when he’s not being a total jerk. I luv him. ^_^ T-Bone spent the evening with Dahlia. I’m glad those two are getting along again. I still don’t think they’re dating yet, but if things keep going so well, it’s only a matter of time, right?
Echo, Adam and I went with Persephone. Speaking of Persephone, after she learned I was around, she really pulled out all the stops to make herself even more attractive than usual. She was wearing this divine fragrance that just made me want to melt. I think she’s trying to win me back…but that’s not really how I see things goings. Even so, I do like looking my best for her. Anyway, she invited us out to a cult ceremony devoted to her and her son, Dionysus. Once she was out from under her mother’s watchful gaze, she became more of the Persephone I know. She still had that youthful, teenaged vigor and energy, but she was more regal. She was more like the goddess of the Underworld that she is.
The cultists and their ritual were fascinating to watch, but they struck me as very outdated, still observing the ancient ways even in the modern nights. There’s something to be said for that. I mean, I still observe a lot of Japanese traditions. But still… There were maenads there, and dark-robed cultists, including the cult leaders, a man and woman who always spoke in union in a symbolic show of the hermaphroditic ideal. Persephone bled into a goblet, and her blood served as a sort of communion for the cultists, especially the maenads. One of the maenads was obviously an elite, and kept the others in line much like Tabby to Audrey keep my shikome in line. The ritual had been well-rehearsed, and as Persephone and the rest of us watched from our honored positions, it was apparent that the cultists knew exactly who Persephone was. I was reminded of the way my worshippers glorify me in the clubs and concert halls where I perform.
Having said that, the archaic ritual struck me as a bit inadequate for today’s society. I don’t think it will appeal to the masses. That’s okay…I mean, as far as I can tell, the gods are mostly interested in the growing population of pagans anyway. But I definitely think that a lot of good could come out of modernizing a bit. Hell, that’s how my own “religion” has organically grown up around me.
I suggested as much to Persephone and that led to a long conversation about our divine roles and the way we interact with the world. Among other things, she made the point that I’m basically the new her. Like her, I represent both life and death. But it’s not just me. It’s Ray, Elisa, T-Bone, Helena, Storm, , Jacob, Maneki, Hinako…all of us. We’re the next generation of gods, the new gods of the modern world. Persephone encouraged me to accept that fate and grow into it. I got the feeling that she was passing the torch, in a sense, encouraging me to take up the mantle that she’s borne for the past few millennia.
Don’t get me wrong. Persephone and the other gods aren’t going anywhere. But I think Persephone believes that their legends are, from this point on, tied to ours in one way or another. In modern movie parlance, we’re the stars now, and they’ve become the co-stars.
Somehow, my shikome and my current state of disgrace in Yomi came up. Echo voiced her opinion that I should talk to Dionysus about raising my shikome to elites. They’re essentially the same as maenads and have the same connection to…darkness…after all, so he can certainly do it. I admitted to being anxious about meeting Dionysus. Frankly, I don’t want him to pour on his charm and essentially rape me. I didn’t mean for that suggestion to upset Persephone (he is her son, after all, and my fears are in part based on how Persy bedded me the first time…), but she was understanding and assured me that Dionysus could and would listen to reason as much as anyone. In the end, she agreed to set up a meeting with Dionysus. Hopefully he’ll be able to help me turn the rest of my shikome into elites so that they’ll be more capable and more in control of themselves. Ideally, though, I’ll have resolved the issues with Izanami by then and can rely on the Black Mother for this.
Eventually, we headed back to the hotel. Persephone, Echo, Ophelia, Tabby, and I sat around chatting for hours before we bid Persephone good night (Ophelia did her hair and nails). Before leaving, she asked me to visit her in Olympus soon, so I’m expecting a formal invitation within the next few weeks. ^_^
After that, Echo and I went to bed. And after a couple more hours, we actually got some sleep. ^_^ The most amazing thing is happening to Echo, though. She’s actually beginning to manifest the traits of a kami! Her eyebrows are beginning to take on a slightly grassy feel, and she can talk to other kami. The kami of her glasses have been talking to her a lot, and she doesn’t quite know how to tune it out yet. I guess the way her legend is now entwined with mine means that she’s taking on the qualities of the Amatsukami. I asked her how she felt about it. She’s a little scared, but also excited. She’s thrilled to become more a part of “my world,” but at the same time she’s anxious about what the transformation will mean. She’s especially worried about her voice changing (her voice is very important to her). I assured her that she’d be fine, and that whatever changes she undergoes will be for the better. And I don’t think her voice will change. That comforted her a lot. ^_^
Also, I got an email from Miko this morning. She felt guilty about what almost happened between her and Echo, and wanted to apologize and share a lot of what she’s been feeling. Poor girl, she’s so conflicted and confused. When I get back to Red Mountain, I’ll have to do what I can to help her out. She’s got to overcome her anxiety around men, for one thing. She likes Tabby (not romantically), but is also kind of afraid of her. Tabby does want to bite and turn her, after all, and I have no idea what that would do. I don’t think Tabby will, but it’s still a threat. Aside from that, Tabby and Miko seem to be developing something of a big sister/little sister relationship. And of course, Miko is having trouble dealing with her romantic feelings for both me and Echo, neither of which she can really explore. I actually feel bad not becoming intimate with her. Even if it does keep her pure…is it actually causing her more issues? Am I sacrificing her feelings for the sake of something I’m taking way more seriously than necessary?
I don’t know. I’ll have to deal with it when I get home. In the meantime…I need to book Quinn a flight.