Going Underground...Again!

So, it's been a while since my last entry, and I'm very sorry for the delay! I had a lot going on at work, and I actually have two session to report on this time around, as Jaime was unable to run his Fate game last week. Which brings me to a bit of sad news.

Jaime won't be able to game with us for the foreseeable future. He's been assigned a new work schedule that will conflict with his time with the group for the next few months. This will bring our number down to three; one GM, and two players. Now, I'm perfectly okay with running games with two players, but I feel too much is accomplished per session with only two players. As such, we have come up with a tentative plan for the next few months. I'll run Burn Legend for one more session, and then Blake will run a few weeks' worth of Don't Rest Your Head (truth be told, I'm seriously looking forward to it). At that point, we'll invite some people to join us, using a short D&D campaign run by Blake as sort of a "mixer" game. Depending on how long that lasts, we'll return to Burn Legend until Exalted 3rd Edition releases. So, the next session this week will probably be the last one for quite some time, maybe the last one for good. Whatever the case, I'll resume blogging once I start running Exalted 3rd Edition.

Anyway, onward!

This session began with the fight between Shiver, Papana, and the wolves on one side, and Crush and his gorillas on the other. Shiver paired off with Crush, Papana with one of the gorillas, and six of the wolves against two gorillas. Eric knocked one of the gorillas away and took care of it in the alligator enclosure (Jaimie was not present for this session).

Papana did well enough against the gorilla and managed to dispatch it after several rounds. The wolves did not fare well. One of the gorillas knocked a group silly and joined his companions to harass those remaining. Papana rushed in and knocked down both of them before the other wolves were taken down.

Shiver and Crush had an interesting fight, however. Crush's opening attack dropped Shiver's first health stock (Blake laments that it didn't drop Shiver then and there; would've made for a more interesting story, he feels). Shiver came back from that initial attack, however, and the two managed to exchange solid blows for several rounds. Shiver used a powerful counterattack technique that dealt 8 damage to Crush at one point. Appropriately, Shiver dealt the finishing blow with his Overdrive. Drawing energy from the Moon itself, Shiver's claws gleamed with silver ki. He then slashed inward with both of them, sending twin arcs of silver ki on an intersecting path. Crush rampaged right into them as they intersected. The force knocked him back into the enclosure, where he bodily connected with a boulder and dropped, reverting into his human form (he made it all the way to his last health stock, and was only two points away from using his Overdrive--booooo!)

Shiver then asserted his superiority over Crush and convinced him to be their eyes and ears in this area, in case any new Scrolls of Power showed up. They were on the same side, after all, allied against the Shinigami and the forces of Yomi Wan. The group then parted ways: Papana and Shiver returned to the United States, while Eric went to visit his prospective business contacts while he was near China.

When they returned, they found the Dojo of Fallen Stars smoking. Sensei explained that demons had attacked the dojo, thinking a Scroll of Power was housed here, but he and Bitter Opal had managed to drive them away. They explained the situation, but suddenly realized that they didn't have the Scroll--Eric did. Bitter Opal went into a tirade, which Papana soundly retaliated against. Sensei broke them up, sending Bitter Opal to focus on rebuilding the incense room. Papana then called up Eric, but received no connecting signal--it didn't even ring. Knowing someone was wrong, Papana called up Alice, Eric's assistant, and had her send a plane to take them to Eric's last known GPS location.

They ended up having to dive out of the plane because the pilot had been nearly shot on sight when he had dropped off Eric. They succeeded in style, and carefully approached the unassuming, squat. facility. Papana then threw caution to the wind and boldly approached. He nearly received a machine gun to the face, but managed to talk his way out of it, threatening the offending guard with Eric's wrath if any harm came to him. The guards then took a blindfolded Papana and wolf-form Shiver below ground. Shiver saw many people working on mechanical somethings, but he couldn't figure out what. The lighting was dim, with bright lights in the development rooms to minimize shadows while working. Green running lights bordered the walls near the floor.

They were then seated in a windowless room with a pleasant-looking man with a slow voice. They bantered for a while. The man, who called himself Alpha, told them Mr. Anderson was just fine and was in the middle of a tour of the facility. Papana politely declined a tour of his own. The organization, called the Eye of the Maker, lamented that the Exalted were given powers beyond mere mortals, and while many used their abilities righteously, many more used them selfishly. The group made it their goal to equip the common man with the means to defend themselves against the Exalted if necessary, through a genetic engineering program and a biomechnical augmentations program. Alpha then received notice that Eric had completed the tour, and he would escort Papana and Shiver to his location. As they exited the room, they heard a loud hum that decreased in pitch. The overhead lights faded, and the green running lights turned to yellow, and then blinking red. Alpha panicked and ran down the hallways, Papana and Shiver following closely after.

As they rounded a corner, Alpha stopped dead in his tracks. Shiver could smell the fear rolling off of him. Blue mists then poured in from the far end of the hall. Shiver smelled a new scent from Alpha, and Papana could smell it, too. He put a reassuring hand on Alpha, who screamed and ran forward into the mist. Realizing his mistake, he turned around and tried to run away. The mist lurched forward and skeletal hands shot out and dragged Alpha into the mist. Papana and Shiver heard him scream, but muffled and as if from far away. The mist lurched forward again, launched something into the wall, which fell and broke against the floor. It was Alpha, but all vitality had been drained from his body. Emaciated figures with blue flesh limped out of the mist, an unsettling hunger in their dead eyes. Papana stepped forward and fired a bolt of solar ki at them, which passed right through them as if they were made of mist.

"Nope!" Papana exclaimed as he and Shiver took off in the opposite direction.