Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 97
Well, things have gotten off to an...interesting start in our adventures through time. There have been some hitches, but overall, so far so good. I'm afraid we're going to be facing some pretty significant moral dilemmas this time around, though. Even though it might ultimately strengthen the servants of the time titan Zvran a bit, I think we might end up making a few changes to the time stream, in the interest of doing what's right.
So, before we headed back, Adam got some details from Synn on what she was up to in Strasbourg in the middle of World War II. It turns out she was in charge of a eugenics program that was kidnapping scions of other pantheons, brainwashing them to be content as sex slaves and breeders, and breeding them to create an army of scions loyal to the Reich.
Eeeew. >_<
So, our job was to go back and make sure the moon beings and time titan's servants weren't messing that up? Seriously? Well, it's not like my companions and I haven't had to make tough choices before.
We flew to Strasbourg in the Valkyrie. Charles was going to catch up with us later; apparently he had to resolve some Bureaucracy paperwork regarding our exploits, but the rest of us arrived without incident. The time anomaly was creating a portal in the wine cellars of the Our Lady of Strasbourg cathedral, a magnificent structure made of sandstone! The architecture was beautiful, and I was a bit sad that we couldn't enjoy it, since we wasted no time in heading into the cellars to find the portal.
It turns out Ike and Mercedes' band of scions has been tasked with guarding some of the portals. When I learned this, I was excited to see Mercedes, but alas, she's with Ike and Tina in Sarajevo, guarding the portal there. Manny, Billy, and Ajax were in charge of the portal in Strasbourg, and they were up to their normal antics. I gotta tell ya, though, for all of his fooling around, Manny's pretty serious when it comes down to business.
The three of them had already managed to capture something wandering through the portal. According to Adam, it was something called a vardoger, an invisible guardian sometimes used by the Aesir. Apparently Synn's using them to patrol Strasbourg, along with a number of giants and troops borrowed from Izanami and Hades. Anyway, Manny took us to "see" the vardoger, who was terribly confused but completely unwilling to compromise his duties as a sentry. He wouldn't really tell us anything until I worked my charms on him, and then, once he'd fallen hopelessly in love with me, he agreed to accompany us back through the portal and help us go meet with Synn.
Yep, you heard me right. We decided to cut straight to the chase and go meet with Synn directly. It might sound like a foolish idea, but we figured that if she's been having problems with the moon beings or other outsiders, she might welcome some help, especially if we could honestly explain the situation to her. Adam felt that as a goddess of magic, she would understand enough about how time works to cooperate with us. with that goal in mind, we set off through the portal.
Our vardoger companion, whose name is Yeg, helped us get a jeep to make our way to Synn's headquarters in the Strasbourg hospital. Since the French civilians fled in the face of the Nazi advance, the city was occupied almost entirely by the German military and their families. If it hadn't been for all the soldiers and tanks and Nazi symbols everywhere, the city would have been charming and even inviting. At least, from a mortal's point of view. As Adam scanned the soldiers and civilians going about their daily business, a sour look crossed his face and he shared with the rest of us just how many of the passers-by were giants or other supernatural troops serving the German cause. Maybe the most horrifying were the velyr, shapeshifting creatures who take the shapes of people they have frozen to death. Sadly, quite a few of the civilians we passed, from children to adults, appeared to be velyr, according to Adam.
Things were actually going pretty well at first. We were all dressed in period clothing, so we didn't really draw any unwarranted attention. I was rocking a sexy, 40's-style pale pink blouse with a sleek black pencil skirt...which was maybe a little progressive for the period, but looked damn hot, judging by the wolf whistles I got from some of the soldiers we passed! ^_^ Of course, I had to tone down my beauty so as not to cause a big disruption...which lasted until a damn taotie mask, which was no doubt serving the time titan, decided to peek from its hiding place and work some magic to switch the minds of our jeep's driver and a young boy standing on the side of the street.
Our jeep crashed into the front of what appeared to be a military building. It was guarded by giants. Naturally, they thought we were attacking their post, so they drew weapons and rushed to attack us. Fortunately, we were in a somewhat less populated area of the city without too many mortal witnesses, but still. we didn't want to cause any major ripples this early in the game, especially since we hoped to meet Synn on peaceful terms. So once I'd gathered myself from the crash, I stumbled toward the lead giant, gave him my most helpless, "damsel-in-distress" look and told him that we were on our way to the hospital when something happened to our driver. With a little twist of my divine charisma, the giants' suspicions toward us waned and they began to stand down...until that f**king taotie mask turned the giant I was talking to into a platypus at the very instant I reached out to touch his arm with what was supposed to be a plea for reassurance.
Seriously...those taotie masks piss me off. >_<
With their leader turned into a platypus, the rest of the giants immediately attacked again, so I unleashed the full extent of my divine appearance and entranced them on the spot. Then I turned and said to my companions, "Can someone please do something about that taotie mask?" Honestly, I didn't even know where it was; I just recognized its dirty work. I was just hoping someone else had seen it, and of course Elisa didn't disappoint. A few seconds later the taotie mask was just a pile of bullet-shredded shards.
I dropped my enchantment of the giants and again, with a subtle but heart-melting looking of distress on my face, I convinced the giants that it was all a misunderstanding, and they agreed to call in to HQ and get us another jeep to take us there. Meanwhile, T-Bone, who was delighted by the giant-turned-platypus, picked the little guy up and carried him along with us. Looks like T-Bone has a new pet. ^_^
Of course, nothing's ever easy for us, and when the other car arrived, Adam noted that it was full of shapeshifters who were only pretending to be giants. Which meant Zvran's servants were onto us, and no doubt meant to drive us somewhere secluded and end us. Not like we would ever let that happen. We toyed with the idea of playing along and turning the tables on our "escorts." But since Zvran's titanspawn only have the power to mess with the past as long as others are screwing around with the timeline, we decided it would be best to focus our efforts on the real problem: the moon beings and their servants. With that in mind, Adam teleported us directly to the hospital. After all, he'd been there in the present day, and the place hasn't really changed much since.
We arrived outside and talked our way into the place (it helped that the giants had called to let 'em know we were coming). In short order, we were led into an administrative room, the true heart of Synn's HQ. That was a treat. ^_^
First off, there was Synn and her sister, Lofin. Lofin was dressed in a Nazi woman's uniform, which is about what you would expect. Synn, on the other hand, was dressed in a uniform of a completely different nature: a sexy Nazi dominatrix get-up that was totally hot. Also present were Svala, a valkyrie who is, I believe, currently involved with Jacob's son Caleb, and Cila, Persephone's pomegranate beauty of a daughter, who used to date Ray and is good friends with Echo. She was dressed in a smoking hot, tight-fitting nurse outfit , and I gotta tell ya, it was quite a turn on. Apparently she has the hots for me too, but has never acted on them because of my relationship with her mother, which is for the best, really. Don't worry - even though Cila is totally hot, I have no designs on her whatsoever. ^_^ I just can't help flirting.
Anyway, while Adam was introducing us to Synn, who took an immediate and predatory sexual interest in him, I decided to have a little fun with Cila, and greeted her as though we were old friends (which we are, from my perspective), and asked how Persephone was doing. Cila was confused, but seemed far too taken with me to let it throw her off her game. In fact, I was a bit scandalized by the thinly veiled way she propositioned me before we moved on to speak privately with Synn.
Ultimately, Adam explained who we were and why we were there, warning her that beings from outside of time were no doubt trying to disrupt her operations for their own ends and that we were trying to make sure their activities didn't mess up the time stream. He also informed Synn that several of the guards in the HQ were really shapeshifted titanspawn, which was as much news to Synn as it was to me. Adam had apparently noticed them on the way. I'm sure Synn will deal with them presently.
Synn listened to what we had to say and seemed to believe us. She took us on a tour of the eugenics portions of the hospital, which was unpleasant, to say the least. Scions of other pantheons were locked in hotel-like rooms, each with a one-way mirror so that they could be secretly observed. In many cases the captives were actively breeding with one another. The whole thing was animalistic and completely sordid. >_< It turned my stomach, and I was glad to get out of there. >_< I can't believe Synn actually DID those things. I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at her the same way again. I know it was, as they say, a different time...but that's no excuse!
Anyway, Synn did tell us what we needed to know. Some of her "subjects" were kidnapped recently, apparently by these moon beings we're hunting down. The moon beasts are known to use corrupted titanspawn and other creatures as their servants, so it shouldn't be surprising that they would want to attempt to breed their own scions using Synn's methods. The three captive scions who were kidnapped included Otis, a scion of John Henry (who is a lesser known and relatively recent god of the Loa), Clara, a pregnant Loa scion of Marinette, and Kerr, a spirited Pesedjet scion of Ra, who has apparently remained resistant to the Nazi's brainwashing (good for her!).
With Elisa's keen senses, we were able to begin tracking the moon beasts and their captives from the hospital into the sub-basements and the subterranean tunnels that weave beneath Strasbourg. Synn accompanied us for awhile. We soon detected signs that our enemies were close, and then the pan pipes started playing. The music flooded around us from somewhere within the machinery-filled tunnels ahead, inciting uncontrollable lust. Adam, Synn, and I were easily able to keep our cool and shove all thoughts of sex to the backs of our minds, but Elisa and Pierre were on each other instantly, entwined in a lascivious embrace. I expected T-Bone to make a bee-line for Synn, given the suggestive comments he'd been making about (and to) her since we'd met, but in a flicker of shadow he was on ME instead, his hands working their way under my blouse and his lips questing for mine as he backed me against the concrete wall of the passage.
Even though I was shocked, I knew that I had to get T-Bone off me so that I could deal with the satyrs and whatever else was waiting around the corner. But before I could compel T-Bone to just stop, Synn cast a spell and silence fell upon us. The silence ended the music's effect. There was a brief moment when T-Bone stared it me, wide-eyed in shock and embarrassment. I think I said something totally clever, like, "Uh...hi?" and then T-Bone flitted away and disappeared into the shadows. I didn't see him again for the rest of the fight.
Sure enough, a few of the luminous, semi-amorphous, quadrupedal moon beings were lurking around the corner with a few satyrs. We wasted no time in defeating them. Adam and I were the only ones able to respond immediately since the others were still recovering from the their near miss with an orgy, and while Adam blasted one moon beast into oblivion, I entranced the others with my beauty (apparently, they're suckers for a pretty girl ^_^). Once Elisa and Pierre joined the fray, they made quick work of the moon beasts, though one of them managed to escape. Meanwhile, I clutched the very life-force of the satyrs, wrenching it from their bodies and causing them to wither into unconscious heaps until the others finished them off. And, of course, another one of those f**cking taotie masks popped up to screw with us, but I was able to resist its attempts to switch my mind with Elisa's long enough for Elisa to blast it into dust.
So, now we just have to finish tracking down our missing scions. Unfortunately, I fear we'll have a lot more satyrs and moon beasts to worry about before we're done here... And once we find the scions, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I really don't feel comfortable returning them to Synn's program, but not doing so will change the time stream, and that will make Zvran's forces stronger and alter the future in subtle ways. >_< Dammit, this sucks.
So, before we headed back, Adam got some details from Synn on what she was up to in Strasbourg in the middle of World War II. It turns out she was in charge of a eugenics program that was kidnapping scions of other pantheons, brainwashing them to be content as sex slaves and breeders, and breeding them to create an army of scions loyal to the Reich.
Eeeew. >_<
So, our job was to go back and make sure the moon beings and time titan's servants weren't messing that up? Seriously? Well, it's not like my companions and I haven't had to make tough choices before.
We flew to Strasbourg in the Valkyrie. Charles was going to catch up with us later; apparently he had to resolve some Bureaucracy paperwork regarding our exploits, but the rest of us arrived without incident. The time anomaly was creating a portal in the wine cellars of the Our Lady of Strasbourg cathedral, a magnificent structure made of sandstone! The architecture was beautiful, and I was a bit sad that we couldn't enjoy it, since we wasted no time in heading into the cellars to find the portal.
It turns out Ike and Mercedes' band of scions has been tasked with guarding some of the portals. When I learned this, I was excited to see Mercedes, but alas, she's with Ike and Tina in Sarajevo, guarding the portal there. Manny, Billy, and Ajax were in charge of the portal in Strasbourg, and they were up to their normal antics. I gotta tell ya, though, for all of his fooling around, Manny's pretty serious when it comes down to business.
The three of them had already managed to capture something wandering through the portal. According to Adam, it was something called a vardoger, an invisible guardian sometimes used by the Aesir. Apparently Synn's using them to patrol Strasbourg, along with a number of giants and troops borrowed from Izanami and Hades. Anyway, Manny took us to "see" the vardoger, who was terribly confused but completely unwilling to compromise his duties as a sentry. He wouldn't really tell us anything until I worked my charms on him, and then, once he'd fallen hopelessly in love with me, he agreed to accompany us back through the portal and help us go meet with Synn.
Yep, you heard me right. We decided to cut straight to the chase and go meet with Synn directly. It might sound like a foolish idea, but we figured that if she's been having problems with the moon beings or other outsiders, she might welcome some help, especially if we could honestly explain the situation to her. Adam felt that as a goddess of magic, she would understand enough about how time works to cooperate with us. with that goal in mind, we set off through the portal.
Our vardoger companion, whose name is Yeg, helped us get a jeep to make our way to Synn's headquarters in the Strasbourg hospital. Since the French civilians fled in the face of the Nazi advance, the city was occupied almost entirely by the German military and their families. If it hadn't been for all the soldiers and tanks and Nazi symbols everywhere, the city would have been charming and even inviting. At least, from a mortal's point of view. As Adam scanned the soldiers and civilians going about their daily business, a sour look crossed his face and he shared with the rest of us just how many of the passers-by were giants or other supernatural troops serving the German cause. Maybe the most horrifying were the velyr, shapeshifting creatures who take the shapes of people they have frozen to death. Sadly, quite a few of the civilians we passed, from children to adults, appeared to be velyr, according to Adam.
Things were actually going pretty well at first. We were all dressed in period clothing, so we didn't really draw any unwarranted attention. I was rocking a sexy, 40's-style pale pink blouse with a sleek black pencil skirt...which was maybe a little progressive for the period, but looked damn hot, judging by the wolf whistles I got from some of the soldiers we passed! ^_^ Of course, I had to tone down my beauty so as not to cause a big disruption...which lasted until a damn taotie mask, which was no doubt serving the time titan, decided to peek from its hiding place and work some magic to switch the minds of our jeep's driver and a young boy standing on the side of the street.
Our jeep crashed into the front of what appeared to be a military building. It was guarded by giants. Naturally, they thought we were attacking their post, so they drew weapons and rushed to attack us. Fortunately, we were in a somewhat less populated area of the city without too many mortal witnesses, but still. we didn't want to cause any major ripples this early in the game, especially since we hoped to meet Synn on peaceful terms. So once I'd gathered myself from the crash, I stumbled toward the lead giant, gave him my most helpless, "damsel-in-distress" look and told him that we were on our way to the hospital when something happened to our driver. With a little twist of my divine charisma, the giants' suspicions toward us waned and they began to stand down...until that f**king taotie mask turned the giant I was talking to into a platypus at the very instant I reached out to touch his arm with what was supposed to be a plea for reassurance.
Seriously...those taotie masks piss me off. >_<
With their leader turned into a platypus, the rest of the giants immediately attacked again, so I unleashed the full extent of my divine appearance and entranced them on the spot. Then I turned and said to my companions, "Can someone please do something about that taotie mask?" Honestly, I didn't even know where it was; I just recognized its dirty work. I was just hoping someone else had seen it, and of course Elisa didn't disappoint. A few seconds later the taotie mask was just a pile of bullet-shredded shards.
I dropped my enchantment of the giants and again, with a subtle but heart-melting looking of distress on my face, I convinced the giants that it was all a misunderstanding, and they agreed to call in to HQ and get us another jeep to take us there. Meanwhile, T-Bone, who was delighted by the giant-turned-platypus, picked the little guy up and carried him along with us. Looks like T-Bone has a new pet. ^_^
Of course, nothing's ever easy for us, and when the other car arrived, Adam noted that it was full of shapeshifters who were only pretending to be giants. Which meant Zvran's servants were onto us, and no doubt meant to drive us somewhere secluded and end us. Not like we would ever let that happen. We toyed with the idea of playing along and turning the tables on our "escorts." But since Zvran's titanspawn only have the power to mess with the past as long as others are screwing around with the timeline, we decided it would be best to focus our efforts on the real problem: the moon beings and their servants. With that in mind, Adam teleported us directly to the hospital. After all, he'd been there in the present day, and the place hasn't really changed much since.
We arrived outside and talked our way into the place (it helped that the giants had called to let 'em know we were coming). In short order, we were led into an administrative room, the true heart of Synn's HQ. That was a treat. ^_^
First off, there was Synn and her sister, Lofin. Lofin was dressed in a Nazi woman's uniform, which is about what you would expect. Synn, on the other hand, was dressed in a uniform of a completely different nature: a sexy Nazi dominatrix get-up that was totally hot. Also present were Svala, a valkyrie who is, I believe, currently involved with Jacob's son Caleb, and Cila, Persephone's pomegranate beauty of a daughter, who used to date Ray and is good friends with Echo. She was dressed in a smoking hot, tight-fitting nurse outfit , and I gotta tell ya, it was quite a turn on. Apparently she has the hots for me too, but has never acted on them because of my relationship with her mother, which is for the best, really. Don't worry - even though Cila is totally hot, I have no designs on her whatsoever. ^_^ I just can't help flirting.
Anyway, while Adam was introducing us to Synn, who took an immediate and predatory sexual interest in him, I decided to have a little fun with Cila, and greeted her as though we were old friends (which we are, from my perspective), and asked how Persephone was doing. Cila was confused, but seemed far too taken with me to let it throw her off her game. In fact, I was a bit scandalized by the thinly veiled way she propositioned me before we moved on to speak privately with Synn.
Ultimately, Adam explained who we were and why we were there, warning her that beings from outside of time were no doubt trying to disrupt her operations for their own ends and that we were trying to make sure their activities didn't mess up the time stream. He also informed Synn that several of the guards in the HQ were really shapeshifted titanspawn, which was as much news to Synn as it was to me. Adam had apparently noticed them on the way. I'm sure Synn will deal with them presently.
Synn listened to what we had to say and seemed to believe us. She took us on a tour of the eugenics portions of the hospital, which was unpleasant, to say the least. Scions of other pantheons were locked in hotel-like rooms, each with a one-way mirror so that they could be secretly observed. In many cases the captives were actively breeding with one another. The whole thing was animalistic and completely sordid. >_< It turned my stomach, and I was glad to get out of there. >_< I can't believe Synn actually DID those things. I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at her the same way again. I know it was, as they say, a different time...but that's no excuse!
Anyway, Synn did tell us what we needed to know. Some of her "subjects" were kidnapped recently, apparently by these moon beings we're hunting down. The moon beasts are known to use corrupted titanspawn and other creatures as their servants, so it shouldn't be surprising that they would want to attempt to breed their own scions using Synn's methods. The three captive scions who were kidnapped included Otis, a scion of John Henry (who is a lesser known and relatively recent god of the Loa), Clara, a pregnant Loa scion of Marinette, and Kerr, a spirited Pesedjet scion of Ra, who has apparently remained resistant to the Nazi's brainwashing (good for her!).
With Elisa's keen senses, we were able to begin tracking the moon beasts and their captives from the hospital into the sub-basements and the subterranean tunnels that weave beneath Strasbourg. Synn accompanied us for awhile. We soon detected signs that our enemies were close, and then the pan pipes started playing. The music flooded around us from somewhere within the machinery-filled tunnels ahead, inciting uncontrollable lust. Adam, Synn, and I were easily able to keep our cool and shove all thoughts of sex to the backs of our minds, but Elisa and Pierre were on each other instantly, entwined in a lascivious embrace. I expected T-Bone to make a bee-line for Synn, given the suggestive comments he'd been making about (and to) her since we'd met, but in a flicker of shadow he was on ME instead, his hands working their way under my blouse and his lips questing for mine as he backed me against the concrete wall of the passage.
Even though I was shocked, I knew that I had to get T-Bone off me so that I could deal with the satyrs and whatever else was waiting around the corner. But before I could compel T-Bone to just stop, Synn cast a spell and silence fell upon us. The silence ended the music's effect. There was a brief moment when T-Bone stared it me, wide-eyed in shock and embarrassment. I think I said something totally clever, like, "Uh...hi?" and then T-Bone flitted away and disappeared into the shadows. I didn't see him again for the rest of the fight.
Sure enough, a few of the luminous, semi-amorphous, quadrupedal moon beings were lurking around the corner with a few satyrs. We wasted no time in defeating them. Adam and I were the only ones able to respond immediately since the others were still recovering from the their near miss with an orgy, and while Adam blasted one moon beast into oblivion, I entranced the others with my beauty (apparently, they're suckers for a pretty girl ^_^). Once Elisa and Pierre joined the fray, they made quick work of the moon beasts, though one of them managed to escape. Meanwhile, I clutched the very life-force of the satyrs, wrenching it from their bodies and causing them to wither into unconscious heaps until the others finished them off. And, of course, another one of those f**cking taotie masks popped up to screw with us, but I was able to resist its attempts to switch my mind with Elisa's long enough for Elisa to blast it into dust.
So, now we just have to finish tracking down our missing scions. Unfortunately, I fear we'll have a lot more satyrs and moon beasts to worry about before we're done here... And once we find the scions, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I really don't feel comfortable returning them to Synn's program, but not doing so will change the time stream, and that will make Zvran's forces stronger and alter the future in subtle ways. >_< Dammit, this sucks.