lonely is the room, the bed is made
Importantly: Thank you very much to everyone who came out to my show last night. It was wonderful to look out into the crowd and see so many smiling faces. I hope you enjoyed watching the show as much as I enjoyed playing it.
Equally importantly: Happy 40th birthday (!) to Jeff Buckley. You are sorely missed.
And now for something completely different: A much-delayed Mage recap, covering two sessions. Let's see how much of this I even remember.
For once, Justin gets up early on Saturday morning in order to stake out the Church of Plenty. He doesn't learn much, although he notes that there is a small group of people gathered in the backyard of the church building for what appears to be the funeral of a child. During the stakeout, Ashe and Bill do some more research into the Church of Plenty, but don't find out much of anything that they don't already know - i.e. small church, run by mages, based upon the idea that God wants people to be rich and the richer that you are the more in favor with God you are, etc. (Though this did lead to my favorite quote of the game so far: "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal financial advisor?")
In the middle of the afternoon, a large box of documents written in High Speech is delivered to Bill's house. It turns out to be full of documents pertaining to Hancock's upcoming trial. It seems to be expected that Buffalo's Unfortunate, like all the other mages in Buffalo, should familiarize themselves with its contents before attending the trial - which is bad news for Justin, who still doesn't understand High Speech. Ashe and Bill give up on the Church of Plenty for the time being and start learning about the case that is being built against Hancock.
Eventually, Justin gives up on the stakeout and returns to Bill's house to tell the others that he found a whole lot of nothing. Realizing that they're not going to get any farther on their own, Buffalo's Unfortunate convice Justin to ask Temperance about Samsara and the people associated with it. Justin meets Temperance at the bookstore, but right away the Q&A session doesn't go exactly as planned when Temperance learns that Justin has been to Samsara and starts grilling him about its location. Only after Temperance has made a mysterious phone call to the higher-ups in the Consilium does Justin learn that Samsara is apparently a Seers of the Throne bar which moves around and which nobody in the Consilium has been able to locate for months! After a quick explanation of who the Seers of the Throne are and what they do, Temperance sends Justin on his way with strict orders not to go back to Samsara if he values his place in the Consilium.
When Justin fills the others in on the truth about Samsara, Ashe freaks out a little and decides to check up on the bar via scrying. When he looks in, the String Quartet is in the process of shooting up the bar and capturing the cabal of Wicked Witches, though the bartender and many of the other major players seem to have fled. Ashe then decides to switch his scrying over to the members of the fake Beatles cabal from the night before (I think that was it anyway - don't remember exactly how he found this next part out) and ends up peering in on the inside of an SUV where a man in clerical vestments is talking about the need to find the people who revealed Samsara's location. It would appear that Buffalo's Unfortunate need to get out of town for a little while.
Deciding that they need to orchestrate an escape that doesn't involve anyone in mage society, Ashe and Justin reluctantly call up Keith and ask him to find a place where they can hide out for the night. After some gloating, Keith introduces Buffalo's Unfortunate to his good friend Samuel Haight, an aging poser goth who lives in a large and expensive house just outside of Buffalo. Ashe, Bill, and Justin spend a memorable night contending with spooky organ music, bedrooms decorated with racks and sarcophagi, and some sort of "Sabbat meeting"/really lame party going on in the basement, but experience no further problems.
Since staying at Sam Haight's place is obviously not a permanent solution, Buffalo's Unfortunate head back into town in the morning having decide that it's time to call for the Consilium's help and ask for some protection. After all, Buffalo's Unfortunate found a place that no one else could find and, however, unwittingly, alerted their leaders to the existence of a dangerous organization; it's the least the Consilium can do to offer them some protection from the people they've pissed off. Buffalo's Unfortunate arrange a meeting with Prudence to ask for just that, but strangely enough Prudence is less than receptive to that request. Buffalo's Unfortunate practically have to cajole and browbeat her into agreeing to have a protective ward set up around Bill's house and arranging for the String Quartet to serve as bodyguards until this all blows over - but then again, by now Buffalo's Unfortunate should hardly be surprised when their requests are met with disinterest from their leaders.
The next day, Ashe's hard work on his dollhouse pays off when Sraddor returns to inhabit it. Although he is pleased with the state of his palace, one thing is missing: An attractive, young, virginal concubine, who of course is also a frog. So off Ashe goes to the pet store (accompanied by First Violin at all times!) trying to find an appropriate frog - which requires several trips, and the mostly-ineffectual Life magic assistance of Bill, before he can find an appropriate frog. When the mission is finally accomplished, and when Justin has returned from learning Death magic with Temperance, Buffalo's Unfortunate ditch their bodyguards to hear out the witness that Sraddor has promised to produce.
I don't remember the exact title of the witness, which sucks because it was important, but I do remember that the idea was that she was the prophetess Cassandra from Greek myth. She witnessed Hancock's ritual, and tells Buffalo's Unfortunate that he was not attempting to break McKinley's Curse as he claimed. Rather, he was indeed attempting to reach across to the Supernal Realms, although it doesn't seem that he was so much trying to build a bridge as send a message to one of his deceased cabalmates, Washington. The message that was sent, before something or someone interrupted the ritual was, "Rebuild the fallen Watchtowers. We're sending-" Buffalo's Unfortunate are rather shocked by this information, since they had really wanted to believe and trust Hancock - and now, he's either lying or confused, or both.
Buffalo's Unfortunate thank Cassandra and immediately head over to Hancock's self-imposed prison, demanding to know what's going on. At this point, Hancock finally comes clean and admits that he doesn't really remember what he was trying to do, or what happened at the ritual, or anything at all until the ritual was over. He wanted Buffalo's Unfortunate to think well of him, which they still do; however, the fact remains that if Hancock's account isn't correct and the rumors going around aren't entirely correct, what really happened on that night?
During a long conversation with Hancock a number of ideas and bits of information are addressed:
- Perhaps most importantly, Buffalo's Unfortunate tell Hancock the truth about their origin and their uncommon Watchtowers; could this possibly be what the message is referring to? They also tell Hancock about the existence of the Oracle and Ezra James and the fact that Ezra James knows their true names, although neither woman is anybody that Hancock is familiar with.
- Hancock's recent ritual was not the first time he reached into the Supernal Realms. A number of years ago, Hancock and his old cabal contacted Arcadia successfully; they later attempted to physically enter the realm, but did not succeed. It was at this time that Washington and a number of other mages died.
- A large amount of mana was expended during Hancock's unsuccessful ritual, more mana than most mages will ever see in a lifetime. Some of this mana was probably misdirected into the Twilight Curse that currently exists, but a large amount of it is unaccounted for. That mana must have gone somewhere and produced some sort of effect, but what was it?
- Hancock also confirms something that Buffalo's Unfortunate have suspected for a long time now, which is that there is a lot more truth and wisdom in what Tuxedo/Chilly Willy says when people first meet him than the University and many others want to believe.
- The idea of the Exarchs being involved on one side or another of this was also bandied about, but nothing was proven for certain since it's pretty hard to tell what the Exarchs are ever doing anyway.
By the end of the conversation, Buffalo's Unfortunate are convinced enough of the quality of Hancock's character to agree to support him in the Consilium, regardless of whether what he told them originally was true or not. Although it feels good to commit to something for certain, the fact remains that Buffalo's Unfortunate have a hard road ahead of them if they're going to support an unpopular candidate while already not being the most popular of mages themselves.
ETA: Okay, there's a lot of errors in that summary, so I'm just going to ask you to see dayzdark's comment here to get the real story about the parts I messed up.
Equally importantly: Happy 40th birthday (!) to Jeff Buckley. You are sorely missed.
And now for something completely different: A much-delayed Mage recap, covering two sessions. Let's see how much of this I even remember.
For once, Justin gets up early on Saturday morning in order to stake out the Church of Plenty. He doesn't learn much, although he notes that there is a small group of people gathered in the backyard of the church building for what appears to be the funeral of a child. During the stakeout, Ashe and Bill do some more research into the Church of Plenty, but don't find out much of anything that they don't already know - i.e. small church, run by mages, based upon the idea that God wants people to be rich and the richer that you are the more in favor with God you are, etc. (Though this did lead to my favorite quote of the game so far: "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal financial advisor?")
In the middle of the afternoon, a large box of documents written in High Speech is delivered to Bill's house. It turns out to be full of documents pertaining to Hancock's upcoming trial. It seems to be expected that Buffalo's Unfortunate, like all the other mages in Buffalo, should familiarize themselves with its contents before attending the trial - which is bad news for Justin, who still doesn't understand High Speech. Ashe and Bill give up on the Church of Plenty for the time being and start learning about the case that is being built against Hancock.
Eventually, Justin gives up on the stakeout and returns to Bill's house to tell the others that he found a whole lot of nothing. Realizing that they're not going to get any farther on their own, Buffalo's Unfortunate convice Justin to ask Temperance about Samsara and the people associated with it. Justin meets Temperance at the bookstore, but right away the Q&A session doesn't go exactly as planned when Temperance learns that Justin has been to Samsara and starts grilling him about its location. Only after Temperance has made a mysterious phone call to the higher-ups in the Consilium does Justin learn that Samsara is apparently a Seers of the Throne bar which moves around and which nobody in the Consilium has been able to locate for months! After a quick explanation of who the Seers of the Throne are and what they do, Temperance sends Justin on his way with strict orders not to go back to Samsara if he values his place in the Consilium.
When Justin fills the others in on the truth about Samsara, Ashe freaks out a little and decides to check up on the bar via scrying. When he looks in, the String Quartet is in the process of shooting up the bar and capturing the cabal of Wicked Witches, though the bartender and many of the other major players seem to have fled. Ashe then decides to switch his scrying over to the members of the fake Beatles cabal from the night before (I think that was it anyway - don't remember exactly how he found this next part out) and ends up peering in on the inside of an SUV where a man in clerical vestments is talking about the need to find the people who revealed Samsara's location. It would appear that Buffalo's Unfortunate need to get out of town for a little while.
Deciding that they need to orchestrate an escape that doesn't involve anyone in mage society, Ashe and Justin reluctantly call up Keith and ask him to find a place where they can hide out for the night. After some gloating, Keith introduces Buffalo's Unfortunate to his good friend Samuel Haight, an aging poser goth who lives in a large and expensive house just outside of Buffalo. Ashe, Bill, and Justin spend a memorable night contending with spooky organ music, bedrooms decorated with racks and sarcophagi, and some sort of "Sabbat meeting"/really lame party going on in the basement, but experience no further problems.
Since staying at Sam Haight's place is obviously not a permanent solution, Buffalo's Unfortunate head back into town in the morning having decide that it's time to call for the Consilium's help and ask for some protection. After all, Buffalo's Unfortunate found a place that no one else could find and, however, unwittingly, alerted their leaders to the existence of a dangerous organization; it's the least the Consilium can do to offer them some protection from the people they've pissed off. Buffalo's Unfortunate arrange a meeting with Prudence to ask for just that, but strangely enough Prudence is less than receptive to that request. Buffalo's Unfortunate practically have to cajole and browbeat her into agreeing to have a protective ward set up around Bill's house and arranging for the String Quartet to serve as bodyguards until this all blows over - but then again, by now Buffalo's Unfortunate should hardly be surprised when their requests are met with disinterest from their leaders.
The next day, Ashe's hard work on his dollhouse pays off when Sraddor returns to inhabit it. Although he is pleased with the state of his palace, one thing is missing: An attractive, young, virginal concubine, who of course is also a frog. So off Ashe goes to the pet store (accompanied by First Violin at all times!) trying to find an appropriate frog - which requires several trips, and the mostly-ineffectual Life magic assistance of Bill, before he can find an appropriate frog. When the mission is finally accomplished, and when Justin has returned from learning Death magic with Temperance, Buffalo's Unfortunate ditch their bodyguards to hear out the witness that Sraddor has promised to produce.
I don't remember the exact title of the witness, which sucks because it was important, but I do remember that the idea was that she was the prophetess Cassandra from Greek myth. She witnessed Hancock's ritual, and tells Buffalo's Unfortunate that he was not attempting to break McKinley's Curse as he claimed. Rather, he was indeed attempting to reach across to the Supernal Realms, although it doesn't seem that he was so much trying to build a bridge as send a message to one of his deceased cabalmates, Washington. The message that was sent, before something or someone interrupted the ritual was, "Rebuild the fallen Watchtowers. We're sending-" Buffalo's Unfortunate are rather shocked by this information, since they had really wanted to believe and trust Hancock - and now, he's either lying or confused, or both.
Buffalo's Unfortunate thank Cassandra and immediately head over to Hancock's self-imposed prison, demanding to know what's going on. At this point, Hancock finally comes clean and admits that he doesn't really remember what he was trying to do, or what happened at the ritual, or anything at all until the ritual was over. He wanted Buffalo's Unfortunate to think well of him, which they still do; however, the fact remains that if Hancock's account isn't correct and the rumors going around aren't entirely correct, what really happened on that night?
During a long conversation with Hancock a number of ideas and bits of information are addressed:
- Perhaps most importantly, Buffalo's Unfortunate tell Hancock the truth about their origin and their uncommon Watchtowers; could this possibly be what the message is referring to? They also tell Hancock about the existence of the Oracle and Ezra James and the fact that Ezra James knows their true names, although neither woman is anybody that Hancock is familiar with.
- Hancock's recent ritual was not the first time he reached into the Supernal Realms. A number of years ago, Hancock and his old cabal contacted Arcadia successfully; they later attempted to physically enter the realm, but did not succeed. It was at this time that Washington and a number of other mages died.
- A large amount of mana was expended during Hancock's unsuccessful ritual, more mana than most mages will ever see in a lifetime. Some of this mana was probably misdirected into the Twilight Curse that currently exists, but a large amount of it is unaccounted for. That mana must have gone somewhere and produced some sort of effect, but what was it?
- Hancock also confirms something that Buffalo's Unfortunate have suspected for a long time now, which is that there is a lot more truth and wisdom in what Tuxedo/Chilly Willy says when people first meet him than the University and many others want to believe.
- The idea of the Exarchs being involved on one side or another of this was also bandied about, but nothing was proven for certain since it's pretty hard to tell what the Exarchs are ever doing anyway.
By the end of the conversation, Buffalo's Unfortunate are convinced enough of the quality of Hancock's character to agree to support him in the Consilium, regardless of whether what he told them originally was true or not. Although it feels good to commit to something for certain, the fact remains that Buffalo's Unfortunate have a hard road ahead of them if they're going to support an unpopular candidate while already not being the most popular of mages themselves.
ETA: Okay, there's a lot of errors in that summary, so I'm just going to ask you to see dayzdark's comment here to get the real story about the parts I messed up.