The Chronicles of Ceteri B-Team: Season 3, Session 5 – Java and an Exorcism

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 . . .

When the group gets to Amos’s home, Amos spends several hours crafting herbals to help protect people inside their dreams while the rest are discussing things upstairs. Dillon brings up that they’re putting people in danger by bringing people into the bar and that the alu, the Akkadian dream demon, had made the coffee shop its hunting ground. They keep discussing what they can do to deal with the demon while on their way to The Daily Grind.

Coffeeeeeee and Donuts

Amos, Dillon, Henry, and Lorenzo
The Daily Grind
Sunday, September 2nd, 2001, 6:30 pm
290-296 Hanover Street, Boston, MA 02113

The shop is packed full of fans waiting for Lorenzo, Amos asks if he brought a disguise, and if not then let them go in first where Dillon gets pulled out of line and offered a peppermint tea experiment. He declines and gets some hot chocolate and a doughnut of the day which was minty with a sour cream glaze. Looking behind the bars, they have eight people behind the bar just doing everything. Dillon watches them make his hot chocolate trying to pay attention to what kettle they use.

Lorenzo goes to do a sound check, fans shouting out for a performance of Freebird. Henry grabs a table for himself and anyone that joins him, After Dillon finishes his doughnut, he subtly ditches the untouched hot chocolate into a nearby bush. Amos goes to check to see if they need another set of hands behind the bar and is immediately pulled behind the bar and set to the kettle station. Amos stares suspiciously at the kettles with one kettle looking suspiciously back, nicely filigreed and decorated and worth at least ten grand and reminding him of the teakettle from his dream.

Amos tries to get the teakettle away from the crowd while James keeps saying that it’s his favourite kettle. A moment later, a voice comes from James that isn’t quite right asking “Mortal, what are you doing?” and Amos just asks if that what they do with all new hires before going back to playing three card monty with the kettles. Trying to deform it, he empties it a bit and sets it on high for it to boil, using the remaining hot water to make a cup of tea before going back to “refill” the kettle. James catches Amos trying to hide it among other kettles and reverts back to the possessed voice while Amos asks about hazing and if James is coming onto him.

This mentally breaks the demon possessing James who starts to drool green slime before his head rotates 180 degrees. Dillon sees this and comes over with Henry who immediate drag him outside and they debate how to cure him. Amos discovers that garlic up the nose doesn’t help at all, and a holy water capsule causes him to scream and bleed from orifices. Dillon and Henry pull him behind the shop while Amos goes back in to work to find that all the patrons and employees have turned to face Lorenzo with blank eyes and demanding a very old song which Lorenzo plays for them. Amos pulls the screaming kettles off the range while watching the possessed crowd.

Dillon keeps James down while Henry run back into the shop to see the trouble with the folks. Henry asks Amos what is going on and since Lorenzo probably didn’t get another cult following him, it’s safe to assume it’s demonic possession. There’s a possibility of doing an exorcism, and thankfully Amos has prepared the ancient Babylonian texts needed for proper exorcism. After letting Dillon back in through the back door, Amos grabs the teakettle, the cup of tea, and enters into the freezer with them.

Dillon and Henry debate how long it might take as Amos starts setting up the area inside the freezer to isolate himself from everyone else. He uses the exorcism rites and attempts to speed things up. The effects are obvious immediately when the crowd turns and scrambles towards the freezer. Lorenzo draws some away using microphone feedback while Dillon intimidates some of them, but is told that the Son of Cain cannot hold them back before they rush again. Henry and Dillon pushing them back, Henry getting grappled by three of them. The crowd collapses before they can do anything else.

Lorenzo immediately tends to James while Henry looks around. The crowd is clearly unconscious as Henry sorts them out. Amos is able to tell that he was able to seal the demon back into the teakettle while Lorenzo does triage on the unconscious people. Amos grabs a hefty bag and draws some anti-curse symbols on it and tells the kettle that he’s still not into it when it starts screaming in Amos’s mind. Getting over 10 thousand dollars from the music the previous night, he figures that they probably paid for the kettle in value, especially since Amos wasn’t getting paid for his work.

Lorenzo and Dillon stay on scene while the medics and fire department arrive. Henry checks out the hospital. Hauling back to the shop, Amos shoves the kettle into an anti-curse box, at the same time the victims wake up.

Meeting everyone back at their place, Dillon ask’s what is meant by Son of Cain and can only reply that Cain was the father of murder and had a lot of kids. The mark given means he can’t die so his bloodline is still on earth and that they tend to be bad people. Psychopaths, murderers. . . Their bloodline might give them some special abilities.

Aftermath

Amos does go back to the shop the next day, orders a Death by Coffee and doughnut and asks where they got the awesome teakettle. Apparently a man dropped by and just gave it to them when they opened their store. Not much else, Amos drinks the Death by Coffee and starts vibrating and they’re interested at his request for a second one. He swears he’s getting used to it when he cleans up the spills. While Amos is poisoning himself, Henry and Dillon start exercising together, keeping fairly paced on a morning run.

After Action Report (GM)

This session was just a blast. The PCs realized how screwed they were and then turned it around on the bad guys. The PCs worked as a team without realizing it and I was secretly very happy about this even though they kind of breezed through the obstacles I’d put before them. There is some animosity between Amos and Henry, but I think that’s starting to wind down as the two of them get to know one another. This was the second spirit haunting an object plot I did and the next one is going to be different. I’ve a few ideas. We’ll see how that goes. They did discover that someone is handing out the cursed object’s from Friendly’s shop instead of victims just finding them.

Other Notes

This was a short session (about 3 hours) as I had an upset stomach toward the end.

A bonus report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Emily Browning (Opening Song)
“Releasing the Demons” by Godsmack
“Dream a Little Dream of Me” by Doris Day (Closing Song)

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