Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 121
So, I'm still sorta reeling from having my suspicions confirmed about T-Bone and Abigail. But that doesn't mean me, Charles, and the others have been idle. Not at all. We're now dealing with the chaos factory problem…you know, the fact that Hundun's titanspawn are manufacturing horrid chaos goop for some nefarious purpose. But before we followed up on Brain-Devouring Princess's hot tip, we had to sort things out with the T-Bone/Abigail thing. So the me in Takamagahara tried to set up a meeting with Tsukiyomi, who probably knows better than most what to do about a split personality like that, being a god of the moon and lunacy. Another me accompanied the rest of the group to Adam's floating city to investigate Abigail's intrusion.
We went to the Floating City via Red Mountain. While on Red Mountain, I got to introduce Sonny to Rose, Mei and Shanyu. He had a little conversation with Shanyu, and Shanyu (who is five now) tried to prove he was tough by challenging Sonny to a fight. I scolded him a bit for that, but Sonny humored him and promised him that some day Shanyu could challenge him for the title of the Greatest Fighter in Miami Dade County, which is a title Sonny loudly proclaims at the drop of a hat (I think he's originally from Miami...). Why do I have the feeling that Sonny's going to be testing Shanyu's fighting abilities from time to time once Shanyu awakens as a scion?
Well, maybe it's for the best. Shanyu's growing up in a house full of women with no shortage of drama, and I think he wants to assert his masculinity. Cesar has a soft spot for Shanyu, and I think it's good for him to have a few male role models. I have a feeling he's going to grow up with an tough attitude. I just hope he doesn't have too much attitude. But if he turns out to be a bit of a rebel, that's fine by me. I rebelled against my parents and turned out just fine, didn't I? I mean, a little rebellion from time to time is healthy for a kid, right?
Anyway….where was I? Oh yes, on the Floating City. It didn't take Adam long to find and analyze the blood spatter left when the the intruder was attacked. And yeah, it looks like it was Abigail. And then Adam explored Abigail's fatebonds. And yep, she was bound to the rest of us as part of our sanctified band, so she and T-Bone are definitely the same person. Dammit. (>_<)
With that confirmed, we really needed to talk to Tsukiyomi. So we headed to Takamagahara via my shrine. I waited on Red Mountain while the others met up with the me in Kurayashiro so that I could accompany them to see Tsukiyomi. Confused yet? (^_^)
Tsukiyomi doesn't really like me, per se. I think he's a little annoyed that I married his sister while he's been banished from her presence. But he was still polite and helped us out. I led the others to a door to his realm in Sakokushiro Palace and we ended up in his moonscape hideaway. A short trip across the lunar landscape led us to his manor, which was gorgeous. It was full of spacious hallways shrouded in darkness, lit only by artfully placed lamps the color of moonlight. We actually met with him in a large, traditional hall under a single dim light. The pillars that supported the hall were nearly hidden in the darkness, and kami wearing noh masks peeked around them occasionally, making subtle, surreal emotive gestures.
Visiting Tsukiyomi was a good idea. He appeared in his most mysterious guise, as a floating set of Heian-period robes topped by a white noh mask. He sat gracefully with us and listened as we explained the T-Bone situation. I asked if there was some way to cure T-Bone's mind. He said that yes, that might be possible, but doing so might not be the best expression of T-Bone's divine fate.
Pierre then recalled that Kalfu and Legba may once have been one individual whose personalities split in two. Fate eventually made them into two separate beings. Tsukiyomi seems to think the same thing is happening to T-Bone. And it's not necessarily a bad thing if it's how his legend is to develop. I can understand and respect that.
The problem is that in this case, Abigail is siding with the titans. And that's unacceptable. So if we really want to help T-Bone, we need to coax her back to the god's side. Sure, she'll be a pretentious, trouble-making bitch who had better watch herself, but she won't be any more of a villain than certain other gods with a bad reputation, like Loki. The trick is setting her up so that the titans think she betrayed them. That way she won't have any choice but to return to the fold. And the best way to deal with a situation like this is to trick the trickster. Doing so might even allow us to lead Hundun to his downfall. That's sorta how our divine fates work. It's not really that different from some of things I'm up to.
Brave words, right? But I'm not really cool with a lot of the things Abigail has done. She's going to have to answer for them somehow. I mean, hell. She poisoned Quinn and Dahlia. She raped and almost killed Siobhan. She tried to kill Kuan Yin and Sonny (though surely she knew she wouldn't take them out with a single shot). And she's just been an all around bitch. So she'll have to answer for her crimes somehow. Grrr. (>_<)
Anyway…enough about that.
[Erika's Journal, Private Entry]
After meeting with Tsukiyomi, we met with my lovely wife Amaterasu. See, we couldn't let T-Bone (or Abigail) keep Death's Mask. Not with its power to summon world-devouring worms and potentially end the world. So I concocted a plan to take it from T-Bone without him ever knowing it's gone. I asked Amaterasu to make a perfect copy with Tsukumogami, and then, with T-Bone still asleep from the effects of my cradlesong, we switched the fake for the real mask. Once we made the switch, Pierre absorbed T-Bone with Cheval again. Until we're good and ready to have him aware of what we're doing, it's best if he's in stasis.
We hid the mask somewhere in Adam's Floating City, where it should be safe.
In other news, my mastery of Tsukumogami has finally reached the point where I can summon kami to my location! I gotta try it on Echo or Amy at some point. (^_^)
[End Private Entry]
As to our plans, we still intend to negotiate peace talks between General Chou and the Bureaucracy to draw out Abigail. But for now, the less T-Bone knows about that, the better. After all, we still don't know how much knowledge he and Abigail share. But before we can follow up on that, we need to shut down Hundun's chaos manufacturing operation. Which is what we're doing now.
Once we'd finished up in Takamagahara, we headed back to Red Mountain and then to Beijing via Charles' sanctum. We followed the directions the Brain-Devouring Princess had given us and easily located the factory. Scoping it out wasn't hard, though Elisa was still busy elsewhere (and her assistance was sorely missed). The place was a pretty dull looking concrete building. A fine example of bland Communist architecture. (>_<). It was guarded by a couple of corrupted celestial lions and several strange, paper-thin titanspawn that were hard to keep track of when you viewed them from the wrong angle. Adam warned us that the paper-demons (which is what I started calling them) could hurt vampires with sunlight (a lot like what I can do, really) and even transform them into more paper demons. Apparently they were expecting trouble from the Brain-Devouring Princess's vampire army, but not from us. Charles, Pierre, Adam, Sonny, Tabby, Sophie and I took care of them in short order. The paper demons were tricky to fight, and they smacked me around a bit with their crazy fire attacks (>_<). But in the end we prevailed. And the best part was that no one inside the factory heard a thing, because Adam used a spell to silence the area. In short, we totally rocked.
And then we prepared to enter the factory itself…
(to be continued)
We went to the Floating City via Red Mountain. While on Red Mountain, I got to introduce Sonny to Rose, Mei and Shanyu. He had a little conversation with Shanyu, and Shanyu (who is five now) tried to prove he was tough by challenging Sonny to a fight. I scolded him a bit for that, but Sonny humored him and promised him that some day Shanyu could challenge him for the title of the Greatest Fighter in Miami Dade County, which is a title Sonny loudly proclaims at the drop of a hat (I think he's originally from Miami...). Why do I have the feeling that Sonny's going to be testing Shanyu's fighting abilities from time to time once Shanyu awakens as a scion?
Well, maybe it's for the best. Shanyu's growing up in a house full of women with no shortage of drama, and I think he wants to assert his masculinity. Cesar has a soft spot for Shanyu, and I think it's good for him to have a few male role models. I have a feeling he's going to grow up with an tough attitude. I just hope he doesn't have too much attitude. But if he turns out to be a bit of a rebel, that's fine by me. I rebelled against my parents and turned out just fine, didn't I? I mean, a little rebellion from time to time is healthy for a kid, right?
Anyway….where was I? Oh yes, on the Floating City. It didn't take Adam long to find and analyze the blood spatter left when the the intruder was attacked. And yeah, it looks like it was Abigail. And then Adam explored Abigail's fatebonds. And yep, she was bound to the rest of us as part of our sanctified band, so she and T-Bone are definitely the same person. Dammit. (>_<)
With that confirmed, we really needed to talk to Tsukiyomi. So we headed to Takamagahara via my shrine. I waited on Red Mountain while the others met up with the me in Kurayashiro so that I could accompany them to see Tsukiyomi. Confused yet? (^_^)
Tsukiyomi doesn't really like me, per se. I think he's a little annoyed that I married his sister while he's been banished from her presence. But he was still polite and helped us out. I led the others to a door to his realm in Sakokushiro Palace and we ended up in his moonscape hideaway. A short trip across the lunar landscape led us to his manor, which was gorgeous. It was full of spacious hallways shrouded in darkness, lit only by artfully placed lamps the color of moonlight. We actually met with him in a large, traditional hall under a single dim light. The pillars that supported the hall were nearly hidden in the darkness, and kami wearing noh masks peeked around them occasionally, making subtle, surreal emotive gestures.
Visiting Tsukiyomi was a good idea. He appeared in his most mysterious guise, as a floating set of Heian-period robes topped by a white noh mask. He sat gracefully with us and listened as we explained the T-Bone situation. I asked if there was some way to cure T-Bone's mind. He said that yes, that might be possible, but doing so might not be the best expression of T-Bone's divine fate.
Pierre then recalled that Kalfu and Legba may once have been one individual whose personalities split in two. Fate eventually made them into two separate beings. Tsukiyomi seems to think the same thing is happening to T-Bone. And it's not necessarily a bad thing if it's how his legend is to develop. I can understand and respect that.
The problem is that in this case, Abigail is siding with the titans. And that's unacceptable. So if we really want to help T-Bone, we need to coax her back to the god's side. Sure, she'll be a pretentious, trouble-making bitch who had better watch herself, but she won't be any more of a villain than certain other gods with a bad reputation, like Loki. The trick is setting her up so that the titans think she betrayed them. That way she won't have any choice but to return to the fold. And the best way to deal with a situation like this is to trick the trickster. Doing so might even allow us to lead Hundun to his downfall. That's sorta how our divine fates work. It's not really that different from some of things I'm up to.
Brave words, right? But I'm not really cool with a lot of the things Abigail has done. She's going to have to answer for them somehow. I mean, hell. She poisoned Quinn and Dahlia. She raped and almost killed Siobhan. She tried to kill Kuan Yin and Sonny (though surely she knew she wouldn't take them out with a single shot). And she's just been an all around bitch. So she'll have to answer for her crimes somehow. Grrr. (>_<)
Anyway…enough about that.
[Erika's Journal, Private Entry]
After meeting with Tsukiyomi, we met with my lovely wife Amaterasu. See, we couldn't let T-Bone (or Abigail) keep Death's Mask. Not with its power to summon world-devouring worms and potentially end the world. So I concocted a plan to take it from T-Bone without him ever knowing it's gone. I asked Amaterasu to make a perfect copy with Tsukumogami, and then, with T-Bone still asleep from the effects of my cradlesong, we switched the fake for the real mask. Once we made the switch, Pierre absorbed T-Bone with Cheval again. Until we're good and ready to have him aware of what we're doing, it's best if he's in stasis.
We hid the mask somewhere in Adam's Floating City, where it should be safe.
In other news, my mastery of Tsukumogami has finally reached the point where I can summon kami to my location! I gotta try it on Echo or Amy at some point. (^_^)
[End Private Entry]
As to our plans, we still intend to negotiate peace talks between General Chou and the Bureaucracy to draw out Abigail. But for now, the less T-Bone knows about that, the better. After all, we still don't know how much knowledge he and Abigail share. But before we can follow up on that, we need to shut down Hundun's chaos manufacturing operation. Which is what we're doing now.
Once we'd finished up in Takamagahara, we headed back to Red Mountain and then to Beijing via Charles' sanctum. We followed the directions the Brain-Devouring Princess had given us and easily located the factory. Scoping it out wasn't hard, though Elisa was still busy elsewhere (and her assistance was sorely missed). The place was a pretty dull looking concrete building. A fine example of bland Communist architecture. (>_<). It was guarded by a couple of corrupted celestial lions and several strange, paper-thin titanspawn that were hard to keep track of when you viewed them from the wrong angle. Adam warned us that the paper-demons (which is what I started calling them) could hurt vampires with sunlight (a lot like what I can do, really) and even transform them into more paper demons. Apparently they were expecting trouble from the Brain-Devouring Princess's vampire army, but not from us. Charles, Pierre, Adam, Sonny, Tabby, Sophie and I took care of them in short order. The paper demons were tricky to fight, and they smacked me around a bit with their crazy fire attacks (>_<). But in the end we prevailed. And the best part was that no one inside the factory heard a thing, because Adam used a spell to silence the area. In short, we totally rocked.
And then we prepared to enter the factory itself…
(to be continued)