Episode Twelve: Regina Rising

Session One (11.27.11)

• Serafina, Autumn, and Issa rescue any Sleepers who might have been trapped in Shadow during the Verge storm.
• Malachite and Rasayana head to New York to retrieve Danny from the hospital there. Strangely, Ophelia doesn't come with us. She says she's made plans to get back to Astoria on her own.
• Serafina contacts her order to tell them what happened.
• Rasayana learns from the Free Council that a Seer pylon was uncovered in Portland. The pylon got away, but they've now been identified.
• Leaving Danny sound asleep at Qurbani's house, we go to investigate the Babylon pylon's former sanctum.
• While post-cogging the place, Autumn finds a blank space in time, about three hours' worth, that occurred right before the pylon invaded the Regina the first time.
• Autumn and Rasayana cast cooperative ritual Time magic to punch through the time ward.
• Tanya calls while they are casting. She's at the Regina because she thought it was safe to return. Issa escorts her right back to Africa.
• Also during the ritual, Malachite finds a room with faint traces of writing left on the walls. He brings the writing out with Matter magic and finds an alphabet that is as creepy and disturbing to him as a mage as Atlantean was to him as a Sleeper.
• Autumn and Rasayana successfully bypass the Babylon pylon's Time spell. Autumn sees the pylon discussing the ritual they tried to cast at the Regina. They have the book they stole from us, the Ishtar Codex.
• From what they're saying, Qurbani is probably the “sacrifice” they need for the ritual, but they're not completely sure. Heroditas says that even if they've chosen the wrong one, “the other one” is close at hand.
• Apparently, the Babylon pylon is an Abyssal cult. They are trying to breach “the vault of heaven” and allow Her out into the world.
• Heroditas may be the one who revealed the Seer pylon in Portland, so that all attention would be diverted there and her pylon could work its ritual unmolested.
• The Proximi families of Astoria are here because of Her. According to Heroditas, they've been gathering around Her for generations.
• After they returned to their sanctum, Heroditas is concerned that the ritual was ruined without a sacrifice. Amenhotep isn't so sure. He says it was more like they opened a cage and let something out.
• Vellamo agrees. She says the fallen world wanted what she was doing. Heroditas says that the Eleventh Seal is inextricably linked with the fallen world.
• None of us can read the creepy writing in the basement, so we take pictures and video to send to some of Autumn's contacts. Autumn can tell that it's a varian of Atlantean.
• Autumn calls his primary Mysterium contact and fills him in on everything we've learned about the Babylon pylon and their weird ritual.
• Minutes later, we get a call telling us that Autumn's contact is one of the Seer agents who was exposed in Portland. D'oh.
• But it may work to our advantage, as the Seers aren't going to be any happier with what the Babylon pylon has been up to than we are.
• The Guardians send the Infirmerer and the Circuitor out to help Serafina with damage control.
• Autumn gets a call from Hypatia and tells her everything he accidentally told the Seer agent. She tells him that Seers refer to the Exarchs as the Ten Seals. The Eleventh Seal is a supposed Exarch that is a personification of the Abyss.
• Issa and Malachite team up to cast a ward on Qurbani's place.
• Serafina meets up with the Infirmerer and the Circuitor. The Circuitor gets busy planting evidence of a chemical spill to explain the mass “hallucinations.” Serafina and the Infirmerer go out to the local hospitals to edit a few memories.
• At the hospital, they run into Ophelia, who is followed by several members of Astoria's major families.
• Ophelia is clearly not acting like herself. Weirdly, everyone around acts like they know her and are thrilled to see her.
• When Serafina points Ophelia out to the Infirmerer, he doesn't seem to see her. Then he doesn't seem to hear what Serafina is saying. Before long, he doesn't register Serafina at all.
• Serafina starts following Ophelia and her entourage. She contacts the Abbot about the Infirmerer's strange behavior. Then she calls the rest of the cabal.
• Autumn stays behind to do some research.
• The rest of us drive to the address Serafina gives us. It's a really nice house that belongs to a member of the Warren family.
• On the way, Issa scries on Ophelia. She looks right at the scrying window, aware of it even though it's one of Issa's attainments.
• We walk into the house. Someone rushes out, to stop us apparently. But when he sees us, he becomes immediately ingratiating, much like how he acts around Ophelia.
• When Rasayana tries to hug her, she rebuffs him. Issa demands to know who she is. She seems surprised but pleased that it's so obvious she's not really Ophelia.
• Ophelia became the sacrifice when she came back from the brink of death after nearly drowning. But she is still in there somewhere.
• To Malachite's Prime sight, Abphelia appears deeply disturbing, much like the writing we found at the Babylon pylon's sanctum. There is a void in her, an insatiable hunger. But he also feels an affinity toward her, on some strange level.
• As we talk to her, she tells us pretty much everything we want to know. She is completely unafraid of us. She even thanks us for helping her cross over.
• She's been influencing Astoria for ages, through the Hallow at the Regina.
• She is a personification of the Abyss. She says that she is “what is not.” Eventually, she will unmake the world.
• No Awakened soul can perceive her. Or us, because we have mana from the Regina within us. As long as we have it, we can see her.
• After some experimentation, we learn that transferring Regina-tainted mana isn't enough to make a mage aware of us or Abphelia. It only works on mages who have performed the oblation at the Regina.
• Which means our sole potential ally is Auctorita.
• Issa goes to recruit his grandmother by spiking her tea with tass from the Regina.
• Rasayana tries to cast a Fate spell to free Ophelia. Even though he succeeds, it backfires horribly. He gains a derangement and has a temporary meltdown, offering Abphelia anything if she'll give Ophelia back to him.
• Malachite' socks him in the jaw and gets him the hell out of there. Abphelia looks a little titillated at the display of violence.