Thanks to Eva for this session summary.
These session notes are from Rae’s perspective, and are originally from [http://www.digitalchangeling.com/gaming/session_notes/deus/060224.html].
Session started at 6:23 pm on 2/24/06
Attending players: Joey, Nate, Jon F., Allen D., Eva, Andy R., John P., Alex, James
Presiding GM: Curtis
Major NPC’s: DEE, Merlin Huntington, a bunch of soldiers, the General, David Crowe
(Brice has retrieved the sword from DEE, but he is having some trouble getting Cane’s stasis chamber. DEE is not so happy about him being there. DEE shuts off the gravity in the cargo bay. His droid drags the stasis chamber and the dog that Brice is hiding inside of out of the cargo bay. Brice tries to hack into DEE’s memory banks to figure out what is going on, but fails. DEE will not answer Brice’s questions, and destroys the dog so that Brice is forced to flee.)
(Back at MagiTech, Matt is trying to get the soul of the person killed by Bryant’s explosion out of his body before it gets stuck there. Dana manages to get the soul into a temporary body, a cute fuzzy stuffed animal soul-mech of some sort. Matt then has a mental fight with Ivan, who still wants to exact horrible revenge on Merlin and the General. Matt eventually manages to convince Ivan to back off until they can form a plan that will actually take out the General. They head back to the mystic transport that Huntington was hanging out in.)
(Meanwhile, Nicolai heads to the MagiTech office on Luna. The receptionist says that he has been asked to leave the planet and she is contacting security. Apparently they want Nicolai to leave because they do not want to be associated with the mysticport incident. Nicolai walks back to Bryant’s office and teleports away.)
So, Huntington has gone to follow Bryant…. I am thinking that we need to get the hell out of here. Ariona seems to think we should stay around to talk to the authorities. This place is ground zero! I do not want to be close to all these nanites even if they are not sentient anymore, nevermind that the white stuff has likely contaminated everyone without shields and possibly the planet it self.
As I am looking around I notice that nanite goo is still oozing out of the walls and floor. My desire to leave is even greater now. While I am arguing with folks about it, Huntington returns. He seems in accord with my "getting out of here" plan and says he will try to make sure that our involvement is smoothed over. Knowing the General, that may take some doing.
The crazy monster thing is lapping up some of the nanite goo from the floor. I do not know what it thinks it is doing, but I am not going to tell it no. It was the least affected by the nanites when Bryant exploded, so perhaps it has some sort of resistance. Eating the junk still does not seem like the path to health.
We follow Huntington out of the building and I land once we are far enough away from the goo. As we reach the curb across the street from the mysticport, a shimmering distortion falls from the sky. It wobbles and turns into the halfling that was fighting with us before. I think someone mentioned that his name was Eddie earlier.
Huntington magnifies his voice with magic and warns the waiting ring of military personnel about the biohazardus mess inside. Some of the soldiers surround us and rather politely demand that we hand over our weapons. Everyone else is getting all twitchy because they have all sorts of illegal junk. They really should have thought of that before they got involved, not after. Vitto is acting particularly weird about his spirit-blade, but I would not think anyone would expect him to hand that over.
(Eddie inconspicuously destroys all the anti-matter in the anti-matter weapons in the hopes of making them less illegal or more difficult to identify, I was not clear which.)
As the doctor is handing over his weapon, I feel the echos begin very faintly. Before I can react, a vortex of darkness springs up from the ground towards Eddie. The doctor is in its way and the thing flings him away through the air like so much crumpled paper as it passes by. The darkness dissipates before it can reach Eddie, but the doctor flies towards him and instead of colliding with him, the doctor is sucked into Eddie’s illusion and he is gone! Crap!
Apparently Eddy absorbed the doctor into himself somehow. Not good. I am beginning to have third and fourth thoughts about hanging out with these crazy people. I do not think a single one of them is normal in any sense of the word.
Everyone is shocked, but the others proceed with handing over their guns to the military guys. I hope the doctor is okay, but I fear trying to get him back out here may have to wait.
I do not think I have anything detachable that the military would care about so I do not bother to hand anything over. Huntington warns the others that they should cooperate and hand over their weapons. He seems rather irritated by something. Ariona says something to him about not being able to use magic near the monster thing very well, so I guess he got bit by it messing up his spells again.
Huntington wants the others to be here as well so we can all be debriefed. He also wants to examine the crown. Overall Huntington has been trustworthy in the past, but I have still got a bad feeling about all this. I really do not want to have to go through another giant mess to get the crown back from some other psycho.
The military guy says that he has orders to cuff us and inject each of us with enervin. I have only read a little about the effects of enervin on magic users, but it seems like nasty stuff. Merlin seems willing to stand up for us, but I am going to be fleeing if they push the enervin injection. I have no idea what it would do to my system.
Fortunately the military guys back off with Merlin’s personal assurance that we are going to come along quietly. Since Nicolai and Brice both vanished during the battle, Merlin is apparently going to go meet them and bring them back. I gather there is electronic communication going on and this is an amicable thing for them. I am glad they are not going to resist Merlin with force, as I do not want to see that level of messy.
(Meanwhile, Brice has removed the crown and sword to a safer place and met up with Nicolai physically. For Brice the crown turns into an old school headset. When he hands it over to Nicolai it turns into a circlet of the blackness of space with distant twinkling stars and a yellow gem embedded in the inside of the band. When Nicolai looks more closely at the gem he sees that a tiny glyph is floating in it… it is sulfur! Nicolai tries to remove it, but it seems to be strongly embedded in the crown and he can not easily get it out. Brice has moved inside of Nicolai’s computer.)
(When Merlin shows up to meet them, Nicolai warns him about the gem in the crown. Merlin examines it and is a bit disturbed by what he sees. Nicolai suggests that it would be better if the glyph was removed, and he thinks destruction magic might work best. Huntington tries to destroy the gem with magic and they hear the horrible breaking noise we all heard when the previous two glyphs were shattered. The glyph fades and when Nicolai takes the crown the gem is gone.)
Merlin and Nicolai reappear and we follow the military folks of away from the mysticport. Z seems to be not feeling so well. I hope this is just a tiredness from too much magic. Vitto carries Z with his force powers so Z can rest.
We head into a set of military vehicles to get a ride to the compound where the General will talk to us. Merlin is asking for a lot of trust here. I am going to take the chance, because being a fugitive was serious hindrance before, but I am still not looking forward to this.
The vans are a bit tight, but I manage to get folks to give me enough space. I have to share the van with the monster thing , but it huddles in the corner and does not do more than growl a bit. Matt and Z get shoved in here too at the last minute. Neither of them are very happy about sharing with the monster either. Z ends up hiding behind me. I guess I can not blame him. I am not really sure if I could take the monster, especially since it can resist magic.
During the ride I try to get a look at the news on my computer. They are reporting about the whole incident in the mysticport already. They have pretty good pictures of all of us. I am going to have to change my appearance yet again once this is over, and I am not looking forward to the next time someone recognizes Matt or Z.
After a few minutes we arrive, get out of the vans, and head underground into the compound. It is the same place we met the General before. I wonder if he is always hiding in this compound. It is still a crappy, cramped place.
("Brice net is online." ~ Nate "No outages since, ever." ~ Curtis)
We are lead to some sort of war-room. There are a lot of computer displays around; most showing scenes of the mysticport incident. General tin-can is here as well. He is irate with Huntington for the mess and the death of all the hostages. I suppose I can not blame him, but I do not understand why he thinks that Merlin should have been able to perfectly handle everything. Even a powerful mage has limits. Considering the situation Bryant put us in, I am not sure even the a member of the council could have saved all the hostages.
There is a second man here who I do not recognize. He is short with close cropped dark brown hair and black eyes. He is wearing a military uniform of some sort, though I do not yet know enough about military ranks to understand his markings. The man is very aggressive with Max. I think he blames Max for what happened on Mercury as well as what happened in the mysticport. He really has it in for Max. I would feel sorrier for Max if I was not still so pissed at him for running off, getting himself killed, and all that crap.
Nicolai has retreated to a corner and is floating in mid-air… I guess this situation must be disturbing him some how. I am surprised that the General will ignore such disrespectful behavior. He must be more focused on Huntington than I had thought.
The General is again demanding an explanation from Huntington. This will be interesting. There are too damn many personalities in this room for anyone to finish a coherent sentence. Now the General is demanding proof that we are not all collaborating with Bryant. I did not think the tin-can could get more paranoid, but I was wrong. He seems to want Merlin to read our minds. Not a good idea.
Ariona seems willing to have her mind read, but I gather she is worried about having her other secrets compromised. Apparently the General is not going to be satisfied until Merlin does read all our minds. I really wish I had learned enough mystic magic to be able to port Z away if it should come to that. I have been struggling to pick up the human’s clunky form of drawing magic from the planets, but moving so much is still beyond me.
Merlin wants to read all our minds at once. Many of us protest, owing to the horrible death dealing nightmares we will be drawn into. This annoys the General, but Merlin remains patient and agrees to probe us individually. The General demands that Merlin read Z’s mind. Both Z and Merlin are understandably upset. Z refuses to be read unless the General is read as well. I can only see things going down hill from here.
The General also demands that Brice show himself. Apparently he is currently hiding in Nicolai’s computer some how. Brice says that he will show himself but it will be a minute. About thirty seconds later he appears. (He zapped to his dorm room and left his cane and the gun there. He makes the sword assume the form of a cane and brings that back with him.)
Merlin gears up to read Z’s mind and tells folks not to resist. I try to be ready to stop Z from burning the base down, but it turns out that Merlin is smart enough to not to actually try to read Z or Max’s minds. Merlin has set up a mental connection between us all but we are only sharing active thoughts. He is apparently fooling the General with false memories that he has created. We are able to talk with Merlin for a minute or two in relative peace. The other military man has opted to not take part, because of all of our concerns and protests. He is standing a bit back from the rest of us with a weapon drawn but relaxed.
While we are still talking mentally, Max unbandages his hand to show Merlin what is happening to his scar. A strange silvery substance has radiated in tendrils from the glyph shaped scar. Not auspicious. The sight freaks out the General and the other military guy. They both point weapons at Max and he tries to cover his scar back up, but Merlin quickly grabs his wrist and begins examining his hand. Merlin tries to heal the scar, but this only accelerates the growth of the silvery substance. Merlin thinks that we should probably remove the arm before the substance consumes Max. The monster thing tries touching the silver. It looks like it is liquid but it is difficult to remove. Max is unwilling to let us remove the arm to keep the substance from spreading.
Merlin says that he must end the mind effect so that the General’s sensors register the correct magics. So far the General seems satisfied with the false memories Merlin has shown him. Perhaps things will turn out okay after all.
Z asks Ariona if he can see the crown. She gives it to him but asks that he does not wear it. Like requests seem to stop anyone from doing anything around here. When Z takes the crown it shifts more slowly than it did before and a look of shock spreads across Z’s face. Startled, Ariona asks him to give the crown back. As Z staggers backwards the crown grows and forms into a black top hat and Z himself begins to blur. No! Not Good! I try to lash out to knock the crown out of his hands, but before I can touch him, Z’s horrified face shifts away as his form is twisted away from his will. He becomes a man in a black and white suit and a white mask, like the one that attacked the Volakovs. He gracefully leaps back out of reach, spins the top hat in his hands, and puts it on his head.
Before the rest of us can react, the Z-creature takes a step backward and performs an incredible leap passing over our heads and landing by the metal entry doors. He draws a cane from his hands and slashes the door open before his feet hit the floor. Merlin resignedly gestures at him and the creature explodes in a burst of flames; almost a pyre. When the flames clear, there is nothing left but the top hat crown which twists and shifts back to the ornate crown. Oh no… poor Z… no matter how crazy he was, he did not deserve that sort of end…
Matt approaches the crown and picks it up. It turns into fancy goggles as it did before. Ariona is freaking out, as is Vitto. Ariona grabs the crown and tries to wrench it out of Matt’s hands. Geez. We had the damn crown before them and we did not do crazy shit, well, other than Max.
Ariona is freaking out and demanding the crown. Matt lets go of it in an attempt to get some sort of compromise out of her, but she will not put it down or let someone else hold it. She is behaving in a ridiculous manner and refuses to be calmed or talked into some sort of compromise. I am going to have to conclude that Ariona is a psycho bitch. I am not trusting her for anything further.
While people are arguing the crown suddenly vanishes from Ariona’s hands. The General is livid. Ariona does not seem surprised, so she obviously knows what happened. She will not answer the General’s questions fully and this further angers him. After he is done yelling at her, Brice speaks through Nicolai’s computer and says that he has the crown and will bring it back once everyone calms down.
This seems to be the last straw for the General. He says in a dangerous quiet voice, "You have ten seconds." He beings counting but when he gets to three he is startled by something behind him. He twists around and his chain guns fire off a huge stream of energy blasts all around the room. I did not see anything behind him, so I do not know what could have set him off so badly.
(It was actually Eddie trying to sabotage the General’s guns that set him off.)
I dive out of the way out of the volley of energy blasts as best I can. I see Huntington vanish out of the corner of my eye and most of the others dive for cover. I think he got Max pretty badly and he might have gotten the military guy as well. Vitto seems unconcerned as several blasts pass through his body and do him no noticeable harm. He lunges towards the General and stabs him with his blade. The General droops and is still. His guns stop firing. I think maybe Vitto killed him… this might get much more exciting than I was hoping for.
Ariona dives for Max’s blood splattered body and tries to revive him. As she kneels over him the worst of his wounds close and most of the bleeding stops. She says that she has stabilized him but she can do nothing for the military guy, who was just as badly. I can not believe she can be so callous at one moment and care so much about a near-death at the next. The woman seems to have very little sense of perspective.
Vitto heals the military guy, but I did not get a very good view and I am not sure how bad off he still is. Perhaps I should try to master some healing magic in the not too distant future. It seems it is of greater utility than I had thought.
The General still has not moved when Huntington reappears. Huntington is very upset. He seems to think that the General is still conscious inside his shell. I wonder why he could be alive but could not move or speak.
Merlin has reached a level of irate that surprises me. He gestures and says to the General angrily, "I am so tired of putting up with you. None of this happened. All of these people cooperated with you and told you everything you wanted to know. They were here at my behest. The loss of the hostages was an unfortunate accident. The damage done to this room was done by a malfunction in your chain guns. Lieutenant Crowe was nearly killed but was saved through the heroic efforts of the others."
("I didn’t actually think he was the puppet ruler of this government before this, but now I do." ~ Eva)
Apparently there are no recording devices here, so only our minds and any recordings of people’s computers will chronicle what happened. Wow. I wonder how many times Merlin has had to do things like this to the General before. For that matter, how exactly did he ever get the General to trust him in the first place if he has this much power at his finger tips?
("Wow, this is the cleanest fuck up ever." ~ Nate)
Merlin questions Max about what is happening, but I got distracted talking to Vitto and missed some of what he said. I think they mentioned some sort of prophecy, which I will need to ask about later. The topic turns to Z’s transformation and possible death. We are unsure of what set off the change. Vitto seems stubbornly sure that it was some sort of residue from the sulphur symbol. I am not so sure it is that clean cut, since the creature that Z turned into may be linked to the StratCo corporation. I still think they are to blame for Z’s scars. If he really is dead they are the first ones who will be paying for it.
Merlin confesses some interest in the ritual that the Caretaker wishes to perform. He says that his parents told him about the original ritual that created the Caretaker itself and they were children at the time. He wants to be present for the ritual as a precaution. Apparently Merlin’s parents were from the island of the obelisk on earth, where human magic was sealed away before it reawakened many hundreds of years ago.
Before I can ask Merlin for more details, a roaring sound grows and a pillar of fiery wings blossoms by the door where the creature burned. The cry of a bird sounds from inside the flames and they begin to dissipate. When they have burned away I can see that someone is standing there. He is wearing the tattered remains of Z’s clothes but is a full foot taller than Z was and his face and hands are covered in golden scales. What is going on?…
"Who are you?" Vitto demands of him. He thinks for a second and then says his name is "Ti-Lung." OH MY GOD!!!! WHAT!!?!?!
When I recover my composure I can not stop staring at him. What the hell is going on? Was Ti-Lung trapped in Z’s form all this time somehow? What has he/she become?
Ariona addresses him and asks if he is the same Ti-Lung that she spoke to yesterday. He says he does not think so. Either time is flowing backwards and sideways or she has been speaking with Tien-Lung of the council. Either one would be surprising.
He has changed. Where Z was fractured and confused he is focused and centered now. I can barely recognize the traces of the person I knew before.
He says something cryptic to Ariona about her having "his" eyes. Not sure what is going on. He still knows me as well. Perhaps it is good that he is not crazy anymore. This is going to make everything more confusing though. I wonder how the human corporation could have gotten a hold of Ti-Lung in the first place.
Ti-Lung says that both he and Ariona should not hold the crown. She is surprised but he is quite sure that the crown could corrupt her owing to her grandfather’s blood, whatever that means. (James Rex’s blood for those of you who are keeping track.) He also wants to talk to the order of Gaia for some reason relating to the Caretaker’s plans.
Everyone is beginning to recover from the shock and there are many other things pressing into the conversation.
Merlin still wants to study the crown for a day or two. The others seem alright with this but want to stay close in order to protect the crown.
("I just know that Merlin Huntington was going, ‘Bad Monkey! Bad! Bad! Monkey!’" ~ John)
Merlin brings up what happened to the doctor. It seems that Eddie is some sort of very small hole in space that has sucked the doctor in, but Eddie can not figure out how to get him back out. Eddie says he can tell that the doctor is still alive, but is not really sure where inside him the doctor is. Eddie seems very upset about all of this. Merlin offers to study Eddie in order to help get the doctor back out. Eddie is uncomfortable with this but agrees as long as Merlin promises not to say anything to the Caretaker or spread word of him around to others. Merlin seems willing to so promise. I am gathering that Eddie expects the Caretaker will kill him if he knows what he is. I would like to know what the hell is going on and why the Caretaker would want to kill him, but I am not going to pry right now.
Suddenly Matt is saying that DEE is bombarding Luna. What?!?
The others are telling me that DEE lost his electronic morals somehow and he has a soul and… This is a bit much at once. Brice is now saying that DEE attacked him when he went back to the ship. DEE apparently turned off the gravity moved Cane’s stasis pod and destroyed Brice’s dog. So it might have thrown Cane’s pod out… or destroyed it… or other not good things.
We need to decide some issues right now. I call for a vote of confidence in Merlin to hold the crown and get it to the ritual. Everyone is fine with that, so at least that is settled and we can deal with the rest of this crap.
The others seem to need to go deal with Cane and I think we need to go try to stop DEE from destroying Pax on Luna… Everyone is getting fractured trying to decide what to do.
Ti-Lung is talking to Matt now and I am startled when he strikes at Matt in revenge for a blow that Matt has struck him when he was raving. I would not have expected such a streak of vengeance from a gold, but he may be more than half human now. No. That is entirely unfair of me. The golds can be just as brutal and vengeful as everyone else.
Now I am afraid of what Z has become. The one thing that I could count on from him was a childlike innocence. Now I am faced with a powerful and dangerous creature that wears the remains of his face. I stifle my surprise and I will be stifling a lot of other things as well until I am sure that Ti-Lung will not stab me, or the humans, in the back.
They are finally listening when I say that we need to go and try to stop DEE. Ti-Lung thinks that we can probably be most helpful by simply offering our aid to Cassenti, since she will be trying to stop DEE already. Ariona seems torn between going to retrieve Cane and their things and coming with us. I sure as hell do not want the bitch with us.
Apparently Ti-Lung considers the relics in Z’s bean bag to be the start of his hoard and he asks Vitto to retrieve it for him if possible. He also makes a comment about the humans having a pretty good chance now that he and I are here to help them. As flattered as I am by the suggestion of equality, I am far more deeply uneasy about the air of superiority that I hear under his breath. Damn it! Damn it all! I left Glaurung to get away from thoughts like that! If he stays this smug about dragon superiority he could hurt all of us far more than helping.
Suddenly Vitto is yelling about glowing and grabbing Max’s hand. He seems excited and explains that Max is now a source that can support his life force. Like Brice and Nicolai. How bizarre. Vitto claims to have no idea why this change might have come about.
End of Session