Gloria Mundi Update
Last session, the characters met up with Kathryn and tried looking for Clint. This session, they went and visited Dr. Amanda Kether at Harvard.
They didn't really beat about the bush, they pretty much laid the "mage" card on the table. She explained that anyone who Awakened on campus belonged to the Throne, and was surprised that it had taken this long to grab Clint. She also said, though, that it wasn't her faction (yes, there are factions within the Seers) that grabbed him - she was more subtle. She took a phone call during the meeting, and then said she'd help them but to meet her later.
Kathryn went to class, Ogma and Tyrrhenus hit a bar for a while. And then they met up again for dinner (off campus) and Kether explained that Clint was being held in the Asylum. At first, Tyrrhenus thought she meant Danvers, but no, it's...well, not much better than that. The Asylum, she said, is a Seer facility run by the Gray Pope, probably the most powerful Seer in Boston. There, Clint would get what she called the "Room 101" treatment until he joined the Throne. The characters, while admitting that everything they knew about the Seers they'd heard from the Consilium (and they didn't trust the Consilium), decided that this sort of treatment wasn't to be tolerated - he should at least have a choice about what he wanted to do. So, using an address they got from Kether, they trekked out to the Asylum.
Looking at the unassuming building magically, they realized it was heavily warded and almost a null-zone for magical detection, at least on the outside. Kathryn, impatient, knocked and the door opened. Walking in, they felt all of their standing spells drop, but were otherwise unharmed. Ogma, though, suddenly found himself very drunk. They found a man in a white suit sitting at a desk inside, and he asked them to turn on the light. Kathryn, innocently, did, and she and Ogma vanished.
Tyrrhenus, along with the man, found himself attacked by the same thugs who had jumped Clint the night before. He found against them a bit, but realized that they'd beat him to death if he let them. In a moment of ingenuity, he dispeled the Mind spell holding them in thrall, and they fled. The man disappeared, but not before calling Tyrrhenus the "boy king."
Ogma, meanwhile, appeared in a basement. Alone and still drunk, he groped around a bit, and finally heard a voice. The man talking to him said that Ogma was insignificant, that everyone around hiim ignored him and wasn't he tired of it? He made reference to things that he'd seen - dumping Napier into the river, Kali killing people, and Ogma's ambition to become a Subtle One. At this last, the room faded and Ogma found himself in a pub, but couldn't catch anyone's eye to get a drink or get anyone's attention. This, said the voice, was what being a Subtle One was like - there's a fine line between being inconspicuous and being ignored. "Do you really exist?" he asked.
Kathryn appeared in a forest, but the forest was poisoned and oily. Zombified hands reached up through the earth. Recognizing the scene from her Awakening, she ran to find her magic flower (it's an Artifact she brought back with her), but that was poisoned and dead, too. She heard her sister's (Kali) voice saying that everything would come to death eventually, that this was the last transition. Kathryn ran and ended up on a cliff with Kali standing behind her. Over the cliff was the ocean, but oily and toxic. They talked some more, Kathryn expressing disbelief that Kali would want this, and Kali responded that after the Rise she would be queen. The ground crumbled away and dropped her into the drink. She swam toward shore and saw Kali on a throne made of still-animate zombies, and finally decided that this couldn't be her sister, since her sister wouldn't hurt her. Kali changed into the man in white, then, and remarked that this was all fairly grotesque, but it was a true depiction of her sister's mind. Kathryn denied it and asked to be taken back to her friends, and the man agreed, saying that it didn't really matter - he just wanted to kill the "boy king" and then get to work on Ogma and Kathryn. Scene fades, and she was in a room with a one-way mirror...
Tyrrhenus, meantime, had kept wandering and found room 101. Forcing the door, he found Clint, who was concious but spacy. Using Prime to dispel the magic on him, Clint said that he'd kept his mind intact by creating a kind of "loop" in his conciousness; it slowed him down but kept him lucid. Tyrrhenus asked if he could find Ogma with Space magic. Clint tried, but only had a chance die...and I got a 1. Love it.
Clint closed his eyes, but when he opened them there was no eyeball, just blackness. The voice that came from his throat wasn't his, but a deep and resonant echo of the void. Tyrrhenus reached forward to steady him and felt his arm go cold. The creature inhabiting Clint's body said that they had switched places; Clint had "opened the wrong window." It said that it would switch back, but it didn't know how. It also mentioned that someone was behind the mirror. Tyrrhenus hadn't noticed the mirror in the room (your eyes tend to slide off of details like that in the Asylum), but he threw the chair through it and found Kathryn.
The three of them trekked back to the room where they'd found the man in white originally. They found Ogma there (he'd teleported out of the pub), but he couldn't see or touch them. They stumbled around a bit, trying to communicate, until Kathryn realized that there was a Life spell on Ogma. Tyrrhenus countered it, sobering him up and bringing him into synch with them, and they made to leave...but Void, still living in Clint's body, said that he couldn't. The place was so heavily warded that if the body left without Clint in it, his soul would be sundered. They had to find the center of this labyrinth.
Kathryn called up a pain-spirit (really, just summoned what was around and a pain-spirit answered), who agreed to help them when Tyrrhenus said that there would be pain if they found the man in white. Moving through the little tricks of vision and Phatasmal illusions, they reached the basement, and found the Gray Pope (the man in white, y'know). Fighting him was hard...for everyone but Tyrrhenus, who didn't seem affected by his armor spells. Void prevented any other windows from opening (that is, from the Pope getting reinforcments), and eventually he managed a Branding Paradox. The Pope's skin turned jet black and he crumpled in horror. Tyrrhenus grabbed him and told him to drop his spells and let them go, and leave him and his cabal alone.
Void gave Clint back his body at the door, and Clint, after vomiting, agreed that going back to Harvard would be bad. The Seers, he said, were crazy. The Exarchs - the beings they worshipped - weren't human. They were dead gods that predated humanity.
And with that little tidbit, we ended this story. We're not playing for a while due to the vageries of Origins, but that gives me time to read Secrets of the Ruined Temple and figure out what's up next.
They didn't really beat about the bush, they pretty much laid the "mage" card on the table. She explained that anyone who Awakened on campus belonged to the Throne, and was surprised that it had taken this long to grab Clint. She also said, though, that it wasn't her faction (yes, there are factions within the Seers) that grabbed him - she was more subtle. She took a phone call during the meeting, and then said she'd help them but to meet her later.
Kathryn went to class, Ogma and Tyrrhenus hit a bar for a while. And then they met up again for dinner (off campus) and Kether explained that Clint was being held in the Asylum. At first, Tyrrhenus thought she meant Danvers, but no, it's...well, not much better than that. The Asylum, she said, is a Seer facility run by the Gray Pope, probably the most powerful Seer in Boston. There, Clint would get what she called the "Room 101" treatment until he joined the Throne. The characters, while admitting that everything they knew about the Seers they'd heard from the Consilium (and they didn't trust the Consilium), decided that this sort of treatment wasn't to be tolerated - he should at least have a choice about what he wanted to do. So, using an address they got from Kether, they trekked out to the Asylum.
Looking at the unassuming building magically, they realized it was heavily warded and almost a null-zone for magical detection, at least on the outside. Kathryn, impatient, knocked and the door opened. Walking in, they felt all of their standing spells drop, but were otherwise unharmed. Ogma, though, suddenly found himself very drunk. They found a man in a white suit sitting at a desk inside, and he asked them to turn on the light. Kathryn, innocently, did, and she and Ogma vanished.
Tyrrhenus, along with the man, found himself attacked by the same thugs who had jumped Clint the night before. He found against them a bit, but realized that they'd beat him to death if he let them. In a moment of ingenuity, he dispeled the Mind spell holding them in thrall, and they fled. The man disappeared, but not before calling Tyrrhenus the "boy king."
Ogma, meanwhile, appeared in a basement. Alone and still drunk, he groped around a bit, and finally heard a voice. The man talking to him said that Ogma was insignificant, that everyone around hiim ignored him and wasn't he tired of it? He made reference to things that he'd seen - dumping Napier into the river, Kali killing people, and Ogma's ambition to become a Subtle One. At this last, the room faded and Ogma found himself in a pub, but couldn't catch anyone's eye to get a drink or get anyone's attention. This, said the voice, was what being a Subtle One was like - there's a fine line between being inconspicuous and being ignored. "Do you really exist?" he asked.
Kathryn appeared in a forest, but the forest was poisoned and oily. Zombified hands reached up through the earth. Recognizing the scene from her Awakening, she ran to find her magic flower (it's an Artifact she brought back with her), but that was poisoned and dead, too. She heard her sister's (Kali) voice saying that everything would come to death eventually, that this was the last transition. Kathryn ran and ended up on a cliff with Kali standing behind her. Over the cliff was the ocean, but oily and toxic. They talked some more, Kathryn expressing disbelief that Kali would want this, and Kali responded that after the Rise she would be queen. The ground crumbled away and dropped her into the drink. She swam toward shore and saw Kali on a throne made of still-animate zombies, and finally decided that this couldn't be her sister, since her sister wouldn't hurt her. Kali changed into the man in white, then, and remarked that this was all fairly grotesque, but it was a true depiction of her sister's mind. Kathryn denied it and asked to be taken back to her friends, and the man agreed, saying that it didn't really matter - he just wanted to kill the "boy king" and then get to work on Ogma and Kathryn. Scene fades, and she was in a room with a one-way mirror...
Tyrrhenus, meantime, had kept wandering and found room 101. Forcing the door, he found Clint, who was concious but spacy. Using Prime to dispel the magic on him, Clint said that he'd kept his mind intact by creating a kind of "loop" in his conciousness; it slowed him down but kept him lucid. Tyrrhenus asked if he could find Ogma with Space magic. Clint tried, but only had a chance die...and I got a 1. Love it.
Clint closed his eyes, but when he opened them there was no eyeball, just blackness. The voice that came from his throat wasn't his, but a deep and resonant echo of the void. Tyrrhenus reached forward to steady him and felt his arm go cold. The creature inhabiting Clint's body said that they had switched places; Clint had "opened the wrong window." It said that it would switch back, but it didn't know how. It also mentioned that someone was behind the mirror. Tyrrhenus hadn't noticed the mirror in the room (your eyes tend to slide off of details like that in the Asylum), but he threw the chair through it and found Kathryn.
The three of them trekked back to the room where they'd found the man in white originally. They found Ogma there (he'd teleported out of the pub), but he couldn't see or touch them. They stumbled around a bit, trying to communicate, until Kathryn realized that there was a Life spell on Ogma. Tyrrhenus countered it, sobering him up and bringing him into synch with them, and they made to leave...but Void, still living in Clint's body, said that he couldn't. The place was so heavily warded that if the body left without Clint in it, his soul would be sundered. They had to find the center of this labyrinth.
Kathryn called up a pain-spirit (really, just summoned what was around and a pain-spirit answered), who agreed to help them when Tyrrhenus said that there would be pain if they found the man in white. Moving through the little tricks of vision and Phatasmal illusions, they reached the basement, and found the Gray Pope (the man in white, y'know). Fighting him was hard...for everyone but Tyrrhenus, who didn't seem affected by his armor spells. Void prevented any other windows from opening (that is, from the Pope getting reinforcments), and eventually he managed a Branding Paradox. The Pope's skin turned jet black and he crumpled in horror. Tyrrhenus grabbed him and told him to drop his spells and let them go, and leave him and his cabal alone.
Void gave Clint back his body at the door, and Clint, after vomiting, agreed that going back to Harvard would be bad. The Seers, he said, were crazy. The Exarchs - the beings they worshipped - weren't human. They were dead gods that predated humanity.
And with that little tidbit, we ended this story. We're not playing for a while due to the vageries of Origins, but that gives me time to read Secrets of the Ruined Temple and figure out what's up next.