Dramatis Personae

• Cosmos aka The Management (Adelphin’s Ally): Cat and hotel manager. No, really. He’s got keys to everywhere, but is still a cat. Tagline: *Forgets to cat*.
• Rui Qui (Adelphin’s Ally): Theogenic Demigod. Hacker, magician, and entrepreneur. The team’s backup fighter and sneaker. Tagline: “Knowledge is a three-edged sword.”

Previously . . .

It opens with the group attending a party at a local Las Vegas hotel, Karnival Resort Hotel, owned by Adelphin Jean-Baptiste. One of the largest draws of the hotel is that it’s got gorgeous antediluvian ballrooms from a bygone era. The catering for the party being provided by Mitzidu Ito, a Cajun fare that’s still can be considered rather haute cuisine.

The party itself is for a supernatural community, everyone is someone in the know, someone supernatural, letting it all hang out and letting their hair down, including Medusa who had managed to get her head back and reattached. Ares is already tucking into several meals worth of food, inhaling jambalaya and demanding they make him bacon. The food itself is quite delicious, and he’s already claimed a basket of beignets for himself. Dionysus is already performing party tricks and there’s a gentleman by the name of Heus who happens to be a “house god”. There’s an Aunt Nancy there, an aunt on Adelphin’s side, an African stories god.

Bacon, Booze, and Bros

Adelphin Jean-Baptiste, Liam O’Shea, Mitzidu Ito, Suveer Patel, & Yannis Papadopoulos 
Karnival Resort Hotel and Casino Ballroom #1
Friday January 13th, 2012, 2000 hours
3500 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89169

Mitzidu Ito recognizes one of his parent’s handmaidens, a nine-tailed kitsune named Maki Enko. She rushes up to Mitzidu, greeting him warmly, pleased to see him and that Mitzidu’s mother wanted to see him there that night but couldn’t make it. She presents him with an intricate gift with ribbons that ends up looking like a fox. Showing appreciation for the gift, Mitzidu opens it immediately revealing a silver ring formed like a fox wrapped around its own tail, looking like it’s chasing its own tail, quite intricately formed like it would take multiple weeks alone to form it. They bid farewell to each other.

Liam O’Shea recognizes the celtic god of love, Aengus Og, being in attendance. He’s another son of Dagda and therefore Liam’s brother. Aengus is trying to charm some sirens while simultaneously watching Liam, that much attention from a Celtic god generally isn’t the best thing for anyone. Liam responds by waving his finger food in response to the god staring at him, and walks away to find someone interesting to speak with.

Suveer Patel’s father Ganesh has shown up, making sure that no one gets between him and the beignets. Mitzidu gets called into the kitchen complaining that they’re running out of proofed dough for the beignets. To try to solve the problems, he calls in the local bakeries to get dough brought in from the outside, contacts the right set of folks to get what they need. He arranges things with the kitchen staff and deals with the issue with Ares demanding bacon by making some delicious bacon dishes.

Yannis Papadopoulos is uncomfortable in his monkey suit, sitting rather uncomfortably in one of the chairs against the walls watching people dance around the giant ballroom where all surfaces are mirrored causing a disorienting effect. He’d been contracted to deliver a briefcase to a certain woman in a red dress wearing a black rose strapped to her wrist. Yannis already investigated the briefcase and found it adequately protected by a decent quality lock, several magical spells, and an obfuscate spell similar to his own ability, he’s almost dying to know what is inside it but since he was contracted through a contractor that is known for discretion. He makes sure to just have to stowed inside his stash while he waits.

Suveer has a nice conversation with his father, being warmly greeted by Ganesh who presents him with a present of traditional robes and inquires after Suveer’s foster parents as he himself is rather too busy with his own work.

Liam continues to be observed by Aengus Og, who is still chatting up people. Liam only stays close enough to know where Aengus is and to keep away from him. Mitzidu creates a bacon monstrosity which is 8 lbs of beef wrapped in bacon and shaped like a helmet sat on top of a bacon pizza with caramelized onions and goat cheese with pepper bacon tater tots in the shape of skulls around the “helmet”. Ares is impressed with the culinary creation and insists that Mitzidu sits down with him and speak with him.

Adelphin Jean-Baptiste is moving around the party. Geus, the Greek god of Geese, tries to speak with Adelphin and seduce her in a rather brute force method and speaks with Mitzidu about if he should transform into a golden shower to seduce her while Mitzidu suggests it’s better not to deal with her as Poseidon may have her eye on her himself, causing Geus’s eyes to flash with electricity. Away from Geus, the party is going fairly smoothly, and she’s told about the beignet shortage that was dealt with and that there’s a gentleman there in a plaid suit, Ganesh, that’s enjoying them. She warmly greets Suveer’s father and tells him all about what his son has been doing there for so far.

She spots Loki at the far end of the ballroom and immediately goes on alert, heading straight towards him. She asks what he wants, and he pulls her aside looking quite furtive as though someone is watching him. She swats his hand away as he explains that they may have a problem coming in as he found a demigod. She insists they speak in her office but then swaps over to going to the room where Loki has stowed the demigod instead. She hands over the hosting duties to Mitzidu who is still speaking with Ares.

Liam continues to avoid his brother, already an hour, hour and a half into avoid him, before hitting the dance floor, making a spectacle of himself doing the cabbage patch in the middle of the ballroom dancing couples, though people are more laughing with Liam than at him. Suveer sticks with Ganesh until the fresh beignets come in where he then leaves his father to his own devices and allows minor deities to come up and pay respects to the greater god.

Yannis keeps sitting down waiting for the target to come in when Poseidon sits down next to him. Telling Yannis that Poseidon knows what he is and that he considers Yannis a blood-traitor and that what’s in the briefcase won’t do something, he’d boil him alive if it wasn’t for the peace accord at the hotel and that he’ll see him during the Great Harrowing before leaving. Yannis having no time to respond just ignores him and attributes it to his family situation, son of a cross pantheon godling and a seeming traitor.

As it gets closer to midnight, Dionysus is already dancing on the table and trying to recreate a scene from Magic Mike. Mitzidu makes his excuses and gets away from Ares and mingles alongside Liam. There’s only a handful of deities there, only about 1/10^th of the party being comprised of them while the rest are all various divines.

A woman in a red dress with a black rose on her wrist sits down next to Yannis. A swarthy skin tone, dressed to the nines in Vera Wang and Jimmy Choos. He speaks with her, wishing a good evening and she speaks with him. Flirting a bit, where Yannis turns her down asking if he looks like Zeus. When she says that he’s got something for her, no one would notice them and then she’d be out of his hair. He warns her that the Olympians know that he has the briefcase, Poseidon in particular. She says that there’s nothing for him to worry but he still asks where she parked, to ensure that the package is delivered safely.

She informs him that she’s got a taxi there and would be taking it back, accepting this Yannis stands up and shifts from his Obfuscation so no one else notices him other than Adelphin, Management, and the woman. Heading outside, his danger sense screams and he notices two men across the street in strangely warm clothing for the weather. Yannis unsnaps the woman’s black rose corsage to keep her from moving for a moment and then whispers to her about the men observing them. She insists that he hands over the briefcase and they’d never find her, but he sticks to his job to deliver it discretely and safely and tells her to get into the cab then, she’s surprised, even though she was the one flirting with him, when he follows her into the cab and they pull away from the hotel, splitting the party even further.

Back at the party, Liam and Ares get into an unspoken challenge. A drinking challenge and an eating challenge. Mitzidu conjures 90lbs of beef into existence for the challenge with Ganesh settling into as a third contestant. Ganesh is in the lead with Ares and Liam trailing, though Ganesh is still rather appreciative of Laim’s prowess. Mitzidu is rather happy that folks are enjoying his food and tries to start some bookie work with side bets going on. Suveer places about fifty dollars on his father to win.

Loki and a Looky

Adelphin Jean-Baptiste
Karnival Resort Hotel and Casino Room 710
Friday January 13th, 2012, 2200 hours
3500 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89169

Loki has taken Adelphin to the room which he’d rented for the week and assures her that he’s not trying to proposition her. Entering the room, Adelphin gets to see a small figure covered with a large cloak staring out the window. She raises a brow at Loki who explains that they’re from Odin, that he wants her to raise and protect the child throughout the Great Harrowing. Her name is given as Siv, and Adelphin notices a bird tapping against the window. Loki says that it appears to be Munin and he’d better be let in. The bird comes in and hops into the Siv’s hands as the cloak falls away. She looks startlingly like one of Odin’s avatars with piercing blue eyes and golden curls, porcelain skin, when Adelphin comments on her resemblance she merely smiles.

Adelphin speaks to Munin who channels the voice of Odin who says that he’s sad not to make it to the party and asks that she protects the girl which Adelphin promises. When told that people would be coming for Siv, she says that it’s time to make people remember why she’s feared. Siv’s heritage isn’t something that Odin could comment on at the moment, too many things are in play for him to reveal her mother’s heritage and he isn’t able to protect her himself. Adelphin’s proclivity for taking in demigods is well known as well, especially since Suveer is nearly 30. When asked if Suveer shouldn’t have been on his own, she retorts that it should be the same with Thor and the raven somehow manages to frown. In return for looking over Siv, she requests a favor from the Allfather, who is incredulous, but it’s either a favor or it’s a contract. He reluctantly agrees to the favor and Munin hops back out the window which makes Siv sad and Loki heads back towards the party.

Aftermath

Yannis ends up at the MGM with the lady. Using his control over rainbows to weave an illusion in the back of the cab to change how she looks before parking and getting out of the cab, escorting her to the doorway and handing off the briefcase, leaving him with a card with her name and number on it.

Back at the party, they’re still going at the contest while a blue haired lady is showing interested in the entire affair who Suveer manages to identify as the goddess Calypso who is all over Liam. Who only moderately acknowledges her as he’s too busy stuffing his mouth with meat to say anything more. Liam finally drops out where Ganesh takes the rest of his meat leaving it just down to Ares and Ganesh. It’s finally Ganesh’s win and Suveer gives him a nice bowl of rice. Mitzidu splits his winnings with Liam as the party continues into the morning. Having learned the Calypso is from the Greco-Roman pantheon, Liam is merely polite to her but resists her advances. Adelphin dresses Siv up and brings her down towards the more child friendly part of the Karnival Hotel and Casino to show her a good time as well.

After Action Report (GM)

Ahhh, that new campaign smell. It’s been months since I started working on this campaign. The previous one (Ten Thousand Jade Petals) abruptly died because we lost a player (Calvin) to real life and no one really wanted to move forward. So I buttoned it up as best as possible and really dug down to get the new game ready. I estimated five weeks. It took me almost twice that because of how front-loaded I made character creation. Backgrounds, 800+ point characters, info sheets, blending of backgrounds with other PCs, and so on. And there were 9 of those to do. It took a lot out of me as a GM and I ended up needing about two weeks to rest and think of how to merge my wanted plots with what was going on with the PCs histories – no small feat. In the end, I radically changed how I wanted things to start. In the beginning I wanted to do a “battle royale” where the PCs were facing off with hundreds of other demigods and godlings in the Place of Sacrifice. Visually, this was just cool, but it didn’t play well in my head. The gods would be there as well but conserving their strength for the real battles ahead. It was their offspring that would be doing the dying on that field. But as cool as it was, it was unlikely to work the way I thought it would and I discarded it. One of my players (Rory) suggested I have a party at some point in the campaign where the demigods could meet on neutral ground. I loved this idea so much that I made sure L.A. would be ok with it and then used it for B-Team’s start. It was a really great idea, I didn’t get to explore everything I wanted to, but I got enough of the PCs involved with different things that I think I really hit the sweet spot. We’re starting off slow, but there are so many things the PCs can do now.

The mysterious girl (Siv) who is obviously the child of Odin All-Father being brought in secret to a known fosterer of god-children is a definite hook I want to explore. She’s not old enough to participate in the battle (well, she could, but it would probably end badly). Most young demigods (15 or less) either hide and are hidden by Kindly Ones (benevolent and neutral demigods, godlings, or semidivine beings) till the Harrowing is over. If they don’t they pretty much are killed. It’s brutal, but it’s how the world works.

The equally mysterious lady in red and her Pulp Fiction mysterious briefcase only hooked one PC (Yannis) but that was as it was supposed to be. Who is she? Is she working for someone? What was in the briefcase? So many questions unanswered . . . And Poseidon. What exactly does he know that poor Yannis doesn’t? How is Yannis a betrayer? I dumped a lot on one PC in a short amount of time, what’s next I wonder?

Ares and Ganesh started their centuries long feud off with a battle for bacon and beef. Three of the PCs got involved in that. While it seems comical, these two giants are just getting started. Their beef is old and they’ve tried to kill one another often enough that someone is going to die during the Great Harrowing. Stay tuned for who.

The appearance of a kitsune at the party instead of Inari brought some interesting highlights to the PCs.

And that’s just the start. Zeus crashed the party (as Adelphin knew he would) and went about his f*ckboi ways trying to seduce, well anything, but especially the hostess of the party who he has a longtime yen for. Adelphin on the other hand can’t really stand him and doesn’t hide it.

Other Notes

Bonus report here.

Soundtrack

“As the World Falls Down” by David Bowie (Opening Song)
“Notorious” by Duran Duran
“Come With Me Now” by KONGOS (Closing Song)