Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 6
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 19th. 2007.
I woke up really late yesterday morning at our campsite. Actually, being a DJ, I mostly work at night anyway, so it wasn’t late for me, but I got the feeling that some members of our group, like Ray, Elisa, and Pierre, were getting a bit impatient with those of us who slept in. They don’t need to sleep because of their divine vigor, but they should cut T-Bone and me a break. Then again, I have needed a lot less sleep lately. Maybe my divinity’s starting to give me a bit more fortitude too.
Anyway, I finally woke up about noon, and after spending a little while getting ready, I was good to go. By that time, so was everyone else. We weren’t really sure where to go next, though. We knew there were giants about, and we knew we had to find Gritja (the giantess who supposedly lives in the forest), but we didn’t know where the gem we were looking for was. Also, we realized that even though Adam’s info and prophecies said there’d be three mills in the park, we only knew of two, so figuring out what was up with this mysterious third mill was also on the agenda.
Oh, and Anna managed to track us down. She was at our camp when I woke up, talking to Adam about our progress. She also has a mission of her own. Apparently, Artemis wants her to hunt down the Nemean bear (or whatever it is) that’s supposedly prowling about. So we added that to our “to do” list.
Since we didn’t really know where to go next, we decided to hike up to an overlook, the highest point in the park. We decided that, if nothing else, it would let us scope out the area for anything suspicious. Pierre (who is the most adorable crazy witch doctor I’ve ever met, by the way) set his zombies to watch the camp.
It was a long hike. The outdoors isn’t really my thing, but I guess I enjoyed it. I spent most of the time talking to Anna. Mostly we just talked about normal stuff. You know, music, guys…stuff like that (hell, until I met this crew, those two words – music and guys – just about summed up my life). I didn’t waste much time before I started asking about Adam, though. It turns out they did have a relationship. I thought as much. I mean, it’s hard to hide something like that. They aren’t a couple anymore, though, and it was apparently a bad breakup, though they still seem to be friends.
The upshot is that as far as Anna’s concerned, Adam’s free. When I asked her if that was the case, her exact words were something like, “That’s up to him.” So…I may start flirting with him more seriously.
When we got to the top of outlook, we joined the rest of the rest of the mundane tourists there (one of them was the most morbidly obese woman I’ve ever seen!). A couple of the park rangers were there too. Usually I jump on the opportunity to talk to people, but neither of them looked all that interesting to me. Besides, I was too busy taking in the amazing view of the park. I don’t get into the great outdoors often, so I might as well soak it up while I have the chance, right?
Anyway, I think Ray, Adam, and Elisa talked to the rangers about strange events in the park. They learned a lot, though apparently one of the rangers was being a real jerk (he was probably high; we found evidence that that was likely a little later). Anyway, among other things, they learned that Anna’s bear hasn’t really attacked anyone that they know of, but does like to follow campers around. I think I’ll call it stalker-bear from now on. We also learned that trees were being mysteriously cut down in patches here and there, especially in the thicker portions of the forest. That much, at least, is the giants’ fault. Aside from that, all we got were some vague (and largely fictional) rumors. Even so, we decided to go and check out one of the spots with the missing trees.
It was another long hike down the mountain (okay, fine, it was more like a hill, but for someone who’s used to city streets, it felt like a mountain). Ray decided to show off and just jump right down off the overlook. It took us like an hour or two to catch up with him. He can be so childish sometimes. Seriously. Half the time, he’s like the most badass samurai you’ve ever seen – all business and completely fearless. And the rest of the time, he’s like a schoolboy, just doing whatever he feels like just because he thinks it’s fun, or cool or…whatever.
Actually, I guess I’m being too harsh. It’s just his personality. It’s not his fault I was annoyed at having to hike down the hill after him.
More importantly, on our way down the hill, I was able to chat privately with Adam, and got basically the same info from him that I had from Anna. He and she aren’t likely to get back together, though I don’t think he’s averse to dating other people. I might have a shot. ^_^
Ray’s antics aside, the rest of us joined him and we found our way to one of the places where a bunch of trees had been cut down. There was a pretty clear trail leading from the place (giants dragging logs aren’t exactly subtle), and Anna didn’t think she’d have any trouble tracking them. From what I gathered, she wouldn’t have any trouble tracking a sparrow across a lake. We also ran across some weird, milky-blue mushrooms that Adam said are toadstools. Apparently trolls leave them when the pass through an area. I was a little worried at first – I mean, trolls and giants could be trouble, right? But then Adam informed us that trolls were turned to stone by sunlight, and I figured out that Amaterasu’s gifts made me a troll-killing machine since I can create sunlight pretty much whenever I want.
I wonder if my mother ever misses the sunlight when she’s in Yomi?
We thought about following the giants’ trail, but we still needed to find and talk to Gritja, so I decided to do what I could to help us find her. I found the biggest, oldest tree in the area and used my pantheon’s tsukumo-gami prayers to contact the tree’s kami. Fortunately, I’d brought some sweet mochi as an offering to the spirits just for that purpose. The tree’s kami answered my summons quickly, but he talked slowly. Ray said he sounded like some sort of tree person from the Lord of the Rings movies and looked at me incredulously when I said I hadn’t seen them, like I’d lost my mind or something. So I haven’t seen them, big deal. That kind of fantasy’s not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to come across as an anti-geek elitist or anything. I do like sci-fi, just not fantasy. The kami’s speech reminded me of the floating giants in Mirrormask, which is an excellent movie. One of my absolute favorites, in fact. Anyway, I’m getting off track.
I asked the tree kami about the giants and the cut trees, and he told us that the giants were hauling the trees off to build a mill of some sort. That answered the question of where the third mill came from. Of course, we still haven’t seen it, but…
I also asked about Gritja. After all, she was supposed to have been the keeper of the artifacts, so there was a good chance she knew where the missing gem was. The kami knew that too, and gave us good directions. Basically, we just had to follow the river, and once we reached a small waterfall, we were to head up the highest hill we could see.
We didn’t lose any time heading out. I thanked the kami and we left. By the time we reached the waterfall, it was late afternoon. The hill we were supposed to climb wasn’t immediately obvious. I probably would have completely missed it, but fortunately the others are more observant, especially Anna, Elisa, and Adam. They managed to see how one trail led between to hills to a raised bit of land that was higher than the rest even though it didn’t really look like it from where we were standing. In other words, some sort of illusion helped to hide the hill from mortals. I’d love to be able to create illusions like that. Can you imagine how incredible that would be at a club? Think about the way spatial distortion illusions could screw with people’s heads on a dance floor! The cybergoth crowd would go crazy!
Adam and Ray led the way up the hill, and we soon saw a cottage there. It kept getting bigger the closer we got…moreso than it should have. I mean, from a distance it looked like a human sized house, but up close it was huge! Obviously, Gritja lived there. Fortunately, she was pretty friendly. Actually, she was way too friendly to Adam. She went way above and beyond what I’d call flirting. She made it very obvious that she wanted to take him to bed, which is disturbing on all sorts of levels. I mean, he’s one tenth her size! The experience would probably kill him. Death by sex actually sounds like a pretty good way to go, but with a giant? *shudder* Hmmm. Death by sex. I think I have a name for the next track I compose.
Despite her overactive libido, Gritja was pretty generous. She agreed to tell us where the gem was in exchange for a gift. That’s when T-Bone really got to show his stuff. He offered her music – after all, there’s a good precedent for that sort of gift in a lot of myths and legends. And he rocked! Jazz isn’t my thing, but you’d have to be deaf not to get into the tune he played. The man is master of the trumpet. I would have been insulted if Gritja hadn’t accepted that gift, but she did.
She told us that she had hidden the gem in a buried chamber and had set a tatzelwurm (a nasty giant worm thing) to guard it. The trolls we saw signs of earlier have been working to excavate it, and have apparently gotten there but haven’t been able to defeat the tatzelwurm in order to take it. We had to hurry if we were going to beat them to it.
We bid Gritja goodbye. She gave some lewd, lingering looks to Adam, but let us go, and so we hurried to the place she said the gem was. Night fell while we were on our way, so T-Bone scanned the heavens to get a moon’s-eye view of the park again. There were giants heading the same direction we were, but it didn’t look like they were headed to the same place, so we ignored them (and what fools we were). Some trolls were moving away from our destination, which was good news. With any luck, we’d just have to deal with the tatzelwurm and not anything else to get the gem. Of course, we’d probably have to deal with the giants and trolls and their mill eventually, but one thing at a time, right?
We also saw the park rangers roaming about suspiciously in their SUV, but they didn’t pay us any mind. T-Bone did see some fields of marijuana plants in a hidden area of the park, and the rangers seemed to be headed that way. That’s what makes me think the jerk ranger at the outlook really was high.
We finally made it to the cave the trolls had dug, which was supposed to lead to the gem and the tatzelwurm. The others went in to slay the beast and take the gem. I knew I’d probably just get in the way in a close quarters fight against a gigantic worm, so I agreed to stay outside and keep an eye open for the trolls in case they came back. I could deal with them pretty handily, after all. I also stayed behind to talk to any mortals, like the rangers, who happened along. It wouldn’t be hard for me to convince them to leave us alone. In other words, I was there to make sure nothing came in and threatened us from behind, and Keiko and Sera stayed with me. Sigh. At the time I felt like my friends had left me with a big responsibility, but I ended up failing them. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself. But I’m getting ahead of things.
I stayed in touch with the guys going inside using cell phone headsets, though only Elisa wore hers, so she was my line to the inside. She’s so professional.
The others took their time getting in. The tunnel was more extensive than I thought it would be, and the trolls (at least, I assume it was the trolls) had installed some traps, but the others made it by them with only one close call. As they approached the final chamber, they did run into a couple of trolls who had been left behind as guards. I almost regretted not going in…but it didn’t really make a difference since Ray, Anna, and the rest killed the trolls almost off-handedly.
And then there was the tatzelwurm. To be honest, my friends killed it remarkably quickly too. It’s scary how good they are at killing things. It did strike a blow of its own, though. It took Elisa down with one hit. All I heard was a loud crash and some ear-splitting feedback, and then the sounds of more fighting. I asked Elisa what had happened, but she didn’t respond. I was scared that she’d been killed, and I almost ran in after the others to see if I could help her, but Sera stopped me, reminding me of the traps and the danger posed by the tatzelwurm itself. And so I waited anxiously for the others to return.
Eventually Ray emerged with Elisa, who was hurt badly; she was unconscious and nearly dead. The others were still inside. They had found the gem, and were doing a post-mortem on the tatzelwurm to see what kind of mystical goodness they could get from it. I didn’t waste any time using Mara’s gift and what I’ve learned in my paramedic classes to heal Elisa. I wasn’t able to patch her up completely, but at least I was able to fix the worst of her wounds and bring her out of the danger zone. If Mara were here, I’d totally kiss her. If it weren’t for the locket she gave me and the divine gift that came with it, I’d hate to think of what sort of state Elisa would have been in when things got really bad.
Which, as it turns out, happened almost immediately. I had just finished patching Elisa up when I heard something big moving toward us. Ray and I looked up and there were some giants leering at us. I thought for a moment that Ray was going to charge them and try to take them all on by himself. And who knows, maybe he could have done it. Still, I was relieved when he picked up Elisa and then grabbed my arm and pulled me into the cave. Sera and Keiko followed us. They went faceless to try and scare the giants, and when that didn’t work, they retreated with Ray and me into the tunnel.
About the time we made it back to the others, we heard the giants’ bellowing laughter and then a loud, gut-thumping crash. Dust fell from the ceiling. I realized instantly what had happened. The giants weren’t coming after us. They had collapsed tunnel. We were trapped…
I’ve often thought about what it would be like to be buried alive. You know, in the Edgar Allen Poe sense. It is always a chilling line of though, and it always makes me think of my mother. I now think I have a better idea of how she must feel when she’s stuck in the deep, dark Underworld. When that thought crossed my mind as our situation sank in, I think Oiwa may have stirred within me, because I could almost feel something crawling like maggots beneath my skin.
TO BE CONTINUED…