Episode Ten: Frontal Assault

Session One (10.15.11)

• Issa and Serafina run toward the sanctum. Issa is able to get a message to Rasayana about the invasion.
• Malachite activates the teleportation items for himself, Autumn, and Mitchell. Rasayana stays behind with Red Eyes, to see if he can recruit her to help up against the Seers.
• Malachite, Issa, Serafina, Autumn, and Mitchell meet up in the hallway just outside the sanctum. They are confronted by the Seer Amenhotep, who casts a Time spell which causes all but Autumn to be shunted a few seconds into the future.
• Autumn hits Amenhotep with Death magic, and Amenhotep attacks him with a knife.
• Amenhotep tells Autumn that we should leave. He says they'll give our Hallow back when they're done. He doesn't say exactly what they're up to.
• Rasayana convinces Red Eyes to come back to the Regina with him. He casts a spell to get them there faster.
• Autumn takes another shot at Amenhotep just before Serafina reappears. Amenhotep promptly disappears.
• Autumn runs up the stairs to the Hallow. He can see Yama through the open doorway. Behind him, someone is chanting, casting a spell over Qurbani. Serafina is right on Autumn's heels.
• There's a magical effect shielding the Seers that contains both Death and Spirit magic. Serafina uses her imbued axe to try and dispel it, but she is only able to weaken it.
• Behind the shield, Yama heals Amenhotep. Dammit.
• Issa and Malachite pop back into the timestream.
• Rasayana--still en route--realizes that the cops are also on their way to the hotel.
• Issa and Malachite run up the stairs to join Serafina and Autumn.
• Vellamo is still chanting over Qurbani, who starts thrashing violently.
• Serafina reaches up the Watchtower and attempts to trigger Vellamo's lizard brain, but the effect can't get through the shield. It does, however, weaken the shield further.
• Yama tells Vellamo that we are about to break through. Vellamo says it doesn't matter, because they are almost done. Her eyes are a hideous solid black. She reaches over and pulls Qurbani toward her, then raises a sacrificial knife over Qurbani's bound form.
• Amenhotep says he'll try to buy Vellamo some time and starts to cast another Time effect on us. Malachite unsuccessfully attempts to counter.
• Qurbani shouts, "Kill me!" Autumn uses Death magic to grant her request.
• Malachite and Serafina are able to resist Amenhotep's Time spell. Malachite tears down what's left of Yama's ward.
• Serafina smacks Vellamo in the head with one of her throwing hatchets.
• Vellamo is pissed about Qurbani's death and the hatchet thing. She throws lightning at us. Ow. Then she and the other Seers leave.
• Rasayana arrives just ahead of the police. When he sees Qurbani dead, he reaches up the Watchtower and casts Miracle, bringing her back to life.
• Issa tries to push through the portal that the Seers opened into the Hallow, but it is warded.
• Malachite calls Ophelia to tell her that there are cops on our doorstep.
• Serafina accidentally turns some of the stairs into gasoline while trying to keep the cops from getting to the upper floors.
• We head down to Autumn's room to hide in Twilight via his ghost gate.
• We run around trying to hide any contraband or suspicious items in Twilight before the police get to our rooms.
• Ophelia sweeps in like an avenging angel to challenge the cops. She has the chief of police holding on her cell phone. She plans to sue the police force into oblivion.
• The Seers apparently used Detective Newcomb as a puppet again. He doesn't seem to know why he's at the Regina with a SWAT team. He might just lose his job over this one. We decide not to intervene on his behalf, because if he gets fired, the Seers should have no more use for him. He'd be safe.
• Qurbani plans to leave town and go into hiding. She thinks now that the Seers "truce" with her was simply a means to keep her around. She suspects she was an integral part of whatever they were trying to accomplish in the Hallow.
• Whatever the Seers did has altered our Hallow. It's like a faucet that's been left on. Power is flowing out of it constantly, streaming toward the other Hallows in Astoria. And just to add insult to injury, we can no longer tap it for mana.
• Despite all the hubris getting thrown around, nobody else gained a derangement. Ack!

Session Two (10.22.11)

• We decide to go on the offensive and capture the local Seers.
• Serafina tries to call Stoughton to give him an update on what happened. He is unavailable, having been called to Portland by Agrippa. She can't get in contact with any other members of Stoughton's cabal, either.
• Qurbani turns her Hallow and her library of grimoires over to us. Autumn and Rasayana go to her house to secure them. She also leaves us all the information she's gathered on the Abyssal-related weirdness that's been happening in and around Astoria. While there, they find a spot of blood on the carpet. Using post-cog, Autumn discovers that it belongs to Vellamo.
• Back at the hotel, Rasayana tries to reach some of his Free Council contacts, but he can't get ahold of anyone, either. We are starting to see an unpleasant pattern.
• Autumn is able to get Pan on the phone. Pan agrees to try to find Elidos, who might be able to tell us something about what happened to our Hallow.
• Issa decides to scry for Vellamo and Yama on the move, teleporting to different spots around the world so the Seers can't easily track him back. He can find no trace of Yama.
• Issa is able to find Vellamo. He sees her in a bar on a military base in Warrenton. She meets with a man who is being possessed by Auctorita.
• Auctorita tells Vellamo that the Portland Consilium is in a big meeting today because they believe they have found some of the Seers' operatives. She says that the Bodhisattva Mandate is interested in what the Babylon Pylon (Vellamo's pylon) has been up to, because things are about to get "messy." She tells Vellamo that her pylon should wrap up their "personal business" in preparation for what's coming.
• Auctorita apparently knows that Issa is spying on them, but strangely does not warn Vellamo.
• Issa tracks Vellamo to a heavily warded building in Warrenton. He cannot scry on her once she enters. When he tries to break through the ward, he senses something crawling and unholy about it. He knows that trying to scry on the building again is to risk madness.
• Issa reads the ward and finds that it protects against Space, Prime, Matter, Forces, and Spirit.
• Autumn discovers that casting even covert magic in our Hallow now draws some attention from the Abyss.
• There's a lot of arguing over tactics: whether to gather intelligence first or attack immediately; whether to ask Aquinas for help or leave him out of it; whether to include Mitchell in our plans.
• Autumn does a divination and discovers that the Seers are going to attack us between 8 and 10 hours from now.
• Serafina transforms into a crow and flies off to do some recon on the Seers sanctuary.
• Malachite suggests that Issa test the Seers' ward against physical objects, to see if we could just drop some grenades on them. Issa tries a rock, a paper clip, and a bullet. They all pass through the ward.
• Serafina tests the limits of the ward in Shadow. She is able to pass through. She starts casting Spirit Road to try to breach the Seers' ward from Shadow.
• We make sure all of our friends and family are well away from the hotel. Malachite asks Ophelia to come up with a good excuse for Danny to stay away. She tells Danny that she wants him to taste test a bunch of liquors she bought for a wealthy client. He's thrilled.
• Malachite makes sure there are wills on file for him and Issa to provide for Tanya, Danny, and Jelani in case they buy it.
• Autumn goes to talk to Mitchell about what we're doing and whether he should join in.
• Issa casts Co-location to see if he can simply walk through the ward. He can't, but he leaves one of his signature horseshoes inside the ward before he leaves. He uses that intimate connection to attack the ward.
• Unfortunately, this draws the Seers' attention. They take Issa's horseshoe to use against him. They steal our idea and drop a grenade into his lap. He is able to teleport away before it explodes.
• The Seers reopen their portal into our Hallow and cause all the light on the second and first floors to turn into fire. Malachite and Rasayana are the only ones home. They are blown out the windows. Ow. Again.