Hello again. I'm afraid I don't have any clever commentary to add to this one -- no particular reason, just nothing special going on one way or another. So let's get to the most recent session of my Chronicles of Darkness game.
So we left off in Leland's club, Chemical Reactions, where Lawrence Stills (Zac's new character) is getting to know Josh and Weaver. We kick off with Josh getting a weird tickle in the back of his brain suggesting that his Cover is being prodded. He tries to keep it to himself, but the obvious assumption is that Derrick has somehow done something to weaken his Cover. But while his Cover holds for the moment, the disruption leaves him with a glitch -- whenever he introduces himself to someone, he has give his full name and profession, nothing less.
So while Josh is quietly dealing with a literal existential crisis, Still asks where 'the third one' is, knowing about Otis as one of Derrick's associates. Otis pops out of Weaver's shadow in response (having quietly attached himself earlier after dealing with the Baddacelli), startling him. So Stills asks where everyone is at regarding dealing with Derrick. Weaver explains that they're at 'square one,' which Stills takes to mean that they tried something that didn't work, and he asks what that was. So Weaver tells him about the aborted attempt to summon Derrick in the middle of the day. (Otis still insists that the only mistake made was that Weaver panicked and rewound time too soon.)
Stills tells them that even though sunlight is a problem for vampires, that one shouldn't expect it to be an automatic kill switch -- he points out that he himself can, theoretically, last for several minutes before succumbing. To their credit, they make it clear that they weren't expecting the sun to do all of the work for them, and this segues into a larger discussion about Derrick's particular strengths (namely, his various Disciplines) and weaknesses. And the subject comes up that they don't know exactly what Derrick can do now that he's made a deal with this owl entity which -- Stills is certain -- is not an actual strix.
Otis argues that Stills is unaware of what the group could have brought to the table in that fight, and that they had a bunch of werewolves with them at that. Stills does concede that it wasn't the worst plan, but it wasn't a good plan either. The real thing to worry about, he argues, is what Derrick knows about them. What he knows about their abilities, their homes, and so forth. That leads Weaver to ask Otis how the Baddacelli are holding up, and Otis says he's already managed to smuggle them into Weaver's basement. Weaver's a little annoyed because he wanted to prepare the place first.
They get back on the subject of what they're going to do next. Stills argues for a need to fortify themselves, which leads to a lot of the sort of circling each other, comparing abilities, butt-sniffing, etc. you get when someone new gets introduced to a group of supernatural creatures. But to prove a point about things they have to be prepared for, Stills hits Otis with Nightmare, inflicting supernatural fear on him. Otis makes a big show of trying to keep it together (spending a Willpower, for the folks keeping track of mechanics at home), shakes Stills' hand, and then excuses himself to check on Alberto to give himself a dignified reason to leave the room.
Josh and Weaver inform Stills that soon-ish they're going to meet with someone who has an arcane library they might be able to use for research. Stills thinks that's a good start, and suggests that they try to track down either Derrick's sire back in Charleston or Duncan Rush, the vampire he 'adopted' into the Khaibit who spends most of his time up in Pittsburgh. He offers to make a call on their behalf as he might be able to get the guy down to Morgantown tonight, but probably tomorrow. Weaver mentions that he hopes they can get something useful in the library, and Still is a little surprised because he was under the impression that mages all know this weird stuff and talk to each other all the time. Weaver does recall that they do have the journal they took from the cult about the portal, and passes it over to Stills to flip through.
As he does so, they get into a discussion about why Weaver can't just teleport Derrick into the sun -- various obvious magical difficulties, namely not having certain materials he would need to make that feasible. But, as a last-ditch effort, he'd be willing to try it. The subject comes up that maybe they could try to just capture him and worry about killing him or separating him from his new patron later. Weaver mentions that he would have to be more powerful to do something like breaking that bond and holding him, and Josh asks him how powerful he'd have to be, mentally running the metaphorical (or metaphysical) numbers on if he can help at all. He puts that thought on the back burner for now.
Stills also points out that Derrick has a cult of his own, and Josh immediately jumps to "We should kill them all." Stills quashes that, saying that they might need those cultists. He thinks they should give it a day or two for Derrick to start inducting his followers into whatever his new plan is, then kidnap and interrogate them. Weaver comments they're good at that, and there's some discussion of calling Otis.
And where is Otis?
After leaving the club, Otis headed for Weaver's place. On the way, though, he encounters some sort of flickering that messes with his car and is causing lights in the neighborhood to act up. He gets out and approaches the house responsible, where he can see a strange antenna on the roof. The flickering stops and he hears a familiar voice all out "Oh, thank God."
Otis gets up onto the roof to find Howard there, a little manic and ecstatic, thrilled because he's managed to survive this bout of the Radio Sickness. He explains to Otis that Derrick was just there, that he'd helped him haul his radio equipment onto the roof, and gave him the question he needed for his answer. He explains to Otis the process of getting the answer, needing the question, and how he has to convert that question into a special code, bleed into a transmitter (he indicates his special ham radio setup), and transmit the signal to a spot in the constellation of Orion.
The question, by the way, was "How will Derrick come into his true power?"
Otis, exasperated, tells Howard flat-out that they're going to kill Derrick, so he needs to know now if he has to kill Howard for 'being on the Derrick train.' At this point, Otis gets a phone call from Weaver. Otis fills him in on where he is, and what's going on, and that he was about to give Howard 30 seconds to say something he didn't hate before he rips him limb from limb. Weaver says they'll be right over. Weaver, risking Paradox, then grabs Stills and Josh and teleports them onto Howard's roof, provoking this exchange (paraphrased, obviously):
Stills: "What was that?!"
Weaver: "I teleported you, I explained this."
Stills: "You gotta get permission for that shit!"
Weaver: "We would have driven, but I think [Otis] would have killed [Howard] before we got here."
Howard explains, again, what his deal is -- he receives prophecy in the form of an answer, and part of completing the prophecy involves finding the question that goes with the answer. There's a bit of a time loop involved, where the paradox will kill him if he gets an answer for which there wasn't a question. Everyone thinks he's crazy, but he then gets into his encounter with Derrick. He mentions that Derrick has black eyes and what looks like a feathered cape of shadow now, and that he tried to recruit Howard. For what, pray tell? Well, apparently Derrick is has 'found the true vampire god' in the shadows and is trying to convert other vampires to it. Otis, who is already pretty certain he's at least the progenitor of the Nosferatu clan, does not take this lightly and decides to show Howard what a true vampire god looks like.
As it's dark on the rooftops, that gives Otis an opening to open a pathway to his Lair. A freezing breeze blows forth onto the rooftop, and he calls upon his Horror -- a giant bat-creature, the god Camazotz. Howard panics and flees, trying to dive off the roof, but the winds blowing around keep him from leaving.[0] Stills nicely asks Otis to release him, and Otis does so -- everything melts back into his Lair and Howard goes over the edge of the roof. Stills looks over the edge, sees the vampire curled up into a ball, twitching and comments "That was worth it."
Otis takes a moment to apologize for losing his cool, and Weaver takes a moment to say that for what it's worth, he's sorry about trying to throw him under the bus earlier with Alberto right after that ill-advised staking attempt. Apology accepted. He offers to let Otis mark him for tracking again, and Otis says that at this point it's for his own good anyways, but he knows that Weaver could remove it whenever he wants. But he puts it back on anyways.
So while everyone's on the roof, Josh and Stills explain their plan to Otis regarding kidnapping one of Derrick's cultists in a day or two. They also discuss a larger plan of trying to separate Derrick from the creature. Josh asks if they could summon the entity without getting Derrick as well, and this gets into a discussion about the logistics of teleporting what might be two halves of the same entity. And then there's the potential raw power involved, and at one point I glanced away to take a drink or update my notes for just a moment and when I look back Weaver is explaining archmages to the rest of the group. But Josh pitches whether or not they should take it easy for a night, hope Derrick doesn't eat the city (unspoken but implied), hit up the library for information and then later scoop up one of Derrick's cultists for interrogation.
Things get directed back to Howard, who has recovered at this point and started bringing his transmitting equipment back into his apartment. There's a misunderstanding, I think, as to whether Howard is one of Derrick's cultists, and Howard mentions that he's already got a patron -- the Angel of Death. Josh is slightly concerned, and Weaver asks if 'Angel of Death' means anything to him. Josh says that he'd have to narrow it down but he's clenching up all the same.
So while Howard's retrieving some equipment, they ask a bit more about the Angel of Death. He goes back and forth with Josh a bit, with Josh trying to better understand how the Angel of Death is getting messages to Howard, and Howard says that he's not getting answers from the Angel of Death. He casually explains that he's getting them by hacking the God-Machine. Josh begins internally screaming as Howard heads back inside with some equipment. (It's slow going because it involves coming in and out through a window, there isn't a proper door or hatch to the roof or anything.)
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the roof, Stills has decided to mess with Weaver for reasons that, if they exist at all, somehow didn't make it into my notes. But Weaver freaks out at the hallucination of a ghostly face conjured with Nightmare. Stills swears on his mother's grave that he didn't do it, and Weaver comments that his mother's probably been dead a century. Stills tells Weaver that his mother's actually alive and lives just north of Mount Morris (a nearby town), and manages to convince Weaver of the bald-faced lie.
Otis talks to Stills about how maybe they should go and feed, and Weaver mentions that he should probably go get some rest. To save Stills a trip, Josh offers to let him take a little bit of his blood to top off. Stills agrees, then makes a big show of looking sick and breathing some illusory fire like he's just eaten something spicy in a cartoon.
While he's taking apart his gear, Josh sees the opportunity to ask Howard more about his whole thing:
Josh: "Howard, did you say you contact the God Machine?"
Howard: "No, I'm hacking the God Machine."
Josh: (very quietly) "Oh no."
Howard goes on to explain that his group is hacking the God-Machine as part of a larger agenda of freeing the Angel of Death. He explains that the Angel of Death could protect vampires from the sun, but it's soul has been separated from its body, which has been stolen from the Black Temple on the moon back in the 70's. And that he and others like him are working to retrieve that and the power of the prophecy is helping them in weird, circuitous ways. His group is known as the Holy Engineers.[1] Josh is left thinking of some way to make sure Howard knows what he's getting into, meddling with the God-Machine like that.[2]
As it's coming up on 3am, Otis decides to do some of his own hunting while that's all going on. Stills quietly follows him. Howard lets Josh and Weaver go through his apartment of techno-conspiracy theory madness to get to the ground without having to jump or teleport.
Weaver heads back to his place, where Alberto and a couple of his followers are settling in. Alberto asks for a couple of things to help lightproof the basement. Weaver agrees, and puts down a couple of house rules: They stick to the first floor, no drinking his alcohol, and the second floor (where his room and a lot of his occult stuff are) is off-limits. Then he spends some time putting together a ritual to drastically increase the size of the basement, tesseract-style, so the vampires have more room to be comfortable.
Elsewhere, Otis wanders through town looking for an unknown vampire to feed on, someone who hasn't been properly presented in the city yet. Not just out of hunger, but out of frustration and the need to show his dominance over a vampire after what Derrick pulled. Unaware of Stills following him, he finds a vampire trucker passing through as she wanders the local trails for hobos, cruisers, and hobo-cruisers to feed on. He tries to act like easy prey to lure her closer, but when that doesn't work as well he switches to Plan B: Jumping out in front of her and unleashing his full fury to intimidate her.
Otis attempts to convince her that he's her god, and that she owes him a blood tithe. She turns to run. Otis opens a passageway to his Lair, but specifically does not close off the exits so when she flees she winds up in his Lair and into the pit he has there. (Stills is in the area, hidden, remaining still and just listening in as best he can as he's afraid to push his limits.) Otis merges with his Horror, grabs her, and drags her off to a frozen chamber walled off by a glacier, where he has multiple heads on display. The trucker tries to run but he tears her apart to feed his Horror, puts her head on display in the chamber, and returns to the trail.
So Stills sees Otis chase the vampire into the shadows, hears blood-curdling screams, then sees Otis come back wearing the vampire's bloody flannel jacket. He decides, quietly, to let it go.
And on that cheery note, we wrapped up there!
[0]-- Otis' Lair traits are Darkness, Extreme Cold, and Sealed Exits.
[1]-- You can read more about the sheer lunacy that is Howard's deal in Danse Macabre.
[2]-- I can't recall who or when, but I think over the course of the entire extended, stop-and-go conversation with Howard, someone asks why the God-Machine hasn't put a stop to what he's doing, and he just responds by asking why elephants don't swat every individual mosquito.
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