Scion - Petro Campaign - Session 105
Whew. So, things in 1943 Sarajevo were just as hectic as we expected, but not for the reasons we expected. Seems like moon-beasts got a little tired of us screwing up their plans, so this time, they decided to take care of the problem at the source, and were waiting to ambush us as soon as we showed up. >_<
But I'll get to that. Last entry I talked about our trip to visit Baba Yaga and October. With that out the way, we were ready to visit the last time anomaly, which was located in an old church in Sarajevo. It was a beautiful structure, really, though unfortunately weathered by lack of repair and pockmarked with signs of the turmoil that has plagued the city for years. The time anomaly was in the cellars, much like the cathedral in Strasbourg.
I was really looking forward to arriving since we knew that Mercedes and two other members of her team were guarding the portal. So when we got there and I saw Mercedes, I couldn't help but run up to her, and share with her a passionate kiss. She obviously felt the same way. ^__^ <3 I think our PDA made the others a bit uncomfortable, considering I'm married to three other women, but they don't understand how my existence works. And the don't understand the power of the fatebond that connects me and Mercedes.
Anyway, while Mercedes and I were catching up and making plans for her to come visit me in Yomi again once this is all over, Adam and Charles discussed the anomaly with Tina and Ike. It turns out a big flock of nightgaunts had swept through the church less than a day earlier, and they couldn't stop them all from entering the time anomaly. Great, more nightgaunts, with their tickling fingers. >_<
Seriously, don't laugh! It's not like they tickle for fun. Their tickling is damned uncomofrtable, and I'd really rather not be molested like that again. >_<
Anyway, forewarned of trouble, we entered the anomaly and came out in 1943. But before we so much as took two steps, Elisa stopped us and pointed out several crystals set into the corners of a large cellar room that lay between the anomaly and the stairs up to the main sanctuary. Adam surmised from the subtle, acrid smell produced by the crystals that they were some sort of trap, probably tuned to react explosively to divine ichor. If we walked into the room, KABOOOM! O_O
But Elisa took care of it. She cut herself, dripped a little blood on a throwing knife, and then threw it into the chamber, setting off the explosive crystals, which completely demolished the one room, but fortunately, given their semi-mystical nature, didn't cause much in the way of collateral damage to the rest of the church. I mean, the church is still standing in modern day, so destroying it, or burying the time anomaly, could cause some nasty changes to the time stream or even leave us stranded here!
So, with that threat neutralized, we moved on into the sanctuary, but again, Elisa stopped us before we emerged into the vast main chamber of the church (which, honestly, was really more like a cathedral). She heard things moving upstairs. Big things. Probably gugs. >_< And from the sound of it, she thought there might be several of them, no doubt lurking in the sanctuary. I mean, it's not like there's a lot of mortal traffic through the church right now in the middle of a war zone.
It was pretty obvious they'd decided to just cut to the chase and ambush us as soon as we arrived, so we decided to spring the ambush. In a carefully coordinated maneuver, we emerged from the cellars and into the sanctuary. It turns out there was a lot more than just eight gugs up there. Two moon-beats hid in the church's lofty rafters, along with a couple dozen nightgaunts, a few satyrs, and (of course) two Taotie masks.
By now, we're a pretty efficient team. So within a split second of emerging and taking stock of the situation, Elisa, Charles, and Adam managed to assassinate three of the gugs, T-Bone smashed both taotie masks into dust, and I infected the nightgaunts with a wasting disease that killed every last one of them instantly ('cause let's face it, the LAST thing we needed was for them to start carrying us off one by one). Then, before the nightgaunt's bodies even hit the ground, I turned on four of the gugs and unleashed my full divine beauty, which up to that point had been hidden, since we weren't supposed to be drawing much attention to ourselves. The gugs were entranced, leaving only one active alongside the moon beasts and the satyrs.
And that's when things got interesting.
Unfortunately, before they were destroyed, the taotie masks had infected Elisa with the same contagious madness we've seen them use before. She and Pierre both became lost in a daze. Fortunately, after he bashed in the heads of the remaining satyrs to prevent them from playing their incestuous music, T-Bone was able to cleanse the insanity from their minds, and they rejoined the fight. Good thing, too. We needed them.
The masks also tried to switch my mind with Elisa's...again. I mean, what the hell? Do we look like we want our minds switched? Do they really think Elisa's mind would look good in my super-hot body? Well, actually, it probably would. But that's beside the point. They pick us every single f**king time! I'm beginning to feel persecuted! Seriously, though, it's really for the best. My own mental contortions allow me to shrug off the effect, which saves us both. It would be a disaster if they ever caught, say, Pierre and Elisa or T-Bone and Elisa with a mind-swap.
Okay, so while all that was going on, Adam and Charles finished off another gug and opened up on the moon-beasts. But the moon-beasts were too quick. They revealed a couple of crystals similar to those used in the trap in the cellars, and tossed them on the sanctuary floor in our midst. We all dove for cover, fearing they were anti-god grenades or something, but when they hit the ground, they just stuck in the floor, vibrating madly for a moment before shattering harmlessly.
Then the moon-beasts teleported away, and that's when the tremors began. They weren't earthquake tremors. They were the tremors of something big tunneling through the ground toward us, no doubt drawn by the moon-beasts' crystals. Visions of sandworms and helmenth danced through my head, and we all kinda looked at one another nervously, wondering what the hell was coming.
But we stood our ground. Elisa, Adam, and Charles all focused fire on the four remaining gugs who were still entranced by my beauty, hoping to wipe them out before whatever was coming arrived. Meanwhile, Pierre stood in the center of the church, his arms thrown wide, and channeled his power over the earth the hold the stonework walls of the building together sot that the tremors and whatever was causing them would not destroy it. I gotta tell ya, Pierre was amazing!
Then the dholes burst from the ground. I should have expected them. After all, most of the moon-beasts' servants are beings written about by Lovecraft in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath." There were two of them, and they were immense, bone-white worms like maggots that had feasted on the corpses of titans since the beginning of time. I have no idea how long they were, as their bodies extended deep into the earth beneath the sanctuary.
We knew we couldn't handle the dholes. but we also knew we couldn't let them rampage through Sarajevo. The changes to the time stream would be catastrophic! So we fought. Well, some of us did...
The dholes smashed their heads to and fro, crashing into us with the force of mountains. I was hit twice, the first almost knocking me unconscious and the second forcing me to shed my corpse, which lay broken upon the rippling stones of the church before decaying away. Charles and Adam both took hits as well. Meanwhile, Elisa, Adam and Charles opened up with concentrated gunfire on one of the worms, but while their shots managed to pierce the beast's stony hide, the wounds they caused did little more than agitate it.
We needed support, and fast. So I grabbed October's papers and the medal proving he sent us from Charles, then took T-Bone's hand and dragged him after me out of the church. Once outside, I could glimpse the faces of several staring mortals, no doubt members of the Risen Masses. I held the papers and medal aloft and asked them to have their leader send reinforcements immediately. I even channeled the power of my divine charisma to make the urgency and seriousness of the situation unmistakable.
Unfortunately, while one of the dholes remained in the church, fighting our friends, the other smashed its way out of the church (though actually I think Pierre moved the stones to make way for it so that it wouldn't damage the building). It continued attacking T-Bone and I, and that's when T-Bone did something shocking. With the dhole bearing down on us and me having taken two crushing hits already, he grabbed me, kissed me passionately, and then pushed me away behind cover. He tried to draw the dhole's attention, and I saw then that he'd used his illusions to make himself look like me! And I looked like him! He was going to sacrifice himself to save me! I was horrified. The dhole bore down on him and a swipe of its body sent T-Bone flying through the air. I cried out...but then realized that T-Bone was safe. Much like me, he can shed his corpse. But if the dhole continued attacking him, he was going to die! T_T
[Private Entry - T-Bone's Kiss]
When T-Bone switched our identities to save me from the dhole, I was horrified, but also shocked by what the gesture really meant. I mean, the kiss proved beyond a doubt what I've strongly suspected now for some time. T-Bone is in love with me, and has been for a long time, maybe almost as long as I've known him. There's no question in my mind about it now.
I wish it weren't true. T-Bone is precious to me; he's one of my best friends, almost despite himself. But I'm not in love with him. Not like he is with me. And I'm not sure how to deal with it. He's hidden it for so long...and I don't know if Dahlia would ever forgive me if she found out. Then again, she may already know...or at least suspect.
T-Bone and I should talk about it, but I fear that might complicate things more than they already are...
[End private entry]
I thought the dhole was going to kill T-bone, but then Romulus showed up. The Roman god, bearing his mighty spear and clad in wolf hides and armor, charged the dhole, and with a single piercing blow that called upon the ultimate power of his divine strength, he slew the worm with a single hit. He then turned to T-Bone and me, curious about who we were and what was going on. T-Bone dropped his illusions then, letting us return to our distinct appearances, and I stepped forward and told Romulus that other gods were fighting another such beast in the church, and that we were not from this time or place. I tried to charm him a little, and aked him not to hurt the members of the Allied pantheons; I could explain everything once all of this was over. He seemed taken with my beauty and grace. As he nodded in agreement and began making his way into the church, he smiled confidently in a way that belied the lust he felt for me, and said, "We'll work something out." The Dodekatheon is sickeningly chauvanistic...
As T-Bone and I moved to follow Romulus in, though, another god showed up: Ares. The war god stomped onto the scene, spoiling for a fight, and I turned and respectfully directed him toward the church, feeling a bit like a hostess at a party. But by the time Ares, T-Bone and I entered the church, the second dhole was dead. Romulus had struck it once, for some damage, but it was Adam, Charles and Elisa who slew it. Charles and Elisa both split into multiple copies of themselves to pepper the beast with gunfire, and eventually their acrobatic swarm tactics wore it down and it died.
Pierre had managed to keep the church more-or-less intact, and with the threat eliminated, he opened two massive pits in the ground to bury the dholes. At this point, though, we could hear approaching forces. Ares and Romulus warned us that the Russians were coming, and that we had best make ourselves scarce. Romulus was going to teleport us away, but T-Bone fast-talked them into letting us stay and deal with the Russian forces. So in the end, it was just us, and we walked calmly out the door to greet October and Baba Yaga...
But I'll get to that. Last entry I talked about our trip to visit Baba Yaga and October. With that out the way, we were ready to visit the last time anomaly, which was located in an old church in Sarajevo. It was a beautiful structure, really, though unfortunately weathered by lack of repair and pockmarked with signs of the turmoil that has plagued the city for years. The time anomaly was in the cellars, much like the cathedral in Strasbourg.
I was really looking forward to arriving since we knew that Mercedes and two other members of her team were guarding the portal. So when we got there and I saw Mercedes, I couldn't help but run up to her, and share with her a passionate kiss. She obviously felt the same way. ^__^ <3 I think our PDA made the others a bit uncomfortable, considering I'm married to three other women, but they don't understand how my existence works. And the don't understand the power of the fatebond that connects me and Mercedes.
Anyway, while Mercedes and I were catching up and making plans for her to come visit me in Yomi again once this is all over, Adam and Charles discussed the anomaly with Tina and Ike. It turns out a big flock of nightgaunts had swept through the church less than a day earlier, and they couldn't stop them all from entering the time anomaly. Great, more nightgaunts, with their tickling fingers. >_<
Seriously, don't laugh! It's not like they tickle for fun. Their tickling is damned uncomofrtable, and I'd really rather not be molested like that again. >_<
Anyway, forewarned of trouble, we entered the anomaly and came out in 1943. But before we so much as took two steps, Elisa stopped us and pointed out several crystals set into the corners of a large cellar room that lay between the anomaly and the stairs up to the main sanctuary. Adam surmised from the subtle, acrid smell produced by the crystals that they were some sort of trap, probably tuned to react explosively to divine ichor. If we walked into the room, KABOOOM! O_O
But Elisa took care of it. She cut herself, dripped a little blood on a throwing knife, and then threw it into the chamber, setting off the explosive crystals, which completely demolished the one room, but fortunately, given their semi-mystical nature, didn't cause much in the way of collateral damage to the rest of the church. I mean, the church is still standing in modern day, so destroying it, or burying the time anomaly, could cause some nasty changes to the time stream or even leave us stranded here!
So, with that threat neutralized, we moved on into the sanctuary, but again, Elisa stopped us before we emerged into the vast main chamber of the church (which, honestly, was really more like a cathedral). She heard things moving upstairs. Big things. Probably gugs. >_< And from the sound of it, she thought there might be several of them, no doubt lurking in the sanctuary. I mean, it's not like there's a lot of mortal traffic through the church right now in the middle of a war zone.
It was pretty obvious they'd decided to just cut to the chase and ambush us as soon as we arrived, so we decided to spring the ambush. In a carefully coordinated maneuver, we emerged from the cellars and into the sanctuary. It turns out there was a lot more than just eight gugs up there. Two moon-beats hid in the church's lofty rafters, along with a couple dozen nightgaunts, a few satyrs, and (of course) two Taotie masks.
By now, we're a pretty efficient team. So within a split second of emerging and taking stock of the situation, Elisa, Charles, and Adam managed to assassinate three of the gugs, T-Bone smashed both taotie masks into dust, and I infected the nightgaunts with a wasting disease that killed every last one of them instantly ('cause let's face it, the LAST thing we needed was for them to start carrying us off one by one). Then, before the nightgaunt's bodies even hit the ground, I turned on four of the gugs and unleashed my full divine beauty, which up to that point had been hidden, since we weren't supposed to be drawing much attention to ourselves. The gugs were entranced, leaving only one active alongside the moon beasts and the satyrs.
And that's when things got interesting.
Unfortunately, before they were destroyed, the taotie masks had infected Elisa with the same contagious madness we've seen them use before. She and Pierre both became lost in a daze. Fortunately, after he bashed in the heads of the remaining satyrs to prevent them from playing their incestuous music, T-Bone was able to cleanse the insanity from their minds, and they rejoined the fight. Good thing, too. We needed them.
The masks also tried to switch my mind with Elisa's...again. I mean, what the hell? Do we look like we want our minds switched? Do they really think Elisa's mind would look good in my super-hot body? Well, actually, it probably would. But that's beside the point. They pick us every single f**king time! I'm beginning to feel persecuted! Seriously, though, it's really for the best. My own mental contortions allow me to shrug off the effect, which saves us both. It would be a disaster if they ever caught, say, Pierre and Elisa or T-Bone and Elisa with a mind-swap.
Okay, so while all that was going on, Adam and Charles finished off another gug and opened up on the moon-beasts. But the moon-beasts were too quick. They revealed a couple of crystals similar to those used in the trap in the cellars, and tossed them on the sanctuary floor in our midst. We all dove for cover, fearing they were anti-god grenades or something, but when they hit the ground, they just stuck in the floor, vibrating madly for a moment before shattering harmlessly.
Then the moon-beasts teleported away, and that's when the tremors began. They weren't earthquake tremors. They were the tremors of something big tunneling through the ground toward us, no doubt drawn by the moon-beasts' crystals. Visions of sandworms and helmenth danced through my head, and we all kinda looked at one another nervously, wondering what the hell was coming.
But we stood our ground. Elisa, Adam, and Charles all focused fire on the four remaining gugs who were still entranced by my beauty, hoping to wipe them out before whatever was coming arrived. Meanwhile, Pierre stood in the center of the church, his arms thrown wide, and channeled his power over the earth the hold the stonework walls of the building together sot that the tremors and whatever was causing them would not destroy it. I gotta tell ya, Pierre was amazing!
Then the dholes burst from the ground. I should have expected them. After all, most of the moon-beasts' servants are beings written about by Lovecraft in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath." There were two of them, and they were immense, bone-white worms like maggots that had feasted on the corpses of titans since the beginning of time. I have no idea how long they were, as their bodies extended deep into the earth beneath the sanctuary.
We knew we couldn't handle the dholes. but we also knew we couldn't let them rampage through Sarajevo. The changes to the time stream would be catastrophic! So we fought. Well, some of us did...
The dholes smashed their heads to and fro, crashing into us with the force of mountains. I was hit twice, the first almost knocking me unconscious and the second forcing me to shed my corpse, which lay broken upon the rippling stones of the church before decaying away. Charles and Adam both took hits as well. Meanwhile, Elisa, Adam and Charles opened up with concentrated gunfire on one of the worms, but while their shots managed to pierce the beast's stony hide, the wounds they caused did little more than agitate it.
We needed support, and fast. So I grabbed October's papers and the medal proving he sent us from Charles, then took T-Bone's hand and dragged him after me out of the church. Once outside, I could glimpse the faces of several staring mortals, no doubt members of the Risen Masses. I held the papers and medal aloft and asked them to have their leader send reinforcements immediately. I even channeled the power of my divine charisma to make the urgency and seriousness of the situation unmistakable.
Unfortunately, while one of the dholes remained in the church, fighting our friends, the other smashed its way out of the church (though actually I think Pierre moved the stones to make way for it so that it wouldn't damage the building). It continued attacking T-Bone and I, and that's when T-Bone did something shocking. With the dhole bearing down on us and me having taken two crushing hits already, he grabbed me, kissed me passionately, and then pushed me away behind cover. He tried to draw the dhole's attention, and I saw then that he'd used his illusions to make himself look like me! And I looked like him! He was going to sacrifice himself to save me! I was horrified. The dhole bore down on him and a swipe of its body sent T-Bone flying through the air. I cried out...but then realized that T-Bone was safe. Much like me, he can shed his corpse. But if the dhole continued attacking him, he was going to die! T_T
[Private Entry - T-Bone's Kiss]
When T-Bone switched our identities to save me from the dhole, I was horrified, but also shocked by what the gesture really meant. I mean, the kiss proved beyond a doubt what I've strongly suspected now for some time. T-Bone is in love with me, and has been for a long time, maybe almost as long as I've known him. There's no question in my mind about it now.
I wish it weren't true. T-Bone is precious to me; he's one of my best friends, almost despite himself. But I'm not in love with him. Not like he is with me. And I'm not sure how to deal with it. He's hidden it for so long...and I don't know if Dahlia would ever forgive me if she found out. Then again, she may already know...or at least suspect.
T-Bone and I should talk about it, but I fear that might complicate things more than they already are...
[End private entry]
I thought the dhole was going to kill T-bone, but then Romulus showed up. The Roman god, bearing his mighty spear and clad in wolf hides and armor, charged the dhole, and with a single piercing blow that called upon the ultimate power of his divine strength, he slew the worm with a single hit. He then turned to T-Bone and me, curious about who we were and what was going on. T-Bone dropped his illusions then, letting us return to our distinct appearances, and I stepped forward and told Romulus that other gods were fighting another such beast in the church, and that we were not from this time or place. I tried to charm him a little, and aked him not to hurt the members of the Allied pantheons; I could explain everything once all of this was over. He seemed taken with my beauty and grace. As he nodded in agreement and began making his way into the church, he smiled confidently in a way that belied the lust he felt for me, and said, "We'll work something out." The Dodekatheon is sickeningly chauvanistic...
As T-Bone and I moved to follow Romulus in, though, another god showed up: Ares. The war god stomped onto the scene, spoiling for a fight, and I turned and respectfully directed him toward the church, feeling a bit like a hostess at a party. But by the time Ares, T-Bone and I entered the church, the second dhole was dead. Romulus had struck it once, for some damage, but it was Adam, Charles and Elisa who slew it. Charles and Elisa both split into multiple copies of themselves to pepper the beast with gunfire, and eventually their acrobatic swarm tactics wore it down and it died.
Pierre had managed to keep the church more-or-less intact, and with the threat eliminated, he opened two massive pits in the ground to bury the dholes. At this point, though, we could hear approaching forces. Ares and Romulus warned us that the Russians were coming, and that we had best make ourselves scarce. Romulus was going to teleport us away, but T-Bone fast-talked them into letting us stay and deal with the Russian forces. So in the end, it was just us, and we walked calmly out the door to greet October and Baba Yaga...