View Single Post
Old 04-28-2015, 08:46 PM   #21
tshiggins
 
tshiggins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Aurelia started to back away slowly, only to see the wolf down the trail lower its head and start trotting toward her, as the one up top disappeared from view. She turned and sprinted back toward the taped entrance to the slot canyon, where an alarmed Sunmi saw her coming. Aurelia shouted at her to get inside the passageway, just as the first growling mutated wolf appeared down the trail, behind her.

Aurelia ducked into the slot canyon entrance and pulled her bow out of its slung case, as Sunmi suddenly realized the danger of the situation ("Aah! What do I do?!" "Shoot it!") and fumbled out her pistol. She took aim, waited for the wolf to get closer, pulled the trigger with shaking hands and missed badly -- only to have Aurelia smoothly pull out an arrow and drop it in one shot (crit!).

As the two women cautiously approached the downed wolf, the other beast appeared down the trail, sized up the situation, and then bolted. Shortly thereafter, Beatrice and Grunt burst through the police tape, followed a few moments later by Henrietta. The women decided to pursue the beast, noting that it had headed generally south, toward the area most frequented by tourists. They gave chase, and came upon two flabbergasted young hikers about 20 minutes later who reported the giant wolf had fled past them.

The quartet went on awhile longer, realized the mutated beast didn't seem inclined to slow down, and noted that it was getting late enough that they had to head back out of the canyon before dark. They still needed to make the three-hour drive back to Grand Junction. They picked up the camera and hiked out, as Sunmi insisted upon coming along to get an explanation.

The four returned to Grand Junction by about 10 p.m., and reported the events of the day to McShane, who theorized that the wolves may have gotten possessed by some sort of bestial spirit. McShane said that was apparently a fairly common occurrence when animals pass through dimensional portals without protections (and perhaps one reason animals were usually so reluctant to get near them).

Alarmed, Beatrice noted that Grunt had gone through and seemed fine, and looked down at him -- only to see him gazing at her with bright green eyes, instead of dark brown doggy-eyes. Even more alarmed, Doc Bascher rushed outside to check on Master Oink, only to discover that the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig had worked loose the latch on the tailgate of the truck and disappeared.

McShane decided that, since Grunt didn't seem inclined to attack anybody, perhaps the spirit inside him was more benign than those in the wolves. She politely asked the dog for his permission to check his aura, and seemed to get his assent when he layed down on his belly and panted at her. She took Beatrice and the dog to her home, made them wait out front while she went to her ritual space, prepped the spell, cast it on the dog, and reported that the spirit seemed neutral in outlook, and not hostile toward anyone -- at least, at the moment.

The pair returned to Café Nepenthé and the party determined they needed as much help as possible. Aurelia and Beatrice decided to take Randy some potions to heal him up enough that they could spring him from the hospital, while Doc Bascher, Arthur and Henrietta would remain behind and try to track Master Oink.

The next day, Aurelia and Beatrice left early and arrived in Moab by mid-morning, where they broke into Randy's apartment (screwdriver took the sliding door off its tracks) and packed him some clean clothes. They then drove to the small Moab Regional Hospital, where Aurelia remained outside and kept the car running, while Beatrice went inside and made her way to Randy's room. She found him awake but woozy on morphine, gave him the potion, helped him get dressed, detached the monitors at the last moment and hurried him toward the exit as the alarms started to beep.

A nurse tried to stop them but Beatrice and Randy brushed by her. Frantically, the nurse called the deputies for help and dialed the doctor, but by then the duo had reached the curb. They hopped in Aurelia's car and sped away (she clipped a fender on the way out), dropped her car down the block from Randy's apartment, got in his car, and then drove away as their cell-phones started to ring.

Beatrice noted her call was from Grand County Sheriff Allen Brown, while Undersheriff Mark Gray was calling Aurelia. Beatrice swiped "ignore" but Aurelia answered hers, tried to spin a story for Gray, and heard him shift voices from "concerned friend" to "cop with questions." Non-plussed, Aurelia struggled a moment to answer, until Beatrice took the phone and hung up on the undersheriff.

Meanwhile, the Grand Junction group (which now included Sunmi) tracked Master Oink through some alleys and determined that he seemed to have headed for the edge of town by the most direct route. They hopped in a car and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out where he'd gone once he reached it, but lost the trail when they realized the head-start (at least 12 hours) was simply too large, given that Master Oink had apparently trotted through concrete alleys and along asphalt streets. A worried Doc Bascher spent the late afternoon and early evening phoning veterinary colleagues and animal control people, reporting the missing pig.

The next day, realizing they needed more information about magical beasties than JoCat's limited knowledge could provide, Henrietta drove back to Moab with a bouquet of flowers and a healing potion in a Starbucks cup, to try to visit Señor Andres Reyes. Meanwhile, the rest of the group practiced meditation and/or went to work (and/or fishing, and/or watched YouTube K-Pop videos), while awaiting developments.

Henrietta arrived, to find a half-dozen irate deputies, who immediately button-holed her to ask where Aurelia and Beatrice had taken Randy. Thinking quickly, Henrietta professed ignorance convincingly enough to mollify them ("What do you mean, he's gone? You let him go? I came to visit him!"), and decided to talk with Diego, instead.

The deputy demanded to know what had happened (and why), and after a bit of hesitation, Henrietta filled him in. She also offered him the healing potion originally meant for Señor AKA. After careful consideration, Diego declined it, realizing the rapid healing would force him to flee the hospital, just as it had Randy.

Diego also said that some of the other deputies had told him Reyes had "lawyered-up," and was now represented by a public defender named Don Melody, attached to the federal prosecutor's office in Salt Lake.

Frustrated, Henrietta asked for advice, and Diego told her the only way to get access to the other-dimensional sorceror was to work through his attorney. Moreover, since Reyes (or whatever name he was using) faced charges that carried combined sentences of 10-20 years in a federal penitentiary, Melody would likely demand "quid-pro-quo" and drive a hard bargain for considerations, before he would let his client agree to meet with anyone.

With that, Henrietta returned to Grand Junction for the night and gave the potion to Randy, who promptly quaffed it and was healed up, completely.

The next morning, Henrietta and Doc Bascher both received telephone calls. Diego reported to Henrietta that some of the deputies told him a "large wild dog" had attacked a lone camper, south of Dark Canyon, the previous evening. The man was badly injured, with a torn-up leg and blood-loss, but had managed to fight off the attack. Doc Bascher heard from an animal control officer in Montezuma County, more than 180 miles south, who reported that a large pig wearing a harness had killed two dogs in and broke into pig-pen, just outside the town of Dolores. A female Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pig had gone missing.

The session ended, as the group decided to go after the wolf, since it seemed to pose the most immediate threat to people.

###

Funny Quotes

Sunmi <listening to Aurelia, Beatrice and Henrietta try to explain about the portal and the mutated wolves>: Y'all be crazy, y'all need Jee-uzus, I'm out!
Bernetta (OOC): The funny part is, she talks like that all the time.

Arthur <to Sunmi>: I'm so glad you're here! You're another science-type! I can't talk to these people!

Doc Bascher <to Henrietta, just before she left to try to see Señor AKA>: You went, taking him a Jamba Juice (points at Randy), and four days later he was gone!
Randy: It doesn't have to be a Jamba Juice if you're not comfortable being seen with that.
<Henrietta pours the healing potion into a Starbucks cup.>

Arthur: Fishing is a form of meditation.

Debbie (OOC): Don Melody? It sounds like a performer, or something.
G&AInc (OOC): It sounds like a stripper.
GM: It's D-O-N Melody, not D-A-W-N Melody!

RANDY: Guys! Doesn't it suck that we all had to put rocks up our @$$*$!?
AURELIA: No, honey, only you.
RANDY: <horrified look> But...

G&AInc (OOC): I can see why you wanted us to play good guys. If we played this the way our regular group does, normally, Don would already be locked in the trunk and we'd be driving into the desert.
GM: On his knees, facing a hole. Better call Saul!

Beatrice: My dog does not need to be exorcised!
Henrietta: All dogs need exercise!

G&AInc (OOC): Your pig has gone on a murder-and-rape spree.

<Doc Bascher struggles to find a response to the news from the Montezuma County Animal Control officer that Master Oink traveled 180 miles in less than 40 hours, and may have killed two dogs and kidnapped a sow.>
G&AInc (OOC): I don't know what could've possessed my pig to act that way!

G&AInc (OOC): Now we get to find out if magical mutations breed true.

###
__________________
--
MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.

Last edited by tshiggins; 04-28-2015 at 08:52 PM.
tshiggins is offline   Reply With Quote