Buffyverse 17th recap Diablo Moon & Mayor Wilkins' ascension

As the Slayers fan out to cover all the graveyards in Los Diables as best they can of fresh Vamps as they rise, you all notice instead of the normal 5th level minions, they are rising more & more often as 12th or 16th level minions. Blade's bluff skills hid the fact from the rest of the group that he actually needed to use a healing surge before meeting up with the others. Everyone had urgent news to share, as each Slayer mat a High Council member feeding on a prey. Ashe finally figured out that the Vampire glyphs were not a language to figure out, but star constelations, and coincidentally, each Slayer happened to meet the High Council member whose Vampire glyph corresponds to the star constellation that matches the Zodiac birthmark. All the Slayers except Angelus encountered a High Council Member...

Once the Slayers grouped up, the ruling Vampire Queen Akasha <looks like Allyah in Queen of the Damned> comes up to the Slayers offering help & a challenge. The help was a solid gold tablet that named all 20 members of the Aralius Coven as well as very finely etched detailed of a map of Los Diables & the location of each member's urns (including showing Luke & Mercury as dusted). Everybody was leary to approach the insane Queen, who talks like a cross between Yoda and River Tam, but Blade and Aura stepped up and accepted the Queen's gift. When revealed what it was, Ashe & others were excited, saying it's exactly what they needed & wondering why the Queen's offering such help. "Prophesies. Fate cannot be denied. Know all I do, I know you saw the Myocene Prophesy tablet peices... Some of you young Godlings will soon join me as Gods."

The Queen continued, "I also must know if it will be one of new or one of ancient that will join with me as God King..." and stops suppressing her Flame of Insanity Aura, igniting half the Slayers in hellishly hot flames. Instead of ripping flesh, as both know she could have, Blade & Ember found themselves very intimately groped in their loins and given sloppy kisses on the mouth, engulfing many other Slayers in her firey aura. "What about the truce?", asked Ashe, "Rules are for the ruled, not the ruler! In this world my whim is law..."

Blade was the first to catch her attention dealing mighty wounds on a missed attack, thans to his assasin's shrouds. The Slayers unleashed an impressive display of magic & power upon the Queen, not backing down one bit, forcing her to heal her wounds drinking deep of Ashe's neck. Though the Slayers were taking hit after hit from the Queen's furious attacks, for the first time in 100,000+ years, Queen Akasha found herself bloodied in battle. Ashe, Ember and Angelus each recieved a parting kiss or grope and a smiling nod of respect as potential God Kings, before she morphed into mist & flew towards the harbor.

Excited by the treasure the Queen gave them, they wasted no time & settled on a name in the high middle of the list, who turned out to be a Vampire Ranger who 'lived' on a gated estate bordering a large park. While there were cameras as well as outdoor patrols, the party's keen planning and powerful magics bypassed both, flying high & desending onto the roof, out of vision of both. As they came down, Ashe & Blade regocnized a hand trap on the roof access door, and Ashe recognized the symbol, speaking the words, then when everyone was on the roof, Blade opened the roof door.

The Slayers desended into an attic with lots of animal heads mounted on the walls, as well as the urn for the Aralius Coven memer Sartartnius. Still with the element of surprise, Angelus sprung into action down the stairs catching the hunter's henchmen off gaurd. As the rest of the Slayers burst in, all the henchmen were dust by the time the Hunter came from the hidden vault with his accountant & pet, a 3 headed Hellhound. Kennedy knew right away that this Vampire hunter was going to be tough as 2 arrows nearly bloodied her as soon as he entered the room, but the rest of the party was preoccupied with the 2,000 lbs Hellhound breathing fire with each head biting each round. The henchmen went down quickly, as expected, but the Beast had a phasing defense and was tough to bring down, and protected its master fiercely. Sartarnus agily moved about the room, peircing Slayer after Slayer with arrows that striked true until Angelus & Blade chased him outside... where he preferred to be anyway, though not quite so bloodied with so much of his magic expended. He made it into the park before Angelus finished him off, screaming and promising revenge... until he saw his mist form drawn to his urn in Aura's hands, who smashed it as soon as he entered and dusting his misty remains. Blade's shady profession proved useful again as he opened the vault, holding a couple powerful items for Blade & Keneday.

The Slayers then quickly healed up & got in a full night's rest to be ready to confront the Mayor at his assension. With Ashe very persuasively talking, and the Mayor's speech urging everyone to go off as dozens of blue LDPD drones flew over them each as the drove or walked off at the end of the rally. As the police drones started targeting the crowd for it's demonstration, all the Slayers except Keneday was able to hide from it's targeting, thwarting her plans on helping Blade sabotage the Mayor's potential getaway boat.

The Slayers held patient until midnight, when the High Council members chanting in to luxurious shop off the docks sparked the transformation of the Mayor into a Demon quickly took place. As soon as it was over the Slayers sprang from ambush to attack the Mayor & his Vampire staff, attacking from all directions. The Mayor was looking forward to testing his new form and started charging the closest Slayers to him in the direction of his boat with his Minataur horns aimed low. This move confounded Angelus, who wanted to fight the Mayor, but instead found himself swarmed by his staff. A couple other Vampires unleashed a half dozen special silver colored police drones that speeded out and started blasting the party with lighting. The blue one hovering over Keneday also started attacking, but with much less power or accuracy.

Although the party found themselves completely spread out, unable to characteristicly concentrate firepower on enemies, the High Council eventually still watched the Slayers defeat the Mayor and all his staff, though not without wounds to show for it. This excited the Queen and made some of the others nervous for the coming future. Aura & Keneday both used much healing on the very appreciative friends, as the silver drones hit hard, as the Vampires & Mayor fought. It didn't help that as the drones became damaged, they discharged electic blasts in all directions. Also powerful were their digital targeting, making their accuracy deadly, but their cameras could even see through Blade's invisibility magic. Fortunately the Slayers were able to hit them fairly easily and destroy them without too much difficulty. Ashe's curiousity to dissect the drones helped the party discovered recoverable residuum in each of the silver drones, though not in the blue ones attacking Keneday, which actually was one of the final enemies to survive the battle.

Each of the Slayers have a powerful 'Slayer vision' dream of Queen Akasha saying "2 to go..." to them. Angelus has a longer version of the same dream, finding himself naked and in bed with the Queen and 2 other naked women and 3 dead ones from gushing neck wounds & blood everywhere... She's about to drink deep when Angelus wakes up.

Ashe: After confronting Queen Akasha to a draw, the artifact sword Buffy, who was literally forged to slay the Queen, suddenly losed her fickleness and decided that the 2 of you make a good team and has now bonded with you.

By concensus of the party, the next game will also be at 17th again. Intro to next game...

The following night after slaying the Mayor, on the 3rd night of the full moon, Ashe is asked by an elderly neighbor to help her change a bulb, when Lyla Morgan, the (now ex) girlfriend of the Mayor (& a Aralius coven member), suddenly sends a team of Vampires crashing through the windows of the elderly neighbor's home. The neighbor recognizes the faces as contractors she'd invited in to do some remodeling work on her home earlier that week. Telepathicly, Buffy psychicly contacts all of the Slayers, telling them of the ambush...

Note: When Giles left after being rescued in Germany, the Slayers have a 4 bedroom house that he left behind, but that won't account for everyone. Please update where/how you live (especially Ashe) and the intial encounter may not include the whole party, or include a number of rounds before they join depending upon where everyone lives...

The Slayers started at 1st level at 16 years old and have been advancing roughly 1x/quarter and are 20 years old now. For the next 13 game months, this will speed up & the Slayers will advance every game month.

Ashe is pretty sure the neighbor is an innocent & not part of the ambush. Her screaming is nonetheless distracting...

bradly wrote:...suddenly sends a team of Vampires crashing through the windows of the elderly neighbor's home. The neighbor recognizes the faces as contractors she'd invited in to do some remodeling work on her home earlier that week. Telepathicly, Buffy psychicly contacts all of the Slayers, telling them of the ambush...

Can't she just "un-invite" them like in Being Human?

Do invitations wear off? Or is it once invited always invited?

It's like what Blade said, once invited always invited (unless there's a change in living or ownership status), though a ritual can undo an invite too. In other words, too late for Ashe & his sweet, elderly neighbor without some superhero Slayer heriocs (though the Vamps don't know Buffy telepathicly called out to all the Slayers of what's happening).

Note: We need a description of where everyone lives, given that it has to be in Los Diablos, some of you can be staying in Giles' old 4-bd house, 4+ years have passed since (all) your families were slain by Vampires and Giles helped you discover your magical Slayer abilities so you're all about 20yrs old now. Note 2: If you don't care care to decide, I'll choose for you before we play next...

Is there a set number of adventures before the final battle?

If we're going to adventure more before we level up then we may want to contact the councel before they leave for the next city.

I'd prefer to keep leveling unless there's a good reason not to (at least until 22nd or so).

Angelus wants to contact the movie producer to get more info on:
Possible magic shops
Relationship between slayer zodiac tatoos and council members

I know I had a few more items, will have to think of them...

No fixed number of adventures, but there is a fixed level (30th), and each leveling will take place each game month until then. It's up to you guys if you want to slow down advancing or not though.

Harvey Goldvein is the famous Hollygrove movie producer that the Toknosfar High Council member told you about to contact his coven. He also told you that what his coven needs most (besides secrecy) is other non-evil Vampires (as his coven grows the slowest) interested in joining his coven.

Angelus googles Harvey easy enough. You talk to his secy (very hot Human woman) who basically tells you to send your movie script to the office & he'll get to it & read it later. She's basically screening his calls for him and doesn't make it easy. What does Angelus do/say to get past the secy?

Angelus will leave a message for Harvey and say that an important council member said that we may be able to help each other out. It may be very lucrative for the both of us.

Angelus will leave a phone number to a disposable cell that he has.

If Angelus doesn't hear back in a day, he'll go pay Harvy a visit in person.

If Angelus wants company on the visit, Kenneday will be arm candy...

Dwarmaj wrote:Angelus will leave a message for Harvey and say that an important council member said that we may be able to help each other out. It may be very lucrative for the both of us.

Angelus will leave a phone number to a disposable cell that he has.

If Angelus doesn't hear back in a day, he'll go pay Harvy a visit in person.

Just as you were all set to try an in person visit, you get a return call... "Angelus, this is Harvey. Always interested in lucrative deals, and if you're referred by who I think, we should meet, but I'll need some 'sign' you're who I was told to expect before any deals are made. I'm slammed with movie shoots all day, but why don't you come by my office tomorrow at 7:00pm?"

Note: The meeting time he chose is just after sunset, and this will overlap timewise with the first encounter of the next adventure (which is okay by me, but there may be sequence issues...)