Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 76
So, I think the last thing I covered was our assassination of the Blood and Flesh Ancestors along with their despicable Leyek ally, right? Well, after that we had to decide what to do next, so after returning to the secret tunnels and our vampire allies, Adam, Elisa, T-Bone, Pierre, Charles and I adjourned to a separate chamber to discuss our plans in private. I pointed out that we are still at a political disadvantage. Sure, our power block consists of four of the eight vampires left in Night Haven, but our enemies count two Founders in their ranks (Adze and Camazotz), which gives them a much weightier voice than ours. If the Vampire King really does base his decision on the decisions of the vampires, then our enemies would probably still be able to sway him to their side. >_<
We had to do something about that. Furthermore, I still wanted to arrange things so that Suchette could steal a Founder's power and become a true queen of vampires herself. She's already sided with the gods, so she'll need that power to protect herself from the many enemies her choice has already made. And besides, Suchette is my friend, and having a god-like vampire in my pocket sounds like a pretty good thing to me. ^_^
Unfortunately, none of us except our adorably bloodthirsty Elisa wanted to face Camaztoz and his two powerful vampire followers, not to mention the horde of guards they had. Adam suspected that if they really wanted, they'd be able to summon a bunch of Tzitzimime to defend them on top of whatever else we might expect. I suggested that we leave the all the Camazotz vampires be and focus on killing the Adze Founder. Doing so would give Suchette his power and swing the political balance back in our favor.
This really has been pretty cutthroat, but I'm finding that I don't really mind. If we hadn't been able to obtain so many allies through diplomacy, I'd be pretty upset about all these underhanded assassinations, but as it is, I think we've managed to handle things with a good mix of social intrigue and bloodshed. Or maybe that's the shikome in me creeping out a bit. O_O
Anyway, T-Bone and Elisa did some scouting in T-Bone's moon-mobile (that thing he summoned to rocket us across Chicago when everything was going to hell there several months ago). Among other things, they found that Adam was right: a couple of the houses were guarded by wards that would summon a swarm of Tzitzimime if any scions came close to the property, which would serve as a pretty effective alarm if we tried the same method we'd used to kill Ishalam and the Qing Shi. One of the houses seemed empty, but the other was also guarded by shapechanging Xibalbans bearing rocket launchers, and probably even nastier creatures inside.
Adam and Charles analyzed the situation and decided that Adze had probably consolidated his own household with the Camazotz for safety, and they were all secured inside the well-guarded manor T-Bone and Elisa had discovered. Attacking that place would be suicide, especially since we've been exerting our divine energies a lot and aren't in top form. But we had to do something...
While the others were planning, I decided to go talk to the Doge and see if I could gauge his feelings on killing a Founder. I spoke to him, Suchette, and Amelia privately, and asked the Doge why, if his Founder was essentially his captive, he had not killed the Founder and taken his power. He told me that his Founder was more valuable to him as is. Others come to him for access to the Founder, making him a very powerful vampire. Since he's not the Founder, though, he's not a target. In other words, he's using his Founder as a channel to power.
But...I got the feeling that if he could have his cake and eat it too (i.e. get a Founder's power while still keeping his own captive) he wouldn't say no. ^_^ Still our talk told me what I needed to know, and so I brought him into the rest of our planning session and we were able to find out more about the guarded houses when he sent a squad of his ghosts to recon the enemy positions. It turns out we were right: Adze and Camazotz had consolidated their power and were well-defended not only by explosive-bearing Xibalbans but also pox-walkers (yuck.)
>_<
That's when Adam hit upon a brilliant but daring plan. We decided to move our allies into position beneath the central meeting hall some time before the meeting with the Vampire King, then set up an ambush to attack Adze and the Camazotz en route to the meeting. Pierre and T-Bone would use Cheval to possess the Xibalabans and make them fire their rocket launchers into the ground, hopefully wiping out most of the procession and leaving us to fight only the two Founders and the Camazotz vampires. Only the two Founders? What were we thinking?! >_< After the initial firestorm, T-Bone would then open up the bag of baka he got when we were in Di Yu to sow as much chaos and confusion as possible. Meanwhile, I would try to neutralize Adze.
If possible, I would have liked to do a quick hit and run, grabbing Adze and then withdrawing before the Camazotz could retaliate, but of course it didn't work that way. The opening salvos of our plan worked like a charm. We hid and waited for the enemy retinue to come to us, then Pierre and T-Bone did their thing. When the smoke cleared, only Adze, Camazotz, and the two lesser (but still quite fearsome) Camazotz vampires were left standing, virtually unhurt. Suchette was with me, hidden down my top in her insect form. As T-Bone unleashed the baka, Adze tried to escape by turning into a fly and fleeing, so I stepped out of cover, beckoned enticingly to get his attention, and then unleashed the power of my beauty upon him. He couldn't resist my charms and was enchanted, left to do nothing by stare at me as he hovered there as a fly.
Unfortunately, we hadn't really planned on the swarm of about ten Tzitzimime that came to help our enemies, crashing to the earth as meteors and then unleashing their fury on us. One slammed right into me, forcing me to shed my corpse, and by the time I got to my feet again, two more were surrounding me. Others smashed into Adam, Charles, and Pierre.
Meanwhile, Elisa, who was perched in a tower a short distance away with her sniper rifle, screamed a challenge to Camazotz and then popped off a shot on him with her bullets of pure sunlight, forcing him to shed his skin.Camazotz roared in anger, unfurled his mighty wings, and leapt over the rooftops to attack Elisa. Charles and Adam tried to focus fire on the Camazotz while surviving the onslaught of the Tzitzimime, and Pierre, horribly wounded by the pounding he had received from the Tzitzimime impact, was forced to withdraw temporarily into the earth.
Things started to go very badly for us. The Tzitzimime were vicious, dangerous combatants, and they almost killed Adam, Pierre, and me. Camazotz tore into Elisa, forcing her skin-shed his first blow and leaving her badly injured by his second. And unfortunately, being neither undead nor as powerful as he was, it was impossible for Elisa to take him down. That is, until Charles arrived on the scene and worked some of his Chinese magic to empower her so that her divine soul was strong enough to hurt the Founder.
The baka did their part, though, and managed to distract and immobilize many of the Tzitzimime while T-Bone did his best to help Charles and Adam against the Camazotz. But with everyone else busy with their own foes, I was in deep trouble, what with three (!) Tzitzimime bearing down on me. >_< So when I saw an opening, I took it. I managed to dodge between two of my attackers and ran as fast as I could to Adze, who was still a fly and was still staring at me. I grabbed him in one had as I dove into the earth, using my power to swim through the soil and stone to escape. Safe at last, right?
Wrong! >_< Those damn Tzitzimime started smashing through the earth with all their strength to pursue me. It was all I could do to stay ahead of them! I thought about escaping into the secret tunnels, where they'd have to face the traps, but I was worried that the traps would snap Adze out of my compelling enchantment, so I just fled for my life though the ground.
It was really scary at the time, but in retrospect, it was also kinda funny. I mean, there I was gliding through the earth with Suchette (as an insect) in my cleavage and Adze (also as an insect) clutched in one hand with the Star Demon Demolition Crew (tm) churning through the earth behind me... O_O
While I was fleeing, Elisa and Camazotz went at it, and in the end, Elisa was victorious. She took the vampire down with several well-placed shots, though took quite a beating in return. Adam was nearly killed by one of the lesser Camazotz, but just before the Camazotz struck the killing blow, guess who showed up and tore the blood from the vampire's body? That's right, the Doge! I am such a fan of the Doge right now!
With the other Camazotz down, the Doge and Charles finished off the last one while Pierre reemerged and helped Adam destroy the Tzitzimime chasing me. I think even T-Bone took one out! The rest of them were pretty helpless in the chaotic thrall of the baka, who were starting to lose interest and wander off. We finished off the rest of the Tzitzimime and then T-Bone ran around like a farmer chasing chickens trying to get all the baka back in their magic bag! ^_^
We thanked the Doge for his assistance and offered him Camazotz. He tore the rest of the Founder's blood from his body and with it took his power. Meanwhile, I emerged from the earth and gently offered Adze, perched on one finger, to Suchette. She ate him right out of my hand, sucking him off my finger. It was a bit more sensual than it needed to be, but I didn't mind. I have this kind of finger fetish thing. It's one reason Yi drove me so wild the first time we met and she kissed my fingertip. Just thinking about it sends a chill up my spine.
Ahem. Sorry. Where was I?
Suchette (and the Doge) don't look any different (well, maybe a bit more...impressive), but Suchette, at least, says she feels amazing! I can't wait to talk to her more about it. And now we have two vampire Founders as allies. They've made some big enemies, though, so we'll have to do what we can to help protect them. I am a little worried about the power block the Doge has managed to win through all of this (a Founder keeping a Founder sounds pretty powerful to me). Hopefully we will remain allies now that this whole Night Haven thing is over.
Of course, Amelia is as jealous as hell toward Suchette. I regret leading her on like I did at first.
Anyway, still bearing the marks of the battle, we rejoined our vampire allies in the meeting hall and awaited the arrival of the Vampire King. A few of the baka were still wandering round causing trouble...I did my best to ignore them.
And that was the most exciting part of the whole thing! The Vampire King confirmed what I've been saying all along! He doesn't just LOOK like David Bowie. He really IS David Bowie! After the meeting we totally talked about our art and music and he agreed to set up a collaboration at some point. Maybe when I'm done with my current tour. ^____^
But as for the meeting...the King was a bit surprised, and maybe a tad dismayed, to find that so few vampires made it to the meeting. However, he listened carefully to our arguments for not joining the titans and in the end he gave his blessing to our choice. In fact, when I asked him about it, he confessed that he agreed that the vampires should be free to make their own choices in the war. He didn't mind individual vampires doing as they will, like Suchette joining the side of the gods or the Camazotz fighting for the titans, but as a whole, the vampires are officially neutral.
Which is exactly what we hoped to accomplish here. ^_^
So, that was that. We bid goodbye to our vampire allies and left Night Haven. I returned to Red Mountain for a day or two to reunite with Echo. Gods, I missed her, especially after my screw up with Suchette. And then I went to visit Yi in China for a couple of days. All in all, I took about a week off from my tour, so I'll have to make those concert dates up at the end. But I don't mind.
And it seems like my fans are becoming more and more religiously devoted to me as time goes on. At times, I almost feel like I can hear their hopes and dreams...
We had to do something about that. Furthermore, I still wanted to arrange things so that Suchette could steal a Founder's power and become a true queen of vampires herself. She's already sided with the gods, so she'll need that power to protect herself from the many enemies her choice has already made. And besides, Suchette is my friend, and having a god-like vampire in my pocket sounds like a pretty good thing to me. ^_^
Unfortunately, none of us except our adorably bloodthirsty Elisa wanted to face Camaztoz and his two powerful vampire followers, not to mention the horde of guards they had. Adam suspected that if they really wanted, they'd be able to summon a bunch of Tzitzimime to defend them on top of whatever else we might expect. I suggested that we leave the all the Camazotz vampires be and focus on killing the Adze Founder. Doing so would give Suchette his power and swing the political balance back in our favor.
This really has been pretty cutthroat, but I'm finding that I don't really mind. If we hadn't been able to obtain so many allies through diplomacy, I'd be pretty upset about all these underhanded assassinations, but as it is, I think we've managed to handle things with a good mix of social intrigue and bloodshed. Or maybe that's the shikome in me creeping out a bit. O_O
Anyway, T-Bone and Elisa did some scouting in T-Bone's moon-mobile (that thing he summoned to rocket us across Chicago when everything was going to hell there several months ago). Among other things, they found that Adam was right: a couple of the houses were guarded by wards that would summon a swarm of Tzitzimime if any scions came close to the property, which would serve as a pretty effective alarm if we tried the same method we'd used to kill Ishalam and the Qing Shi. One of the houses seemed empty, but the other was also guarded by shapechanging Xibalbans bearing rocket launchers, and probably even nastier creatures inside.
Adam and Charles analyzed the situation and decided that Adze had probably consolidated his own household with the Camazotz for safety, and they were all secured inside the well-guarded manor T-Bone and Elisa had discovered. Attacking that place would be suicide, especially since we've been exerting our divine energies a lot and aren't in top form. But we had to do something...
While the others were planning, I decided to go talk to the Doge and see if I could gauge his feelings on killing a Founder. I spoke to him, Suchette, and Amelia privately, and asked the Doge why, if his Founder was essentially his captive, he had not killed the Founder and taken his power. He told me that his Founder was more valuable to him as is. Others come to him for access to the Founder, making him a very powerful vampire. Since he's not the Founder, though, he's not a target. In other words, he's using his Founder as a channel to power.
But...I got the feeling that if he could have his cake and eat it too (i.e. get a Founder's power while still keeping his own captive) he wouldn't say no. ^_^ Still our talk told me what I needed to know, and so I brought him into the rest of our planning session and we were able to find out more about the guarded houses when he sent a squad of his ghosts to recon the enemy positions. It turns out we were right: Adze and Camazotz had consolidated their power and were well-defended not only by explosive-bearing Xibalbans but also pox-walkers (yuck.)
>_<
That's when Adam hit upon a brilliant but daring plan. We decided to move our allies into position beneath the central meeting hall some time before the meeting with the Vampire King, then set up an ambush to attack Adze and the Camazotz en route to the meeting. Pierre and T-Bone would use Cheval to possess the Xibalabans and make them fire their rocket launchers into the ground, hopefully wiping out most of the procession and leaving us to fight only the two Founders and the Camazotz vampires. Only the two Founders? What were we thinking?! >_< After the initial firestorm, T-Bone would then open up the bag of baka he got when we were in Di Yu to sow as much chaos and confusion as possible. Meanwhile, I would try to neutralize Adze.
If possible, I would have liked to do a quick hit and run, grabbing Adze and then withdrawing before the Camazotz could retaliate, but of course it didn't work that way. The opening salvos of our plan worked like a charm. We hid and waited for the enemy retinue to come to us, then Pierre and T-Bone did their thing. When the smoke cleared, only Adze, Camazotz, and the two lesser (but still quite fearsome) Camazotz vampires were left standing, virtually unhurt. Suchette was with me, hidden down my top in her insect form. As T-Bone unleashed the baka, Adze tried to escape by turning into a fly and fleeing, so I stepped out of cover, beckoned enticingly to get his attention, and then unleashed the power of my beauty upon him. He couldn't resist my charms and was enchanted, left to do nothing by stare at me as he hovered there as a fly.
Unfortunately, we hadn't really planned on the swarm of about ten Tzitzimime that came to help our enemies, crashing to the earth as meteors and then unleashing their fury on us. One slammed right into me, forcing me to shed my corpse, and by the time I got to my feet again, two more were surrounding me. Others smashed into Adam, Charles, and Pierre.
Meanwhile, Elisa, who was perched in a tower a short distance away with her sniper rifle, screamed a challenge to Camazotz and then popped off a shot on him with her bullets of pure sunlight, forcing him to shed his skin.Camazotz roared in anger, unfurled his mighty wings, and leapt over the rooftops to attack Elisa. Charles and Adam tried to focus fire on the Camazotz while surviving the onslaught of the Tzitzimime, and Pierre, horribly wounded by the pounding he had received from the Tzitzimime impact, was forced to withdraw temporarily into the earth.
Things started to go very badly for us. The Tzitzimime were vicious, dangerous combatants, and they almost killed Adam, Pierre, and me. Camazotz tore into Elisa, forcing her skin-shed his first blow and leaving her badly injured by his second. And unfortunately, being neither undead nor as powerful as he was, it was impossible for Elisa to take him down. That is, until Charles arrived on the scene and worked some of his Chinese magic to empower her so that her divine soul was strong enough to hurt the Founder.
The baka did their part, though, and managed to distract and immobilize many of the Tzitzimime while T-Bone did his best to help Charles and Adam against the Camazotz. But with everyone else busy with their own foes, I was in deep trouble, what with three (!) Tzitzimime bearing down on me. >_< So when I saw an opening, I took it. I managed to dodge between two of my attackers and ran as fast as I could to Adze, who was still a fly and was still staring at me. I grabbed him in one had as I dove into the earth, using my power to swim through the soil and stone to escape. Safe at last, right?
Wrong! >_< Those damn Tzitzimime started smashing through the earth with all their strength to pursue me. It was all I could do to stay ahead of them! I thought about escaping into the secret tunnels, where they'd have to face the traps, but I was worried that the traps would snap Adze out of my compelling enchantment, so I just fled for my life though the ground.
It was really scary at the time, but in retrospect, it was also kinda funny. I mean, there I was gliding through the earth with Suchette (as an insect) in my cleavage and Adze (also as an insect) clutched in one hand with the Star Demon Demolition Crew (tm) churning through the earth behind me... O_O
While I was fleeing, Elisa and Camazotz went at it, and in the end, Elisa was victorious. She took the vampire down with several well-placed shots, though took quite a beating in return. Adam was nearly killed by one of the lesser Camazotz, but just before the Camazotz struck the killing blow, guess who showed up and tore the blood from the vampire's body? That's right, the Doge! I am such a fan of the Doge right now!
With the other Camazotz down, the Doge and Charles finished off the last one while Pierre reemerged and helped Adam destroy the Tzitzimime chasing me. I think even T-Bone took one out! The rest of them were pretty helpless in the chaotic thrall of the baka, who were starting to lose interest and wander off. We finished off the rest of the Tzitzimime and then T-Bone ran around like a farmer chasing chickens trying to get all the baka back in their magic bag! ^_^
We thanked the Doge for his assistance and offered him Camazotz. He tore the rest of the Founder's blood from his body and with it took his power. Meanwhile, I emerged from the earth and gently offered Adze, perched on one finger, to Suchette. She ate him right out of my hand, sucking him off my finger. It was a bit more sensual than it needed to be, but I didn't mind. I have this kind of finger fetish thing. It's one reason Yi drove me so wild the first time we met and she kissed my fingertip. Just thinking about it sends a chill up my spine.
Ahem. Sorry. Where was I?
Suchette (and the Doge) don't look any different (well, maybe a bit more...impressive), but Suchette, at least, says she feels amazing! I can't wait to talk to her more about it. And now we have two vampire Founders as allies. They've made some big enemies, though, so we'll have to do what we can to help protect them. I am a little worried about the power block the Doge has managed to win through all of this (a Founder keeping a Founder sounds pretty powerful to me). Hopefully we will remain allies now that this whole Night Haven thing is over.
Of course, Amelia is as jealous as hell toward Suchette. I regret leading her on like I did at first.
Anyway, still bearing the marks of the battle, we rejoined our vampire allies in the meeting hall and awaited the arrival of the Vampire King. A few of the baka were still wandering round causing trouble...I did my best to ignore them.
And that was the most exciting part of the whole thing! The Vampire King confirmed what I've been saying all along! He doesn't just LOOK like David Bowie. He really IS David Bowie! After the meeting we totally talked about our art and music and he agreed to set up a collaboration at some point. Maybe when I'm done with my current tour. ^____^
But as for the meeting...the King was a bit surprised, and maybe a tad dismayed, to find that so few vampires made it to the meeting. However, he listened carefully to our arguments for not joining the titans and in the end he gave his blessing to our choice. In fact, when I asked him about it, he confessed that he agreed that the vampires should be free to make their own choices in the war. He didn't mind individual vampires doing as they will, like Suchette joining the side of the gods or the Camazotz fighting for the titans, but as a whole, the vampires are officially neutral.
Which is exactly what we hoped to accomplish here. ^_^
So, that was that. We bid goodbye to our vampire allies and left Night Haven. I returned to Red Mountain for a day or two to reunite with Echo. Gods, I missed her, especially after my screw up with Suchette. And then I went to visit Yi in China for a couple of days. All in all, I took about a week off from my tour, so I'll have to make those concert dates up at the end. But I don't mind.
And it seems like my fans are becoming more and more religiously devoted to me as time goes on. At times, I almost feel like I can hear their hopes and dreams...