Session started at 1:09 pm on 06/30/2007
Attending players: Sarah, Michael, Ben, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
So, we've been charged with killing the spirit we previously faced in Salem. The mountain is coming back in two days and we must kill the spirit before the sun sets or the mountain will be permanently attached to our plane. There are so many ways for this to go wrong I can't even count them. At least we got part of our payment up front.
It is Monday the 15th of December, 2070.
So in the mean time the doctor is going to try to bind a couple of really tough spirits. We don't have too much trouble with getting the binding materials. Just dropping the Johnson's name convinces the talismonger to ignore who we are and what the law says we should and should not be allowed to buy.
The doctor manages to summon and bind a level 6 earth spirit and a level 3 fire spirit. Things go wrong while she's trying to get a second level 3 spirit . She ends up looking like she's been hit over the head with a bat after running a 48 hour marathon. Fortunately we have plenty of time for her to sleep it off.
Ajax, Yorick, and I talk about our plan and Ajax does some electronic recon on our Johnson and on "spirits of Bliss."
("I hate fish."
~ Aaron
"Yea, they're made out of mushrooms."
~ Ben
"What?!"
~ Several People
"That is one crime that I don't think you can't accuse fish of, Ben."
~ Eva)From what Ajax pulls up it sounds like Tantilus is not a spirit of bliss, he's a shadow spirit that feeds on dark human desires. As far as Ajax can figure Tantilus should have a weakness based on his purpose. None of us are sure how to figure out what purpose that would be.
("Their quality control sucks... Taiwan is printed up side down."
~ Ben
"That's because they're on the other side of the world."
~Aaron
"Yea, you've got to look at it from their point of view."
~ Michael)We do some minimal planning. Ajax isn't be willing to accept more than the vaguest plan. I think this is going to bite us in the ass, but I give up after a few protests. I don't know if this is his way of dealing with the fact that he has to face his addiction again or if he's just decided to be extra stupid this month.
When the fateful day arrives we follow the coeds that are going to visit the mountain. We park the car a ways away so that it won't be on the mountain with us.
As the sun finishes setting the mountain begins to rise below us. The kids have their camp set up in a matter of minutes. We head away from them so that we can avoid getting too many people shot.
It is only a few minutes before he makes his arrival, rising out of the crowd and addressing them. Six wizards are working around the edges of the crowd shouting incantations to call forth his "brothers", but nothing appears. Tantilius looks both confused and upset. A visible jolt of initiation energy slams into the the six wizards and they all stagger. Something unpleasant is happening to their little group.
At this point we've all drawn our weapons. Ajax shoots first, but his bullet deflects off of Tantilus' chest.
"Oh good. I was hoping you would be here. I was hoping I'd have some friends, but you'll have to deal with this." ~ Tantilus
Over a nearby ridge trundles a large steel lynx. I can just recognize a rocket launcher strapped to it's back. Tantilus yells, "Get em!" and gestures at us. The entire crowd turns on us and begins advancing.
The steel lynx fires a rocket at me and I just manage to roll out of the way in time. The whole team is showered with splinters of metal and plastic from the explosion. The others take cover behind boulders and rocky ridges to avoid further blasts as much as much as they can.
The doctor sends her spirits off to kill Tantilus, but it looks like he has ducked down into the crowd. I dodge two more rockets. The second one glances off the armor plate protecting my upper arm but detonates a few yards away when it hits the ground. I don't even have time to seek cover before the lynx fires another and I tumble out of the way.
(The doctor tries to stunball the crowd, but rolls really poorly. Some of the crowd are a bit confused, but none are knocked out.)
I can hear Ajax yelling at the crowd, trying to convince them to back off. They pause, confused, but quickly regain their purpose and continue coming after us.
The next rocket is aimed at Yorick. He does not manage to get out of the way, but the rock he's hiding behind and his armor take the brunt of the damage. (With his "platelet factories" bioware he manages to avoid any damage at all! Gah!)
In the mean time I take cover behind a rock.
The next rocket is aimed at Ajax. He narrowly manages to get out of the way.
Yorick is advancing slowly twards the drone, moving between cover points to keep his time as a target to a minimum.
I start edging over towards Ajax in a similar manner. I figure he's going to need guarding when the crowd engulfs us. But it doesn't come to that. In a huge rush of energy the doctor manages to knock out the entire crowd. I had no idea she was studying stunball.
Tantilus is left standing alone. He looks a bit pissed by this turn of events, but immediately shifts gears and attacks one of the doctor's force 3 fire spirits. Her larger air spirit swoops down on Tantilus like a hawk while his attention is turned to the fire spirit. The fire spirit also rips into him.
The drone begins circling around trying to get past our cover. I think it's also trying to keep Yorick from getting any closer, but he is a lot smarter than whatever is piloting the lynx and he keeps gaining ground slowly.
Now that I can see Tantilus it seems better to close on him. I dive out of cover and sprint towards him. Tantilus has just shredded the smaller fire elemental. It discorporates while he stops to indulge in evil laughter. I will never understand why spirits feel the need to be so damn dramatic.
I reach the fray just as Tantilus has begun ripping into the air spirit. The drone fires another rocket at me and I'm forced to dodge instead of striking at Tantilus. He's still smashing the air spirit, but it hits back, hard. He screams in pain and tries to strike back at it. It glides serenely just out of reach.
The drone has gone back to trying to hit Yorick, who's crawling ever closer.
I swing at Tantilus but he wiggles out of the way. The doctor tries to hit him with a stunbolt but her spell fizzles against his supernatural defenses. Ajax hits Tantilus with an APDS bullet. The bullet smacks Tantilus between the eyes. He does not look so happy.
He rounds on me with a devastating punch. I manage to block but it hurts like hell. I imagine I'm going to have a hell of a bruise.
He gloats loudly, "You fools! My connection to this place is far too strong for you to kill me."
The drone is still firing rockets at Yorick. How many frikkin rockets does it have? On the up side Yorick seems to be doing okay. It's only a matter of time until the thing manages to shred his armor and I can't abandon Ajax to Tantilus.
Tantilus tries to land a flurry of blows on me but I duck and weave out of the way.
The doctor's other spirits have been harrying Tantilus. The earth spirit lands a mighty blow on him and sticks it's hand through his chest. He looks down at it and laughs.
"You fools can't destroy me here as long as my pact exists." He vanishes. Thanks for the heads up moron.
Lovely.
Yorick is trading shots with the drone. Unfortunately it is not down yet. Yorick takes another rocket blast but he looks mostly okay.
I start moving back over towards the drone and take cover behind a ridge of rock.
(The doctor has glitched on a roll to try to figure out what's going on with Tantilus, so now she's got some false information that we have to pretend to believe...)
(Ajax has dropped into full AR to hack the drone. He manages to locate it's node.)
The drone manages to hit Yorick with another missile. He's looking significantly worse off this time.
I continue moving up twards the drone but I mostly keep in cover.
(I'm at 95 meters from the drone. The extreme range on my pistols is 60 meters.)
(Ajax is still trying to hack into the drone. He's doing okay but isn't quite there yet.)
Yorick dodges another rocket.
(Ajax manages to get into the drone's node.)
Yorick hits the drone twice.
The drone suddenly powers down. Ajax sends a message saying that he's shut it down and we can stop shooting. We all cluster around the doctor as she heals us. After that I tie up the six wizards and pull them away from the rest of the crowd.
We search the six wizards but they don't have anything of importance on them.
As Ajax approaches the drone he notices that it has weird arcane sygils drawn all over it. The doctor is pretty sure that the drone is in fact the item that is tying Tantilus to this realm.
At Yorick's suggestion the doctor orders her earth spirit to destroy the drone. Over the course of an hour it pounds the drone into a thin splintered pile of scrap. After the final blow the earth spirit discorporates, having finished it's last service, and the mountain rushes away to nothing below us.
"I need to sell snake oil."
~ Ajax("The best BBC show ever: Drinking with Dezzy"
~ Ben)The kids are all waking up now. They seem a little sore, but the doctor says they'll be okay in a day or two.
We head back over to the car rental place to talk to the Johnson. He is curious about what happened, but he freely hands over the rest of the orichalcum (4 chunks). He even offers us a free rental to take back to Seattle. We pick out a nice, large green convertible, thank the Johnson and hit the road.
I think we'd all like to put as many miles between us and this damn town as possible before dark.
End of Session