After the two week holiday, the group's Mage game resumes.
Sam: When last we left the Nephandi Company Picnic Gate-crashers, they had determined that a great evil can be averted by disrupting the ritual for which the opposition is currently preparing.
Bill (ooc): What do we need to do to disrupt the ritual, exactly? Is it as simple as kicking some dirt over that summoning circle they drew with the ground bones of unbaptized infants, or is it going to be more involved than that?
Sam: Everyone make me an Intelligence + Occult, dif 8.
Bill (ooc): I'm sure we'd love to, except you collected all our character sheets at the end of the last session before the holidays, remember?
Sam (ooc): Ah yes. I had almost forgotten. They're not in my notes folder. Must have left them in the other room. I'll be right back.
Sam leaves to find the character sheets. Fifteen minutes pass.
Sam (ooc): Guys, I have some bad news. Any chance all of you have copies of your character sheets handy, tonight?
A chorus of negatives answers him.
Mary (ooc): I have an old copy at home, but it would take me an hour to get it.
Bill (ooc): I could recreate Draw from memory and from my logs, but it would take hours.
John (ooc): I have Homer memorized except for some of the names in his background, just in case I need to play him at a moment's notice. And in case someone drops food on my skill list, again.
Bill (ooc): Hey, now. That was an accident, and I let you play by house rules for the rest of the night.
John (ooc): Wait. There's a thought.
Sam (ooc): No.
Bill (ooc): You lost all our character sheets, including my ten-page character history. I demand the right to play by house rules.
John (ooc): Me, too.
Fanny (ooc): House rules?
Bill (ooc): It's like every kid's first roleplaying game before they even know what roleplaying is.
Ed (ooc): You mean Dungeons and Dragons?
Bill (ooc): Not at all. House.
Nate (ooc): You mean dressing up in adult clothes and having tea parties with stuffed animals, right?
Sam (ooc): Yes. And I won't stand for that kind of nonsense at my table.
Bill (ooC): Every kid soon learns the rules of house, which is that as long as it furthers the story and doesn't contradict anything else, saying something makes it so.
John (ooc): Kind of like Mage except without the Paradox.
Bill (ooc): When you play a roleplaying game by house rules, the GM is just one more person saying what happens.
Sam (ooc): It's more like watching a massive bar fight when you're the owner of the bar.
Bill (ooc): It does tend to warp games into strange shapes rather quickly. Half the GM's gaming notes are rendered useless in the first hour of play, and planning anything in the long term is utterly impossible for as long as house rules persist. And once order returns, the task of rationalizing events into some coherent pattern is often monumental.
Sam (ooc): It's a bad idea.
John (ooc): Bill used to let us do it all the time.
Sam (ooc): Bill thrives on chaos, and even he never let everyone play by house rules at the same time.
John (ooc): Bah. It's a just punishment for losing everyone's character.
Sam (ooc): Mary, Fanny? What do you think?
Fanny (ooc): It sounds like fun.
Mary (ooc): I'll try anything once.
Nate (ooc): I just want to play Mage, tonight. I spent last weekend herding psionic cats and undead aliens with a holy sword. I need something to wash the taste of human flesh out of my mouth.
Fanny (ooc): Dare I ask?
Mary (ooc): It's what he wants. Do you always give a boy what he wants?
Fanny (ooc): Not if I can help it.
Mary (ooc): Is she lying, John?
Ed (ooc): Can we just play something, preferably Mage?
Sam (ooc): Okay. Fine. House rules apply, but please try to keep it in character and in game style. I reserve the right to overrule anything that's outright silly.
John (ooc): No argument here. I have to play this character next week, and I'd rather not have to fight an army of Commie mutant cyberroaches once Old Man Paradox comes back into his own.
Bill (ooc): Agreed.
Sam: At least some of you recognize that disrupting the ritual would be a relatively easy feat were it not for the fact that only thirteen of the hundreds of Nephandi in the valley are actually going to be performing the ritual. The others are there to prevent anything from interrupting the ritual.
John (ooc): Hundreds? Just how many Nephandi are there?
Sam: Hundreds, plus all the vampires, Black Spiral Dancers, and Shadow Court members in the British Isles.
John (ooc): That hardly seems fair.
Bill (ooc): He's just trying to beat the players even though house rules are in effect. It's like a bandaid, Sam. You're only making it harder on yourself, you know.
Sam: So, what are you going to do to disrupt the ritual?
Mary: This is obviously bigger than us. I'm calling the reality police.
Sam: There aren't any reality police, you know.
Nate (ooc): We could call the Technocracy.
Mary (ooc): That's what I said.
Sam: How? It's not like you can look them up in the phone book.
Mary: "I think we have encountered the best ever excuse to practice hideously vulgar magic. We need to attract the attention of the Technocracy and quickly. We're going to need their firepower, and they'll be all too happy to be rid of several hundred reality deviants."
Sam: Including you.
Mary (ooc): I don't think that will be a problem. House rules, remember?
Ed: "Agreed. Would it be sufficiently over-the-top to write 'Reality deviants are trying to summon a demon' in large, unfriendly letters of fire above the valley?"
Bill: "It sounds like a good start." I will track down a MIB's cellphone number and leave an annonymous tip.
Sam: How?
Bill (ooc): Cooperative effect between Christabel and Draw. Correspondence 3, Entropy 1, Life 2, and Mind 3.
Fanny (ooc): Okay by me, but why do we need Life?
Bill (ooc): You'll see.
Sam: After some romping around in the moonlight, in order to find a Technocrat's cellphone number, you manage to identify one. A deadly serious, almost mechanical, voice answers, "Who are you and how did you get this number?"
Bill: "That's rather a long story. We share a common interest in preventing demons from wreaking havok on the countryside. Several hundred of the noisiest reality deviants you can imagine are currently in a valley near Grasmere, getting ready to summon something that will be difficult for the Technocracy to deal with, and even if you manage to defeat it, the clean up will be a nightmare. My friends and I will be sending up some fireworks, in a little while. I suggest you bring in the Hit Marks and BFGs damn soon in order to prevent this disaster."
Sam: "Who are you, really?"
Bill: "Someone who cares." Draw sticks his tongue in the Technocrat's ear and then ends the Effect.
Nate (ooc): Ew.
Fanny (ooc): That would be why you included Life 2...
John (ooc): Actually, since you had Cor 3, you didn't need to include Life.
Bill (ooc): An Effect's difficulty and dangers are based entirely on the most powerful Sphere involved, so there is no harm in a little overkill.
John: Homer will help Ed with his little pyrotechnics display. We should act last, though, since it'll also get the attention of the baddies in the valley.
Ed (ooc): Right. What are the others doing?
Nate (ooc): How nasty was the Resonance of Helm's Crag, exactly?
Sam: Very. It is deeply tainted with an Entropic Resonance - Arresting.
Nate: Walter is going to draw as much Quint as he can hold from it and then begin a ritual to recreate some of the Plagues from Exodus.
Sam: What, exactly, do you mean by that?
Nate (ooc): How much Quint can I draw?
Sam: I'm going to say 10 points, though I don't know why you'd want that much Quint.
Nate (ooc): Because I have an Avatar rating of 5 and Prime 3. And also Life 3. Walter is also going to wait until it is almost time for the pyrotechnics display. This is a bit loud, too.
John (ooc): I must say, I'm curious, Nate...
Mary: Clara is bringing around the minivan to near the mouth of the valley. She'll spend the time up until the noisy bit tinkering with the shield generator and the headlamp lasers, as well as strapping a fair-sized rocket to the back of it to give it enough lift and thrust to get to the ritual space.
Sam: Are you waiting for the ritual for the pyrotechnics show?
John: Waiting until it starts, but not until it reaches its climax.
Sam: Very well. Draw and Fanny, you have some time before the pyrotechnics display.
Fanny: "Draw, according to Homer and Allen, there are leeches in this valley that consume Quintessence. Can you locate them?"
Bill: "Yes. Would you like them to be attached to the circus freaks?"
Fanny: "If you can arrange it, yes. I'm going to play shepherdess." Christabel will use Cor, Life, and Mind to convince all the sheep in the surrounding area that the valley is the best place for them to be, right now.
Sam: Okay...
John: Homer and Allan send up the pyrotechnics as the sheep reach the valley floor.
Nate: Walter opts for a slight change of tactics, praying for the sheep to be transformed into avenging angels of God's wrath. Life 3 to give them claws, fangs, and bodies better-suited to moving quickly. Prime 3 and half my Quint to make their natural attacks inflict aggravated damage.
Fanny: Fun. Mind 3 to make them hideously aggressive.
Sam: The Nephandi and friends look up at the pyrotechnics just as the first of the rabid sheep fall upon them. The armies of darkness quickly form up a circle of bodies and magic to protect the ritual space.
Bill: Porting in the leeches.
Sam: Against the ritualists?
Bill: No. Against their protectors. Suck, my leeches! Suck!
Ed: We done with our pyrotechnics? Can we start a new Effect?
Sam: Yes, unless Mary wants to do something.
Mary: Ha. What I have planned will take all the time Clara can get.
Ed: Using Forces and Prime to hotwire the lories and make them drive themselves into the crowd of baddies. Spending all my remaining Quint to make them cause aggravated damage on anything they touch.
John: What the hell. Homer is leaping onto the back of a nearby avenging sheep, drawing a knife, and charging forward into the valley of death. Using Forces and Prime to erect a shield against ranged and magical attacks. Anyone wants to tangle with the Captain of the Sheep is going to have to melee me.
Sam: The BSDs shift into Chrinos.
John: Crap.
Sam: The vampires start burning blood to boost their stats. They prepare themselves to face the leader of this foolish raid.
Mary: Clara hits the rocket booster and rumbles forward, headlight lasers blasting everything in their way. She's making a b-line for the ritual area.
Sam: The van's defenses buckle beneath the onslaught of attacks against it, but you seem to be drawing nearer the ritualists. You might even make it.
Bill: Draw fills the underwear of the battle line facing the sheep with mojo leeches.
Fanny: Fanny hastens the leeches' growth and reproduction cycles to the point where there are soon ten times as many leeches.
Sam: Homer and the sheep are tearing through the enemy ranks. Ed's lorries are making a path for Clara's magemobile. The sounds of approaching planes and helicopters fill the air. The dark army seems a bit desperate, though the ritualists are still carrying on, their chants approaching a climax.
Nate: We need to know if their defenses are faltering. Laying the Curse of Zechariah on one of the thirteen ritualists - in essence, paralyzing his tongue with Life 3.
Sam: The mystic wards hold against your spell, if only barely.
Ed: Most of the army must be distracted by the assault. Using Prime to find the ones who are still protecting the ritualists.
Sam: Indeed. Only two dozen Nephandi are still actively casting defensive spells on the ritualists.
Ed: And is anyone protecting them?
Sam: No.
Ed: Allan relays this information to anyone in earshot and starts gathering successes for a sizeable Forces 3 Prime 2 Effect.
Fanny (ooc): So, you think Sam's tracking Paradox, at this point?
John (ooc): If he is, we're going to begin next session by exploding from it.
Bill: Draw focuses his next round of mojo leech assault on the protection mages.
Sam: Paratroopers in power armor begin to descend from the sky, further distracting the dark army from the ritualists.
John: Out of curiosity, how many people in this valley are marked for death?
Sam: All thirteen of the ritualists, as a matter of fact.
John: Using Prime to track their defenses as Homer circles around, looking for a moment of weakness. Adding Entropy to find one big enough to slide a knife blade into.
Mary: Getting the minivan the hell out of there before the Techs confiscate it for illegal equipment.
Nate: Slapping one of the protectors with a Prime bolt.
Ed: How are the defenses holding up, now?
Sam: If you pick off one more protector, there might be a weakness in the shield.
Ed: Firing a bolt of flame at one.
Bill: Draw sees that the time for sniping has ended. "Okay, we need to get out of here, now. The Technocrats don't much like us, either, remember?"
Fanny: "Yes." If everyone on the ridge is in agreement, we're beating a hasty retreat to the highway.
Ed: Did my spell help?
Sam: Homer, a bolt of flame hits a cultist in the face, and the shield around one of the ritualists falters.
John: Homer leaps from the back of his trusty war sheep and plunges a knife into the ritualist's throat.
Sam: Time seems to drag to a crawl as about 300 successes worth of Spirit magic begin to unravel.
Bill (ooc): Now might be a good time to leave, John. The Paradox and the Hit Marks should be able to handle the rest.
John (ooc): Shh. Don't say the P word...
Mary: Clara stops long enough for the others to climb into the van. "Where's Homer?"
Nate: "In the valley, playing at being hero."
Mary: "Playing at going to an early grave, more like. We need to extract him and fast."
Ed: "I could pull him out, but I'd have to be able to see him."
Fanny: "I'll take care of that." Christabel produces her compact. Correspondence 2 Life 1, plus Mind to grant Allan the perceptions.
Ed: Forces 3, Prime 2. Grabbing Homer by the scruff of the neck and dragging him bodily out of valley and back to the van.
John: Homer isn't resisting, at this point.
Mary: Once we have everyone, Clara takes off down the highway.
Bill: "Christabel, would you be so kind as to cover our tracks?
Fanny (ooc): How?
John (ooc): Scrying ward. You're the only one with Correspondence 2.
Fanny: Okay. Doing that.
Sam: And that's where we'll end for the night. Never again, Bill.
Bill (ooc): But we were so well-behaved. We didn't go back in time ten thousand years to avoid the plot, summon an alien race to invade the planet, or even make technology stop working.
Sam (ooc): You turned a perfectly good stealth mission into Braveheart with sheep and lorries.
John (ooc): And how were we supposed to elude several hundred supernaturals in order to eliminate even one heavily guarded ritualist?
Mary (ooc): He's right, Sam. I expected us all to die, tonight - that or fail to stop the ritual, which I'm guessing is what you had in mind.
Sam (ooc): Well, yeah.
Bill (ooc): Nothing you can do about it now except deal with the consequences.
Sam (ooc): I guess not, though you're going to be hurting, next week, when all that Paradox comes crashing down on your heads.
Bill (ooc): Well, yes, but the worst you can do is kill us, right? And you would never do that.
Sam (ooc): Oh, we'll see. I'm going to see if I can find those character sheets, again. See you next week, everyone.
The players gather up their gaming materials.
John (ooc): Hey Bill, that's not your handwriting.
Mary (ooc): No, it isn't. It's mine.
Bill smiles.
Bill (ooc): How did all our character sheets get into my Mage book?
John (ooc): You sneaky, old bastard. My lips are sealed.
Mary (ooc): I'll never tell.
Fanny (ooc): At least it will make rewriting the character easier.
Ed (ooc): I'm not going to let it hold me back, though.
Bill (ooc): Nate?
Nate (ooc): It seems a bit unsportsmanlike.
John (ooc): And several hundred supernaturals is?
Ed (ooc): Don't be Lindley, Nate.
Nate (ooc): I suppose not, but don't be surprised if I blackmail all of you with this later. Dance, my puppets. Dance.
Bill (ooc): Just give me a meter and a tempo, boss.
Session ends.
ST (Sam) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Clara (Mary) - Mary Shelley
Christabel (Fanny) - Fanny Brawne
Draw (Bill) - William Blake
Homer (John) - John Keats
Walter (Nate) - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Allan (Ed) - Edgar Allan Poe