Transcript of 4/19/98 Triangle Ascension Session, Side B
Players (Characters)
Beth (Sara/Amethyst)
John (Glenn)
Julie (Kasee)
Kim (Cab)
Steve (Alex)
Thomas (Rachel)
Tom (Reuben)
Rob (God/Storyteller)
Janet (Assistant God)
Wednesday 6/24 morning
(Kasee had just wandered out for breakfast and announced we all have to go to the Shadowlands, she had a dream of Balthazar calling her)
Kasee: He was a Lord of the Shadowlands
Alex: In the Shadowrealms?
Kasee: Yeah, that was where we got the werewolf's soul back. I told you this. I told you we went to the Shadowrealm but you didn't believe me.
Amethyst: Hey! You called me a bitch!
Kasee: That wasn't me! That must have been somebody else.
Amethyst: That was you, I remember.
Alex: Was that Amanda, the other person in Kasee's body?
Amethyst: Don't try confusing me, it's not going to work.
Kasee: Anyway
Amethyst: Go on
Kasee: Balthazar's house was lots of different colors and shapes and bizarre looking. And Balthazar was in, like in the dream, in a window calling something out and looking right at me. And behind him was this, like, dark swirling blackness and the Shadowlands going back from his place you saw, like, destruction and destruction and more destruction and more destruction until it kind of just got to the point where there was just nothing. And that's bad. Because that means that, like, the Shadowlands are being eaten by something and it is probably GrandMaw, because she, um, is bad and must be waking up and we must do something about this.
Alex: Grandma? Who's Grandma?
Kasee: I think it's a what.
Amethyst: What is Grandma?
Kasee: I think the only image I've ever seen was a big mouthy thing with scary teeth. She's this...
Amethyst: She's a disembodied mouth?
Kasee: She's an evil thing that took over the souls of some of the local Verbena and she's trying to come into this world. And that was why she took the werewolf's soul. Actually she took the Verbena girl's soul and then the werewolf got it back and they switched and then we got the werewolf's back and I need to go find Wolfie.
Rob: Very Good
Steve: Hey, Rob, how much do I know about the Shadowlands?
Rob: Do you have any lore?
Steve: I have occult of 1.
Rob: You know it's the name for the place of the dead.
Steve: OK. I mean I've been there once I suppose, but that was a requirement. Your first trip is your initiation and after that many Euthanatos go back.
Kasee: Generally the Shadowlands is where you go when you die. You generally don't come back, but we did.
Amethyst: So we're going to Hell?
Kasee: No it's not
Glenn: Hey! Not all of us are!
(laughter)
Kasee: You could call it that but it doesn't really seem like people normally think of Hell.
Amethyst: So it's like the Underworld?
Kasee: Metal is bad, though
Amethyst: Metal is bad?
Kasee: Yeah they didn't like us having metal.
Amethyst: So they're elves?
Kasee: HUH?????
Amethyst: Elves don't like iron.
Kasee: No, we're not going to Ireland. We're going to the lands of the dead.
Rob: Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, but don't get me wrong.
Glenn: Why are we going to the Shadowlands?
Kasee: Because it's being destroyed by Grand Maw and I think once it's destroyed by her then she'll try to come and destroy this world and I think she's going to.
Amethyst: OK
Glenn: That would be a good reason.
Amethyst: How are we getting to the Shadowlands? What could we do?
Kasee: Help Balthazar.
Amethyst: How?
Kasee: With our magic.
Amethyst: OK. (Beth, oh, sorry, I don't know that, never mind) With our magic? (sarcastic/doubtful)
Kasee: Mmmhmmm.
Amethyst: People are just sooo into magic!
Kasee: Well, what would you suggest? Not much else is going to stop her.
Amethyst: What is she?
Kasee: I'm not entirely sure.
Amethyst: Then how do you know that's the only thing that will stop her?
Kasee: Well she's a creature of magic.
Glenn: So if it's a creature it can be killed, right?
Amethyst: So if we...
Kasee: Well, yeah...
Amethyst: ... instead of using magic should get all the magic to go away from where she is. So then she can't survive, right?
Kasee: No, because I'm a creature of magic, in a way.
(snickering, we're all thinking "and this would be a bad thing because?")
Amethyst: Well, then you'd better not be standing there.
(more laughter)
Amethyst: You guys want to plan a trip to the Shadowlands? Can you call (missed this part, too many people talking)
Beth: Now in stereo?
Kasee: Yeah well I was told to come. I'm going to go talk to Wolfie because Wolfie will be the one to get us there again. Because that's how we got there the first time was through the werewolves.
Amethyst: Werewolves?
Kasee: Yes. They're fairies, but they know lots more about the spirits.
Amethyst: You said that before.
Glenn: But don't they usually try to kill us?
Kasee: No. (plaintively)
Amethyst: Or turn us into them?
Kasee: Well, not most of them.
Amethyst: So there are bad werewolves.
Kasee: Yeah. They were the werewolves causing all the accidents on I-40. But they weren't really bad werewolves once we found out why they were doing it.
Steve: How much of this, when you get initiated I assume they tell you some stuff. How close is that to what they're talking about?
(Rob's reply is lost in the background as Amethyst again is loudly outspoken)
Kasee: They were looking for Wyrm.
Amethyst: They were looking for worms? Couldn't they just go dig up trees?
Kasee: No, Wyrm.
Amethyst: Like a dragon?
Kasee: The essence of Evil.
Amethyst: Evil is a dragon?
Kasee: No it's not a dragon.
Amethyst: So there's one of them?
Kasee: No
Amethyst: So there's lots of them?
Kasee: It's kind of, it's not really, it's really big. People can be affected by the Wyrm.
(Rob and Steve's conversation is mixing really badly with Amethyst and Kasee's; pardon my inability to distinguish them)
Amethyst: So it's kind of like good and evil?
Kasee: Yeah.
Amethyst: OK it's just another word for evil?
Kasee: More or less.
Amethyst: OK.
(more stuff I didn't get due to the 2 strands of conversation tangling)
Kasee: I'm not a werewolf.
Amethyst: That's good.
Alex: You have a tail.
Kasee: I do have a tail.
Amethyst: A cat's tail. You can't be a werewolf. You could be a were-cat maybe.
Kasee: Meow.
Amethyst: Stay away from me.
Kasee: Meow. Meeeow. Meoooow.
Rachel: You aren't going to lick anyone, are you?
Thomas: I'll pull out my holy water. She gets wet.
Julie: I get wet.
Thomas: You're a cat. You better clean it. Seeya.
Kasee: Does anyone want to come with me?
Amethyst: I think I'm not going on this one.
Rachel: I would love to talk to a werewolf. Should be fascinating.
Glenn: Do we need to bring along anything?
Alex: Stakes, silver bullets, ...
Kasee: We don't want to kill the werewolves!
(insert: "Kill the werewolves. Kill the werewolves." -anybody remember Forteau's little problem?)
(Rob and Steve continue their discussion of the Shadowlands and the Euthanatos views/visits/tour books)
Rachel: So, do you know where the werewolves are?
Kasee: Yeah, they're in Duke Forest.
Amethyst: Duke Forest is a big place, dear.
Kasee: Well, they're by the cave.
Rachel: I assume she's been there before. With her talent for finding things, we could probably be there within the year.
Kasee: Yeah that was where we came back to Reality at. We were with the werewolves. It's where we found the really old vampire that let us kill his children. He's dead.
Rachel: That sounds better.
Amethyst: Wouldn't that be standard for a vampire?
Alex: Kasee you have experience more and been to more places than I believe even most mages have been to.
(Kasee causes more damage before 9am than most mages do in a lifetime)
Rachel: I tell you what, let's just, um, not bother discussing it anymore and get on the road. This is getting very conceptual.
Kasee: I was going to teleport us there.
Rachel: Oh, OK. Wonderful. Before we go we should try to wake up Cab.
Amethyst: I think maybe I'll stay with Cab if you're teleporting people around.
Kasee: Well it's not like we can drive through the middle of the woods.
Glenn: We could walk.
(actually, the werewolf camp did have a truck)
Glenn: Well doesn't teleporting require you to remember how to get there?
Kasee: Well I know how to get to the cave!
Amethyst: Are they right there at the cave?
Kasee: No, they're near the cave. I know how to get to the camp from there.
Amethyst: How far away? Five minutes? A couple of hours?
Kasee: About half an hour. If we walk.
Amethyst: Let's do that. Somebody has to stay with Cab, though.
Kasee: We can leave you behind, that's OK.
Amethyst: Why thank you Kasee so much! (dripping with oozy globs of sarcasm) So nice to know when I'm wanted.
Rachel: She's good at that, isn't she.
Amethyst: Oh, yes. Will you be able to see where you're going?
Kasee: Huh, what do you mean?
Amethyst: Is the Paradox effect turned off?
Kasee: Yeah, it went away on Monday.
Amethyst: OK.
(Yeah, let's split the party again. It's Rob's favorite. Background discussion on the singular and plural of Euthanatos.)
Rob: And yes, they're definately (something)
Steve: Euathanati?
Thomas: Euthanatoi.
Steve: You can... There's so many different ways that you can...Euthanato, Euthanati, Euthanatos... Actually, no, because Euthanatos is actually the plural. Which pisses off some of the more formal Masters
because, what was the singular of that?
Thomas: Euthanatoi. T-O-I.
Steve: Yeah, I think that's the singular. So they get annoyed when somebody calls...
Rob: A singular a Euthanatos.
Julie: What language is that in? If it's Greek it would be Euthanato.
Thomas: Euthanafinger.
Steve: They have a whole description of that.
Julie: Euthanatos would be...
Alex: OK, so we're teleporting there?
Rachel: Yeah.
Julie: I'll look it up. I have a Greek dictionary.
Thomas: Congratulations.
Kasee: Yeah I'll open a portal or gate because that was an area I'd memorized. (outside of the cave)
Steve: Well, no I guess the TOI is plural.
Kasee: Specifically I remember memorizing the portion in front of the cave to be able to teleport there someday. Who's coming? Everybody but Amethyst?
Amethyst: And Cab.
Kasee: Well, obviously Cab.
Kim: Cab, Sara, and Reuben are not going.
Beth: Sara, Amethyst, Cab and Reuben are not going.
Rob: Well, Reuben's not there.
Thomas: Imagine that.
Alex: Are you sure we're not going to need anything to defend ourselves when we go there?
Kasee: Well I think we're probably going to startle them, but once they know who we are...
Alex: We're going to startle them. Maybe we should go take some time and go find silver bullets.
Kasee: Don't shoot the werewolves. That's bad.
Alex: Startling werewolves is bad too.
Glenn: Don't shoot Mongo. It only makes him mad.
Amethyst: You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
Julie: Do I need to roll?
Rob: You're opening a portal, it's a fourth level affect.
Julie: I'm in the Chantry. Does that help?
Rob: It's difficulty 8.
Rob reaches for an anonymous book volume...
John: Where does the portal actually end up?
Julie: Yeah.
Steve: Next to the vampire, of course.
Rob: Something is fighting you. When you go and you grab the correspondence point, it's, like, blurry there. You're finding it very hard to actually remember where it is.
(Loki the cat lives up to his name, but I don't remember what he'd done.)
(Julie keeps rolling as the cave forces an extended effort. Kim and Thomas speculate on why, there was a weird effect last time of losing your way, but now the big protective spirit is awake, which came first the chicken or the egg.)
(Julie asks if she can blow any more quintessence into the effort. You can spend Avatar up to your Prime per action, and as much Tass as you can guzzle.)
Julie: Unfortunately our tass is a bit hard to get a hold of, without killing the tree.
Kim: Well, no, if you have life 2 you can heal simple things.
Julie: I'm going to spend another willpower. (roll now difficulty 10)
Rob: But wait, you needed 7 successes to open that portal.
(general laughter, she finally got enough successes exactly)
Kim: Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.
Rob: I wasn't expecting her to open the portal, but it had enough for her to do it.
Kim: We've done a lot of things you didn't expect, Rob.
Rob: Okay. The Portal opens. Whoo-hooo!
Rachel: So should we be expecting trouble?
Rob: Because Kasee is a badass.
Kasee: But it's open.
Alex: Okay. I step through.
Kasee: Well, the locality has a tendency to move. I'll explain when we get there.
Amethyst: Good, then I don't have to sit through it.
Rachel: Uh-huh. Yeah. Riiiiight...
Kasee: I walk through.
Rachel: I go with her.
Steve: Glenn and I are already through.
Julie: Are we at the cave?
Rob: Yes.
Thomas: Outside or inside?
Rob: Outside
Thomas: Good
Julie: Have I taken Paradox yet?
Rob: One point
Julie: I want to expand my awareness into the general area and see if there's anything.
Rob: There is, actually there is. You do an expand awareness here. You don't see. Your range is pretty limited. It's much more limited than you're used to.
Kasee: Ok. Well. The forest is being funny again, so it could take anywhere from half an hour to all day to get there. So, follow me and don't wander off where I go. Trust me.
Alex: Do you have any rope for Glenn?
Rob: Mmmm what's here? Ooooh, what's that? It's a cave! And they've told you all about this cave. There's a vampire in that cave.
Thomas: I think this require a will roll.
Kasee: If you come with me you'll see werewolves.
Glenn: Live werewolves/dead vampires.
Kasee: Dead vampires really don't talk much. Hoping that I actually do remember the way, I head off in the woods.
Steve: Is Glenn coming?
Glenn: Yeah, I'll go see the werewolves.
Rachel: It's not as safe that way.
Rob: Okay. You come to the encampment. And they obviously were here. But they are not here now. There's a cleared area for the firepit.
Kasee: Does it seem like they've been gone for awhile?
Rob: What's your survival? There's no coals or anything in the firepit. It's all cold. So it obviously wasn't today or yesturday or even the day before. I mean, you're not experienced enough to know if it's been a month or a couple of weeks. It's definately been at least 3 days.
Glenn: Where are the werewolves?
Rob: This isn't nearly as exciting as it's supposed to be.
Alex: Maybe they're hiding. That would be fun. Hide and seek with werewolves.
Glenn: I go climb a tree.
Kasee: I want to try to search around and see which direction they may have gone. I have search, I don't know if that will help.
Rob: Perception + Search. You see the... You can see where the trail obviously... You can see where a lot of people went. But, um, the trail is extremely cold now. Um, and it looks like, they go a little ways and then it rapidly disappears. Looks like they were covering their trail. The truck tires go in a different direction from where the people went. Because there was a pickup. But it looks like they were trying to conceal their trail.
Kasee: I want to try to find Wolfie.
Rob: That's a correspondence effect.
Kim: Too bad Cab isn't awake. She's got a bracelet of WAPpy hair.
(snickers from the audience at the irony)
Kasee: I don't have anything of Walks All Paths'. I don't have anything from any of them.
Rob: Yeah you don't have anything.
Beth: What happened about leaving the house? (referring to the fact that Kasee couldn't leave the house or someone would kill her)
Julie: We're in the woods. There's not going to be many people wandering around in the woods.
John: Except us.
Julie: Except us.
Beth: Okay.
Julie: Hopefully the werewolves aren't the ones trying to kill me.
Julie: So I'm going to sit down kind of like Wolfie sat down and think of Wolfie.
Steve: This takes a while, doesn't it?
Julie: Sit and concentrate and think of calling and search the woods for Wolfie. Mmm, this is boring.
Beth: And which way does Glenn go? Back to the cave?
Kim: Yeah, that's an interesting smirk you've got on your face, John.
Julie So now if I botch the second roll does the success go away or does it count as a botch?
Rob: If you botch any individual roll the entire effect collapses. And you take large amounts of Paradox. And Kasee takes, uh, 5 Paradox.
Julie: That would be bad. I burn the willpower.
Steve: What're you down to on willpower then?
Julie: Three.
Kim: Mmm. Down to 3 dice.
Thomas: So willpower affects arete.
Julie: Yes. Willpower affects magical rolls.
Beth: That's right.
Julie: So, start over again. I assume my specialty in teleporting doesn't help. Start over again. Spend another willpower.
Julie: So I'm feeling a little woozy about now. I look at the fire and yell Woooolfiiiiie!!!!!!
Thomas: I take it this means we're walking back.
Julie: You don't know what's been going on. She's just been sitting there meditating.
Someone: Yeah, screw up your meditation roll again, Kasee!
Julie: I'm thinking really hard about this now.
Kim: He gets a warm, fuzzy feeling. Wait, he is warm and fuzzy.
Kasee stands up and points off to where the tracks go.
Kasee: Okay we need to go this way.
Rob: The foot tracks or the car tracks.
Kasee: The foot tracks.
Kim: This is a very Kasee thing to do.
Julie: Thank you.
Thomas: So, in lieu of any real answer she'll lie.
Julie: Huh?
Thomas: In lieu of an real answer she'll just lie.
Julie: The tracks do go that way.
Thomas: Yeah.
Julie: What do you think I've been doing for the last, like hour? How long has that taken?
Rob: Hours, more like 5 or 6. You made a lot of rolls.
Steve: Where's Glenn go?
John: And he can follow me? I don't think so! Well, he can try.
Beth: What are the chances...
Alex: I probably climbed up a tree. We can see where we are but we can't find each other. It probably doesn't make it any easier to find other people with arcane, does it?
Rob: No. Well, where would I be?
John: So how long would it take to walk back to the cave?
Rob: Two hours.
Thomas: No problem.
John: I don't know how long she's going to be.
Rob: You going to wander off?
John: I'm going to wander off but I'm not going back to the caves. I'm going to stay in earshot.
Kasee: Where's Glenn?
Alex: Oh, he (looks around and sees nothing)... Was around here someplace...
Julie: Are you back by the time I decide to meander off?
John: I'll wander close enough.
Beth: So if someone yells Glenn we're moving...
Kasee: I want to expand my awareness.
Rob: Do you have mind? You have mind, don't you?
Beth: It was me.
Thomas: There's a great sucking void over here.
Rob: Actually it would have been completely different for the character.
Beth: Sara would have come, but you said Amethyst woke up this morning.
Rob: Okay, you start walking.
Kasee: I start walking, with my awareness expanded, looking for a sign of some sort, like oh broken branches.
Alex: Kasee it's starting to get dark, do you know where you're going?
Kasee: Yeah!
Glenn: Where are you going?
Kasee: We're going to Wolfie. They went this way.
Rob: Why do I see this gaming session ending with one part of the party hopelessly lost?
(general laughter)
Julie: With my correspondence down does my survival help at all?
Rob: Yeah. In fact it already has allowed you to keep tracking.
Steve: Does my uncanny insight point out that Kasee is blatantly bullshitting the hell out of us?
Rob: Do you have intuition?
Steve: I've got that, but not a specialty.
Rob: What is your intuition? Two? Do you have dissemble or anything as a skill (to Julie)? Or manipulation?
Julie: I have manipulation of 2 in attributes.
Rob: How about subterfuge?
Julie: No.
Rob: It's so strange for Kasee not to have subterfuge.
Julie: Well she mostly does tell the truth.
Beth: It's understanding it that's the problem.
Kasee: Actually, they went this way.
Thomas: Kasee was a Vorlon.
Kim: No, that would be bad, Kasee is not a Vorlon.
Rob: Yeah, your tracking skill has ...
Thomas: Now if Wolfie was here he'd be much better at finding himself.
Julie: Yeah, well....
Rob: It gets dark. Darkness falls. Bump, right on your head. Roll dodge. Night falls, dodge!
Rachel: Kasee, can you teleport us back now?
Kasee: Nooo... (plaintively)
(player laughter)
Rachel: Why not?
Kasee: Um. Because I'm a little low. Searching for Wolfie took a lot out of me.
Rachel: When will you be able to?
Kasee: After I've had 8 hours of rest probably.
Steve: Oh, Thursday, Friday...
Rachel: Kasee, which direction is the road from here?
Kasee: I have no idea.
Rachel: Kasee, come over here.
Kasee: I told you they went that way.
Rob: She's going to bitch slap you.
Rachel: Come here.
Thomas: Do you come over?
Julie: No.
Beth: Amethyst assumes they must be visiting with the werewolves, otherwise they'd be back by now. I suppose we'll end like usual with everybody lost. Or kidnapped.
Kim: Hey, that's true.
Rob: The darkness is very powerful. There's the moon. Your only guide is the glow of orange of Durham way off. But it's very, very dark here. About as dark as you could get without going into the cave.
Thomas: That's right, forces one darksight.
John: Glenn has no darksight, but does have blindfighting.
Steve: You could fight the trees!
Rob: Well blindfighting allows. Now be careful of blindfighting. I would allow blindfighting to allow you to not run into trees.
Transcribed by Kim Green, HTMLized by Tom Brady, © 1998 Kim Green