Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 72
I've been bad. T_T Seriously bad. Suchette seduced me. I resisted her advances at first, but she ended up getting the best of me. Not that that's any excuse. It was incredibly good while it lasted, but afterward, when I came to my senses and realized how I'd betrayed Echo and Yi, I felt terrible. I still do. I can't even express how lonely I feel right now. All I want is for Echo to be here with me so that I can shower kisses on her and show her just how much I love her. How much I need her. T_T
I've already contacted Echo with Tsukumo-gami and told her everything. I can't hide anything from her, not since I messed up with Ray. Echo was understandably upset. But she's willing to forgive me. She loves me that much. I don't deserve her...but I'm glad she's mine. All she asked was that I'm equally understanding if she ever slips up like this. I guess she knows what it's like to succumb to the temptations of another, so that's only fair. I can't expect her to be so forgiving and not show her the same level of love and respect in return.
But I still feel terrible. And so lonely for Echo. I really do wish she were here with me. It's possible to fully summon kami to one's location using more advanced applications of Tsukumo-gami. I guess I need to develop my skill in the purview more so that I can bring Echo to me whenever I need her like this.
Suchette's terribly pleased right now. As far as she's concerned, finally getting me in bed is the best thing that could have happened to her. I don't really blame her for taking advantage of me. It's not like we don't flirt all the time, and there was already something incredibly sensual about the way she drinks my blood. But I should have been stronger. Anyway, I've already told Suchette that this must never happen again. That dampened her spirits a bit, which made me feel even worse. I really do want her to be happy too...I just can't give her what she wants. Not again, anyway. Despite all of that, though, I can tell that she's even more devoted to me now than before, if that's even possible. That's something, at least.
But I guess I should share all the other stuff that's happened within the past day instead of dwelling on my multi-layered guilt.
First off, before things went too far, Suchette filled me in on a lot of the details of our current situation and vampire politics (and Darga, another vampire we met later, filled in the rest). The big meeting between the vampires is to happen in a few hours from the time I'm writing this journal. The vampires will discuss the situation and try to reach a consensus on throwing their strength behind the titans. Then they will adjourn for 48 hours to stew over things and when that time's up, they''ll reconvene, to present their decision to the King of Vampires (i.e. David Bowie), who should be showing up about then.
Of course, this 48 hour period is really meant to give everyone time to coerce or force the other vampires into agreeing with them or just kill them off so they don't provide any objections. It will no doubt be the most dangerous time for us. If Suchette's going to survive, and if we're going to keep the vampires as a whole from joining the titans, then we'll need allies. So we've been trying to figure out which of the other vampire lords here might be convinced to oppose the push toward backing the titans in favor of preserving their own independence. If we can get enough of the others to form a power block opposing those who want to become the pawns of the titans, then we should be able to create a big enough schism between the vampires to keep them from contributing to the titan's armies in any significant way.
And, in time, we might be able to coerce any allies we make into opposing the titans altogether. But that's a plan for the future. For now, we just want to keep them from joining the titans.
Even though I feel miserable, this kind of political stuff really energizes me. ^_^
Suchette also filled me in on the vampire clans and who some of the individual vampire lords present were. The clans are the Adze (related to the Loa), the Vrykolakas (Dodekatheon), Jiang Shi (Celestial Bureacracy), Camazotz (Aztlanti), and the Jikininki (Amatsukami). Some leyeks are also in attendance, though their queen, Rangda, couldn't make is since she recovering from being eaten by Lanka the Wicked City (thanks to us ^_^). Also, two Apepnu, ancient and evil Egyptian mummies of some sort, have come to participate, and they sound like very bad news. As for the Founders, only two are awake enough to attend: Camazotz and Adze.
As for our allies, the Camazotz and Jiang Shi (the latter represented by the Blood Ancestor and Flesh Ancestor) seem solidly entrenched on the side of the titans, as does Ishalam, Suchette's rival Adze. However, both Vrykolakas are more interested in their own schemes than in the war against the gods, so we might be able to lure them to Suchette's side. One of them, a hedonistic vampiress named Darga Arpad, has serpentine features, almost like she has the blood of gorgons running in her veins. She rules over the vampires of Budapest, and she shouldn't be too hard to convince. The other, the Doge of Venice, is a mad necromancer, but like Darga, he's more interested in his own plots to bother with the titans.
The Jikininki are also potential allies, though we might have to play our cards right. According to Adam, one of them, who simply goes by "The Daimyo," was once a powerful daimyo who essentially gave himself over to Ama-no-Zaku (Susano-o's scion daughter) so that he could pursue vengeance against the man who tortured and killed his daughter. Of course, we didn't know that until Adam peered into mystery to find out, and it's a good thing he did. Despite being a vampire, the Daimyo actually seems fairly honorable. But there's one problem. The guy he wants to kill is actually Oda, Keiko's husband. He became a nopperabo, much like Sera did, after performing an atrocity for which he has since been repenting. He married the Daimyo's daughter, but after she was unfaithful to him, he tied her up and burned her alive.
We could easily get the Daimyo to join our side if we promised to deliver Oda to him, but that's not going to happen. So we'll have to find another track. The approach I suggested was to promise to help redeem Ama-no-Zaku. He's devoted to her, after all. It was she who tricked Mikaboshi into Suko-no-Kumi. She would have made the sacrifice anyway, but she was forced to do so by her father, and ended up trapped there. She was tortured until she became corrupted and insane. But I think there must still be hope for her. I might be able to redeem her in the process of working with Erebus to defeat Mikaboshi, with the help of my friends. Hell, I'd probably try to do that even if the Daimyo wasn't an issue. I mean, I can't help but see echoes of my situation in Ama-no-Zaku's story. Like her, I'm also planning on facing Suko-no-Kumi to defeat Mikaboshi. I just hope that I don't end up trapped and insane like she did. And if I do, then I hope someone will try to redeem me someday...
Anyway, the other Jikininki is a bloated woman named Fuguhime (Princess Pufferfish). According to what Adam's sight into mystery revealed to us, she and the Daimyo have been allies, lovers, rivals, and enemies throughout their tumultuous history, so there's a good possibility that if we can gain the Daimyo's support, we can gain hers. Besides, T-Bone and Pierre discovered that her quarters are being spied upon by shitidama that do not belong to her, information that might make her positively inclined toward our cause.
Anyway, that's basically how things stand as far as the politics are concerned.
While Suchette and I were...enjoying each other's company in the mansion (I was still playing the role of Jenny so as not to arouse any suspicion) and Charles was keeping watch over the mansion's entrance from one of the front rooms, the others sneaked out to have a look around and explore the secret passages beneath the city. Adam, Elisa, and T-Bone made their way into the tunnels and investigated them long enough to get a good feel for their layout. Pierre used Cheval to ride along inside Elisa, T-Bone, and my heads so that we could keep in touch if necessary.
Oh gods. Pierre was in my head the whole time I was with Suchette...I completely forgot about him... >_<
Moving on...
The passages are essentially a set of subterranean streets connecting pretty much every building in the city, including all the mansions. The passages are trapped, though, but the traps are designed to ignore those imbued with the blood of giants, so Adam was safe and the others were able to move around with no trouble after he anointed them with his blood. Since we can navigate the passages much more safely than any of the vampires here, they'll make a nice escape route for us if it comes to that. Especially since the passages do ultimately lead to the central hall in the center of the city, where the meeting between the vampires is to be held.
The group also discovered the passages leading to mansions occupied by a couple of the vampires, the Doge of Venice and Fuguhime, we think. Good to know, since those are both vampires we intend to make into allies.
By the time Adam's group returned, a couple of invitations had been delivered to the mansion. The first came from Darga Arpad, inviting us to make a social call. Since she was one of the vampires we intended to court as an ally (and it seemed she was having the same thought), we agreed to go meet with her. The other invitation came from the Apepnu, Hau-Hra of the Backward Face and Qetu the Evil-Doer. Adam's descriptions of the two of them made it sound like an extraordinarily bad idea to go visit them, so we declined that offer.
The meeting with Darga, on the other hand, went remarkably well. She was a voluptuous woman with serpentine eyes and scaled skin, attended by beautiful servants and obviously accustomed to decadent excesses. Her guards were werewolves, so she's well defended. She didn't bother to disguise her lust for Suchette and me, but aside from that our meeting went very well. As we suspected, Darga is more interested in independence than in getting too involved with the titans, and fears that she'll be used as a pawn if she throws her lot in with them. So she was quite interested in forming a power block to oppose the other vampires. She suggested that the Doge of Venice would also make a good ally even though she fears him, simply because like her, he is very independent.
Before we left to pursue our other potential allies, Darga suggested that it might be wise for us to combine our households while in Night Haven. If we form a power block, our rivals will want us all dead, and the more we can consolidate our defenses, the better we'll be able to defend each other from any assassination attempts. It's a tempting offer, but we declined, at least for the time being. The more I think about it, though, the better I like it. We can't exactly trust Darga yet, but Adam's insight into mystery suggests that she has no intention of betraying us. I'm worried about her and our other allies getting killed off before the Vampire King arrives...
Anyway, once we returned to the mansion, we spoke briefly and agreed that Adam should use his insight into mysteries to divine information that would make our efforts much easier, some of which I've already shared. We found out exactly where the Daimyo's quarters were and how to get there so that we could speak to him discreetly. We also learned that the Daimyo, the Doge, Darga, and Fuguhime are more interested in their own affairs than in the titans, which confirmed our choices for possible allies. And we learned that the Daimyo knows nothing of the shitidama spying on Fuguhime, so we can't blame him for their presence - all the better for convincing Fuguhime to become sympathetic to our cause.
Just to see how much of an element of surprise we really have, we also decided to ask if the Tallyman knew we were here. And he does. It figures. He probably probed mystery too. Oh well. At least I don't have to keep ferrying people through the walls to avoid his warning line.
We also asked what the Apepnu's true goals are, and that's when we discovered that they're really here to kill one or more of the Founders to take their power. Not good...but not bad either. Assuming the other vampires don't really know what their true goals are, we can use that to help divide our enemies even more. In fact, that's just what we.
Adam suggested that if we could let the Tallyman know, discreetly, of the Apepnu's true goals (assuming he's not already aware of them), then the Tallyman (or his ally Camazotz) could take care of them and hopefully we wouldn't have to worry about them at all. The problem was getting a message to the Tallyman without blowing our cover or otherwise attracting way too much attention. That's when T-Bone, wily as ever, came up with an amazing idea. He suggested that Adam cross the warning threshold repeatedly to trigger it in a morse code pattern. The Tallyman would receive the alarm and, given his incredible intellect, decipher the message immediately, and no one else would ever know. ^_^ My friends are so clever! ^_^
It occurs to me, though, that we might still want to use the Apepnu too. If we can get them to attack one of the Founders enough to weaken him, then we might be able to finish the job with Suchette striking the killing blow and thus taking the Founder's power for herself. *evil grin*
But for now we're getting ready to take a long walk across the city (using the secret passages underneath it, of course) to meet with the Daimyo.
Before I log off, though, I guess I'll end this entry with a segue back to Red Mountain, where according to Echo, more drama has happened. See, Sadako found out about Audrey and Keiko's relationship, and particularly about the demeaning way Keiko treats Audrey during their liaisons (which is what Audrey wants). Sadako completely freaked out since she's so in love with Audrey and trashed Keiko's office. She might have attacked Keiko too, but Oiwa, who cares a lot about Keiko, attacked Sadako and beat the hell out of her until others were able to intervene. Sera, who you might recall is actually Sadako's great grandmother, said some very abusive and ugly things to Oiwa in response, forcing Echo to come down hard on her and ultimately banish her, for the time being, from the main house (she's staying with the shikome right now).
In other words, it's been chaos. Sera's contrite, but according to Echo she said some very ugly things to Oiwa. I will not abide that sort of treatment of my daughter, Oiwa or Rose, even if Oiwa was out of line. Oiwa's not really upset by the encounter. In fact, since shikome are usually the ones beating the hell out of ghosts in Yomi, it was kinda cathartic for her. Sadako's on the mend, but she was out of line too. She has to understand that she cannot administer the same sort of violent "justice" to others, like Keiko, that she and the other shikome are accustomed to using among themselves.
What a mess. I'm glad Echo was there to defuse the situation, but I feel sorry for her. And then I had to go and make it worse with my confession. I wish Echo were here. I think we could both use some cuddling right now.
And I knew Audrey and Keiko's relationship was trouble. I hope Keiko learned a lesson from this.
Anyway, I'll have to deal with all of that when I get home. For now, I have to focus on convincing some very independent vampires to join forces.
I've already contacted Echo with Tsukumo-gami and told her everything. I can't hide anything from her, not since I messed up with Ray. Echo was understandably upset. But she's willing to forgive me. She loves me that much. I don't deserve her...but I'm glad she's mine. All she asked was that I'm equally understanding if she ever slips up like this. I guess she knows what it's like to succumb to the temptations of another, so that's only fair. I can't expect her to be so forgiving and not show her the same level of love and respect in return.
But I still feel terrible. And so lonely for Echo. I really do wish she were here with me. It's possible to fully summon kami to one's location using more advanced applications of Tsukumo-gami. I guess I need to develop my skill in the purview more so that I can bring Echo to me whenever I need her like this.
Suchette's terribly pleased right now. As far as she's concerned, finally getting me in bed is the best thing that could have happened to her. I don't really blame her for taking advantage of me. It's not like we don't flirt all the time, and there was already something incredibly sensual about the way she drinks my blood. But I should have been stronger. Anyway, I've already told Suchette that this must never happen again. That dampened her spirits a bit, which made me feel even worse. I really do want her to be happy too...I just can't give her what she wants. Not again, anyway. Despite all of that, though, I can tell that she's even more devoted to me now than before, if that's even possible. That's something, at least.
But I guess I should share all the other stuff that's happened within the past day instead of dwelling on my multi-layered guilt.
First off, before things went too far, Suchette filled me in on a lot of the details of our current situation and vampire politics (and Darga, another vampire we met later, filled in the rest). The big meeting between the vampires is to happen in a few hours from the time I'm writing this journal. The vampires will discuss the situation and try to reach a consensus on throwing their strength behind the titans. Then they will adjourn for 48 hours to stew over things and when that time's up, they''ll reconvene, to present their decision to the King of Vampires (i.e. David Bowie), who should be showing up about then.
Of course, this 48 hour period is really meant to give everyone time to coerce or force the other vampires into agreeing with them or just kill them off so they don't provide any objections. It will no doubt be the most dangerous time for us. If Suchette's going to survive, and if we're going to keep the vampires as a whole from joining the titans, then we'll need allies. So we've been trying to figure out which of the other vampire lords here might be convinced to oppose the push toward backing the titans in favor of preserving their own independence. If we can get enough of the others to form a power block opposing those who want to become the pawns of the titans, then we should be able to create a big enough schism between the vampires to keep them from contributing to the titan's armies in any significant way.
And, in time, we might be able to coerce any allies we make into opposing the titans altogether. But that's a plan for the future. For now, we just want to keep them from joining the titans.
Even though I feel miserable, this kind of political stuff really energizes me. ^_^
Suchette also filled me in on the vampire clans and who some of the individual vampire lords present were. The clans are the Adze (related to the Loa), the Vrykolakas (Dodekatheon), Jiang Shi (Celestial Bureacracy), Camazotz (Aztlanti), and the Jikininki (Amatsukami). Some leyeks are also in attendance, though their queen, Rangda, couldn't make is since she recovering from being eaten by Lanka the Wicked City (thanks to us ^_^). Also, two Apepnu, ancient and evil Egyptian mummies of some sort, have come to participate, and they sound like very bad news. As for the Founders, only two are awake enough to attend: Camazotz and Adze.
As for our allies, the Camazotz and Jiang Shi (the latter represented by the Blood Ancestor and Flesh Ancestor) seem solidly entrenched on the side of the titans, as does Ishalam, Suchette's rival Adze. However, both Vrykolakas are more interested in their own schemes than in the war against the gods, so we might be able to lure them to Suchette's side. One of them, a hedonistic vampiress named Darga Arpad, has serpentine features, almost like she has the blood of gorgons running in her veins. She rules over the vampires of Budapest, and she shouldn't be too hard to convince. The other, the Doge of Venice, is a mad necromancer, but like Darga, he's more interested in his own plots to bother with the titans.
The Jikininki are also potential allies, though we might have to play our cards right. According to Adam, one of them, who simply goes by "The Daimyo," was once a powerful daimyo who essentially gave himself over to Ama-no-Zaku (Susano-o's scion daughter) so that he could pursue vengeance against the man who tortured and killed his daughter. Of course, we didn't know that until Adam peered into mystery to find out, and it's a good thing he did. Despite being a vampire, the Daimyo actually seems fairly honorable. But there's one problem. The guy he wants to kill is actually Oda, Keiko's husband. He became a nopperabo, much like Sera did, after performing an atrocity for which he has since been repenting. He married the Daimyo's daughter, but after she was unfaithful to him, he tied her up and burned her alive.
We could easily get the Daimyo to join our side if we promised to deliver Oda to him, but that's not going to happen. So we'll have to find another track. The approach I suggested was to promise to help redeem Ama-no-Zaku. He's devoted to her, after all. It was she who tricked Mikaboshi into Suko-no-Kumi. She would have made the sacrifice anyway, but she was forced to do so by her father, and ended up trapped there. She was tortured until she became corrupted and insane. But I think there must still be hope for her. I might be able to redeem her in the process of working with Erebus to defeat Mikaboshi, with the help of my friends. Hell, I'd probably try to do that even if the Daimyo wasn't an issue. I mean, I can't help but see echoes of my situation in Ama-no-Zaku's story. Like her, I'm also planning on facing Suko-no-Kumi to defeat Mikaboshi. I just hope that I don't end up trapped and insane like she did. And if I do, then I hope someone will try to redeem me someday...
Anyway, the other Jikininki is a bloated woman named Fuguhime (Princess Pufferfish). According to what Adam's sight into mystery revealed to us, she and the Daimyo have been allies, lovers, rivals, and enemies throughout their tumultuous history, so there's a good possibility that if we can gain the Daimyo's support, we can gain hers. Besides, T-Bone and Pierre discovered that her quarters are being spied upon by shitidama that do not belong to her, information that might make her positively inclined toward our cause.
Anyway, that's basically how things stand as far as the politics are concerned.
While Suchette and I were...enjoying each other's company in the mansion (I was still playing the role of Jenny so as not to arouse any suspicion) and Charles was keeping watch over the mansion's entrance from one of the front rooms, the others sneaked out to have a look around and explore the secret passages beneath the city. Adam, Elisa, and T-Bone made their way into the tunnels and investigated them long enough to get a good feel for their layout. Pierre used Cheval to ride along inside Elisa, T-Bone, and my heads so that we could keep in touch if necessary.
Oh gods. Pierre was in my head the whole time I was with Suchette...I completely forgot about him... >_<
Moving on...
The passages are essentially a set of subterranean streets connecting pretty much every building in the city, including all the mansions. The passages are trapped, though, but the traps are designed to ignore those imbued with the blood of giants, so Adam was safe and the others were able to move around with no trouble after he anointed them with his blood. Since we can navigate the passages much more safely than any of the vampires here, they'll make a nice escape route for us if it comes to that. Especially since the passages do ultimately lead to the central hall in the center of the city, where the meeting between the vampires is to be held.
The group also discovered the passages leading to mansions occupied by a couple of the vampires, the Doge of Venice and Fuguhime, we think. Good to know, since those are both vampires we intend to make into allies.
By the time Adam's group returned, a couple of invitations had been delivered to the mansion. The first came from Darga Arpad, inviting us to make a social call. Since she was one of the vampires we intended to court as an ally (and it seemed she was having the same thought), we agreed to go meet with her. The other invitation came from the Apepnu, Hau-Hra of the Backward Face and Qetu the Evil-Doer. Adam's descriptions of the two of them made it sound like an extraordinarily bad idea to go visit them, so we declined that offer.
The meeting with Darga, on the other hand, went remarkably well. She was a voluptuous woman with serpentine eyes and scaled skin, attended by beautiful servants and obviously accustomed to decadent excesses. Her guards were werewolves, so she's well defended. She didn't bother to disguise her lust for Suchette and me, but aside from that our meeting went very well. As we suspected, Darga is more interested in independence than in getting too involved with the titans, and fears that she'll be used as a pawn if she throws her lot in with them. So she was quite interested in forming a power block to oppose the other vampires. She suggested that the Doge of Venice would also make a good ally even though she fears him, simply because like her, he is very independent.
Before we left to pursue our other potential allies, Darga suggested that it might be wise for us to combine our households while in Night Haven. If we form a power block, our rivals will want us all dead, and the more we can consolidate our defenses, the better we'll be able to defend each other from any assassination attempts. It's a tempting offer, but we declined, at least for the time being. The more I think about it, though, the better I like it. We can't exactly trust Darga yet, but Adam's insight into mystery suggests that she has no intention of betraying us. I'm worried about her and our other allies getting killed off before the Vampire King arrives...
Anyway, once we returned to the mansion, we spoke briefly and agreed that Adam should use his insight into mysteries to divine information that would make our efforts much easier, some of which I've already shared. We found out exactly where the Daimyo's quarters were and how to get there so that we could speak to him discreetly. We also learned that the Daimyo, the Doge, Darga, and Fuguhime are more interested in their own affairs than in the titans, which confirmed our choices for possible allies. And we learned that the Daimyo knows nothing of the shitidama spying on Fuguhime, so we can't blame him for their presence - all the better for convincing Fuguhime to become sympathetic to our cause.
Just to see how much of an element of surprise we really have, we also decided to ask if the Tallyman knew we were here. And he does. It figures. He probably probed mystery too. Oh well. At least I don't have to keep ferrying people through the walls to avoid his warning line.
We also asked what the Apepnu's true goals are, and that's when we discovered that they're really here to kill one or more of the Founders to take their power. Not good...but not bad either. Assuming the other vampires don't really know what their true goals are, we can use that to help divide our enemies even more. In fact, that's just what we.
Adam suggested that if we could let the Tallyman know, discreetly, of the Apepnu's true goals (assuming he's not already aware of them), then the Tallyman (or his ally Camazotz) could take care of them and hopefully we wouldn't have to worry about them at all. The problem was getting a message to the Tallyman without blowing our cover or otherwise attracting way too much attention. That's when T-Bone, wily as ever, came up with an amazing idea. He suggested that Adam cross the warning threshold repeatedly to trigger it in a morse code pattern. The Tallyman would receive the alarm and, given his incredible intellect, decipher the message immediately, and no one else would ever know. ^_^ My friends are so clever! ^_^
It occurs to me, though, that we might still want to use the Apepnu too. If we can get them to attack one of the Founders enough to weaken him, then we might be able to finish the job with Suchette striking the killing blow and thus taking the Founder's power for herself. *evil grin*
But for now we're getting ready to take a long walk across the city (using the secret passages underneath it, of course) to meet with the Daimyo.
Before I log off, though, I guess I'll end this entry with a segue back to Red Mountain, where according to Echo, more drama has happened. See, Sadako found out about Audrey and Keiko's relationship, and particularly about the demeaning way Keiko treats Audrey during their liaisons (which is what Audrey wants). Sadako completely freaked out since she's so in love with Audrey and trashed Keiko's office. She might have attacked Keiko too, but Oiwa, who cares a lot about Keiko, attacked Sadako and beat the hell out of her until others were able to intervene. Sera, who you might recall is actually Sadako's great grandmother, said some very abusive and ugly things to Oiwa in response, forcing Echo to come down hard on her and ultimately banish her, for the time being, from the main house (she's staying with the shikome right now).
In other words, it's been chaos. Sera's contrite, but according to Echo she said some very ugly things to Oiwa. I will not abide that sort of treatment of my daughter, Oiwa or Rose, even if Oiwa was out of line. Oiwa's not really upset by the encounter. In fact, since shikome are usually the ones beating the hell out of ghosts in Yomi, it was kinda cathartic for her. Sadako's on the mend, but she was out of line too. She has to understand that she cannot administer the same sort of violent "justice" to others, like Keiko, that she and the other shikome are accustomed to using among themselves.
What a mess. I'm glad Echo was there to defuse the situation, but I feel sorry for her. And then I had to go and make it worse with my confession. I wish Echo were here. I think we could both use some cuddling right now.
And I knew Audrey and Keiko's relationship was trouble. I hope Keiko learned a lesson from this.
Anyway, I'll have to deal with all of that when I get home. For now, I have to focus on convincing some very independent vampires to join forces.