New Delhi/Moscow Mission Summary [Loki'd]

David L, Alex K, Andie, Eleven, Natasha, Alex U. | June 2014  (Guest GM: Tifa)

The Knights were briefed about an artifact called the Decanter of Dionysus, an object that could cause people who drank liquid poured from it to fall under the thrall of its owner.  They were to infiltrate a party, find the decanter, and steal it.  David was assigned as team leader.  The party was being hosted by a man named Shulin Desai, a man who financed 'tomb raids', where he had likely gotten his hands on the object.

The Knights arrived at the fancy party, where they also saw socialite Alex Udinov in attendance.  It turned out both of them were looking for the Decanter, and Alex also heard rumors that Desai had a trophy room somewhere.  Eleven knocked over a tray "accidentally" and then paid attention to where they went to get more.  Andie and Alex got into the kitchen, but didn't see signs of a decanter anywhere.  Alex trolled for someone who would take him to the trophy room to make out and discovered where it was located - right behind where Desai sat.  Alex texted Eleven to make a distraction, and the Doctor began a party game that Desai wanted in on, causing him to leave his perch on the stairs.  As Alex walked by, he noticed the decanter behind a wall of glass.  He texted Andie to go turn the power out, which she did, but...

One of the party goers revealed himself to be Loki in disguise.  And he took the fucking goblet.  And then threatened everybody. TO BE HIS FRIENDS OR ELSE, basically.  And when he told them he was Loki, David laughed at him.  Loki, however, was distracted by seeing Natasha and used some kind of mind voodoo to get her to hand over her gun to him.  She was clearly surprised by how he knew her but realized it was the fault of the Veil and then told her that if she came with him, he would leave her friends be and they would go.  He also outed the Doctor, who had been masquerading as "John Smith" until then.  Alex, however, fired upon Loki, but hit one of his mirror images.  Most of them moved to attack Loki, but he and Natasha vanished together.

Alex Udinov confronted them about who they were.  However, the interrogation was interrupted by the arrival of Thor, who was looking for Loki.  They explained what had happened and Thor was also shocked to hear about Natasha.  Tensions grew between Alex Udinov and the others, and she wound up punching David.   Thor explained that this "Midgard" was a "splinter realm" - basically a parallel universe from the Earth he knew, and that he had followed Loki here.  Explaining that he had no way to find him, they started discussing alternate ways to track Loki down.  The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to trace Natasha to Moscow.  Thor was surprised that they meant to face Loki with him, and more tensions grew as they fought over who should be the one that Thor could take there first.  Andie managed to smooth things over enough that they could talk about working together on this, and realized that Alex was an asset of the Knights for the last two years.  David called Wynn to confirm, and he told them to bring her in on the mission and established a way for them to travel to Russia quickly via a technomage he knew in Russia.

They traveled via the internet to the dorm room of Epiphany Greaves aka Piffy, the technomage in question, at the Moscow Alchemist's Academy.  Piffy and Alex flirted incorrigibly, and she offered them some potions that could help them on their mission.  Alex learned a little more about Piffy and how she had been shipped to that school from London at age 10, as the Doctor tried to track Natasha and found that the signal was now lost.  Andie ran around the city and came up empty, and the Doctor sent a message to Natasha's phone, offering to exchange a magic sword for Natasha.  They stayed the night at Piffy's as they brainstormed ways to proceed, and Alex and Piffy talked more that night when she literally dragged him into her bedroom.  He used his powers on her in a very, uh, memorable way and then they had sex.

In the morning, they saw a news broadcast from Loki where he basically said that he had taken over the country.  At least they knew where he was now.  Indeed, Loki had taken Natasha to the Kremlin, where he mind controlled her into helping him kill his way into the building but then Nat used her wiles to try and get them further inside without more bloodshed.  Loki mind controlled the politicians into drinking from the decanter and readily accepting his plan to take over.
 
Andie zipped around the Kremlin to scope the place out as Loki sat above on his golden throne.  She found the pitcher and got it out of its case, throwing it the ground ... but it didn't break.  She was caught by Loki and he mind controlled her to keep the pitcher in his possession when she returned and forget entirely about the encounter.  She stole uniforms and brought them to the team who got dressed and left Thor outside, ready to bust in during an emergency at a signal.  They bluffed their way through the building to Loki,   Alex signaled for Thor who came in like a wrecking ball. He provided a good distraction for Loki as the others took out the guards while Alex took a potion after having gotten stabbed horribly by one of Loki's daggers.  Loki and Thor had a Dramatic Standoff as they do, and while Thor tried to merely dispel Loki's mirror effect, he actually hit him on accident and their fight intensified.   As the Doctor tried to get to the Decanter, Andie tried to stop him.  Thor managed to disarm Loki of his dagger while Andie and the Doctor continued to struggle, David finally managing to grab her so that Alex could put her to sleep.  The Doctor got the case unlocked and they claimed the Decanter and ran off as Thor and Loki continued to angst at each other.  Moscow returned to normal the next day, and Thor and Loki were gone...

Tearing of the Weave Mission Summary

Part One: Temple of Mystra (Katoomba)
Alanna, Jaime, Faith, Fiona, Jordan, Adi. | July 2014  

The Knights were briefed on a mission to Katoomba, Australia (Alanna was team leader).  A temple of Mystra, the goddess of magic, had been built there, and a traveling cleric of Mystra had come across it and been surprised by its existence.  When he got inside, things were ... strange, and he ended up running and was shot at.  There were strange lights and sounds reported and a local bookseller had gone missing who had a brochure for the temple in his home.

On the long flight to Katoomba, they socialized and got to know each other.  

Arriving there, they got a car from the Australian branch and headed out to the temple.  They decided to play tourist and were greeted by a priest who offered healing and blessings for "competitive donations".  He also told them that those who wished to get more revelations could perform "Mystra's Sacred Trust" in a 3 day special service for $250 each.  They all signed up to begin the next night.  Alanna asked around and learned that the temple had gone up very quickly, that the priests were throwing around a lot of money in town, that the police hadn't found anything strange in investigating the odd lights and noises and that the Mystrans weren't friendly with other churches in town. Fiona did research and couldn't find any texts about "Mystra's Sacred Trust" being a thing at all.

Returning to the temple to begin the ritual, they were brought inside by priest Shan Thar to meet Starweaver Deinyn Fembrys who offered a speech about how not everyone may be able to endure the 3 day ritual to gain the "Starry Gnosis" or secret knowledge of Mystra.  They were asked to remove all their jewelry and change into provided vestments and given a tiny bed in a shared room.  They realized that Jordan was a genie, after he could not remove his silver cuffs and Fiona and Jordan explained that they were djinn royalty, kids of the Genie King, the Jareth.  Fiona also explained how her parents' wish had left her unable to remember anything that didn't make her happy.  Faith explained about her brother was mute as a result of them and they gave a little backstory about how those wishes came to be.  They all went to sleep in preparation for the next day.

They spent several days underfed, taking group showers, doing a lot of chanting, and going to nightly ceremonies.  On the third morning, they were woken up to go take place in the last ritual - the Starry Gnosis.  They were brought to a black inner temple where Fembrys pulled out a black globe with starry lights in it - enchanting Fiona, Jaime, and Jordan with its power.  They were ordered to gather things and Adi, Alanna, and Faith pretended to be affected until they had a moment alone.  Faith googled the Starry Gnosis and could find no such artifact in Mystran religion, and they began to worry as Jordan was merrily heading off to hand over his lamp - which would afford the priests absolute control over him as well as wishes.  Faith had held onto Fiona's for safe keeping and they headed down to where they'd been ordered to go - a set of steps down behind the altar, where they passed broken remnants of actual Mystran worship.

They were taken to a dark-haired woman, Lady Arthas, who praised Fembrys and asked how many of the affected 'worshippers' were spellcasters.  Those who identified themselves as casters were taken by the woman, and the others with Fembrys.  Lady Arthas brought them to a hall that ended in a great circular disc of darkness bordered by deep purple stone, which some of them immediately recognized as the symbol of the evil goddess Shar.  Fembys took the others to a torture chamber... and recognizing the danger they were in, the others broke into battle.  Alanna managed to kill Lady Arthas, and Fembrys ran through the black disc, causing Fiona, Faith, Jordan and Alanna to jump in blindly after him. Adi punched Jaime out of his hypnotized state.

They found themselves in a dark room full of human skeletons - around 50, around a black altar with arches.  Fembys smashed an orb there, and black shadowy tendrils extended from the arches, grabbing him and searing the flesh off his bones.  They realized they were looking into a powerful and dangerous portal, but had no idea where it might go, and debated whether sealing it up was the right step or not.  Faith pointed out that Wynn would want to know about it and study it, given his interest in portals and trying to figure out how to make a portal to the Shadow World. An examination of the bodies showed that they were all humanoid (some Shadowkind) and that their flesh had just been misted away.

They found a letter Lady Arthas had written in her study that stated that their temple had been a huge success, and that new followers were arriving weekly to undergo the Starry Gnosis and be dominated so that they might be sent through the "Shadow Portal". She was delighted that Shar apparently deemed many who were forced to go through "unworthy", killing them as sacrifices to her glory.  They seemed to be trying to figure out what made one "worthy" or not, and had decided that only spellcasters held a chance of being able to go through, and called those who were sent through "petitioners".  She discussed success stories of those who had gone through and come back "magnificently transformed by Shar's power" from their trip to "Shar's holy realm".  After clearing out everyone else at the temple and sending the innocents away, they exploded the place to bury entrance to the portal.