Pre-Game Comments
Sonia's Player: I'm sorry but my brain's gone into elevator music mode. I don't have any idea what you're saying.***Julian's Player: It's more of a platonic love.Danny's Player: Six-sided?***Kayla's Player: They're all old enough to be our dad.Danny's Player: That one is your dad.***Sonia's Player: Who punches a teddy bear when they're mad? It's much more fun to shake babies.Kayla's Player: Why would you shake a baby? Well, okay, maybe shake some babies...Friday, June 27, Morning Zeke sleeps in. Julian, Danny, Sonia and Kayla all go to work. "Michelle" contacts his librarian friend, Fred Johnson, to find out if he knows any good books about ways of getting into Faerie. They find plenty of books involving legends about Faerie Hills, Faerie Mounds, Faerie Circles and so forth. Unfortunately, they all seem to contain contradictory reports about how and when it's possible to cross over. There's references to moon phases, solar events, stellar positions, times of day and so forth. There also seems to be a unique ritual involved in each legend. So, while a good overview of the legends is found, no real hard data comes up.Friday, June 27, MorningDanny calls up Master To to find out if he knows anything about entering Faerie. Unfortunately, Celtic lore isn't exactly Master To's area of expertise though he does know several Asian legends about entering the spirit world. Unfortunately, they almost all involve either being invited, following a spirit being or getting their by accident. He doesn't know any way for a mortal to get there deliberately.Zeke goes out shopping for swamp gear. He calls up Julian for assistance on what to get and Julian gives him some good advice about putting his papers & electronics in baggies, bug repellant and other general tips for spending a day in the swamp. Julian also warns him that the weather report suggests thunderstorms. After getting of the phone with Zeke, Julian does his own swamp packing. Saturday, June 28, just after midnightDanny performs a round of acupuncture for everyone on the team who is still injured.While that is going on, Kayla and Sonia decide to start the stake-out of the old hunting shack in the swamp on their own. The GPS unit they bought eventually gets them there and they proceed to spend a wet, miserable, sleepless night out on the swamp.Everyone else, not knowing about Kayla and Sonia's plans, decides to try to get some rest before heading out in the morning.Saturday, June 28, at a decent hourEveryone gather's at Julian's house that morning. They all hop onto Julian's air boat to head into the swamp. It's only about a 15 or 20 minute boat ride to get out where the shack is. There is a bit of confusion when the group spots a pair of individuals hiding out in the reeds near the swamp, but they quickly realize it's Sonia and Kayla. The team then sets up to stake out the shack as comfortably as possible (Julian stays in his boat and does a little fishing).A little after 2pm, "Michelle" is startled by something swimming past his leg. His sudden yelp and splashing about draws most of the groups attention away from the shack. Fortunately, Sonia's vampiric hearing catches a banging sound from inside the shack just before a deer bursts through the door. Danny turns in time for his Chi Sense to detect a sudden large disruption in the chi flowing through the shack. It's almost like something large being dropped into a slow-moving stream. Shortly after the deer bounds off the island and into the water, the shack bursts apart in a rain of splinters and broken timber. At the center of the wreckage stands an actual fire-breathing dragon!Danny, his Chi Sense, firing on overdrive as he attempts to process encountering a real dragon, notices that the Chi of the deer seems somehow familiar. He leaps out to confront the dragon and draw its attention when he realizes that the deer is actually Ceridwen. Unfortunately, the dragon finds Danny less than impressive and unleashes a gout of flame. Ceridwen is able to dive out of the way, but Julian's boat isn't so lucky. Julian, himself, dives into the swamp to avoid becoming a Cajun-fried Cajun himself.The team attacks the dragon but find that most of their attacks don't seem to be hurting it much. In fact, many it seems to completely ignore. They begin to wonder how they'll possibly win, when Danny manages to land a Chi-enhanced punch to the dragon's throat while it attempts to gnaw through "Michelle"'s armor. Zeke: There's no law covering DRAGONS coming out of a SHACK in the SWAMP!.Eventually, after managing to not hit anyone other than "Michelle", and him only once, the beast gives up in fatigue and frustration. It turns and flies back into the wreckage of the shack, seeming to dive straight into the earth and disappears.After the dragon's disappearance, the team gathers the freshly changed back Ceridwen and does some quick field repairs on the boat before heading back to Julian's.Saturday, June 28, late afternoon into evening"Michelle" calls up Tinker and has him come over to help repair Julian's bar-b-q'ed boat. Tinker sends Danny out to gather supplies and after several hours work, the boat is nearly good as new. GM: If anyone new a satanic mechanic, it would be Zeke.The group fill Ceridwen in on what happened to "Michelle" and that the only ingredient they still need for the body swap spell is a perfect moonsilver mirror. She tells them that moonsilver is silver mined in Faerie and worked by the light of the moon. It often has enchantments worked into it. She also gives them some ideas on what they might be able to trade for it: lots of gold & silver, favors or unique magic. She also informs them that the crossing point she used to get from Faerie back to the mortal world is only active from sunrise to sunset during the quarter moon. This means that they'll have to pass through on Sunday unless they're willing to wait until the next quarter moon.Zeke takes Ceridwen back to his place to take a look at the body swap spell. On the way, she has him stop at a nice wine shop to pick up a few supplies that might be valuable for trading in Faerie. She also gives him that she had taken her sample of the 'Fairy Dust' to an alchemist she new in Faerie. However, that evening, several people snuck into the room she was staying in. She managed to get away and escape into the swamp. However, shortly after getting into the swamp she was ambushed by a dragon who was apparently working for the same people. She spent the next three days playing cat-and-mouse with the dragon, hoping to cross over into the mortal world before it could get to her. Once they get to Zeke's place, she looks over the spell and basically agrees with the conclusions that Zeke and Julian have already reached."Michelle" heads over to see his mentor, Cassiel the exiled angel, to find out about getting in touch with an armorer that will be able to forge a new piece of armor to replace the one he plans to trade for the moonsilver mirror. Unfortunately, Cassiel gets sidetracked by "Michelle"'s current “condition”. "Michelle" has to calm Cassiel down so that he doesn't go out and smite Zeke (who he blames for the whole mess).Sunday, June 29, the wee hoursDanny gives another round of acupuncture to the injured. After that, Ceridwen puts them in a healing circle and they're all practically new within a few hours. Once the team is rested and healed, they head back out to the location of the (former) shack. Once they reach the hill, Ceridwen leads them in a shrinking counter-clockwise spiral ending at the ex-shacks crawlspace. She jumps in, followed shortly by the rest of the team...Group awards