Hey there, folks. Another Chronicles write-up coming your way.
Not really much to add to this other than a reminder that the weekend of the 4th I'll be in Pittsburgh for Anthrocon. This week we should have a Starfinder session and I should be able to get a write-up of that up before we leave, but I can't make any promises. (Update: Scheduling became an issue, we did not have another session before AC.)
Also, this past session we didn't have Sean, so Otis is just unavailable. And on with it!
So the day following the previous night's shenanigans at the PRT station, we jump ahead to sunset[0] where Stills wakes up to find a text from Weaver asking for a favor of some sort. He all but rolls his eyes and goes down to the trails to feed, where he drains someone to near-death. He actually has some trouble keeping the blood down, because his recent wound from the angelic security guard at the PRT station seems to have triggered a latent condition within his blood.[1] He calls 911 from the guy's phone, asks for help when they pick up, and just leaves the phone there so he can tell himself the paramedics will get there in time to save the guy.
Josh gives Weaver a call as the latter gets ready to head out and meet up at Chemical Reactions, because he wants some input on whether he should get any special chemicals to use to light the barn on fire when they go after the Hungry Shadow. His concern, apparently, is that the Shadow might have some power over sources of light and that the creature could snuff a fire simply lit with gasoline. Weaver doesn't have any hard answers, but suggests that Josh meet up with them at the club because he's asking Stills for a favor and it might be helpful if Josh comes along.
So we jump ahead to the club. Weaver finds Stills and invites himself to come sit down, getting a crack from Stills about how the night had been going so well (or something close, I didn't exactly keep a transcript). But Weaver jumps into what he wants from Stills: He wants to 'reclaim' his hallow, by putting a portal in the shed where it's located so he can just transport directly there from his house and avoid potential ambushes or further spying. But this will take a while to set up and he thinks he's gonna need a bodyguard for something like this. Stills is willing to do it, but Weaver will owe him.[2]
Then they get into a conversation over whether anyone's told Josh about the angel yet (they haven't), and Weaver says he thinks they should tell him in person. Stills really wants to be the one to tell him, just for the petty joy of freaking him out. Weaver wants to say that letting Stills have the pleasure should make them even, and Stills disagrees, and this becomes a larger conversation about the nature of favors and such.
Josh shows up at about this point, and they get him up to speed about Weaver's plan to build a portal into his hallow and have Stills and Josh cover him while he does it. Josh asks where Otis is, and they don't know but Stills mentions that he's made a big show of working on something big to prove his divinity[3] and he's probably working on that. Stills opines that Otis, whatever he's up to, is playing a very dangerous game and that his ego is going to get him killed.
But with that, the group heads out to the shed in a wooded area near the river where the hallow is located. They spot one of Derrick's shadow owls perched in a tree over the shed, and with a glare Weaver crushes it with Space magic. Josh is a little freaked out, as this is the first time he's seen one of these things[4], and he gets a quick explanation as to what these things are.
Josh, concerned, calls upon some of his demonic abilities, manifesting some form traits for the first time where most of the group can see them. His eyes begin to glow green, and his ears unfold into a set of triple-antennae. His skin turns metallic and he's covered in weird runic scars.[5]
Weaver goes into the shed to begin his ritual as Stills observes aloud that this is like the thing they saw at the PRT the night before. He catches Josh up on their encounter with the Powered Retributive Transformer. Josh's reaction is to activate a couple more form traits -- his veins suddenly start glowing through his skin before the skin shimmers and becomes reflective as he apparently vanishes into thin air.[6] He makes it clear he's still there, just invisible, and Stills tosses some pebbles at him to confirm it (as they bounce off of him).
So they wait as Weaver chants and does magic inside. And aftera little bit, Josh senses something coming -- an immense flock of shadow owls, silently zipping through the trees, coming right at them. His invisible form shimmers as he breaks down into a collection of mechanical centipedes.[7]
The owls descent on them and Josh harries them with his swarm form, doing a little bit of damage and disrupting their attacks as Stills takes the direct route of punching the flock out a few owls at a time. He hits them as hard as he can, pumping blood into some of his strikes, and they dissolve into shadowy mist when he hits them, realizing they roughly have the texture of foam rubber. They tear him up with their talons, his Resilience prevents him from taking most of the damage and keeps him going (though he still takes the actual physical damage, it just doesn't affect his health levels).
And they wear down the flock and it dissipates, but Stills looks like shit -- like, 'the T-800 at the end of Terminator 2' shit, one eye missing and everything.[8] Josh offers to stay at the shed and keep an eye on things if Stills wants to go and feed -- they're not far from his usual feeding grounds -- and Stills takes him up on the offer while he heads out to feed and restore what he lost between healing what damage he did take and the blood he spent on buffs. He still looks really torn up and one of his eyes is still missing, but that should restore itself during his daysleep.
There are no other disruptions before Weaver finishes his ritual (because after all, a group of adventurers will only ever deal with one random encounter before getting on with it), so Weaver comes out to see Stills torn up half to death and Josh apparently missing. Upon his asking about Josh, he hears a metallic voice coming from multiple directions that he's 'everywhere.' Stills argues that the value of the favor has gone up. Weaver doesn't like the sound of that, and there's some threatening banter back and forth, and Stills uses Nightmare to frighten Weaver back into the shed and through the portal.
Josh asks Stills if all of his kind trade in oaths and favors, and Stills explains that when you're old enough, money loses value and favors are the only thing that matters. Josh asks if this applies to all supernatural creatures or just vampires, and Stills, IIRC, isn't entirely sure. Josh asks if this means the vampires of the city will owe him big for saving it once this is all done, and Stills explains that the Invictus will owe him. This becomes a conversation about what the Invictus are and roughly what the other covenants are like. Josh asks if the Invictus have a rivalry with anyone and Stills explains that he doesn't particularly care or worry about that unless the Invictus needs him to care. He explains, over the course of a conversation, about how he doesn't turn down any jobs from the Invictus because it keeps them honest on a debt they owe him.
Josh asks if the Invictus has paid up on that debt, and Stills says it's complicated. Josh argues that he's currently millions of insects, and can handle 'complicated.' Stills explains that he used to be a ghoul in service to a Ventrue, being groomed for the Embrace where he was going to be part of vampiric high society, and during a deal with a Nosferatu he was basically sold to them as sort of a bribe. The Nosferatu took offense to that, in particular because they didn't see this as the Ventrue giving up anything of value. But they threatened retaliation and embraced him, and he entered into a deal with the Invictus, where his mortal family is to be taken care of and if the Ventrue come for any of them that they are to be taken into the upper echelons and not just used as playthings. And there's a Ventrue in Charleston who'll pay if Stills' family gets screwed over.
Josh says he has enough trouble understanding normal humans, let alone how all this works with supernatural creatures, but he wants to make sure Stills knows he's willing and available to help if he needs it. Stills says that he'll take care of himself, as he always does. Josh insists that allies are important, but Stills makes it clear that he doesn't need allies as long as the Invictus keep their word.
Josh lets it drop and asks Stills if he'll accompany him on a walk. Stills asks where, and Josh takes him up to his own personal recharge spot a decent walk away, where he's got some suborned Infrastructure, because after what happened he didn't want to go up alone.
And we leave it there.
[0]-- While such was not my intent, we've sort of unintentionally gotten into a pattern of a lot of these sessions taking place over the course of a single night, I think largely because we've found reasons to avoid daylight shenanigans so the vampire and vampire-adjacent (Stills and Otis, respectively) don't have to miss half the session.
[1]-- After Zac had brought the character into play, I discovered a bloodline that would have been perfect for Stills -- the Order of St. Martin from Ancient Bloodlines, a Nosferatu bloodline that beats ass for the Invictus but carries an illness where they have to roll not to throw up blood when they feed. After some consideration, we retconned that his character was embraced by a member of the bloodline and he decided to 'activate' it with this session.
[2]-- I haven't exactly kept count, but we're pretty sure Weaver owes a lot of people a lot of things by this point.
[3]-- We're all pretty sure that Otis hasn't told them in-character that he plans to turn someone into a vampire as a demonstration of his powers.
[4]-- By some stupid stroke of luck, the sessions that John has missed have been the ones where the owls have been prominent, so his character actually hasn't seen one since the one that Derrick absorbed.
[5]-- For those of you with the Demon book, he's just activated Night Vision, Sonic Acuity, Tough as Stone, and Wound Healing with some visual customization...
[6]-- ...and that's Teleportation and Mirrored Skin added to the mix...
[7]-- ...aaaaand Insect Swarm.
[8]-- Zac actually kept track -- while, thanks to Resilience, he was able to ignore most of the damage inflicted on him by the owls, without it he'd have taken enough to kill a normal person.
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