A CRACK OF THUNDER

GM: Bradford (Lanodantheon)
Transcribed by Bradford (Lanodantheon)
January 27, 2013

Just as things went white Zeb, who stayed behind to handle what he could of the ritual, shouted a number and the words, “Find me at the bank…”

Then there was a crack of thunder…

Then the Party Landed in water. They found themselves in the Bath House of the Panama Hotel. Being linked to his Warden’s Sword, Jack’s Father’s ghost stood dumbstruck at the calender on the wall, which said it was July 2nd, 1934. The Bath House had been closed since 1950 because of The Stain of The 6th Law…three guesses what caused that and the first two don’t count.

The party put their heads together, trying like hell to figure out their situation…

Ryan’s History of Seattle class back in college paid off its elective credit with information about the era. July of ’34 was a time when FDR was President with a 62% approval rating, unemployment was pushing 25%, The Third Reich was taking shape in Germany and Racism was the norm. The entire West Coast was consumed by the Longshoreman Strike, causing breakdowns of imports and business. In two days it would be Bloody Tuesday, the day when when the Longshoreman Riots consumed the Seattle Docks and surrounding areas…

They came to the conclusion that they would try like hell to not meddle in the timeline. Leif figured that the Duffle Bag he had received months before was part of a Bill & Ted Setup engineered by themselves or an alternate version of themselves based on the state of quantum physics. Anything they took out of the Duffle bag they’’d have to put in by the time they got back to the present. The potions they took seemed to be part of the ritual, but without resources they didn’t know anything about how Time Travel worked through Magic, how long they would stay in the past or exactly what Mr. Nobody, Trey Wellington and Fitzgerald Kennedy were doing there exactly. All they could do was follow Zeb’s instructions to find him at the bank.

The Ghosts of the area started to take a liking to Jack and the ghost of a drowned bath house patron commented that she had seen another man fall into the bath house before they did. After she described him Jack realized it was Fitzgerald. Osamu investigated and managed to pick Fitzgerald out of the crowd and followed him, agreeing to regroup with the others at Zeb’s House. Osamu followed Fitzgerald to the University of Washington Fountain, where a group of Trey Wellington’s minions fell into existence in a crack of thunder. The minions waved pistols around at the few faculty and students still around and Fitzgerald inspected the fountain with his Pocket Watch. Fitzgerald told the minions, who were itching for the shooting of people to “stick to the plan precisely. You can’t shoot anyone here until it’s time… your Boss is due in an hour. Go.” Osamu followed the Minions to a shady Gun Shop near Chinatown called, “The Frog’s”. To gather information, he decided to talk to a boy out front who was smoking a cigarette(like everyone was back then) and who had a nasty shiner.

Osamu’s Radiant Aura and friendly manner gave him the boy’s respect, even if the boy greeted him with, “Nihao.” The boy, Etienne wishing his name was John, it seemed had been beaten by his father for mispronouncing the family name because it wasn’t very American. After a demonstration of his martial arts prowess, Osamu taught Etienne to stand up for himself and convinced him to learn martial arts at one of the local dojos and to take pride in the fact that he was both French and American. Etienne thanked him and promised that the Mullinexes would always be a friend to the Japanese… Awkward…

Meanwhile, Jack and the others went to the bank they had seen in the photo of Zeb. Under a veil they watched a group of bank robbers go in, rob a bank and drive away. Just then, The Newly Minted Warden Zeke Einar hexed the car’s engine into flames and crossed the street as an opportunistic photographer caught him in the picture…

Lief looked upon Young Zeb with his fate sight and saw the young man’s Strands of Fate diverge. He saw a dozen possible futures, from Zeb dying in 2 days to machine guns to Zeb giving up his Magic to Zeb dying like he was supposed to die at Kemmler’s Last Stand…but didn’t.

Jack stepped out from the veil and approached Young Zeb, asking him to talk somewhere private. Zeb recognized his power as a Wizard’s and took him to McMurphy’s Pub across the street. Once in the backroom, the rest of the party revealed themselves and Jack gave Zeb the number. Zeb recognized the code as a Warden distress code in the case of Time Travel. They told him…what he needed to know and tried like hell to not tell him about the future. Zeb agreed to help them,but first thought about everything the Warden’s manual said about the 6th Law.

Time Travel it seemed was more difficult than previously thought. The spell Fitzgerald and the others cast sent them into the Past only temporarily, a few days at most. The Potions they took were inoculations of some sort and that when the spell wore off the travelers would be shunted back to the present give or take some time. As Zeb’s teacher explained to him, “What is historical tends to stay historical” and it is very difficult to change the future drastically without a great deal of energy concentrated very carefully. The best times to change the past are at times of great conflict, when the balance of power and life changes. The party figured that meant the riots in two days. The best way involved not just outside influence (like the power of an Outsider like Mr. Nobody had) but agents of the past as well. That is, the Time Travelers themselves couldn’t necessarily kill someone not meant to die at that moment, but they could convince someone native to the past to do it for them or move with them as the violence took place. That way the timeline would be consistent internally.

Zeb called his good friends, the Montague brothers Romeo and Mercutio and asked them to keep him apprised of any information they got on the whereabouts of new players in town and especially some Red Court Vampires.

The Party went out and met Osamu at Zeb’s house…which in 1934 was a vacant lot no one was buying. Osamu followed Wellington’s people to a flat in Hooverville, the tenements south of Pioneer square, where they apparently were establishing a command post of some kind. Thrilled that the minions from future didn’t have Rayguns and a half-hour before another traveler would appear in the fountain the Party cranked up Zeb’s car and drove like bats out of hell at..40 miles an hour. Freeways had been made yet…

During the ride Lief rode on Slepnir(now in the form of a vintage Indian Motorcycle). When they came to a stop his Trouble of fighting fate convinced him to tell Young Zeb to invest in several companies. Based on the overreaction of Jack and the truth Zeb read from Lief’s voice he considered the matter for future reference.

Trey Wellington fell out of the sky in a crack of thunder. Curious why he wasn’t on fire in the July sun, the party jumped the pair.

Jack threw a shackle spell onto Fitzgerald, holding him down for Leif’s spear. But Fitzgerald’s magical speed broke him free.

Seeing a magical bracelet grafted onto Wellington’s arm, Ryan and Osamu hit him with a one-two combo ripping his whole damn arm off. Then the sunlight hit him and the Vampire caught fire. He ran for shade but ended up at the feet of Jack Youngblood.

Trey looked at Jack angrily, “You…”

“Hi Trey.” Jack said as he raised his staff, “Bye Trey…”

The force of Jack’s focused Magical Laser Blast turned Trey Wellington into a grease spot upon a nearby brick wall like the aftermath of a nuclear blast in the shape of a monster holding up his hands in fear.

Zeb approached the warlock with his new Warden’s sword in hand, but the Young Warden was too passionate and met Fitzgerald’s eyes for a Soulgaze…

Zeb Saw Fitzgerald Kennedy: Single Father, Coach, Deacon and good soul dedicated to his daughter, Karolynn. Zeb Saw Fitzgerald lose his daughter, his life to sadness then madness. Zeb Saw that Karolynn’s death was his own fault. Zeb saw Fitzgerald gather forbidden power and break the laws of magic to save his little girl. Zeb Saw that Fitzgerald had looked upon Zeb’s Soul for one reason: so that Zeb would know his pain…

Zeb stood there, Futureshocked…And would never be able to forget it…

Lief then ran Fitzgerald down into the fountain so that Osamu could knock him unconscious. Hearing the whistles of police, the party hog-tied Fitzgerald and drove away. But, not before Lief pulled out a box of donuts from the Duffle bag and left it for them.

They took Fitzgerald’s tools and weapons away and found his itinerary, encoded in short-hand. After Jack decrypted it, he found it told of a rendezvous with the other travelers in 2 days at the Arctic Club. Fitzgerald’s calculations indicated that Mr. Nobody’s thugs arrived at the same time as Trey but somewhere else and was in the middle of calculating Mr. Nobody’s ETA when the party attacked him.

The party decided to go to the Youngblood Estate, which looked just like it always did. It looked so familiar to Jack that he greeted the Ghosts of the neighborhood that he always did. Except that in 1934, some of them including the mailman that rode by were still alive… After having heard the stories of their troubles for so long, Jack did what he had always done in trying to help the spirits find peace. Even if they weren’t dead yet…

The Colonial-era Ghosts standing sentry outside the estate stopped Jack at the door.

“Stop Villain or be gone!” The ghosts said.

“It’s alright Roderick. Lighten up.” Jack’s Father’s Ghost said.

The Colonial Guards had an ethereal double-take seeing their master older and quite…dead.

The party moved inside the haunted house and moved into the basement. They put Fitzgerald in shackles and closed him inside the ritual circle embedded in the floor for a little Interrogation…