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Demon Summoning

Page history last edited by Jon Goranson 15 years ago

Demon Summoning

 

03/10/2009 

 

Carter has just walked into a Valkyrie building and the door has closed behind him.

Outside, Daniel is in the car. He can sense that there is a heightened amount of tension from everyone in the building, except for Carter who is very calm.

 

"So...what happened?" says Hendricks to Carter.

"Well, as you can see there were some changes that were not...um...natural. I was chosen, I guess, and everything that happened to me was without my consent, but what has happened has happened."

"Well, who did this to you? do you want us to reverse it?"

"The Greek god Hesphaetus. I will continue to work with the Rayne's now, so I am no longer going to work here. Especially after the way things have gone on the past few weeks."

Turning to the guards, Hendricks says "Give us the room" as they hesitantly leave.

Hendricks watches as the leave down the hallway, ensuring they are completely gone he shuts the door and turns around.

"Are you willing to make this official? We can do a quick debriefing out here?"

"For Gordon, I don't want to burn any bridges, but I have not been happy the past few weeks and I don't want to have anything more to do with you people. Actually, I just want to walk away."

"Well, you understand we want to figure out what happened? We want to know what changes caused this."

"This is my birthright, essentially, I don't particularly care how it works."

"Well....if that is your decision, then lets walk to your car."

As Hendricks gets to the car, Daniel can hear from Hendricks mind "don't think anything" as he pulls out a pen and twists it as a jammer goes up.

Carter and Daniels know that he has just blocked them from any attempt from listening in.

"Listen, we only have about 60 seconds, they have seen you and somebody will now be looking to find out what happened. This probably means the hands off we have been dealing with you, well, it's gone. There are people in Valkyrie that want the Rayne's probably as bad as they want you now. You have maybe 24 hours, call my private phone, but if you don't work with me, I can't protect either you or the Raynes." With that, Hendricks turns and walks awy. He pauses turning back and says "It will take over a week to finish the tests."

"Not now, I will be in contact with you." Carter mumbles as he gets into the car and the two drive away.

"That seemed fun?" says Daniel

"Yeah, they shot me with tranq. darts, glad I had my armor up.

 

Back at the house of Michaels Parents, Steven and Michael are making minor repairs while they wait for the alarm people to show up the next day. We still have not determined exactly who was responsible for the attacks. Because Gordon can lift so much, and with the money he was throwing around, there was a lot of big items fixed and a lot of new materials to work with. Michael uses the menial labor to ponder the attack he made on the evil captors in the churches basement. Although it bothers him that he was so angry and violent, he realizes it was only due to the danger his parents were in.

 

It didn't take that long for  Carter and Daniel to travel down and then back to the house. They show up and give a brief description about what happened. Oddly enough, throughout the night, Steven picks up magnets and tries to get them stuck onto Carter's metal arm or leg. He tries different distances, different throws, it's very odd. Carter just pulls them off and crushes them putting them into a pile, unsure what to make of the jokes, but not really disturbed by them. Unknown to Steven, this was all the result of a mental suggestion that Daniel put into his mind "for fun." At one point, with all the magnets destroyed, Steven tried to magnetize Carter's metal arm, but is not only unsuccessful but the attempt didn't even get Carters attention.

 

Finishing up, the group leaves the house and goes back to the hotel. The next morning, they leave and go back to the house awaiting the arrival of the alarm service. The plaster and such has to dry, but while they wait the alarm people show up and set it up. Nothing else happens to alarm the group as they use all their senses to check the area. The group calls the parents who show up to their newly fixed house. There is a small farewell  as the party leaves, with Michael promising ot call more.

 

Traveling along, Daniel recognizes a cop on the side of the road...it's the one he told to stay there. He sighs and pulls over to tell the cop to go about his regular duties once the group is gone.

 

Nothing else happens as they arrive back at the Rayne mansion. Steven calls his girlfriend, and tells her that our group took out the group that took out the pure, but that he thinks the pure danger is over. She is kind of confused at this information, but shrugs it off as typical for Steven and suggests them getting together.

 

Daniel and Gordon decide to try and utilize their new mental abilities to create a mental link for the group. It takes the entire week, and input from everyone in the group, but eventually they all get "attuned" with Daniel so that once the link is open, they can start talking to everyone else in the group. Gordon is able to use his location ability through this link as well. With some experimenting, it seems the distance for the link is almost 70 miles.

 

Carter, after talking to the group, comes to the realization that they need to keep the contacts with Valkyrie. He uses the phone and calls "Hey mom, let me call you back in about 20 minutes," says Hendricks.

 

He calls back "So, what have you decided?" asks Hendricks of Carter.

"I don't want to fully resign my commission, and I don't want the Rayne's to get into trouble, can I go on an inactive status? Also, I do not need sleep anymore, so I think 3 full days of testing should suffice."

"Ok..." says Hendricks, "I will take that back to them and see. But if you are going to stay current, you need to fill out the reports. They are online electronically so you don't have to come in for that. I will call you when they have the people here that they want to do the testing."

 

On the fifth day Julie shows up at the house. She is polite enough and asks if she could see everyone.

"Well, I thought I should let you know, there is a crime scene that is in your area of expertise. It's another blood ritual type crime. Only this time, there are runes."

 

The group talks briefly, gets some items, and make their way to the trucks. Arriving at the crime scene, they move and travel down into the depths of Chicago. The crime scene is made up of two children maybe 10 years old, encircled with runic symbols, with more symbols on the walls. Between the three of the group looking at it, it was very strong blood magic, trying to call up a demon from the lower planes. It can also be seen that whatever was summoned was released into Chicago.  Given the type of runes used, it can be told that it was a Chaos demon, specifically designed for battle. So anyone it possesses or any form it takes would be a very good fighter. Probably not the most intelligent, but a powerful battle entity. It looks like it came "through" the boy and the girl, as if it ripped through them. Whoever did this opened up a portal to hell.

 

Julie, having stepped back and pushed the uniformed police even farther away, finally interrupts the group "so, I heard some of that, what does this mean? Can you track it?"

Michael, smelling brimstone and shaping to smell better, can tell that the creature went into the subways.

Steven grabs a piece of bloody cloth and some actual blood, putting it into a baggie in case he wants to do a spell later.

 

The group follows Michael as he tracks the creature. It goes off to the tunnel and looks like he jumps off heading north in the tunnel. "Is this an active line?" asks Carter.

"Can we have them hold the line?" Michael asks Julie.

"I'll try," she says, after much yelling, she hangs up and says "we have 10 minutes."

The group moves quickly down the tunnel until they come to a locked door. Everyone looks at Carter, who walks up and shoves his steel arm right into the door and rips it off. It's very loud in the closed quarters. The path continues to an access shaft, then into a building, and out into the streets of Chicago.

 

"I am going back to the site then, and thanks, I appreciate this," says Julie as she quickly departs.

The trail leads north to a food court like area. Once there, everyone looks around. Steven doesn't see anything as he starts to walk away. Everyone else can tell up on the second floor by a railing is a homeless looking person, who doesn't quite seem right. The homeless man turns and stares right at the group. He sneers at the group as he turns around and runs away.

"How discrete do we need to be?" asks Carter

"We need to catch him," answers Gordon

Carter crouches preparing to jump "a little more discrete than that" realizing how far Carter can jump. The party separates into two groups trying to corral the homeless guy moving at some amazing speed, especially Carter.

The creature turns and his eyes widen as he sees how fast the pursuers are closing in on him. He turns to some woman along the balcony and just shoves her over the edge as a distraction. The group reacts immediately, as Steven prevents her from falling over by concentrating forces around her and making it look like she was able to grab the railing and keep from falling. The woman looks shocked but is unhurt. Steven never stopped running the entire time.

Michael starts to catch up to Steven, with Carter still way out front. Daniel had stopped to look for a better way up, and fell behind.

Michael can actually hear the homeless man snarl as he pushes another bystander, trying to thump him over the edge but Steven again is able to easily save the man.

The creature looks over his shoulder and can see how fast Steven is catching up to him. All of the sudden, all the people in front of Michael and Steven move out of the way. Steven releases a telekinetic ray, slamming into the creature and knocking him hard into the wall and he falls prone on the floor. Michael catches up as the creature turns to face them from the ground.

 

Daniel activates the new telepathic bond with the group and one of his defenses, untouchable. He then turns his attention to the crowd. The people, even those who saw the creature slam into the wall suddenly turn away as if there was nothing to see.

Steven draws his pistol and fired, but it misses and shatters a window behind the creature.

The creature stands up and throws something back at the group as he takes off running. A viscous glob of snot spills out and glues Steven to the floor as it hits him.

Michael rushes past Steven and shifts forms into near wolf form as he catches up and slashes the demon. His claws rip into the demon who doesn't really have skin; and when he bleeds it is blood with metallic flakes in it.

Daniel moves up, draws his pistol and shoots at the demon using silver bullets because he isn't sure what would work with demons. A bullet slams into the demon who doesn't seem to jerk much as it wasn't aggravated damage.

The demon slashes at Michael clawing him for four lethal damage.

Michael pulls out his dagger and slashes with it, uncertain if the dagger is a holy weapon. The creature is slowed and very unhappy with the damage (4 hits).

Carter moves up and punches the creature (5 hits) trying to knock him down with his fist. The hit physically pushes him through the air, pushes him through the door and he rolls down the stairs. As he hits the floor blackish smoke starts to flow out of the persons mouth.

The cloud billows out and into a vent and vanishes. The body of the homeless man, just suddenly rips apart as new cuts appear and blood pours out of him as he immediately dies.

Steven is able to get out of the glue, with sticky sounding shoes as he walks.

Gordon looks at the group "we won't be able to find it until it possess someone else. We should just leave and let the police take care of this body. We will need a cult to get rid of it."

 

The group goes back to the house and try to determine what to do to either capture or contain the creature except Daniel who headed off on his own. They stop off at a church and pick up some holy water, just in case. Gordon, Michael and Steven find a ceremony that looks like it would work. They also find a ritual that might act like a lure, but it would require an area like a kids playground.

 

Daniel shows up with coffee and doughnuts. He then holds out a book and says "Oh, I found this book too." and hands it to Steven. In it is a different ritual that would not require children, but needs a place of power.  Steven thinks of using the house, but Michael asks if that might show creatures on the other side where the house is. Steven asks if that is true, everyone shrugs.

 

The party arrives at a park with a link for power and begin the ritual. Both Steven and Daniel have to burn a point of mana to make the spell work. Once finished, both of them look around and realize they made a slight oversight, this was a general lure, and every demon within a ten mile radius is pulled. Fifteen people show up in different vehicles.

"Um...everyone draw a new circle!" yells Steven. Everyone quickly tries. The circles are rushed and not perfect. Even so, each one holds a couple demons. When all is said and done, five demons not in the circle suddenly get their free will back and rush the group.

 

Gordon slams one of the demons, but only produces a minor injury.

Carter half jumps and almost half flies into the center of the demons, attacking one. He hits it solid and it goes down hard.

Michael rushes up, shifting as he goes, and claws one of the demons. It's a glancing cut, just barely striking.

Steven moves over an picks up a picnic table and throws it at a demon, where

Daniel activates all of his defenses and puts out a minor image of people goofing off and nothing of interest.

The demon in front of Michael reaches out and claws his chest.

Gordon punches the demon in front of him and hits again.

Carter does a jump in the air, landing with a solid stomp of his boot on the demons head.

Michael attacks again the demon in front of him, but it dodges and weaves away from most of the damage.

Steven pulls out a wand of force and releases its energy in the direction of a demon. ("thank god I'm rolling" says Brook as he fails to roll a success on a paradox save).

Daniel recklessly rushes into the fray, kicking one of the demons in the face making him stumble a bit.

The demon extends claws out of his hands and unleashes a deadly barrage of ripping strikes on Michael, doing 4 lethal.

Another demon attacks Steven, his wand flying out of his hand as he is knocked prone on the ground.

The next demon misses Carter.

Daniel, standing next to a demon, is completely missed as well.

Gordon again swings and hits the guy in front of him. It isn't going to take much more to drop this guy.

Carter again does a jump in the air, landing with a solid stomp of his boot on the demons chest stomping it flat into the ground.

 

Michael goes all out using extra willpower in the attack and manages to level the demon he's attacking.

Steven, using the table as an anchor, pulls himself towards it with telekinetic energy, then grabs it as he is flying over and grabs it - flinging it at the guy in front of him.

Daniel again does a spin in place and with a very nice flourish knocks the demon out with yet another kick to the face.

 

All the demons are down.

Another circle is made for the next five.

Daniel takes his time and casts a blanket illusion over the park area so that anyone looking in this area would see nothing of interest.

Steven is able to use the blood he has to ensure the demon we wanted was there.

It takes about 20 minutes to get through all the groups. At the end, there are 15 dazed people standing there in relative levels of bruising and cuts. The badly injured people take off for the hospital.

 

Michael spends an essence to heal, and realizes he can heal two lethal with one essence. So he completely heals up.

 

The party goes back to the mansion and rests.

 

While sleeping, Carter has his first "dream-vision." It is some sort of laboratory with people being experimented on in a warehouse downtown. It's close enough downtown there would be traffic and people during the day, so the group will have to go at night. Carter scopes out the building. As he looks at it, he recognizes that the building is a Valkyrie building. He even recognizes one of the guards on duty.

 

The group agrees to take the building down, not wanting anyone to suffer experimentation.

Even so, they take care to try and keep the groups identity a secret. Gordon shoots out lights and camera's he sees, while Steven clouds any cameras not shot out with darkness. Daniel confuses the minds of everyone he sees or that comes within range.

 

Inside the main room, there are computers and experimental tables. On two of the tables are unconscious women connected up IV's. Michael goes over and tries to help them while Gordon pulls out a virus disk to take out the computers. On other computers, Steven is trying to download some information.

 

The women are really groggy and out of it, but they are waking up. Carter goes to the armory and searches the lockers for weapons and ammo. He just rips the doors off of the main armory. He does find a weapon that is kind of like the microwave gun, but is unfamiliar. He also finds some pistols, ammunition, rifles, etc. We decide to make it look like a robbery by stealing some computers and such as we quickly ransack and leave the building.

 

Driving in the car, one of the women comes out of it and looks up at Carter. " Hephaestus, is that your patron? Mine is Aphrodite." and with a snap of her fingers, she is suddenly clothed in nice clothing. Her friend is also clothed. "Thank you, I'm Valerie Young."

"I'm Andrew Carter. Why were you taken?"

"I was dating a guy for a couple of months. I thought I could trust him and that he was fine, but when I did a charm at a club he zapped me. I've just been in and out for...oh...what day is it?"

Carter tells her, and her jaw drops "I've been in there for three weeks...my friend might be blessed by Aphrodite, but she has not been chosen yet. Her name is Lisa Timms. I will take care of her and make sure she is ok. I think her friend is a black belt, so maybe Aries was looking at her as well."

Daniel tried in vain to flirt with Valerie, but she just smiled back.

Carter gives her his contact information and says that if she is in any trouble that she should call.

"Well, I met another woman of Loa, Bridget something. I have not heard from her for awhile."

 

The group drops off Valerie and her friend as the group again takes time to rest....again.

Daniel takes Steven to a location he found to recharge their energy. Daniel convinces Gordon to buy the theatre. Steven keeps asking questions, and finally Daniel says "because there is a hollow there."

 

Julie calls, she did some looking but came up empty on news about who did the demon summoning.

Three days after dropping off Valerie, Julie calls; she has another summoning ritual site.

 

Arriving and walking through the police tape; this is exactly the same as the last murders. As if the demon the people were trying to summon was a specific one. There are some bodies of innocent bystanders that got in the way as well as the children in the center. The group looks over the crime scene and decide that more research needs to be done so that these killings can be stopped. Right after they track down the newly released demon that is!

 

4XP

 

Back - Rayne

 

Story Teller Notes

  • I wasn't intending on revealing that it was a Valkyrie center but all of the players guessed it, so it seemed foolish to try and hide it.  Besides, if the players hadn't said anything, the character's might have noticed that while no one recognized the building in general, as a whole it looked familiar.  And when they would have raided the arms locker, that would have made it obvious. 
  • I think I am moving toward a bit more action game with this phase of it.  However, that will work as Scion has good rules for that.  And a bit more action never seems to go wrong with players.
  • I also didn't expect them to catch up to the demon.  But they rolled well and so managed to find it.  However, the combat rolls then weren't as good nor were some later rolls.  Maybe it balanced out, I don't know. 
  • I am excited about the plans that are happening and what is coming up.  At least, the plans in my head.  Players don't always follow that.  :)

 

 

 

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