Chicago - 1871

 

04/21/2009 

 

Everyone is standing there looking at Seamus. There must be about a dozen other strangers within a two block radius.

"So, who are you fellows then?" asks Seamus.

Looking uncomfortable, Steven answers "I am Steven Rayne, and this is Gordon Rayne."

"You speak with a strange accent. Where are you from?"

"Oh, well, actually right here. What day is it by chance?"

"It's September, 1871."

"Oh...I guess we are not in Kansas anymore. Can we go somewhere more private to talk?"

"Why? Should I know you?"

"Well, we could go talk at the manor?" says Steven

"What Manor? How did you know I was going to buy a house?"

"I can tell you where you are going to build it...." comments Carter.

Steven turns on his vision to look at Seamus aura, but sees nothing active at the moment although he can tell he has abilities. He does sense something in the lake. He looks closer, and can sense there is a column of magic in the lake.

"Does anyone else see that out there?"

"In the water?"

Steven sighs, "There is nowhere we can go?"

"We could go to a local pub, but Fiona can't go in, it's no place for a lady you know..."

The group goes over to a bench instead as Fiona sits down.

"So did you guys just arrive here from Scotland?"

"Well yes, we didn't just arrive, it was a few month trip..."

Carter laughs and so does Steven. Seamus looks confused.

"So, when did you awaken." asks Steven to try and move the conversation along.

"When I was six. Why, when did you? And what is he?"

"I'm metal!" says Carter.

"Let me start from the beginning. You are our great great great grandfather. No, not him, he's just someone that came with us. He is a psion of Hephestus."

"That is just an old wives tale."

Carter grabs some huge cobblestones and starts juggling them.

"Stop being vulger Carter" says Steven.

He turns back to Seamus. "We suffered a massive paradox, not of our creation, but done by our enemies."

"How do you know they were your enemies?"

"They were trying to summon the Sumerian equivelant of a demon god, doing ritual sacrifices of children. "

"And they shot at us.." adds Daniel

"Daniel and I have only been awakened less than a year. We didn't know the bloodline had this ability. Our line is under attack..."

"Well, if you guys hadn't killed Vlad..." says Carter

"Will you shut the F**k up" says Steven to Carter

Fiona is trying to hide her shock and humor at Carter and Stevens interactions.

"I didn't know this kind of time travel was possible" says Seamus.

"We didn't know either. We think they were trying to remove us or send us back on purpose."

"They had the symbol of Loki on some amulets" says Daniel

"Oh, and Gordon is a psion of Odin. He's kind of the black sheep of the family. He was a vampire for a bit" they look startled "but he's ok now!"

They turn on their supernal vision and stare at Gordon in shock, then calm.

"So why here?" asks Seamus after a bit.

"It happened here, you mean why this time?"

"As I understand it, there are only a few conditions you can safely travel through time. One of those is if you were meant to do something. Why do you keep laughing and talking about burning down the city? Are you criminals sent to the past?"

"Well that won't happen for a long time. What day is it?"

The group suddenly realized the fire will happen in eight days.

There is some discussion about where the manor should go, and while they have to pick that area.

"Another possibility," says Fiona, "is that you were grounded here because of us. But that doesn't mean you are going back, to the future."

"Where are we going to get a Delorian?" says Steven, and the group all laughs again much to the shock of poor Seamus and Fiona. Seamus takes out a flask and takes a drink. Then continues "you could have been sent here for a purpose. And once you finish the task, you might return to your normal time."

 

dm comment "I thought you guys were mature enough to handle this..."

Bob comment "god Jon, I thought you were a better judge of character"

 

"You know," says Fiona, "All your auras have a connection between them. But, if you were sent back and don't find the reason you were sent here for, the magic will destroy you."

"Is that what the big beam of power in the lake is about?" asks Steven.

"I see that," says Seamus "I thought it was a local hallow or a connection to the towers. if it is not there in your time, maybe that is why you are here, to get rid of it."

After a few more moments of discussion, they leave for town. In a hurry to be away from us one way or the other.

The group decides to get a boat to go check out the power of the lake.

 

Everyone but Michael can sense something is wrong with the lake. Carter paddles incredibly fast and within a minute the boat is whithin a few feet of the power. Suddenly, Daniel and Steven, at about thrity feet out, they can feel the effects of the power. It's like thousands of needles being poked into their skin. By the time they say stop, the boat has coasted in to fifteen feet of the source.

Both Daniel and Steven scream as four points of mana are ripped out of both of them and sucked into the power stream. There is like a heat shimmer from Daniel and Steven  going to the source of power. As it is happening, both of them can see a very very large serpent resting on the bottom of the lake gathering power.

"Uh, guys, I think we are going to need a bigger boat." says Gordon

Steven points down to the serpent while Carter paddles backwards quickly. "What are the chances that is the world eating snake from Ragnarok.

"What!" says Gordon as he looks underneath at the serpent "that is one big f**king snake! What is it called, the world serpent? Oh wait, it's comming up towards us."

 

The sepent hits the boat, knocks it 300 feet into the air and then let it go as it fell and slammed into the water. On the way down, Steven tries to use his telekinetics to form a bowl and combined with his wand of force tries to push the group towards shore instead of being crushed. Daniel pushes an emotional urging to Steven making him certain he can perform this maneauver. The telekinetic boat forms under the group and pushes them away. The serpent moves up to attack, and Michael takes a swing with the sword while Carter punches it. Gordon also takes a shot at it with his pistol.

The serpent attacks Carter and hits solid.

The group attacks again as they try to move away in the kinetic boat, as the serpent attacks Carter again.

Carter jumps off the boat and lands on the serpents head, attacking it. Steven mentions this in the link, and it's agreed that because of Carter, we must attack.

Daneil concentrates on the people on shore, making them want ot go away from the lake. Steven draws out the shotgun and fires a 30' cone of flame, striking the serpent in the head. Gordon shoots and misses.

Michael leaps up at the head of the serpent, lands on it as he hits with the sword right in the neck, blood gushing out in a deep swath. The blook as it splashes disrupts some of the magic as it hits the kinetic boat, slicing it in half, shearing away and evaporating the cut off section of boat.

Carter swings to hit the serpent in the back of the head with his shockwave. The force of his fist is so strong it shoves into the serpents brain, splashing blood onto Carter and Michael.  Michael, for a split second, travels to the spirit realm as a spray of blood passes through the area he was just in, and he returns to the mortal plane. He is shocked at what he just did, as he tries not to fall with the serpent drops thirty feet into the water.  A burst of energy leaps away from the serpent and is absorbed by Daniel and Steven.

About 100' away, another rowboat can be seen as Seamus is rowing towards the battle.

Seamus uses his magic to lift everyone into the boat except Carter, who is underwater pounding on the serpent. He then tries to rip off one of the two foot fangs, not realizing they are poisonous, although he does pull it out and takes a point of damage from the poison before he throws it off.

Carter walks back to shore and meets the rest of the party there. Seamus had brought towels that we used to dry off.

"So, why did you attack it?" asks Seamus.

"Well, he attacked us."

"Yes, but why did you attack it?"

"Well, Carter won't walk away. Besides, the pillar we saw was from it sucking up mana from the area. We were too close and it noticed us." says Steven.

"But did you stop when he said stop? Nooo, you could have rowed in reverse." says Daniel.

 

Suddenly, Fiona's eyes glaze over as she says "you have taken care of the past and the water that threatened air. But until you save the king and realize father wolf, you cannot head back" and then her eyes come back into focus and she is back with the group. "Well, I hope that made sense to you guys. You know we can't contact any of the local mages so we don't have any resources."

"If there isn't something you wouldn't mind sharing, we have no idea what our past is. If you could tell us anything about our past, that would be of use."

 

Fiona's eyes real back as she yells "The fire! You are right, it is everywhere! If you are not gone by the time the fire starts, you will never return!" and she almost faints from the exersion.

"Well," says Gordon," we never met him, but what was the vampires name? Is he still the prince? Maxwell? And what about other werewolf packs around here?"

 

"The problem with any prophecy is they don't always make sense, even in hindsight."

Michael knows there is a hierarchy to spirits, so maybe a king spirit. By the time he had gotten there there were no "city spirits" per'se.

Seamus hands his ring ot Steven and says "Use this to contact me when you are finished."

 

The group eats and then takes a break trying to locate a place to rest. On the way back, Michael can tell there is a vampire close by. The group decides to find him, so Michael starts tracking. Suddenly a noise comes from down an ally. It sounds like a woman moaning, followed by a slurping sound. Michael moves into the alley, and a vampire looks up. He's black and looks somewhat like Maxwell. He licks at the womans wound and it seals up.

"Can I help you wolf?"

"If you are finished, I have need of some information."

"Maxwell?" says Steven as he walks up.

"How do you know my name? I just got here?"

"Prophecy" answers Michael.

"Oh great, a mage. How do you know me?"

"Again,  prophecy. To help you, the city is going to burn, be out of town in a week. The whole city is going to burn."

"Do you know the title and who is the head vampire of the city?"

"Kenneth something..." answers Maxwell.

"What is his title?"

"Prince."

"Do you have any kings? Sorry, prophecy stuff. Prince doesn't quite fufill the prophecy."

"It depends on who you ask. There are some that think they are kings. I have heard tales in the past of some of them calling themselves that, but whether or not they are... I think in the past, like several hundred years ago they called themselves that. But somehow it changed into prince."

"Well, if you run into us in the future, or sire someone known as Persephone" says Steven.

"Wait, we don't need to give him any more information." replies Michael.

"Well, how many enemies do you have? Maybe you should leave early?" says Carter.

After a few minutes discussion about if the group should save Maxwell, he gets tired of the talking and leaves.

The group works it's way to a cemetary. An old one with large masoleums in it.

Michael.

There are two spirits there looking at the group. Michael walks up to them.

they look at him strangely and then drop to one knee

" Why are you here?  Have we done something wrong? Are you going to punish us?"

Michael says" No, you have not. Please stand up."

He mentions this to the group in his head, and Daniel says "maybe you are supposed to sire someone father wolf"

The thought that Michael had dismissed crosses his mind, that he would be the new father wolf. No, that couldn't possibly be. But then he realizes the others are to be Scions, maybe it could be true?  He was able to heal other wolves and he hadn't heard any lore like that.  Plus his other abilities have been more powerful recently.  But, that doesn't mean-, or does it?

The world shifts, and suddenly the group is back in their normal time.

The realization sinks in to Michael, his life has suddenly gotten very complicated.

 

Steven realizes he still has Seamus's ring, although everything else has changed back to normal.

 

Steven realizes he has a message from Julie, talks to her, and then we call a cab.

An expensive black lincoln town car with tinted windows drives up. Inside is Maxwell. He smiles and motions for the group to move forward.

"Wow, nice timing." says Steven.

"Persephone talked to me and I know of things going on. First of all, not as much of the town burned down as you led me to believe. So, I am here to say this: don't talk about what I was like or dressed back then and we will be fine. I know you don't care, but each of us have our own priorities."

"So you fought in the civil war as a vampire. That is very cool." says Steven, not caring about the outfit but more impressed he fought in the war.

"I just hope you can help Persephone with the political things going on."

"Wait, did you sire her during the ban you put into place because of what I said?"

"I don't remember, but maybe. I could have remembered, or not, I don't know what I was thinking back then. And trying to remember would make my mind hurt."

 

Maxwell eventually says his goodbyes. Everyone heads back to the mannor house.

 

Steven wanders down to the library, and finds that there are a number of old books on the shelves for medetation. As he pulls out a particularly old book, he finds a note in it. It said "Start here, Saemus."

 

3 XP

 

Back - Rayne

 

GM Notes

• Scion is in this book, Hunter is in that book...and we are all the way over there in uncharted waters...  It's not bad but it makes it tough to plan at times.  I never know what will be too much or too easy for the characters. 
• I don't know if the prophecy stuff was posted but I should put it there.  I made them somewhat vague more so that it would be easy to say "that's what I meant."  Besides, I don't plan enough of those details as I do like players to have more choices. 
• And thus ends the time travel idea.  Too many SciFi geeks in the group to be able to do it well.  Too much worry of paradox.  Ideas of setting up accounts to get them later.  Giving ideas to their ancestors.  The player did NOTHING wrong.  They were just looking at this from a different perspective than me, which is normal.  But I realized it wouldn't work, so I cut their time back there short.