Water of Life Update
Tonight was the end of the "Strangers on a Hill" story.
Recall that last time, the characters had just received a note claiming that Lighthouse was going up for auction. The seven of them (remember, the characters plus Mister January plus Persephone), talked about what to do. The general consensus was that it was a trap, but they had to go, because they couldn't just let Lighthouse potentially die.
Marty, having recently created a Promethean, figured he could use a corpse to create a sort of sub-Promethean (game terms, he just learned the Spark of Life Transmutation). Since they only knew of one good spot for corpses (the funeral home in Roxbury), they dropped Persephone and January off at a pizza joint and headed into...
...the riots. Racial tensions, worsening over the last few days, had finally spun out into a full-scale riot in Roxbury. The characters parked their van and walked part of the way, dodging trouble and finally sneaking into the funeral home. There they saw the man who'd talked to them the other day (it's not mentioned in the session, but it happened; I just never gave him a name) lying on the floor blowing blood bubbles. Jesus realized that his chest was filling up with blood, and using the tools at the sight (and Marty's Alchemicus help) gave him a chest tube to drain it off. The characters fetched a couple of gurneys from downstairs as well as a corpse, and they started wheeling both bodies out.
They saw rioters clashing with police the way they'd came, so they took the long road. Suddenly a garbage truck skidded into view, and a couple of idiots jumped out and started spraying it with gasoline. Marty decided this was a bad idea, so he animated the corpse and sent it after one of them. The other Prometheans moved in, but were too late to stop one of the men from lighting it on fire. Marty sent the zombie to drive the truck away, the police showed up and shot the guy who'd lit it (he failed a roll and pulled a gun, very sad) and took the wounded guy away. A good Persuasion roll later from Marty and they let the characters go (they weren't armed, and the cops had better things to do).
They took the T back to Persephone and January, and went to the Boston Harbor light on Little Brewster Island (renting a boat) to kill time before the auction. While waiting, a few more Prometheans showed up. A Frankenstein called Unknown Soldier, whom they'd met in New Orleans, showed up with his two throng mates (Ti Puenez and Vox Vulgus). And then another Frankenstein, called Rusty, arrived. Rusty was a strange one, talking in circles and lamenting his lost friends. From what he said, it was clear he'd gone to the wastes, but wasn't very coherent after that.
Soldier agreed that this was probably a trap, but was willing to take the chance for the opportunity to see Lighthouse (this is a change from the printed story, yes). As the characters waited, another boat arrived, this one carrying La Tempestad and a human from Roxbury - a hostage. Over a radio, a woman's voice (that Mister January identified as Ice Blue, the "pretty" he'd seen before) began the auction.
There was some argument over the terms of all of this, but Ice Blue wasn't listening to arguments. She just wanted the bids. Soldier offered assassination of her enemies. Rusty offered instruction on the Refinement of Bronze. Julia countered with Silver. And then a new voice offered the location of a living demiurge. That voice belonged to Scholar, once called Teacher, Marty's creator.
Ice Blue agreed, and Scholar, La Tempestad and the boat left. Before he left, Teacher gave Marty a letter and told him to hold on to it. The boat came back shortly, this time also carrying Lighthouse.
La Tempestad stayed, waiting. When asked for what, he said, "Enough time." Then he reached for something in his boat...
The characters sprang into action, but couldn't knock him into the boat before he activated the device. There was a thick humming sound, and as La Tempestad was knocked into the surf and subsequently beheaded by Julia (of all people), Marty noted the Russian writing on the side of the suitcase nuke.
Marty's idea was to send the boat off into the ocean, but the others (quickly) convinced him to read the writing. He did, and saw that it had a 30 second delay. Jesus and Marty, working together, quickly defused the bomb. And then the characters discussed what to do with it. Finally, they called Rogue Element, Marty left a message, and then noticed that Teacher had gone (he does that kind of thing).
Teacher's letter talked about the demiurge, Moses Moon, and how he was actually from Detroit, but had traveled to Boston as well as to Denver. Denver, in fact, was the next place that Teacher suggested.
Lighthouse offered to use his powers for the characters, and used his amped-up Scrutiny power to reveal some milestones. Jesus, he revealed, needed to confront his creator, Father Mazda. When Jesus revealed that, Rusty (who had also availed himself of Lighthouse's powers and come back convinced he needed to train Jesus on the Refinement of Bronze) said that he'd met Mazda, in a valley west of Chicago (but couldn't remember anything else). Julia, whose attempt to undergo the Scrutiny had failed, wanted to get back to Chicago to learn more about herself, so that decided the next course of action.
Hank, meanwhile, learned that he had to make a human friend. That means, he realized, he had to learn a way to mitigate Disquiet...which means staying on Stannum a while longer. Irony.
Al learned that had needed to learn about human notions of creation and rebirth.
And Marty chose not to undergo the Scrutiny, since he didn't know where the information was coming from. Felt like cheating, he said. Julia, who wanted so badly to learn her next step on the Pilgrimage, was kind of aghast.
At this point, Ogma appeared (but remember that Ogma's player, in Gloria Mundi also plays Al in this game, and I didn't have that player take Ogma's role for this snippet). He opened a magical portal and took the nuke away, thanking the characters. With that, they left.
The throng retrieved their RV and stopped at Maggie's house in western Mass for a few days while Jesus learned Bronze. Then they left Rusty, Persephone and Mister January together as a throng and moved on to the next step on the journey.
Recall that last time, the characters had just received a note claiming that Lighthouse was going up for auction. The seven of them (remember, the characters plus Mister January plus Persephone), talked about what to do. The general consensus was that it was a trap, but they had to go, because they couldn't just let Lighthouse potentially die.
Marty, having recently created a Promethean, figured he could use a corpse to create a sort of sub-Promethean (game terms, he just learned the Spark of Life Transmutation). Since they only knew of one good spot for corpses (the funeral home in Roxbury), they dropped Persephone and January off at a pizza joint and headed into...
...the riots. Racial tensions, worsening over the last few days, had finally spun out into a full-scale riot in Roxbury. The characters parked their van and walked part of the way, dodging trouble and finally sneaking into the funeral home. There they saw the man who'd talked to them the other day (it's not mentioned in the session, but it happened; I just never gave him a name) lying on the floor blowing blood bubbles. Jesus realized that his chest was filling up with blood, and using the tools at the sight (and Marty's Alchemicus help) gave him a chest tube to drain it off. The characters fetched a couple of gurneys from downstairs as well as a corpse, and they started wheeling both bodies out.
They saw rioters clashing with police the way they'd came, so they took the long road. Suddenly a garbage truck skidded into view, and a couple of idiots jumped out and started spraying it with gasoline. Marty decided this was a bad idea, so he animated the corpse and sent it after one of them. The other Prometheans moved in, but were too late to stop one of the men from lighting it on fire. Marty sent the zombie to drive the truck away, the police showed up and shot the guy who'd lit it (he failed a roll and pulled a gun, very sad) and took the wounded guy away. A good Persuasion roll later from Marty and they let the characters go (they weren't armed, and the cops had better things to do).
They took the T back to Persephone and January, and went to the Boston Harbor light on Little Brewster Island (renting a boat) to kill time before the auction. While waiting, a few more Prometheans showed up. A Frankenstein called Unknown Soldier, whom they'd met in New Orleans, showed up with his two throng mates (Ti Puenez and Vox Vulgus). And then another Frankenstein, called Rusty, arrived. Rusty was a strange one, talking in circles and lamenting his lost friends. From what he said, it was clear he'd gone to the wastes, but wasn't very coherent after that.
Soldier agreed that this was probably a trap, but was willing to take the chance for the opportunity to see Lighthouse (this is a change from the printed story, yes). As the characters waited, another boat arrived, this one carrying La Tempestad and a human from Roxbury - a hostage. Over a radio, a woman's voice (that Mister January identified as Ice Blue, the "pretty" he'd seen before) began the auction.
There was some argument over the terms of all of this, but Ice Blue wasn't listening to arguments. She just wanted the bids. Soldier offered assassination of her enemies. Rusty offered instruction on the Refinement of Bronze. Julia countered with Silver. And then a new voice offered the location of a living demiurge. That voice belonged to Scholar, once called Teacher, Marty's creator.
Ice Blue agreed, and Scholar, La Tempestad and the boat left. Before he left, Teacher gave Marty a letter and told him to hold on to it. The boat came back shortly, this time also carrying Lighthouse.
La Tempestad stayed, waiting. When asked for what, he said, "Enough time." Then he reached for something in his boat...
The characters sprang into action, but couldn't knock him into the boat before he activated the device. There was a thick humming sound, and as La Tempestad was knocked into the surf and subsequently beheaded by Julia (of all people), Marty noted the Russian writing on the side of the suitcase nuke.
Marty's idea was to send the boat off into the ocean, but the others (quickly) convinced him to read the writing. He did, and saw that it had a 30 second delay. Jesus and Marty, working together, quickly defused the bomb. And then the characters discussed what to do with it. Finally, they called Rogue Element, Marty left a message, and then noticed that Teacher had gone (he does that kind of thing).
Teacher's letter talked about the demiurge, Moses Moon, and how he was actually from Detroit, but had traveled to Boston as well as to Denver. Denver, in fact, was the next place that Teacher suggested.
Lighthouse offered to use his powers for the characters, and used his amped-up Scrutiny power to reveal some milestones. Jesus, he revealed, needed to confront his creator, Father Mazda. When Jesus revealed that, Rusty (who had also availed himself of Lighthouse's powers and come back convinced he needed to train Jesus on the Refinement of Bronze) said that he'd met Mazda, in a valley west of Chicago (but couldn't remember anything else). Julia, whose attempt to undergo the Scrutiny had failed, wanted to get back to Chicago to learn more about herself, so that decided the next course of action.
Hank, meanwhile, learned that he had to make a human friend. That means, he realized, he had to learn a way to mitigate Disquiet...which means staying on Stannum a while longer. Irony.
Al learned that had needed to learn about human notions of creation and rebirth.
And Marty chose not to undergo the Scrutiny, since he didn't know where the information was coming from. Felt like cheating, he said. Julia, who wanted so badly to learn her next step on the Pilgrimage, was kind of aghast.
At this point, Ogma appeared (but remember that Ogma's player, in Gloria Mundi also plays Al in this game, and I didn't have that player take Ogma's role for this snippet). He opened a magical portal and took the nuke away, thanking the characters. With that, they left.
The throng retrieved their RV and stopped at Maggie's house in western Mass for a few days while Jesus learned Bronze. Then they left Rusty, Persephone and Mister January together as a throng and moved on to the next step on the journey.