Saturday, November 17, 2018

The End One Deserves (Finale Session)


• Doskvol burning in a slow motion spirit fire as the pair of raging Ghost Torrents slowly shred the Veil all along the waterfront, forcing the authorities to close much of it down to protect the public.

• The still growing mass of wraiths and spirits beyond the eastern lightening barrier cause growing panic in Doskvol. Many with the means begin to evacuate the city by ship and train. Fear grips the populace as those without realize they have nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.

• The city balances on the edge of a knife as somehow, instinctually, everyone senses the inexorable approach of a great doom.

***

• Parva became increasingly uncertain about his compatriots among the Queer and began to seriously question their motivations - and his own safety. And the poltergeist that had been plaguing him has become bolder, more problematic and even dangerous, getting Parva in trouble when out in the city.

• SBD has become a rising star at what the broadsheets have been calling "A Crisis of Wraiths" - the fight against the rising tide of angry spirits along the eastern lighting barrier. Under his new name, Lazarus Ghost-Killer, he has perhaps found redemption and new purpose.

• Flews, when tortured by the Bluecoats at Iron Hook prison, was unable to contain her rage and took on demonic form. In the process of breaking out of the prison she killed over a dozen Bluecoats and is now the most wanted murderer in the city. 

• Gyr appears to have become a most devoted son and only needs to acquire a barrel of tainted Leviathan oil to fulfill his vampire father's obsession for revenge. 

• Cricket, in a cold attempt to secure his own survival, sold out the Queer to Bowmore, telling the greedy old lord about the vampire Haig, the plan to sabotage the lightening barrier and the fact that Gyr is the mastermind behind it all.

***


• Parva went to an old friend known publicly as "The Head Librarian." In reality an aged and knowledgable vampire, he hoped that she could help rid him of the poltergeist. The ritual they conducted however, was complex and demanding and in the end they botched the attempt, leaving the old demon woman possessed by the errant spirit - almost catatonic as she struggled to fight off the take over.

• Cricket, Flews and Gyr spent more than a week arguing about whether they should finish Haig's job, sell him out, or simply abandon the task and hope he would leave them alone. In the end they reached an uneasy detente, deciding to go ahead with what they assumed was the sabotaging of the lightening barrier. They planned however, to sabotage the sabotage attempt at the very last moment, as it seemed that deep in their self-serving hearts, even these cold bastards could not bring themselves to murder everyone in the city.

In truth, it seemed that each of the characters (or at least the players) kept their own secret councils, and had their own secret plans.

• During what seemed a nightmare at first, a swarm of vermin - as if every foul creature in the city joined the mass - delivered one of the yellow, tainted Leviathan oil barrels to Gyr. Haig also appeared to his apparent heir, threatening him and the rest of the Queer with "horrors unknown" should they "fail to complete the task a second time."

• The crew infiltrated lightning tower #17 with the help of the ancient storm drain network and Cricket's ghost veil ability. Cricket chased out the technicians manning the oil feeding system with the use of a pair of fake but convincing bombs.

• Flews facilitated the crews infiltration by the simple, brute force distraction of attacking the camp. She walked into the mess tent, ready to pull her pistols and started firing. As fate would have it, SBD/Lazarus was having breakfast and as Flews walked in they locked gazes. SBD realized what she was about and as she pulled her weapons SBD hit her with a blowgun dart of trance powder - which Flews successfully resisted. Flews pulled her pistols and started firing as she worked her way towards SBD. Flews intention all along had been to be forced into demon form by the inevitable counter attacks and that did not take long.

Luckily for him, SBD had warned the spirit wardens and rail jacks that an attack by the notorious Queer was likely, and as SBD fled the tent their ranks converged on Flews. 

• Meanwhile, in the now abandoned tower #17, Parva and the rest of the crew successfully installed the tainted barrel in the tower feed queue, jury-rigging the system to cut off the flow after only 20% of the barrel was used. As soon as the tainted oil began powering this section of the barrier the energy wall itself become an growing amalgam of spirt energy. It began pulling all the converging spirits from the Deathlands into it's swelling mass, and those it did not absorb flooded through the compromised barrier and attacked the camp. 

• Gyr, Parva and Cricket fled the tower but were cornered by Lord Bowmore and his guards as they exited the storm sewer. Bowmore ordered his mercenaries to shoot them all - including, or perhaps especially, Cricket.

• Cricket immediately turned spectral and was drawn - apparently willingly - up and into the growing spirit golem that was forming out of the lightning barrier. Parva called down a dense fog as Cricket was sucked into the amalgamation, and he and Gyr fled the gunfire. Parva back into the tower and Gyr south along the barrier.

• SBD fled Flew's demon wrath for one of the many boats drawn up on the bank of the canal, and after laying waste to the spirit wardens, Flews took off in pursuit. It looked like SBD would get away, but in her demon form Flews was able to leap far enough to land on and smash the gondola, dragging SBD below the frothing surface. 

Fortunately, SBD was able to resist the otherwise lethal effects, and found himself washed up on the opposite shore while Flews raged off into the city.

• Parva, back in the tower, cut the flow of tainted oil, severing the now massive spirit golem from it's source of spirit energy. In doing so - in keeping the demon form growing any larger - he likely saved Doskvol and its people from complete destruction.

• Unfortunately, cutting the power did not stop the golem entirely and the entity, with Cricket riding along as a semi-willing passenger strode slowing across the canal and into the city. Leaving a wide swath of destroyed buildings and drained dead in its path, the demon rampaged through the city toward the Bowmore estate, seemingly drawn there by some inherent hunger and driven by Cricket's own force of will. The death and destruction in its wake was doubled by the swarm of hungry, mad spirits that had poured in from the Deathlands before Parva resealed the barrier.  

• Not un-coincidentally, the characters individually made their varyingly terrifying ways from the barrier to the Bowmore estate - drawn by the call of the ghostly hunger, seeking Haig or simply trying to rejoin their errant comrades. As everyone converged on the estate several things happened at once:

- Haig revealed himself, jumping down from the mansion's roof, drained corpse and another ghost calling hypodermic device clutched absentmindedly in one hand - the source of the strange call. He simultaneously admonished Gyr for failing to live up to his potential and yet claimed he was proud of his son. Then, unexpectedly attempted to plunge the ghost calling spike into Gyr's chest.

- Cricket, having gained a level of willful control over the action of the spirt golem attempted to absorb the life essence of everyone on the grounds - Flews, Gyr, Haig, even the few Bowmore guards who had not already fled in terror.

- SBD, having already set an alchemical trap on the grounds fired it off, hoping to contain the golem and its train of hungry spirits until the spirit wardens could arrive and mop up the demonic scene. After setting off his bombs, SPD safely snuck off into the city.

- Flews, in an act of utter self-sacrifice, dove between Haig and his intended target, and was stabbed instead with the ghost calling device - saving Gyr by giving his own life.

- At that same fatal instant, Cricket forced the golem to absorb the ancient and powerful vampire spirit inhabiting Haig, and whole world seemed to explode in a demonic flash. 

- An exhausted Parva, having just caught up to the crew at the estate, was witness to the terrifying tableau - to a story no one save perhaps his vampire mentor would ever believe. In a wise act of self-preservation, Parva simply walked away into the darkness, past the spirit wardens and Bluecoats as they converged on the scene.



Epilogue

• A burning city - both spirit fire and mundane flames. Thousands dead, widespread physical destruction and social chaos. Fading ghost torrents, their tainted energy sources finally burning out. Spirit wardens and city watch overburdened, but slowly reestablishing control.

Doskvol once survived worse. Perhaps it will survive this.

Blame is heaped in catastrophic piles on the Bowmore family and the outlaw Queer - both of which fade into infamy, but are never forgotten.

***

• A quiet funeral, with only a recovering Gyr and a heartbroken Palonia (with her dogs) in attendance. Both dressed in archaic mourning finery, and standing next to a grave in the small family plot on the long neglected grounds of the Haig estate.

• A book-cluttered tower room, with an elderly woman greedily slurping life essence from a wane and tired Parva's proffered arm. Fear and compassion battling across his face. 

• A dark tavern. A large, dark, very drunk man. He hustles drinks with stories of how he single-handedly saved the city from the giant ghost.

• Iron Hook prison - the wing were there truly insane are locked away. The fading glow of the ghost torrents from the high, barred window highlighting the gleam in Cricket's mad eye. He slowly, repetitively tugs at the bindings of his straight jacket and whispers to himself - something about the evil men do...