The Chronicles of Ceteri B-Team: Season 3, Session 4 – Tempest in a Teakettle

Dramatis Personae

  • Amos M. Humiston (Played by Chris D): The Linguist, Librarian, and Leader (Temporary). He is the brains to the rest of the group’s brawn. Recently Amos has completed a double Masters in Library & Information Science Archives and History and has also managed to get a rather special job lined up, if he can ever get around to it.. Tagline: “True alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”
  • Dillon J. Lynch (Played by Calvin J): The Tough Guy and a master of knives and fists. He is in search of his brother that he never knew he had. He bears a strong sense of duty and strives to do the right thing. He is broke, new to town, and new to this. Whatever this is… Tagline: “Yeah, I brought a knife to a gun fight.”
  • Henry H. Norris (played by Rory F.): The Detective and Shooter. Not the smartest, fastest, strongest, or toughest of the team, but perhaps the best rounded. He is a classic overachiever, always trying to make up for past failures and even limited successes by working harder and smarter. Life caught him unprepared once, and he does not want that to ever happen again. That attitude and certain knacks have earned him a good income and a respectable place in Boston society. Henry is new to the group, having met under less than auspicious circumstances and is the religious member of the group. Devoted follower of Horus before really understanding what that even means but it just felt right. Tagline: “If he can see it he can shoot it, and he sees really good!”
  • Lorenzo J. de Modouco (played by Christian G.): A man with movie star looks and a voice that belongs on the radio. Slowly coming to grips with the fact that he isn’t exactly human, but a “Lupus Dei” – “Wolf of God” – otherwise known as a Benandanti. Lorenzo’s been a firefighter employed by the Boston Fire Department for a couple of years. This gives him access to places he normally shouldn’t be able to go as well as medical gear and information that might not be available to the public. He’s become a master of spear fighting and is a highly capable combatant. He’s been helping Amos collect cursed objects and  Tagline: “You can take me to the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down and I won’t be turned around.”

Previously . . .

A week has passed since the last session and it’s now September 1st. Amos has spent the last several days giving a quick primer on the occult and Boston in general. Henry has some questions, about the voice he heard and the language it spoke. Ancient Egyptian with a smattering of Old Egyptian. Henry also asks about Mystics which Amos explains briefly and then more in depth in how they serve various forces. The Conclave mostly ignores them unless they’re Adepts and looks down upon them about the same they would look at a Hedge Wizard. The Conclave is mostly sparse since Mr. Friendly’s attacks occurred and they’re slow in rebuilding.

Henry asks questions about how the political scene is, the werewolves in the city and then the vampires who are creeping in without The Murphey killing them since they and the Murphey Island disappeared during the Battle of Dogtown week. The Fae are well and truly entrenched in the city via Niallan Lughnon who leads from the Duchy of Broken Dreams and also dislikes vampires. In general Vampires are not well liked.

Henry, meanwhile, has sorted down Norcross’s hoard given to him, finding books similar to the grimoire he gave over to Amos temporarily, but all in foreign languages that he’s unable to read. A large amount of different magical tools included that are magical and otherwise. There weren’t a lot of other items other than a series of diaries, a personal diary and a personal workbook for rituals. He keeps the items that are personal and catalogues all the other items, keeping them for the future when Amos refuses the deal Henry offers. Amos doesn’t believe that it truly is a family legacy and would prefer to keep Megan well and truly away from the supernatural if possible while Henry would rather pass it off if she wants to become a part of that world when the time comes.

Having nearly died several times casting simple protective rituals, Amos is aware of the dangers of even benign spells.

Either way, Henry takes the hoard and hires Dillon to build a secret room and safe for the hoard. Asking Amos for help protecting the stuff, though Henry isn’t able to really describe much about what he needs to protect against. Instead the suggestion comes forth to just buy an iron Conex box to save himself time against several different things along with spritzing dissolved salt on the outside before burying in the backyard. Amos is asked to ward it, giving him some time to at least keep people from peeping at the stuff while admonishing him to get the books stored correctly.

Dillon finds some of Timothy’s old items in Amos’s guest room, several knives, a firearm or two, a nice jacket, and a photograph of a young Timothy and his brother. While the jacket is too small for Dillon to wear, he’s able to take the bandoleers from inside the old coat and apply the idea to his own for better knife transportation. Lorenzo then takes Dillon around the city to try to get him acclimated to the place so he doesn’t have to constantly pull out a map he can’t quite read.

Coffeeeeeee and Donuts

Amos, Dillon, Henry, and Lorenzo
The Daily Grind
Saturday, September 1st, 2001, 12:00 pm
290-296 Hanover Street, Boston, MA 02113

While driving around, Dillon sees a headline that reads: “Three Teenagers in coma after Coffee Shop visit.”. All they can comment on is that it’s probably the opposite of what people want in a coffee shop, though Lorenzo doesn’t know too much about it as it’s a recent issue. It’s just a real strange headline and he ends up buying the paper, for two dollars, from the man that approaches him. A really normal looking man.

It looks like after visiting the Daily Grind coffee shop, they went back to MIT and took a nap and never woke up. The coffee shop owners deny any involvement but the doctors are concerned that there may have been something in the coffee shop that could have caused the coma. Lorenzo says that it sounds like some kind of curse, though he doubts it’s from the coffee shop. Dillon seems surprised that Lorenzo could pull that out from what he read in the newspaper. They head back to Hull where they show off the newspaper to Amos who only takes a few seconds to peruse the article and agrees with Lorenzo. Though he doesn’t want to drink coffee, there’s a good chance that they have some pastries.

It seems the shop is only recently open and enjoys using antique equipment for all their stuff, including one of the original espresso machines and doughnut fryers. They head out, finding that the rumors are true, and it’s full of eclectic materials, old tables, old machines, strange scents of coffee and tea. Dillon and Henry get some munchies and hot chocolate, watching the machines. There’re still people in the shop, the newspaper didn’t scare anyone off. They’re mostly students in there now though though Henry still scopes them out while Dillon tries to imitate them. Amos, meanwhile, is still staring at the menu and asks if they have anything in a death flavor.

Lorenzo asks the man vibrating behind the counter about the newspaper article, and the first response is if Lorenzo is a cop or a reporter. No, he’s just a singing medic and was wondering if there was an opening for him to do something. The guy is excited to have him there for a quick set, knowing him for performances in the square and wished that he would have given advance notice. Mentioning the article as being the reason he came in; they tell him that they can’t figure out what happened. There’s been a lot of investigation, checking for irritants and allergens that could have caused it and the boys didn’t even have the same thing. Hot chocolate, tea, and French press coffee. He puts Lorenzo down for a spot later that night, the open mc being between 8 and 10.

Amos, meanwhile, appraises the machines, the espresso machine being worth a lot of money which was lovingly restored. He convinces the guy, Nelson, up front to let him work the machine and makes a cup of coffee on the machine before asking to work around the place since Lorenzo was going to be playing later and word of mouth does spread. He asks to see the rest of the place so he can help out better.

In the intervening time, Henry checks out for any new jobs at the detective agency but there’s nothing. Lorenzo goes home and grabs his gear. Dillon listens to the goings on and is given a really nice doughnut with a peanut butter glaze and chocolate filling.

Lorenzo sets up and plays a couple songs, mesmerized by his voice. People are coming in off the street to listen to his covers. His version of Yesterday makes people weep and he’s tipped generously with both money and little papers full of numbers. Dillon sees a woman with indigo eyes staring at Lorenzo like he’s a piece of meat. Dressed fairly well off, some out of season red dress, Jimmy Choos shoes, lipstick and nail polish that matches her eyes and her skin is the colour of pale moonlight. She notices Dillon watching her, she leans over and lets out a million-megawatt smile at him. He feels weird for a moment, but the feeling passes. Dillon sends a text to Amos about her and he takes a quick look at her, seeing she’s a Sidhe and warns Dillon not to accept any food from her, or drinks, in fact just stay away from her in general. In the end, they make a multi-thousand-dollar night and Nelson invites them back the next day to make even more money.

Dream Demons Keep Singing

Henry
Henry’s House
Saturday, September 2nd, 2001, 11:00 am
37 Brook St, Brookline, MA 02445

During the night, Amos dreams about a very strange teapot, gleaming and singing and whistling. Henry has a strange dream where he’s in a coffee shop with three people, the three from the newspaper article, that have parts of them bitten out of them. Almost seeming unnoticing the problem and not reacting to anything in the world. Henry hears a voice from behind the counter commenting that Henry seems new there and that it can’t wait to see what they taste like. Looking over, he sees a demonic looking being, large, red, has horns. And he cannot wake up. It has to be a dream, but he cannot wake up. Even shooting at the being does nothing as it comes over to take a bite out of him and despite the pain, Henry still can’t wake up.

He prays and before anything else happens, he feels himself being pulled backwards and is in another place. He’s in a hot place, ankle deep in a river, it almost looks like pictures of Africa. There’s a shore not too far away, and in the river there are crocodiles. He submerges himself for a moment before walking ashore. Henry sees a strange man playing on a chessboard that wouldn’t look out of place in a park somewhere and sits down opposite before speaking with them. The man stares at him, almost like he’s being catalogued and dissected, but not in a bad way. Henry offers a game and with a wave of the man’s hand, the pieces reset themselves.

Henry is beaten in only a few moves and the man asks why he’s trying to fight an Akkadian dream demon (a alû). Using the same excuse that men use to climb mountains, the man comments that Henry must not be the brightest of Horus’s kin to try to fight that way, getting a bite taken from himself. Asking for advice, Henry is told that he needs to get the demon to manifest, and agrees to send a few small things his way before Henry wakes up with paramedics on him trying to revive him. He’s not quite in his bed, instead passed out in front of his house. Henry is getting taken to the hospital, tasting copper in his mouth.

Henry calls Amos, telling him there’s some stuff he needs to speak with him a bit. Amos wants to make sure that Henry isn’t being Baker Acted first, but Henry doesn’t seem to want to ask the question so Amos just lets it drop when he mentions the paramedics say he had a heart attack. Next thing he asks is if Henry needs some fresh drawers if he had an accident, but that’s not needed either along with anything else. That’s fine with Amos as he gets on his motorcycle and zooms away while Henry also calls up Lorenzo asking him to come over as well for a friendly face. Dillon accompanies Amos and grabbed some balloons on the way.

Aftermath

Henry doesn’t look quite sane, with eyes darting everywhere and the doctor says he didn’t have a heart attack, just that his heart stopped for some reason that they can’t figure out. An unknown stoppage. Henry tells them that there’s an Akkadian Dream Demon while Amos notices that a piece of Henry’s psyche is missing. Amos slowly moves to poke at the missing bit as Amos asks who told him the name of the opponent. A quick dream interpretation later, Amos deduces that he was speaking with Thoth which makes Henry think more about the comment about Horus. Amos explains that gods are rather mysterious and the things they talk about are mysterious like when he spoke with Anubis and then Hobbes spoke with Anubis. Dillon goes off in search of a vending machine while Amos explains about that encounter.

It doesn’t take long for Lorenzo to sweet talk the hospitalist, Gina Murray, into releasing Henry into their care and she tells Lorenzo to call her if there’s anything. Henry drops by his place to pick up Bishop and then they head for Amos’s place to reconvene.

After Action Report (GM)

Today’s session had it’s speed bumps but it went good. There was a little more chat about between session stuff – which I should have dealt with between sessions – but it worked out ok. The PCs are slowly geling and that’s always a great thing to see. There are some in-game butting heads between characters (the out of game players are not), specifically Amos and Henry, but that’s just a difference of opinion I think. It’ll clear up or scar over eventually, for now it’s some good drama. All the PCs seem to be having fun and I’m really enjoying being back in Ceteri again.

Other Notes

A bonus report can be found here.

Soundtrack

“Runnin’ Down A Dream” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Opening Song)
“Yesterday” by The Beatles
“Dream” by the Pied Pipers (Closing Song)

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