Session 24

← Session 23 | Session 25 →

Nyx reconciles herself with existence; the party kills a mob boss and is saved from fighting a member of the Heavenly Host.

## Characters

* The Party
* Naberius MacLaughagan
* Na'arisiel
* Pax Furyk
* Kitty and Silas Vance
* Tressa Gillespie
* 0-771534
* Morena Adams
* Hollis Tucker

## Summary

Nyx has been drifting in and out of a state resembling consciousness, and in mostly-numb massive amounts of pain. At one point, MacLaughagan visits, and eases some of her pain, regretting that he can't do more. He muses something about the void and the demiurge in the same mortal form, before leaving, when Nyx drifts away from lucidity.

#### **Stresspaghetti and Meatballs**

The party, save Nyx, is generally anxious for the next few days. Sam essentially lives at Asa's apartment, and does lots of stress-cooking. He texts MacLaughagan one evening, asking after contact information of the demon's friends from the Gala, but learns they tend to stay out of things, and are invested in the demon's plots but typically uninvolved. Asa visits COAST in search of Arlo, but doesn't find him. Asa texts him instead, letting him know Asa might need help with some murder soon. Asa is also spending more time on the streets, going after upyr.

Kuno retreats into his apartment, and the party doesn't hear from him. They receive food deliveries every so often, but don't see him. One morning, Kuno wakes up to find the homeless man he took in is making breakfast. This is a stressful affair, since he is blind, and can only find pans by feeling for them, but it's a good breakfast. Kuno makes sure the ex-homeless man has some of the food, and bandages his burned hands.

#### **How to Train your Upyr**

##### **Tuesday, March 10th, 543:**

Nyx wakes up properly, tied to a support post in an abandoned storage unit. Pax provides her with some of Deveraux's not-quite-water, which feels like drinking liquid fire, but sates her hunger. He unties her, and offers her immolation, which she refuses. Pax explains the basics of being a upyr, preempting Nyx's questions: most anything sentient is good food, save anything affected by the same hunger--namely, werewolves and other upyr; that people with enough energy spare to do magic make a more tempting meal; and to eat before getting into any situation expected to be dangerous. He recommends not being anywhere near people while asleep for the first year or so, unless they can safely end up a meal. Nyx asks after the best ways to feed, and Pax offers her rations of Devereaux's soul water, which he liberated from the lab, but mentions COAST operatives make good meals if they've been provoked. He tells Nyx the turning bite doesn't heal, so she should keep it bandaged and uninfected.

#### **Congratulations, It's a Upyr!**

With Nyx mostly functional again, the two head to Asa's apartment. Sam and Asa answer the door, and let Nyx in. She looks rough, but far better than she might have, given the circumstances. Pax doesn't stick around, staying just long enough to give Nyx a thermos of soul water and threaten her against talking about his past before leaving. The party convenes at Asa's apartment.

Nyx is about as well as can be expected, and relays what she learned from Pax. She mentions she saw his memories, which the party prevents her from elaborating on, as well as MacLaughagan's presence. Being around living people is distracting for her, both because she's hungry and because of her newfound awareness of everyone's location in space. The party decides Nyx shouldn't go anywhere unaccompanied in the near future, so Asa and Sam end up her chaperones. Nyx lays out the plan for if she ever starts trying to eat the party, which is to try and provide her with the soul water or a different meal, but if neither of those options work, to torch her.

She decides to tell the Vances she's a upyr, and while Sam argues he doesn't talk her out of it. Sam and Asa accompany Nyx to the Vances' store, with Sam going ahead to try and break the news gently--though there's no real way to manage that. Nyx doesn't do a particularly good job of reassuring the Vances, who appreciate being told but are very shaken.

Nyx starts working on getting an apartment of her own, but that's a process that takes time, so she commandeers Asa's apartment, with Asa staying with Kuno for the time being.

#### **We're Going on a Wild Werewolf Hunt**

In the evening, Kuno gets an email from Tressa that the meeting is tomorrow evening at 7, with the address of a building on the edge of the business district. The party reconvenes at Asa's apartment the next morning to work on a plan. They toy with the idea of Asa sniping Morena from a nearby building, but that eventually gets discarded. Kuno contacts Ollie to see if he can help them with surveillance, but Ollie isn't willing to put the revolutionaries in danger to help kill Morena, which Kuno understands and supports. The party decides to break into the building and look for the meeting, while being prepared to fight werewolves, and hope nothing goes terribly wrong.

#### **Let's Split Up, Gang!**

##### **Wednesday, March 10th, 543:**

They arrive at about 7, in a back alley, and Kuno looks around. He finds a fire escape and the front door, as well as four guards on patrol, mainly around the front of the building but not exclusively. He opens the fire escape door and fools the alarm system, but a guard notices them. Sam and Asa go after the guard, with Kuno tossing Sam his taser, while the rest of the party heads into the building.

Sam manages to choke out the guard, but when Asa goes to slit his throat, the guard shifts. Sam and Asa find themselves facing down a twisted and distorted werewolf, with bulging eyes and jutting shards of bone. Asa has too many close calls for comfort, and ends up with a growing horror about the effects of krov, and what they could mean. Eventually, with the werewolf bleeding from sundry stab wounds inflicted by Asa, Sam panics, punching the wolf in the face. Its eye shatters, and the wolf falls. The two drag the wolf's corpse to a nearby dumpster, and head into the building.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party finds the building dark and empty. They are debating where to head next when footsteps descend the stairs, and they have to dive for hiding spots. They don't manage to do this quietly, and the footsteps head for them. Nyx pops out of her hiding spot, teetering on the edge of shifting, but manages to paralyze the guard. Kuno handcuffs and gags him, before knocking him over the head with an office chair, leaving him dazed and on the floor. This is too much for Nyx, who shifts fully, and lunges for the bound and dazed guard on the floor. Sam and Asa catch up with the party just in time to see the situation, before everyone sprints up the stairs to get away from Nyx.

The stairs lead to a hallway on the fourth floor, and one of the doors off the hallway is guarded by two figures. When the party leaves the stairwell, one of them goes for a radio, but Sam grabs them and chokes them out. The rest of the party scuffles with the other guard, who managed to daze Kuno, until Sam is free to grab them and knock them out too. Kuno goes to pick the lock on the door, which Asa just kicks in, revealing Tressa, who was just about to open the door.

Downstairs, Nyx is back to sentient, though still shifted, and covered in blood. She is hunkered down in a corner, while a horde of wolves responds to an apparent all-hands call on the upper floors. She follows behind, blending in with the crowd.

#### **A Meeting Room Gets a Nice New Coat of Red Pant**

Upstairs, Tressa gestures to the open secret door in the room. When everyone is inside, she closes the door to the room and shoves a chair under it, before ushering the party through the escape door, which they close behind them. The door leads down a long staircase to a hallway that ends in a door, which Sam kicks in.

The pack Nyx is following reaches the fourth floor, and breaks down the mostly-shattered door. They pile into the room, which makes it difficult for Nyx to tell exactly what is happening, until a figure gets thrown from the center of the pileup. The swarm backs away from Tressa, who shifts. Her werewolf form is massive, as tall as the room, and distorted from the effects of upyr blood--four sets of eyes top a skull that ends in a gaping maw framed by several other mouths, all bearing the same suture marks as Tressa's human form. Spikes of bone jut at all angles. Tressa punctuates her transformation with an ear-piercing screech, and most of the wolves in the room turn to run. A few shift and charge her, leaving the room a mess of claws, teeth, and blood that Nyx can only watch.

#### 🔫 **NO MONOLOGUING**

The door Sam kicked down leads into an alley. Paper is strewn through it, from an unzipped file carrier. Morena is standing at the end of the alley, smoking a cigarette, with a gun pointed at the party. She has just enough time to ask who put the party up to this before Asa shoots her in the head, and she falls, dead. Kuno gathers up the papers, and the party heads back to the alley they started in.

Eventually, the brawl dies down, and Nyx enters the room. She finds Tressa buttoning up her lab coat, battered and completely drenched in blood. The two of them head downstairs, with Nyx directing them out the fire escape, where they meet up with the rest of the party. Asa heals Tressa, so she is covered in less of her own blood. Kuno tells Tressa that Morena is dead in an alley, and Tressa goes to see the body. Meanwhile, the party takes some time to recover, and Colby heals Sam.

The party walks Tressa back to the block near the wolves' apartment, and ask her to let them know Jamie's thoughts on the night's events. After dropping Tressa off, they head back to their respective apartments, and have a well-earned rest.

#### **Traffic Advisory: Giant Laser God-Deer on Southbound I-5**

##### **Friday, March 12th, 543:**

A few days later, Kuno starts thinking about asking Hollis about the man he's been looking after. He finds out Sam can get within the same room as the man without too many of the signature effects of bad vibes block, though being within a foot or so isn't comfortable. Sam invites Colby on the visit to Hollis's apartment, and Asa ends up coming along too, though Nyx isn't invited. Sam, Colby, and Asa lead the way, Kuno following behind with the blind man.

   As the party gets closer to Hollis's apartment, the world gets darker, in a way that doesn't track for the time of day. Right by the building, the light level is very dim--and the path is blocked by a four-story-tall quadrupedal entity. Lightning starts harmlessly writhing over Colby's form, and Sam feels vaguely sick.

Kuno pulls the blind man into an alley, out of the way. He is on his way to join the rest of the party when the blind man says the current date and time, something about a Power attacking interlopers, and asks, "are you there?" Kuno grabs the man's arm, and the man says they don't have much time.

Colby, Sam, and Asa are facing down the creature when a ragged orb shoots from the area around its head, quickly followed by a beam of white-hot light. Everyone dives out of the way, but Asa is grazed by the beam. His clothes are unharmed, but there is a perfect hole in his flesh in the shape of the light.

Undeterred, the three attack the creature, though Asa is hit square-on with another beam of light and knocked to the pavement. Sam ends up with Asa's dropped gun, after flinging his knife at the creature, looking for weak spots--but not really finding any. The creature pins Sam to the ground with one of its needle-sharp feet, but Colby manages to help Sam out of the way of another laser. Colby ends up pinned soon after, and Sam is facing down the tracing orb of another beam--when he is pushed out of the way.

#### **Hollis Played Too Much BotW as a Kid**

Hollis is standing in the street, looking more put-together than the party has seen him, holding a takeout cup of coffee and staring down the creature. He summons a sword from the ether, and throws it into the sky, severing the cables tethering the creature to the heavens. The thing collapses like a puppet with its strings cut, rusting away as it clatters to the ground. With the creature fallen, Hollis heads into his apartment building, leaving the party in the street.

`"the amalgam cannot be allowed to come to fruition.`

`find the catalyst.`

`destroy it.`

`this timeline must be preserved.`

`find the catalyst.`

`i can't know when it is.`

`i can't know when lots of things are.`

`i won't be able to maintain this much longer.`

`but thank you.`

`it really does make this easier.`

`having someone. . ."`

 Meanwhile, in the alley, Kuno is listening intently to the blind man, taking down what he has to say. The blind man says to stop the amalgam by destroying the catalyst, because this timeline needs to be preserved. He thanks Kuno, saying that having someone around makes this more bearable, before cutting off in the middle of a sentence, returning to muttering dates and events to himself.

Kuno emerges from the alley, leading the blind man, to see the destroyed creature. He joins the rest of the party in following Hollis into the building.

#### **Experts Agree: Goo-Producing Man who Sees All Time is Spooky**

When the party gets to Hollis's apartment, they convince him to let them in. Hollis resolutely does dishes as the party files in, not looking at them. Sam asks after the thing on the street, as well as if he knows anything about the man they brought with them. Hollis, still doing dishes, explains the creature was a Holy Power, one rank above archangel in the hierarchy of the Host, and not much more than a security guard. When Kuno asks about the man they brought, Hollis finally turns around from doing dishes--and as soon as he sees the blind man, drops the glass he's holding.

Hollis crosses the room to the blind man, and wipes some of the goo from his face, looking scared. Kuno explains that the blind man is seeing all of time at once, and mentions what he said in the alley about the amalgam. Hollis tells the party they ought to sit down, and puts the kettle on to make tea. Everyone takes a seat, and Sam closes the door to the apartment.

After the party convinces him they're not willing to leave this alone, Hollis explains what he knows. The blind man is a seraphim, the highest rank in the Host's hierarchy and just below God. Angels and archangels are Prime Plane creatures, and anything higher is part of the Host. Seeing possibilities is holy magic, which is a sure sign of the blind man's nature. Hollis interjects that they know an angel, so he thought they had some idea of this, which the party realizes is referring to Nyx. He has heard the terms amalgam and catalyst before, but didn't get further than knowing they're dangerous before everyone died. The Power was after the party because they made the mistake of knowing the seraphim and Hollis at the same time, and now they've killed it, they've established themselves as a threat.

Hollis offers to keep the seraphim at his apartment and run Host interference, which Kuno agrees to, and the party leaves to think about everything they learned.

## Quotes

**Kellen:** “Your existence in this space is fickle, and the rules don’t apply.”

**MacLaughagan:** “Well best of luck, darling, I’m rooting for you.”

**James:** “Kuno’s kind of pulling a Sam and being sad in his apartment.”

**Pax:** “Well at any rate welcome to living hell. I offer my sincere condolences, and also don’t.”

**Nyx:** “If I step outta line, just fucking burn me.” | **Asa:** “You betcha.”

**Abby:** “What can go wrong—oh, shit.”

**Parker:** “Gonna go squint at a building, like we always do.”

**Kai:** “We’ve never ever once in our lives had a good option.”

**Kellen:** “You have a big butch to defend when in people form, and a big butch to defend when in wolf form. It delights me.”

**Parker:** “Can I try to shoot my boss, I guess?”

**Hollis:** "So am I signing your death sentences?"

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