Session started at 2:31 pm on 3/11/06
Attending players: Mike, James, Eva, John, Nate, Kelsey
Presiding GM: Curtis
Major NPC's: Adana Cassenti, some other elves, DEE, Zuul, Luna, the Caretaker, Regin, Hoenir, Merlin Huntington, the remains of Harry Bryant
(Vadril has been stuck inside the bizarre environment that is Eddie. He eventually begins to understand and interact with the "computer" as he perceives it. He quickly realizes that there is a sentient being behind the computer, a bit like a soulmech. By the start of this session, he has figured out how to talk with Eddie, see through Eddie's senses, and contact the outside world electronically.)
Max has run off, but the rest of us, as well as the halfling, Eddie, want to head to Luna to help stop the chaos there. However, we do not have any easy way to get there since everyone's magic is low. Ariona offers to transport us there. Whatever, sounds like it should work ok. Ti-Lung is hesitant to leave without resting, but we manage to convince him that the situation is too dire to wait.
As Ariona begins to play the flute Matt suddenly says something about the doctor being okay. It looks like he sent me an email saying so as well. I am glad he is not dead, but having him stuck inside the halfling is inconvenient and strange.
Ariona seems very concerned with what is happening on Luna. She insists that we contact her if we have any trouble. I am not planning to give the psycho-bitch the time of day after this, but I nod and smile just to get her to shut up.
We all head into the portal and off to Luna.
(Meanwhile, Max is trying to report back to Xella. He talks with a Royal named Regin. Regin apparently wants to talk with/examine Rae. Max emails me to tell me about this and that we can arrange something to insure my "comfort". Max relays some other messages and then Regin asks to examine him. Max does not resist and Regin gets a good look at the huge metal scar on his arm. Regin seems concerned about it. OOC Curtis determines that Regin is 10th in the line of succession. Regin offers to implant a device in his arm that will stop the scar's growth. Max seems to want to contact Hoenir about it.)
I step out of the portal and into the MagiTech lobby. On the up side, there are no obvious explosions outside. On the down side, there is no one in the lobby. Matt says that he will contact his mom. A few seconds later he says that she is in a meeting on the top floor and we should join her.
"Is that a meeting with talking or with guns?"
~ Rae
"Talking guns!"
~ Nate
"You're not here!"
~ John and EvaWe head up to the top floor. I still hate elevators. The entire top floor is one giant room. I guess they normally have big meetings here. Matt's mom, Adana Cassenti, and a whole bunch of pointy eared folks are here. I guess these are the elves that Ariona referred to. I recognize a few of them from the meeting with the Caretaker.
As we enter, a young elven man is speaking in some language I do not recognize and gesturing at some holographic displays on their meeting table. One of the things he is gesturing at is a small projection that looks like DEE's ship. Matt's mom introduces us and says that we are trying to help. Between myself and Eddie we try to give them more information on DEE and his capabilities. I try to get some information out of them about what is happening but it seems they do not yet know why DEE is causing problems.
Matt is saying something about a protest going wrong when the police fired into the crowd. Adana is adamant that MagiTech's police forces did not behave as they should have in that situation. Some of MagiTech's police are androids, so it sounds like they might have been tampered with. Apparently the situation has degenerated badly and now there are large roving mobs all over the city. The mobs are apparently picking up more and more people as they move through the streets. Adana also mentions that the police droids have joined the mobs. Weird.
Matt asks if all of the folks in the mobs have brain jacks. Cassenti thinks for a moment and says that there are 16 people without brain jacks in the mob of the total 12,361 people in the mob. I was under the impression that a person could not be electronically controlled by their brain jacks, I hope that impression was correct. I will have to keep an eye on the others if it turns out I was wrong. I do not like the idea that Matt or Ti-Lung could suddenly begin acting under someone else's control.
Adana suggests that we could use fields of calming mind effects to stop some of the mob, but there are so many of them that she is not sure how many we could stop this way. I am still uneasy about why DEE would want to harm the city like this. When I mention my unease, Ti-Lung is watching Cassenti, and he is furious about her reaction. He demands to know what she has done. She admits that she sent one of her sons with the ships to disarm DEE and take back Cane's body. That must be what set him off. Apparently her son was killed when DEE destroyed the ships.
They apparently tried to use EMPs on DEE, so it probably took that as a declaration of war.
Adana feels a need for immediate action, so she sends most of the elves to to contain the mob and one called Anat to talk to the press. I suggest that it might be better if they did not hold any information back, since the situation has gotten so bad and she seems willing to take my advice. Two of the elves stay behind to guard Adana.
A cute little version of the doctor appears in the holographic displays and requests access to the dispatch node which was sending orders to the police androids. Cassenti tells Matt's mom to give him access to whatever he likes, since their security concerns are a bit bigger at the moment. Perhaps the doctor can figure out why the androids are behaving so strangely.
(The doctor traces some additional packets going to the police androids that did not originate from the dispatch node. He is trying to follow them back to DEE so he can contact it. Curtis calls Griffin... The doctor discovers that DEE appears to be in low orbit from just outside the atmosphere. He sends some details to Zuul.)
(The doctor also tries to craft a virus that will force the droids to calm the crowd and refuse to accept external signals. Eddie helps him and they manage to get the virus into at least a handful of droids, hopefully starting the spread of infection.)
Eddie is talking about how DEE can phase, fold space to go faster than light, and form some sort of advanced shield. Eddie also says that its abilities require a huge expenditure of anti-matter. As Eddie is saying something about anti-matter, there is a large explosion and the building rocks and shakes and the floor falls out from under me. Adana says we will reconvene in The Garden. Not sure where that is but I can probably figure it out. Adana asks who can not survive the fall of the building. I point at Matt and Ti-Lung and then I port myself a few feet past the windows and into the sky where I will be mostly safe. I think the others should be okay since Adana will not let them die.
I see one of the elves destroy a window and most of the others bail out of the building. Matt and Eddie appear to be floating and Ti-Lung has grown large gold wings. As I survey the scene I can see that several of the lower floors of MagiTech's building have been destroyed and the entire skyscraper is toppling over sideways.
I circle around to the others and ask if they are going to be able to get far enough away from the building. They seem to think they will be okay. Ti-Lung's wings only seem to be able to manage a glide, but we started up pretty high, so he should be alright.
I really think we should all stay together since some of us will need to get there on foot. Or not... Matt and Eddie hop into a van. I am betting that Matt called it. I follow along after the van.
When we reach The Garden it is over run with a mob. They are destroying and looting, ripping up the park and the businesses around it. We stay in the air as Matt contacts Cassenti and she directs us to a different city park. Ti-Lung is losing altitude but he manages to land on the top of the van. There might be some claw marks on the roof, but I doubt anyone will care.
The other park has been torn apart, but the mob seems to have moved on. Adana is furious. Apparently the mobs have killed a second one of her children. I appreciate her anger, but there is no way that attacking DEE will work unless they can kill it in one blow.
Adana is suddenly horrified because she has realized that the terrible things in MagiTech's basement might have been released with the fall of the building. This is definitely not good, but it seems like the current assault on the city is a bit more important.
"MagiTech should be renamed now. PandoraCorp."
~ NateWe manage to convince Adana that she needs to try apologizing to DEE since she was the first aggressor. She sends an apology, that may begin to placate him, but I would not hold my breath for it.
The lights flicker for a moment. Adana is disturbed that the power system of Pax should not be affected in that manner. Perhaps DEE is draining their anti-matter. Adana claims that their safeguards would have warned them, but the others are not so sure. The other two elves are getting upset and restless. They really want to take action against DEE.
As we are talking about how we could stop DEE from draining the anti-matter, Ti-Lung suggests that we taint it somehow, "like putting sugar in a gas tank." I am not quite sure about the analogy, but it sounds like a great idea to me. If we could get some sort of magic into DEE using the anti-matter, perhaps we could subdue or track him at the very least.
(Meanwhile Matt is talking to Hoenir about the metallic scar and the destruction of the occultim lappidim. Hoenir tells him that the substance of the scar resembles quicksilver. Max considers consulting the Caretaker but remembers that he had promised Eddie that he would not. After talking to Hoenir for a bit longer, he decides to try to find Bryant. He manages to trace Bryant to somewhere deep within the crust of the moon. He sends us an email telling us where Bryant is. Max also sets up a warded portation that will take him to a hospital in Russia should he drop below zero wounds.)
"I'm not planning to get into a fight with him, but he might try to kill me."
~ Nate
"Someone else will get in a fight with you, just wait long enough."
~ Eva(Max heads to the warehouse on Luna where Bryant has extended a tentacle of nanites up to the surface. The other players are felling a vague sense of deja vu out of character.... At least he told us where he was going this time. Max heads to where Bryant is hiding exactly. Bryant appears to be growing but it is difficult for Max to see him, since he looks almost exactly like the floor. He greets Bryant, but there is no response. Max can feel an inhuman thinking mind inside the substance. Its thoughts are inarticulate and filled with hunger. Max tries buffing its intelligence so he can communicate with it. It is a bit more coherent, but it is still filled with the thoughts of consuming. Max tries to detect if Bryant's soul is still in the goo. He eventually manages to determine that Bryant's soul is still there. Max begins to study the goo and tries to figure out the nature of the Bryant-creature.)
We head toward the power plant as we discuss how we are going to taint the antimatter. The best plan we can come up with is using it to piggyback Matt's mom on to DEE. We are arguing about whether we should use magic or technology to get her into the ship when she says that she will just try to inhabit the anti-matter core. She is not sure if entering the core will kill her or not. She does not seem too worried about dying, but Matt is a bit upset about the thought.
(Before she enters the core Zuul sends a whole bunch of information to Vadril about the current attack on the androids. The sum of all the information is enough to give Vadril new insight about the problem and he begins formulating a new plan to stop DEE from controlling them.)
In a second or two, she says that it feels tingly. She is in the core and appears to be okay for now.
(Meanwhile, Max has figured out that he can talk to Bryant by touching his scar to the substance, but Bryant is determined to consume him as well and he absorbs the very tips of Max's fingers and Max pulls away. OOC we manage to convince Nate to take immunity to nanites, because it is ridiculously appropriate. As Max pulls his fingers away he sees the grey good slough off of his hand harmlessly. He tries to talk to Bryant, but he can not make any headway against the nanites desire to consume.)
"It's as though Bryant himself is gone and all that is left here is a shell."
~ CurtisWhile Matt's mom is waiting for something to happen we try to figure out how dangerous the stuff form MagiTech's basement is. Adana says there is a very dangerous and evil man down there called Mordred who may have escaped. I was not really clear on what he can do, but I gather he is related to the human legend of the mage Merlin. I am not positive if this legend is tied to the Merlin we know, but I am going to guess probably not, since I gathered it is a very old legend. Adana seems to think Mordred is just as dangerous as Cane. I will have to do some research on the the subject later. I can not imagine why MagiTech would hold such a dangerous person and not make his containment impervious to all possible external attacks. I mean their building obviously was not impervious enough on its own!
Ti-Lung mentions that there is someone else, a young woman. Adana says that the woman is a werewolf. Apparently whenever the light of the sun touches the moon the woman transforms uncontrollably and becomes very violent. I wonder how Ti-Lung knew about her. Apparently MagiTech had been containing her and Adana had been trying to find a cure for her disease, but Adana does not know if the woman could pass on her curse to others, as I gather werewolves of legend can. Adana thinks the woman may have been killed in the collapse of the building, but I bet she will crop up at some inconvenient time.
Adana suggests that one of us might try to contact DEE, since he may not even be reading what she sends him. Eddie emails him and actually gets a response. DEE apparently tells Eddie that he is "punishing the wicked" and that his goal is to kill all the elves though he might be satisfied by just making them suffer, a lot. Wow... I am surprised that one attack would set him off this badly. I guess DEE must have changed a lot more than I thought since I last knew him.
Suddenly Matt's mother makes a startled sound and stops responding to our transmissions. I guess our plan worked. I hope she will be alright.
(Max has talked to Huntington about the fact that Bryant is trying to consume the core of Luna and work his way outwards. Huntington brings the crown and Max decides that he will try to use the crown to stop Bryant. When he puts the crown on it turns into silver fractal patterns on his head. Fortunately he is pretty sure he can take it back off if he wants.)
When Eddie asks DEE if there is any way for all this to end without the death of many innocents, DEE tells him that we must destroy him or he will destroy all life. How terribly exciting. DEE's crisis must have taken him way off the deep end for him to be willing to go this far.
Matt suggests that DEE might be about to target the Great Tree. Adana seems to agree. She mutters something and vanishes, probably to the tree. The van makes an about face and heads towards the forest. I follow along as quickly as I can. I am starting to feel the strain of all this flying on top of the stress from my previous adventures. I will just have to try to hang on until this whole crisis is over, but I hope there is time for rest then.
As we are heading to the tree, the city beneath us is rocked by explosions. The mob is erupting in violence and many people are dying. The police droids seem to be fighting each other and whole buildings are being toppled by the violence. I do not think we have a chance of stopping this scale of destruction directly.
Matt says that a nuclear bomb has appeared in the southern quadrant of the city. Not good. But since it was where there were still surviving sensors, they were able to destroy it. As we are trying to figure out what to do, another one appears in another part of town where the sensors are still up and is also destroyed. Wait! This is good. It must be Matt's mother trying to disarm DEE before he can truly lay waste Pax.
(Meanwhile the doctor is trying to stop the androids so they can not cause more chaos. He figures out that DEE has hijacked the virus he wrote and is using it to turn some of the droids back to fighting the mob instead of calming it. Vadril manages to get nine other Royals and Eddie to help him. Together they shut down all the droids and monitor the town's electronic traffic, stomping on any attempts DEE makes to regain control.)
Draw near enough to see the tree I see DEE's ship shimmer into existence just above it. We are still at least a mile away. Matt has some sort of crazy idea of trying to stop the ship by getting inside. It is still incorporeal, so I do not thing he is going to be able to manage that.
My computer transmits Adana's voice yelling for help. Matt sends a picture of her backed up against the tree by three androids and she appears to have been shot several times. I dive through the canopy of trees and scramble towards her. Ti-Lung is also trying to reach her and the androids explode in a hail of fire. Ti-Lung kneels over her and her wounds begin to close. As I take in the situation trying to figure out what to do, something strikes me as horribly wrong.
Suddenly the ship is charging up a spiral of incandescent energy. I realize too late that what I was feeling was a sense of impending doom. The ship surges forward and I only have time to yell, "Move!" at Ti-Lung and throw myself out of the way flapping wildly. I manage to get away from most of the blast, but not all of it. I feel a terrible crushing pressure shake me. Even when it has dissipated I feel queasy and battered.
Ti-Lung was knocked out of the sky by the force of the blast but he is still moving where he crashed into the tree tops. The energy spiral is impaling the tree. This is just about the worst outcome I can imagine. I lost sight of Adana. Since she is not with Ti-Lung she is almost certainly dead.
(When Ti-Lung tried to grab Adana to carry her to safety she slipped through of his fingers like sand and was shifted away by some force that he did not recognize. He was pretty sure that it was not traditional magic.)
(Meanwhile, Max is trying to control Bryant with the crown. He touches his hand to the pool and he slowly dissolves down into the pool. He is possessing Bryant's soul. He tries to access Bryant's memories, and manages to discover that Sulphur used the crown to shatter Bryant's mind and embed the command to consume into the fragments that were left. Max manages to command the nanites to stop consuming for now, but he does not think he can undo the damage that Sulphur did to Bryant's mind without a great deal of time. Max refuses to give up and he digs into Bryant's memories again looking for information on DEE. He manages to discover that Bryant knew that DEE was created on Mercury, but all the people involved were killed in the accident.)
The tree is bleeding. Sap pours out of it and deluges the surrounding area. The very air seems to quaver and then all I can see is white. I hear a child's voice angrily cry, "No!" and I think I feel both Luna and the Caretaker here. Luna's aspect is a young human girl, but the Caretaker is too vast for me to perceive. All of its attention is turned on DEE and DEE seems to be is listening to it. Slowly the world begins to come back into focus. The incandescent energy weapon has faded.
A huge number of strange creatures are coming out of the woods and surrounding the tree. They seem to be peaceful in their intents. Ti-Lung has also dragged himself up to the tree. He seems to be battered and exhausted but otherwise alright. The ring of creatures heals the tree repeatedly and its wound slowly closes.
The ship, which was still through all of this, is suddenly moving up and away from the planet. I hope the Caretaker was able to help DEE resolve his crisis and find sense again.
(While the ship is leaving, Matt's mother tries to figure out where she can jump to in order to stay on Luna. She ends up jumping into Matt, because all of the androids in the city have been shut down or destroyed.)
End of Session