Prologue
February 2010
Takahashi “Eight” Fujiwara, Hofi Hamasdöttir, Lucien Hebetikos, Evan Itzcóatl and Jake Legard are all summoned by their divine fathers. They are to make their way to the Cincinnatian Hotel, an exclusive five-star hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio by 2/15.
The Queen City
Monday, February 15
One by one, the Scions show up at the hotel. They find that there are rooms in their names already, and all of the rooms are in a secure wing of the hotel (rooms 101 through 105) where the hotel staff is under orders not to disturb them unless requested. Most of the Scions drift into the hotel bar, while Lucien and his entourage of maenads order bottles of wine to be sent to his room, and they spend a couple of hours getting “comfortable.” One of the maenads, looking for the room service menu, finds a note:
Maxwell Boardroom, 2/16, 0000
Lucien has no idea what this means.
Takahashi and Luke recognize each other from their time as mercenaries, and start to talk shop. Evan and Hofi notice that the amount of Fate in the room is getting stronger, especially when Lucien finally makes his way into the bar to ask about the note and sees one of his paparazzi stalkers, Hofi, trying to get a picture of him with her laptop. She tries to upload the picture, but her server goes down (which she later discovers is due to a denial of service attack from D.N.Sus Technologies).
Evan uses his insight into the future (Mystery Purview) to find out if everyone of Legend who is supposed to be there is. He then asks the bar staff to let them use the room as a private party, which they do after leaving out some of the top-shelf booze. They start to talk and introduce each other, and they are open about the fact that they are Scions. Lucian mentions the note he found in his room, and they quickly deduce that they need to meet in the boardroom at midnight.
Since it’s not quite eight, they have some time to kill, but Cincinnati is not known for its exciting nightlife. Lucian knows of a good French bistro, JeanRo, on Vine Street. They go to the bistro, and are immediately shown to the “wine tasting” room, with walls built out of floor-to-ceiling wine racks. The maitre-de says that he was expecting them, and that the owner has told him that their meal and drinks are on the house. They have a wonderful meal and tour the kitchen, where they see photos of the owner. Lucien doesn’t recognize the man in the photo, but realizes on a more subconscious level that it’s his father, Dionysus. The head chef talks with them, and mentions how he’s honored to serve food to folks so highly regarded by the owner. They realize that it’s getting close to midnight, so they head back to the hotel.
Tuesday, February 16th. Midnight.
In the boardroom, they meet Crystal Messenger, a water nixe of the Ohio River. She used to work as Dionysus’ personal assistant, but now she’s working on behalf of all of the Band’s divine parents for a “special commission.” She gives each member of the Band an iPhone engraved with the logo of their divine parent, with one extra (Crystal makes a comment about a sixth person coming, but there was some kind of problem in customs “with a baboon or something”). Each of the phones has Google directions to the Serpent Mound, and Crystal says that there’s a funeral ceremony that the Scions’ parents want them to attend at the Mound. A number of Gods will show up to mourn the loss of the Hopewell pantheon to the Titans—in fact, the Titans have managed to destroy them so effectively that even the name of the pantheon is lost. Each of the phones also has each other’s numbers, as well as Crystal’s, and she says that if they need anything, they only have to call her.
Then she leaves them to make travel plans in the morning. Evan sheds blood on a mirror to learn that something was lost at the Mound, and some concurrance of Fate is going to occur there. He writes notes for each of the Scions, and some of them turn in while others decide to enjoy some companionship.
Funeral for Dead Gods
Next morning, they leave separately to go to the Mound. Takahashi and Hofi leave at 4am, and arrive before anyone else. Takahashi checks for snipers and doesn’t find any, while Hofi sets up cameras in various places to get pictures of the ceremony. Lucien and Evan show up next and also look around, while Jake uses her flying motorcycle to get an aerial view of the area. The Scions see and interact with their various parents—some have a warm reception (as Lucien has with Dionysus, who explains a bit of who everyone is and what is going on), while others have very cool interactions (as Evan barely gets a gang sign from his father, Tezcatlipoca). Evan sees his old rival, Sarah Gaunt, there with a man identified as Quetzalcoatl, but they carefully avoid each other.
Soon, a wild-haired red-headed woman that Dionysus identifies as The Morrigan steps into the middle of the Gods and announces that the ceremony will begin. She does a number of rituals, in Hopewell, Celtic and English, telling tales of the Hopewell pantheon and explaining that they kept this area protected. Now that they are gone, the consequences will be dire. Despite all of the animosities between the Gods, they are all deadly serious—when Sarah Gaunt starts to make a snide comment about Evan, Quetzalcoatl clamps his hand on her shoulder hard and stares at her with a look that says that this is not the time. The Morrigan attempts to take the stories and legends of the Hopewell pantheon and solidify their Legend into this site, so that their essence won’t pass from the World completely. After a couple of hours, she announces the ritual completed, and the Gods all go their separate ways.
Except Dionysus.
Entering The Serpent Mound
Dionysus explains that he has a bassaris (a fox skin) hidden in the Mound that used to be worn by one of his worshipers. He explains that he was drunk while partying with the Hopewell pantheon a few centuries back. He needs it back, but is initially vague on why, saying only that it’s not just a favor for him, but something that he has the support of all of the patrons on. Eventually he admits that the Serpent Mound is actually the resting place for Uktena, the great horned serpent that is something between a God and a Titan, and the other Gods are concerned that he’ll wake up and side with the Titans. Dionysus has no idea how to get into the Mound—that’s for the Band to figure out, but the park is protected, so they can’t just dig their way in.
The Band searches the area for clues until nightfall. Eventually, Evan uses his divine strength (Epic Strength) to tear away at the earth around the mouth, but the earth he rips up doesn’t seem to be quite real—he can see the hole he’s digging but also see that the earth is still there. The others help, and soon they see a rough stairway made of earth and logs leading down into the mound. Hofi casts a spell to track the bassaris.
Getting the Bassaris
The tunnel has a flat floor of rough stones, while the rest of the tunnel is curved and made of hard-packed earth. There’s enough room for two to walk side-by-side, but the walls are full of skeletons, and bones are showered everywhere. Jake notices that there’s a soft breeze that goes in one direction for a while, and then the other. They walk in a straight line for an hour (even though the Mound isn’t that long, and has lots of curving mounds). At the end they see the bassaris lying in a heap of skin and fur. Most of the Band expresses caution, but Lucien simply grabs it off the ground.
Suddenly, they are attacked by five worms with horns (Uktena’s young) that spring from the ground and ceiling all around them. Lucien and Hofi manage to duck past the worms while the other members of the Band slowly hack away (although a couple of times Takahashi was only narrowly saved by the use of his Legend). Two of the snakes, chasing after Lucien and Hofi, burrowed into the ground but never re-emerged. They finally manage to kill one and injure the other two enough that they can’t easily follow, and run down the length of the corridor as the tunnel shakes a bit. As they run, Hofi searches her memory on the bassaris, but only comes up with the fact that it’s tied to “everlasting life.”
They finally make it back to the other end as the light from the opening is blotted out—an Uktena corpse has been shoved into the opening. Takahashi, Evan and Jake all shove at the corpse, but Jake eventually just starts ripping chunks of the worm apart and pushes her way through, showering them all in gore.
As they get out, they see Lucien’s maenad followers working with Sarah Gaunt and Evie Carruthers to kill the last worm. Sarah and Evie see that the Band has escaped and retreats. The maenads are apologetic to Lucien about not stopping the women from sealing them in the tunnel, and one of them mentioned that the two Scions made a comment about the “next labor.”
The Band calls Crystal to return the bassaris, and tell her what happened. She knows of Evie and Sarah, and the Band suggest that she should look into the possibility that they’re forming a rival Band. She agrees to do so, and tells them that Dionysus will meet them in the rear parking lot of JeanRo. He’s smoking a cigarette when they arrive. They aren’t sure it’s really him, but he kisses Lucien on the lips. Lucien recognizes the technique and hands the bassaris over. Dionysus waffles a bit on what’s coming up, but reveals that there’s two more labors they’ll need, but he has to talk to the other Gods in his “consortium” first. Crystal will give them a call once they decide what to do next.
Quotes of the Night
- “I’m tired of these motherfucking snakes in a motherfucking snake!”
- “Ceiling snake is watching you masturbate.”
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