The Story So Far

Being a brief and inadequate listing of the various adventures and escapades performed by the player characters.

Table of Contents

Personal Perspectives

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Notable Events

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YEAR 1


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Chapter 1.1: The Murder Tree

In which an unlikely group of people meet due to a common haunting of a poor murdered girl, where various investigative efforts reveal a dark secret buried in a past and a tree as malicious as any human criminal.

Chapter 1.2: Damn, they took my kidney

In which a man accustomed to using others finds himself deprived of a bodily organ, and so resorts to the only people he can count as friends and confidantes in a world where strange and occult things seem to happen with frightening regularity, and everything from drug-dealing street gangs to immortality-seeking asian alchemists are encountered.

Chapter 1.3: Winter of my Discontent

In which a professor is told that an elderly female relative has slipped into a coma for no apparent reason, and his investigation into the matter reveals strange occult symbols and disturbing people, but which is in the end is promptly ignored, as are all problems with the senior citizens these days.

Chapter 1.4: In Sickness and in Health

In which a wedding is arranged, and a bride-to-be is exchanged at the last moment, causing much anger and confusion, with the result that investigative laymen encounter strange cults devoted to dark gods and monstrous bridesmaids, all of it ending in a fiery inferno of death.

Chapter 1.5: No way out

In which an unfortunate factory accident is suspected to be symptomatic of foul play, and overmuch surfing on the web and unnecessary perusing of libraries ends with a cursory examination of the scene of the tragedy and a revelation of a hidden family, prompting a swift exorcism which had almost lethal results and contained the mysterious appearance of a sleeping participant.

Chapter 1.6: Ancestral voices Prophesying war

In which two friends happen to meet at an airport, experiencing a terrorist raid and the disappearance of a loved one, signalling the beginning of a series of chaotic and highly dangerous set of circumstances including but not limited to battles of magic, snipers, death, martyrdom, the luggage of Amelia Earhart, ancient persons manifesting in silvery light-glints, a man with digital display eyes, a tiger, a cannibal and an unnamed woman, spirits, sentient trams, a noodlepig, a psychic retired reporter, Homeland Security, a true fae on a quest, and scorpions composed of bottlecaps, all of it culminating in……well, we'll have to see, won't we?

Real world Winter holiday

Chapter 1.7: There's no place like home

In which five newly awakened mages are confronted with a strange new world filled with occult conspiracies, secret initiations, false cults, supernatural paraphernalia, worshipers of the Abyss beyond this world, and plumbers, as they enter their magical lives at last and are faced with the difficult choice of which ancient society to throw their lot in with, but also with the much more challenging task of being accepted and learning their lessons in time, before their own desires for a home and the luxuries thereof overwhelm them and a cunning trap set by defeated enemies springs to life and tries to consume them one after the other as a Halfway House shows its true colours at last.

Chapter 1.7 b): House on the Strange

In which three graduated mages set out on a minor errand to prove their worth by solving a case of negative influence on the local ley lines, and so get involved in a sordid affair of betrayal and anger tinged with the bitterest remorse by entering a house where apparently time has stood still for forty years and the scenes of intricate love affairs end in murder time after time despite the fact that few of the people involved are who they seem, and many aren't even people at all, and in the end the process of elimination lands the heroes with the disturbing conclusion that they have no suspects left at all.

Chapter 1.8: You're playing with the Big Boys now

In which our freshly educated mages enter into the magical life by forming a cabal, finding a sanctum and fighting a guardian spirit, and becomes involved in the various goings-on and mysteries permeating their new lifestyles whilst trying to keep up with their mundane existences amidst corvine shapeshifters attempting to steal inexpicably enchanted photographic devices, spirits of darkness requesting assistance with persuading a Duke amongst humans, encountering the psychic manifestation of a University, finally delving into the mystery of the Hillcrest Center for Elderly Living, performing espionage upon the Exarchs and rescuing a mentor from the dastardly kidnappers at Homeland Security, all the while attending their first meetings with the various magely factions and government officials, becoming a part of their extended society.

Chapter 1.8 b): The mind is its own place

In which a prospective Adamantine Arrow-to-be finds himself forced to help in the hunt of a sleeper-scaring, immaterially manifesting entity, alongside a fellow Arrow Trainee of vexing breath of talent, as their little group of searchers trawl from bar to bar and club to club, socializing as they go until they encounter the renegade apparition and trace it back to a lifeless body, and in the end decide to enter his soul in the search for clues and the hope of salvation for the tortured man that he is.

Real world summer holiday

The Way We Were, Part 1: The Spice of Life

Book 1: Condiments & the Treasures of the Lost Stradivarius

In which the cabal reads up on the fantastic adventures of their predecessors within the Sanctum, a hearty cabal of mages in the thirties who whilst in the middle of an auction held at the Tower of London became involved in the violent attempt of theft performed by a band of Jailers of Pentheus in their search for a a rare and defect Stradivarius violin, which the cabal managed to seize for themselves and discover that it was a divining rod towards finding certain hidden treasures up to and including the location of the second Atlantis, which precipitated a new journey southwards to Italy despite demonic interruptions and in the end brought forth a lost manuscript of Shakespeare which was finally performed at the Globe in London where it opened a portal to the Atlantean hell wherein those vile villains were brought down low.

The full recounting of that tale

Book 2: The Condiments & the Prison of Lemuria

In which the condiments begin the story running through the streets of Hong Kong chased by an angry mob of citizens wielding torches and pitchforks, while they themselves are chasing the cabal known as "The Proselytizers of the Empyrean" whose theft of a priceless set of embroidered silk-maps of the Astral from a local shrine and subsequent blaming of the condiments was the reason they were currently chased by the mob in question. While both cabals managed to flee in boats their continued battle caused mutual shipwrecks, and the mages woke up to find themselves washed ashore on the small islands comprising the outer edges of the Prison of Lemuria. The main part of the story is spent meeting the natives and exploring that place, learning of its nature, entering the central temple-like palace, meeting the Rmoahals, solving the puzzles and winning the challenges required to escape, and finally battling Pepe Kramo to make sure it is not freed alongside the mages.

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YEAR 2


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Confession

At this point the ST has problems sorting through his notes in order to figure out which plot whappened when, and what events belonged to one chapter or another. Later on the archiving process got better, but this inbetween time will probably remain uncertain indefinitely. Feel free to add whatever you may remember though, for completeness' sake.

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Chapter 2.1: Mind's been transported back in time. & to Mars.

Full title: Son, your mind has been transported back in time. And to Mars.

  • Cabal goes to Washington D.C, hunts down the Lich known as Succubus, captures her and hands her over to the local Guardians, whereupon cabal raids her sanctum and returns stolen souls to their original owners. The spare one goes to Roskva, who's in a coma due to having lost her own.
  • Skadi encounters Hal in Washington where he's apparently meeting with a senator, at which point he curses her. Later that week, the condom breaks at inopportune moment.
  • Chimera apparently meets with Seers and hands over (???)
  • Cabal tracks him down and incapacitates him
  • Turns out his body had been usurped by someone by switching minds with him
  • Investigations lead into the Astral, through rome to Mars to the martian mindswitch-device used by a Lich to take over Chimera (most likely Lady Mantagia in retaliation for the loss of Succubus), followed by the subsequent demolition of said device
  • Skadi scries on Lady Mantagia, keeping a lookout for wherever she is and whatever she's currently up to, when Lathrop arrives.
  • Lathrop's analysis of the wrench leads to him accidentally being influenced by it, claiming he traveled back in time and changed the outcome of events by his meddling
  • Low-Key has a psychotic break when informed that Lathrop's recent actions are reason his wife died last year, and so attempts to banish him to a different dimension.
  • The resulting portal threatens to cause an incursion of dangerous monsters, so spatial portal is made to shunt them onwards to the castle in Austria where surviving lich expatriates reside.
  • Chaos and snowstorm ensues in castle as anthropomorphic wolf-monster battles Lady Mantagia, whereupon Guardians and Skadi move in to intercept, but both get away
  • Surreptitiously, Skadi steals Gutenberg bible and a silver bowl while there.

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Chapter 2.2: 'Cause I'm leaving on a Jetplane

Various disparate events and developments in their lives begin to put a strain on the various members of the cabal, pressuring them to move away or just leaving the group. Jareth's band is tempted with a record deal necessitating a relocation to New York, Nobel's sister tracks him down after disbelieving the circumstances of his death, while Chimera is granted a promotion and management position…in Tokyo.

Meanwhile they're tasked with having a ritual dagger blessed by five different holy men, which gets them involved in the impossible theft of the Psychopomp's instruction manual from the Archaeomancers' archives. Hermes learns debate techniques from Cicero in Astral Rome, where he is approached by timetravelling victorian psychics from the Glass House, who give him information and comments that set the cabal on a new path, towards lightning striking transformation stations.

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Chapter 2.3: A Plague on Both Your Houses!

Following the leads given by Cahanyx in return for obliterating the electricity support for a third of the city the cabal explore the Winchester Manor, and get hopelessly lost in its labyrinthine halls. Within the trainee-sphinx Skadi encounters the Pythagorean Sphinx residing within the twisted and unnatural geometries of that place, while Chimera is groped by a ghost and collared by Tamas and his zombie maidens. Various other strangeness is witnessed, such as crystalline and/or luminous fruit with similar juice pressed from it, the inexplicable presence of various scrappy children, and an unforeseen visit to the Glass House and closing the circle by meeting and talking with various residents. In the end they find the sanctum-office of a previous awakened inhabitant, and there confront and kill Tamas before seizing the grimoires and writings found and then returning home.

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Chapter 2.4: Oh what a tangled web we weave!

The investigations into the Mission Dolores prompted by new concilium policies suggested by Rui Shi leads to the sanctum of the Paradigm being utterly destroyed and torched. To make amends the Eye of the Storm look into the events, and so encounter Malone in a dark alley, whereupon he throws an 18-wheels trailer over some houses at them. It is eventually revealed that a local Pylon of Seers, occupying the Mission Dolores, is using him in return for granting him a soul, a favour which has disastrous consequences. The PC's save him, and then go after the Seers, who had by that point sensibly evacuated while leaving behind traps and a guard, Aurora.

After defeating her they find the Psychopomp, but little else before the self-destruct enchantments detonate much of the sanctum-chambers there. But as soon as they return home they find themselves accused not only of stealing said item but also of being in league with the Liches, and so have to defend themselves in court. It turns out that the events at the church were deleted by Doomsday Clock methods, which compounds the suspicions against them. Still, manage to have their names cleared, and towards the end learn that Roskva has not only made a full recovery, but awakened as well. Presence of Malone as witness for trial makes various people a little crazy, like giving Nobel fixation. Nobel and Avatar become close as she helps out as Factotum, become a couple.

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Chapter 2.5: More than a thousand words

The birth of C-PAN. Invasion of the True Fae known as Lady Bolevile, now come to abduct Skadi. Showdown, collateral damage, and deal struck to give window of opportunity lasting a year and a day.

Real world summer holiday

Book 3: The Condiments & the Secret of the Second Sphinx

The tale begins with a car chase after the Oriental Express in order to catch up with the thief Prospero, the Seer who had stolen the Dendera Lights from the cabal's friend Professor Olam, and despite his spiritual minions they dispatch the villain in short order. But upon returning home they find the Professor having died a gruesome death, soon revealed to be an ancient curse striking whoever unrightfully claims a specific antique relic….which they learn because Pepper is struck by the same malediction shortly thereafter.

Tracking the history of the relic brings them first to the British Museum from whence it came, and with the help of the Professor's daugter Jane they locate items it was stored alongside which indicate that it originated at the South Pole, or more accurately, Symzonia. It would seem, however, that they have rivals in this quest, as various ghosts are roused at the museum and their Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton is animated to become a zombie-like minion.

In any case the cabal perseveres and immediately organizes a new expedition to the Antarctic, but this time utilizing an aeroplane rather than the ships carrying the previous ones. Through hard work and great dangers they reach the supernatural realm to the south, battling some creatures and befriending others, before reaching the magnetic pole and the anchoring posts there which open up the way to the secret caverns beneath.

Here they find a tropical jungle filled with dinosaurs and other exotic life forms, all frozen solid and perfectly preserved throughout the ages. By following the cobbled road set into the ground they arrive at a gigantic stone Sphinx, identical to the one found in Egypt except that the nose is intact and it faces south rather than east, and the temple-like building resting between its paws. Within are many strange wonders, such as magical devices resembling television screens and typewriting keyboards, or sarcophagus-looking containers of gold and platinum, one of which holds a girl locked in temporal stasis.

At this point their opponents show up and introduce themselves as the Rebuilders of the Ancient World, a group of mystagogues interested in unearthing the secrets of Atlantis itself. They revive the girl and try to retrieve important information from her, such as her name being Princess Denavi, but it is soon revealed that she was frozen in time to prevent a horrible abyssal infection from killing her and destroying anything close by. Many of the Rebuilders die, and the condiments barely manage to escape to the surface while carrying the princess as the cavern beneath collapses in on itself. Having actually been friendly and kind to her, comforting her in her dying moments, the princess grants Pepper her tiara and her last remaining memories of beauty and love before passing away.

Book 4: The Condiments & the Embassy of Cibola

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YEAR 3


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Chapter 3.1: Stolen Hearts

  • Stealing Winston's soulstone, meeting Mr. Saturday while doing so
  • (?Death of Anna the Changeling, reveal of Anna the Fetch?)
  • Cooperation project with Madame Curie gone horribly wrong
  • Doomsday Clock kidnaps Jareth, demands destruction of Clock of Rasputin
  • Go to Oakland, steal clock and various grimoires, go home
  • Clock destruction leads to clockroaches!!!!!!
  • Jareth returns, but in the middle of awakening. It ends badly for everyone

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Chapter 3.2: But Now The Dead Begin to Rise…

  • Trip to Vegas, find Tezcatlipoca, wake him from stasis
  • Nobel suddenly haunted by his mother due to deathquake
  • Investigate her murder, learn that Reich was involved in the affair.
  • Reich killed, apparently by future nobel

Chimera goes missing and the Hierarch becomes worried there is foul play afoot, Dorian arrives in town and in immediately given his wrench by the enigmatic Greymalkin, and so is soon introduced to the Eye of the Storm. Their investigations lead them to an old and foul mansion where the Dread Fellowship of Apep are in the process of resurrecting their leader, Tamas. Having been corrupted into joining their side Chimera ends up killing Malkuth before his life essence is expended to finish the ritual. Then: Lovecraftian monsters and fungus-zombies.

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Chapter 3.3 …and Debts Forgotten Time Collects

  • Trial called based on murder of Malkuth by Chimera, and of Reich by Nobel
  • Envoy-herald from London, Locomotive, stays with the cabal….and is attacked by "future" versions of Nobel, Skadi and Dorian. Its familiar is NOT amused.
  • Dorian offers suitcase of money to Paradigm, can then postcognicate the crime scene
  • Summoning of Gaap, demon of the waters
  • Hermes and Dorian travel to the Glass House, receive a note from the future Hermes (possibly), then travel back in time to Dublin
  • Realize the "future" versions are Seers using Stone Scribe techniques, confront Polydegmon about former apprentice and get her Name from him.
  • Kidnapping/abducting/rescuing Claire/Lethe/Mnemosyne from Seers
  • Showdown with the Elder Sister pylon of Seers, drive them from their sanctum and the city.
  • Concilium meeting in spirit world, at full pomp and ceremony. This is where things (finally) come to trial, and cabal is found (mostly) innocent. Also accused of letting dangerous monster (C-PAN1) loose upon the world. And breaking faith in deal with Curie.
  • The Unknown Expedition cabal is founded.
  • Rakshasi floors her suggestions of mobilizing concilium for war-effort vs seers, but is voted down
  • Polydegmon and Mazda end up challenging each other to duel, as both are fed up with the behavior of the other.
  • Interfector post established
  • Stantz chastised for great crimes
  • Spirit World ambassadors comment on rising threat from Ministry of Mammon
  • Paradigm get permission and funding to go organize a supernal summoning
  • Islington gets access to various restricted and valuable information, both in regards to local earthquake history and antique texts such as the Picatrix.

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Chapter 3.4: Ghastly Grim and Ancient Ravens

Dorian goes rather crazy-paranoid about the ravens. The infection of Halaku is revealed to have usurped Joan of Arc, exploiting her ghost and its powers from their unwholesome nest in the collapsed ruins of the Moth's summer house. Cabal blow it up thoroughly.

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Chapter 3.5: Your Permanent Record

The cabal repays Goat for his past assistance by going to Prague and helping him acquire a very valuable book at an auction there. Involved:

  • The belongings of the very old, very late Theosophist, Mystagogue and Daksha named Preyzl Sarka, known to mages as ''Utnapishtim'', which included such treasures as a garamantean wine amphora, a salt statue, gold treasures of both nazi's and mongols, a glass sword, a sizeable collection of crystal balls, a Solomonic amulet with an Ifrit bound inside, silken robes of various Chinese dynasties and royals, a fake and booby-trapped Da Vinci cryptex, tribal masks from the inception of the Scions of God, a lesser Shatterstar, a collection of antique ritual equipment from venetian occultists, parts of the dead sea scrolls, column pieces from greek temple, a collection of rare minerals and alloys, various paintings and a couple of sets of checkers engraved with atlantean runes so as to be used for omen interpretations.
  • The scandinavian trio of hot blonde chicks, one of which kidnapped Goat and was later defenstrated to death by Nobel
  • Loyalists of Thule who inadvertently released the Plague, and were terrified by Skadi's apparent powers of witchcraft
  • Deals struck with the changeling known as ''Fence'', in which future services were promised, ultimately leading to Germany.
  • Theft of desired books by Mania Purgatorios, the impetuous and temperamental member of the ''Jailers of Pentheus'', with a most exciting car chase to follow. Through the air, even, and including various monsters summoned from other worlds.
  • The night-time burglary and attempted destruction of grimoirs by a Lich, his zombie minion and the famous local ghost of the beheading wife. The defeat of which was aided by a mysterious figure who happened to be nearby.

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Chapter 3.6: As Easy as ABC

When Avatar is ambushed by Seers in the astral who entrap her there to force her cabal to comply with their demands, and this happens to coincide with the strange emanations from the anima mundi manifesting in material reality which Baphomet asks the cabal to look into, the Eye of the Storm soon learn that the final member of the Elder Sister pylon , Sapir-Worf, and the previously encountered Morphean is behind both. Travelling into the Astral Realm the cabal tracks them down with the bus of the English Language, bringing them to the Garden of Alphabeta and its Letterkeeper and pagoda-shrine leading to the Omphalos. In the end their plan is foiled and the cabal escapes with a crystal, a medallion and a Book, all of which returned to the material with them.

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Chapter 3.7: It was in the Bleak December

Rescue of the Archaeomancers from the Temple of Sebek, from Zau

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Chapter 3.8: War of the Words

As a result of the escalating tension between them Polydegmon and Ahura Mazda end up dueling each other to determine the future of local Mysterium politics. While traveling to the traditional arena found within the spirit-court of Mars a sinister and tenebrous entity steals Mazda's soul and tries to get away with it, but is apprehended by the cabal. In the end he ends up winning through underhanded but perfectly legal means, and the cabal finish off the evening by celebrating Dorian's birthday.

Real world summer holiday

Interlude: Fall of the House of Schäfer

Dorian goes to Germany as official Wizard on expedition to lost nazi bunker of occult research. Bad things happen to bad people, then he returns home.

Book 5: The Condiments & the Tablets of the Hieromagus

  • Archaeological dig to find Alalakh, in Turkey
  • Find ancient burial temple of Sin, Tammuz and Lalitha Meddha, ''Slaughterer of Youth''.
  • Battle zombies, blood-drinking revenants and golems fueled by black fire.
  • Partially rouse Lalitha from the slumber of death, accidentally
  • Meet Nazi Seers, Sekhmet and Echo. Help each other out with not dying as everyone flees.
  • Stone tablets and subsequent astronomical calculations lead to Tibet
  • Plane assaulted in midair by masked, spear-carrying native americans and africans, who teleport away the pilot and seek to destroy the vehicle. Crash ensues
  • Befriend Yeti
  • Find ancient entrance, struggle with security features
  • Combat with Rakshasa bound to guard place
  • Find hidden, ruined valley within, then escorted away from there
  • End up in Shamballah, in the Inner Earth apparently, lit by an iron sun. Inadequately so.
  • Meet Kuut Humi, custodian of that place until the Ancient Ones return again
  • Learn that fragment of Arc Spear was stolen, and souls of the witnesses entrapped by Jesuits
  • Escorted through subterranean tunnels to sanctum-base in India
  • Travel to Italy, research Jesuits. Travel to Milan, find Book containing the relevant souls in a collection owned by local fashion designers
  • Steal the Book of Dead Names, Dagger of the Succubus, and the Black Grail.
  • Flee from sabre-toothed bear in italian villa
  • Learn from souls in book that Arc Spear piece taken by Dominican Banishers and brought to secret containment vaults beneath Vatican
  • Break into Vatican, defeat security systems, meet and chat with Seraphiel/Israfel/Raphael, Angel of Ascension
  • Help said angel exact burning vengeance on captors, place catches fire
  • Find Arc Spear fragment. Help Nazis kill themselves with it. Messily
  • Leave, meet up with mask-wearers, learn they're Xoran Fragment, hand over artifact to them

The End

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YEAR 4


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Chapter 4.1: Veni, Vidi, Venice

  • People go to Venice to find the place where Amelia found Dorian's Wrench in 1937
  • Tour around monastery on san lazarro, then sneak back in and break marble floor-tiles to enter catacombs beneath
  • Find final resting-place of expurgiated doge, loot his tomb, do battle with his ghost
  • Hermes wears the Doge Hat, and has his mind re-written to become the douche
  • Get invite to fancy party
  • (div more)

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Chapter 4.2: A Sound of Thunder

  • Apollo shunts Athenaeum into far future
  • Supernal summoning takes place
  • Seers target Dorian's family
  • Archon Caper pulled off
  • Strange weather and odd events loom
  • Bill the Homunculus and summoned angels beset the cabal
  • Two seers, Artemis and Brigid, are sent by Exarchs to make sure Nobel survives the current calamity
  • Showdown at scrapheap with Ananke tagging along
  • Meanwhile, Low-Key attempts to become Archmaster, and vanishes without a trace

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Chapter 4.3: Growing Up, Moving Out

  • Athenaeum maneuvering ensues
  • Libertines seek to fill the apparently vacant council seat
  • Divinations reveal that Free Council will be secede, and then be murdered.
  • Groundhog day, motorcycle through/over glass house, assembly meeting
  • Showdown with Rakshasi

Real world Winter holiday

Chapter 4.4: Caverns Measureless to Man

Book Epilogue: The Condiments & the Wand of Tezcatlipoca

  • Eye of the Storm projects back into previous incarnations with magic, re-living their adventures
  • Condiments travel through time and space, to land in Prague
  • Find their way back to San Fransisco, meet their future selves
  • Political fast ones are pulled
  • MERGE!

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Chapter 4.5: Now Reap the Whirlwind

  • Hermes and Nobel experiment with Shatterstar, Kalakin Engine and Glamour. Hilarity ensues
  • Concilium meeting. The Kindly Ones cabal formed. Eye of the Storm given reparations for Rakshasi's assault on them. Mazda comes clean with Heliopic secrets.

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Chapter 4.6: Body of Knowledge

  • Hermes has issues with family. Family has issues with the law. The two are slightly related
  • Dorian haunts his dad, then gets message about ''Hilbert's Hotel''
  • Nobel meets his sister, figures out something's wrong. Later on, cabal figures out she's probably possessed by a Halaku
  • Attempt to ambush the thing inside Nobel's sister falters, and negotiations break out instead
  • The University-entity is found to be claiming people in attempt to learn about itself and why it's dying
  • Cabal-members break into university to do some research, confront the entity and the headmaster, then molest the Veil. Thoroughly. Then strike a deal.
  • Cabal hand entire affair over to the control of the Silver Ladder, as represented by Sophia

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Chapter 4.7: All the King's Mages and All the King's Men…

For more detailed info on the politics involved, see Convocation
For further detail on the clues and riddles of the Quest, see Trondheim Texts

  • The Convocation of Trondheim is about to begin, and so the cabal joins up with the San Fransisco delegation on this political adventure
  • Following a map found in an ancient ruin in the 1930's lead to a buried stone tablet with a riddle
  • After having merged with their previous selves the PC's begin having odd flashes of memory and dèja vú when sightseeing downtown Trondheim
  • Once the initial meet and greet on the day prior to the convocation opening ceremony is over and done with the cabal checks if their solution to the riddle is correct: They climb the pillar holding the statue marking the town square, which also happens to be the main hallow for the local Concilium. At the top they manage to trigger a well-hidden imbuement, causing another coded riddle to appear as well as a fragment of narrative.
  • The riddle leads to a nearby scientific museum, previously a bank, which they illegally enter in the dead of night. Inside the floor of one of the vaults they find a small chest with a sigil on it, and inside is another riddle and the next part of the narrative
  • They research local history and legends on the bus to their local sleeping accommodations, and next morning explore the Steinvikholm Castle which they believe is the next step. There they find a hidden page from the logbook of the people who tried to smuggle away the coffin of Saint Olav, indicating where their vessel may have sunk
  • Before they can go there the actual Convocation begins, where Hermes as a joke introduces himself as the god-king of Atlantis, but which the universe seems to confirm on his behalf. He then declares himself to be Batman as well. The Ladder spends the rest of the day in private debate, leaving the rest of the visitors to their own devices
  • Skadi 'requisitions'/'appropriates' the camera-phone of the Guy Fawkes Precedent, and learns a lot from the photo's he's taken thus far
  • After some socializing with the other delegates the cabal answers an invitation to go and visit the local Hierarch, Elli. She seems interested in whether or not they're a threat to her tragically flammable city, as well as in Dorian's desire for eternal life. After tempting him with the secret of how to accomplish it she (temporarily) switches her own age for his youth, supposedly as a 'learning experience'.
  • Cabal rents a boat, locates the sunken ship, descend there and search it. Find a coffin full of dried fish, as well as the next riddle and fragment of the narrative. Dorian makes a ghost ship.
  • Also, the three-eyed kraken guarding the place shows up and introduces itself, happy to have new friends to keep it company.
  • Nobel saves everyone, and they sail off in a ghost ship, releasing the crew at the shore so they can finally pass on
  • Troll-poaching investigations and ensuing politics with the Hong Kong delegation who gets blamed for it
  • Munkholmen, ghost with table, Skadi's hanged, the monk ghost, the ancient sarcophagi, the meeting-chambers and old maps
  • Pit of snakes, horde of zombie-guardians, battle, more of city burns
  • Politics happen, Seers declare Nemesis on Nobel, the Shepherds of Night are not declared Left-Handed, world declared to be ending in unacceptable manner, Mazda fails to be kidnapped
  • Next riddle leads to stone circle in forest visited once before,

Real world summer holiday

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YEAR 5


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Chapter 5.1: …Couldn't put Þrúðvangr together again

  • After returning with Thor's Hammer and other treasures, the Convocation continues
  • Negotiations with the Trondheim Concilium & others are held, deals for "loot distribution" struck
  • Get pentacle to oppose invasion of Tibet
  • Dorian makes alliance with Sodality of the Tor to get info from Heliopics
  • Big long-term international project begun to sever links in the Astral between norse culture and nazi ideology
  • Shoal of Night debacle finished, all ''inheritance'' ruled null and void
  • Cabal talks to Ask, expert on Gods of the Outer Void, and so learn certain things
  • Elli invites cabal home for a talk, explaining her reasons & actions, thereafter offering full assistance to Dorian
  • Now that legal problems are solved, Hermes visits the family farm in Ireland
  • Meets Shen Zhou, relieves him of duty & they strike up a Familiar-bond instead
  • Also talks with grandfather, Timothy Sr., whom it turns out is sleewalker (low-powered possibly proximus)
  • Not only had Tim Sr. befriended the fox-spirit, he also had the Hand of Nuada
  • Nobel buys Hand of Nuada from him, for a suitcase of Euros.

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Chapter 5.2: There but for the grace of us

  • Since legalities are now sorted out, cabal returns to New Albion and punches through its wards. Thoroughly
  • Move the contents of Drake's Hoard back to the sanctum
  • Hermes analyzes the Destinies and Fated Ends for the cabal-members; finally detects Rui-Shi's destiny as well.
  • Find a miraculous tree amidst all the gold and jewels, somehow not dead yet, then bring it home to the garden.
  • Realize it's linked to Nobel's Dynasty, the Arbelodivita, and is somehow related to the Tree of Life.
  • Nobel and Skadi analyze the heaps of magic items they've now acquired
  • Hermes begins project to cure cancer
  • Rui-Shi has Goat rouse the spirit of the Green Dragon Crescent Spear
  • Dorian has surprise-surgery to remove Snakeboy from his heart
  • Hermes analyzes the Destiny of the Kalakin Engine
  • As a result, entire cabal is catapulted through time just like when the Condiments were in the same situation
  • Land 25 years into the future, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland
  • Roam the ruins, spot stoning site, "Morlocks", and other monsters
  • Encounter tribe of surviving humans in wilderness outside the remains of the city, led by 'Raham'
  • Nobel offends the Sun, and ensuing parlay has cabal tasked with killing Lilith and/or her spawn
  • Cabal return to city, seek out old Athenaeum, find Basil and resuscitate him
  • Discover Coit Tower has been reduced to a crater of melted rock, but not by Sun-related things
  • Prophecy indicates that way to get back home is to find the USS Eldridge
  • Travel to Alcatraz to set up Time Beacon to draw in ship. Encounter monsters & Lilith there
  • Dorian distracts her while rest summon ship, then board it & escape with Lilith & Basil on board
  • Somehow they avoid getting horribly eaten by the gods of the future

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Chapter 5.3: Tick-tock goes the Calendar (Part I)

  • Sail the ship to the Glass Mansion, which apparently had docking potential in the basement
  • Have tea & biscuits, talk to inhabitant, learn about the second glass mansion built by Isis and her two cronies
  • Retrieve the pieces of the Kalakin Engine that ended up here
  • Use it to open portal home, then load various loot through it & back home
  • A small mis-step when doing this the second time shifts Skadi & Nobel back in time, to Constantinople in 1204
  • Meet their previous incarnations; have awkward conversations with them
  • Return to Glass Mansion, open final portal and go home. With more loot. It's 1 week after time-shift happened.
  • Have pleasant dinner in garden with Lilith; Nobel learns that this is merely her "shadow", similar to Dorian's familiar
  • After she leaves to continue her grand work, Tezcatlipoca drops by for a small chat, arrange negotiations for later
  • Learn that Mr. Saturday had defected & asked Concilium for political asylum, after realizing horrible truth about his legacy
  • Skadi has argument with Jareth about lifestyle-choices after she's been gone without trace for a week.
  • Nobel punched in face by grandfather for allowing sister to have eyes ripped out & other stuff
  • Dorian & Marco Polo chart Underworld-gates of San Fran; find a hitherto unknown Sanctum
  • Nobel & Skadi use John Dee's crystal ball to summon an angel, which Nobel takes as his familiar.
  • Mnemosyne is turned to stone by the Lhanvyini Nechidousa
  • Assaulted by members of Cult of the Doomsday Clock; car blown up by bomb(s) left behind.

Car-boom I

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Chapter 5.4: Grapes of Sorrow

  • Returned to Prague to locate the strange, shady being who assisted in the fight with a Lich during the auction.
  • Found last remaining vampire in stasis & revived it, the so-called 'Svoboda'
  • Sudden encounter & argument with Loyalists of Thule + Caterine Beldame, the Wildcat
  • Brought 'Svoboda' to safe location, then questioned him at length for answers, and uncovered his buried memories.
  • Got the vampire drunk, then returned home to find Apollo, only to find he had got so drunk he vanished
  • Immediately went on to Mycroft's place in search of Basil, thereby interrupting assassination-attempt in progress

Car-boom II

  • Saved those two, captured Romeo & Juliet, but during the coverup Basil runs off & goes undercover.
  • Nobel goes to Market Beneath and sells his right hand at Pete's Parts to get replacement eyes for his sister
  • Mounted expedition to rescue Apollo from the fabled Iram, City of a thousand pillars.
  • Drop by the Vatican to euthanize the Archangel Gabriel, loot the secret Banisher-vaults, and fly off with the spaceship Mayflower II
  • Upon returning home after launching Iram into outer space, find out everyone blames them for the loss of Antakya
  • Hermes travels to the Middle East to help Winston Smith and the Guardians (band name!) with the humanitarian aid, evacuation, and the coverup.
  • Nobel, Redcap and Avatar have unfortunate misunderstanding after Oppenheimer apparently romanced the Sentinel.
  • Dorian confronts his Shadow-familiar with its absence during Iram-debacle, and learns it had been secretly abducted & 'bugged' by Lalitha Meddha
  • Cabal performs "open heart surgery" on said shadow, removing the implanted energy (half the heart of Lilith's own shadow) & containing it. In a jar.
  • Skadi manipulates Apollo so he regains a purpose & becomes focused enough to be useful, right before assassination attempt.
  • Confront & battle ''alternate timeline selves'' as they try to kill Xianqi, including Erebus, who'd remained in hiding until now.
  • Hermes obliterates John Doe with his mortal weakness: The Truth. Psychoanalysts have field day.
  • Immediately afterwards they check up on Apollo, and during the ensuing conversation they have many realizations, primarily about the possibility that a secret conspiracy has infiltrated the Concilium, and that the entire world is covered in a time dilation field.
  • Recruit him and Xianqi to a ''war council'' tasked with finding out how to deal with the Cult of the Doomsday Clock.
  • Visited by Sheenbright, the envoy of Lady Bolevile, who had certain questions regarding the murder of Baron Fairweather
  • Upon leaving, The Norwegian tries to kill him. With a rocket launcher.

Car-boom III

  • Apollo helps Rui Shi to project back to his previous incarnation as Vinegar, thereby finding out where and when he ended up (Prague, 1992), leading to them eventually meeting, merging, and impregnating.

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Chapter 5.5: A Pair of Star-Cross'd Lovers

  • Embarked on quest through the astral to find the legendary Aeons and request their aid.
  • Hermes experiments with the Kalakin Engine, and is retroactively turned into a Changeling.
  • Rui Shi accidentally encounters a prisoner of unknown identity in a pocket-realm along Yggdrasil, and frees him.
  • Nobel seeks out a Salamander in the Dreamtime and convinces it to temporarily live in his Oneiros.
  • After much danger, toil and hardship, they finally reach the Aeons and make various deals and agreements with these beings.
  • Towards the end, get assaulted by a menacing force that emerged from across the Abyss before returning home.

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Chapter 5.6: The Clocktower…of DOOM! (Part II)

Car strikes back

  • Skadi and Rui Shi mass-execute unconscious and wounded Cultists, resulting in Wisdom-loss for both and Derangement for Skadi.

Upcoming: The assault upon The Clocktower itself.

Real world summer holiday

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YEAR 6


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The Way We Were, Part 2: Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius

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The Premise
The Characters

Chapter 6.1 / P2.1: Tale I: Cum Vix Iustus sit Securus

Or "The Fall of Constantinople"

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Chapter 6.2 / P2.2: Tale II: Ardente Veritate

Or "The Siege of Montsegur"

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Chapter 6.3: Lo! Death has reared herself a throne

Real world Winter holiday

Chapter 6.4: The Hieromagus Cometh

Or "And Things Are Not What They Seem"

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Chapter 6.5: The Night's Plutonian Shores

Or "It was Professor Pliskin. On the Moon. With the Hyperborean Superweapon"

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Chapter 6.6: And Eternity in an Hour

Or "Down to a Sunless Sea" (originally: ''Drama Lama'')

  • Going to India to unvestigate the kidnapping of the Dalai Lama
  • Tracking the Seer-villains through the afterlife and into Shanghai, and from there to Inner Mongolia
  • Finally encountering the rain of crystal shards (surprisingly more lethal, and more useful, than expected)
  • Entering the counterfeit replica of the Glass House…before it's built
  • Defeating Yanlao and Isis (with flaming flames of burning fire).
  • Being told a first-hand account of the Children of Danu, and the origin of the Kalakin Project
  • Helping the Dalai Lama to die and to be born.
  • Questing to the Inner Earth, and Shamballah.

Interlude: Tangled Fates - As seen on TV

Was apparently the only plot that had been going on all along! …and then turned out to not have been. Sort of.

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Chapter 6.7 / P2.3: Tale III: Ultima Eleison

Or "The Quest for Avalon"
Upcoming Cancelled Plot (possibly revisited later, after campaign is finished)

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Chapter 6.8: Footprints on the Sands of Time

Or "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree"
Plot currently being played

  • Expedition to find the Temple of Seven Pillars succeeds (at bottom of the black sea)
  • Exploring that ancient installation.

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Chapter 6.9: Amor Fati

Or, "The Quest for El Dorado"
Upcoming Plot

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Chapter 6.10: Wherever You Will Go

Or "The Kalakin Engine Activates"
Upcoming Plot

THE END

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Orphaned Memories

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Things I am having a hard time remembering when happened in relations to the rest of the campaign history. I've attempted to arrange these roughly in chronological/causal order, but it's fairly shoddy.

  • Finding Drake's Hoard: Skadi needs crystal skull for initiation -> figures out through synchronicity (???) or other source (???) that Drake had some -> use Astral to locate place -> Morphean steals scrying spell -> find Loot, rescue some of it -> political circus -> Locomotive arrives in town a bit later
  • Sinister Organs: After/during drake issue, locate place infection is happening, then put a stop to it
  • Grandma: Cabal infiltrate and tap into seer's info-gig at elderly home
  • Nobel arrested: Red's penchant for axe murder is revealed -> trio of lawyers from Valkyrie Incorporated show up at scrapheap (pre-burn) -> shenanigans of some sort (details?) -> nobel in jail, rescued by Melmoth & co
  • Exploring the Inner Earth: Finding the Watchtower of Fail, the "Hiden Gogyo Bujutsu" grimoire (“Secret Transmission of Fivefold Elemental Martial Arts”) and the Green Dragon Crescent Spear
  • Shady stuff: Chimera's familiar tries to become him -> Cahanyx faced down at scrapheap -> Han is killed
  • Nemesis Continuum: Concilium meeting calls for cooperative project to circumvent history-deletion of Doomsday Clockers -> Heisenberg and Nobel break the universe -> Nemesis Continuum defeated with help of destiny's guides (were normal/baphomet involved?)
  • Immortals: Homeland Security shows up at Scrapheap (why?), where cabal has trap set for them -> building burns down -> Infiltrating Homeland Security pretending to be agens Kohiri and Shermer, killing agent Fisher, meeting the director -> Nobel's ghostly mother causing manifestations, leading to the Newmarket incident (was before Claire but not too long, as people commented "this is why homeland security didn't hire us")
  • the Deathquake and neverborn rising from beneath

Reference point: Chimera/Dorian exchange

  • The Tome of Power, hermes getting all burned up
  • The Aswang affair
  • Resolution of the Clockroaches-problem
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