Episode Six: Affairs of the Heart

Session One (4.22.11)

• Back at the Regina, after our fight with the vampires, Rasayana uses Mind to give himself surgical skills. Issa contacts Malcolm Bruide, who also has some medical training. The two of them work on getting Autumn and Serafina stitched up.
• Malachite waits impatiently for Valentina to wake up. Once she's conscious and sober, he has a “conversation” with her about getting her act together and taking better care of her sister.
• After Autumn & Serafina have recovered some, we have a long discussion about joining or founding a consilium and about Autumn establishing an athenaeum on the grounds.
• Malachite breaks down and asks Issa to attempt scrying for his brother Daniel. Issa finds Danny living in LA and swipes his cell phone for Malachite to copy.
• Malachite calls Danny. Unlike his brother, Danny was adopted by a good family. He has a foster brother named Mickey. He's divorced and works in construction. He seemed surprised but pleased to hear from Malachite.
• Two weeks after we run the vampires out of Astoria, Malachite wake up in the middle of the night to find a gun pointed at his face by the shadowy figure connected to outlaw Cole's six-shooter. The figure vanishes as Malachite bolts upright, but the smell of cordite lingers in the air, as if the gun had truly been fired. When Malachite gets the gun out of its case, it feels slightly warm to the touch. Using Fate, Rasayana learns that Malachite has an intimate, soul-deep connection to the six-shooter.
• Issa is going with Stoughton to attend a Guardians of the Veil caucus meeting. When Stoughton arrives, he asks to speak with Serafina. He wants Serafina to go to the upcoming Adamantine Arrow caucus and discredit Adder as a candidate for Adamant Sage. He tells her that Adder was involved in a battle in Denver where he used massively vulgar magic in view of a dozen or more sleepers. He's still wanted there for his violations. A couple of years later, he was charged with clearing out a nest of Celesti in LA. He took four junior Arrows in with him, but he's the only one who came out alive. Serafina asks if there's anyone Stoughton does want in the position, but he says he only wants Adder out of the running.
• Rasayana asks Stoughton if they've had any luck running down Wai Chi. They haven't, nor have they figured out how he's teleporting himself from place to place.
• At the caucus, Issa attends a lecture by a Guardian named Akbar. Akbar has heard of the Regina and asks Issa if he's found the Garden of Passages, a rumored series of gateways to various points in the Columbia Consilium.
• At the cemetery that night, Autumn sees two guys drive up in a car that he realizes he used to own. They seem to be speaking Russian. They are approached by a third man who gives them a duffel bag full of drugs.
• Using post-cog, Autumn learns that one of the men has had dealings with a Mr. Jones, the drug dealer Autumn himself used to work for. They are likely using Astoria as a drop-off because its port has little in the way of security.
• Autumn decays the carburetor of the car so the first two men can't leave with it, then follows the third man back to the docks. He manages to get a lock of the guy's hair for Issa to scry with. Autumn heads back to the Regina to get Malachite's opinion on what to do next.
• After he gets back from the caucus, Issa goes looking for the Garden of Passages. He realizes that some of the statues in the garden are making specific hand gestures and the fence surrounding the garden has musical notation on it. Making one of the hand signs and whistling the tune lets Issa open one of the gates, which leads to a cave in Chinook, WA.
• Autumn & Malachite go out into the garden just in time to see Issa disappear into the gate. Autumn uses post-cog to see what happened, then repeats Issa's actions to reopen the gate. We can't see through to the other side.
• We wake our cabalmates to help us investigate. Serafina calls Issa's cell phone to find out where he is and if he can open the gate from the other side. By repeating the hand sign and whistled tune, he can.

Session Two (4.30.11)

• Rasayana & Autumn go through the Chinook portal after Issa. Autumn post-cogs the cave and sees a magical battle that took place there around the turn of the century. Some of the mages were members of the Columbia Consilium. They are losing badly and escape back to the Regina through the portal. Their enemies try to follow, but the portal is “locked down” so that they can't use or reopen it.
• After their brief exploration of the Chinook cave, Autumn & the others return. Autumn then tells the rest of the cabal about his encounter with the drug dealers at the cemetery and gives Issa the lock of hair he took from the Russian.
• Issa sees the Russian standing at the stern of a fishing boat moving away from the docks of Astoria. Using Space, he knocks the man overboard, not intending any permanent harm. Kesho starts laughing, which thoroughly creeps Malachite out. Unfortunately, the Russian drowns as the boat runs him over. Oops.
• The cabal heads to the graveyard, where we proceed to remove any evidence of Autumn from his former car. Autumn then hides it in Twilight.
• The next day, Issa starts interviewing for a receptionist for the Regina. Malachite lets Valentina know about the job.
• Serafina spends the day re-casting ritual magic.
• Rasayana restocks the infirmary's medical supplies. Autumn starts researching the history of the Regina and some of the cabals associated with it.
• Malachite talks to Ophelia about purchasing one of the empty warehouses next to the Regina to use as a sort of magical dumping ground, a place where we can move things in and out of Twilight without anyone seeing.
• Issa decides to go out to lunch at one of his favorite pubs. In the middle of his meal, the people around him suddenly stop moving, and Auctorita sits down across from him. She says she just wants to talk. She ends up doing all the talking, as Issa only glares at her. She tells him she's been ordered to abandon her family, that it is the will of the Exarchs. She wants Issa to protect them in her stead, claiming that the Guardians of the Veil are killing them indiscriminately. Issa refuses. She says it gratifies her to know she's had such an impact on his life that he's willing to let his entire family die for the sake of his anger towards her.
• On his way home, Issa calls Stoughton and tells him everything about Auctorita's visit.
• Back at the hotel, Rasayana hears a man's voice raised in anger, not quite shouting but almost. He goes downstairs to investigate and finds the angry man backing Ophelia into a corner. Rasayana approaches and, with some magically enhanced charm, calms the guy down. The man looks suddenly embarrassed and quickly leaves. His name is Carlo Rosetti, and he's Ophelia's ex-husband. She was forced to abandon him and her son without explanation in order to protect them from the Seers. Rasayana opens up to her about his own divorce, and they commiserate over their loss.
• The cabal meets a little later that evening to discuss Auctorita's reappearance and what Issa wants to do about it. We debate whether to ignore Auctorita's information entirely or to investigate her claims.
• Finally, Issa decides to scry on the subdivision where he grew up, which is inhabited entirely by Tourblancs. He sees two of the families in a heated discussion. One believes that Auctorita has not truly abandoned them; the other has decided to run rather than wait for the Guardians to take them out. With that information, Issa decides that they are sorting themselves out, the innocent running and the guilty staying behind. He figuratively washes his hands of them, and that seems to be the end of the discussion.
• But later, Rasayana decides to contact Malcolm Bruide and ask him what he knows about the situation. Malcolm is upset by what's happening. He points out that the Tourblancs used to work for the Silver Ladder and only turned to the Seers when Auctorita did. He tells Rasayana that all Proximi families have a weakness, and the Tourblanc weakness is that they must have a master. And the longer they are with a single master, the more difficult it becomes for them to refuse anything that master wants. They probably didn't have a choice about defecting to the Seers. Auctorita did, and they had to follow her.
• Malcolm says that Mages and Proximi have ancient pacts that require Mages to protect them, and Proximi need that protection because of the magic in their blood. He thinks the Silver Ladder should reclaim the abandoned Tourblancs, but instead the Ladder is complicit in their slaughter. The Guardians would not be attacking the Proximi without the Ladder's permission.
• We have a long, loud debate about if we can or should do anything to help. We know this could all be an elaborate trap set by Auctorita. She could be planning for us to go in and help the Tourblancs only to have them turn on us once our guard is down. Even if we did decide to help, we can't simply go to the Tourblancs and offer to defend them. This is all happening in LA, well outside our territory. The best way to help them would be for some mage to vouch for the Tourblancs, to take responsibility for them. But any mage who did so would immediately be suspected of being a Seer. We don't know anyone who would be willing to take such a risk, and we can't do it ourselves.
• Serafina thinks it's not worth the risk to us, especially since the Tourblancs are guilty of aiding the Seers. For once, Autumn agrees with her. Issa has wanted them all dead for years anyway. Malachite thinks they deserve a chance to redeem themselves, since they didn't really have a choice in switching sides. Rasayana is determined to find a way to help, even if it means starting the Proximi Underground Railroad and sneaking them out one by one.

Session Three (5.7.11)

• Rasayana casts Divination to get an idea of what will happen if he and Malachite try to save the Tourblancs. He receives several visions in response to his questions: a wall of malachite protecting a white tower; a group of Sleepers leading a group of Tourblancs through a clinging fog; towering clockwork guardians (Free Council) shielding our cabal from figures in inky cloaks and iron masks (Guardians of the Veil). The visions indicate that our involvement will mitigate the carnage, but there is no bloodless way for us to effect a rescue.
• Autumn goes on a lunch date with Mitchell. At the cafe, they are approached by two scared, bedraggled women, a redhead and a brunette. Just as the redhead starts begging Autumn to help them, the gas line beneath the cafe explodes. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, a dark sedan pulls onto the sidewalk, and three Seer mages get out.
• One of the mages, a crazed-looking blond woman, pulls out a broadsword and slams the point into the ground. Waves of madness emanate from the sword, and the Sleepers in and around the cafe begin to lose it, turning on each other in a riotous frenzy.
• At the gym, Issa hears the explosion. He scries for Autumn, sees what's happening, and teleports to Autumn's side.
• Serafina is out patrolling in Shadow and sees two elementals that are drawn to explosions. When they suddenly vanish, pulled out of Shadow and into reality by the blast, she knows what happened. She runs back to the Regina to get her car and the rest of the cabal. We pile into her car and rush to the cafe.
• Lots of magical fighty stuff happens. (Sorry, guys, there was too much going on; I couldn't keep up with it all.)
• After being punched repeatedly by Issa, one of the Seers falls unconscious. The ring on his hand flares, and he teleports away. The other two quickly follow, their rings apparently triggered remotely.
• The rioting Sleepers suddenly stop, confused. Approaching sirens are our cue to leave.
• Serafina shapeshifts into a man and runs back to the Regina. Autumn drags the redhead into Twilight. The brunette tries to go after them, but Malachite stops her. He is shocked to see her there; this is the woman he knew as “Keeper.” She seems completely confused and desperately doesn't want to be separated from the redhead. Rasayana and Malachite hustle her into Serafina's car and drive back to the Regina.
• Back at the hotel, Malachite tests his theory that “Keeper” was just a pawn controlled through a Profane Urim. He pushes her through the Regina's wards, and she is able to pass through, proving that she's a Sleeper.
• The redhead is a mage, a refugee Free Councilor from Seattle named Siobhann. She rescued Meredith, the brunette, from a Seer stronghold where they were storing people who had been under the influence of Profane Urim for so long that they suffered some kind of nerve damage and were no longer of any use as puppets.
• After getting the whole story out of Siobhann, then talking to some of our contacts, we learn that the Seers chasing Siobhann are a group of Praetorian hunter-killers who are tracking down and eliminating the survivors of the attack on Seattle. The pylon is known as the Hysmenai and has three known members (Enyo, Phobos, and Deimos), with a probable fourth, an Obrimos called Nike. They likely have some sympathetic connection to Siobhann, to be able to track her like they have.
• Autumn uses post-cog on Siobhann and Meredith. He sees the Hysmenai's attack on Siobhann's cabal in Seattle. One of her cabalmates was also her lover. She was one of only two survivors of the attack. Autumn sees Meredith being possessed by Keeper for the first time, and consequently, Malachite's first meeting with Keeper.
• Siobhann mentions that there's a strong Fate connection between Meredith and Malachite. That connection brought her to us when she cast a spell asking to be led to a safe place. Rasayana casts Interconnections and sees that she's right.
• Rasayana and Serafina go to the Astoria Column to see if the Seers show up there to recharge their mana. Rasayana uses post-cog and sees a Middle Eastern woman at the top of the column, performing the oblation. She also collects tass on her way back to her car. Rasayana reads her resonace and sees that she has some kind of Death and Spirit magicks going. She could be Nike, the fourth member of the Hysmenai.
• We offer to escort Siobhann to her destination in Springfield or to arrange for other Free Councilors to meet her here. Instead, she sneaks out in the middle of the night. She leaves a note saying she doesn't want to put us in any more danger and she's better off traveling alone. She leaves Meredith behind.