Those of you who are just coming into the story of Triangle Ascension may be put off by the large amount of information to be found on these web pages. These files are intended to be a short summary of the action up to this point, and will be updated every week or two.
The Setting
Our story takes place in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, USA, including Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. With few exceptions, all geographic places mentioned actually exist. Our group began gaming in September of 1996; Chapter One begins at September 12, 1996.
You can read more about the individual characters by clicking on their names. Briefly, we have:
Daedelus, Virtual Adept
Kasee, Orphan
Renee Smith, Verbena
Reuben Cabot, Dreamspeaker
Nathaniel, Son of Ether
John Walker (aka Walks All Paths), Silent Strider Garou
Eric Muller, Order of Hermes
Cab, Dreamspeaker
Kevin Ravenswing, Verbena
Mr. Forteau, enigmatic Master Dreamspeaker. Reuben is his pupil.
Master Porthos, a Master of the Order of Hermes
Betsy, a possible mage with some really odd friends
Ogre, Betsy's brother and no slouch as a mage, either
Mary, Walks All Path's ward and budding willworker (or Oracle. One of the two.)
Dog, Reuben's familiar
Stephanie, Tiffany, and Nicole (know collectively as STaN), a Verbena trio who may not be as airheaded as they seem
Ray, a sympathetic sleeper, police officer for the City of Raleigh
Raoul, a corax (were-raven) friend of John's
Maxwell Blake, representative of the shadowy "Internal Affairs"
Inspector Torres, police officer and vampire
Swamp Rats, possibly human, possibly not group of Betsy's friends
The chronicle begins with the player characters assembling at the house of Mr. Forteau in northern Chatham County, North Carolina. All of the mages have been sent there by their mentors (the garou simply showed up with Mary in tow), but before Forteau can explain to them their mission, Daedelus says that he must go and rescue Kasee, who has been abducted by Men in Black. Forteau reluctantly sends the entire band to rescue Kasee, but instructs them to return to his house when they are done.
Following a wild ride to a remote patch of woods in Durham County, the group gets into a firefight with several Men in Black. Renee and Reuben are shot, but the MiB's are dispatched through the joint efforts of Eric, Daedelus, and one very pissed-off werewolf. Kasee, meanwhile, has escaped the MiB's nearby and is running through the woods to escape them - away from the firefight, incidentally.
After all the MiB's are dispatched, John and Daedelus collect Kasee from the woods and the group crashes at Renee's apartment in Raleigh. The next day, they return to Forteau's. There, they meet a new member of their party, Cab. All are told that, in return to favors owed to Forteau by their mentors, they are bound to service to Forteau for one year. He informs them that they will have a place in Raleigh to live, and that they are to steal a Weather Machine which was stolen by a group of Verbena during Hurricane Fran and will be "blessed" at a party in Pullen Park (near North Carolina State University) on Halloween night. Conveniently, Renee receives an invitation to that party.
The group retires to the Chantry in Raleigh and studies and recuperates for a month. Some of the mages meet a crew of Goth punks who hang out at Crabtree Valley Mall - the leader, Betsy, shows real talent as a mind mage, and her brother, Ogre, has some talent in correspondence, among other things.
A few days before Halloween, Daedelus finds a way to intercept the Weather Machine as it is being shipped to Raleigh. In attempting to retrieve it, however, the group finds themselves set up for a drug bust, which is only averted through quick thinking on Daedelus' part when he uses a correspondence effect to send the drugs to his sanctum in Saratoga, New York, just before the federal agents open the crate. Eric, Reuben, and Daedelus are still arrested and charged with possession of cocaine after one of the agents plants a kilo in Eric's car.
As the three in custody are in transit to the federal prison in Richmond, Virginia, they are pulled over by a police car containing Betsy, Ogre and Ray. Ogre dispatches the guards, and they all return to Raleigh, where Betsy wipes the memories of the guards.
While Reuben, Eric, and Daedelus are escaping the clutches of the law (and perhaps the Technocracy), Kasee and Nathaniel drive out to see Mr. Forteau. Or try to drive, anyway - halfway there, Nathaniel flips his car on Interstate 40 and both are taken to Rex Hospital. Once Renee and Cab show up at the hospital to check on them, Nathaniel disappears. Kasee is injured pretty badly - bruised, and on crutches. Daedelus checks her out of the hospital, and the group returns to the Chantry.
The next day, the three mages who were arrested discover they now no longer exist - officially. All traces of paperwork (drivers licenses, leases, bank accounts) now no longer exist. Also, Cab has a dream during the night which may offer some idea of what the final fate of the Weather Machine might be, but the dream is very cryptic and they have little luck deciphering it.
The night before Halloween, the group goes back to Crabtree Valley Mall to speak with Betsy's gang. A plan is formulated in which Ogre will grab the Weather Machine from Pullen Park and, accompanied by Reuben, will return to the mall through the Umbra, where the final disposition of the damn thing would be decided. Betsy reveals that they have been approached by two buyers for the Weather Machine: men in trenchcoats and mirrorshades (almost certainly members of the Technocracy), and a strange "hairy guy."
After leaving the mall, the group assembles at the Chantry to decide to whom they will give the Weather Machine: Mr. Forteau, or Master Porthos, a powerful Hermetic mage who desires to "disconstruct" it in his force realm. After much argument, a vote is taken: two for Forteau, five for Porthos. Torn by his loyalty to his friends and his debt to his mentor, Reuben leaves the Chantry to talk to Mr. Forteau. Arriving at Forteau's house, he finds his mentor in a trance-like state, and eventually determines that he seems to be in a magic duel in the Umbra - with himself.
The rest of the group decides to continue with the plan to capture the Weather Machine. Making some very realistic costumes (it's good to be a mage), they assemble at the Bell Tower at North Carolina State University. John discovers that, in the Umbra, the intended site for the ceremony is already occupied by twelve wraiths. Then STaN arrive, they place the Weather Machine in the clearing and construct a force wall around the area. Daedelus tries to prevent them from completing the wall, and accidentally relocates a portion of New York to North Carolina.
Before the ceremony starts, three policemen accompanied by odd-looking girls arrive and try to make everyone leave. A fight ensues, ending with the three cops knocked unconscious and the girls (who Betsy calls Swamp Rats) vanished. Kasee, curious about the Weather Machine, especially since a large oak tree has appeared on top of it, partially covering it with its roots, decides to flip a couple of switches. A few moments later, there is an explosion from the machine, which injures Kasee, Eric, and the tree, which turns into another of the Swamp Rats.
Ogre grabs the Weather Machine and runs off, followed by Cab in hot pursuit. At midnight, the injured Swamp Rat turns back into a tree and the wraiths appear in Reality. The wraiths execute the policemen by hanging them from the tree-that-used-to-be-a-girl. Daedelus opens a portal to Crabtree Valley Mall, where they meet Cab, who has failed to find Ogre and the Weather Machine. They all return to Pullen Park by another of Daedelus' portals and hide the bodies of the hung policemen, then hunt for clues to Ogre's location.
Most of the members of the group return to the Chantry to sleep, but Daedelus and Eric remain at the park. A police cruiser comes by, looking for the missing cops. They search the woods and find the poorly-hidden bodies. Eric and Daedelus are taken in for questioning.
The next morning, Mary is missing. Daedelus locates her when she activates his two-way pager, and the group finds her on Hillsborough Street, across from the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is now decorated by Ogre, who is pinned to the side of the tower almost twenty feet off the ground with a light pole through his body. Oh, and he's on fire, too. After a few moments, he disappears, leaving only the pole and some scorch marks.
When they return to the Chantry, a man named Maxwell Blake shows up at the Chantry, asking for Mary. He claims he is with "Internal Affairs" and it is his job to take Mary in for proper training. John, suspicious, puts him off until the next day. Renee, John, and Mary drive out to Forteau's and pick up Reuben. They return to Raleigh with Mary insisting they need to find her "friend." The group follows Mary's directions, and finds the Weather Machine at a flea market near downtown Raleigh. Kasee and Reuben stay behind as Daedelus, Renee, John, Eric, Cab, Mary, and Betsy take the Weather Machine through a portal to the library at MIT. There, they are met by a nervous young Hermetic adept who leads them to a portal to Porthos' realm.
Once in that realm, Porthos does indeed "disconstruct" the Weather Machine, freeing spirits that look different to everyone watching - most notably, John sees Coyote, the Trickster, unleashed; Eric sees Loki. Curiously, Renee sees nothing. They are returned to reality only to find that at approximately the same the Weather Machine was dismantled, it began raining torrentially over the entire Eastern Seaboard.
Continued in Interlude: "There Are No Vampires In Raleigh"
© 1997 by Tom Brady and Beth Miller