Episode Eight: Puppet Strings

Session One (8.6.11)

• About a month has passed since we rescued Tanya Clark and witnessed her Awakening.
• Tanya tells us that the angels she saw during her Awakening told her she could trust us. They also told her that “she is coming,” the same thing the Abyssal creature hissed at us as it died.
• We have an extended discussion about the best thing to do for Tanya. Autumn casts several spells to divine her future and sees that her best chance for a balanced, well-adjusted life is for our cabal to raise her while Aquinas oversees her magical training. We settle on that idea, at least for now. Since he's the most respectable of us, Rasayana will become her legal guardian, at least on paper.
• Autumn and Serafina get into an hours-long argument/debate about Tanya and their different opinions/methods of how to look out for her.
• Rasayana does a terrible job of picking out clothes for Tanya. Issa and Malachite fix that by using Matter to change the colors of the clothes. Tanya picks the new colors based on flowers and plants out in the garden. She, Malachite, and Issa have a blast doing that. Malachite has never had so much fun using magic.
• Malachite and Issa stay busy spoiling the hell out of Tanya, probably trying to make up for their own crappy childhoods. They take her shoe shopping and end up practically buying out a florist and a toy store, too. Danny also gets in on the game, planning out an elaborate play room for the kid.
• Rasayana ends up having to be the disciplinarian, setting up bedtimes and chores and other boundaries for Tanya.
• Serafina spends some time exploring the ley lines around Astoria.
• Autumn asks Issa to scry for his friend Pan, because he and Ms. Blacklace have taken too long to arrive. Issa can't locate him anywhere.
• Autumn asks Issa to take him to San Francisco so he can post-cog Pan and Ms. Blacklace and retrace their steps. He sees them opening a portal into the Underworld.
• Ms. Blacklace told Autumn about a group of her kind--Sin-Eaters--in New Orleans, so he gets Issa to send him there in hopes of getting in touch with them and asking for help.
• In New Orleans, Autumn sees several Prime sigils, one for the Garden District Consilium and one for the 9th Ward. There is apparently some rivalry there, as the 9th Ward has crossed out some of the Garden District's sigils and replaced them with their own.
• There are a number of strange, masked ghosts wandering around the Twilight of New Orleans. They watch Autumn intently, but do not molest him.
• Autumn catches a cab into the 9th Ward, and the driver warns him that he won't be able to catch a ride back.
• Issa has been scrying on Autumn the whole time. When he realizes that Autumn is heading into a dangerous part of town, he decides to join him.
• Following the instructions of the 9th Ward's sigils, Autumn and Issa find their way to an old church. They meet a Sleepwalker named Lynette Myers who tells them that there are some renegade mages in New Orleans who have dealings with the strange ghostly creatures wandering around the French Quarter. Naturally, that's exactly who Autumn wants to talk to.
• More Prime sigils lead them to the leader of the renegades, a mage called the Momus. He knows the Sin-Eaters as the Carnivale Moribund. He suggests that Autumn get a hotel room and wait for the Carnivale to contact him.
• Issa heads back to Astoria. He brings Malachite pralines and beignets.
• When the Carnivale fails to contact him, Autumn braves the French Quarter. He tells one of the masked ghosts that he's looking to get in contact with the Sin-Eaters of New Orleans because he needs some help for a friend. The ghosts direct him to a woman named Gypsy who promises to look into Ms. Blacklace's disappearance, though she doesn't want to have any dealings with Autumn other than that. She doesn't like mages.
• While Autumn is waiting for Issa to bring him home, he gets to watch the ghost of Marie Laveau possess the body of a young woman.

Session Two (8.12.11)

• The day of the auction has arrived. Our plan is to go in and simply buy the books we want; we will steal any books we can't buy.
• Malachite casts a spell on everybody except Serafina to give us normal human auras. Serafina can alter her own aura.
• Mitchell Flavel goes with us since it's his grandfather's invite we're using. Once he gets us in the door, he takes off.
• We sign the auction guest book using fake names. We see members of all of Astoria's founding families there.
• Rasayana spots the dark-haired Arabic woman that he saw during his post-cog of the Astoria Column. We later learn her name is Qurbani.
• At the auction, we see that for some reason, Detective Dean Newcomb is in attendance. Autumn decides to hide in Twilight so the detective won't recognize him. When he does, Qurbani gives him an annoyed look.
• Rasayana watches the crowd, trying to determine who our rivals for the important books might be.
• As the various tomes are brought out, Malachite and Autumn scan them with mage sight to determine which ones to buy. Autumn has his ghosts irritatingly nudgeMalachite every time he sees a book he wants Malachite to bid on.
• Qurbani turns around in her seat and looks at Autumn, then his ghosts, then Malachite. She still looks annoyed. She takes off her necklace and places it on an empty chair behind her.
• Autumn casts a spell from Twilight to let Qurbani know that he'd like to talk to her. She acknowledges his message with yet more annoyance.
• One of the books is all about Abyssal entities. Autumn really, really wants Malachite to get it.
• After Malachite wins his first lot of books, Det. Newcomb recognizes him and speaks into the radio at his wrist.
• Autumn has one of his ghosts disrupt Newcomb's equipment. He also has one of them try to possess the detective, but she can't. It makes Autumn wonder if Newcomb is being controlled by a Profane Urim.
• Finally, two grimoires come up for sale. Malachite, Qurbani, and Det. Newcomb all bid on the lot. Qurbani drops out quickly, but Malachite and Newcomb get into a fierce bidding war. This lends credence to the idea that Newcomb is being controlled somehow. After all, what would a police detective want with a couple of grimoires and how could he afford them.
• In the middle of the bidding war, Serafina realizes that Newcomb has called in a raid on the auction, and SWAT is on its way. She sends us all a text warning, then casually walks away from the auction house.
• Issa lunges forward, grabs the books, and teleports away.
• Qurbani walks away from the chaos that Issa's disappearance has caused and steps into Twilight.
• Still in Twilight himself, Autumn asks Qurbani to wait a moment so he can talk to her. Then he heads back to where the auction goods are being stored, opens a ghost gate, and pulls the books into Twilight so we can retrieve them later. When he returns to the front of the building, Qurbani has left.
• The SWAT team arrives. Det. Newcomb pulls a gun, points it at Malachite, and tries to tell him to get on the ground. But Rasayana casts Stammer on him, so what he says instead is, “Get out of here!” Rasayana and Malachite GTFO. As they do, they notice Newcomb look irritated, then suddenly confused, like he doesn't know where he is or how he got here.
• Malachite grabs the locket Qurbani left behind, then activates his and Rasayana's Teleport items to get them back to the Regina.
• Once Autumn sees that the rest of us have gotten out safely, he goes back to where he left the books and his ghosts. His ghosts are nowhere to be seen, and the books are scattered all over the ground. Using post-cog on the scene, he sees Qurbani capture his ghosts in a pocket watch soul jar. She then rummages through the books and steals two of them. She leaves the pocket watch behind.
• Autumn releases his ghosts and has them carry the remaining books back to the hotel.
• At the Regina, Malachite takes Qurbani's locket outside the wards, just in case. He examines it with Prime sight, but it doesn't appear to be magical. However, when Autumn and Serafina look at it, they can see that the locket is magical but it's not Awakened magic. It is also a soul jar.
• Malachite checks the Astoria PD database and finds out that Det. Newcomb's operation at the auction was supposedly a sting to catch them selling stolen goods.
• Issa uses the items Qurbani left behind to scry on her. It takes him two tries to punch through her wards. When he does, she looks up at the scrying window. She is holding a glass of wine and gestures to her coffee table, which holds five more glasses. Clearly, it's an invitation.
• When we drive over to Qurbani's house, Malachite brings cheese and crackers to go with the wine. Rasayana brings her some tass.
• A ley line connects to Qurbani's house.
• Qurbani is gracious and polite, but she also warns us that she has friends who know that she is meeting with us.
• The books she took had to do with Abyssal entities. She is a member of a legacy that hunts down Abyssal creatures and traps them. She is also an Apostate. She's been in Astoria for a few years and has an uneasy truce with the local Seers. She tells us that Astoria is a sort of hot spot for Abyssal activity. She offers to let us make copies of the grimoires she took once she's looked them over.
• She tells us that she is destined to fall to darkness. She knows for certain that is how she will die. At the moment, that destiny is less than a year away.
• Qurbani also gives us a bit of a dressing down, saying that we go into situations without all the information and sometimes leave a mess behind us. She tells us that we accidentally released an Abyssal entity when we took The Queen of Heaven painting from the Our Ladies of the Sea Church.
• We defend ourselves by telling her that at the time, retrieving that painting and getting it back to the Regina was quite urgent.
• We offer to back her up when she goes Abyssal hunting, if she should need it. We also invite her to come to our Hallow sometime, to experience the “darkness behind the stars.” We think she might have some insight into it, or that it might give her some information she can use in her battle against the Abyss.
• Malachite offers to introduce Qurbani to his brother, even thought she's out of Danny's league.
• As we're leaving, Malachite gets a call from Ophelia. She has a message for Autumn. His friends are waiting for him at the cemetery.

Session Three (8.20.11)

• We arrive at Babylon Gardens Cemetery, but Autumn's friends Pan and Ms. Blacklace are nowhere to be seen. We search the grounds for a few minutes without any luck, then suddenly, they appear.
• It turns out that their exit from the Underworld is a beautiful, grand tomb which has a powerful Mind effect on it. Most people, mages in particular, simply don't see it. Ms. Blacklace has to lead us through the boundary of the effect.
• The tomb belongs to Autumn's mentor from the past, Kang Lu. It has a number of other magical effects on it, all designed to keep it hidden.
• We tromp around the tomb for awhile, examining it for clues or messages for Autumn from his mentor.
• Malachite gets a call from Mitchell, which is immediately cut off by one of the spells on the tomb. He uses Forces to punch through the effect and call Mitchell back.
• Mitchell tells him that Meredith has been acting strange, so he decided to follow her. He watched her break into the Athenaeum and start going through the books. Then he is cut off by the sound of a gunshot.
• When Malachite reports this to the others, Issa immediately teleports back to the Regina. Eyes of the Building lets him see Meredith standing on the dock behind the Regina, screaming at the sky and holding one of the grimoires from the auction. The book disappears from her hand, and she screams, “What about me?” He also sees Mitchell, lying behind the Athenaeum and bleeding from a gut wound.
• Serafina uses Prime to activate her teleportation item, and Malachite activates his, Rasayana's, and Autumn's. Once we're in the infirmary, Rasayana casts a Time spell and sends himself back to the cemetery.
• While Malachite is still on the phone with Mitchell, Rasayana tells Issa to get back to the hotel to save Mitchell.
• Issa arrives the second time to see Meredith coming toward Mitchell with a gun. He grabs Mitchell, reaches up the Watchtower, and teleports them both back to the cemetery. Unfortunately, Mitchell passes out as a result of being transported via vulgar magic, which sends him back to the Regina due to the teleportation ring he was still wearing.
• Once again, time is rewound, this time by Autumn. When Issa appears with Mitchell (again), Autumn snatches the teleportation ring off his finger.
• This time, Issa, Serafina, and Malachite teleport back to the hotel. Autumn and Rasayana drive back with Ms. Blacklace. Pan stays at the cemetery with Mitchell.
• Issa casts a spell to trap Meredith in a little bubble of Space so she can't get away. Serafina uses Space to destroy the gun Meredith is still holding.
• As Meredith struggles against the Space effect, Malachite sees a Mind effect come in and zap her, then she loses consciousness. The Space effect holding her collapses suddenly when Danny comes around the corner and sees it.
• After that bit of excitement is over, Mitchell calls his own cell phone, which is laying on the ground behind the Athenaeum. Malachite answers it. Mitchell wants to know if he and Pan can head to the Regina. Pan is hitting on him and making him uncomfortable. Malachite threatens to beat Pan if he doesn't lay off, but that only seems to encourage him. The threat of guns doesn't scare him much, either. Malachite tells them to come on back to the hotel.
• Rasayana and Malachite take Meredith to Aquinas. Aquinas tells us that Meredith is a kind of sleeper agent that the Seers are known to create. They take a Sleeper and torture them mentally until their personality shatters. Then they plant a personality loyal to the Seers that they can activate at any time.
• Aquinas suspects that the Seers sent Meredith to us on purpose. He knows of a mental institution in Europe that is run by mages where they treat this exact kind of damage. He agrees to keep her under his care and protection for awhile, until we can attempt to contact Meredith's original personality and ask her what she wants us to do for her.
• In the meantime, Autumn and Ms. Blacklace explain to Serafina and Issa what they think it going on with Malachite and the shadow man. The shadow man is drawn to Malachite because they are in some ways alike, both men of guns and violence.
• In other possible futures, Autumn saw the shadow man killing Serafina and Mitchell. Autumn theorizes that it might be going after killers, though that doesn't explain why it would go after Mitchell.
• Ms. Blacklace begins to suspect that Mitchell might be a medium. She explains that Sin-Eaters were mediums in life, and that's why Geists target them. Geists need to merge with a medium in order to return to the physical world. In fact, they will sometimes arrange for their chosen medium to die in a way very similar to they way they died.
• When she tells us this, we call Mitchell and tell him to stay away from the hotel. We arrange to meet him and Pan at the cafe down the street.
• Issa wards the cafe against bullets, then we leave Mitchell there with Ophelia and Tanya while we head back to the Regina to try and deal with the Geist.
• Ms. Blacklace says that Geists are nearly impossible to destroy. Our only hope is to trap it or put it back to sleep.
• Autumn gets a sudden sense of something departing the Regina, and so does Ms. Blacklace. Fearing it might be the Geist going after Mitchell, Autumn asks Malachite to check in on him.
• Malachite can't get either Mitchell or Ophelia on the phone.
• Issa scries on Mitchell. He sees Mitchell and Ophelia out on the sidewalk, bleeding from gunshot wounds. Ophelia's ex-husband is standing over them, screaming and waving a gun around.
• We dash over to the cafe. As Issa arrives, Mitchell sits bolt upright, a gun in his hand, aiming at Ophelia's ex. Issa grapples him, and the shot goes wild.
• Serafina changes her clothing to look like a paramedic. She administers one of her healing shots to Ophelia, healing her instantly, then hustles her into the back of the ambulance and drives it away. With her mind!
• Issa drags Mitchell back into the cafe. Rasayana gives Mitchell a healing shot, but it does no good.
• With Death sight, Autumn can see that Mitchell, like Ms. Blacklace, is already dead.
• Autumn attacks Ophelia's ex with Death magic, but it does not kill him, though Autumn really, really wants it to.
• Ms. Blacklace appears behind the ex suddenly and does something that sends him to his knees, weeping uncontrollably.
• After all the threats are neutralized, Rasayana casts a spell to make it easier for those of us inside the cafe to walk away unnoticed by the cops.
• Autumn isn't affected by Rasayana's spell, so he gets stopped by a cop who wants to take his statement. Autumn promptly vanishes into Twilight before the cop's astonished eyes.
• Back at the Regina, we confirm what we feared: Mitchell is now a Sin-Eater, merged with the Geist we were trying to save him from.
• Ms. Blacklace tells us that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Mitchell's personality will likely have a very positive effect on the Geist. She suggests that we question Mitchell immediately, because the more time passes, the more they will merge. If we want answers about the Geist, we need to get them while Mitchell can still tell his thoughts and memories from its.
• Mitchell tells us that part of the Geist was Cole and part of it was the gunslinger from The Queen's Own cabal. The part that was Cole was drawn to Mitchell because of the similarities between them. The part that was the gunslinger was drawn to Mitchell because it wanted the opportunity to train Malachite in its mage legacy. Mitchell also tells us that the Geist was influencing Ophelia's ex in order to get Mitchell killed by gunfire.