Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 89
Okay, so, our hunt for the bone coins of a death titan is off to an exciting start. I mean, we've already been jumped by an ape-armed Godzilla monster made of muck and shipwrecks, not to mention a couple of those gigantic, caiman-like sons of Cipactli. You know, one of the things Ray threw into orbit. We came through it all right, but seriously? WTF? >_<
So anyway, I left off with our meeting with the heroic scions and all my worrying over the fatal attraction between me and Mercedes, right? Well, later that night, Adam, T-Bone, Elisa, Charles, Pierre and I gathered to figure out how we were going to approach the rest of the search for the coins.
We decided to retrieve the coin in Guinee first. Someone (probably Abigail St. Croix) had already attempted to steal that one and had instead hidden it in the realm somewhere. It was only a matter of time before she figured out how to avoid the curse Samedi laid on the coin to deter thieves, so we needed to find the coin before she came back to get it.
Next on the list is the Unseelie Court. Thanks to T-Bone's indiscretions, we were likely to run into a bit of trouble there, and we decided we'd rather get it out of the way sooner rather than later. Plus, while the coins in Helheim and Yomi are comparatively safe, we're not so sure about the one possessed by the Queen of Air and Darkness. I'm just worried about what her price will be for handing it over.
Yomi's our third stop. Before the meeting, I summoned Oiwa and asked her to take news of what we'd learned to my mother. I explained that we'd figured out what the shinigami raiding party that had attacked Yomi recently was after, and counseled mom to make sure the coin was well-guarded. So hopefully that coin is beyond the reach of our enemies, at least for the time being. That said, we know they want it, so we didn't want to put Yomi off for last.
Last but not least, we'll head to Helheim and see if we can't talk Hel into parting with her coin, or, failing that, we'll have to find some way to steal it. Doesn't sound very wise when I put it that way, huh? >_< Hopefully Hrimsa will help us talk her mother into working with us.
So, the next morning I sent Kimiyo, Sera, and Dahlia back to Red Mountain with the Valkyrie but kept Echo, Tabby, and Keiko with me. Pierre opened a portal to Guinee by inhaling deeply and blowing out a cloud of spectral smoke, and as we stepped through it we found ourselves outside his haunted plantation home in his pantheon's Underworld. I've been to Guinee a few times on business since I became a goddess ('cause no one else in my pantheon will go there if they can help it, what with the "impurity of death" and all), and I like it. It feels almost like you're walking around underwater there, complete with fish floating around, even though you aren't REALLY underwater. There's something calm and soothing and mellow about it, and the ghosts are all wandering around in a mellow daze, blissfully unaware of the pain of life. Echo seemed to really enjoy it. I bet Miko would like it too if it weren't in the Underworld. She doesn't deal well with the Underworld. She's never even been to Reikou!
We got a tour of Pierre's home, which was quite nice in the creepy old plantation home kinda way. ^_^ There are nice statues of Pierre and Elisa outside (the statue of Elisa looks far more motherly than I'm accustomed to). Inside, a half-finished statue of Quinn is in the works. I'm glad to see her getting the recognition too. ^_^ She's the sort that has to have a bit of the spotlight for herself. If not all of it. LOL. Quinn spends a lot of time at the house in Guinee, and it was nice to see some of her personal touches on the place.
Have I mentioned how cool it is that because of Quinn and Dahlia, rokurokubi are becoming a fixture in the voudoun mythos? ^_^
Anyway, we didn't hang around the house for long before we headed out to investigate the area on the borders of the realm where the coin had disappeared. With Elisa's amazing tracking abilities, we didn't expect to have any trouble finding the thing if it was there. As we left Pierre's sanctum and ventured into the wilder regions of Guinee, the environment became a mixture of jungle and coral reef, and the floating fish became more and more common, some of them easily the size of a fully grown person. The edges of the realm were like a thick membrane holding back the ocean depths beyond, and swimming around in those depths were terrifying sharky things, including voracious shark-people specters. I could only see so much beyond the obscuring texture of the membrane, but I was definitely glad that the "walls" of Guinee were between us and them.
Elisa had no trouble finding and following Abigail's trail, and easily tracked it through the jungle reefs, but the stolen coin wasn't hidden anywhere along her trail. We doubled back and Adam, Charles, and Elisa compared notes on anything that seemed amiss, but the coin simply wasn't there.
I think it was T-Bone (the master of thinking outside the box) who figured out what Abigail had done with the coin, and Adam and Charles were right there with him. The fish! She had hidden it inside one of the huge fish that swam throughout the area! the only problem was that there were a lot of fish, and even if we narrowed our search to only those that were both large enough and that had a distinctive coloration, we would still have to kill and gut a bunch of fish before we found the right one. >_<
But that's when Adam amazed us all but calculating which fish had the coin. He just spent a few minutes watching all the fish in the region, precisely estimating their swimming speed and maneuverability based on size and species until he noticed one fish that didn't match up with the others. After all, the coins are pretty big, about the size of a salad plate. More like medallions, really, I guess, so it was bound to be a bit of an imposition on the fish who had swallowed it.
It wasn't an imposition for much longer, though, because Elisa wasted no time in grabbing and gutting the fish. Of course, no sooner was the coin in our hands than there was this awful screaming, tearing sound and the membranous border of Guinee was ripped open. A swarm of shark-person specters flooded in, followed closely by two (yeah, two) sons of Cipactli, all caiman-like with toothy maws and gnashing teeth all over their bodies. But that wasn't the worst of it. This gargantuan thing that looked a big like some sort of Godzilla monster with long, pounding arms and the remnants of countless shipwrecks imbedded in its flesh came slogging its was through the rapidly healing tear in the membrane and pretty much made a bee-line for me. Well, not really just me, but that's how it felt from my perspective, anyway. >_<
And the worst part was that the Hulk of Drowned Souls (yeah, that's what I'll call it) kept emitting this soul-withering moan as all the hopeless, drowned souls trapped inside it cried out, inviting the rest of the world to share in their pain and suffering. Adam and I were able to keep our wits about us and shut out enough horrible noise without completely losing our will to fight back, and Charles soldiered through fairly well too. But I could tell that Elisa, Pierre and Tabby had lost all their will to fight against what must have seemed to them like an inevitable doom. They weren't running away, but without encouragement, they certainly wouldn't be at their best. I think T-Bone lost his will as well...but since he disappeared into the shadows as soon as the thing showed up, I couldn't be sure.
Of course, Echo grabbed Keiko and pulled her underground to flee the scene of the battle and keep both of them safe.
The fight that followed was nearly the end of us! Seriously, everything there was unwholesomely ferocious, and they were all mindless beasts or the undead, so I couldn't really hold any of them at bay with my so-called "mind-slave" powers (thanks, Adam *smirk*). That's okay, though, because I had my hands full exorcising all the specters. Pierre helped me drive away the initial swarm, and Elisa finished off the few remaining specters with a well-placed rocket shot. The problem was that more specters kept streaming from the Hulk's gigantic body, and it was all I could do to keep my exorcism bell ringing to drive them all away before they could do any harm. That didn't prevent me from throwing out a bit of encouragement to my comrades. A wink and few encouraging words to my BFFs Tabby and Elisa were enough to reignite their passion for battle...for a few seconds, at least, until the soul-numbing moans took hold again.
So, while I was doing that, the Hulk rampaged into the midst of us and swept its house-sized fists into Adam and me, sending us flying. The damage would have been horrendous if I hadn't been able to lessen its severity, and as I did so, I felt my unborn titan-child's power flowing from my belly to help defend me. The blow hurt, sure, but it was only a scratch, really. I'm not sure how Adam survived! >_<
The Sons of Cipactli bore down on me and Tabby. I mean, seriously, I got attacked a lot in this fight, but honestly, I'm kinda glad. I can take the hits better than most of my companions aside from Pierre, so better me than them, even if I am pregnant. Hell, Melanthea's already shaping up to be tougher than I am, especially since Pierre blessed her with a protective charm. All that said, having a Son of Cipactli chasing me down during the whole fight while the Hulk was flailing its fists at me (quite effectively, I might add) was NOT FUN! >_< And I should add that the beasts had some sort of tidal gravity effect going on like what T-Bone always uses to make it easier for us to hit our enemies. So not fair.
Tabby didn't fare much better, but I'm so proud of her! She can dish out damage AND take hits. Of course, I did have to bolster her at one point when she was already badly wounded and a Son of Cipactli was trying to chow down on her. I gotta tell ya, though, she was badass! The thing clamped its jaws shut on her, and then its jaws snapped back open as she forced her way out of its mouth, tearing a tooth or two free in the process. And this was AFTER she had spent some time climbing on the Hulk and tearing big chunks of its kelp-ridden flesh out. Sadly, despite all her efforts, she wasn't able to do any lasting damage to the monsters; they were just too tough. But she did behead several specters. ^_^ Mwahahahaha!
Okay, so while I was exorcising specters and getting knocked around by the Hulk and his pets, Pierre briefly tried tearing into the Hulk with his Cyclops-killing punches, but the beast was just too big and it became obvious that we wouldn't be able to hold out against it long enough to wear down the spiritual energy that let it soak up our hits, even with Tabby helping and T-Bone flitting about, weakening our enemies' ability to defend themselves. Adam did the best he could to help draw fire and hurt the Sons of Cipactli, but there was only so much he could do, and he nearly got himself killed. He's tough, but he can't take hits like Pierre or me can, and despite his assurance that he was fine, I had to bolster his health to keep him from getting pounded into the ground by the Hulk.
But, while all of that was going on, Charles and Elisa had things well in hand, it seems. Charles calmly grabbed a small coral log and used Taiyi to transform it into a rocket launcher. Then he powered it up a bit using what little willpower he had remaining. He calculated the Hulk's weak point, took aim, and fired. The result was impressive. The rocket must have caused a chain reaction with some powder kegs left in some of those shipwrecks or something, because it blew a huge chunk off the Hulk. Pieces of sea floor muck and ship timbers rained down around us, and the Hulk charged toward Charles, who wisely teleported safely away. the Hulk tried to chase him down while Adam, Tabby and I tried to slow it down, mostly by being in its way as it pounded past us.
But the Hulk never reached Charles, because while everything else was happening, Elisa was slowly powering up and igniting her rifle with the power of fire (our enemies were apparently pretty weak against flames). Then she suddenly split into a bunch of copies of herself. Ten Elisas leaps in ten different directions, surrounding the Hulk and hitting it with the most hellacious crossfire I've ever seen. It didn't last long against firepower of that magnitude! ^_^
Of course, amidst the rain of Hulk debris, we still had the Sons of Cipactli to deal with, but by this point, Pierre was beating one into submission and Adam and Elisa (ten of her!) finished off the rest. Damn, Elisa! Kick ass much? ^_^
So while we all caught our breaths, I turned to Adam and said, "So, Adam, you always say there's no such thing as coincidence." And he just nodded. Then we had a discussion about what the appearance of this Hulk thing could mean. T-Bone and Pierre were pretty sure it was a servant of Mami-Wata and the Drowned Road, and Adam concurred. Which means she's after the coins too.
And that knowledge led us to a rather uncomfortable realization. We believe Mikaboshi's after the coins too (thus the shinigami raid on Yomi). Both Mikaboshi and Mami-Wata are titans associated with death. And you know who else is associated with death? Crom Cruach. Which means, if fate works like it usually does, we'll be dealing with his servants too before this is all over. It also means there's likely some sort of alliance going on between the three titans. They must also want the death titan's island, which means that claiming in for ourselves is even more important now.
This also means that the heroes we sent to find the coin hidden by Kalfu and Legba could be in serious danger. So we've decided to split forces briefly before moving on the visit the Unseelie Court (and likely run afoul of Crom Cruach's minions). Pierre, Elisa and T-Bone are going to go visit the Loa, explain the situation to them, and encourage them to use their forces to harass Mami-Wata's minions to keep her busy while we collect the rest of the coins. Meanwhile, Adam, Charles and I are going to go meet with Ike, Mercedes, and their band of scions to warn them of the terrible danger they face. It's still up to them to find the coin, but they need to know that the stakes just got a whole lot higher.
And, I confess that I'm eager to see Mercedes again...
So anyway, I left off with our meeting with the heroic scions and all my worrying over the fatal attraction between me and Mercedes, right? Well, later that night, Adam, T-Bone, Elisa, Charles, Pierre and I gathered to figure out how we were going to approach the rest of the search for the coins.
We decided to retrieve the coin in Guinee first. Someone (probably Abigail St. Croix) had already attempted to steal that one and had instead hidden it in the realm somewhere. It was only a matter of time before she figured out how to avoid the curse Samedi laid on the coin to deter thieves, so we needed to find the coin before she came back to get it.
Next on the list is the Unseelie Court. Thanks to T-Bone's indiscretions, we were likely to run into a bit of trouble there, and we decided we'd rather get it out of the way sooner rather than later. Plus, while the coins in Helheim and Yomi are comparatively safe, we're not so sure about the one possessed by the Queen of Air and Darkness. I'm just worried about what her price will be for handing it over.
Yomi's our third stop. Before the meeting, I summoned Oiwa and asked her to take news of what we'd learned to my mother. I explained that we'd figured out what the shinigami raiding party that had attacked Yomi recently was after, and counseled mom to make sure the coin was well-guarded. So hopefully that coin is beyond the reach of our enemies, at least for the time being. That said, we know they want it, so we didn't want to put Yomi off for last.
Last but not least, we'll head to Helheim and see if we can't talk Hel into parting with her coin, or, failing that, we'll have to find some way to steal it. Doesn't sound very wise when I put it that way, huh? >_< Hopefully Hrimsa will help us talk her mother into working with us.
So, the next morning I sent Kimiyo, Sera, and Dahlia back to Red Mountain with the Valkyrie but kept Echo, Tabby, and Keiko with me. Pierre opened a portal to Guinee by inhaling deeply and blowing out a cloud of spectral smoke, and as we stepped through it we found ourselves outside his haunted plantation home in his pantheon's Underworld. I've been to Guinee a few times on business since I became a goddess ('cause no one else in my pantheon will go there if they can help it, what with the "impurity of death" and all), and I like it. It feels almost like you're walking around underwater there, complete with fish floating around, even though you aren't REALLY underwater. There's something calm and soothing and mellow about it, and the ghosts are all wandering around in a mellow daze, blissfully unaware of the pain of life. Echo seemed to really enjoy it. I bet Miko would like it too if it weren't in the Underworld. She doesn't deal well with the Underworld. She's never even been to Reikou!
We got a tour of Pierre's home, which was quite nice in the creepy old plantation home kinda way. ^_^ There are nice statues of Pierre and Elisa outside (the statue of Elisa looks far more motherly than I'm accustomed to). Inside, a half-finished statue of Quinn is in the works. I'm glad to see her getting the recognition too. ^_^ She's the sort that has to have a bit of the spotlight for herself. If not all of it. LOL. Quinn spends a lot of time at the house in Guinee, and it was nice to see some of her personal touches on the place.
Have I mentioned how cool it is that because of Quinn and Dahlia, rokurokubi are becoming a fixture in the voudoun mythos? ^_^
Anyway, we didn't hang around the house for long before we headed out to investigate the area on the borders of the realm where the coin had disappeared. With Elisa's amazing tracking abilities, we didn't expect to have any trouble finding the thing if it was there. As we left Pierre's sanctum and ventured into the wilder regions of Guinee, the environment became a mixture of jungle and coral reef, and the floating fish became more and more common, some of them easily the size of a fully grown person. The edges of the realm were like a thick membrane holding back the ocean depths beyond, and swimming around in those depths were terrifying sharky things, including voracious shark-people specters. I could only see so much beyond the obscuring texture of the membrane, but I was definitely glad that the "walls" of Guinee were between us and them.
Elisa had no trouble finding and following Abigail's trail, and easily tracked it through the jungle reefs, but the stolen coin wasn't hidden anywhere along her trail. We doubled back and Adam, Charles, and Elisa compared notes on anything that seemed amiss, but the coin simply wasn't there.
I think it was T-Bone (the master of thinking outside the box) who figured out what Abigail had done with the coin, and Adam and Charles were right there with him. The fish! She had hidden it inside one of the huge fish that swam throughout the area! the only problem was that there were a lot of fish, and even if we narrowed our search to only those that were both large enough and that had a distinctive coloration, we would still have to kill and gut a bunch of fish before we found the right one. >_<
But that's when Adam amazed us all but calculating which fish had the coin. He just spent a few minutes watching all the fish in the region, precisely estimating their swimming speed and maneuverability based on size and species until he noticed one fish that didn't match up with the others. After all, the coins are pretty big, about the size of a salad plate. More like medallions, really, I guess, so it was bound to be a bit of an imposition on the fish who had swallowed it.
It wasn't an imposition for much longer, though, because Elisa wasted no time in grabbing and gutting the fish. Of course, no sooner was the coin in our hands than there was this awful screaming, tearing sound and the membranous border of Guinee was ripped open. A swarm of shark-person specters flooded in, followed closely by two (yeah, two) sons of Cipactli, all caiman-like with toothy maws and gnashing teeth all over their bodies. But that wasn't the worst of it. This gargantuan thing that looked a big like some sort of Godzilla monster with long, pounding arms and the remnants of countless shipwrecks imbedded in its flesh came slogging its was through the rapidly healing tear in the membrane and pretty much made a bee-line for me. Well, not really just me, but that's how it felt from my perspective, anyway. >_<
And the worst part was that the Hulk of Drowned Souls (yeah, that's what I'll call it) kept emitting this soul-withering moan as all the hopeless, drowned souls trapped inside it cried out, inviting the rest of the world to share in their pain and suffering. Adam and I were able to keep our wits about us and shut out enough horrible noise without completely losing our will to fight back, and Charles soldiered through fairly well too. But I could tell that Elisa, Pierre and Tabby had lost all their will to fight against what must have seemed to them like an inevitable doom. They weren't running away, but without encouragement, they certainly wouldn't be at their best. I think T-Bone lost his will as well...but since he disappeared into the shadows as soon as the thing showed up, I couldn't be sure.
Of course, Echo grabbed Keiko and pulled her underground to flee the scene of the battle and keep both of them safe.
The fight that followed was nearly the end of us! Seriously, everything there was unwholesomely ferocious, and they were all mindless beasts or the undead, so I couldn't really hold any of them at bay with my so-called "mind-slave" powers (thanks, Adam *smirk*). That's okay, though, because I had my hands full exorcising all the specters. Pierre helped me drive away the initial swarm, and Elisa finished off the few remaining specters with a well-placed rocket shot. The problem was that more specters kept streaming from the Hulk's gigantic body, and it was all I could do to keep my exorcism bell ringing to drive them all away before they could do any harm. That didn't prevent me from throwing out a bit of encouragement to my comrades. A wink and few encouraging words to my BFFs Tabby and Elisa were enough to reignite their passion for battle...for a few seconds, at least, until the soul-numbing moans took hold again.
So, while I was doing that, the Hulk rampaged into the midst of us and swept its house-sized fists into Adam and me, sending us flying. The damage would have been horrendous if I hadn't been able to lessen its severity, and as I did so, I felt my unborn titan-child's power flowing from my belly to help defend me. The blow hurt, sure, but it was only a scratch, really. I'm not sure how Adam survived! >_<
The Sons of Cipactli bore down on me and Tabby. I mean, seriously, I got attacked a lot in this fight, but honestly, I'm kinda glad. I can take the hits better than most of my companions aside from Pierre, so better me than them, even if I am pregnant. Hell, Melanthea's already shaping up to be tougher than I am, especially since Pierre blessed her with a protective charm. All that said, having a Son of Cipactli chasing me down during the whole fight while the Hulk was flailing its fists at me (quite effectively, I might add) was NOT FUN! >_< And I should add that the beasts had some sort of tidal gravity effect going on like what T-Bone always uses to make it easier for us to hit our enemies. So not fair.
Tabby didn't fare much better, but I'm so proud of her! She can dish out damage AND take hits. Of course, I did have to bolster her at one point when she was already badly wounded and a Son of Cipactli was trying to chow down on her. I gotta tell ya, though, she was badass! The thing clamped its jaws shut on her, and then its jaws snapped back open as she forced her way out of its mouth, tearing a tooth or two free in the process. And this was AFTER she had spent some time climbing on the Hulk and tearing big chunks of its kelp-ridden flesh out. Sadly, despite all her efforts, she wasn't able to do any lasting damage to the monsters; they were just too tough. But she did behead several specters. ^_^ Mwahahahaha!
Okay, so while I was exorcising specters and getting knocked around by the Hulk and his pets, Pierre briefly tried tearing into the Hulk with his Cyclops-killing punches, but the beast was just too big and it became obvious that we wouldn't be able to hold out against it long enough to wear down the spiritual energy that let it soak up our hits, even with Tabby helping and T-Bone flitting about, weakening our enemies' ability to defend themselves. Adam did the best he could to help draw fire and hurt the Sons of Cipactli, but there was only so much he could do, and he nearly got himself killed. He's tough, but he can't take hits like Pierre or me can, and despite his assurance that he was fine, I had to bolster his health to keep him from getting pounded into the ground by the Hulk.
But, while all of that was going on, Charles and Elisa had things well in hand, it seems. Charles calmly grabbed a small coral log and used Taiyi to transform it into a rocket launcher. Then he powered it up a bit using what little willpower he had remaining. He calculated the Hulk's weak point, took aim, and fired. The result was impressive. The rocket must have caused a chain reaction with some powder kegs left in some of those shipwrecks or something, because it blew a huge chunk off the Hulk. Pieces of sea floor muck and ship timbers rained down around us, and the Hulk charged toward Charles, who wisely teleported safely away. the Hulk tried to chase him down while Adam, Tabby and I tried to slow it down, mostly by being in its way as it pounded past us.
But the Hulk never reached Charles, because while everything else was happening, Elisa was slowly powering up and igniting her rifle with the power of fire (our enemies were apparently pretty weak against flames). Then she suddenly split into a bunch of copies of herself. Ten Elisas leaps in ten different directions, surrounding the Hulk and hitting it with the most hellacious crossfire I've ever seen. It didn't last long against firepower of that magnitude! ^_^
Of course, amidst the rain of Hulk debris, we still had the Sons of Cipactli to deal with, but by this point, Pierre was beating one into submission and Adam and Elisa (ten of her!) finished off the rest. Damn, Elisa! Kick ass much? ^_^
So while we all caught our breaths, I turned to Adam and said, "So, Adam, you always say there's no such thing as coincidence." And he just nodded. Then we had a discussion about what the appearance of this Hulk thing could mean. T-Bone and Pierre were pretty sure it was a servant of Mami-Wata and the Drowned Road, and Adam concurred. Which means she's after the coins too.
And that knowledge led us to a rather uncomfortable realization. We believe Mikaboshi's after the coins too (thus the shinigami raid on Yomi). Both Mikaboshi and Mami-Wata are titans associated with death. And you know who else is associated with death? Crom Cruach. Which means, if fate works like it usually does, we'll be dealing with his servants too before this is all over. It also means there's likely some sort of alliance going on between the three titans. They must also want the death titan's island, which means that claiming in for ourselves is even more important now.
This also means that the heroes we sent to find the coin hidden by Kalfu and Legba could be in serious danger. So we've decided to split forces briefly before moving on the visit the Unseelie Court (and likely run afoul of Crom Cruach's minions). Pierre, Elisa and T-Bone are going to go visit the Loa, explain the situation to them, and encourage them to use their forces to harass Mami-Wata's minions to keep her busy while we collect the rest of the coins. Meanwhile, Adam, Charles and I are going to go meet with Ike, Mercedes, and their band of scions to warn them of the terrible danger they face. It's still up to them to find the coin, but they need to know that the stakes just got a whole lot higher.
And, I confess that I'm eager to see Mercedes again...