Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 63
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 Nov 13th 2009
I feel EMPOWERED! You know, I’m not normally the violent type, but using my powers to wipe out a bunch of evil, titanspawned vampires while weathering everything they had to throw back at me and emerging victorious is pretty badass. And I gotta say, having a team-player like Charles around to bring some synergy to the group is incredible. He and Miko really made my life easier last night.
Oh, and I discovered that Dahlia and T-Bone ran off and got married without telling anyone! I gotta tell you, I’m a little miffed. It turns out Dahlia’s tired of all the weddings and everything and didn’t want a big deal made out of the whole thing. She just wanted to be with T-Bone. I can respect that. Still, I wish she’d told me sooner. >_< And in any event, I’m so happy for her!
So anyway, we’re in Chongqing to help Charles out on a mission handed down to him by his father. The basic situation is this: a recent crack-down on the rampant organized crime in Chongqing revealed to the Celestial Bureacracy just how big and powerful the titans’ Bone Court had become, and after looking into things, they discovered that their local operations had been severely compromised by the titans’ corruption. Knowing that they couldn’t trust any local agents, they decided to call in capable outsiders, namely Charles and his new allies.
After Charles briefed us on things and Adam and I managed to gather everyone together from the four-corners of the world, we set out for Chongqing in the Valkyrie. Our arrival was uneventful, so I sent my followers to arrange rooms in the hotel while we began our investigations, mainly looking for signs of the Bone Court and the traitors who had joined them. We knew we’d likely be facing Jiang Shi and Qing Shi, two forms of Chinese vampires, and would likely end up fighting the Bone Ancester, the leader of Chongqing’s vampires. >_<
Charles suggested a few places to begin our investigation. There’s a big cemetery in Chongqing with a section devoted to WWII and nearby museums, all of which have the historical significance and connection to death to draw members of the Bone Court. And the docks are a hotbed of criminal activity, so they were another likely area to visit.
We chose to go to the cemetery first. That was my suggestion. I admit, it was selfishly motivated. I love cemeteries. They can be so romantic! Everyone looked at me weird (as usual) when I said that, but they just don’t understand. Echo and Feng Yi do, though. They know exactly where I’m coming from. ^_^
Anyway, even if the others don’t get the romance of cemeteries, they were at least willing to check the Chongqing cemetery out first, so that’s where we went. It was late afternoon when we arrived, so there was no threat from vampires. The cemetery was beautiful. To be honest, I totally forgot about the investigation since I was enjoying it so much. I’d brought Miko along this time, and with her in tow I was really having a wonderful time exploring the place. I don’t think she really got it, though. The whole death thing kinda runs counter to her existence as a kami. She definitely gets a thrill from it. I mean, she likes those aspects of me, but to some degree the part of her that goes for that sort of forbidden pleasure is an echo of dark Miko (the part of dark Miko I really liked…), so it’s kind of a guilty pleasure.
Anyway, eventually Charles came to find me and showed me to a dark run-down hangar where a number of vintage WWII aircraft were being stored and reconditioned for display in the nearby museums. Inside the hangar were twenty-five inert Jiang Shi, the so-called hopping vampires that are more or less mindless undead. Their faces were plastered with exorcism charms that would keep them dormant until removed. Since they were obviously servants of the titans, we decided to destroy them. I offered to wipe them out my sunlight. Quick and easy. But Elisa’s bloodlust demanded that she beat the hell out of them (honestly, sometimes I just don’t understand her), so I told her we’d race and see who could destroy the most. I even gave her a head start. ^_^ But by the time she’d bashed in the heads of about four or five of them, my sunlight had incinerated the rest. ^_^ I think Elisa was annoyed, but she forgave me.
By the way, bringing Miko was a great idea. With her nearby, my divine sunlight is even stronger than ever! It made all the difference against the vampires, especially later on. But I’ll get to that.
Oh, also, I left a cell phone hidden in the hangar and instructed its kami to call me if it happened to see anything weird or if anyone came to check up on the Jiang Shi. Nothing yet, though.
There wasn’t anything else at the cemetery, so we moved on to the docks after checking in briefly at the hotel. Sera, Dahlia, Kimiyo, and Quinn had taken care of things perfectly as usual, and since I only brought my elite shikome this time, everyone was behaving themselves fairly well.
By the time we arrived at the docks, it was night. The docks were seedy, cold, and misty, the perfect sort of run-down place for illicit activities. We spent awhile scoping the place out. I kept Miko nearby and toned down my appearance so as not to stand out, and the others, who are much better at sneaking around, practically disappeared into the surroundings. Ultimately, we found an old, ramshackle mansion, the sort of place that was once probably prime real estate but fell into disrepair as the docks expanded around it. It looked like the sort of place the Bone Court might hang out, so we sent T-Bone in to check it out.
Once inside, T-Bone discovered a pale, vampiric-looking Chinese woman giving orders to several Qing Shi, which are a type of tough Chinese vampire with powers over fire or frost, depending on the balance of their yin and yang. She’d apparently learned that we were in town and was sending the Qing Shi to go to our hotel, kill anyone there, and go through our stuff.
Well, we weren’t having any of that. T-Bone retreated to warn us…but not before he witnessed something else. Just after the Jiang Shi left the room, the vampire-woman’s head exploded from a high-caliber bullet fired from an unseen opponent. T-Bone immediately withdrew, uncertain whether we had an ally or another enemy, and warned us about both the Qing Shi and the assassin.
We ambushed the Qing Shi and their Jiang Shi followers. Having determined just how effective my sunlight could be against the vampires at the cemetery, I decided to hit them with the full force of my sunlight…but I knew that doing so would invite every last one of them to attack me. >_< So I pulled out a few new tricks. First, I transformed my appearance, becoming a horrifying, half-skeletal zombified version of myself. I hoped to use my horrifying appearance to discourage any attackers, and it worked like a charm. While some of the Jiang Shi were daring enough to overcome the deathly terror or my undead visage, the rest shrank from attacking me even when they had the chance.
Add to that the assistance of Miko’s presence and the fact that Charles used Taiyi to empower my abilities even further, I became death incarnate to the Jiang Shi and Qing Shi (the former didn’t last more than a few seconds). In roughly a quarter of a minute, I’d burned them away to nothing more than piles of ash.
Of course, within that quarter of a minute, a intense battle ensued. Charles and Adam went in guns blazing, helping to finish many of the Qing Shi more quickly, while T-Bone and Pierre helped keep them off me. Even so, one Qing Shi managed to land a good blow on me with his flaming sword, but I shrugged it off and healed it up immediately. ^_^
While the rest of us were fighting the Qing Shi, Elisa moved in to track down the assassin, and caught a quick glimpse of her before she escaped (looks like she has some of T-Bone’s tricks). She reported that the assassin was a voluptuous redhead with a sniper rifle, and that she said something in Russian before she teleported away. Past that, we weren’t able to find out anything else about our mysterious third party…not yet, anyway. Elisa did say that she was hot, though. ^_^
With the Qing Shi destroyed, my girls back at the hotel were safe. Even so, I called them up to check on them and warn them to flee if they saw danger coming. Qing Shi aren’t slouches, and I think they’d be a little too much for Sera, Tabby, and the others to handle.
While I did that, the others investigated the mansion.There were a few more vampires lurking about to harass us, but nothing to worry about. And Charles eventually found a letter from the Bone Ancestor that tipped us off to the location of the Bone Court’s headquarters…and that’s where we headed next. Unfortunately, it looked like our redheaded assassin (was after the same thing we were). Someone was spying on us with some form of clairvoyance (I assume it was her), and then she spoke in Charles’ mind: she was after the Bone Ancestor, and planned to finish him off before we could.
I didn’t have a problem with that, but Charles figured something out at that point. first, she was basically challenging him, and as the son of Guan Yu, he couldn’t let a challenge like that go. Also, if the assassin was Russian, she might be testing the Celestial Bureaucracy to see if it was worthwhile to open an alliance with them. If Charles let her beat him, then he’d be doing a disservice to his entire pantheon. Talk about pressure! But Charles is up for it. I saw the fires of determination kindle to life in his dark eyes, and I knew that the game was on.
We had to get across town fast, but T-Bone said he had it covered and with a dramatic gesture he swept the moonlight into the shape of a magnificent silver limo…which he called his lunar pimp mobile. After many appreciative comments, we all piled into its spacious interior and the car roared off into the night sky, streaking toward our destination at incredible speed. The whole trip only lasted a little more than five minutes. Talk about traveling in style. Still, the thing had a nice minibar and I didn’t get to finish my drink. >_<
Our invasion of the Bone Court headquarters was professional and quick. We infiltrated the lower floors and made our way to a huge central chamber where we heard the sounds of combat. Our assassin friend was already there, and seemed to be having more trouble than she bargained for, so after taking a few moments to power up, we moved in to help out. I assumed my undead form again and had Miko hide nearby so that her presence would help empower my sunlight, and then Charles blessed me with Taiyi. Adam prepped his magic and Charles checked his gun, and when everything was ready, Elisa opened up with a rocket launcher right into the middle of the room (yeah…I forgot to mention that she’s developed this thing about rocket launchers and brought a whole crate of them along on this mission…)
The rocket did less than we hoped, but it definitely threw the enemy off balance. I slid gracefully into the room and blasted it with sunlight while Charles and Adam swung in like professional killers and opened up on the Bone Ancestor. Meanwhile, Pierre focused on defending me from Qing Shi, helping to keep at least some of the heat off me.
We were facing several Qing Shi, a bunch of Jiang Shi, the Bone Ancestor (a really impressive looking Chinese vampire), and this creepy (but cool!) floating Chinese mask that Charles called a Taotie mask. Again, my sunlight destroyed the Jiang Shi in short order and began badly burning the Jiang Shi, who of course all turned to attack me. Fortunately, most of them were driven back by the horror of my zombified appearance. A couple managed to overcome their fear and attack me, but I could take what they dished out. The Bone Ancestor’s frost breath, however, was considerably more dangerous. That hurt. A lot.
Adam, Charles, and Elisa focused on the Taotie mask and the Bone Ancestor, leaving the Qing Shi to me. Then, I felt my stomach turn as someone invisible tried to magically force the liquid from my body. I had no idea who was attacking me, but there was definitely someone else there, and I don’t think it was the assassin (though she was there too, helping the others with the Bone Ancestor).
Whoever tried to dessicate me soon revealed herself, emerging from invisibility in the shadows to strike a devastating blow. I shed my corpse to survive it, but she disappeared before I could do anything else.
In short order I immolated the Qing Shi, by which point the others had managed to destroy the Taotie mask and kill the Bone Ancestor. Then my unseen assailant struck again, this time slashing me deeply with her naginata. As she faded away again, I tried to entrance her with my compelling presence, but when she overcame the awe of my horrific visage, I acted again before even I knew what I was doing and released a flash of blinding light. That did the trick. She was stunned and vulnerable. The others made short work of her at that point.
The battle over, we took stock of the situation. I was hurting, badly. I’d fended off a hell of a lot of attacks, but those that got through had done a number on me, and Pierre helped out by healing me a bit. Still, I was still standing and I’d killed a hell of a lot of vampires, which was pretty empowering. I couldn’t have done it without the others, though. We make a pretty awesome team.
The naginata-weilding scion who kept attacking me was a beautiful scion of Nu Wa named Da Li, but she’d been corrupted by the titans. I almost regret stopping her in her tracks like I did. I can’t help but wonder if we might have redeemed her somehow. Anyway, She had some nice relics that we liberated, including a folding fan that would help Charles with his Taiyi, a ring the Adam hopes to learn powers of Industry from, and a belt that would allow one to learn the ways of the moon, water, fertility, and frost. I claimed her naginata for Audrey. It doesn’t have any special powers, but it’s an awfully nice naginata, and I think Audrey will appreciate it as the elegant weapon it is. Besides, this should make up for taking away her katana (the one we got from Daitokuji) to give to Charles.
Our assassin friend finally introduced herself after the fight. Oh, and I should mention that she and Charles both shot the Bone Ancestor at exactly the same time, and that their combined shots were the killing blow that took him down. I don’t know how Charles does it, but it’s obvious that Fate itself is totally behind this whole synergy thing of his!! ^_^ Anyway, her name is Natalie Staljov, and she’s a daughter of the Rus god The Citizen. Pretty cool. She complimented us on our skills and then she walked right up to Charles and dip kissed him. Passionately. I don’t know how to feel about that. I mean, way to go Charles! Natalie is pretty hot, and apparently quite talented. But what about Sera? She’s really started to develop feelings for Charles, and the last thing she needs is a broken heart. T_T
I might have to keep Charles and Natalie apart, for Sera’s sake. But first I should figure out whether Charles has any romantic intentions toward Sera in the first place…
For now, though, I’m so eager for the sun to rise. I burned through a lot of my divine strength last night, and I desperately need a recharge! It’s seriously time to sunbathe. I wonder if I can convince the guards to let me sunbathe in the cemetery? That would be so wonderful…