< Recap where everyone is at >

Mid Afternoon. Madison RI. After the Apocalypse.

Blitzen is finishing up cleaning the hatchery, and it’s a really smelly job. As he finishes, he goes into an empty office and starts to clean himself off, by pulling off his clothing and using his Malakite of Fire resonance to burn the stench off his skin. As he’s doing this, the room starts to heat up around him. It gets warmer and warmer… he sticks his head out to look for Gabriel, and doesn’t see her. He looked for demons, and sees nothing. He asks the Mercurian who was helping him out, Eliam, to get him some clothes that are clean, and Eliam wanders off toward town. While he waits, he flips on the small computer in the office, and looks through QuickBooks, but understands nothing. He finds a ledger, and checks the books, and they’re okay although they seem suspiciously… balanced. He starts to heat up and cool down again. This bothers him and he tries to detect problems in the Symphony. Nothing. He tucks his old clothes into a cardboard box. Eventually the Mercurian returns and gives him clothing some fresh. Blitzen zips off to meet up with Maxwell. Maxwell is talking to Penninah, the Cherub of Stone, who is convinced that David will arise again, and Maxwell is the instrument of this. Maxwell does the only thing he can in this situation: he nods and smiles.

Maxwell and Blitzen walk off to go talk to Dr. Winters. On the way there, Blitzen starts to heat up again, more then before. Maxwell notices nothing – there is no heat, no flames, no disturbance, nothing he can see. Blitzen hands Maxwell the box of his fish smelling clothing. They go in to see the doctor. She talks about starting to organize people to get the town going, and that the sheriff is, in fact dead. They go to see Leah, who is off training elsewhere.

Leah is working with the kids she recruited. She is training Steve, Luke and Matt out in the woods, but they aren’t good with guns, and they don’t know any self defense skills and they don’t really know how to throw a punch. She doesn’t want to waste precious ammo so she has them, erm, throwing. For hand eye coordination. Yeah. Steve notices someone out in the woods, and sure enough, there is someone out in the woods, up in a tree. Leah resonantes, and does well. It’s an extremely well done resonate as well. She finds that his greatest sin is to be a born a Calabite of Fire and his greatest virtue is to currently be Renegade from hell. Leah sends her three charges off to get Maxwell… and not Blitzen. She walks over to the scruffy, dirty renegade and asks him to come down out of the tree. He doesn’t. So she sings the song of thunder. The calabite falls out of the tree… and everyone hears the disturbance.

In the mean time… Dana is talking to people on the street, and trying to recruit people on the streets. People are asking her about things in the vein of "what would happen if…" Then she hears the disturbance.

Blitzen runs. Maxwell goes to get some Stonies as backup, and gathers two Malakim. Dana starts working her way over there. Blitzen passes Steve, Luke and Matt on the way, and keeps running. ("Hey, you aren’t…) As Blitzen gets into the field, he starts getting the heat on. (In the mean time, Leah is chasing the Calabite through the woods.) The flames climb higher and higher and higher until he can hardly see through them, and when he finally can, he sees…

Blitzen is standing outside a large city, a white city, a holy city, a beautiful glittering city on the ocean, and it is thronged with people. Towering over it is a huge Temple. He walks through the streets of the city, and he can see the people, robed in white, walking along. The sellers on the streets sell linen of gold and holy relics. He tries to detect a disturbance in the Symphony and detects nothing. His hands pass through the people, the sellers don’t notice him. He tries to create a disturbance by burning the ground and anything around him with his flaming hands.

(At the same time, in the real world, Blitzen starts burning trees and leaves. This does, indeed, make a disturbance, which draws Dana and Maxwell and two Malakim of Stone.)

Nothing. Blitzen detects nothing. He holds up his hands and starts running through town.

(In the real world, Blitzen suddenly shoots past Dana and Maxwell, and runs into town. He passes people with their eyes wide open and stunned.)

He runs into the huge Temple, and it is a truly holy place. Within the Temple is a small pool of water, and here he reflects in the pond; here he is real. He walks windershins around the pool once, but this does nothing. He charges through the doors to the back of the Temple toward the Holiest of Holies. Here there is only a Bible on a bookstand. It is here he hears Gabriel’s voice. And she says to him:

"I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but by name I did not make myself known to them. I gave them the land of Canaan in which they lived. I have heard the groaning of my people. And I have remember my covenant. Say unto them. "I am the Lord, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people and I will be your God." I shall bring you into the land I promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: I will give it to you as a possession and I am the Lord."

He falls to his knees before the altar on his knees, and the vision clears from his eyes. He awakes in the catholic church in the middle of town. He writes Gabriel’s words in the dust at his feet, begins praying.

Leah catches up to the calabite and knocks him off his feet by throwing her axe into his back. He goes over into the dirt, and she stands over him, trying to come up with reasons of why she should not kill him. She decides to take him captive and take him back to town, so she ties him with his own shoe laces. On the way back, she passes the Malakim of Stone who are trying to put out the fire created by Blitzen. Leah learns about Blitzen, and walks the calabite back to town.

"Do I have anything to tie him up with?" - Leah

"You can use a really long tongue." - Allen

Maxwell and Dana run back to town. They follow the trail of stunned looking people. They find him back into the church praying before the altar. Blitzen describes his vision to them. Dana approves: hey, it has the word "judgment" in it after all. Maxwell leaves the church.

Maxwell runs into Leah bringing the Calabite back into town. Maxwell relates the story of Blitzen, and they talk about the Calabite (whose name is Askeroth). "You can call me Ash, my friends can call Ash, my enemies call me Ash." Leah takes Ash to the jail, trying to figure out how to keep him there. Maxwell moves on, because he’s a man on the move.

"Nybbas is going to be back. There’s going to be a write in campaign to bring him back next season. " - Rob

Leah tries to interrogate Ash in the jail. "There was a Fate demon, man! And he had steely eyes, man! Steely eyes!" The calabite came to Madison because, as he claims, this is the only safe place to be, and it’s full of angels if you want some sort of comparison. He doesn’t want to go back to Hell and be forced to work for Baal. Ash’s story drifts from one thing to another. Leah breaks Ash’s thumbs, tells him that he’s going to break a finger for every lie, and leaves him.

Maxwell brings El-Bezek back from the power plant to the jail cells to help out the interrogation. Maxwell quickly catches up to Leah, who relates some news.

Everyone is on screen, as they all togethe. Blitzen gathers some people. He speaks to the people. He relates his words, those that he heard in his head to a collection of murmuring people. Leah and Maxwell and Dana are there. People start calling for Maxwell, who has already created miracles. And they call for a new miracle. Maxwell heals someone else, and they call out "Messiah!" He tries to encourage them to build the town, they want him to do miracles. They settle, and decide to follow Maxwell to the schoolhouse. Maxwell figures this is a good enough place for a mob of holy city obsessed, miracle crazed human beings.

Blitzen, Dana and Leah head back toward the jail cells. Blitzen gets there first, and El-Bezek is already there there, lifting an eyebrow.

Blitzen starts interrogating Ash, and puts a bag on his head, to make things creepier . He starts to come on hard and Ash looses control and panics and rolls a 666 on his resonance. The building expodes outwards. The humans (including Elise in the cell next door and all the humans from the gas station) and the seraph are splattered into a fine mist. The Malakite is blown back and stunned. Blitzen resists, and is blown backwards. Blitzen, when he gets his bearing, beats the hell out of Ashkeroth and leaves him to Leah and Dana. Blitzen stalks off.

"I hope you like this stuff blowing up in your face, fire boy." - Blizten

Blitzen goes to find Dr. Winter. He passes Maxwell, who is being surrounded by people who want him to do miracles. Blitzen demands some clothes and Maxwell just hands him his box of smelly fish clothing. Somehow, this wasn’t what Blitzen had in mind. Blitzen stalks off again.

Leah and Dana drag Ash to the garage on the other side of town. Leah breaks another one of his fingers, and lays out the tenants of the interrogation. Every lie, a finger. When all 10 fingers are broken, he’ll use song of healing and start over again. This can, Leah says, go on indefinitely.

< Intermission >

After about an hour, the people around Maxwell start to become rational again. He learns that there is a wide spread of people, from farmers to fishermen to accountants and engineers.

So, Leah, and Blitzen and Dana go to interrogate Ash, who gives them, voluntarily, all sorts of information about what is Out There: demons, Baal, undead, crazy people (although crazy people are kind of cool)… Baal taking over major cities, Baal taking over human lives, Baal everywhere. This is it, this is the only cache of angelic activity anywhere, and he means anywhere. This turns to redemption talk, something the calabite isn’t too keen on, really. Blitzen goes off to get the stash of hard liquor. He gets a little a tub and liquor and comes back. He comes back, fills the tub, and lights a torch. He forces Ash to sit in it, and forces the torch into his hand. Will you burn yourself? Will you? Ash resonates, and hits Blitzen square on. Blitzen takes damage, Ash drops the torch into the alcohol, and lights himself on fire again… It ends up with a calabite curled up on the floor, more dissonant and more unhappy. Maybe he should have taken his chances with the crazy Fate demons. Blitzen goes to go see Dr. Winters.

"And while Blitzen is walking away, I say to the calabite, ‘Doesn’t he have a nice penis?’" - Susan

Blitzen gets most of his damage healed between Maxwell’s song of healing and Dr. Winter’s ministrations. Blitzen explains what happened, and brings Maxwell back with him. So Maxwell tries to talk to the firebug. So they argue over about the purposes of being a renegade and the like. Maxwell really doesn’t care if he’s killed and sent back to Hell or not.

They leave some Stonies and Leah behind to guard the calabite.

Dana goes to the town meeting. People start talking about building the city into a Holy City. Maxwell attunes to the doctor (and attunes to her and gets a 666 on the roll). There is lots of discussions about stuff… what’s going to happen next, where can people go, how will they work, all these other good things.

Flaming edge graphics from Our Domain Gallery of Graphics
The "In Nomine" and "flaming feather" graphics are
(C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated.
Used with fnord.