Out of Character (OOC):
Flashes of Lucidity
You are floating near the ceiling of a small, dark cavern. It smells of salt and urine. You look down and see a group of bodies sprawled on the floor. The bodies are arranged around a gilded alter-like construction, from which a jeweled rod juts. You try to touch the corpse’s face, bit you hand slips into the sweaty skin, bone to brain. You yank you hand back, take a deep meaningless non-breath into the protection of your body – into the idea of your lungs – and let the breath out.
The chamber is only light by a soft golden light. Your Astral body clings to the low, jagged ceiling of the cave like smoke. Piled on rocks below you are your friend’s bodies. They lie like dead leaves around the stump of a stone alter from which juts a narrow, delicate scepter dressed in jewels.
The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal that changes to a helixed dragon made from white jade. The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow. The staff glows golden light across the chamber. It is in a round glass vitrine (case).
You recognize the altar, the deep glyphs cut into it. You recognize the scepter, the way it vibrates like a plucked string around its ensconcement. You recognize the faces of your friends but don’t have names or words for any of it. You don’t know where you are or who these people really are. You’re sure, though, that the body below you is you.
You float down to the floor of the cave, next to your corpse, and lean in as close as you can. You watch a dwindling sphere of sweat run from the eyebrow, over the eyelid, to the lashes, where the sweat hangs for a long second, and then spends itself into nothing, running down the cheek into the ear.
The body move. It’s a twitch, a flutter, then follows a thin, wet breath. Your body is still alive. They’re all alive. There is still time… The bodies are breathing shallowly but appear comatose. They seem dehydrated and emaciated, and have voided their bladders. You realize these are the real selves of your friends and you. You are not really in Sutterton Farms. You are in a cave somewhere, and you are dying helplessly.
Flashback Sequences
1. You all bash open an old wooden door and enter the salt cave. After winding passages of gently ridged walls and sandy floors you reach a central chamber. You pass a broken piece of wood with the Death’s Head of Nazi Germany’s SS. You advance slowly on the Scepter. It is glowing gold, filling the chamber with light. It is encased in a glass vitrine. Chimera carefully checks the area for spells and booby traps. After some discussion Templeton casts a spell on the case, Jack is ready to counter spell. Then Witness raises his Kunai to break the case. The golden light flares and with a flash everyone suffers painful convulsions. You see yourselves falling to the floor around the Scepter, twisted with pain. The Hand of Glory falls from Reaper’s fingers and goes out. Fade to Gold.
2. You all, in cool black paramilitary gear, burst out of an elevator, to confront a group of startled security guards, Seer servitors. They shout something in German. With a flash of spell work the guards freeze in place. Chimera pulls out a tattered map and checks it with a flashlight, and head to an old wooden door further in the basement of whatever modern building you are in… Reaper still carries the hand of a pickled thief into the darkness. Pass bomb-disposal robots and machines with extensible arms.
3. You cut your way through a chain-link fence. It’s night. Behind the fence is a lonely, decrepit-looking industrial or military complex. It looks abandoned. It’s cold and damp outside. The surrounding area is forested. The signage on the fence is in German (Private Property: Trespassers Will be Prosecuted). Chimera pops open the case and hands the hand to a squeamish Reaper. Reaper carefully, and with disgust, uses a lighter to light the fingers of the hand and holds it in front of him. The smell of burning fat fills the air as does greasy black smoke.
4. The group emerges, shaken (and a little worse for the wear) from the wreckage of a van. Reaper checks the driver. He is a thin, bald man in a black turtleneck (you guys really went for it) sweater and torn jeans. He’s also very dead, his neck broken, his face bloodied. Beside him is a metal briefcase. After a short debate, Chimera picks up the locked suitcase and moves towards a chain link fence.
5. The group sits in the back of a van, driven by the same thin bald man as before. He has an unappealingly lumpy head and thick neck, not that it helped him later. He is chain-smoking French cigarettes and is singing old Soviet propaganda songs. The van drives down the middle of a muddy road in the early twilight, through a temperate forest. Suddenly there is an explosion under the tires. The van flies up into the air and corkscrews into the ditch.
6. The group gets out of a cab and waits in the front of an abandoned looking inn. The signs are all in German. A van drives up. The bald man gets out. The group gives him the metal briefcase. He opens it; it contains a heavily tattooed human hand. A Hand of Glory. The man examines the hand, nods, and users the group into the van.
7. The group enters a cluttered antique shop. A sour-faced, obese, older woman looks at you through a strange spyglass. Eventually, she nods and invites you into an even more cluttered backroom. She hands them the briefcase and the map to a deserted road in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish coast.
8. The group moves through the streets of what seems to be a German city. Having just evaded a troupe of suspicious-looking street performers, who looked at the group a little too intently, you wander until they find the antique shop they are looking for. You stride purposefully in.
9. Gawain Unremarkable man, wearing a beige autumn commuter’s jacket and clothing for travel. Gaunt and roguishly unkempt. Jeans and hiking boots, white V-neck shirt, Neck-length black hair with a fair amount of gray, dark eyes, and narrow facial features. Has a shoulder pack (satchel) slung over one shoulder and the coat has quite a few pockets. Gawain was your contact, tells you that he has a lead on the Scepter they are looking for. All they have to do is meet with an ally in the northern German city of Kiel. Gawain pulls out a Polaroid camera covered in sigils and starts taking everyone’s pictures, one at a time. The pictures come out and he takes them, one by one, and writes their shadow names on each picture. “I’m not sure what it means, but I have it on good authority that there is an apparent risk that you’ll lose yourselves. So here’s a reminder of who you are.” Once he has added a magic seal to each he hands them out to each of you. You look at your photo in the poorly lit room. You see your image. You see your Shadow Name. You see your NAME glowing on your Watchtower. YOU REMEMBER! (All your memories come flooding back).
The Final Dream
You’re back in Sutton Farms… but as yourselves. The ground shakes and the Scepter, in its true form, towers like a Watchtower over the town. Then you are taken out of time and meaning… You see the bastion of the supernal in the fallen world, the ancient city. It looks decidedly Greek but the climate is more European. The intensity of this place is staggering. The ancient peasants live in poverty and squalor. There is trash, blood and shit in the streets.
Close to the center of the city now is an arrangement of columned temples made from marble, chalcedony and obsidian. At the top of the hill in the center of the city is a square Parthenon-looking temple, made of pure white marble and statues of Greek Gods, all the greats.
Inside the temple throne room of the Dethroned Queen… the temple’s interior is crafter from snow white marble, ocean blue stones and bright white gold. It has a domed roof overhead and light dances as if reflected off of water. The room hums with power, a Supernal Verge so strong its overwhelming.
The Queen sits upon her throne. She has a crown upon her head. A familiar looking robe covers her body and she holds a bell clapper in one hand and a royal scepter in the other. The Queen looks Greek or Roman with curly black hair bound up tightly above her head and framing her face. The crown is a circlet of 10 gemstones, dangling earrings of pearls and white gold metals. Looks a lot like Audrey Hepburn actually… The bell clapper has the same 10 stones.
The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal (Thaumium) that changes to a helixed dragon made from white semitransparent jade (True White Jade). The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow.
Two mages stand before her on either side of her massive throne, they argue in Atlantean. You can only pick up some words in High Speech, symbols: They are arguing about the nature of power and control. Their forces are armed behind them on either side. They are trying to decide how the Fallen World should be ruled.
With the woman stand warriors with Spartan plumes in rudy gold (Orihalcum) and reflective mirror shields (Thaumium) armed with spears, tridents and glowing swords. They can cut through hope, memory, anything.
With the man stand robed priests and priestesses covered in sigils, staves, wands, swords, chalices, and disks. They were Egyptian-looking crowns (pshents).
The Emissary… is a tall aquiline woman. She stands with the warriors in shiny armor. She has long curly red hair that flows to the small of her back. She has burning green eyes. She is the Queen’s Advisor. Her name is Aldones. Her robes burn with an inner light. (She was an Acanthus Archmage)
The Arbitor… is a dark-haired and stern-looking man with a strong jaw. His eyes are fearful. He is the Queen’s Priest and stands with the other Priests. His name is Neotalba. He is a Mastigos Archmaster.
The argument escalates quickly, emotionally. The Queen says something.. True. But you cannot hear it. Her name burns above the Throne. Both sides suddenly break into conflict and an epic magic battle begins. Time slows as the battle begins.
"Who?"
“You should know. HER. She is here with me right now."
“You’ve encountered two of the Regalia already. You’ve all been spiritually entangled. Can’t you feel it? Haven’t you had the dreams yet? My role here is minor, but I play my part. I played my part (apparently) when I left the Ring with the Horsemen. Sorry about that. This entanglement can’t touch them, they are exempt. You are not.”
“She wants to see if you can get the third of the Regalia. She wants to see if you are the chosen ones to receive the gifts of the Queen, to fulfill her purpose, to follow the path she laid behind her for others to follow. You must keep the Regalia from the hands of the Adversary."
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
The following are flashes of lucidity during our recent plot, The Scepter, part three of the Mage 2 Chronicle main story arc: The Dethroned Queen, an implementation of the Reign of the Exarchs sourcebook. Starring Jack, Chimera, Templeton, Witness, Ikiyouyou, and Reaper.
Flashes of Lucidity
The chamber is only light by a soft golden light. Your Astral body clings to the low, jagged ceiling of the cave like smoke. Piled on rocks below you are your friend’s bodies. They lie like dead leaves around the stump of a stone alter from which juts a narrow, delicate scepter dressed in jewels.
The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal that changes to a helixed dragon made from white jade. The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow. The staff glows golden light across the chamber. It is in a round glass vitrine (case).
You recognize the altar, the deep glyphs cut into it. You recognize the scepter, the way it vibrates like a plucked string around its ensconcement. You recognize the faces of your friends but don’t have names or words for any of it. You don’t know where you are or who these people really are. You’re sure, though, that the body below you is you.
You float down to the floor of the cave, next to your corpse, and lean in as close as you can. You watch a dwindling sphere of sweat run from the eyebrow, over the eyelid, to the lashes, where the sweat hangs for a long second, and then spends itself into nothing, running down the cheek into the ear.
The body move. It’s a twitch, a flutter, then follows a thin, wet breath. Your body is still alive. They’re all alive. There is still time… The bodies are breathing shallowly but appear comatose. They seem dehydrated and emaciated, and have voided their bladders. You realize these are the real selves of your friends and you. You are not really in Sutterton Farms. You are in a cave somewhere, and you are dying helplessly.
Flashback Sequences
1. You all bash open an old wooden door and enter the salt cave. After winding passages of gently ridged walls and sandy floors you reach a central chamber. You pass a broken piece of wood with the Death’s Head of Nazi Germany’s SS. You advance slowly on the Scepter. It is glowing gold, filling the chamber with light. It is encased in a glass vitrine. Chimera carefully checks the area for spells and booby traps. After some discussion Templeton casts a spell on the case, Jack is ready to counter spell. Then Witness raises his Kunai to break the case. The golden light flares and with a flash everyone suffers painful convulsions. You see yourselves falling to the floor around the Scepter, twisted with pain. The Hand of Glory falls from Reaper’s fingers and goes out. Fade to Gold.
2. You all, in cool black paramilitary gear, burst out of an elevator, to confront a group of startled security guards, Seer servitors. They shout something in German. With a flash of spell work the guards freeze in place. Chimera pulls out a tattered map and checks it with a flashlight, and head to an old wooden door further in the basement of whatever modern building you are in… Reaper still carries the hand of a pickled thief into the darkness. Pass bomb-disposal robots and machines with extensible arms.
3. You cut your way through a chain-link fence. It’s night. Behind the fence is a lonely, decrepit-looking industrial or military complex. It looks abandoned. It’s cold and damp outside. The surrounding area is forested. The signage on the fence is in German (Private Property: Trespassers Will be Prosecuted). Chimera pops open the case and hands the hand to a squeamish Reaper. Reaper carefully, and with disgust, uses a lighter to light the fingers of the hand and holds it in front of him. The smell of burning fat fills the air as does greasy black smoke.
4. The group emerges, shaken (and a little worse for the wear) from the wreckage of a van. Reaper checks the driver. He is a thin, bald man in a black turtleneck (you guys really went for it) sweater and torn jeans. He’s also very dead, his neck broken, his face bloodied. Beside him is a metal briefcase. After a short debate, Chimera picks up the locked suitcase and moves towards a chain link fence.
5. The group sits in the back of a van, driven by the same thin bald man as before. He has an unappealingly lumpy head and thick neck, not that it helped him later. He is chain-smoking French cigarettes and is singing old Soviet propaganda songs. The van drives down the middle of a muddy road in the early twilight, through a temperate forest. Suddenly there is an explosion under the tires. The van flies up into the air and corkscrews into the ditch.
6. The group gets out of a cab and waits in the front of an abandoned looking inn. The signs are all in German. A van drives up. The bald man gets out. The group gives him the metal briefcase. He opens it; it contains a heavily tattooed human hand. A Hand of Glory. The man examines the hand, nods, and users the group into the van.
7. The group enters a cluttered antique shop. A sour-faced, obese, older woman looks at you through a strange spyglass. Eventually, she nods and invites you into an even more cluttered backroom. She hands them the briefcase and the map to a deserted road in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish coast.
8. The group moves through the streets of what seems to be a German city. Having just evaded a troupe of suspicious-looking street performers, who looked at the group a little too intently, you wander until they find the antique shop they are looking for. You stride purposefully in.
9. Gawain Unremarkable man, wearing a beige autumn commuter’s jacket and clothing for travel. Gaunt and roguishly unkempt. Jeans and hiking boots, white V-neck shirt, Neck-length black hair with a fair amount of gray, dark eyes, and narrow facial features. Has a shoulder pack (satchel) slung over one shoulder and the coat has quite a few pockets. Gawain was your contact, tells you that he has a lead on the Scepter they are looking for. All they have to do is meet with an ally in the northern German city of Kiel. Gawain pulls out a Polaroid camera covered in sigils and starts taking everyone’s pictures, one at a time. The pictures come out and he takes them, one by one, and writes their shadow names on each picture. “I’m not sure what it means, but I have it on good authority that there is an apparent risk that you’ll lose yourselves. So here’s a reminder of who you are.” Once he has added a magic seal to each he hands them out to each of you. You look at your photo in the poorly lit room. You see your image. You see your Shadow Name. You see your NAME glowing on your Watchtower. YOU REMEMBER! (All your memories come flooding back).
The Final Dream
You’re back in Sutton Farms… but as yourselves. The ground shakes and the Scepter, in its true form, towers like a Watchtower over the town. Then you are taken out of time and meaning… You see the bastion of the supernal in the fallen world, the ancient city. It looks decidedly Greek but the climate is more European. The intensity of this place is staggering. The ancient peasants live in poverty and squalor. There is trash, blood and shit in the streets.
Close to the center of the city now is an arrangement of columned temples made from marble, chalcedony and obsidian. At the top of the hill in the center of the city is a square Parthenon-looking temple, made of pure white marble and statues of Greek Gods, all the greats.
Inside the temple throne room of the Dethroned Queen… the temple’s interior is crafter from snow white marble, ocean blue stones and bright white gold. It has a domed roof overhead and light dances as if reflected off of water. The room hums with power, a Supernal Verge so strong its overwhelming. The Queen sits upon her throne. She has a crown upon her head. A familiar looking robe covers her body and she holds a bell clapper in one hand and a royal scepter in the other. The Queen looks Greek or Roman with curly black hair bound up tightly above her head and framing her face. The crown is a circlet of 10 gemstones, dangling earrings of pearls and white gold metals. Looks a lot like Audrey Hepburn actually… The bell clapper has the same 10 stones.
The Scepter… is an ornate shaft of highly reflective metal (Thaumium) that changes to a helixed dragon made from white semitransparent jade (True White Jade). The ridge of its back is studded with the 10 gemstones. The Eastern dragon’s neck curls around until its faces forward with an open, angry mouth full of fang. Its eyes are red and seem to glow.
Two mages stand before her on either side of her massive throne, they argue in Atlantean. You can only pick up some words in High Speech, symbols: They are arguing about the nature of power and control. Their forces are armed behind them on either side. They are trying to decide how the Fallen World should be ruled.
With the woman stand warriors with Spartan plumes in rudy gold (Orihalcum) and reflective mirror shields (Thaumium) armed with spears, tridents and glowing swords. They can cut through hope, memory, anything.
With the man stand robed priests and priestesses covered in sigils, staves, wands, swords, chalices, and disks. They were Egyptian-looking crowns (pshents).
The Emissary… is a tall aquiline woman. She stands with the warriors in shiny armor. She has long curly red hair that flows to the small of her back. She has burning green eyes. She is the Queen’s Advisor. Her name is Aldones. Her robes burn with an inner light. (She was an Acanthus Archmage)
The Arbitor… is a dark-haired and stern-looking man with a strong jaw. His eyes are fearful. He is the Queen’s Priest and stands with the other Priests. His name is Neotalba. He is a Mastigos Archmaster.
The argument escalates quickly, emotionally. The Queen says something.. True. But you cannot hear it. Her name burns above the Throne. Both sides suddenly break into conflict and an epic magic battle begins. Time slows as the battle begins.
Aldones stands firm, out front, and turns her attention to the observers stares (you). Spells and arrows fly past her, missing her, but her attention remains on you. Bolts of energy fill the throne room. She opens her mouth… Atlantean again. High Speech words express symbols: Gather. Artifacts. Fight. Lords. Save. The Fallen.
The Phone Call
“Chimera. It’s Gawain from the London concilium. Do you remember when I visited the Horsemen a few Christmases ago?”
“I know where an Artifact of the Dethroned Queen is.”
“It’s in a salt cave in Germany. Recently discovered and secured by the remnants of the Hegemonic Ministry.”
“The entrance to the cave is in the basement of an old abandoned industrial complex under guard as the Seers attempt to study it. Destiny is surfacing these artifacts at last. I don’t know exactly where it is, but I have a lead, a Russian Sleepwalker by the name of Czernobog. He did some recently free-lance support for the Seers when they set up shop. However, he will only show them where the complex is he has the means to overcome their wards, defenses, and observations. So, to provide him with that, you will need to acquire a rare Relic, one of the genuine remaining Hands of Glory. It is able to conceal all within its light from mystical and mundane observations."
“To get the hand, you must pay the woman at a special shop in the German city of Kiel. But I will meet you in London before you depart. I have cashed in my favor with her so the Hand is already paid for. It is just waiting for you.”
“Once you have the hand, here is how to contact Czernobog…” [Contact Information] “Have him outfit you with some of his surplus equipment. Tell him it’s a Minor Favor from me and a Major Favor from me for showing you all the installation.”
“She told me to. I couldn’t resist. Who am I to question Destiny? The Destiny of these Artifacts. What she made them for.”
“I know where an Artifact of the Dethroned Queen is.”
“It’s in a salt cave in Germany. Recently discovered and secured by the remnants of the Hegemonic Ministry.”
“The entrance to the cave is in the basement of an old abandoned industrial complex under guard as the Seers attempt to study it. Destiny is surfacing these artifacts at last. I don’t know exactly where it is, but I have a lead, a Russian Sleepwalker by the name of Czernobog. He did some recently free-lance support for the Seers when they set up shop. However, he will only show them where the complex is he has the means to overcome their wards, defenses, and observations. So, to provide him with that, you will need to acquire a rare Relic, one of the genuine remaining Hands of Glory. It is able to conceal all within its light from mystical and mundane observations."
“To get the hand, you must pay the woman at a special shop in the German city of Kiel. But I will meet you in London before you depart. I have cashed in my favor with her so the Hand is already paid for. It is just waiting for you.”
“Once you have the hand, here is how to contact Czernobog…” [Contact Information] “Have him outfit you with some of his surplus equipment. Tell him it’s a Minor Favor from me and a Major Favor from me for showing you all the installation.”
“She told me to. I couldn’t resist. Who am I to question Destiny? The Destiny of these Artifacts. What she made them for.”
"Who?"
“You should know. HER. She is here with me right now."
“You’ve encountered two of the Regalia already. You’ve all been spiritually entangled. Can’t you feel it? Haven’t you had the dreams yet? My role here is minor, but I play my part. I played my part (apparently) when I left the Ring with the Horsemen. Sorry about that. This entanglement can’t touch them, they are exempt. You are not.”
“She wants to see if you can get the third of the Regalia. She wants to see if you are the chosen ones to receive the gifts of the Queen, to fulfill her purpose, to follow the path she laid behind her for others to follow. You must keep the Regalia from the hands of the Adversary."
“If you stand against the Lie, against the Jailors, the Administrators, you must take back the Regalia. Your fate entanglement gives you the best chance of success. Do you not know what the Regalia is for? Have you not guessed?"
"But the Robe was destroyed. Cast into the Ocean Orouboros."
“The Robe is not destroyed, it cannot be destroyed. Have you not seen it again, on the path you are following?”
"But the Robe was destroyed. Cast into the Ocean Orouboros."
“The Robe is not destroyed, it cannot be destroyed. Have you not seen it again, on the path you are following?”
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