[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Recalling the Ring

Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

RECALLING THE RING

The following is a retelling of the events of the Ring, where the Horsemen cabal and Chimera acquired the Ring of the Dethroned Queen.

Nergal:

Recently we had a visitor at the Horsemen Sanctum. A mage from a Cabal over in Europe (I can't remember his name offhand) showed up and said he was being hunted by some other mages. We gave him sanctuary and healed his wounds. We were in the middle of our Yule ceremony for Prodigy so he joined us. Later he pulled out some interesting artifacts that we convinced him to sell to us in exchange for a couple of Thamium rings. One of the First Tarot cards and an ornate bell made of Orichalcum and ten different precious gems. The next day the mage had left and we had the tarot card and the bell.

Kairos and Chimera had some weird dreams that night involving a Queen. They can explain more on that but the bell was involved. So Kairos decided to ring the bell which set off a spell that allowed him to see Exarch influences on people. We did more research on this bell and found the legend of the Dethroned Queen. There are five artifacts tied to her and the bell is one of them.

We received news that crimes and violence were happening all over the Fargo - Moorhead area when Black Moon contacted Kairos. The resonance of the Leylines was being changed to influence people to commit vandalism and other violent crimes. Through a lot of investigative magic involving post-cogs and tracing sympathies we tracked the mages that were responsible to a library in Fargo. We went to the library and were about to go in when we spotted an enchanted penny on the ground. Kairos suddenly yelled at us not to even look at the penny. I have learned not to question when he tells us not to do something. Turns out that the penny was a trap that would make the library and every innocent person in it explode and frame Kairos and myself for the crime by using our voices to signal the attack. Luckily we were in the Twilight at the time so no one could see us when we disabled the trap. Black Moon went in to the library and started quietly evacuating the sleepers while Chimera and I went inside to search for the mage responsible.

Just as Black Moon was evacuating the last of the sleepers a secondary explosive went off and consumed the library in flame. Black Moon was injured by the blast along with a handful of sleepers. We saved who we could but not all of them. 

The mages were never there, it was all a trap to set us up and get us into massive trouble. It didn't work as they planned though and we were on their trail now. Chimera tracked them through space to Beulah where they were setting off another plan. We hurried back to the Horsemen Sanctum and tracked one of the mages through the Crucible to Lake Sakakawea. We found him there trying to alter the leylines running to our Sanctum. I didn't give him a chance to react after he saw us and temporarily killed him for the purpose of taking him back to the Fargo Concilium alive to answer for his crimes. After he flopped face first into the dirt his hired help arrived. Three powerful supernal spirits manifested. On the plus side, Kairos and I got to try our new Siderite weapons out and Chimera got to shoot a fancy new gun. They worked wonderfully and we dispatched the spirits quickly and took our new prisoner to Fargo. 

He stood trial in Fargo and was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to imprisonment and eventual death. Their frame job backfired. However, the mage we captured was only a hired hand. The person pulling the strings never showed up. We do know that it was the Seers that hired him though. They were after the bell.

Chimera:

Christmases are awfully unhappy around here, though I can understand why. The whole thing started off with an evening that was sobering for all involved. Although sobering might be the wrong word... Casstiel and Kairos ended up hitting the bottle pretty hard. I mostly just hung around. Quietly. Awkwardly. Then our guest made his appearance. He was pretty beat up; said two mages were pursuing him for reasons he didn’t know. After Kairos healed him, he challenged him to a drinking contest and ultimately arranged a trade for the bell in his possession. In hindsight, he gave it up a little too easily, for being drunk, and he was gone the next day, leaving behind a note addressed to Kairos. While he was here, I spent some time scrutinizing him without his notice; guy had some pretty typical protective stuff up, but he also used some bizarre Fate sight (a bit like Sybil’s Sight, but different in ways that are hard to define) on Kairos and seemed shocked by what he saw. We ended up seeing a similar effect later when we checked out the bell. It allows the user to see the influence of the Exarchs. Invaluable, for obvious reasons. Definitely needs some tight security on it; Seers will almost certainly try to grab it again.

I should be used to disturbing dreams by now, but I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for how intense this was. It started with a Greek Parthenon on a hill, inlaid with symbols. After that it was all fragmented images; the five artifacts, warriors, priests, light playing off a domed ceiling, a queen on her throne with an eye shooting lightning bolts. It was glorious, and yet . . . very wrong. I don’t envy Kairos; he got even more from it.

NDSU campus got scary for a while. Vandalism, assaults, a near whole parking lot full of broken windows. Naturally, people freaked out. Fear resonance all over the place. I checked it out and ended up finding one of the people causing the vandalism; he was being used as a puppet by a mage to create an atmosphere that facilitated panic and thus mess with the local resonance. His sympathetic ties to the mage controlling him were weak, but still there. I put a spell on him that would alert me when he was being influenced again; at that point the sympathetic link had been strengthened again and I was able to use that to help locate the mage responsible.

Five sleepers dead in the explosion at the library. Kairos froze time around the trapped penny, preventing the explosion from triggering, but they ultimately achieved the same result (minus us being framed) via mundane means. Kairos, Nergal and Blackmoon’s actions saved a lot of people, but it was depressing all the same. All that and screwing up Moorhead and the NDSU campus just to get to us. I’ve learned that I really hate this “enemies in the shadows” thing. What I wouldn’t give for ones I could just straight out punch. Mage politics really aren’t a bag of kittens either. 

Oh, and the supernal spirits! They went down pretty fast thanks to the Siderite weapons and gun, but that was interesting. By interesting, I mean disturbing. Especially the part where we ended up right in the middle of a freaking huge storm one of them generated. . . . why do things just explode and/or go to hell around Horsemen? Does the universe hate you guys?

After the whole thing was over, I was in bad need of a stiff drink. More than one, actually.

Kairos:

Another miserable Christmas down the hatches. I recall that the End of all Days was suppose to happen on December 12th 2012. Apparently they never consulted us on the matter. The 27th of December seems to be synonymous with the end of days. Okay I might be extremely biased upon the matter due to past experiences.

I believe the cabal Creepy was thinking of was The Broadening Mind. Gawin was his name and he came in quite beat up. I had speculations about some things but after drinking and my general nature to help people, he had to be healed. Besides, he invoked the Right of Hospitality. Something that NEVER happens to us. In fact I don't think they invoke the Right of Nemesis before they start attacking. I mean why would anyone give us a fair playing field right?Anyways, he was hurt, he was healed, he posed no threat and he had some very interesting artifacts. We drank, we bartered and he left. He was the perfect guest, he didn't steal anything and he cleaned up after himself. I guess one of Cyn's chores was done for her this time.

A lot of things happened afterwards. There was some Irishmen trying to frame the Horsemen and even Chimera. I also got a very pompous visit from Black Moon and Spooky. Long story short, watch your first impressions to council people. I had some training with Magellan and his wife Vita, I mentored Chimera on some Time magic and we cleansed some hallows while we're at it. 

Although we saved a lot of people at the Library, five people still died. This frustrated me quite a bit as I thought I had thwarted the plan of the Irish cabal that tried to frame us by killing a couple dozen of innocent people. Black Moon got hurt while saving 2 others from the fire. I quickly healed them up and we moved on. 

We found the last mage in Beulah and quickly moved to it thanks to STARK and the Crucible. Creepy temporarily killed the mage and 3 supernal beings appeared before us. The siderite weapons worked like a charm. They didn't stand a chance. I was more impressed with the abilities that Chimera had and I had no idea that she had a gun like that....weird. We're going to have to get Chimera and Creepy some better gear and advanced woogity.

At the end of the night we had the trial and another pair of dreams between Chimera and I. I also felt a need to extend my knowledge on Matter. After consulting with Casstiel and making a very interesting discovery about him, I was on my way. I started building my road through the abyss from the Shores of Ouroboros. It was the worst experiences you could ever imagine. Everything about it was one of those, 'Why would you do this?" moments. Everything I have dealt with the abyss was shown. It just proves that the Abyss doesn't forget, or forgive. 

I continued my way through the abyss carving and building my path one step at a time. Eventually I reached a Crossroad. This odd creature, female in form, wings sprouting from the back and covered in eyes tried to convince me to stay. I thought he had won, but then I suddenly felt destined to go in a different direction. I ended up in Stygia, the last place I truthfully expected to go but it felt.....right. Finally after everything, I felt that this is the place I should have been the entire time. I built my own tower. It's an anvil made of Alloys that haven't been discovered yet. 

I no longer feel the influence of the Paternoster, but that doesn't mean my goal for over throwing the Exarchs has changed.

Casstiel:

All posts are dated 28 Jan 2015, a week after the final events of “The Ring” incident.

Hey guys, A couple details for the record. Your entries will be added to the Lorekeeper’s Archive for future use by both Cabals. Attached is Kairos’s extensive notes on his dreams.

The mage who brought us the Ring of the Dethroned Queen was named Gawain (like the Knight of the Round Table), an Acquisitioner for the Mysterium and the leader of the former Cabal of the Broadening Mind. I have since spoken with Finnergan and Illumed who are now know as the Emerald Eyes in Wales. Lark and Marcus were killed by Seers 8 months ago and Gawain apparently has been running ever since. Now that he has ditched the ring on us maybe he can return to the UK. 

Gawain traded those Artifacts way too easily... though it might have just been the booze, Kairos was that that your plan? I have no doubt we may run into him in the future and I have no doubt he was trying to offload items that his Seer pursuers were willing to chase him all over the planet with. I post-cogged Gawain leaving the Horsemen Sanctum while we were sleeping one off and he teleported as soon as he crossed out of the Ban and severed sympathy on the far end. Looks like he used a series of portals and teleports to false locations to confuse pursuers, Sean or Aidan must have been Masters of Spatiomancy in order to keep up…

Btw, Gabrielle has met and worked with Gawain and his crew back in the day. And I remember Gawain saying that Griffin’s Rookery (Rook) had them appraise the Chariot Card we found in the Temple of Sin. Small world.

The Ring is a game changer. If it does what we think it does it could allow us to take the fight directly to the Exarch’s and any plan they have working. Anyone and anything under their influence can be pinpointed. A way the exiled Queen used to root out her enemies that cast her down.

The “Ring Sight” as I am calling it can be learned as Rote Spell or performed by the bell. Trying to improvise it would be extremely difficult. It’s so strange and counterintuitive. It “tunes” whatever mage sight is used to be in sync with whatever metaphysical “frequencies” the Exarchs mark their servitors and slaves. Fate sight no longer shows fate connections around people. It shows you nothing but the chains of Fate and their taint… “Taint” is a good word right? The sight also seems to jolt a person’s sanity. It’s hubristic as hell too, seeing the favor of the higher “gods.” But I have no problems with using it to sabotage their plans. When need to be careful how and where we act. If we start stinging them like tiny mosquitoes they very well might stamp us out before we make a real difference. 

Devil’s advocate = if we think some aspect of the Queen might still be around (the dreams, the legend that says they are Regalia kinda like Tailsmans or Soul Stones) then the sight could be used to manipulate us somehow… if say the Queen changes what we see, where she wants us to strike.

It was like backwards day. Instead of Nergal getting little to no sleep and waking with that exhausted, haunted face it was Chimera and Kairos with prophetic dreams up at 8am making coffee. Chimera has spent a lot of time dealing with dreams and how to control them, something like this though sounded completely overwhelming…

The Seers were smart to use mundane surveillance; I found a few bugs on our cars. It’s almost as if they predicted we didn’t have much ability with Forces and therefore would have trouble detecting them. When you get use to looking for all magic shit you forget about simple tradecraft. They used Space and Mind to puppet sleepers around and cause lots of Chaos around your Fargo residences. The change in Resonance was altered more as a consequence of all the fear and violence and not because the resonance was changed. Later they started messing with Leylines, Nodes and Hallows directly.

The Emerald eyes told me that the Pylon they crushed was called The Belfast Provos and it is presumed that Aidan is a survivor from that IRA-centric Seer node. Sean was known to be associated with another Seer Pylon, the Constabulary of the Orange Hand. I hope his interrogation at the hands of the Guardians is painful for all the suffering he has helped cause. I don’t buy that he was “just following orders.” Even Seers use their Awakened as leaders of their sect, they are never just foot-soldiers… especially considering how powerful he was.

Kairos, Neral and Chimera… I gotta say since I wasn’t there, you dodged a huge bullet with your use of covert magics. The attempt to frame you fell flat on its face. You also disarmed the penny and got a lot of sleepers out of the Library before it blew. Heroes instead of criminals. 

The police reports sighted Arson as the cause of the library fire. Diesel fuel tanks hooked up into the back-up generator were left exposed and supplemented with gasoline. 

Terrible. I can’t think of another time where you were directly involved and sleepers died guys…. Its gonna haunt you and I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that point. I’ve killed before, and taken actions that would have definitely saved or killed innocent people but it’s completely different when the lives on the line are right in front of you. Seal the Hellmenth back up? Yeah, saves the fricken world and all 6+ Billion people on this rock. But you didn’t see those people, didn’t know anything about them. They were assumed saves, who knew exactly how things would have gone down.

Supernal spirits are nasty, albeit temporary actors. My guess is that they tried to supplement their lack of numbers (sounds like there were 2 or 3 Seers involved) with the spirits in case it came to blows with the Horsemen, the Arrow, or the Sentinel. Siderite weapons are about the only thing that would be highly effective. Another turn of good luck and being prepared.

I’m glad you guys liked the Astral Palace of the Codex of Lost pages. I’ve shown you all how to use it, that way it’s not seen as me interfering since it’s no longer strictly under my control. Enjoy it.

Chimera, thanks for returning my gun, not sure how it got swapped with your Browning HP-SFS but it’s a good thing because conventionally ammo would most likely be unable to hurt the spirits. Not your first fight but I think it might have been your most serious stand-up fight that you’ve ever been in. I hope you’re doing okay, something like that can shake a person the first couple times. Let me know if you want to talk about it.

We (and by that I mean the original Horsemen) do seem to attract a lot of trouble. We also tend to go looking for it a little too much. Sometimes the bad guys just plop over dead as you please and sometimes there are explosions. I mean for fuck sake we don’t have a Kinetomancer or Evocator ((Forces)) on the team most of the time. Indra and Jack weren’t around; all the boom boom was coming from the other side. You can see why our starting reputation sucks. Small wonder all the Cabals in the Red River Valley Concilium would be chomping at the bit to get some leverage over us. Otherwise we stay a wild card… and they hate that.

And at the end we got to contribute to the corruption of a minor. Chimera, just remember that alcoholism runs in the family and we have more reasons to drink than some. Also these effects can be re-created or mitigated with Neuromancy which gives you just one more reason to see why Mind Magic has such potential for abuse. Then again, a OMG-we-are-still-alive post-crisis drink is definitely in order.

***Private Message***

Kairos. The Ring was the key for your continued search to learn the lost arts of Atlantean Alchemical Blacksmithing. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that the Paternoster was never going to allow you to cross the Threshold of the Imperial Mysteries. He tried to squash you like a bug, absorb you into his truths. I… had to intervene. I changed your Destiny to that which was free of his control and set it into the Supernal so it was always true. You felt the change (though non-Travelers (regular mages aka Seekers) never would know the universe just changed forever. You ended up in Stygia, a Moros now instead of some bastardized amalgamation of Watchtowers granted to you by the Father while in the Primal Wilds…

How are you doing with all the changes? So many things are different for you now, but the important truths like friendship still stand true.

Fuck their plans, now it is time to start taking back control of our destinies. We will resist reality and its hidden masters. We now have the tool and you have the vision. You are truly free. The last thing I saw before returning to my Golden Road was your forge spire rise in the distance of Stygia and the fires of the anvil at its heart (the new Heart of Darkness) burned bright and hot. I can’t wait to see the weapons you will make for the rebellion. They won the war a epoch ago but the struggle continues as long as people believe in free will.