Session Two (Book One)
Act One - The Summoning
Scene Four - On the Road
After the fight, the group reaches the next town, where they rest for the night at a more friendly inn. Right around dusk, however, Arnulf of Clan Gangrel, sire of Mitru, stages a raid to burn their building materials and steal all of their money. The group is somewhat at a loss as to what should happen now...
After the fires are out, a stranger rides into town, and introduces himself as Myca Vykos, an influential Tzimisce of the area. Myca offers escort to Bistritz, where he is to meet with Count Radu regarding a diplomatic arrangement. The group agrees after some debate, and they travel to Bistritz with no further problems.
Scene Five - Meeting with Radu
Upon arrival in Bistritz, the group proceeds with Vykos to Radu's castle, a large manse atop the hill which overlooks the town. There, Radu tells the characters to wait while he and Vykos (the real people in charge) conduct their business. After a brief interlude, Radu returns and debriefs the characters on their adventures so far.
They explain truthfully what has happened (Radu had already learned as much from Vykos), and propose a plan to gain new wealth to replace the lost gold. The group will split - Jafar, Qa'lon, Sebastian, and Mikhail will go west, to raid a Tremere chantry, while the rest of the group (Teresa, Pavel, Verdo, and Malik) will go east, to the Tihuta Pass, and establish a presence at the ruins.
While Radu is seriously disappointed at the group's inability to hold on to money, he is quite impressed by the way the group handled Mitru and Wulfar, and is ecstatic over the plan to raid the chantry (he wants to expand his occult library). He gives his blessing, and sends a few additional ghouls to assist in the raid.
For the story behind The Raid of Kelargen, go to the Side Quests page.
Scene Six - The Ruins
This scene formed the finale of the Second Session, as the group split in two, and the main quest continues with Teresa, Pavel, Malik, and Verdo.
After two or three days of travel, the group begins the ascent of the Tihuta Pass, a torturous uphill switchback that forms the only viable connection from northern Transylvania to Turkey. After a full day's climb, the characters reach the summit, where a ruined tower sits on a solid stone foundation. As they near the tower, their attention is called to two sputtering torches stuck into the dirt atop the foundation, and a lone figure using a simple stick to dig down to the base. The sounds of a hymn sung rather off-key and discordant rise into the night...
As the group tries to get a closer look, Teresa is stopped by another figure coming out of the shadows, a Lasombra like herself. These two are Anatole, a French Malkavian who believes himself to be a prophet of God, and Lucita, a Lasombra who happens to be the childe of Teresa's own patron... Anatole begins to declaim a prophecy to the group.
After the introductions are completed, these two groups realize they have a common goal - the writings hidden below the foundation. After working most of the night, the characters unearth a stairway leading into the basement, where Sherazina tells of her family's possession of this tower many years ago. She leads them to a hidden door in the basement, which leads into a small library, stuffed with scrolls. 13 clay tablets gather dust in the corner. Beneath those tablets lies the key to their translation, a golden disc which forms a primitive translation wheel. These tablets are the first clue to the future of the world... and to Gehenna. For their contents, see the prophecy page.
As they decipher the tablets and begin their construction, workers start to disappear from the site. Strange tales of demons carrying them off circulate among the workers, lowering morale and slowing down the construction. Everyone wonders who is to be next...
Finally the group gets concrete information on where the missing workers were taken. They climb nearly to the peak of the mountain, where they discover a strange garden of statues, guarded by a mother and her childe...
Members of the lost Gorgon* bloodline, and thouroughly insane, these demented individuals gather the statues of their victims, forming a group of friends that can never argue or fight. After a bloody battle, where one of the party's ghouls was entranced into playing with a stone bunny (don't ask...), the Gorgons were defeated and diablerized, with all members save for Malik having drank their way down at least one generation.
Finally, the entire group reforms at the fortress, taking inventory of the items stolen from the chantry, and presenting the one Tremere teacher that they had saved for the group to Malik, thereby taking everyone to greater power.
* Gorgons created by Belladonna
Next Week... Night Visitor...
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Continue to Session Three,
Go back to Session One,
Travel to the Main Page,
View the Prophecies Page,
or check out the Characters Page.
