Chapter 3: The MIB began by performing some negotiations with Davey Jones. Davey didn't trust the cabal for some reason, but in the end they managed to persuade him to give them some help in finding the current whereabouts of the chair that was taken from the temple. And by persuade, I mean bribe. And it was a good bribe, too: six points of Mana can go for up to $300,000 on the black magic market once it has gone through Davey's resonance-destroying rituals.
Shortly after this meeting, Entomodon returned with a vengeance. As you might expect, someone in headquarters had been tracking the movements and phone calls of the MIB, and this same person apparently sent Entomodon after Charles Bastion. Unfortunately for Mr. Bastion, his naivety about the possibility of his home being attacked led him to keep a nearly undefended home where his wife and young daughter lived with him. To his credit, he managed to pull in outsiders to help him fight off Entomodon when he did arrive, thus avoiding potential embarrassment and political fallout. (Storyteller hint: this attack was as much due to his negligence as it was due to yours; he owes you a favor and he knows it. How much of a favor you are able to extract from him depends on how you push the issue. It's doubtful that he would volunteer to help you out.) Entomodon (and the MIB) were pretty much taken care of by a magical explosion that occurred during the ensuing battle. The mages dismembered the monster and dropped it into the arms of a waiting horror of the unknown in the Shadow Realm. The MIB limped away, trusting their lives to Fate, and as luck (or damnable hubris on the part of Skuld) would have it, help arrived. Sort of. Ian Friendly stole a car and wound up driving to the very shrub behind which our heroes were hiding. After some hilarious and exciting conflict, the MIB drove off with Ian to his cloister. The MIB returned to their only slightly destroyed hotel rooms in Boston, where they met up with Smokey and The Bandit.
Chapter 4:The MIB arrived in Boston, badly burned by Charles Bastion's Paradox Explosion of Doom. They thought to hole up in their hotel rooms, but as luck would have it they were denied that opportunity. The Miser's voice mail indicated that something odd was up at the temple, and the aftereffects of Skuld's romp with Ian seemed to be contagious. As of this time, Skuld seemed to be developing no less than four distinct "moods": cryptic prophet, total spaz, succubus (thanks for that one, Ian), and harrow (possibly in the agricultural sense). Dirty Bill Friendly discovered all of this first-hand.
Casper, a little shocked by the events in Chicago as well as the new-found "friendship" between Skuld and Bill, decided to talk to Ant. For Ant, this kind of crap was just business as usual, so he bullshitted nonchalantly about it with Casper while drinking some nasty beer and watching some nastier movies. This bonding was cut short, however, by the appearance of some magical distortion in the air above Casper. Once Shortcut was no longer too busy to talk with Casper, he found the distortion to be a Scrying window. He traced it back to the group's old friend Jodi Death Mage (not her real name). A meeting was proposed by her, and the party ventured off to nightclub for mature folk located somewhere in Boston (actually Danvers, which may be significant). After some argument, Smokey and Casper went into the club. Skuld rushed in and prevented Casper from meeting Jodi, and Smokey ended up revealing himself to her and suffering some consequences. On the bright side, she revealed part of her hand to the MIB, so everyone knows that she knows about the temple, that she wants access to it, and that she is dabbling in some horrible magicks. See the post following this one for how this conflict could have gone.
Players:
Randy as Casper, the Snake-for-a-Tongue Freak(Thyrsus, Spirit)
Rob as Smokey, the Spy? (Mastigos, Mind)
Darla as Bill Friendly, the Extremely Friendly (Thyrsus, Life)
Thomas as Shortcut, the Portallier (Mastigos, Space)
David as Ant, the Boozer (Obrimos, Forces)
(null) as Skuld, Ms. Crazypants (Arcanthus, Time)
Fallout so far:
Casper learned something about dumping bodies in the Shadow. Or at least he will.
Smokey learned something about revealing himself to Scelesti
Shortcut learned that he can tune out a lot of distractions
Skuld learned that vampires suck.
Rev. Friendly learned that old habits die hard.
Ant learned that sometimes the best solution to a problem is to just ignore it.
Next time: What does that statue have to do with that cathedral? How are the mages in Chicago who control the library related to Whitaker? What's going to happen to all of those artifacts? What will happen to the Colorado sanctum? Just what happened to Kyle, and can it be reversed? What is Skuld babbling about? Where did Major Donner go? What does Charles Bastion think about all of this? What has Jodi been doing, and what does she have planned?
Distant future: What is the significance of the name Donner? What about Skuld, Clotho, or Charles Walker? What happened to the original MK-ULTRA, the probable origin of the MIB urban legend?
What else did your character learn? Post it here!
Experience so far:
Chapter 3:
7 exp (used for anything within reason: three of these are due to game length)
3 arcane exp (used for Gnosis: 1 for each strange occult secret the PCs uncover)
Chapter 4:
7 exp (used for anything within reason: three of these are due to game length)
4 arcane exp (used for Gnosis: 1 for each strange occult secret the PCs uncover)
Bonus exp: up to 5 for a written character history, up to 5 for character pictures or sketches, extras for cool background stories or downtime activities
