M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 31

So it was decided that we’d go in and try to negotiate with Donnie to keep the war from ever happening.  At first, it went about as well as could be expected.  Which is to say it was doomed to failure almost from the get go.  Surprise surprise, he wasn’t all that happy that Claire wanted to come in with the “Honor Guard” that Goras provided us.  Why she even thought they’d be a good idea in the first place I have no idea.  But since I didn’t want to deal with whatever no-doubt scathing response she’d give me if I asked I didn’t even bother.

And matters weren’t helped any by how incredibly jaded Donnie seems to have become.  He knows it’s only divine interference that has him in love with Harmonia, and that fate’s headed towards another Trojan War.  But he just doesn’t care.  Apparently he’s content not to bother fighting fate and to let the Dodekatheon reap what they’ve sown with their petty infighting.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly content to let the Dodekatheon screw themselves over.  But it looks like this war’s going to do much more than just that, which is why I’d rather see it stopped.

Of course, that’s unlikely to happen.  Donnie pointed out that Goras wants war, and it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment.  Why else would some Greek and Sicilian General care so much about a little army being raised in Turkey?  I doubt he gives two fucks over Nikolas losing his betrothed.  And why snatch him away from us in Delphi if not to try and ensure that this war would go forward?  Now I won’t pretend I can read the man like a book, but I’m not stupid either.  He’s a general with bigger plans, that much is easy to see.  And what’s caused the rise of virtually every famous general whose name has lasted through myths or history books?  Yeah, military victory and/or conquest.  That’s why he’s doing this, for glory and to further his own ends.  Donnie and Harmonia might not be helping matters much, but they’re still victims of a sort in all this.  At least they’re not trying to become war profiteers on a divine scale.

And yeah, I might be being a bit harsh where he’s concerned.  But there’s reason for that.  As soon as we left the museum where we’d met Donnie and Harmonia it blew up.  Well, there was an explosion inside of it, at least.  There was hardly any damage at all to anything outside of its walls.  I went back in to check the place out on my own, just in case there were any fires raging or floors ready to collapse.  Such things are mere inconveniences to me, after all.

It wasn’t hard to tell how it was set up.  Three blasts, directed towards where Donnie and Harmonia had been.  If anyone had had any shred of doubt that it was an assassination attempt that would’ve removed it.  And I’ll wager that Goras used the meeting as cover for setting it all up.  It’s hardly as though his previous actions paint him as all that trustworthy of a figure.

Harmonia was the only person I could find in the blast zone.  She was bruised, battered, and the blast seemed to have messed up her balance and inner ear.  But she didn’t seem to have any serious injuries.  So there’s that, at least.  Donnie was able to catch wind of the bombs before they blew up, apparently.  He shoved her under a bench to shelter her from the blast then flew up to try to avoid it himself, isn’t strong enough to bear their combined weight aloft.

So I lifted her out of there.  What to do next, though, is a good question.  I put my chances of being able to track someone through the skies somewhere between slim and none, so I doubt I’ll be able to find Donnie.  With at least one aspiring assassin loose in the city it’s obviously not safe to drop her off on her own anywhere, and I sure as hell have no plans to bring her anywhere near any of Goras’s soldiers.

By the gnawed roots of Yggsdragsil, this is very quickly becoming a rather spectacular mess…

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Downtime 5

As I suspected she would be, Freyja was plenty willing to let me train at Idavoll.  So that’s how I spent my days for almost a month, learning the art of war firsthand from the finest warriors the Valkyries could find over the course of thousands of years.  With my memory I soaked it all up, tactics for every occasion imaginable.  I know the war’s coming, I can feel it.  And I’ll be ready.

Freyja herself was present for a lot of it.  Not fighting herself but…watching.  Watching me, particularly, it seemed.   Which was certainly flattering.  I mean, there’s not really any debate that she’s the most beautiful woman in Asgard.  You could probably make the argument that she’s the most beautiful of all the Goddesses (though I’m sure that would be a very long argument I wouldn’t want much of a part of).  So having her ogle me?  Yeah, that’s definitely flattering.

Eventually I made the offhand remark that with as much as she was watching me I should get a show too.  I wasn’t expecting her to actually give me one back in Sessrumnir that night.  Or that it’d end up being the first night I’d spend in her bed.  It was…cathartic.  I mean, I know it’s probably not the start of anything serious.  I’ve heard the myths of how she got the Brising necklace too; and there’s a rather large gap between us in terms of status, prestige, and power.

But still, I grew up alone for all intents and purposes.  It’s not hard to see that Claire doesn’t like me; I don’t think Cindy’s particularly fond of me either, and things with Ken certainly blew up.  I’d thought, originally, that Asgard was a place where I’d be accepted.  But it’s plain to see that most of the Æsir hold my lineage against me.  I’m tolerated there, no more, and there’s disdain in the eyes of most of the gods here when they look at me.  But not in hers.  Which is why, even if it is “just” sex, well…acceptance has never been an easy thing for me to find.

Though those two activities didn’t quite demand all of my time.  I also spent a fair bit of it editing together all the footage I shot with my Einherjar before going to that rather ill-fated wedding party.  And this one’s going to be good, I can feel it.  Part of it’s just my divine capabilities, sure.  But I also just understand how to put documentaries together better now too.  But yeah, I can’t wait until I have this one ready to be released.  Because it’s going to be something special.

There was one other thing of note I did, easily the least fruitful.  I swung by Manannan Mac Lir’s manor briefly.  Since none of the Æsir can figure out what’s going on with Helheim I wanted to ask him if he had any idea.  He’s a death god, and a psychopomp, so he seemed to be as good a person to ask as any.  But he didn’t have any answers for me…or desire to even field my questions it seemed.  He seemed different, really.  I don’t know, I’m not exactly great at reading people.  But he seemed different; from how he was when I met him earlier, from everything Ken or Claire have ever said about him, and from any myth I’ve ever heard about him.  It’s as if `He suddenly doesn’t want to help anyone, or he’s become apathetic, or something.  I don’t know, I guess I’ll have to mention it to either Ken or Claire.  Though I suspect we’re going to have far larger worries on our hands…

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 30

So the crow that’s been riding around on Claire’s shoulder (and that gave the prophecy I’ve mentioned) is one of the aspects of the Morrigan.  Don’t ask me how many of them there are, I don’t know.  And, unsurprisingly, the Morrigan’s prophecy included a price that Claire had to pay.  A human sacrifice, to be exact.  Ken was used to seeing her mother accept sacrifices I’m sure, Claire didn’t bat an eye either, if Andrew had any strong reaction to it he didn’t show it, Cindy and I both found it a bit tasteful but didn’t protest, Lexi…did not think very highly of it at all.

Which lead to her bargaining with a second aspect of the Morrigan to try to avert the sacrifice.  And she ultimately ended up sacrificing a toe.  It worries me a bit.  I mean, it’s noble of her to try to protect lives as much as she can.  But…she just about moved heaven and earth to keep us from killing a troll for crying out loud, back in Whittier.  She just doesn’t seem to be able to accept that sometimes people are going to have to die.  And I’m worried about what might come of that.

But that second aspect of the Morrigan did also mention a white elephant that she was trying to get rid of.  Apparently Rhia gave it to much attention, or something.  Anyway, I struck a bargain with her.  In exchange for taking the elephant off her hands she twisted the Geas she put on me so I’m no longer bound to protect Ken.  Looking back, doing that right in front of Ken might not have been the most tactful thing in the world.  But…by the gods I haven’t been able to move past it so easily as she seems to have been able to do.  And being bound to value her safety over everyone else’s doesn’t help matters any.  She ended it; I get to do what I need to in order to move on.

Anyway, while all that was going on we spotted some more of Goras’s soldiers coming in.  At the time we were thankful that they weren’t find us.  Unfortunately, that’s because they weren’t after us.  Instead they left with Nikolas, since he hadn’t followed us to the oracle and all.  Which is just…

The war’s going to happen, I can feel it.  There’ve been people putting it in motion for far longer than we’ve known it was brewing, and they’re still steps ahead of us.  If it was just fate moving the war forward, then maybe.  But as it is I think we’re far too late to be able to stop it.  So I have to prepare for it.

I need to go to Asgard anyway, since Njord agreed to watch over the elephant for me there.  It’s too big for me to bring with me everywhere I go, and I’d rather it not get attacked or hurt in my absence.  So Asgard seems the safest place for it.  And I’d mentioned to Claire that I’d never actually been involved firsthand in military tactics.  With the specter of war coming that’ll have to change in a hurry.  And, well, I talked to Freyja a bit too.  What better place to get a crash course with that kind of thing than the plains of Idavoll?

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 29

It’s as if Greece wanted to use that party as a first impression to make me think it was a nice, pleasant little country…only to destroy the image and make me think the place and those who live there are more and more fucked up with every notable event that happened thereafter.

First there was Eris’s little stunt, then Goras inexplicably trying to keep us from heading to Delphi.  But what we actually saw and learned there?  That takes the cake.  The sights we were greeted with upon arriving there?  They might’ve made my sister blush.  The whole town was a giant, debauched, orgy.  Think of some kink, or sexual taboo, anything at all that might possibly come to your mind.  You could’ve seen it there.

You’re probably wondering how the town came to be in such a state, I sure as hell know I was.  Well…the spoiled, stuck-up, snob of an Oracle (Cassandra, by the way, from Troy) had a friend of hers cause everyone in the city to do it because she wanted a little party in lieu of her goddamn prom.  And she point blank refused to answer any questions at all because we don’t realize how hard it is on the poor little thing.  You know, because I’m having so much “fun” as a Scion according to her.

Almost makes me tempted to show her just what kind of “fun” I have firsthand.  But it’s hardly necessary.  Since it’s only her homeland that’s looking like it might burn while she sits on her ass and hides from what she is.  Because Lexi figured out where Donny and Harmonia went, Hissarlik.  The name probably doesn’t mean much to you, I know.  But you’d recognize what it used to be called.  Basically Donny’s been cast as Paris, and brought Harmonia/Helen back to Troy so we can have a second round of that lovely affair.

And if that’s not bad enough the raven that’s been hanging around Claire gave a prophecy on the matter.  Not only do we have a rather large war on our hands, but from the sound of it said war could very well awake Typhon.  Which is…just wonderful.

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 28

If Goras was foolish enough to think we were sheep to be kept in the city merely by the glowering of his soldiers and the blocking of a simple set of rails he was wrong.  Either he did not know we could travel through the mists, or did not want to risk stopping us.  And if he was aware of the means of travel granted to us by Avalon; he either knew not where we’d use them to go or could not get soldiers there in time.

The others ultimately agreed with my suggestion to take them straight away, so we wasted no time in making our way to the ferry at the shore.  Some of Goras’s men were nearby, I have little doubt some of them saw us.  But there was no move to intercept us.  And soon enough we’d crossed through the mists of Avalon to the ancient isle itself.

Also at my suggestion, Kennedy hid herself from view then scouted the closest place the mists could get us to Delphi.  It was a small town called Itea.  Only three miles closer than where we started, but the three miles were covered almost instantly, with no trail left behind or journey that could easily have been spied upon.  And it had saved us the trouble of going over or around a mountain.

Not that I suspect Goras has been completely foiled so simply.  He knew which train to delay, so I do not doubt he knows what city we were journeying to.  And it takes no great leap of logic to determine why a group of seven Scions, three of them with Dodekatheon ichor running through the veins, would venture to Delphi.  If he is truly bent on stopping us the knowledge of our destination is enough to give him more opportunities to do so.

But for now we are out from under his eye.  Which, as I’m sure he’ll find out, will make stopping us quite a bit more difficult.