Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 117
You know, I have all the respect in the world for Yi's work in the Chinese Underworld, but I hate Diyu. And I generally like most Underworlds. Maybe it's the bad memories. It's hard to get over being skinned alive repeatedly for a week. Sure, I've had some good times with Yi in Diyu too…but there's always the pain, tucked away in the back of my mind. That must be why I don't visit her there as often as I could.
Anyway…where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah, that's right. We'd just rescued Beautiful Plum from Ryujin and had a chat with Xiwangmu. Well, shortly after that, just as I was finishing up my last journal entry, basking in the cozy half-light of Kurayashiro, Adam showed up and rejoined us. He shared his findings on the attempted assassination of the Emperor. It turns out a group called the Devil Tigers are responsible. They are a group of gods who use tiger cloaks made of damned souls (tiger souls?), and they use assassination techniques to directly attack the souls of their victims, thus killing them permanently. (>_<) Youch. Having been on the receiving end of that kind of attack (damn you, Hachiman!!) I'm already biased against these guys.
Few know the Devil Tigers exist, and even fewer can control them. Yan Luo was the only one able to contact and control them, but now that Yi's taken over Diyu, that dubious privilege has fallen to her. (O_O) With her temper and ability to hold a grudge, that won't ever cause any trouble. (>_<) Still, I trust her, and I know she would never try to pull an assassination against the Emperor. So we decided to go pay her visit to get her take on things.
Charles transported us to Diyu, and I led the way into Yi's private offices. When we arrived, she was hard at work at her massive, ornate desk made of black jade, and Echo was lounging naked by her side. *Sigh* Being married to a nymph is usually awesome, but occasionally embarrassing. I'm a little surprised Yi was letting Echo get away with that lack of propriety, and I gave Echo a disapproving look, though I can't say I'm unhappy with Yi loosening up a bit. Anyway, Echo quickly scurried off and returned clad in a long, sensuous silk robe.
Yi was happy to see me. We haven't been together for a couple weeks, and our kissed greetings were probably a little too intimate and lingered a little too long, but I just can't resist her perfect lips…(^_^) Ummmm….anyway…we told her about Adam's findings, and she grew very serious. She told us that she knew about the relic used to summon the Devil Tigers. It's an ancient marble statuette of a tiger, and as far as she knew it was still locked away in a sealed chest used to contain such valuable items. She immediately led us to the vault where the chest as kept and used a series of bone keys to open it.
Of course, the marble tiger was gone. Wonderful.
We were all pretty annoyed by this, and Yi was positively beside herself. I mean, it's a huge mark on her prestige as the head of Diyu for this to have been stolen from her, but for all we know, it was taken long before she took over for her father. Adam consulted the mysteries to see what he could learn, and discovered that the object had been taken by a scion named Unmedra, a sort of social rival of Yi from before Yi became a goddess. And the mysteries claimed that the statuette had been hidden the a bottomless pit from which none ever return in Naraka, the Hindu underworld. This all started to sound pretty fishy, and we quickly assumed that the mysteries were being misled by the powerful deceptions of a god's illusions. Great. Back to square one. (>_<)
Well, not quite square one. T-Bone seems to think that Abigail St. Croix is responsible, and since we know she's somehow involved in all of this, he's probably right. We have got to track that bitch down and do something about her…though as I've said before, I have worries about who she really is and what her true identity might mean. But I won't say any more here…
Oh yeah, Adam also asked the mysteries where General Chou and his army are, and discovered that he is in the "Lungs of the Earth Dragon, " which, according to Charles, are a series of windswept caverns running beneath the Imperial Mountains. There are a lot of terra cotta soldiers there that attack creatures of chaos, and the place is also a refuge for eccentric Taoist mystics.
And, finally, Adam asked where the missing nuclear warheads that had been stolen from China were, and learned that they had been hidden in the Hell of Upside Down Sinners. Okay. Hold the phone. Is it just me, or is someone trying really hard to frame Yi? That pisses me off, and when we get to the bottom of this, they're going to pay. t(>_<)t
Since we were already in Diyu, we decided to go ahead and look for the nukes. Yi took us to the Hell of Upside Down Sinners, and I have to admit that it was kinda hard venturing back into the hellish portions of the underworld. When I'm in the administrative areas or Yi's quarters, I can put the tortures I endured there out of my mind, but delving into the heart of all that pain and suffering made it impossible to forget the way I'd suffered for Yi, and the memories were hard to stomach. My normally perky disposition must have seriously faltered because Tabby asked if I was okay, and when I shook my head slightly, she clutched my hand to give me support. I don't know if Yi noticed anything; she certainly didn't say or do anything to indicate that she understood what I was going through, and I gotta confess that hurt a little bit.
With all of that going on in my head, it was almost a relief to find the nukes resting in the midst of a sea of chained, bleeding bodies hanging upside down from a ceiling that to us was a floor. The disconcerting image of a forest of bodies swinging and screaming above us in apparent defiance of gravity would be enough to drive many mortals mad, but for us, the titanspawn that were clustered around the warheads were far more troubling. In addition to Hundun's normal vanguard of taotie masks, there was also a disgusting chaos beast made of mouths and tongues that looked like some sort of offspring of the Beast of 1000 Tongues that we destroyed during the combined assault on Di Yu before we became gods. And several spirits in the form of whirlwinds were there too. Those were new.
Fortunately, we made short work of them. Sonny somehow produced a whirlwind of his own and used it destroy a few of the whirlwinds while he taunted them, while Adam zapped the rest with bolts of lightning that arced and crackled across the shrieking bodies of the damned. Elisa and Charles wiped out the taotie masks, but not before Elisa and Pierre succumbed to their insidious madness. Fortunately, T-Bone was there to return their sanity, and Charles finished off the tongue-beast. Meanwhile, I left Sophie and Tabby to help protect Yi and Echo, and then shadow-stepped to the nuclear warheads to make sure they weren't armed and counting down to a catastrophic explosion. Fortunately, they weren't, but i feared Hundun might be trying to create another realm like Pika Don's irradiated wasteland.
But no, it seems my first theory was right: Hundun is trying to frame Yi and force her to join the rebellion. If she did, and took the Underworld with her, it would cause a huge schism in the Bureaucracy, not to mention the sort of ammunition it would lend to rebellious elements in Takamagahara. And that sounds like exactly the sort of chaos Hundun relishes. Bastard. (>_<). After discussing all that a bit, we decided to just get rid of the nukes, at least for the time being. So Charles turned them into big pillars of stone and transported them to his sanctum so they would no longer be a threat to anyone. If we need to recover them as evidence, he can do that too.
I chatted with Yi a little about the the danger she faces. I'm worried about her, but she assured me she would increase Diyu's defenses and try to make sure Hundun's agents can't infiltrate it so easily. I worry that he has agents on the inside, and I think Yi's concerned about that too. She'll definitely be examining her subordinates for any sign of disloyalty, and as a goddess of justice, she's well-equipped to handle that sort of operation. But she has a lot of ground to cover, and I'm sure it's a bit overwhelming. I just wish I could stay nearby and help out.
But I have more important duties helping to resolve the rebellion peacefully, and Adam, Charles, and the rest all agreed that we needed to the get tot the bottom of the Devil Tigers issue next. So Yi directed us to the Hell of No Escape, where the Devil Tigers are supposed to lair. She gave is a writ of passage and told us to present it to the demon-lord in charge of that Hell, a creature known as Face-Biter (in Chinese, of course).
In order to reach that Hell, we had to travel through the vast void between hells in order to reach the deeper parts of Diyu. It reminded me again of the battle against the combined forces of Mikaboshi, Aten, and Hundun. We traveled on the back of Yi's personal dragon, which is a beautiful undead creature made of pure bone encrusted here and there with gleaming emeralds. Ah…I remember spending time with Yi, making love on the sumptuously appointed howdah that graces the dragon's back as we soared through the endless darkness…it was such a beautiful time. Untainted then by the guilt of my deceitful infidelity and the tortures I suffered to atone for it…
Well…anyway…
The Hell of No Escape was a network of vast caverns filled with boiling mud, and beneath the surface of the mud were wicked spikes. The damned were forced to struggle to keep their heads above the surface of the mud so as not to drown, all the while seared to the bone by the intolerable heat. Rationally, I understand the logic of such tortures to cleanse the stains on the karma of the damned, but it seems altogether too cruel, and I find myself appreciating more than ever the quiet repose of Yomi, where the most horrid spirits are simply imprisoned.
But aside from the unpleasant vista and heat, we were able to gain access to the inner reaches of the hell with no difficulty. Most of us flew over the boiling mud. Charles rode with Elisa on Cazadora, her flying, flaming jaguar servant, which she really doesn't bring out to play very often. T-Bone simply scurried along the walls like a delicious little spider. (^_^) Facer-Biter allowed us to pass, and we headed deeper into the caves. Apparently Hundun's people have even reached this deep, dark place, for on the way we were attacked by another tongue-beast, which didn't last long.
And eventually we arrived at the entrance to the Devil Tigers' hideout, an ornate circular gateway flanked by tiger statues and leading into a series of smaller, furnished caves. It was a terra incognito, so Charles used his powers to gain entrance. Inside, we did not find the Devil Tigers. They were apparently out, which is a bit worrisome, since we don't know exactly what errand they are on…and that probably does not bode well. Maybe they just haven't returned from their assassination attempt yet. We can hope.
What we did find, however, was a beautiful woman with bone-white skin covered in a fine pattern of soft scales. Charles recognized her as Whitesnake, an immortal who has much in common with Da Ji, being ancient, capricious, and "untainted" by any sort of morality (>_<). She was asleep on a pile of cushions when we found her, surrounded by countless empty jars of the Devil Tigers' fine rice wine.
Pierre told us he'd take care of things, and used his powers over health to purify the alcohol in Whitesnake's body. Then we woke her up.
First, she wasn't supposed to be there. She snuck in to avail herself of the Tigers' wine because she knew they would be out. She kept talking circles and giving us half-answers and disguised truths. She was also a stuck up bitch who made some very snotty comments about me and Yi, which probably pissed me off more than it would have if I weren't already on edge from our trek through Hell. As it stands, I don't like her. At all. At least there's an earnestness to Da Ji, but Whitesnake seemed wholly unconcerned for anything besides having a good time and trying to prove how much better she is than everyone else.
All that aside, we eventually got her to admit that she had made a deal with a woman who matches Abigail's description and a tall man in Bureaucracy ministry robes and a mask that concealed his face and mystically shrouded his identity. She apparently helped them get their hands on the Devil Tigers' relic so that she could raid the Tigers' hideout while they were away. Gods, with immortals like this running around, no wonder Hundun's having a field day infiltrating the Bureaucracy. (>_<)
I'm angry. Not just annoyed, which happens from time to time. And, you know, I get over being annoyed pretty quickly usually. No, this time I'm really angry. I'm angry at Whitesnake's condescending attitude, and having to trek through an
Underworld that dredges up unpleasant memories. And I'm angry that Hundun is trying to frame my wife, that the Bureaucracy can't be reasonable about this whole situation, and that my own pantheon has such a huge stick up their asses that they won't accept a little positive change. Grrrr.
And I'm angry about being angry…because I hate being angry. (>_<)
Anyway…where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah, that's right. We'd just rescued Beautiful Plum from Ryujin and had a chat with Xiwangmu. Well, shortly after that, just as I was finishing up my last journal entry, basking in the cozy half-light of Kurayashiro, Adam showed up and rejoined us. He shared his findings on the attempted assassination of the Emperor. It turns out a group called the Devil Tigers are responsible. They are a group of gods who use tiger cloaks made of damned souls (tiger souls?), and they use assassination techniques to directly attack the souls of their victims, thus killing them permanently. (>_<) Youch. Having been on the receiving end of that kind of attack (damn you, Hachiman!!) I'm already biased against these guys.
Few know the Devil Tigers exist, and even fewer can control them. Yan Luo was the only one able to contact and control them, but now that Yi's taken over Diyu, that dubious privilege has fallen to her. (O_O) With her temper and ability to hold a grudge, that won't ever cause any trouble. (>_<) Still, I trust her, and I know she would never try to pull an assassination against the Emperor. So we decided to go pay her visit to get her take on things.
Charles transported us to Diyu, and I led the way into Yi's private offices. When we arrived, she was hard at work at her massive, ornate desk made of black jade, and Echo was lounging naked by her side. *Sigh* Being married to a nymph is usually awesome, but occasionally embarrassing. I'm a little surprised Yi was letting Echo get away with that lack of propriety, and I gave Echo a disapproving look, though I can't say I'm unhappy with Yi loosening up a bit. Anyway, Echo quickly scurried off and returned clad in a long, sensuous silk robe.
Yi was happy to see me. We haven't been together for a couple weeks, and our kissed greetings were probably a little too intimate and lingered a little too long, but I just can't resist her perfect lips…(^_^) Ummmm….anyway…we told her about Adam's findings, and she grew very serious. She told us that she knew about the relic used to summon the Devil Tigers. It's an ancient marble statuette of a tiger, and as far as she knew it was still locked away in a sealed chest used to contain such valuable items. She immediately led us to the vault where the chest as kept and used a series of bone keys to open it.
Of course, the marble tiger was gone. Wonderful.
We were all pretty annoyed by this, and Yi was positively beside herself. I mean, it's a huge mark on her prestige as the head of Diyu for this to have been stolen from her, but for all we know, it was taken long before she took over for her father. Adam consulted the mysteries to see what he could learn, and discovered that the object had been taken by a scion named Unmedra, a sort of social rival of Yi from before Yi became a goddess. And the mysteries claimed that the statuette had been hidden the a bottomless pit from which none ever return in Naraka, the Hindu underworld. This all started to sound pretty fishy, and we quickly assumed that the mysteries were being misled by the powerful deceptions of a god's illusions. Great. Back to square one. (>_<)
Well, not quite square one. T-Bone seems to think that Abigail St. Croix is responsible, and since we know she's somehow involved in all of this, he's probably right. We have got to track that bitch down and do something about her…though as I've said before, I have worries about who she really is and what her true identity might mean. But I won't say any more here…
Oh yeah, Adam also asked the mysteries where General Chou and his army are, and discovered that he is in the "Lungs of the Earth Dragon, " which, according to Charles, are a series of windswept caverns running beneath the Imperial Mountains. There are a lot of terra cotta soldiers there that attack creatures of chaos, and the place is also a refuge for eccentric Taoist mystics.
And, finally, Adam asked where the missing nuclear warheads that had been stolen from China were, and learned that they had been hidden in the Hell of Upside Down Sinners. Okay. Hold the phone. Is it just me, or is someone trying really hard to frame Yi? That pisses me off, and when we get to the bottom of this, they're going to pay. t(>_<)t
Since we were already in Diyu, we decided to go ahead and look for the nukes. Yi took us to the Hell of Upside Down Sinners, and I have to admit that it was kinda hard venturing back into the hellish portions of the underworld. When I'm in the administrative areas or Yi's quarters, I can put the tortures I endured there out of my mind, but delving into the heart of all that pain and suffering made it impossible to forget the way I'd suffered for Yi, and the memories were hard to stomach. My normally perky disposition must have seriously faltered because Tabby asked if I was okay, and when I shook my head slightly, she clutched my hand to give me support. I don't know if Yi noticed anything; she certainly didn't say or do anything to indicate that she understood what I was going through, and I gotta confess that hurt a little bit.
With all of that going on in my head, it was almost a relief to find the nukes resting in the midst of a sea of chained, bleeding bodies hanging upside down from a ceiling that to us was a floor. The disconcerting image of a forest of bodies swinging and screaming above us in apparent defiance of gravity would be enough to drive many mortals mad, but for us, the titanspawn that were clustered around the warheads were far more troubling. In addition to Hundun's normal vanguard of taotie masks, there was also a disgusting chaos beast made of mouths and tongues that looked like some sort of offspring of the Beast of 1000 Tongues that we destroyed during the combined assault on Di Yu before we became gods. And several spirits in the form of whirlwinds were there too. Those were new.
Fortunately, we made short work of them. Sonny somehow produced a whirlwind of his own and used it destroy a few of the whirlwinds while he taunted them, while Adam zapped the rest with bolts of lightning that arced and crackled across the shrieking bodies of the damned. Elisa and Charles wiped out the taotie masks, but not before Elisa and Pierre succumbed to their insidious madness. Fortunately, T-Bone was there to return their sanity, and Charles finished off the tongue-beast. Meanwhile, I left Sophie and Tabby to help protect Yi and Echo, and then shadow-stepped to the nuclear warheads to make sure they weren't armed and counting down to a catastrophic explosion. Fortunately, they weren't, but i feared Hundun might be trying to create another realm like Pika Don's irradiated wasteland.
But no, it seems my first theory was right: Hundun is trying to frame Yi and force her to join the rebellion. If she did, and took the Underworld with her, it would cause a huge schism in the Bureaucracy, not to mention the sort of ammunition it would lend to rebellious elements in Takamagahara. And that sounds like exactly the sort of chaos Hundun relishes. Bastard. (>_<). After discussing all that a bit, we decided to just get rid of the nukes, at least for the time being. So Charles turned them into big pillars of stone and transported them to his sanctum so they would no longer be a threat to anyone. If we need to recover them as evidence, he can do that too.
I chatted with Yi a little about the the danger she faces. I'm worried about her, but she assured me she would increase Diyu's defenses and try to make sure Hundun's agents can't infiltrate it so easily. I worry that he has agents on the inside, and I think Yi's concerned about that too. She'll definitely be examining her subordinates for any sign of disloyalty, and as a goddess of justice, she's well-equipped to handle that sort of operation. But she has a lot of ground to cover, and I'm sure it's a bit overwhelming. I just wish I could stay nearby and help out.
But I have more important duties helping to resolve the rebellion peacefully, and Adam, Charles, and the rest all agreed that we needed to the get tot the bottom of the Devil Tigers issue next. So Yi directed us to the Hell of No Escape, where the Devil Tigers are supposed to lair. She gave is a writ of passage and told us to present it to the demon-lord in charge of that Hell, a creature known as Face-Biter (in Chinese, of course).
In order to reach that Hell, we had to travel through the vast void between hells in order to reach the deeper parts of Diyu. It reminded me again of the battle against the combined forces of Mikaboshi, Aten, and Hundun. We traveled on the back of Yi's personal dragon, which is a beautiful undead creature made of pure bone encrusted here and there with gleaming emeralds. Ah…I remember spending time with Yi, making love on the sumptuously appointed howdah that graces the dragon's back as we soared through the endless darkness…it was such a beautiful time. Untainted then by the guilt of my deceitful infidelity and the tortures I suffered to atone for it…
Well…anyway…
The Hell of No Escape was a network of vast caverns filled with boiling mud, and beneath the surface of the mud were wicked spikes. The damned were forced to struggle to keep their heads above the surface of the mud so as not to drown, all the while seared to the bone by the intolerable heat. Rationally, I understand the logic of such tortures to cleanse the stains on the karma of the damned, but it seems altogether too cruel, and I find myself appreciating more than ever the quiet repose of Yomi, where the most horrid spirits are simply imprisoned.
But aside from the unpleasant vista and heat, we were able to gain access to the inner reaches of the hell with no difficulty. Most of us flew over the boiling mud. Charles rode with Elisa on Cazadora, her flying, flaming jaguar servant, which she really doesn't bring out to play very often. T-Bone simply scurried along the walls like a delicious little spider. (^_^) Facer-Biter allowed us to pass, and we headed deeper into the caves. Apparently Hundun's people have even reached this deep, dark place, for on the way we were attacked by another tongue-beast, which didn't last long.
And eventually we arrived at the entrance to the Devil Tigers' hideout, an ornate circular gateway flanked by tiger statues and leading into a series of smaller, furnished caves. It was a terra incognito, so Charles used his powers to gain entrance. Inside, we did not find the Devil Tigers. They were apparently out, which is a bit worrisome, since we don't know exactly what errand they are on…and that probably does not bode well. Maybe they just haven't returned from their assassination attempt yet. We can hope.
What we did find, however, was a beautiful woman with bone-white skin covered in a fine pattern of soft scales. Charles recognized her as Whitesnake, an immortal who has much in common with Da Ji, being ancient, capricious, and "untainted" by any sort of morality (>_<). She was asleep on a pile of cushions when we found her, surrounded by countless empty jars of the Devil Tigers' fine rice wine.
Pierre told us he'd take care of things, and used his powers over health to purify the alcohol in Whitesnake's body. Then we woke her up.
First, she wasn't supposed to be there. She snuck in to avail herself of the Tigers' wine because she knew they would be out. She kept talking circles and giving us half-answers and disguised truths. She was also a stuck up bitch who made some very snotty comments about me and Yi, which probably pissed me off more than it would have if I weren't already on edge from our trek through Hell. As it stands, I don't like her. At all. At least there's an earnestness to Da Ji, but Whitesnake seemed wholly unconcerned for anything besides having a good time and trying to prove how much better she is than everyone else.
All that aside, we eventually got her to admit that she had made a deal with a woman who matches Abigail's description and a tall man in Bureaucracy ministry robes and a mask that concealed his face and mystically shrouded his identity. She apparently helped them get their hands on the Devil Tigers' relic so that she could raid the Tigers' hideout while they were away. Gods, with immortals like this running around, no wonder Hundun's having a field day infiltrating the Bureaucracy. (>_<)
I'm angry. Not just annoyed, which happens from time to time. And, you know, I get over being annoyed pretty quickly usually. No, this time I'm really angry. I'm angry at Whitesnake's condescending attitude, and having to trek through an
Underworld that dredges up unpleasant memories. And I'm angry that Hundun is trying to frame my wife, that the Bureaucracy can't be reasonable about this whole situation, and that my own pantheon has such a huge stick up their asses that they won't accept a little positive change. Grrrr.
And I'm angry about being angry…because I hate being angry. (>_<)