Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 60
Things look like they're going to get interesting very soon. Not that they haven't been already. We're getting ready to head into Lanka, which, according to Vishnu will be a pit of temptation for us. I mean, I can guess what dark desires my companions might have, but I don't really know what they are. And I'm worried what my own desires will say about me. What's worse, I'm morbidly curious about what my dark desires will say about me. >_<
In other news, I discovered in odd interludes during this hectic night that Keiko and Quinn sometimes play cards via webcam (they were playing with Mercy when I checked in on them), and that Ophelia is quite fond of Sera and loves doing her make-up and hair. ^_^ My girls are so wonderful. Oh, and straight-laced Keiko is loosening up a bit, I think. She's certainly been acting more flirty lately, which worries me a little given that she was just married. Then again, maybe Oda's the reason she's loosening up. ^_^
One weird thing though. Ophelia now sees Sera as Japanese. That might not seem all that weird...Sera is Japanese, but the face she wears (when she wears one at all) is blonde Caucasian. So is Ophelia just projecting what she knows about Sera onto her perceptions, or is there something supernatural going on here? I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
I should also mention that Yuko (our aka-name youkai friend whom we picked up last time we were in Japan and who now lives with us on Red Mountain) stowed away with us. Well, she was in the Valkyrie's bathroom licking it clean ('cause that's what aka-name do) when we took off. She apparently freaked out Sadako, who went to get a shower and found Yuko there with her disturbingly long tongue, licking the shower clean. This happened just before I called to check in on Keiko and the others, so Sadako's screams were sort of a backdrop to our conversation. The shikome don't take things calmly. And apparently Sadako doesn't like surprises. ^_^
Anyway, I think I was talking about how we had made our way into Conrad Semas's house and found the family being threatened by titanspawn. Well, we couldn't let that stand, so, we beat up the titanspawn. ^_^ I then focused on calming the family down while Adam and Charles Wei, Corporate Badass™ questioned Semas about the statues. It turns out his house isn't the only repository for the things. A large shipment had apparently been delivered to a warehouse in town. I don't know about the others, but my heart sank when I heard that. If the titanspawn already knew about the warehouse, then they'd probably sent someone to check it out too. >_<
About this time, T-Bone and Elisa contacted us and we met up. They'd tracked down the location of the titanspawn HQ, which at the time was watched heavily by incorporeal langsuir. We decided to check that out later, but with no time to waste, we rushed to the warehouse. T-Bone and Elisa scouted the place out only to find that yes, the titanspawn had beaten us there and though the place looked deserted, fifteen incorporeal langsuir were actually lying in wait to ambush us. So we sprung their trap. I snuck in, shrouded in shadow, and then emerged in a flash of light, rung my exorcism bell and dispelled them from the area. Once the ghosts had fled, Elisa was able to investigate the place more fully and learned that the other spawn had been there and then left in the direction of their headquarters.
You know, I think it was at this point that I started to feel like we were on a wild goose chase, but fortunately, we weren't. The titanspawn HQ was exactly where we needed to go...but we got there too late.
T-Bone scouted the place out and discovered that aside from a few asura and a couple of rakshasa, there wasn't much left there. It looked like the bad guys were pulling out, which meant they'd probably gotten the golden monkey statues they were looking for. >_< There was a portal in the house they had commandeered for their headquarters, and it was guarded by a hulking serpent-like Naga whose very presence exuded an aura of scalding heat. The bad news, though, was that the portal was flickering like it was going fade out at any moment.
Diving through the portal would definitely be a leap of faith for us...but we didn't really have any choice, so we charged the house. In retrospect, I'm amazed Charles went along with it. He only just joined us, but I guess he had enough trust in fate to do the right thing. If he’s willing to risk the unknown to fight the titans, then he’s okay in my book. ^_^
We loomed out of the shadows to attack the rakshasa guarding the door, and I tried to sing a cradlesong to put them to sleep, hoping to avoid a fight that would cost us valuable seconds. But...I failed. The rakshasa shook off the drowsiness and stood firm against us. If they hadn't delayed us, we might have made it to the portal in time. >_< Dammit.
As it was, we plowed through the rakshasa and assaulted the house as a well-coordinated unit (we’ve had a lot of practice), making short work of the asura and langsuir inside. I was quite upset to find the headless bodies of a number of women discarded in one of the first-story rooms; they'd no doubt been used to make some of the leyeks we've been fighting. >_<
You know, I discovered first-hand how dangerous Samsara, the Deva's divine gift, is. The asura made me forget things...like the fact that I can exorcise spirits or use my enticing appearance to entrance others. That shut me down pretty quickly in the assault, and the worst part was that I didn't know I'd lost anything until the effect ended and it all came flooding back. >_< In the future, I'm going to have to shut them down before they shut me down. One of the asura telepported away before Adam could finish her...and then came back to harass us while we were fighting the Naga. Very clever, but not clever enough to avoid Elisa's bullets.
The Naga guarding the portal was a beast. It took a concerted effort for us to kill him, and it probably would have been a lot harder is Ravi hadn't used his Samsara tricks to make the Naga forget some of his abilities. Serves him right. ^_^
We ultimately defeated the Naga, but he had done his job. We couldn't get past him before the portal expired and flickered away, leaving us cut off from wherever the servants of Ravana had taken the golden monkey statues.
While we were struggling with the problem of what to do next, divine providence showed up in the form of the Buddhist Amatsukami Marishiten, who apparently has a vested interest in the current goings on, probably because of her connection to the Deva. She informed us that the gates of Lanka had been reopened. >_< Figures. All of our hard work was for nothing. All wasn't lost, though. Marishiten told us that she could help us get to Lanka and could also put us in touch with Vishnu, who could explain how we might defeat the titanspawn and reseal the gate.
She warped us to her realm in the Overworld. Honestly, it was the first time I'd been to Takamagahara. And it was also the first time I've seen what the impurity of my shikome taint does to the place. The tatami mats I was sitting on began to darken and rot, and the longer I stayed, the further the corruption spread. It was disheartening to see how the others looked at me, faced with a visceral visual expression of my taint... >_< Marishiten was surprised; I don't think she knew that I'm a shikome.
Marishiten asked whether we would rather seek help from Surya, her father and the Deva sun god who oversaw the original assault on Lanka, or Vishnu, the god who used to be Rama, the very hero who fought in Ranka alongside Hanuman. We chose Vishnu, since we're facing a situation not unlike the one he faced long ago and because he's much nicer than Surya. ^_^
So after a few words of encouragement, Marishiten sent us to Vishnu's glorious palace, where we were granted an audience with Vishnu in all of his blue, four-armed glory. Vishnu heard our request for aid and offered the use of his boat, which could convey us into Lanka. However, in order to get there, each of us would have to either have great mischief in our hearts or be bound to someone who did. Unfortunately, the only one of us who really qualifies is T-Bone, but apparently youkai, fae spirits, and other beings associated with trickery can serves as "sponsors" too. So we'll be going to Red Mountain to pick up Dahlia, Keiko, Sera, Yuko, and probably Tanith (when we thought we were going through the portal, I sent Keiko and the girls back to Red Mountain).
There's a problem, though. Lanka is a dangerous place for us, because it draws out your dark desires and tempts you to fulfill them. It's possible, though very difficult, to resist such temptation, but I think we're all anxious about it. But it's a risk we have to take in order to defeat Lanka. Oh, and I should also note that even though my shikome definitely count as having mischievous hearts, taking them is out of the question because they will be completely incapable of resisting their dark desires. The last thing we need is rampaging shikome. >_<
According to Vishnu, once in Lanka, we'll need to break up the titanspawn operation. Either Hine-nui-te-po (twin night goddesses) or Rangda (goddess of the langsuir) will be there...and we'll have to defeat her to reseal Lanka. The only problem is that killing Rangda simply isn't possible. However, the core of the city is a churning mouth of wickedness (weird, huh?) into which the titanspawn are pouring amrita to awaken the city for real. If we can somehow force Rangda (assuming she's the one in charge) into the mouth, then she will be badly hurt, and in the process of tearing her way out again, she's likely to rip the city's foundation asunder, thus damaging it beyond repair (we hope), and making it possible to reseal the gate.
Sounds like a plan. I'm sure it'll be easy once we get there and see how things are laid out. Okay, I'm lying. This plan sounds incredibly dangerous.
Should be fun. (O_O)