It has been awhile but I am FINALLY getting around to this update. I must say that I didn't realize just how much I was missing the Dresden Las Vegas game. Re-reading the previous blog posts has made me want to get back to it as soon as possible. However the long wait has been partially my fault. Our (very) patient GM has been waiting for me to get off my lazy computer gaming ass and get this updated.
That being said, I will be doing this post a bit differently. There is simply too much information to do the usual storyline type format. Looking through my notes, I had 14+ pages to compile and get into this entry. So, I will be doing it as scene by scene retelling. I won't be putting in every detail, just the main highlights to the various story arcs. Hopefully this will get everyone back into the Las Vegas groove.
All that being said, let's start and get all caught up so we can once more move ahead with the action and fun!
The last entry ended with the aftermath of the fire, the curse set upon Shade and Max, Neil taking care of the street punks, and Brandon's shop being partially destroyed by a frog-like demon thing.
The next day was spent cleaning up after the fight. Damage control was done by all. One person was missing though, Wyatt. Not being able to get ahold of him, Shade, Neil, and Brandon went out looking. Their various tactics led them all to the Imperium Arcana, which was owned by Thomas Stone. Before they could go in with guns and magic blazing, Wyatt came out and rather curtly dismissed their concern. Knowing that something was up, the three of them agreed to keep an eye on Wyatt for awhile. Time was not on their side though. The next night both Brandon and Shade (who had made a deal with Coyote to help keep Max alive) were visited by the little coyote spirit. Brandon called Neil and told him something was going down at the Hoover Dam. Before they could head out, Shade got ahold of Neil as well. Another quick stop and the three headed out to see just what the hell was going on.
When they got to the Dam, they saw Wyatt's motorcycle there. With a sinking feeling, Neil, Shade, and Brandon followed the ghostly coyote deep into the dam's inner workings. Coming to a bunker like room, they saw Wyatt lying on the floor apparently unconscious. Stone and a few of his cronies were there as well. Most were dead, killed in some sort of ritualistic manner. Knowing that whatever was going on was bad, Shade, Neil, and Brandon readied themselves for the fight to come.
Neil started it off by going all Matrix-like on one of the followers still alive. Both Brandon and Shade magically attacked Stone. Stone was able to partially block their spells and surrounded himself with a wall of water.
Not able to get at Stone, Brandon turned his attention to the other (living) follower and hit him with a force spell which knocked him unconscious. Neil, with some more awesome martial arts moves, killed his opponent. Shade, being a Hydromancer, was able to freeze and shatter the water shield Stone had erected around himself. He wasn't down but he was hurt fairly badly.
A quick thinking Neil grabbed the amulet from around Stone's neck. Brandon then hit him with a force spell while Shade cast an ice spell on the water coating the floor. A totally pissed off Stone managed to hit them with some black goo like magic. However, Stone knew there was no way he could win. He was too badly hurt and he knew the three in front of him would not give up. Before Shade, Brandon, or Neil could do anything, Stone started chanting in an unknown language and plunged his dagger into his chest. Even without knowing the full meaning, Shade was able to tell the boys that Stone had performed a summoning spell and it seemed to be aimed towards the Old Ones and that Stone had used the word meaning Master. Even better (yes, that's sarcasm) was that Stone had not put any sort of binding on it.
Not being able to really do anything overt (that pesky seventh Law of Magic), Shade and Brandon were able to work through Neil to banish who or what ever Stone had called. Nothing was left but the clean-up and information gathering.
After Shade and Wyatt left, Brandon and Neil took charge of the clean-up. First on the call list was a few Ghuls to take care of the dead. Then they turned to the only survivor. It soon became clear he wasn't going to willingly talk. A second call was placed to Mason. He showed up and took charge of the guy. It would take a few days but Mason WOULD get him to talk. Of course, it would drive him crazy but things happen.
Once things had been settled at the Dam, the boys left to check out a few more places. The first stop was to Stone's house. Brandon opened the Sight and realized the house was magically clean. The next stop was to his place of business. After realizing they should have grabbed the keys off of Stone's body, they broke in and did a complete search. They didn't find anything physical. However, when Brandon used the Sight there, it seemed off kilter somehow.
On the ride back into Vegas, Shade asked Wyatt why he had gone there. He said that Stone had told him that his brother was alive and would help him reunite the two. Apparently Stone had contacted his brother and let Wyatt talk to him over the phone. Once Wyatt was safely home, Shade called Uri and asked him to meet her at the Luxor. After a few pleasantries, Shade told him what happened at the Dam. He wasn't very happy. He asked that the news of Stone's death be kept quiet for a few days until he could get all the facts together. Shade agreed, though she thinks that it will not take long for the news to spread. No matter what Uri wants, the death of a Board member cannot be kept secret for long.
The next day started out pretty quietly. Neil looked into his holdings. Brandon, after waking up in his car, went to Shade's shop (yes, it's not done being rebuilt but her basement is still intact). Shade was there working on a few ideas she had for calling a sentient ghost. After catching up on what happened after she left, Brandon called Neil and arranged to meet him back at the Dam
Back in the Ritual room, the two of them take a good look around. Other then the dais in the middle, the most striking aspect of the room is the sheer number of runes carved everywhere. Neil snapped a few pictures and sent them off to a professor he knew to see if they could be deciphered. Brandon used Lore to see what he could figure out but it wasn't much. Between Brandon and Neil's contact, it seemed that the runes were a mix of two languages but there was no rhyme or reason in how they were used.
Back at her shop, Shade took a break from the ghost ritual to check into a few things. Because she had dealings with the zombies and the power that flowed through Sly, Shade could "recognize" the magical signature. She compared it to Stone's magic and they were the same. She then called Max to ask just WHEN he had "seen" Stone. He had mentioned that he hadn't seen a magical taint in him. He confirmed that it wasn't too long ago. To Shade that could mean a couple of different things. Either Max saw it and didn't realize what it was or something even bigger (and worse) was working through Stone and the others.
Filing that away for further study, she went in search of Wyatt. She wanted more information about how Stone was able to contact Wyatt's brother. Wyatt told her it was a cell phone. That struck Shade as a bit odd. Stone really shouldn't have been able to use a cell phone. Getting the date and time of the call, Shade passed the information to Neil. If the call was legit, there should be a record of it. If it had been done through some magical means, the records wouldn't be there.
Once that call was over, the day took a turn for the worse. Both Shade and Neil got the news that Patience had died the previous night. They met at the Historical Society for a quick look around. Shade, having been there many times before, quickly realized that a few books were missing- mainly dealing with genealogies and the history of Arizona. While Shade was magically searching the office, Neil took a look at Patience's date book. Right before her death, she had several meetings with her father (who, by the way, was Warden Locke) but nothing odd stood out. What was odd about the date book was that Patience had nothing scheduled after the day of her death. The book was completely blank from that point on.
While all this was going on, Brandon had the brilliant idea to send Skip out to the Dam to try and figure out more information on the runes. When Neil took a trip out to the Dam the next morning, he found a very agitated and disturbed Skip ranting about what he had figured out. Skip had taken copious notes but the were fairly indecipherable. Neil calmed Skip down as best he could and called Brandon to come and get him. Once Brandon got there and woke Skip up, he tried to make sense of the poor boys notes and ramblings. The gist of it all was that there lots of dead there, magic runs the dam, thousands of spells were used, something needed to be done, and this is where they (whoever they are) went.
With his copies of the notes, Neil tracked down Jeremy Running Mouth and found out that some of Skip's notes were in Navajo and dealt with the pleading to the Great Spirit and revenge, He said it sounded like a curse of some sort.
With his copy of the notes, Brandon went in search of the Old Indian. After a brief conversation that didn't get him very much information, Brandon had a douchebag moment and woke up in the middle of a dark cornfield. A long walk later, he found a pay phone and called Neil collect to ask for bus fare back to Vegas. In Brandon's words, "I'm in fucking Utah." A side note to Brandon- don't be a douchebag to a God, unless you WANT to end up in 'fucking Utah'.
While Neil was finding about curses and Brandon was finding out about Utah, Shade took some time to perform a ritual she had been thinking of for awhile. Working on the idea that a city was a living being, she attempted to summon the actual city. Who showed up really didn't surprise her (that anyone showed up did). It was Rita the accountant. They talked for awhile about everything that was going on. Unfortunately, due to her restrictions of total neutrality, Rita couldn't give much information.
The next day was the funeral. Shade and Neil had planned on her sneaking out and meeting him at Patience's house for some more magical and mundane snooping. However, when Neil got to the house, he found it being set up for the wake. A quick text to Max kept Shade away. They agreed to try later on that night after everyone had left.
That is FINALLY the end of my notes. I managed to get most of the details in. All that I really skipped was a few flavor incidents that really wouldn't affect anything by being left out. So that is where things should pick up in the new session- Neil at Patience's house, Shade at the church, and Brandon on a Greyhound heading back to Vegas. I do have a quick endnote that says "something going to happen at the church during the funeral". I hope that helps give Lana a starting point for planning the next great adventure. Can't wait!
