Session 12: The Michaelites
... or, "Will you STOP SUMMONING ALREADY?"
Quote of the Night: "You know what happens when you summon Demon Princes? Notes appear in my pocket." - Jered
We begin the session:
Malcolm, Jered and Dana are at the Motel 6 in Caro, Michigan. They're talking about plans, and what to do about grabbing Maxwell and Terry. And then after that, where do they go? What should they do? Dana is convinced they can't stay where they curren tly are.
They go inside the motel room, to go talk to the local demonic presence, who is sitting on the end of the bed, looking terrible. Star is snoozing in the bed behind Daimon. There's some silliness with cheese and magic refrigerators. They all discuss wha t to do, and Daimon makes a few choice comments about Terry. "If you kill him, he'll just come back. He's like a head cold." They decide to go to Ann Arbor. Daimon and Star were to go with Dana, and Jered was to go with Malcolm to collect Maxwell. Th ey split up, Daimon carries a drugged on stolen tranqualizers, unconscious Star to Dana's car and
Malcolm and Jered head toward the "nearest sports bar", which is about 5 miles away in Deford, Michigan. Luckily, and by prior arrangement, this is where Maxwell is busy getting his head jobbed by Terry. They two of them walk in, and interrupt an appare nt conversation and pool game in the back. Malcolm takes the phone out of Terry's jacket, which is laying over a chair, and runs off. Then he climbs into his truck and honks the horn. Terry, in the mean time, does some weird demon mojo over on Maxwell to get him to believe all sorts of weird stuff, but Jered counters with a well-placed Ethereal Song of Shields on Maxwell. Then Maxwell decides to wander off to go call the FBI, to tell them he wouldn't make his dinner date. Terry informs Jered that he "really doesn't like him", and makes a move to remove Jered quasi-permenantly. But this doesn't get anywhere, and Maxwell comes back to collect Jered. Max and Jered turn around, leave, and climb into Malcolm's truck. There's all sorts of argument about who sits where, while the Balseraph in question stands in the door of the sports bar, arms crossed, and no expression on his face. Eventually they decide to do something with Maxwell's rental car, and Terry mojo's Malcolm into giving him the keys. The three drive off as Terry turns to pick up the phone. (At this point in my notes there are is evil laughter written in the margins.) The three of them in the truck have a goofy conversation, and it eventually turns to Kezef, and what it is they really pl an to do once they get to Ann Arbor.
Dana and Daimon talk while on route, while Star sort of regains something that resembles consciousness. The GM didn't write down about what, though.
Malcolm, his own bad Ofanite self, catches up to Dana on I75 south of Flint (this was proven by the use of the handy Michigan map), and gets Dana to pull off at the next exit, for the town of Bridgeport. At the exit there are is a small row of buildings - A Howard Johnsons, a McDonalds, a Pizza Hut, that sort of thing. They pull into the parking lot of the Howard Johnsons, and everyone gets out of the cars. The angels start arguing like mad about everything from being a "team", to what the hell is real ly going on. Star stands in the middle of the parking lot, and tries summoning Superiors. Novalis? No luck. Eli? No luck. She goes over and needles Daimon about Kobal for a bit, and he gives his normal song and dance. Then she stands in the middle of the parking lot and starts making some raunchy jokes while attempting to do a summon. (At this point, the GM points out that "dice suck.") Star rolls a (1,1,6), and something very... bizarre and unhealthy happens to the Symphony around them. It's no t a normal appearance of a Superior, and it's not even like when Andrealphus showed his own bad self. It's just... not... healthy at all.
No one knows what is going on, and it abruptly stops. Jered does his Seraph best to yell at Star for pulling what she was trying to pull, and everyone seems a bit relieved that nothing actually happened or appeared, even Daimon who wasn't really prepared for this. Star gets upset, and starts to walk off, and the others pick up their conversations where they left off, now with an urgency to get the hell out of there before other people show up, like say, Horton's people only 30 miles away. (It also has another note in the GM notes here.) Maxwell goes hiking after Star.
Star passes by the McDonalds, which is next to a 7-11, and a hand reaches out and grabs her by the shoulder. She gets pulled backwards next to the building, and comes face to face with a tallish, dark haired figure in flannel and jeans. He says, "Okay, so you called, what is it that you want?" Star goes into this weird stuttering looking for answers thing, and the (we hope) Demon Prince just basically looks at her, wondering what planet she's from. (Oh. ELI's planet. Okay, that makes sense.) She as ks some questions, and he's typically evasive... and yet FUNNY!... and she asks about Daimon. "Oh, yeah, I know all about that." He gives Star a ring to give Daimon, and a message, "Don't make that treaty with Malphas, okay?" Then he splits.
Maxwell catches up to Star, then ends up fetching Daimon. Dai walks over there, and Star gives him the ring (but not the message). He takes it, and looks like he's just been hit in the gut. He walks back to the group, not wanting to discuss things. Ev eryone is back together, and Daimon borrows Dana's phone, and calls someone. The conversation in demonic pisses all the angels off, but they survive, and it's short. There is a major argument with Star and her little daliances with Demon Princes (two no w?), and Jered points out that if you want answers, he'll go talk to Yves. That is what Yves is there for. Daimon hangs up the phone, and gets the third degree. He says he called another Comedian, Erlithan, and described what happened. He doesn't look happy.
While all this is going on, a sporty looking car pulls up, following the disturbance in the Symphony like a beacon. The guy gets out, and it's one of the angels from the warehouse, Joduthun, Seraph of the Sword. He has a quiet conversation with Maxwell about some Serious Problems that have Suddenly Come Up. It seems that Michael has called out an all out strike on the Angels of Judgement, and to strike them all down where they stand. Laurence is, naturally, very opposed to this in a big way. He think s that Michael is protecting Eli. After some talk about honor, Joduthun leaves to go help in trying to clean up the mess.
Maxwell goes back, and the arguments heat up again in a big way. Everything from tethers to Kezef to Michaelites. They do some tether locating, and they know:
* The Rackham Library at U of Michigan is a tether to Yves.
* The Law Quad at the U of Michigan is a tether to Dominic.
* The story, "Dragonrealmz" in Howell is a tether to Laurence.
* There is apparently a tether to Novalis in Novi because a)
everything
is in Novi (maybe Wonderland Music is to Eli... just possible) and b) there was suddenly great demand for the GM to cough up a tether and the GM couldn't think of one.
They decide to head to Howell, because not only is the tether to Laurence good and safe, but Malcolm can find some KKK, er SINNERS to smite in the mean time. Everyone gets in their cars and does the driving to Howell thing.
In the car, Dana, Maxwell and Star pesters Daimon about the ring, because he's looking faintly sick. He tells them about Erlithan, the Core, the mess back home, and that it's the physical representation of a marriage geas. He says he hasn't seen one in a long time, and Maxwell makes a crack about Star sleeping with a "married woman".
Malcolm and Jered obviously show up first, because whenever you travel the Malcolm express... The store is a big medieval arms/armor place outside of Howell itself, filled with renisance stuff. The store keeper says, "Yes we have a small forge, but the b ig one is in a shop off site." They figure out that the store keeper is the Seneshal, a Malakite named "Fox". They ask for details on what is going on, and the Seneschal doesn't really know much, except there's a Holy War going on.
Jered walks out of the store, and he is encountered by his own Superior, who is staring curiously at the sky. He hands Jered an umbrella, and tells him that "There is a storm coming." They discuss Truth, and Destiny, and about how the world is nicely go ing to hell. Yves leaves, another Wheel of Confusion in his wake. (spin spin spin).
The other four show up at the Tether, and Daimon stays in the car, reading Dana's John Grisham novels. They go into the tether, and Star makes a bee line for the tether itself. She ascends to Heaven, and makes her way to the Library. She finds that the Angels of the Dewey Decimal System are all Kyriotates, because there were too many Kyrio jokes earlier to pass up the opportunity. She looks for the "most recent paper they have", and they provide a newspaper written entirely in Pakistani dialect of Ara bic. She looks for the "most recent paper they have in English." They provide a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle. For some reason it just has news about San Francisco, and any mention of the warehouse is buried on page 4 of the Lifestyle page. She wanders through the maze of the stacks for a while, leaves a note in a book for some inexplicable reason, and wanders on to the Grove.
Back on Earth, a few hours and much meditative regaining of Essence in various places, another car, a good old 4x4, shows up, and a guy who looks supiciously like Adrian Paul with a big axe shows up. Maxwell goes running out there, sword drawn, and in co mbat pose. Rigziel approaches Dana and makes his offer - he knows she isn't Fallen, join Michael's troops and help clean the stain from the Universe. They get Riggy to spit up some commentary on what happened: Michael showed up on the floor of the main Seraphim Council in the Spires, and denounced Dominic as working for Hell, a Stain on all of Heaven that must be destroyed. Dominic rebutted with some nice commentary, and Michael stalked out. Next thing anyone knows, the Michaelites are mobilized. Rig gy gives Dana an ultimatium - make up her mind or die. She asks for 24 hours, and he grants it. Then he leaves, knowing he doesn't really want to kill her.
Maxwell makes the comment. "If there really is war, we'll protect you, but Michael WILL win."
In heaven, Star goes to see Novalis to tell all about the most amazing adventure she's been having. Novalis is concerned - Star has come back up to Heaven. Is she having trouble on her Earth assignment? Is it too hard for her? Maybe she should stay up here for a while. No no no... Star just has answers! Novalis becomes _deeply_ concerned about Star's master plan to Redeem a Demon Prince of all things. Yes, we're supposed to be aggressively peaceful, but dear, there's only so much we can do. Star ge ts weepy, so Novalis gives Star a new friend to play with. She's a little odd looking for a Celestial, as she's green. And her name is Malik.
Back on Earth, the proximity of Malakite and Lilim has finally gotten some sparks. Daimon got out to stretch, Fox noticed he wasn't particularly honorable, and Daimon went on a taunting rampage. They stopped it before mooning began, but not before the D irty Malakite Jokes started. Thus began the argument... we need to stay here, sorry Daimon, hope you have some luck. Either that or go Bright. Right now. They start discussing how Daimon is going to go Bright (he thinks everyone is on crack) and it fi nally comes down to him conning Dana to hang with him while they both try to get their own sense of perspectives.
The game ended there, except for a VERY lengthy conversation between Daimon and Dana, where Daimon sounds a little more... Malakite himself then Lilim, but it could be mere coincidence. They talk about Michael, Dominic, Duty, the whole works. They find a Holiday Inn nearby to stay for the night. Malcolm and Maxwell talk and talk and talk...
** GM's note: This is the first real move in The Plot that I can see on a global scale. I'm expecting SOME email conversation to come out of this mess, and I need to make some notes. Me? Getting ready to unleash more Bad Stuff? Never.
Oh, and this session was brought to you by the Kobalite Association for a Better Gaming Experience.
