Session 9: A Long Night in a Hospital Room

Back at the hospital, people go about their minor quests, and Maxwell takes up guard duty while he waits for the relief that was promised to arrive. Jered waits with him. Max has a long, very bizarre conversation with Daimon offline. And people wait.

Star is in Ann Arbor, partying at a Frat House down on Washtenaw. She's having a good time, when she is approached by an extremely good looking, well groomed young man who introduces himself as Andrew. He tells her that she is different, and more intere sting then the rest of the people here, and he would be happy to show her a better time. She turns him down, after they talk back and forth, and Star calls over a partygoer named "John". He leaves, a smile on his face, pleased, while Star passes out on a couch. "I will be seeing you later. Ta!"

People run a few errands around the hospital. Blitzen prowls the place for those who inflict cruelty, and he gets mistaken by a nurse on duty for a mental patient who accidently got out. Then he calls up Vanessa, who gives him the name of a local arms d ealer in the Tri-City area. Blitzen then goes to talk to Jered for a while.

Dana checks her answering machine back in New York. It has about a dozen messages on it. Most of them are legalize/practice related, but she gets two of interesting note. One is from an "Eddie Hatcher", who is interested in talking with her. The othe r is a scared female voice who identifies herself as "Amanda Vale". The entire message is about her trying to flee before they find her, and that they're going to kill her for not "Getting With the Program". The message cuts off abruptly. Dana tries an swering both of the calls. For Amanda, she gets a number which has been disconnected. For Eddie's number, she gets him. He says that he's in Ohio, and really happy to hear that she's doing okay. But yeah, he can get on a plane and be up there to meet with her by morning. They arrange to meet at Denny's in the morning.

As a nurse comes in and feeds Daimon more tabular happiness, Maxwell and Jered talk for a while. They go back and forth about Dominic and what is going on and what they intend to do next. They're concerned, because they haven't been given any real direc tion. Eventually, two cops show up, and identify themselves as FBI agents. There's alot of hassling going on, as well as an attempt to arrest Maxwell for the murder deaths of several people in the Paper Mill in Alpena. Things kind of go downhill as the y question Jered. As they decide to walk off with Maxwell, Terry shows up. (He had been watching, mildly interested, from the hallway much of the time.) He informs the cops that, no they don't have to take Maxwell, and no, there's nothing going on here . So much for strong Wills, but Maxwell is in a heap of trouble.

Dana changes her voicemail message, then runs into Terry, who has left the hospital room, and is now planning for the coming morning. He hits on her some, he's starting to really like her, and she messes up his hair.

Blitzen runs into Dana, as he's stalking the halls, and she's returning to the hospital room. They go back and rejoin Maxwell and Jered. At this time, the four of them have a major conversation. The topic goes back and forth about what to do next, what is Kezef up to, if they should go looking for Eli, etc.

Daimon (who has been awake the entire time, but has just been silent) finally speaks up when he's determined that the party of angels are on such a wrong track, they're likely to get hurt or worse. He talks a little about what Kezef wants, who is who, bu t he has trouble keeping track of the conversation.

Eventually, the relief does arrive, in the form of an Angel of War named Anna. She's young, inexperienced, and overall goofy, but she does indeed wield a big axe and is built like a ton of bricks. Maxwell, upon her arrival, announces that it is time for him to get a move on. He collects Blitzen.

On the way out, Blitzen grabs Anna and drags her out into the hallway. They have a little chat about what's up and her level of compidence, which isn't real high. She asks of Dana is a "Bad" Dominican, but no, she's okay. Blitzen is eventually satisfie d, and leaves her to guard the door.

Maxwell and Blitzen take the fast track back to Ann Arbor, coming to get Star. It's not too hard, as Maxwell is attuned to her, to find her. Which they do. They don't even leave US-23. They find Star passed out on the couch, with a rose on her chest. Star wakes, and thinks it's from Maxwell, and Maxwell is suspicious. They get her a glass of water, and get her back into the truck.

There's a very bizarre conversation on the way back about being aggressively peaceful, and having flowers. Star also talks about the guy Andrew she met at the party. They return to the hospital.

In the mean time, (cut to Scooby Doo cut scene), the people left behind are Dana, Jered, Anna, and Terry is off lurking somewhere. He appears to give Dana a cup of coffee, and Anna almost takes his head off, while yelling "AIAIAIAIA! DEMONSPAWN!" This is responded to with an "Urp" and a quick bout of Charm. With a puff of essense, Anna doesn't think that Terry is worth killing anymore, while Dana attempts to explain that there are BAD demons and.... Mildly Tolerable Demons. He hands off the coffee, a nd looks down at himself where he's spilled his own all over his pants. He grumbles about stupid, crazy angels and stalks off to go accost another telephone.

A few minutes later, a nurse shows up, to administer late-night medication. Daimon is already sleeping (again, off and on). She sets the tray down, lifts off the cloth, and picks up the loaded .45. She cocks it and points it at Daimon's head. The pers on who reacts is Dana, who jumps the nurse, and tackles her to the floor. The gun goes skittering off to one side, and does not go off. The nurse attempts to attack Dana, and the GM rolls a 111.

And then sits there for like 5 minutes, trying to figure out what the hell happens.

What does happen is a glowing apparation appears in the room. It is white, with large golden wings. It reaches out a hand at the struggling nurse under Dana, and a beam comes from its hand. The nurse, screaming in demonic fury, literally dissolves from the skin inwards in a rather nasty display. Then the apparation disappears.

Jered names the being. Raphael, who is supposed to be long Dead, soon after the Fall. He shares this. They discuss this, while Daimon sits in bed, looking white as a sheet. He has no comment on the whole mess.

Maxwell, Blitzen, and Star show up a few minutes later, and everyone stands in the hallway, talking. Anna looks stricken, and it takes Dana to convince her that she did not fail in her mission. Star runs over to Daimon, and he grabs her and buries his f ace in her hair. There is some cuddlies that go on. Star asks everyone to leave the room. She pulls the curtain around the bed, and asks about the guy she met at the party. He looks confused. Then she gets into bed with Daimon. He passes out again, and she holds him.

Some time passes, and morning comes. People either wait or go to respective hotel rooms.

In the morning, very early, people reconveine. Maxwell makes himself scarce, so as not to be nabbed by Cops. Terry wants to take Daimon, so he can get dressed and ready to go out to talk to the Press. He's also mumbling something about talking him out of all this Renegade nonsense. Dana argues that Daimon's too weak to go talk to the press, it's going to have to wait. They argue for a bit, and it's ended when the doctor on rounds shows up. They leave the Lilim be, and go argue out in the hallway, wh ere it is settled that Dana will talk to the press. FBI agents show up, different ones from the night before, and they get what they want. They try to talk to Daimon, but Dana does some lawyer-ly stuff, and they find out he's not coherent enough to deal with them.

When the FBI agents leave, everyone gathers and they decide on a course of action. Maxwell is going to take Daimon and Star up to Caro, so that Daimon can go to the tether and try to get back the Geas/6 off of Star. Also, the plot seems to want them to go in that general direction for some reason, so they're going. They get everyone up, dressed, and snuck off to cars, while Dana prepares herself to meet the press.

Dana meets with the press, to deal with Terry's little conference. Other then finding out that the Cardinal Georgio Biotti has come out and made a public statement that this entire thing is a hoax and that these people are out to defame him and the Catho lic Church, there is nothing new learned. Terry cleans it up, as they make sure they have each other's phone numbers, and she splits.

Dana then meets with Eddie Hatcher at the local Denny's. He slides in, and he assures her that he is on her side, being equally interested in the Law. He talks that his people are quite pleased that she has not yet Fallen, (there apparently was some wor ry), and that he and his group has her interests at heart. He pulls out reams of evidence that it's not just Kezef and his few minions that are fallen, but hundreds of angels are coming out of the sky. "The Followers of Eli, the Creationers, they've all been Falling for some time, although recently the pace has accelerated. But the Dominicans... we keep track of this sort of thing, and we have very good records." He mentions the local Renegade, and that they haven't decided what to do about that yet, b ut there will be some decision soon. He assures her that his Superior has what is best for all involved at heart, not to worry. He leaves, after they exchange numbers again, and him reassuring her that they will have a lengthy talk later, when it is mor e convenient.

On the road, Maxwell took Star and Daimon (who slept through 99% of the trip between Saginaw and Caro), while Blitzen took Jered. There were some pit stops for money, weaponry, flowers, supplies, that sort of thing. They found a convenient small hotel o n the outskirts of town, and checked in with two adjoining rooms, getting ready to rumble.



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(C) 1997 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated.
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