Incarnation (IC Thread)

[baixiwei]

GM Post

The man wraps the blanket around him, apparently only now realizing that he is shivering violently. He continues to blink, cough, and look around in confusion as he answers Vicky and Legba.

"I - I was on a ship -" he points vaguely off north - "The Inquiry. It's a scientific vessel. I don't know anything about the science, though. I just run the boat. The others - they'd developed this new manned submersible that could handle depth pretty well, and we'd sent her down earlier today - Jane, that is, she was inside. She was going down really deep, we were right over the trench, they say it's more'n five miles deep at some points."

The man's shivering has mostly subsided by this time, though he is still in some discomfort from his injuries.

"I was on deck so I didn't see exactly what happened, but I heard Chris down below shouting that the line was going tight ... Jane must've been several miles down by that time ... then we pitched like a mother and I-"

He looks confused.

"It was dark all of a sudden, like a storm coming up, so I - no, that's not right, there was this light, or fire, the ship was on fire, I think, so - no, dammit all, that's not what -"

He becomes increasingly agitated as he clearly fails to remember what apparently happened to him very recently. When he speaks again, it is in a deeper voice, his tone harsh and guttural, almost spitting his words out.

"Fire and darkness, darkness and fire! She lives in the depths, the mother of monsters. Her chains have been broken, her power is rising, her children are coming, flee before her! Flee!!"

With this last, he casts off the blanket violently and looks around feverishly. It seems he might even jump out of the pavilion if not restrained.

Legba, is it OK if I put you with the guy Vicky picked up instead of with the guys on the beach? The reason is that no one else is there except War Prince, and his player is gone for now. I assumed yes and applied your persuasion check to the aforementioned guy instead.

[timothy]

Papa Legba
HP - 1
Condition - uninjured

The old man looks at the others present. His face is the most serious they have seen it in their brief acquaintance.

"I have no idea who or what he's talking about, but it sounds seriously bad. I think we need to find this ship fast..."

As he speaks he gently places the blanket around the man's shoulders. As he works to calm the man, he looks at Paramour.

"Can you do that drink trick to come up with some hot chocolate? It's very good for shock victims."

[Ysariel]

Sun Wukong / Vicky
Condition: Fatigued / HP: 0

Goose pimples rose on Vicky's skin as the man spoke, and not because of the cold. A strange, unsettling feeling washed over her. They were dealing with matters beyond the rational now. If she had been drastically wrong her entire life and gods truly existed, then perhaps so did monsters and demons.

Vicky grabbed the man before he can run off the edge of the pavilion. "Stay calm," she pulled him back, safely away from the precipice, and looked into his eyes. "You said you ran the ship. Do you know anything about where it was going or what course was set?" A pause. "We're going to stop whatever's causing this - and save your ship and Jane."

Despite the brave words, she felt a lot less confident inside. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong's one big weakness was fighting underwater.

[Lord Fell]

Paramour

As a precaution against a potential jumper, Paramour adds windows to her pavilion. There is a faint pink cast to the "glass" which should keep everyone from accidentally walking into it.

Paramour picks up a silver tureen with steam rising from it, and pours chocolate into a heavy ceramic goblet. Wordlessly she hands the drink to Papa Legba.

"How many people were on this boat? How many monsters are about to hit the shore?" Paramour gazes back towards the beleaguered port city. Idly she dips a finger into the silver pitcher, coating the digit with chocolate. Then, ever so slowly she sucks the hot chocolate off her finger.

"Those people were told to evacuate or take cover, or whatever. They'd better be doing that, and keep doing that until we tell'em different."

Despite the brave words, she felt a lot less confident inside. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong's one big weakness was fighting underwater.

Almost as if Ronnie and Vicky are on the same wavelength, Paramour continues to speak. "I feel like I've been... Uplifted, I guess, for a more noble purpose than just getting people to buy me nice things. I'm scared. Honest. I'm scared to take on a being that seems to be a whole other magnitude stronger than we are... I am, at least. And I'm scared about what might happen if we fail. Maybe I'm more scared of failing. So... I guess that means I need to do this."

Veronica lets her eyes and thoughts dwell on Michael. Is he like us? Does the belief-system surrounding the Seraphim place them in a similar position in the collective sociological thoughts of humanity to the old gods of mythology? Or, should I have paid more attention in Sunday School? So what is it? Is this a a normal man who is manifesting as the Archangel Michael, or is this the Archangel Michael manifesting as the servant of God? Do I want to know? If the Judeo Christian God is real, what does that make us? What did that make Venus, who's visage and powers I wield?

I'm kind of hoping that her profession as a writer gives Veronica some knowledge of things like Mythology and Theology. Writer (1d20+6=13). Meh... Untrained Int (1d20+3=10) meh.
I'm gonna burn a Luck to Reroll: Int; Luck Reroll (1d20+3=11) -which scales to a 21.

Paramour is thinking about the phrase "mother of monsters" and wondering if it applies to a specific deity. Sounds Miskatonic to Paramour's player. She's also having a existential crisis in regards to Michael. Paramour's background screams out Lapsed Catholic to me... so I'm hoping for information on either or both topics.

[baixiwei]

GM Post

Together, the three manage to calm the man down and keep him from jumping out. His fervor subsides, and he drinks the hot chocolate eagerly.

"You said you ran the ship. Do you know anything about where it was going or what course was set?"

"I had better know that, I was the captain!" Even in his distress the man still has some professional pride. "We were out of San Juan, going to stay above the trench for a few days running tests, and then come back."

"How many people were on this boat? How many monsters are about to hit the shore?"

"Monsters? What are you - Oh my god!"

He seems to notice Paramour's pet dragon for the first time, and it takes the group some time to restrain him and calm him down once again. Once this is done, he continues: "There were only seven of us on board, including me and Jane. Well, Jane wasn't on board when this happened." He seems to have no memory of his time as a dragon, nor is he aware of the sea monsters.

I keep forgetting but this time I remembered: everyone have 1 HP for victory over the dragons.

Paramour is thinking about the phrase "mother of monsters" and wondering if it applies to a specific deity. Sounds Miskatonic to Paramour's player. She's also having a existential crisis in regards to Michael. Paramour's background screams out Lapsed Catholic to me... so I'm hoping for information on either or both topics.

Let's see, I'll give you one piece of info for each degree of success over 10, with higher degrees granting more useful information.

1. "Mother of monsters" was the main antagonist in a recent season of the Supernatural TV series, in which she figured as the literal progenitor of all evil supernatural things. Lilith of Judeo-Christian culture was said to be the origin of demons.

2. The phrase was also often attached to the monster Echidna of Greek mythology, mother of the gorgon, the chimera, and the hydra (among many others) via her union with the monster Typhon, "father of winds".

3. Regarding Michael, you ask difficult and important questions which are hard to answer usefully without giving too much away. Michael looks like a real angel. On the other hand, Paramour looks like the real Venus. He speaks and acts like a human. Many Christian saints had their origins in older pagan deities, and the same may have been true of angels - so, conversely, it would make sense for angels to be empowered humans like the rest of you pagan divinities. If Michael is an empowered human like the rest of you, he seems noticeably more powerful.

[CaptainChaos]

Amaterasu

Kimi listens to the explanation the man gives them. The others are worried. Hell, she was scared to death. All this was still fairly new to her. She wasn't even sure just what her abilities were other than flying, creating sunlight, and a couple of other things. If someone or something was turning people into monsters, what chance did they have against that? It wasn't that long ago that she was just another passenger on a cruise ship and now here she was standing with incarnations of several deities.

"What can we possibly do against someone or something with that kind of power?"

[Ysariel]

Sun Wukong / Vicky
Condition: Fatigued / HP: 1-1 = 0

"Fight it," Vicky said, turning to Amaterasu with fire in her eyes. "It's a sea monster, right? Sounds like you got the people in the city to evacuate, so let's try to lure it on land and fight it there."

Vicky put one elbow on her knee and looked skyward as she thought. "We need a point of reference here," she said. "Where's San Juan, where's this city relative to it, and what trench are you talking about?" She reached up and yanked out another strand of hair - at this rate, I'm going to be a monk before long, came the wry thought - then puffed on it. With a poof, it turned into a sheet of folded-up paper that floated gently into the palm of her hand.

Burn 1 HP for inspiration.

Vicky wants some clues on what course of action would save as many people as possible.

She's also trying to Create a map of the local area (without knowing what 'local area' is). If Innate, Precise create doesn't let you create stuff that you don't know at least general details about (and it probably doesn't), could she get a blank piece of paper and a pencil instead?

[baixiwei]

"It's a sea monster, right? Sounds like you got the people in the city to evacuate, so let's try to lure it on land and fight it there."

The other characters can reply as they wish, but just to be clear, Vicky has no way of knowing this but in point of fact, the city is certainly not evacuated. People took shelter from the hurricane which probably means they're inside buildings on the highest floor they could get to. Even if they had evacuated, there's nowhere to go except elsewhere on the island. Planes are certainly grounded in the storm and only large ships could move through it safely.

"Where's San Juan, where's this city relative to it, and what trench are you talking about?"

That's common knowledge so I'll give it for free - San Juan IS the city just south of you, and the trench most likely refers to the Puerto Rico Trench, one of the deepest parts of the ocean, which lies north of the island of Puerto Rico.

Burn 1 HP for inspiration. Vicky wants some clues on what course of action would save as many people as possible.

Hm, here are some ideas. There are basically three things I can imagine you all doing here. (1) is evacuating the island. That seems like an organizational nightmare but maybe you all could think of a way. (2) is defending the beach, and (3) is going after the source, probably located at the ship. (3) seems better than (2) because the latter is only a stopgap, although I could see an argument for either. Michael might be able to do singlehandedly whichever one you all don't do.

Three other things. Hurricanes have centers - maybe not a bad place to look. Paramour has a potentially quite useful power in this situation. Attempting communion with the gods whom you incarnate might result in something interesting happening.

[Plan B]

Sorry if i've been quite.

Thor

Dragons dealt with, Thor rode the storm, enjoying the energy and power. Before dropping down to the pavilion.

"I can't stop the storm, i think, i could make it a whole lot worse. If it helps." Thor said looking slightly embarrassed. "So whats the deal with armoured and angelic?"

[timothy]

Papa Legba
HP - 2
Condition - thinking

"The way I see it, we have three choices.

"We can just go home. That would, however, be immensely bad.

"We can go back to the beach and fight giant sea monsters until we are exhausted. This would be pointless.

"We can go find this ship and see what is going on there. This would be the most direct action, but could. quite possibly, get us all eaten."

He reaches up and currls his mustache tips, before smiling broadly.

"Putting it, that way, I don't see us having much of a choice after all.

"If we do all end up eaten, five dollars says I beat you all to the cloaca..."

He laughs suddenly and unexpectedly...

[Lord Fell]

Paramour

Paramour nods in agreement. "That's about how I see it."

She lowers her hands, and the pavilion starts to descend, and you can see she is bringing the pink palace back towards the beach. "I need to confer with my adoring subjects. With any luck, they can give us eyes on the situation."

Once the pavilion comes to rest (away form where the sea monsters were emerging, thank you ever so much!) Paramour gestures towards the wall which is facing the waves, and an archway opens up, with a staircase leading down into the wash. Paramour descends the stairs and stands in the surf. "Hello, my little friends!"

There is a ripple in the water... as it seems to turn green... as far as the eye can see, the choppy waves have taken on an emerald cast.

Anyone following her out, can see that the Dragon is perched on the roof of the pavilion, and is staring after Paramour with big googly eyes.

Happy little algae! Tell me your rumours! Paramour will take a 10 on Persuasion for a +30 total.

[Ysariel]

Sun Wukong / Vicky
Condition: Fatigued / HP: 0

Vicky let the paper fade away as she realized that San Juan was, actually, the city she'd crash-landed in and shrugged at Thor. "I don't know, but he was a big help against the dragons," she said. "And you're probably right," Vicky nodded at Legba. "But I'm going to try not to get eaten just yet." She watched Paramour land the structure like some sort of bizarre fantasy-themed flying saucer, open an archway in it and walk out into the surf. Vicky followed, half in curiosity and half to guard against anything that might attack from the sea. To her surprise, the sea was visibly turning green as far as the eye could see, like an algal bloom. Vicky blinked. Those are her adoring subjects? Above her, the dragon was watching its mistress from the roof with eyes as big as saucers.

Eyes...

"I just thought of something," Vicky blurted out as she ran back into the pavilion. "The center of a hurricane is its eye, right? We've been searching for the ship all this while. But if this business began with the ship, doesn't it make sense to search the eye of the hurricane first?"

[Ysariel]

Sun Wukong / Vicky
Condition: Fatigued / HP: 0

"Which is what I'm going to do." Vicky's eyes darted to Michael. "Michael, do you think you could hold off the sea monsters to buy us and the city some time? Based on how the fight with the dragons went, you're the best fighter here. If anyone can hold them off single-handedly, it's you."

And with that, Vicky was off on the somersault cloud, soaring through the wind and rain again. This time, though, she had an inkling of where to look. Up, up through the cloud layer she went, higher and higher until she burst through the roof of the storm and was sailing through clear, thin air above the hurricane...

I know nothing about meteorology, but I'm guessing that if you flew high enough above the cloud layer you should be able to fairly easily gauge where the direction of a hurricane's eye is. Here's a perception check in case I need one.

Perception check (1d20+5=14)

[baixiwei]

GM Post

"I can't stop the storm, i think, i could make it a whole lot worse. If it helps." Thor said looking slightly embarrassed. "So whats the deal with armoured and angelic?"

Vicky let the paper fade away as she realized that San Juan was, actually, the city she'd crash-landed in and shrugged at Thor. "I don't know, but he was a big help against the dragons."

Hovering near the pavilion, his wings beating gently and seemingly unaffected by the gale that should, by all rights, be blowing him every which way, Michael bows his head in greeting to Thor. "I am the Archangel Michael," he replies. "It was my honor to assist you in the recent battle, and I hope to do whatever I can to protect those on the island from the dangers that still threaten them. I believe I could hold off that horde -" He points with the flaming brand in his right hand at the apparent army of sea monsters that is now quite close to the beach - "for some time, if you all have an idea for how to reach a more permanent solution."

Paramour descends the stairs and stands in the surf. "Hello, my little friends!"

There is a ripple in the water... as it seems to turn green... as far as the eye can see, the choppy waves have taken on an emerald cast.

This is the first time Paramour has tried this with something as small as algae. They "sound" in her mind more like a mindless twitter and buzz than the clear voices she is used to from flowers and trees. But "listening" for a moment, she realizes that there is a rhythm to the buzz, an ebb and flow like the timeless cycle of the waves - meaning emerges from this rhythm, comprehensible only at the level of the group, not that of the individual. Of course, the "voice" of a near infinite number of tiny plants speaks a language no human but Paramour could understand, but if rendered into English, it would say: "A ship many miles north of the island sent part of itself down into the depths, even deeper than any of our kind could survive, a place where the sun's light cannot reach. Not long after, something came back up - a woman, inhumanly large, with the body of a snake. Her flesh brought rot and death to all of us that touched her. She reached the ship and boarded it, and shortly after, five great beasts flew away from it, and a great storm arose all around - leaving the ship itself in peace, however. None are left aboard the ship save the snake-woman, who remains there, coiled around the ship's prow, leaching a black poison into the waves. ... The sea monsters that threaten the island now were formerly ordinary sea creatures - crabs, fish, and the like - which, having been touched by the woman's poison, have grown to monstrous size and temperament."

And with that, Vicky was off on the somersault cloud, soaring through the wind and rain again. This time, though, she had an inkling of where to look. Up, up through the cloud layer she went, higher and higher until she burst through the roof of the storm and was sailing through clear, thin air above the hurricane...

The feeling is exhilarating, for a girl who not long ago was an ordinary human, to dance with hurricane-force winds and swim through clouds. Nevertheless the driving rain leaves Vicky a bit bedraggled, and she cannot suppress a sneeze and shiver as she emerges above the store, several miles high. The storm is huge, looking like a great gray continent from this perspective. Many more miles to the north, she can see the hurricane's eye. Lightning plays around its perimeter, more often than elsewhere in the storm, creating the unsettling impression that it is not merely a metaphorical but an actual eye, turning its baleful electric gaze in her direction.

Sorry for the delay - some family stuff this weekend - and thanks for the bump, Ysariel. Probably realistically you couldn't see the eye without search or extended vision, but I figure you'd find it eventually so why drag things out.

[Lord Fell]

Paramour

Standing in the surf, barely concealed by her bikini and her hair, the only thing missing is a giant clam shell.

Paramour's voice seems to roar and rumble, although she is not very loud. It is akin the sound of a distant surf. She waves to the ocean, and the green hue fades in the waves.

"There is not much under the waves that the Algae do not see... and they like me. I was right, essentially. This Mother of Monsters is probably... Jane. She went down into the trench in a diving bell, and came back half serpent."

"I think we're a missing a person. There was a total crew of seven on the ship, five became dragons. One has become... one is Jane. The other is unaccounted for. Uhm... mythologically speaking Jane may have become Echidna, a Greek Goddess, her mate was Typhon and their children were monsters. Alternatively, she may have become Lilith, first companion to Adam before she was replaced by Eve. She spawned demons."

She gazes at Michael a bit, obviously thinking. Finally, she asks "Michael, were you sent by Vox Dei to fight the wiles of Lilith?"

Paramour gestures out to sea. "The Algae tell me that the sea monsters are corrupted, or converted natural sea life, crabs and fish... and that the serpent woman is pouring more poison into the water -she'll keep making more until she's stopped." Turning to her dragon, she beckons to it, and it lowers its head down so that she can pet its nose again. "Will you go with Michael? Help him stem the tide of sea monsters?"

Covering a lot of ground tonight...
I figure the Sea Monsters, with Michael on the case, are a "relatively low" risk, and although Paramour was having an ethical dilemma about killing the sea monsters (if they were people) and a similar dilemma about using the Dragon to fight... her final thought on the subject is that the Dragon is uplifted just like the Incarnations are, and can (and should) assume the same duties and responsibilities towards non-uplifted people.