Know your enemy

Once again, it's time for the gaming post. I figured I better do it before everything that happened runs together and I forget something important. Unfortunately, Calvin! does not appear in this blog, as Matt couldn't make it on Sunday. Not too much action this time but we did manage to set up one hell of a fight for the next Mage session. So, with that being said, let's start.


The game started with everyone at the observatory. Nate was studying, as usual, and managed to come up with some more information about the type of entropy the Nephandi used. At Chloe's request, he was also able to find an old article by a mage who theorized that Prime could be used to counter the Nephandi's entropy. Chloe was able to get ahold of her mother and pass that information along. Nothing much else happened and the three of them (Romulus, Chloe, and Nate) called it a night. They planned to try and break through the time block at Calvin's! house the next morning and needed their sleep.


The next morning, Chloe set up a meeting with Brooklyn, president of Titan Industries and a werewolf. The meeting was necessary for two reasons: 1) They needed Brand to go along with them to Calvin's! and 2) They wanted to offer an alliance with the werewolves to gain their help against the coming bad things. Brooklyn seemed interested in the idea of an alliance but turned it into a "This is what we have to offer; what do you have to offer" business proposition. She wanted to know if we spoke for our Chantry and set up a meeting for later that night to discuss the details of the possible alliance. We did manage to get Brand to go with us, which was a plus.


Getting to Calvin's! house, Chloe was able to break through the time block and to see just what happened. Casey was sitting there, when she suddenly looked around and seemed to melt from view. Right after she did that, the door opened and in walked our favorite Nephandi, Shade. We REALLY have to kill him. He was followed by a group of people that looked...sickish? Anyway, not healthy. Still watching through the time spell, Chloe was able to tell Romulus, Nate, and Brand how the group of people with Shade turned into werewolves and stalked Casey through the house. By her description, Brand was able to confirm they were Black Spiral Dancers, very bad werewolves. After a struggle, one managed to knock her unconscious. There was one other person at the house but he stayed in the doorway. He was a 30ish looking male (obviously, by the pronoun he), perfectly groomed, with blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing an immaculate black suit. He told the wolves and Shade to take Casey back to the Hive and to inform Crom about it. He then told Shade to do his time magic thing and walked out. The wolf holding Casey put her into the car and started to rape her. They needed her alive, everything else they wanted to do to her was fair game. Mage is NOT a nice world and bad things happen...a lot. Chloe didn't go into specifics but she did get the point across to the boys about what was happening. Needing to know where they were taking Casey, Chloe came up with an idea. She would keep the time spell going and Brand would follow them in real time by using what she "saw". Nate and Romulus were in charge of turning lights the right colors, so they could stop and go just as the cars they were following did. It actually worked great; I was so proud of us! After a bit, they got to the place were they took Casey. It made Sadies look like an amusement park. The Hive was on a very powerful node (a place of power) and it was not a good place. The amount of pain and rage coming off that place was so strong, it was tainting the entire neighborhood. There was no way they could have gone in there. It would have been suicide. Brand didn't hesitate; he took off and drove around for a few hours, making sure we weren't being followed. He even ditched the car and we ended up walking to Romulus' apartment. He had to go to work.


Brand, Chloe, and Nate had to wait for a ride back to Titan Industries. Once we got back there, we told Brooklyn what had happened to Casey and where they took her. She told us that the place we went to was the headquarters of a company called Pentex. They have been around since the 1800's and got their start in the oil drilling business. Nowadays, anything that was destroying the environment; oil spills, deforestation, toxic waste dumps, they would have a part in it. She also made it clear that she wouldn't send in any of her people to rescue Casey; she basically had written her off. This did not sit well with Nate, Chloe, and especially Brand. After a bit of not too comfortable conversation, Nate and Chloe left. As they headed down the hall, they heard quite the ruckus coming from Brooklyn's office.


After leaving Brooklyn and Brand, the two of them stopped by a club (called Rapture) owned by some Fey they knew. Chloe was interested in talking to them about a possible alliance. Frankly, she would have welcomed any help from just about anybody at that moment. So, they showed up and were greeted by Geneva (a satyr) and her twin brother Genaro (a redcap). They headed up to the office for a chat, where Chloe and Nate told them about what is going on and asked for their help in the fight. Chloe and Nate didn't have much success with that. However, Nate was able to get them a concerned a bit when he mentioned that there could be no more dreamers from all this. Also, Chloe showed them the pictures of Shade and Petite and asked if they knew them. Turned out, they did. In fact, they were patrons of Rapture and had left a few times with customers. Nate pointedly asked if they (Geneva and Genaro) had ever seen those customers again. Geneva answered, a bit uncomfortably, no. Chloe was a bit more direct. She asked if, the next time they saw either of them, they would kill them. She got the same answer...no. However, she was able to get them banned from the club.


There was one more interesting bit of conversation, which pertained to Chloe and a previous adventure. In the prelude to the main story, Calvin!, Chloe, and Romulus had been charged with stealing a Fey artifact back from the Technocracy. They actually managed to break into Technocracy headquarters and get it and not get killed. Well, they then managed to lose it, thanks to the Ash Leopard (don't ask). The mirror was to have been given to Countess Fiona, the head of the Summer Court. Turns out, the Ash Leopard was working for Count Sam, head of the Winter Court. So, we were summoned to the Fey Court and had to explain what happened. We weren't able to prove anything but the Ash Leopard was banished. What happened next was not Chloe's fault. It was Nate's. Okay, it was a little bit her fault but it was mainly Nate's. When they were presented, Nate basically drew all the attention to Chloe and made her stand out. Chloe didn't help matters. When the Count looked her over, she caught his eye, smiled, and gave him quite the challenging look. Nothing happened that night and she didn't think much more about it. And before you ask, yes, Calvin! managed to sleep with the Countess. Now, back to the present.


Before leaving, Chloe gave Geneva her phone number and she said, "If anything changes, I'll call the ice princess." Or, something like that. Chloe, with her flaw of curiosity, asked her what she meant by that. According to Geneva, the Count was interested in Chloe. I think her exact statement was, "Word is the Count has a hard on for you and has people looking for you."  Chloe just smiled at that and replied, "Next time you see the Count, give him a message from me. Tell him the ice princess says catch me if you can." Geneva really didn't want to but Chloe really hopes she does. By nature and demeanor, Chloe is a risk taker/thrill seeker who has complete faith in her ability to survive anything. Of course she was interested and flattered and would really like to meet the Count one on one.

Deciding that it was time for something to eat, Nate and Chloe went to the coffee shop where Romulus works. While there, Chloe called Jack and asked him what his thoughts were about the coming meeting. She wanted to get some guidelines about what to offer, if approval would be forthcoming from the other chantry members, and when to walk away. Jack told her to use her best judgement; that allies would be nice but to tell them to fuck off if the terms were too one-sided. Then, it was off to the meeting.

When we got there, we were ushered into a conference room, where Brooklyn and all her staff were waiting, She seemed a bit surprised that it was just the three of us. One thing we all noticed was that Brand was sporting a very fresh wound on his face. So, the meeting began. Nate and Brooklyn verbally sparred a bit. I really wish I could remember what Nate said. I do remember it being hugely insulting. Before things got too out of hand, Chloe spoke up and said that getting Casey was a part of the alliance and was NOT negotiable. There was some more sparring between Nate, Romulus, and Brooklyn about what we could offer them and what we could do. Getting fed up, Chloe decided to just show what we could do. Slamming her hands onto the table, she used Entropy to turn it to dust. Romulus then used Matter to reform it. That got every ones attention. Unfortunately, that didn't help with the terms. Brooklyn did not give on the issue of Casey. Finally having had enough, Brand spoke up and told her that we were right and she was being a fool. She then asked him if he wanted another lesson like the one she had given him earlier (that explained the wound). He didn't back down and Brooklyn kicked him out of the pack. Her loss was our gain. Having Brand as a part of our group will help quite a bit.

Finally getting back to the observatory, Nate did some more research on the name Crom and found a bit of information. At least we hoped that it was the same guy. Apparently a man by the name of Lazarus Crom had worked for a time at Global Dynamics- the Technocracy headquarters. There wasn't any mention of what happened to him but Nate found some articles dealing with debunking his theories. The plot thickens!

While Nate was researching Crom and Romulus was talking to Skip, Chloe went out for a bit. She had a fairly important errand to run. Brand went with her, which made her a bit nervous. After getting his promise to be good, Chloe went to see Christian. She knew he had the information they really needed. By using Romulus' name, they were able to get in to see Christian. Chloe got straight to the point. She wanted to know what he wanted from her in trade for his information. His price, a picture of Romulus. She agreed to that after he assured her he wasn't going to do some weird vampire spell thing with it. Before Brand and Chloe left, she showed him the pictures of Shade and Petite and asked him if he knew them. Touching the pictures, he answered no to the one of Shade. However, when he touched the picture of Petite, he said he knew her but not by that face. He recognized the soul. The meeting ended with Chloe telling him she would get the picture of Romulus to him soon.

Thus ends the session. We really couldn't do much more until Matt (Calvin!) was with us. It's going to be one hell of a fight.

As long as you'll be my friend at the end

It turned out to be a very interesting session. It was the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next great story arc. There was betrayal, redemption, a few fights, and a tragic death. Let's get started then.


It all started at Michelle's shop. She was there with Jack and Jim, cleaning and repairing the place when she got a call from Kincaid (the Archive's protector). He told her where and when the duel was going down. And, by the way, Arthur had declared it would be combat. Fuck! Michelle stood firm on her resolve to be her own champion. Kincaid seemed impressed with that but what else could she do? It was an attack on her shop, against her neutral ground. Most importantly, the attack had hurt someone (Sharee) there, while she was Michelle's responsibility. So, that was that.


Coming to a decision, Michelle called and left a message for Sharee to come to the shop. When she got there, they went to get a bite to eat and that was when Michelle proposed taking Sharee as her heir to her shop and the neutral ground. That way, Sharee could have the protection as a member of the Accords but would not be under the control of the White Council. It would also give Sharee a purpose and Michelle knew her shop would not fall into enemy hands if she died during the duel. Sharee agreed. Warden Weststone got the paperwork ready and sent it off.


After all that, it came time to try and get the mask back from crazy Uncle Jacob. That turned into a party and a half, thanks to Jack. Crazy Uncle lives on a island in the bayous that is covered with dolls hanging from the trees. Definitely creepy. So, Sharee, Jack, and Michelle head out there and things are going pretty well at first. Uncle had given the mask to a Loa called Jaboo, who really didn't want to give it up. However, Jaboo's attitude took a turn when Jack proposed to trade the mask for his dagger holding his evil dead mentor's soul. Jaboo really wanted that dagger. While Jack tried to explain the concept of loaning to Jaboo, the girls and crazy Uncle went into the cabin. Sharee and crazy Uncle got into social combat about him helping her with the problem of Adam and her grandmother. The end shot of it was that Sharee agreed to visit him and to bring her willing nieces and nephews with her in return for him paying the debt owed to Adam by her grandmother. Sharee really tried hard not to think about what that meant.


Meanwhile, outside, Jack was not having much luck explaining the concept of a loan to Jaboo. In fact, Jaboo was getting quite upset. It almost turned into a battle between them. Sharee and Michelle ran out of the cabin when crazy Uncle's eyes turned pure white and came onto a scene out of The Serpent and the Rainbow. All the dolls had turned towards Jack, Jaboo had called up a windstorm, and Jack was drawing a magic circle around himself. Sharee diffused the situation with some of her blood, luckily. Crazy Uncle then ordered Jack off his island and told him to never return. However, he liked Michelle and invited her back anytime (yay! for once it wasn't me pissing someone or something off!). Sharee didn't say anything to Jack but she could instantly tell that Jaboo had touched Jack in some way. I foresee some very interesting times for Jack in the next story arc.


After that fun, it was almost time for the duel. Before it happened though, Charlie visited Michelle's shop to offer terms for the duel. Basically it came down to Davi would be returned if Michelle won. If Arthur won, Sharee and Jack would have to leave New Orleans. Michelle refused to make that decision for them. She wasn't too surprised by the offer. White Court Vamps see all people as either food or lackeys to be controlled. No free will needed or desired.


Then it was duel time. Michelle spent the day meditating and praying (she is Catholic, a bit lapsed but still). She stopped at Temptations to see Blue. He wasn't there; so, she dropped off a letter to him basically asking him to keep an eye on Sharee and the shop and to help keep her and the shop safe. Then it was off to the meeting place, a cemetery of course. Very appropriate.


When we got there, the Archive, Kincaid, Arthur, and his cronies were waiting. There was also a hooded figure in the back; his champion we figured. Now, the three of us are not stupid. We all had a pretty good idea just who Arthur was going to have as his champion. And, we were right. The hood came off and Davi stood there, impassive and imposing. Sharee and Jack brought up the point that Davi could not be Arthur's champion because there is no way he would willingly agree to it. Through mind fuckery, however, Arthur thought he had gotten around that little problem. He was just so sure that Davi was his little bitch due to his mind control. During all this, Michelle just stood there quietly. She had fully expected this and made her peace with it. Her only statement: "I will not fight my friend." Arthur's smirk got a little bit wider.


Now it gets cinematic in the grand tradition. Just picture it. A full moon night in the cemetery. The Archive reluctantly agreeing that the trial would continue. Sharee and Jack standing there in support. Michelle resolute, her head held up defiantly. Davi, his face cold and calm, waiting before them. Cue the music score to swell to a crescendo. Then, Davi leans forward and whispers to Michelle. And what did he whisper? "Don't worry, I got this." Michelle ducked her head, hiding her smile at that.


Now, earlier in the day, Sharee had prayed to Saint Michael for Michelle, which was appropriate since she had been named for the saint. Suddenly, she smelled something like...baking cookies and heard a voice in her head saying, "Don't worry, everything will be alright." Then, "Merciful God, what has he done!" What Davi had done was to call on the demon possessed coin that Martin had given him. The demon, Kuzeal, broke the vamps mind fuckery and Davi very firmly told all there, "This duel is forfeit because I am NOT here of my own free will!" Mayhem erupted. The end shot was all the vamps except for Arthur were killed, even that little fucker Charlie. He went down first. Michelle was very pleased with that. So ended that story arc. One end note to it. When Michelle got home that night, she found her door open and an envelope on her coffee table. It was a check and a note saying, "This should cover the damage to your shop." It was signed, "From a former friend, Martin." Hmmmm.


We then picked up with our group about a month later. Things had been going pretty quietly. Davi was back with his gang. Jack was doing his hunting jobs. Michelle and Sharee were working and just getting on with life. Then came a call from Warder Weststone. He was planning a surprise party for Jack at Temptations. We all said we would be there and showed up wondering what was going on. To our surprise, Jack had been made the Warden of New Orleans. We were...happy? for him. Really, we were. Except for the fact that Jack would have to take steps against Davi because he was demon influenced and that trouble followed us around like a loyal bloodhound. Yeah, this was a good thing. Just to prove our misgivings, the party ended when a severed head was thrown into Temptations. It was Tbone's. Instant action. Davi, Jack, and Michelle got up and headed out the door. Poor Sharee was left there to deal with the head. Outside was a group of Ghuls, just waiting for a fight. Davi obliged them. However, it wasn't in the manner expected. He pulled out a Katana, which Jack and Michelle saw had a nail embedded into the pommel. Apparently Davi had beaten the demon possessed coin by becoming a Knight of the Cross and was now wielding one of the holy swords. We proceeded to kick ass.

After that, Jack performed a ritual on the head to let him magically see what Tbone had experienced right before he died. From that, they were able to learn that the newest Black Court Vampire had taken the reins of the Red Court lackies, the Ghuls. The game ended with Davi, Jack, and Sharee at Davi's house with the rest of the gang members. Sharee called the spirit of Tbone there to get his real name. His ghost showed up and decided that he really wanted to stick around. Meanwhile, Michelle had taken the head to a nearby cemetery to give it a proper burial. She headed home alone to grieve and, by doing that, she called Tbone's ghost to her. They chatted a bit, with Michelle telling Tbone he could stick around but there would be ground rules. NO spying on her when she was in the shower or getting dressed. He agreed...reluctantly.