No Cocaine in the Bedroom, Please
| No Cocaine in the Bedroom, Please | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Naomi Fisk | Major Corp | ||||||||
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Chameleon Backseat Heart of the Tempest Brine Quoth Mirage Miut Getaway Grackle Asura Doggie Bag Titan Poe No Caller ID Funk |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
Background
Naomi Fisk, after an extended courtship with Chameleon, has agreed to move in with him and, as such, they are throwing a housewarming party.
Act 1: The Party
Session 1
As folks began to filter into the housewarming party for Naomi and Chameleon, good conversation occurs as some of the Haven runners meet each other for the first time and some old friends reconnect. Chameleon's invitation pulls out some of the older crowd of the Haven as well as a small pile of newer runners without much street cred to their name - but willing to use the time and place to network a bit and meet some of their colleagues.
Session 2:
As the party, chatter, and food continue on, a sudden downpour of rain begins. While the Emerald City is always vaguely rainy, this seems sudden and just as equally severe. Broad sheets of rain pelt down on the condo's windows as dark clouds roll in with surprising quickness. There is the vague sense of ear-popping pressure as a massive stormfront rolls in, adding the occasional crack of thunder or brief pelting of hail from the upper atmosphere.
The sudden dimness in the early evening casts a shadow over the condo, as does the sense of foreboding and that comes with it.
A number of the party-goers notice the strange weather and Quoth, in particular, seems to be certain that they saw the walls bleeding for just a moment. Assensing the issue, they realize there is a magical front pushing the suddenly strange and severe storm.
Session 3:
The rolling of the rain over the windowpanes. The sky darkening with deep and foreboding clouds. The beginnings of the thin edge of tension, of adrenaline, of flight-or-fight. After all, this is a house filled with runners - fighters, awakened, killers, and thieves.
With a crack of lightning that rattles the windows, the storm seems to get worse. What was, a few moments ago, merely heavy rain has now become an utter deluge - and with it the near constant pinprick feeling of numinous perception.
The runners begin to understand what is happening - some of them erect mana barriers, some of them rely on their metamagic and protections; a number of them realize that what is occurring is BECAUSE of the storm - a mana storm is rolling over them, throwing off grand swaths of magic. Chameleon realizes that Naomi Fisk is missing as Poe does his diviniation:
His vision flickers in and out, a series of images that linger in his mind a moment. A river, crooked and bending, in an untamed wild frontier. Blood. So much blood, a river of it, running off a tall hill and slowly pouring down into the river. The smell of smoke - woodfires burning, the particular scent of trees and fresh air and grass and campfire stoves. A glint of metal. The sound of something bladed - a knife? An axe? Flying through the air. And then a scream. That might have sounded like Naomi Fisk. Pain, pouring off like rainwater, soaking into the earth to rise again, and then come pouring down in vast, wide, sheets of rain
And then the storm begins to land in earnest....
Act 2: The Storm Hits
Session 4:
The wave of magic that rolls over the small condo is almost tangible, even to non-awakened. The only one spared from that overwhelming sense of vertigo and distortion is likely to be Getaway, thanks to his drone body, but that only means he gets to play witness to everyone else swaying under the utter deluge of magical power.
Some fall, collapsing under the weight of it. Some stand, bracing themselves against the tide of magic like a child standing in the surf.
Their visions grow hazy, the magical effects of the storm buffeting the condo with multihued energies. And when it clears... it takes them a moment to realize what they are seeing.
The inside of the condo is gone, replaced by natural woods and a stone fireplace. Light streams in from through single pane windows and the sounds of woods and birdsong can be heard outside. A stone fireplace sits in the center of the room near freshly chopped wood.
As their mind begins to register that strangeness, they realize that everyone else in the room is likewise affected...
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Having found themselves in a magical version of Seattle, 1871, the group begins searching for the missing Naomi Fisk. After some time sorting out the strangeness of their new appearences, the runners begin exporing the confines of this particular set of strangeness. Backseat, for example, realizes that under the context of the alchera, things will be "real" here. This is no mere illusion.
They learn that Seattle of 1871 is a quickly growing and spreading town. There is a sort of hustle and bustle with that sense of a quickly blooming frontier town. While Chameleon's "house" is on the outskirts, there is a largish business district and residental one.
Guided by Poe's vision, Chameleon learns that south of where they are now - more or less where Bellvue should be - there is a bend in the river that coincides with the vision. That bend occurs in what would eventually be called the Puyallup district.
Session 5:
As the group makes their way into town, they are greeted by the various townsfolk in a relatively cordial fashion. Beyond the 'cover' that the Alchera has provided them, the people within it seem to treat them as if they are expected people among town, have lived there forever, etc. Even any sort of incidence of oddness, such as the talking bird, seems to get glossed over in a sort of "Oh how precious, you taught that bird to talk!" sort of way. The relatively odd height of some of the runners doesn't even seem to register, even as they have to hunch to enter doorways of buildings, prompting responses like "well they grow 'em tall where ya'll from" and similar.
The town is laid out before you - For what amounts to a frontier town, it has become more or less a frontier city, taking over most of what would in the future be the Downtown and Bellevue districts. The other districts - what would eventually be Everett, Snohomish, Redmond, Puyallup, etc. are all more or less untamed wilds. The city is clearly in the process of expansion, pushing outwards at a breakneck pace, as can be seen from new construction on the outskirts of town.