Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 94
I left off last time in the middle of an ongoing battle against titanspawn who were trying to steal the bone coins from us before the tomb island of the death titan was raised. In each of five locations, my divine friends and I held the line against shinigami, sons of Cipactli, and other horrors. The coin I was responsible for had to be placed in a stone relief fountain on the grounds of a Caribbean resort, and as our fight against the titanspawn continued, more shinigami and shitidama flooded into the resort's grand ballroom, only to be met by the feral ferocity of my lovely shikome.
As I think I mentioned briefly before, Charles teleported in briefly to make sure Sera was okay after a couple of Hun Dun's corrupted celestial werewolf things tried to take her. Echo had sealed her securely in a crystalline stasis, and Charles, knowing she was safe, teleported away to help our other friends. Left alone against more shinigami and shitidama in the slums, Adam was fighting for his life! I knew I should have left Tabby or at least a couple of shikome with him...
Fortunately, Hel's rather...insane...son Herman, a more-or-less harmless blonde-haired, blue-eyed German soldier who could easily be mistaken for a Nazi if not for his goofy fascination with things like mechanical dinosaurs, appeared to help Adam, probably sent by his mother to make sure we succeeded. If I'd known Adam was in such dire straits during the battle, I think I would have completely freaked out! In the end, though, Herman and Adam, with a bit of help from Charles, managed to defend the slums against the titanspawn.
Charles also popped in briefly to help Elisa defeat the titanic spider and the baka she was facing. I think T-Bone even gave him the use of his baka bag to help. In the end, they defeated their monsters too, and Charles teleported away, taking Hrimsa with him, so that Elisa could unleash the divine fury of her inner fire and incinerate an seemingly endless swarm of spiders (probably possessed by the Tallyman, who it seems was involved in this whole thing after all).
Pierre was able to fight off the the attackers at the undersea coin, and T-Bone and his wolves (including the chaotic shadow werewolf things that mysteriously came to serve him) held the beach. So in the end, we managed to keep the coins safe and the death titan's island emerged from the ocean depths. All that was left was to go check it out. ^_^
On the flight, we recovered from the battles. Most of us were okay, but Adam was badly wounded. I was going to heal him, but Echo offered to do so instead so that I could save my divine power in case we needed it on the island. She's so sweet. ^_^
We also cornered T-Bone and asked him what the hell was going on with the weird wolf things (which tried to follow him onto the plane until he dismissed them! Creepy! >_< And not in a good way! >___<). He doesn't know, or at least he says he doesn't, and I believe him. They must be connected to the issues Manannan mac Lir warned us about: T-Bone doesn't know some of the things he's done, and those things were evidently pretty bad. I mean, it sure looks like he struck a deal with Hun Dun or something. Given some of my recent activities, I'm not really one to throw stones, but there's something altogether sinister going on here.
Fortunately T-Bone is one of us, and we care about him. As dangerous as he might be to the rest of us, I know that at heart, he's still the T-Bone we've relied on for the past several years. I still trust him....I just don't trust the parts of him he's forgotten. Such is the nature of madness, I suppose. Unfortunately, we don't really know how to deal with his issues, but we're going to need to figure it out soon. None of us, including T-Bone, want him to be a threat to us or our families, and we known Hun Dun has his eyes on Sera and her children.
Anyway, it didn't take us long to locate the death titan's island. It was huge, much bigger than I had imagined! I mean, it must have been the size of New York City (and not just Manhattan)! We circled it in the Valkyrie and got a good look. The ground was covered with sea floor detritus, but bone-white ruins thrust forth from the soggy earth. A city once covered the island, and the architecture was vaguely Greek, though there were also other more ancient and primal influences. It was amazing! I couldn't wait to land and explore the place...but then we started to noticed the huge mounds of churned earth running in vaguely serpentine patterns across the whole city, swallowing up entire blocks. Something had been steadily tunneling beneath the ground, and it didn't take long for us to find out what.
From one of the immense mounds of churned earth, a colossal worm briefly emerged before sinking below the ground again. It had oily black flesh, a cavernous maw of gnashing teeth, and an array of bulbous eyes that were black and empty like bottomless pits. The very sight of the thing set us all on edge and made us fear the inevitability of death. Those of us with a strong connection to death, like me, adam, and Pierre, simply took this in stride. The sensation was not unfamiliar to us. Most of the rest freaked out and tried to flee as far as they could. T-Bone and Elisa backed away from the windows and I feared Elisa might even try to flee to plane.
Kimiyo, who was at the Valkyrie's controls, yanked the jet into a sharp banking turn and opened up the throttle to get us all away from the island as quickly as possible. Charles and I rushed to the cockpit, and I gently coaxed Kimiyo from the pilot's seat while Charles took the controls and corrected our course.
Adam guessed that there must be about five or six of the worm things eating away at the island's foundations. I knew what the worm things were. I'd heard of them, but never seen one myself. They're called Helmenth, and they must have appeared when the death titan died. They are like maggots eating away at the Underworld, and we use rituals and wards to keep them at bay and preserves the realms of the Underworld, Like Yomi and Helheim. I suppose you could say that the Helmenth represent ultimate entropy, the death of even death itself. I guess that makes them a fitting, if horrible, legacy of the death titan (and let's face it, their appearance shortly after his death can't possible be a coincidence >_<).
So, we had to figure out how to kill the damned things and get them off our island. Once they were gone, Pierre or I could arrange to protect the island with our rituals, but the worms were immense, and killing them wasn't going to be easy. Helmenth try to consume things connected to death, so ghosts and even my shikome are top menu items for them. So I definitely didn't want to risk Tabby or the others fighting one. And quite frankly, the worms could probably swallow any one of us whole, almost out of hand. I've already been swlalowed whole by one worm; I do not want to repeat the experience.
On top of all that, most of us couldn't even face them without freaking out and trying to flee. To solve that problem, Charles and Elisa called upon the blessings of war and inspired valor in everyone who might lose their resolve. Calling upon the virtues of valor, everyone, even Kimiyo, was able to gather the nerve to face the beasts. But we still didn't know how to fight them.
Then I came up with in idea that may have been a bit cruel, but ultimately proved to be the safest way to slay the beasts.
Using some of the seismic measuring instruments he acquired when we were in Glastonbury (and which we keep on the Valkyrie for emergencies), Adam was able to determine the approximate positions of the Helmenth, so we knew where they were. Kimiyo, who was back at the controls of the Valkyrie since she is the best pilot after Charles, pulled the Valkyrie into a hover over a ruined tower on the island close to where one of the worms was burrowing. T-Bone and I leapt onto the tower. I summoned a ghost who was imprisoned in Yomi, a ghost whose crimes went even beyond death and for whom oblivion might actually be a more merciful fate than eternal suffering. The ghost's presence would draw out the Helmenth. When it showed up, T-Bone was going to use his Tidal Interference to hamper the worm's movements, and then he would fade away and hide so that it couldn't counterattack.
Before T-Bone dropped off the tower to await the arrival of the worm, I told him to be careful. Of all of us, he was probably at the greatest risk in my plan, and I didn't want anything to happen to him. I gave him a hug before he disappeared, and told him that no matter what, I trusted him. I put my hand over his heart, and said that even though I might not trust the things the other him was doing, I knew that in his heart, he was the T-Bone I knew and loved, and that I would always trust that T-Bone. It's always hard to tell with T-Bone, but I think my words meant something to him. I hope they did. He needs all the encouragement he can get right now. It must be terrible not being able to trust oneself.
Anyway, once the trap was baited, I climbed aboard the Valkyrie and we gained some altitude. Adam moved to the copilot's seat with Kimiyo to help her out, and he did what he could to improve her fate in case one of the worms was able to rear far enough above the earth the strike at the plane. Charles and Elisa took positions at one of the Valkyrie's hatches, which we opened to give them a clear line of fire on the worms.
The plan worked like a charm. The first Helmenth burst from the ground, demolishing ruins and roaring with an almost inaudible reverberation that felt as much like thought as sound. It coiled up the tower, going for the ghost, but it never got to enjoy its final meal. Elisa and Charles opened up on it with their weapons, blasting inky black holes in its flesh. As it died, it collapsed along the ground, sending tremors through the island.
As for the ghost, he was scared witless, and was more than happy when I sent him back to Yomi. He wasn't so happy about my promise to summon him again as bait for more of the worms, though. Fortunately, it didn't actually come to that. The death of one worm seemed to attract the attention of the others, and they slowly began converging. Perhaps they could sense my shikome, or maybe it was some other supernatural sense of perception that drew them to us. We had to hurry to kill as many as we could before they all gathered, because surprise was our greatest weapon. If we had to fight too many of them, we wouldn't be able to kill them quickly enough and they might be able to attack the plane. I have a lot of faith in Kimiyo's piloting, but she was already really frightened and I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
As we neared the second worm, it emerged without needing to be drawn out with a ghost. Elisa and Charles killed it quickly as well. the next two were a bit trickier. We barely managed to kill one before the second arrived, but were able to defeat both before either could really attack us. Our luck finally ran out with the final two Helmenth. They were together, so they emerged from the earth and attacked as one. Elisa and Charles could only kill one of them before the other struck, lashing out with its body against the Valkyrie. Kimiyo did her best to avoid the strike, but couldn't maneuver away fast enough.
Scratch one Valkyrie.
Or so I thought, for about a split second before Charles pulled off this amazing mystical gesture and teleported the whole plane out of harms way! Behold the power the gods, worm-bitches! t >_< t
Sadly, poor Kimiyo was so shaken that she could barely fly after that, and she kept repeating how sorry she was that we almost died. I tried to encourage her; even if the plane was destroyed, we probably could have survived. Meanwhile, Adam took the controls, and Elisa and Charles killed off the final Helmenth.
So now the island is free and clear of monsters. As far as we know. I have no idea how we're going to get rid of the Helmenth corpses if we decide to keep the island as our secret lair (which would be so awesome ^_^, even if it does need a complete makeover, what with all the sea floor muck and crumbling ruins >_<). Actually, I was a bit nonplussed to learn that the things' flesh could be distilled into a lethal poison that's deadly to ghosts and shikome. But that's something for us to worry about later. For now, we have some exploring to do, and I'm looking forward to seeing what insights into death this place can give me. I'm hoping we'll also find some interesting relics...
As I think I mentioned briefly before, Charles teleported in briefly to make sure Sera was okay after a couple of Hun Dun's corrupted celestial werewolf things tried to take her. Echo had sealed her securely in a crystalline stasis, and Charles, knowing she was safe, teleported away to help our other friends. Left alone against more shinigami and shitidama in the slums, Adam was fighting for his life! I knew I should have left Tabby or at least a couple of shikome with him...
Fortunately, Hel's rather...insane...son Herman, a more-or-less harmless blonde-haired, blue-eyed German soldier who could easily be mistaken for a Nazi if not for his goofy fascination with things like mechanical dinosaurs, appeared to help Adam, probably sent by his mother to make sure we succeeded. If I'd known Adam was in such dire straits during the battle, I think I would have completely freaked out! In the end, though, Herman and Adam, with a bit of help from Charles, managed to defend the slums against the titanspawn.
Charles also popped in briefly to help Elisa defeat the titanic spider and the baka she was facing. I think T-Bone even gave him the use of his baka bag to help. In the end, they defeated their monsters too, and Charles teleported away, taking Hrimsa with him, so that Elisa could unleash the divine fury of her inner fire and incinerate an seemingly endless swarm of spiders (probably possessed by the Tallyman, who it seems was involved in this whole thing after all).
Pierre was able to fight off the the attackers at the undersea coin, and T-Bone and his wolves (including the chaotic shadow werewolf things that mysteriously came to serve him) held the beach. So in the end, we managed to keep the coins safe and the death titan's island emerged from the ocean depths. All that was left was to go check it out. ^_^
On the flight, we recovered from the battles. Most of us were okay, but Adam was badly wounded. I was going to heal him, but Echo offered to do so instead so that I could save my divine power in case we needed it on the island. She's so sweet. ^_^
We also cornered T-Bone and asked him what the hell was going on with the weird wolf things (which tried to follow him onto the plane until he dismissed them! Creepy! >_< And not in a good way! >___<). He doesn't know, or at least he says he doesn't, and I believe him. They must be connected to the issues Manannan mac Lir warned us about: T-Bone doesn't know some of the things he's done, and those things were evidently pretty bad. I mean, it sure looks like he struck a deal with Hun Dun or something. Given some of my recent activities, I'm not really one to throw stones, but there's something altogether sinister going on here.
Fortunately T-Bone is one of us, and we care about him. As dangerous as he might be to the rest of us, I know that at heart, he's still the T-Bone we've relied on for the past several years. I still trust him....I just don't trust the parts of him he's forgotten. Such is the nature of madness, I suppose. Unfortunately, we don't really know how to deal with his issues, but we're going to need to figure it out soon. None of us, including T-Bone, want him to be a threat to us or our families, and we known Hun Dun has his eyes on Sera and her children.
Anyway, it didn't take us long to locate the death titan's island. It was huge, much bigger than I had imagined! I mean, it must have been the size of New York City (and not just Manhattan)! We circled it in the Valkyrie and got a good look. The ground was covered with sea floor detritus, but bone-white ruins thrust forth from the soggy earth. A city once covered the island, and the architecture was vaguely Greek, though there were also other more ancient and primal influences. It was amazing! I couldn't wait to land and explore the place...but then we started to noticed the huge mounds of churned earth running in vaguely serpentine patterns across the whole city, swallowing up entire blocks. Something had been steadily tunneling beneath the ground, and it didn't take long for us to find out what.
From one of the immense mounds of churned earth, a colossal worm briefly emerged before sinking below the ground again. It had oily black flesh, a cavernous maw of gnashing teeth, and an array of bulbous eyes that were black and empty like bottomless pits. The very sight of the thing set us all on edge and made us fear the inevitability of death. Those of us with a strong connection to death, like me, adam, and Pierre, simply took this in stride. The sensation was not unfamiliar to us. Most of the rest freaked out and tried to flee as far as they could. T-Bone and Elisa backed away from the windows and I feared Elisa might even try to flee to plane.
Kimiyo, who was at the Valkyrie's controls, yanked the jet into a sharp banking turn and opened up the throttle to get us all away from the island as quickly as possible. Charles and I rushed to the cockpit, and I gently coaxed Kimiyo from the pilot's seat while Charles took the controls and corrected our course.
Adam guessed that there must be about five or six of the worm things eating away at the island's foundations. I knew what the worm things were. I'd heard of them, but never seen one myself. They're called Helmenth, and they must have appeared when the death titan died. They are like maggots eating away at the Underworld, and we use rituals and wards to keep them at bay and preserves the realms of the Underworld, Like Yomi and Helheim. I suppose you could say that the Helmenth represent ultimate entropy, the death of even death itself. I guess that makes them a fitting, if horrible, legacy of the death titan (and let's face it, their appearance shortly after his death can't possible be a coincidence >_<).
So, we had to figure out how to kill the damned things and get them off our island. Once they were gone, Pierre or I could arrange to protect the island with our rituals, but the worms were immense, and killing them wasn't going to be easy. Helmenth try to consume things connected to death, so ghosts and even my shikome are top menu items for them. So I definitely didn't want to risk Tabby or the others fighting one. And quite frankly, the worms could probably swallow any one of us whole, almost out of hand. I've already been swlalowed whole by one worm; I do not want to repeat the experience.
On top of all that, most of us couldn't even face them without freaking out and trying to flee. To solve that problem, Charles and Elisa called upon the blessings of war and inspired valor in everyone who might lose their resolve. Calling upon the virtues of valor, everyone, even Kimiyo, was able to gather the nerve to face the beasts. But we still didn't know how to fight them.
Then I came up with in idea that may have been a bit cruel, but ultimately proved to be the safest way to slay the beasts.
Using some of the seismic measuring instruments he acquired when we were in Glastonbury (and which we keep on the Valkyrie for emergencies), Adam was able to determine the approximate positions of the Helmenth, so we knew where they were. Kimiyo, who was back at the controls of the Valkyrie since she is the best pilot after Charles, pulled the Valkyrie into a hover over a ruined tower on the island close to where one of the worms was burrowing. T-Bone and I leapt onto the tower. I summoned a ghost who was imprisoned in Yomi, a ghost whose crimes went even beyond death and for whom oblivion might actually be a more merciful fate than eternal suffering. The ghost's presence would draw out the Helmenth. When it showed up, T-Bone was going to use his Tidal Interference to hamper the worm's movements, and then he would fade away and hide so that it couldn't counterattack.
Before T-Bone dropped off the tower to await the arrival of the worm, I told him to be careful. Of all of us, he was probably at the greatest risk in my plan, and I didn't want anything to happen to him. I gave him a hug before he disappeared, and told him that no matter what, I trusted him. I put my hand over his heart, and said that even though I might not trust the things the other him was doing, I knew that in his heart, he was the T-Bone I knew and loved, and that I would always trust that T-Bone. It's always hard to tell with T-Bone, but I think my words meant something to him. I hope they did. He needs all the encouragement he can get right now. It must be terrible not being able to trust oneself.
Anyway, once the trap was baited, I climbed aboard the Valkyrie and we gained some altitude. Adam moved to the copilot's seat with Kimiyo to help her out, and he did what he could to improve her fate in case one of the worms was able to rear far enough above the earth the strike at the plane. Charles and Elisa took positions at one of the Valkyrie's hatches, which we opened to give them a clear line of fire on the worms.
The plan worked like a charm. The first Helmenth burst from the ground, demolishing ruins and roaring with an almost inaudible reverberation that felt as much like thought as sound. It coiled up the tower, going for the ghost, but it never got to enjoy its final meal. Elisa and Charles opened up on it with their weapons, blasting inky black holes in its flesh. As it died, it collapsed along the ground, sending tremors through the island.
As for the ghost, he was scared witless, and was more than happy when I sent him back to Yomi. He wasn't so happy about my promise to summon him again as bait for more of the worms, though. Fortunately, it didn't actually come to that. The death of one worm seemed to attract the attention of the others, and they slowly began converging. Perhaps they could sense my shikome, or maybe it was some other supernatural sense of perception that drew them to us. We had to hurry to kill as many as we could before they all gathered, because surprise was our greatest weapon. If we had to fight too many of them, we wouldn't be able to kill them quickly enough and they might be able to attack the plane. I have a lot of faith in Kimiyo's piloting, but she was already really frightened and I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
As we neared the second worm, it emerged without needing to be drawn out with a ghost. Elisa and Charles killed it quickly as well. the next two were a bit trickier. We barely managed to kill one before the second arrived, but were able to defeat both before either could really attack us. Our luck finally ran out with the final two Helmenth. They were together, so they emerged from the earth and attacked as one. Elisa and Charles could only kill one of them before the other struck, lashing out with its body against the Valkyrie. Kimiyo did her best to avoid the strike, but couldn't maneuver away fast enough.
Scratch one Valkyrie.
Or so I thought, for about a split second before Charles pulled off this amazing mystical gesture and teleported the whole plane out of harms way! Behold the power the gods, worm-bitches! t >_< t
Sadly, poor Kimiyo was so shaken that she could barely fly after that, and she kept repeating how sorry she was that we almost died. I tried to encourage her; even if the plane was destroyed, we probably could have survived. Meanwhile, Adam took the controls, and Elisa and Charles killed off the final Helmenth.
So now the island is free and clear of monsters. As far as we know. I have no idea how we're going to get rid of the Helmenth corpses if we decide to keep the island as our secret lair (which would be so awesome ^_^, even if it does need a complete makeover, what with all the sea floor muck and crumbling ruins >_<). Actually, I was a bit nonplussed to learn that the things' flesh could be distilled into a lethal poison that's deadly to ghosts and shikome. But that's something for us to worry about later. For now, we have some exploring to do, and I'm looking forward to seeing what insights into death this place can give me. I'm hoping we'll also find some interesting relics...