Session 03

{{Sessions
 * date = October 10, 2010
 * notes = Brad left for about two hours midway, for work.
 * enc  =
 * log  =

The Nevernever
Kate performs a ritual to open a gate in the tent. (It's about 2:30 AM at this point.) On the other side is a cloudy but still day-lit island. After the party gets their bearings, they are approached by a pixie in an aviator's outfit, piloting a small Da Vinci-esque pedal airplane. He was searching for Ming, but got lost due to the changes in how the Nevernever is organized. He was here to bring Ming a message that the Lady of Boston wishes to meet with him. She's a Sidhe who has set up residence in Washington Park. She is not a part of either Court. She's a Wild Fae, and she's relatively new to the scene. People are afraid of her.

(As a note, it seems that faeries aren't allowed on the Island.)

She has something that she knows that Ming will need, but that he doesn't know that he'll need, but when he does, he'll know that she has it, according to the messenger.

The party begins following the trail. There is a wake of damaged spirits along the trail of hoofprints. The trees sag as if drained somehow. The pattern suggests a constant draining effect coming from him.

Eventually, they arrive at a bridge across a gorge, leading to a darker part of the forest. The pixie stops here, since the bridge leads off the Island to other places.

Darker And Darker
On the other side, things feels less... natural. The grass undulates like sea anemones. The trees look dead and have dead leaves all over them. There is a pervasive sense of despair. Nearly everyone senses that they shouldn't be there; however, Ming actually hears a voice whisper over and over, "Get... out..."

William's "aura", or whatever it is, doesn't seem to adversely effect this area. Also, Ming can see that the grass is feeding on flecks of spirits floating around. In the grass is fragments of the remains of the garden gnomes that William drew his powers from.

The party continues, now following the footprints since the obvious aura is no longer obvious. Bits and flecks of the bodies of spirits are along the path.

They get to a point where they can hear sounds up ahead. Hobb scouts, and sees two fish-people who look to have been on the losing side of some battle. One is dead already. There's a fair amount of red blood, as well as fish-person blood.

(Josh: "The Aristocrats!")

Hobb recognizes the scent of William, as well as the female ferret from earlier in the evening.

Kate performs a ritual to produce enough water for them to drink, even though one of them is likely dead. However, they can't speak the fish-folk's language, so Kate begins another ritual to allow her to speak with them. The first attempt fails, but she tries another spell.

The sense of despair washes over everyone again, but Ming holds up. In the meantime, Troy finds William's trail, and Hobb finds how the fish people basically came into contact with him from a perpendicular path. Hobb also smells that the scent of the ferret girl comes from the fish-men. She was with them. So, while Kate casts the ritual, Hobb begins following their trail back for 15 minutes or so (since the ritual will take 30 or so).

After a while, Hobb notices something small following him in the trees. He pretends not to hear the noise and continues on. Eventually, he reencounters the river that was at the bottom of the gorge we crossed earlier. Whatever is following him smells like whatever was in the tent that wasn't Billy or the two dead men.

Billy climbs the trees to see what's up there. It gets darker as he gets up into the trees. He hears a voice growl out, "Hobbbb..." Hobb leaps down and begins sprinting back. He manages to see something (but he can't tell what) just barely miss lunging at him.

This begins an extended chase contest. Hobb pulls ahead but gets tired. The thing following him doesn't make footstep sounds but rustles. He catches a second wind and pull ahead.

The rustling stops suddenly as he gets back to the camp. He yells, "Incoming!" and we jump up to fight. Troy can feel something malevolent out there.

The creature seems to stay outside the clearing.

Communication
Kate finishes the spell. The fish-man says that the goat-thing was brought here. They wanted him to "un-choose." They could not perform the ritual because a crafty ferret stole "the hearts and minds" of the witnesses to the occurrence. (By that he literally means the organs -- i.e. the mummified victims.) A request for clarification makes it sound like the furry creature is a ferret.

The fish-man says that they were no match for the goat. He might live if taken to the south to his home. The thing following them is some dark spirit of the woods. He would not have braved the woods, but the goat is a prize for the Old One that they oppose. There are many servants of the Old One in the woods.

The kidnapped beast is in the process of choosing. His allegiance is pledged to the Old One, but with the hearts and minds, he can have a second choice. Their people are the ones who take the hearts and minds from the murdered witnesses to give a second choice.

Kate brings everyone up on what she learned.

Ming attempts to ask the surrounding tree spirits what hides in their branches, but the soft touch doesn't work because the party is the intruder here. He then tries to use Presence to impress them, but fails horribly, and they say that his reputation precedes him here.

Ming and Troy step a little into the forest to tempt fate. They don't see the spirit, but they can see that the trees are unnaturally darker (some kind of veil).

Meanwhile, Kate and Hobb work on a makeshift stretcher for the fish man. Kate also warns Hobb in an undertone to call her Kate, instead of Jessica.

We try to taunt him down from the trees, and some sort of squealing whale song comes from the trees. It caries and echoes. (The fish guy is intimidated.) We realize that the creature called for reinforcements, and we are somewhat surrounded by the time that we finish the travois carry him. (No more than 5.)

Escape
The group helps Kate make a ritual to enchant a protective spell on the travois which will cause gravity to increase on any enemy that gets too close. We contribute blood, prayers, and a nice stone.

At the sound of Kate's casting, the canopy goes silent. The rolls kind of go wrong, but some compelling of aspects gives Kate some more fate points. However, the bad rolls continue. A wail rattles and shakes Troy completely, and Kate's last role fails poorly. Tentacles begin to descend from the trees. Ming realizes (via Guide My Hand) that she's going to break and throws his own Discipline in to help her out.

As we run, we hear a trio of thuds hit the ground, and we hear another scream. This time one of surprise. As we continue running, we don't hear the rustle of trees behind us. They fall behind and emit one last terrifying screech before giving up on the immediate pursuit.

After a mile of running, we get to the embankment (with the river I mentioned earlier actually to the West), with a bridge that leads to the Island, and the ocean where the fish man's people are.

He draws a picture of a crescent moon over an arch. He gestures that it is in the direction that William went and his gestures suggest that our time is limited. Kate tries the ritual to listen to him again, and we find out that William will make his final choice at an arch at the eastern end of this area in the Nevernever "at the precipice of land, sea, and forest." He suspects the Fae, the Wizards, and the dark spirits may know the ritual.

The fish-man does not know why the ferret took the hearts and minds. He thinks there is a third party involved in this conflict for the first time.

Hobb wants to continue tracking the ferret girl. He tracks her to a point where she popped through. There was someone else with her, but he can't pick who it is. Their trail appears and disappears in a way that suggest that she's popping through from/to the real world.

The origin point is at a crossroads. In the real world, this is roughly where she was chased to near the river in an area behind the train tracks not far from the Island. They are currently cordoning off this area (not the Island) and the media is in full force.

The end point is in the woods in the Nevernever in the nasty side. In the real world, it's part of some park. I pop Hobb back with me, and he knows it's Forest Park or Washington Park.

Aftermath
The party transitions back from the point that correlates to the tent. Ming stays to bury the gnomes in a lily field, and the pixie-messenger on the ornithopter comes by. He accidentally drops the hint that the awakening of the Old One may be tied to a power grab by the Queen.

The police have largely moved off, and Celeste is leading a few of them on a guided tour. The cops who are there are mostly there to keep the peace, rather than to raid the camp.

The group figures that the best place for Troy to recover from his mental stress is the Pied Cow. Since there is a midnight deadline, they figure it'd be a good idea to rest. First, though, they speak with Celeste. She suspects that the Lady of Boston is an accomplice. Bubbles and the Island have a long history with them. They start to piece together the idea that the Lady may have interceded in recent events in order to get a hold on Bubbles.

With that, the party breaks up to rest and recuperate. }}