Gloria Mundi Spinoff: Song of the Deep
As you might recall, if you've been keeping up with Gloria Mundi, Niamh and Seraphim left Boston in late December to go on a pilgrimage to wherever the water took them. Jack had disappeared during a fight at the theater. As it happened, both players were available for a one-shot (before Niamh's rejoins the chronicle proper), so here we are.
The Characters:
So, the story opens with the Gray Waters mages about to receive a visit from Niamh and Seraphim, who are traveling south to the sea and claiming the Right of Hospitality. But about 24 hours before, the other three members of the Gray Waters cabal went out to check out spiritual turbulence in the ocean and vanished. When the out-of-towners arrived, the four mages decided they'd go have a look-see, and went to rent a boat.
While there, a young man (Garrett) ran into the boat rental place, face bleeding. Seems he'd been attacked by seagull-spirits ("Mine! Mine!") who ganked a piece of Mana out of his flesh. Seraphim recognized him as a mage and sent the spirits away with a command, and Garrett asked to go with them rather than go back on his own again. Shade and Knit, not wanting to waste time (and not wanting to look a potential gift horse in the mouth; always nice to have more magic around!) agreed.
Out on the ocean, Niamh got to put her boat-driving skills to use, and the mages cruised out into open water. They noticed the full moon hanging in the sky as the sun got low, and then they felt magic. Knit turned on her Space magic, and saw that the borders of this magical area extended to the bottom of the ocean...but was getting closer. "Turn it around! Turn the boat around!"
At that moment, Jack appeared from nowhere. To him, no time had passed since the fight at the theater, and he only had time to ask what was going on before something hit the boat. The characters used their various magic methods and found that whatever it was, it was monstrous and angry. They engaged it, and Knit actually did quite a bit of damage with Ranged Blow and her knife, but in the end, the creature reach up with a huge tentacle and swallowed Shade. It tore the boat into pieces a few seconds later, and the tentacles engulfed the other characters. (I showed them the picture of The Deep in Predators, BTW. It had the desired effect.)
Now in the belly of this beast, they looked around and saw it was covered in a pink coral-like substance...momentarily. Flesh poured into the small room, and suddenly it was covered in stone shot through with black veins of darker material. Looking closer, they realized that these veins were actually pulsating, and Garrett remembered reading about how starfish ate by extruding their digestive systems into the shells of their prey. The horrible beast that attacked their boat, then, was the inversion of this...place? (See the Living Temple in Secrets of the Ruined Temple.)
Knit scryed for her cabal and saw them in a different room, covered in a fleshy substance and unconcious - being absorbed. The mages set off to find them, and wound up in a large hall with huge pillars, embellished with Lunargent (again, SoRT) as the light source. Niamh and Jack, having been to an Atlantean temple before, recognized this kind of decor, but they had little time to ponder. Garrett, acting on Jack's instruction, looked back in time and saw Knit's cabal attacked by horrible stingray-like creatures. He yelled a warning as these beasts peeled themselves out of the pillars and swooped down.
The mages, on their guard, made short work of these creatures, and they melted back into the floor. Seraphim, an Adept of Spirit, knew that very powerful spirits could create multiple beings or objects within their spiritual purview; obviously the spirit of this place was after them. The mages found a tunnel off the side of the room that led down a "throat" into a small, flesh-covered room, wherein they found Hex, Fixer and Jolt - the other three members of Gray Waters.
The mages were poisoned with some neurotoxin to keep them asleep, but the two Thyrsus made short work of that and freed them. The spirit of the temple had been trying to claim them, it seemed. Niamh tried talking to it, and it revealed that it wanted to be free - it just needed to claim a few more mages to gain enough power to peel off from the temple and swim the seas forever. Not wanting to unleash that cthonic horror on the oceans, they refused. The flesh started to roil, but Shade called out for any ghosts nearby...and was answered.
A luminous being in a crown of coral appeared, and introduced himself as the Reef King. He said that he had helped design this place, a temple to the sea-spirits and to the Silver Ladder (post-Atlantis, obviously). They talked for a while about his role and about what the temple was and what it contained, and he told them in order to put Tha'Hon back to sleep (Tha'Hon's the temple spirit), they needed to destroy the soul stone at the center of this place.
Niamh and Seraphim, as the Thyrsus in the group (Hex is, too, but NPCs don't count) found an entrance to the chamber of the soul stone and started using magic to destroy it (Harm Spirit worked, because of the way the stone had been constructed - looked like a big pearl, BTW). Meanwhile, the flesh in the hall pulled itself into an immense worm and attacked the mages, but two exceptional successes, one each from Niamh and Seraphim, made goddamn short work of that stone and forced the spirit into dormancy. Knit opened a Portal out of there, and they left the temple in the sea, probably forever.
Gray Waters took on Garrett as a pupil, at least until he finds an order that suits him better. Niamh and Seraphim headed back up north, where they'll rejoin with their respective cabals...and find out what's killing mages in Boston.
The Characters:
- Jack: The Acanathus Free Council mage from the demo.
- Niamh: The Thyrsus Mysterium mage from the demo.
- Seraphim: Normally an NPC, he's the Thrysus Mysterium member of the Gravediggers in Boston Unveiled. danieltallon, who usually plays Morrigan, took him on for this story.
- Knit: A Mastigos of the Adamantine Arrow, and a member of a Key West cabal that hunts down ghosts and spirits that muck about with people.
- Shade: A Moros of the Arrow, also a member of that cabal (called Gray Waters, BTW).
- Garrett: A young Acanthus, a month out of his Awakening, homeless and confused.
So, the story opens with the Gray Waters mages about to receive a visit from Niamh and Seraphim, who are traveling south to the sea and claiming the Right of Hospitality. But about 24 hours before, the other three members of the Gray Waters cabal went out to check out spiritual turbulence in the ocean and vanished. When the out-of-towners arrived, the four mages decided they'd go have a look-see, and went to rent a boat.
While there, a young man (Garrett) ran into the boat rental place, face bleeding. Seems he'd been attacked by seagull-spirits ("Mine! Mine!") who ganked a piece of Mana out of his flesh. Seraphim recognized him as a mage and sent the spirits away with a command, and Garrett asked to go with them rather than go back on his own again. Shade and Knit, not wanting to waste time (and not wanting to look a potential gift horse in the mouth; always nice to have more magic around!) agreed.
Out on the ocean, Niamh got to put her boat-driving skills to use, and the mages cruised out into open water. They noticed the full moon hanging in the sky as the sun got low, and then they felt magic. Knit turned on her Space magic, and saw that the borders of this magical area extended to the bottom of the ocean...but was getting closer. "Turn it around! Turn the boat around!"
At that moment, Jack appeared from nowhere. To him, no time had passed since the fight at the theater, and he only had time to ask what was going on before something hit the boat. The characters used their various magic methods and found that whatever it was, it was monstrous and angry. They engaged it, and Knit actually did quite a bit of damage with Ranged Blow and her knife, but in the end, the creature reach up with a huge tentacle and swallowed Shade. It tore the boat into pieces a few seconds later, and the tentacles engulfed the other characters. (I showed them the picture of The Deep in Predators, BTW. It had the desired effect.)
Now in the belly of this beast, they looked around and saw it was covered in a pink coral-like substance...momentarily. Flesh poured into the small room, and suddenly it was covered in stone shot through with black veins of darker material. Looking closer, they realized that these veins were actually pulsating, and Garrett remembered reading about how starfish ate by extruding their digestive systems into the shells of their prey. The horrible beast that attacked their boat, then, was the inversion of this...place? (See the Living Temple in Secrets of the Ruined Temple.)
Knit scryed for her cabal and saw them in a different room, covered in a fleshy substance and unconcious - being absorbed. The mages set off to find them, and wound up in a large hall with huge pillars, embellished with Lunargent (again, SoRT) as the light source. Niamh and Jack, having been to an Atlantean temple before, recognized this kind of decor, but they had little time to ponder. Garrett, acting on Jack's instruction, looked back in time and saw Knit's cabal attacked by horrible stingray-like creatures. He yelled a warning as these beasts peeled themselves out of the pillars and swooped down.
The mages, on their guard, made short work of these creatures, and they melted back into the floor. Seraphim, an Adept of Spirit, knew that very powerful spirits could create multiple beings or objects within their spiritual purview; obviously the spirit of this place was after them. The mages found a tunnel off the side of the room that led down a "throat" into a small, flesh-covered room, wherein they found Hex, Fixer and Jolt - the other three members of Gray Waters.
The mages were poisoned with some neurotoxin to keep them asleep, but the two Thyrsus made short work of that and freed them. The spirit of the temple had been trying to claim them, it seemed. Niamh tried talking to it, and it revealed that it wanted to be free - it just needed to claim a few more mages to gain enough power to peel off from the temple and swim the seas forever. Not wanting to unleash that cthonic horror on the oceans, they refused. The flesh started to roil, but Shade called out for any ghosts nearby...and was answered.
A luminous being in a crown of coral appeared, and introduced himself as the Reef King. He said that he had helped design this place, a temple to the sea-spirits and to the Silver Ladder (post-Atlantis, obviously). They talked for a while about his role and about what the temple was and what it contained, and he told them in order to put Tha'Hon back to sleep (Tha'Hon's the temple spirit), they needed to destroy the soul stone at the center of this place.
Niamh and Seraphim, as the Thyrsus in the group (Hex is, too, but NPCs don't count) found an entrance to the chamber of the soul stone and started using magic to destroy it (Harm Spirit worked, because of the way the stone had been constructed - looked like a big pearl, BTW). Meanwhile, the flesh in the hall pulled itself into an immense worm and attacked the mages, but two exceptional successes, one each from Niamh and Seraphim, made goddamn short work of that stone and forced the spirit into dormancy. Knit opened a Portal out of there, and they left the temple in the sea, probably forever.
Gray Waters took on Garrett as a pupil, at least until he finds an order that suits him better. Niamh and Seraphim headed back up north, where they'll rejoin with their respective cabals...and find out what's killing mages in Boston.