Campaign: Facets

[303Radar]

Although I'm saving the one shot I have I have to shot this thing wen it transforms into a walking nightmare wearing my bayonet and rifle in it's chest. What the hell is this thing? One part blue man group, one part Freddy Kruger and tall! Although I he scratches my arm well, I'll heal without a spell and I get my shot off. IT STILL DOESN'T DIE! Millie finally puts this critter out of our misery with her rapier.
From here, I jump to the roof and see a two on one situation with Aurelia out numbered. I charge one crewman nearest me with the bayonet and can't quite run him through. I do manage to redirect his attention away from her.
Millie manages to jump up and attack the crewman trying to poke at AJ with this tree of a staff. Seriously, 4 inches or more in diameter, 15 feet long and being handled like a 6 foot bo staff.
I managed to fight this one off and Frank managed to kill another.
Somehow, the fight is over. We are battered, bruised, tired but alive. Not all of us are intact but alive. Thankfully, the last of these things threw themselves over board. I guess in shame for not protecting their leader/queen.
At some point, Aurelia says this was like cutting down a Redwood with a butter knife. Definitely not fun or easy.

[303Radar]

Well, back to London, hopefully for some useful information and hope some healing for our badly wounded. I know it isn't a trophy, but we're taking the head of Madame Faucher. Hope it is useful to our hosts on London.

I still can't help but wonder what we missed with the hogshead in the cellar or if this would have been easier if we'd just attacked them at the Inn. However, I won't attack without provocation and I think the last thing needed would have been intervention by the local authorities. I don't know if there was a right choice, but maybe there was a better choice.

[tshiggins]

Steven gets the character point. :)

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by SionEwig

That was a great write up on your part. Clear and concise. The party did about as well as they could have hoped for considering the opposition they were facing. This looks to have been possibly the toughest fight they have been in and they managed , with no small use of their brains and a healthy dose of luck, to come out of it alive if more than a bit banged up. Two thumbs up to the players!

The only thing they could've done better, and what I actually expected them to do, was to take out either the boat guys or the hotel guys, and then go after the group that remained.

Instead, rather than initiate action in an effort to defeat the opponents in detail, they passed the initiative to "Madame Faucher," and she hit them with everything she had available.

She'd been expecting a reaction to the previous year's events and, when this group of obvious heavy-hitters showed up, she recognized immediately what they had to be.

However, because they worked their way to this world via the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, she had no intel on them, at all. So, she expected them to be more burly versions of the investigators she waxed the previous year -- that was the "rational" assessment, after all.

The idea that the Invisible College would risk deployment of an extra-dimensional hit team with advanced weaponry able to trigger a qlippoth infestation of their home world, as well as magic capabilities, would rank as blatant paranoia.

Nobody does that.

[SionEwig]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Steven gets the character point. :)

And Steve well deserves the character point. Heck, give him another one from me. ;-)

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The only thing they could've done better, and what I actually expected them to do, was to take out either the boat guys or the hotel guys, and then go after the group that remained.

Instead, rather than initiate action in an effort to defeat the opponents in detail, they passed the initiative to "Madame Faucher," and she hit them with everything she had available.

To be honestly blunt here, this group really hasn't impressed me with having that great of a tactical ability. They seem to do well individually, but don't have that great of a coordination ability. In their defense, that is pretty much the way that most adventuring groups are.

She'd been expecting a reaction to the previous year's events and, when this group of obvious heavy-hitters showed up, she recognized immediately what they had to be.

However, because they worked their way to this world via the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, she had no intel on them, at all. So, she expected them to be more burly versions or the investigators she waxed the previous year -- that was the "rational" assessment, after all.

The idea that the Invisible College would risk deployment of an extra-dimensional hit team with advanced weaponry able to trigger a qlippoth infestation of their home world, as well as magic capabilities, would rank as blatant paranoia.

Nobody does that.

Yeah well, you can't plan for everything.

[303Radar]

Originally Posted by SionEwig

And Steve well deserves the character point. Heck, give him another one from me. ;-)




To be honestly blunt here, this group really hasn't impressed me with having that great of a tactical ability. They seem to do well individually, but don't have that great of a coordination ability. In their defense, that is pretty much the way that most adventuring groups are.



Yeah well, you can't plan for everything.

We're a bit like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

... able to trigger a qlippoth infestation of their home world...

Well, sometimes to make an omelet you have to...

[checks notes]

... destroy the entire world.

[tshiggins]

We held the latest session of Facets a few weekends ago. I need to get this write-up done, because I move, this weekend, and won’t have any connectivity for at least a week, after that.

Fortunately, the group spent most of the time getting healed up, learning more magic, and planning an assault against dangerous foes.
##

Characters Present

Dr. Henrietta "Indiana" Johnson -- A personable, age 29-and-holding Anthropologist who specializes in the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the American Desert Southwest. A Native of Apache Junction, AZ, "Indiana" is good with people and has been fascinated by American Indian religion and folklore since she was a child. Henrietta speaks Apache fluently, and not-so-secretly wishes archaeology could be more like Raiders of the Lost Ark and less like digging in a trench with a trowel and a toothbrush -- Played by Debbie S.

Dr. Arthur "A.J." Jamison -- a retired NASA scientist with a home in one of Moab's nicer canyon sub-developments, who volunteers for 4CSAR because he needs to do something to get out of the house. Considers himself responsible for Sunmi Jones, who is enough of a science-geek that the two of them can actually hold a conversation. -- Played by Anten S.

Aurelia R. Lockrin -- A young woman with a shady past who teaches History at Grand County High School (Home of the Red Devils!), and volunteers for 4CSAR because she's a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and likes the companionship. -- played by Bennie Rae P. (Not available, this session.)

Dr. Belody "Doc" Bascher -- a local veterinarian for both large and small animals, who frequently fixates on her job and uses 4CSAR as her primary social outlet. -- played by Samantha H.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. She recently lost the lower part of her left leg in a fight with a sorcerer from an opposing lodge, and now wears a high-tech prosthetic. A cynic about men, she is accompanied by "Grunt," the biggest, best-trained pit-bull anybody has ever seen (purchased as an ally, and a totally badass dog, even before it was possessed by what appears to be a benign “foo” spirit) -- played by Bernetta W.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari, member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, and an old friend of Arthur Jamison’s. The team has been helping Arthur research the portal physics, on the sly. – Played by Tisa T.

Stephen Mack, another member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, a former U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, and outdoors enthusiast. – Played by Reagan S.

Frank Moses -- A former Marine who quit his job as a trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP). Moses formerly volunteered with 4CSAR and has an interest in Doc Bascher. Frank has spent the past several months living in the Dark Canyon base camp on the 1918 side of the portal. -played by Mike H.

Millicent “Millie” Brown – A member of the Columbine Lodge of Denver, and descendant of the Unsinkable Margaret “Molly” Brown. Currently an apprentice of the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes, seconded out to the members of the Red Rocks Lodge. Owner of a large, well-trained Savannah Cat, named Apophis. – Played by Kaitlynn S. (Not available, this session.)

NPCs Present

Grunt: Beatrice's ally, a large pit-bull possessed by a protective "foo" spirit.

##

As the two remaining ghûl ran for their lives, A.J., Steven, Frank and Millie slogged ashore and then chased them down through the gathering gloom of the early evening. They quickly spotted and killed the two remaining ghûl, and then dropped them into the river to make it easier to get them back to the boat.

Back at the Dame d’Astalot, Doc Bascher used a healing spell to prop herself back up, and then she began to triage the injured. She soon determined she could do nothing to help either Claudia or Beatrice, and focused instead on Henrietta, Aurelia, Grunt and Apophis.

She set Henrietta’s leg, and then the archaeologist used a healing spell to mend her bone. Between the two of them, they re-broke the badly-healed first fracture in Aurelia’s left leg, and then set it and the second break. However, they didn’t have a major healing spell to use for it, so Doc Bascher dosed Aurelia with painkillers and knocked her out.

Doc Bascher re-broke Frank’s leg, re-set it, and then the former trooper healed it, himself. A few more bandages and stitches and minor healing spells got the others up again, and then Doc Bascher did the same for the dog and the cat, and then did what she could to make Claudia and Beatrice comfortable in the cabin.

At that point, the ambulatory members of the group rounded up the bodies of the ghûl both on the deck and floating in the still water at the edge of the river. They stacked them on the deck of the boat, and then A.J., Frank, Steven, Henrietta, Doc Bascher and Millie took up the large poles.

The group that had set off after the remaining ghûls had spotted what had obvious been meant as the boaters’ intended campsite. Hidden in a copse of trees about 70 yards past the bridge, it was well-sheltered, and had a tie-up for the boat and a picket-line for the oxen, and a large stack of wood.

The group went three to a side, set the poles and began to “walk” the Dame d’Astalot up-river. Unfortunately, none of them had any experience with such boats, and it took a long time.

Eventually, though, they reached the campsite and tied up the boat and led the oxen to down the gangplank to the shore. They lit some lanterns and used them to search the boat.

They found the usual sort of cargo they’d expect on a riverboat in the early spring – salt beet, hams, cheeses of various sort, and a couple of large barrels of beer. They also found about two-dozen bolts of inexpensive cloth woven of wool and linen, and dyed various colors.

They also found two small barrels of whale oil which, if used to ignite the large stack of wood nearby, would make a blaze strong enough to consume the bodies of about a dozen people – apparently their planned fate.

Turn about being fair-play, the group piled the ghûl bodies and the wood together down near the river, doused them with the oil, and set them alight. Within a few hours, the flesh of the ghûls had burned away, leaving only the bones, which the group shoveled into the river.

The next morning dawned foggy, and Doc Bascher checked her patients. She found that Grunt had contracted a fever, and she realized the dog’s dip in the river while wounded had resulted in an infection.

Doc Bascher hit Grunt with some broad-spectrum antibiotics.

At the same time, Beatrice decided that, since she couldn’t heal her leg, she’d use a major healing spell to fix up Aurelia. She cast it successfully, but the decanic energies proved quite quirky. As Aurelia’s leg healed, the wood of the boat sprouted twigs and leaves.

Despite that, the group decided to get the boat out into the main channel as early as possible. A.J. had used a spell cast for him by Sir Isaac Newton to send a magical message back with a report of the events of the previous evening. Within a few moments, he got a message back and learned the Mademoiselle Kamille had yet to depart Le Havre.

If the group could get back downriver by evening, they could reach London by the middle of the next day.

As soon as it got light enough, the group piled everything back on the leafy Dame d’Astalot and tried to push off – only to discover the boat had firmly wedged itself against something. The boat proved so immovable that Henrietta actually vaulted herself off the deck and splashed into the river.

When other efforts proved ineffective at getting the boat to move, Steven decided to plunge into the river and see if he could figure out the problem.

He found that Beatrice’s chaotic spell had given the Dame d’Astalot even more life than they’d initially surmised. The bottom of the boat had taken root in the bed of the river, about a foot beneath.

With a sigh, the group pulled out blades and sawed away at the roots. Fortunately, they didn’t prove too thick and the member of the Red Rocks Lodge managed to free the boat within an hour, or so, although Steven did catch a mild case of hypothermia and Millie fell in by accident, once.

Eventually, though, they managed to get the Dame d’Astalot out into the channel. A.J. manned the stern sweep, while Frank, Henrietta, Millie and Steven took the sweeps on the port and starboard sides.

As they began to work their way downstream, they noted crewmen on a nearby boat, less than a hundred yards away, or so, pointing at the Dame d’Astalot. A.J. quickly realized they’d spotted the twigs sprouting from the decks, so he pulled out his machete and chopped away the twigs and leaves.

That seemed to take care of the problem and the rest of the trip passed peacefully enough until, by late in the afternoon, they saw the walls of Le Havre ahead.

The group manned the sweeps and poles and made their way toward the river docks as best they could. However, they decided not to try for a good dock, and instead decided to beach the boat upriver of them.

This they managed to do, successfully, but it took them long enough that, by the time the boat ran aground, the local constabulary had appeared. Frank recognized his acquaintance, the sergeant, and hopped off the boat to meet the man.

He took in stride Frank’s somewhat battered appearance and that of his companions, and had his men keep the crowds back. He then told Frank that guests at the Hôtel de la Gare had reported to the constables that the Faucher’s and their staff had entirely vanished, without any warning.

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

The constables had searched the inn for signs of foul play, and discovered the re-caulked hogshead in the cellar. They’d opened it up, and found the bodies of the Fauchers and the rest of the staff, dead – their bodies placed in the large wine cask long enough before to have been pickled.

Thoroughly disturbed at the finding, the sergeant had recalled Frank’s warning to steer clear of the Hôtel de la Gare and surmised his group had come to take care of some horror. As such, he said he’d do anything he could to resolve the matter and put the episode behind them.

Frank thanked him for the offer of help, and said they’d mostly resolved the problem – at least, locally. He asked the constable to help them make it to the harbor with minimal fuss. In exchange, he offered them the casks of beer and anything else left on the Dame d’Astalot.

The constable agreed, and summoned some carriages. The group piled on the cloth and few other odds and ends they wanted to keep, as well as a small cask with the head of the si’lat they’d decided to take back to England as proof of the presence of the djinn.

Once at the harbor, they quickly boarded the Mademoiselle Kamille and, as the ship sailed away, they saw the smoke of the burning Dame d’Astalot, rising behind them. Apparently, the constabulary had found unnerving the knots and nobs where A.J. had chopped off the twigs, and decided to take matters into their own hands.

The ship beat out to sea, turned it’s bow to the northeast and sped toward the mouth of the Thames. All went well, and the ship entered the estuary in the small hours of the morning. After a bit of a delay to wait for sunrise, the Mademoiselle Kamille put in at the docks, where hackneys sent by the Royal Society awaited.

Once the battered group reached their home just outside London, they found William Tempest waiting for them. His face grew grave as he listened to their report and saw their injuries. He said the members of the Hidden College would meet in Cornwall a few days hence, so as to heal them up with magical rituals.

He said the rituals needed to heal the crippled demanded quite a lot of Decanic energies, and presumed they’d wish to “contribute” to the effort.

Henrietta and A.J. asked for more information, as that word seemed to have a specific meaning they didn’t understand. Tempest blinked in surprise, and then ruefully noted that he’d forgotten the group had gained their understanding and awareness quite late, and had missed much of the information given to novices who joined the lodges in more traditional ways.

Tempest said that most novices learned to grant to another person some of their spiritual “essence” if needed, so as to contribute to the Decanic energies required to cast powerful spells. Since the energy came directly from the minds and souls of the contributors, in which the energies achieved an equilibrium, Tempest explained, it never had an incorrect aspect as raw energies did, frequently.

As such, the Decanic forces granted by the giver came in “pure,” he said, which made the difficult task of major rituals somewhat easier. If the ritual’s master mage couldn’t handle the energies, Tempest added, the results were catastrophic – but that burden lay solely on that person, and not the contributors.

Additionally, Tempest continued, the participants had the ability to contribute magics from their personal mana reserves.

That raised everyone’s eyebrows, as they’d not heard of this “mana reserve,” either. Tempest shook his head in dismay, and said they already had the necessary foundation to fill their reserves. The meditation techniques they used to to survive their initial faceting could also be used to load up their spirits with extra decanic energies they could tap on demand.

The ritual, though simple, had to take place in their sacred spaces, but since they’d purchased this manor house for that purpose, Tempest said he could teach it to them.

He had them each take the chalices used during their own rituals, and fill them with any liquid that contributed to their magics, based on their birthdates and astrological aspects. If there were none, Tempest said pure well-water or top-quality wine would also work.

The professor had them achieve a meditative state, and as they began to gather decanic energies, to picture infusing it into the liquid in the cup. Once they had enough (which they found they could sense) they drank the liquid down as a symbolic act of ingestion, and the decanic energies poured into them, as well.

Each of the group tried this, and found it worked easily and well. Tempest said most Cabal mages learned the trick of it, rather early, and held it as an emergency reserve useful for any spell. In addition to the contributions from their spirits made for a magical asset of unusual – and therefore useful – flexibility.

(GM Note: Basically, this is the Mana Reserve and Voluntary Sacrifice rules found on p21 of Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic.)

As the group practiced filling their reserves, A.J. and Henrietta realized how some of the more powerful spells referred to in Oliver McShane’s library received the Decanic energies necessary for casting. Faceted mages from entire lodges contributed their energies to a knowledgeable master member, who (in turn) shaped it into the spell and defined the trigger conditions.

They also realized that failure to control such massive energies would almost certainly prove fatal to the casting mage, and potentially quite harmful to anyone nearby – and might even rapidly rearrange the landscape in the immediate vicinity.

Within a couple of days, Tempest retained the Mademoiselle Kamille to ferry the group, as well as a few other members of the London lodge, around the south end of Britain. Within a day they arrived off the coast of Tintagal Castle, on a peninsula jutting out into the Celtic Sea, in northern Cornwall.

https://eaglesanddragonspublishing.c...hards-1879.png

The group disembarked from the ship just up the coast, and found carriages waiting for them. They took a road inland from Tintagel, past the active open-pit tin-mines, and entered the quieter countryside.

Soon, they found themselves at a large manor house, where Sir Isaac Newton met them, having departed from London a few days before they’d left. Most of the other lodge members from the Invisible College had already made their way to the manor or to inns or private homes, nearby, and Sir Isaac said the rest would join them within a few days.

Tempest agreed to continue to liaison with them, and got everybody in the group settled in the manor, and then met them for an informal dinner.

The British mage said the ritual would take place in a nearby cave formed from a massive geode; a secret ritual space used as a place of worship by the ancient Celts and Romano-Celtic people for at least two millenia – and was quite possibly Merlin’s “crystal cave” of legend.

A.J., Frank and Henrietta reacted to this with awe. From what they’d read in the library, places worshipped so deeply, for so long, made gathering of Decanic energies almost effortless.

Within a couple of days, the time of the ritual arrived, and the group traveled through the ancient woodlands to the carefully concealed entrance to the cave. Once inside, they donned ritual robes and masks, and made their way to the central chamber – where they saw several dozen young oxen, in addition to the assembled mages.

There, incense and carefully-placed candles of perfumed beeswax filled the space with a sweet scent, and threw rainbows of color from the faceted crystals all around. The group recognized that Sir Isaac Newton had donned the deep red robes and bejeweled mask of the master, and as soon as everyone arrived, the ritual began.

Sir Isaac, a deeply religious man, called upon the “Lord Creator of the Nested Spheres” to bless the undertaking, and then began the ritual. As he summoned each participant forward, the lodge member walked to him, bowed deeply and presented to Sir Isaac both hands in the symbol of prayer.

The master of the ritual then clasped the contributors two hands between his own, in the ancient symbol of the acceptance of fealty. The contributor frequently staggered as he passed as much strength as he could give, and then withdrew.

Finally, Sir Isaac approached the crippled Beatrice and, with only the slightest hint of hesitation, took her hands between his own.

Beatrice contributed so much she felt faint, but that seemed enough. Sir Isaac laid his hands upon her one crippled leg and the stump of the other, and called upon the Lord for blessings, again, cast the spell, and Beatrice promptly passed out.

Sir Isaac gave everyone an hour to rest and recover their strength, and then repeated the ritual for Claudia – who also promptly went limp.

As everyone else had already been healed by more traditional spells, that marked the end of the larger effort, and the mages withdrew from the sacred space. They doffed their masks and robes, and stood around talking quietly, getting caught up with one another and sharing speculations about the threat they faced – looking for all the world like a crowd at a family funeral.

Henrietta, A.J. and Doc Bascher located Tempest, and asked about the oxen. He replied that the sacrifices that provided Decanic energies didn’t necessarily need to come from voluntary contributors.

Had the combined efforts of the mages of the Hidden College, plus the nine members of the Red Rocks Lodge, had proven insufficient, Sir Isaac and two assistants would have used the ancient Celtic ritual of the “threefold death” to sacrifice the oxen, and then draw energy from the its lifeblood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threefold_death

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Sobered by the ghastly implications, the group returned to their rooms.

A few days later, Beatrice woke from her coma to find herself in one of two comfortable beds in a well-appointed room with a low fire that had a large pot on a grill above it. Claudia lay sleeping in the other bed and, to her surprise, Beatrice saw a young girl – no more than about 13 years old – sitting on a chair between them.

The girl had shiny blue-black hair, sea-gray eyes and pale skin. In a sweet voice with a deep Irish brogue, she introduced herself as Aoife, and asked if Beatrice needed anything.

As soon as she asked, Beatrice realized she was terribly thirsty and her bladder was ready to burst. Weak as a kitten, she needed Aoife’s help and, as soon as those immediate needs were met, found herself absolutely famished.

Aoife went to the pot on the fire and dished up a big bowl of fish stew. Beatrice gulped it all down and asked for more, and the young girl cheerfully complied.

As soon as she’d had her fill, Beatrice needed Aoife’s help with bodily functions, again, and the girl explained that would happen a lot. As her body healed, Aoife said, Beatrice would need to eat and drink a lot, and that meant everything else happened more, too.

About then, Claudia woke up, too, and Aoife helped her in the same way, and then fed her as much of the stew as the physicist could hold.

Once Aoife settled both of the patients in comfortably, Beatrice said she’d not seen much in the way of women in the Invisible College – much less any young girls. As such, Aoife’s presence – and her apparent awareness of the nature of the healing under way – came as a surprise.

The girl replied in a matter-of-fact tone that her entire clan served the Invisible College, in exchange for protection of their ancient lands on the island of Roan Inish*, off the western coast of Ireland. In exchange for that protection, the clan gave the Invisible College their obedience in all things.

Beatrice asked why Aoife’s clan would make such a bargain, and the girl replied that her clan consisted of selkies – shape-changing seal-folk who spent most of their time at sea. As such, they found human laws and practices quite confusing – and appallingly dangerous, given how humanity’s increasing mastery of science gave them unprecedented power.

The mages of the Invisible College shielded the selkies from the growing might of the Angevin Empire and its rivals, Aoife said, and ensured they survived and remained hidden.

Beatrice took a few moments to digest that, and then said she felt she owed them something for their help during what would certainly be a difficult 4-6 weeks of recuperation.

Aoife replied they’d already paid quite enough. She reminded Beatrice that the Invisible College’s man, Master Cooper, had taken passage on the Lady Courtenay, the ship of pirates that had originally brought them to England.

Once he’d grown confident that the group had, indeed, made their way across Ireland with sufficient precautions, Master Cooper had gone back to Galway, where the well-paid crew of the ship had agreed to wait for him.

Once it beat out to sea far enough, the selkies of Roan Inish had boarded from the sea, slaughtered the pirates, and taken the Lady Courtenay. The mages of the college had then worked through the Board of the Admiralty to get the ship transferred to the ownership of the selkies.

The selkie people of Roan Inish now had a fine tall ship of their own, Aoife said, to use as they would – with the understanding that if the Invisible College needed them, they would put the ship at the service of the lodge.

Beatrice and Claudia agreed the selkies would probably make better use of the ship than the pirates who had tried to kill the members of the Red Rocks Lodge, and Aoife said the ship lay in the harbor near Tintagel Castle.

Apparently, she said, the Invisible College preferred to use the selkie vessel instead of the Mademoiselle Kamille, whose crew had seen their terrible injuries.

After a bit more conversation, Claudia and Beatrice found themselves ready to sleep, again, and Aoife tucked them in. During the course of the next month, they met three other selkie girls – Moira, who was the same age as Aoife, as well as Maeve and Neave, who were a bit older (and near the age of marriage, in this time).

As the healing continued for the month and their limbs regenerated, Doc Bascher kept stopping in to poke in amazement at the growing limbs. They budded out from the stumps and rebuilt in an organized way, with no need for scaffolding of any sort to ensure they grew back, properly.

At the end of four weeks, Sir Isaac appeared, once again, and cast two powerful rituals (although not as strong as the initial healing effort) to speed things along.

At that point the four selkie girls revealed their true natures as skilled and enthusiastic torturers. They began to work Claudia’s arm, and both of Beatrice’s legs, in increasingly strenuous (and agonizing) physical therapy.

By the end of the fifth week, Claudia’s arm had regained its full strength, although the flesh remained pale and tender. Beatrice’s legs took another two weeks, or so, and she found she could walk without even a limp. Doc Bascher just shook her head in awe.

As the two ladies recovered in Cornwall, the other members of the Red Rocks Lodge returned to London. They devoted their time to learning new spells from British mages, as agreed, and reviewing the much more extensive grimoires available for the colleges they already knew.

About six weeks after the large rituals, as Claudia’s healing had completed and Beatrice sweated through her physical therapy, A.J. was summoned to a meeting at the Fleet Street offices of the Royal Society.

Sir Isaac presided at the meeting, which took place in the large conference room, where several large rolls of paper lay on the table, and several other members of the British lodge (including Tempest) seated themselves around. Also present was a grim-faced Master Cooper.

After an initial round of pleasantries and inquiries as to the progress of the healing, Sir Isaac got to the point. He said he’d sent Master Cooper and a cadre of his men to check on the status of the Hotel Pauvre Jacques, the safehouse in Les Andelys, at the midpoint of the journey from Paris to Le Havre.

Cooper said he and his men traveled cross-country to avoid the normal river route, and entered the city quietly. Their initial reconnaissance revealed that the third riverboat, the Mademoiselle Emelie, lay tied up at the town’s river dock, located near the hotel.

Suspecting the worst, they carefully scoped out the Hotel Pauvre Jacques, and then went in in the middle of the night, three weeks back, as a second team hit the boat.

As in Le Havre, the boat proved to be crewed with ghûl, and another set of the shapeshifting desert killers had taken the hotel, as well. Also as in Le Havre, a si’lat djinnaya sorceress commanded the ghûl minions.

The operation proved a success, Cooper said, although a nearly pyrrhic one. Half of his men died in the fights, Cooper continued, and all of the rest had been injured – some as seriously as Beatrice and Claudia.

That left them with a difficult decision, Sir Isaac added. While they had enough to take the Hotel du Bohéme, in Paris, they lacked the personnel to take back the catacombs – especially given how the Invisible College had armed the sentinels, there, to protect the hidden entrance to the portal.

Upon hearing that, A.J. asked exactly how the British mages had armed the portal guards.

Sir Isaac replied they had full 21st Century anti-terrorist kits, including body armor similar to that worn by the members of the Red Rocks Lodge, and what he understood were called “FN P90 machine-pistols with standard-issue armor-piercing rounds.”

With that, Tempest unrolled the paper to reveal large maps of the part of the catacombs that held the portal, and A.J. took a look at a tactical situation straight out of a Vietnam-era tunnel-rat’s worst nightmare.

A.J. spoke with the Invisible College mages a bit longer, and then took the information back to the rest of the group. He reported that Sir Isaac had offered to have the British mages "arm" the members of the Red Rocks Lodge who agreed to assault the portal sentinels with five spells each, "hung" by them.

The rest of the group agreed to engage in the potentially deadly mission, and a long planning discussion ensued. In the end, they decided to hit the portal just after it closed, in late May.

They party assumed that the djinn controlled both ends, and those on the 1712 side -- alerted as they were by the loss of the two hotels -- would be at their most relaxed, about then.

With that the session ended.

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*If you haven’t seen The Secret of Roan Inish, it’s available for free viewing on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK7a...R&index=3&t=0s .

It’s absolutely wonderful.

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Funny Quotes

GM: When last we left our crippled protagonists….

Tisa (OOC): Claudia is going to sit down and cry for awhile. That seems the appropriate response.

Steve: What’s for dinner? Dead bodies. And beer.
Frank: Salted pork. And dead bodies.

(The boat moves out into the current, piloted by people who don't know what they’re doing.)
Steve: The slow and the furious….

Frank: Does docking it require more IQ?
Beatrice: Just ground the damn thing! How hard could it be?

Steve: The question is, “Is honest the best policy?”

Doc Bascher: How many boats we gonna burn, on this trip?
Bernetta (OOC): Nobody tell Aurelia!

(The group tries to figure out how to deal with the tactical situation.)
Frank: We use really cool guns.

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