Dana, Steven and Varen arrived back at base, all at the same time, and found Trowa in his pajamas, making coffee. They began trying to explain, to him and each other, what happened. "You look like hell. What happened?" asked the groggy Trowa. "We were up against a giant yak-man" replied Mara, as she walked up the stairs and to bed, arms full of medallions and chains. "That's novel." -Trowa "Why were you up against a gigantic yak-man?" -Varen "Because it was trying to do a ritual to mind control the President and take over the world" -Ed "Again?" -Trowa "And we care why?" -Varen Meanwhile, Ed is on the phone with a contact, trying to aquire some big guns. They're expensive, but he manages to pull it off. "I spend a willpower point and roll to overextend my credit" -Justin "So, what was it?" -Trowa "One greater djinn"-Ed "That's all?"-Trowa "I don't think you understand..." -Varen Ed and Varen proceeded to explain exactly what sort of terror a greater djinn is like, and why it's *certainly* not "all". Mara and Ed gave a good summary of the what happened and why, where Tom and A'leia went, and why the party knew they were in trouble. Mara and Trowa traded swords -- Mara handed him an exceptional slashing sword, and took Trowa's monosword, in the hopes that she will be able to slice through the Yak with it. Mara then tried contacting a healer, and then Ed remembered that he'd rescued a snake shaman college student, who came to help out the party. The party bought him a semesters' worth of pizza and sent him off, feeling much better. After a nice nap, the party set out to find Tom. Oh, yeah, and A'leia. They drove to the NPR ballroom, where the invitation to the party lead, and Trowa started investigating. He noted the faint smell of chloroform, Middle Eastern cooking, and signs of a struggle of some sort -- an elbow in the wall from someone who was neither Tom nor A'leia, carried out fighting. "I want to know who catered this party. Chloroform and middle-eastern cuisine -- not a good combination" -Trowa They went upstairs, to where a bubble-gum popping receptionist is sitting, staring at a computer screen and playing Snood-4D. Trowa starts flirting with the receptionist, who nonetheless stopped Mara, Ed, and Varen from sneaking off into the rest of the building. She insisted that they stay here, but as she picked up the phone to contact her manager, Varen took off running. She pushed the panic button, and told her manager about these weird people looking for a meeting with someone she'd never heard of or seen before. Meanwhile, all but Trowa began running around the building. Mara leapt up to the roof and found a cage with some birds, and Ed faked being sick, and Trowa took off up the stairs, receptionist in tow. She tried to tackle him, but missed, as he got up into the hallway and encountered the manager. Trowa tried to interrogate the manager about Tom, but the manager does not know anyone named Tom Matheson. Mara and Varen came flying in the window, and the receptionist screamed, but Mara pushed past her and to the closet. There wasn't anything interesting there, but that didn't stop Trowa from pulling it open behind her. The receptionist and manager stepped back and locked themselves in the manager's office, waiting for security. The party continued ravaging the building, searching for some sign of Tom. There was nothing, really, until Mara looked astral in the broom closet. She opened the door, and nearly jumped back -- a skrag was there, and Mara beat it up. The party got interviewed as "authentic shadowrunners" on WBUR, and then did a traditional Shadowrunner exit, out the window. "Sorry, we have to go -- we need to foil a plot for an evil conspiracy to take over the world" - The Ebon Shadow The rolodex of <> lead them to the Newton home of Sylvia Pejole, the neighbor of Irene Adler. They pushed their way into the house, and interrogated/frightened her until she broke. Then she un-broke, and started being obstinant, giving a long explanation about the Cult of Mithras. Then, Ed took over the questioning, and breaking bones, and broke her. "The one of them, the girl, wasn't affected by the food. She resisted for a while. We had the other one subdue her." "Tell us about last night from the beginning" "You'll never get them back, now" The woman told them all of what had happened: something in the food to subdue the will, crystals with the souls of ancient cult members in them, posession from the stomach out. "How would you recover someone?", asked Varen. "You can't. There's nothing left... I don't know where they are -- it depends on what soul they get. They're probably on the Nile by now." She proceeded to give them a contact in Cairo, and tell them that Tom and A'leia were likely taken to the temple for "further awakening" after the banquet. The party proceeded to offer her a slice of cheesecake. She refused, but they forced it on her, and she passed out. They found a little clay animal figure when they searched her. The Ebon shadow went into the temple and saw a figure in a robe, with a bright red ponytail sticking out of the hood, scrubbing and cleaning an Ash Devourer. He pulled his stunner, put it on the nape of her neck, and knocked her out. (It was A'leia). She collapsed over the pedestal of one of the 40 ft statues, and Ed fed her some Ipicac. She proceeded to empty her stomach over the pedestal, as an ash devourer patted her on the back. Ed dropped a few pieces of cedar in the brazier. Meanwhile, Tom and a few others walked in. Ed stunned Tom, the pole he was carrying fell and he dropped the crate they were trying to carry. A feeling of dread came over Ed, the Ash Devourers began climbing the walls, and Ed took off with A'leia under one arm, Tom under the other, threw a smoke grenade, and took off past the other cultists. He jumped in the van, shouted "DRIVE!" and they started speeding away. They put ipicac, bacon, and nyquil into Tom and A'leia, and began noticing (in the nastyness) shards of crystal very similar to that which is in the teeth. Tom woke, they interrogated him, and found that he was Tom. They began interrogating A'leia, and she woke, mumbling in Egyptian. They asked who she was, and she said "Who do you think I am." They started getting worried. She said "This is ridiculous" and called a spirit to protect her, which got into combat with Mara. She called down another spirit to protect her, Wosret, the Powerful One, but was knocked down and to weakness by Varen, already weak from the stunner blast. The Powerful One attacked Varen, slicing him, and then got shredded by Ed. Mara's hit her spirit again, flaming like a firebird and dripping ash, lighting things on fire, and nearly destroyed it. Its spiritual arm dropped to the floor. It breathed fire at her, the first thing the rest of the party could see of the spirit, charring her hair but mostly missing her. "There's a giant flaming bird fighting an invisible flaming scorpion... IN MY LIVING ROOM!" -GM Ed began trying to untie Tom, as Mara fought the demon, as Tom asked for a gun. Mara's sword sliced through its arm, down through the torso, and through its leg, slicing it and causing it to evaporate. Ed gagged A'leia (or whatever was in her body) with bacon, and then covered the bacon with duct tape. She is rolling on the floor, retching, but since her mouth is covered, nothing really comes of it. Tom determined that A'leia was possessed by a different spirit than before, and informed the party that this was likely because she had another crystal in her stomach, which wasn't expelled. The party began discussing options, leaving A'leia retching on the floor but still gagged. "We'll start with the Ipicac, and then re-bacon her" -Tom Tom took off the gag, and A'leia intentionally and spitefully vomited on her. Tom tried to stuff more bacon in her mouth, which she spit back at him. Then he remembered the Ny-Quil, they knocked her out, and stuffed more bacon and Ipicac in her. When she woke, she spit in the bucked and said "I hate you all. But thank you." "What's your name?" asked Varen. "A'leia Anora O'Shay." "See? She likes her name" -Mara Tom tried to identify the heartstones and whether they'd be able to be destroyed, and the party started brainstorming ideas for how to deal with the djinn. A'leia went and bought date pits, and seeds, to weaken the djinn. We continued arguing about whether we could shoot it, whether we could deal with it (we probably can't), and what we can do to get it into an ambush. Da Plan: Full Assault Gear, biggest guns we can find Take all the hearthstones and bury them a little in dirt Prep the area Shoot at it We went there, in full riot gear. Those who could hold them had the missle launchers, Tom had an AK-47, and A'leia had a sling with a big bag of date pits. A'leia called WBUR. "Hello. What's your name?" "We have your hearthstones, in Fenway Park. Come and get them" (Over the radio, the announcer said "There's something you don't get every day. Let's try again, with caller 10 for tickets ...") We settled in to wait for it, weapons ready. Time passes. We consider calling the radio station again. "What if we're missing it doing the ritual?" "Let's hope we aren't" A policeman comes in, and starts waving around a big flashlight, doing a generic patrol. He notices something, and shouts "HEY! Who'se there?" A'leia recognized the voice, and jumped down from the balcony, landing right in front of McClusky, telling the party meanwhile "It's McClusky. I thought he wasn't with them anymore" As she landed, SLAM! SLAM! a Yak-man landed behind him. Tom steps to the side and shoots at it, and bullets bounce off its scales. The Yak gestures in mid air, gestures like he were coiling a rope, and pulls the gun from Tom's hand. He crushes it, and it crumbles to the ground in his hand. He shouts "WHERE ARE THEY" A'leia, right in front of him, shouted "HERE!" and threw a date at its head. It dodged. Ed pops out from behind a bleacher, and says "We are everywhere. Eat modern firepower!" and shoots a rocket at it. It shouted "portentions comet deflecting mode" and tried to swat at the missle, hand streaming flame and stardust, but the missle corkscrewed around its hand, into the shoulder, knocking it back in a blast of modern pyrotechnics. It was knocked back a bit, and Varen, in a motion entirely unreal, popped out and shot it in the ear, aiming for whatever brain it might have. It is flaming, burning like a blazing brand. McClusky started shouting "What the hell is going..." looked over his shoulder, yelped, and pulled his gun and fired. His bullets bounced off of its scales, doing no damage. Mara moved in close, stalking the yak-man like a bird of prey looking at a mouse. Varen stepped calmly over to the next missle launcher, picked it up, and fired. The sound of astral ducks indicated that the "stupid Russian missle" didn't really help. The Ebon Shadow dove out of his hiding place and to the next missile, as Tom shot his stunner at the monster. The whine of a stunner shot through the air, but it dismissed the shot as if it were a Nile mosquito. A'leia swept a soda bottle up from the stands, threw it at him, and lodged the date seed in his eye socket. As she fell back to the ground behind the bleachers, the priest-guy from the Masonic temple, laughing. "Ha Ha HA. Your kind will be blasted from the earth... and Mara interrupts him, and throws her sword into his chest. He is wearing a many-colored coat, which turns aside her sword before it snaps back into her hand. "Your kind shall perish!" as the real Djinn phases in around him, enveloping him as the mirage vanishes. "Damnit!" Scorpion-spirits start phasing in around the Yak-man, like the one from the Monument Works, flanking him. Tom focused his attention on the scorpion-spirits, firing his stunner into their fiery visages. They shook off the effects, his incredible accuracy not enough to overwhelm their inhuman resistance. Ed holds, makes eye contact, smiles, and tries to shoot the rocket launcher up the demon's nose. The demon began to burn, as a hole is punched through its torso. McClusky starts to run, and the demon snaps it in his teeth, shakes him around so all of us can see, and snaps him in half. Mara, now furious and enraged, ran in, leapt on the head of a scorpion to get to eye level, and plunged her sword into its eye. It sunk deep, despite the djinn's attempt to parry, but did little damage. Tom took his stunner, aimed carefully at the carapace of the scorpion charging him, but again watched as the scorpion shook off the effect of the piercing whine. Mara, from her perch on its nose, used McClusky's leg as a springboard and flew over the djinn's head and sliced down its back as she fell, slicing at its armor. It hacked off hair, but even her monosword blade could not penetrate its scales and spiritual armor. Varen carefully aimed the rocket launcher at where he suspected the head of the priest was, and shot. The missle exploded harmlessly in front of him. Trowa shattered his sword on the creature, as scorpions leapt at several of the party members, taking down several, and ripping teeth into him, as the poison of the scorpion dripped into Tom's veins. Ed lined up the final the rocket launcher and fired directly into its gaping maw, and jumps onto the rail and begins to slide away from the scorpion. The rocket went into its mouth, exploding and causing it to spit broken teeth crystals onto the ground. Mara leapt on it, punching into the djinn's kidneys. It ignored the little bird flitting around it, ignorant of the flame enveloping her. Varen began firing on it. It didn't help. It spoke into people's heads. "Puny mortal! Mortal weapons can not hurt the children of the wind!" A'leia began speaking in Egyptian, powerful and intimidating (natural 8 successes, boosted to 16) and stuffed a date seed in its mouth as she translated for the party over the link. "You should not have come. All the might of Egypt -- all the power of the Pharohs and the Kings is no match for the power of Throal, of Camrish, of Leng, of the WormWood -- the power of the Namegivers and the speakers of words. The old Powers have emerged in the world, and Magic is returning, but it is not your magic. This is the Age of the Adepts. The Dreamers have returned, and you can only hope for quick release from this plane. Begone, foul creature of darkness, and return to the abyss from whence you came!" The Djinn cowered in fear, and some of the chains around it and the flames which had been licking over it vanish. The scorpions took off running, terrified. Trowa's sword split into two, and he stabbed both into the djinn. Ed slid down the railing, towards the djinn, as Varen shot 6 fiery bullets at the djinn, mystically piercing through its armor. Tom, lying on the ground, pulled a soda straw from his pocket and build a soda-straw sight for his tangler. Unfortunately, he's hallucinating. Helecopter blades and sirens are in the air, and a bright spotlight illuminates the field. The BPD and LoneStar hovercars sweep the field with their lamps, evaluating the situation. Trowa stabbs his swords deep into the monster, dangling from his swords, as Mara continues burning him with her aura. A'leia stabs her silver knife into its eye, as Ed splits 5 ways and streams across the field to slice with his sword, lightning fast like a flail, sinking the cuts of the soul-steel gauntlet into its scales. Varen continues sinking fiery bullets into the djinn. Trowa continues sinking his swords into the scales. "Aww. Did puny mortal give you a boo boo?" The djinn is, at this point, in serious pain, but reaches over, pulls Mara off it's back, and "tries to put the puny fly into a clinch" Mara slips out of the way, tumbling and rolling to the ground. Magically, it spreads out its hands and grabs the hands of two friends, and each of those spread out their hands and grab two friends, and each of those spread out hands and grab two friends, until there is a circle of Yak-men around Mara, confusing the senses and making it unclear which of them is the real Yak. The Ebon Shadow sprung into action, unconfused by the multiple images, and, leaping up to next to Mara, slashed precicely at it. Varen shot more flaming bullets deep into the djinn. A'leia dropped 30 ft, as one of the djinn vanished under her, but she landed on her feet. There are cops overhead, who have been shouting "Stop or we'll shoot! We're going to gas the whole park" The creatures are circling around Mara, one yodeling. A'leia drops the sound control effect. Varen notices the man formerly in the robe of dreams trying to sneak away, and uses the same flaming bullets on him. He vaporizes in a hail of green bullets, putting on an impressive show of viciousness for the police. There is a howl of torment as the djinn is disconnected from his host, and a rather smaller yak-man fades into visibility, clamboring over the bleachers. Ed leaps onto one of the banisters, bounces off one of the cloth advertisements, swings into a handstand and down to cut deep into the yakman. Trowa leapt over and landed on the other side of it, but it dodged his hit and he landed nearby. It shouted in Egyptian and in our heads "I surrender! Don't kill me!". A'leia says "Don't kill him!" and Mara leaps over and bashes her fist into it. It drops to its knees and says "I surrender" Tom staggers over to it, threatens it with the popcorn gun, and says "Why should I give you my hard-earned pocket change!" and falls over. A'leia says to it "Release our friends, and we'll let you live". "Which ones are those?" "The ones you captured in the temple. In fact, all of them" Tom began shouting again. "You're bad! You don't get quarters! Not dimes, quarters. Can I drink you?" In ancient egyptian, it said "You die now" and leapt at Tom. As it passed Mara, she punched it three times. As it passed Varen, he shot at it 6 times, and he began glowing iconically, a gleaming Paladin appearing behind him. A'leia said "This is what you get. I told you" Varen slipped out and in front of the monster again. Mara slipped out and in front of the monster again. As it passed Trowa, he plunged his sword deep into its neck. He, too, is glowing iconically, a celestial lion with open maw bearing down upon his enemies. As it passed Ed, he took the last of the Ipicac and poured it down the yak-man's throat, while punching with his soul-steel fist. The Ipicac went down its throat. As it passed Mara (again), she leapt on it, knocking it to the ground in a hold, causing him to take yet more fire damage. As it passed Varen (again), he unloaded the rest of his clip into the djinn, hitting it hard but not taking it down. It tries to connect, but Tom tries to dodge, slipping on the remains of his popcorn-gun, falling head-first into a garbage can, knocking empty coke cans, half-eaten hot dogs, and beer into it. (wisdom) It misses biting Tom, and as the non-Hillel hot dogs and alcohol begin melting its flesh and smouldering with sweet smoke. We take its head, the rings, Tom, and run. Varen nukes his used-up hardware in a garbage can, (wisdom legend) and we book. In the wake of all that, the priest is dead but the