Downtime

Evan Itzcóatl replaces his truck with a Titan with cowcatcher and the “Presidential package” (armored body, bulletproof glass, run-flat, lo-jack/OnStar)—the company that makes it all is actually based in Cincinnati. As he waits, he gets a rental car with massive insurance. Takahashi “Eight” Fujiwara decides to follow suit and trades in his car for Nissan GTR, while Azure Kessinger gets a Volvo and pet insurance.

Evan starts carving his own spear-thrower. Hofi Hamasdöttir is sent off by her father on a special, private mission.

Jake Legard is investigating how Baldur died, and expanding her contacts with the Irish Mafia and local mercenaries.

Crystal Tears

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Band are out in the park, drinking and playing Epic Extreme Frisbee, when they notice that the Ohio River is unusually tempestuous. Realizing that it probably has something to do with Crystal Messenger, they call her to find her very upset—Dionysus is missing. He called to tell her he was heading to Georgia, but that was over two weeks ago, and now his iPhone isn’t connecting, and she can’t trace it. She gets them flights to Atlanta through the same security process as the air marshalls, so they can get their equipment through. Jake just flies to Atlanta on her bike.

They arrive on Delta to Atlanta that evening and get two rental cars. They drive to the W Downtown and are very visible about checking into the hotel. Evan starts asking around for a “legendary” party. He quickly is pointed to one at the Compound, run by Juan Merez. Eight Googles him, and find that his last party was at a wine bar two weeks ago, thrown in conjunction with a guy named “Dino.” They decide that they need to crash Juan’s party.

It’s Party Time!

The Band rents a Bentley limo to go to the party, which turns out to be a somewhat uninspired techno/rave style party. There’s a roped-off VIP section on a series of balconies on the second floor, which Azure heads right for (although Eight heads off in to a different part of the party). The female line checker recognizes Azure as a minor celebrity and lets her and the rest of the group in. Evan recognizes Juan as the train driver from a few weeks ago, and he and Azure pressure him into letting them “help” throw a great party.

Meanwhile, Eight looks for the flow of the party. Finding no one at the wheel, he pulls out his Centurion Card and starts to buy drinks for everyone.

Keq starts playing in the cages.

Evan takes control over the VIP area. He intentionally Fatebinds the female line checker, who turns out to be a woman named Jeanette, an up-and-coming social event director who seems to be far more in control than Juan is. She agrees to take up a contract with Evan and move to Cincinnati (which he sells to her as a “growing market”).

Meanwhile, a knot of college students are at the party, just after their Georgia Tech Skeptic meeting ended. They recognize Azure and start to fanboy at her. They mention that they’re working on a video podcast exploring a lot of local myths and debunking them. They are planning to drive out tomorrow to do an episode on the Georgia Guidestones. Azure agrees to meet up with them and help them with their shooting, so they email her directions to the site.

The Band effectively Fatebinds the entire party, which ends up getting posted on the Internet. It’s clear who was really the center of the party, and Juan ends up losing all respect. The party wraps up at 6am, and the Band heads off to the hotel for a few hours’ sleep. They get up around 6pm to collect people and head out.

Blood of a God

Thursday, June 10

As they get close to Athens, their cell phones stop working – the same cell phones that get perfect reception in a semi-real underground secret base. They come up to the stones, and as they walk toward them, they can smell wine mixed with blood. Dionysus is dead, his blood smeared all over the stones. Azure tells the group that a God who dies in the World can die forever—it’s not common, but it is possible. Evan looks into the mysteries of Fate, and finds out that “the message is in the blood.”

Soon after, Tezcatlipoca shows up. He felt Dionysus die and heard the bassaris was stolen, and called Crystal to discover that she had lost contact with the Band. He tells Evan Itzcóatl to eat Dionysus’ eye while he eats the other one, to see what he saw. Suddenly a pattern becomes obvious, as the web of blood smears links words and images from a dozen languages with each other. They point out the pattern while Azure memorizes everything—it’ll take some time to translate it all, but she at least remembers the pattern with perfect clarity.

After that’s done, Tezcatlipoca swallows Dionysus’ body, saying he will take his body where it needs to go. He also tells Evan that they need to talk in private when he gets back into town, because they’re about to be attacked.

Hateful Harpies

As Tezcatlipoca leaves and the group of skeptics pull up, a flock of eight foul, noxious harpies attack. They start ripping up the cars and snatching at clothing, as if they’re clearly looking for something. As the harpies grow nearer to the heroes, their smell is so powerful that many of them start to vomit (including the students). Eight jumps onto the top of the stones to shoot them out of the air. Jake jumps onto the van with the students and starts attacking the harpies snatching at them. Evan tells the harpies to “sacrifice each other,” so they eventually flee.

Azure starts to reassure the students and tell them that this is how the world really works, while Evan and Eight use handfuls of grass to smear the blood even more and mess up the web of the message. When they’re far enough away from the stone for their phones to work, Crystal calls. She’s glad they’re okay. Evan asks her to see if she can get a favor to have it rain over the stones to wash the blood away, and she says she knows a few spirits in the area who might be able to do it. She then tells him that all of their fathers want to meet with them privately once they’re back in Cincinnati.

Private Meetings

Over the course of the next few days, each of the heroes meets with their fathers.

Eight meets with Hachiman at Aqua, who returns the mirror to Eight. Hachiman admits he did not return the mirror to Amiratsu, because of “greater needs.” He is disappointed that Evan is allowed to lead. He has no recollection of being in Columbus at all, or attacking Eight, saying that he has heard that a particularly clever tengu named Kyoukon may be around.

Evan meets Tezcatlipoca again in the park above their base. He confesses that he is against the consortium, though the other Gods don’t realize it, because there is a traitor among them that works for the Titans. That’s why Dionysus was killed, and the bassaris stolen. He then cuts off his ear with a stone knife, and tells him to eat the ear and spit the blood onto a mirror “when the time is right.”

Azure meets Thoth (finally) at his office in the Ancient History department at UC. He tells her that she needs to bring Keq to the Great Serpent Mound, and he needs to understand what happens. Also, she needs to bring her Mythbusters there to film it on June 26, 2010; the World needs to know of the Titan War. Her skills at bringing the truth to light will be tested more than ever in the coming months.

Jake meets Tyr in his chambers in City Hall. He is there with Leon Haarland. He tells Jake in no uncertain terms that she must stop the ritual to kill Uktena. She and Leon are to work together to get all of the artifacts and bring them to him. Tyr dismisses Leon and explains that Baldur fell to the Titans, and he adopted her because he knew that they would need every Scion to fight the Titans. He explains that while they should prepare for Ragnarok, the time is not yet right, and that Loki is manipulating the other gods into trying to bring about Ragnarok early in order to slant the odds in his favor.

Quotes of the Night

• “It’s a baboomerrang!”
• “Smoke grenade, then vanish!”