Gaming Summary, June 12, 2005

It’s a return trip to the Borderlands, with a considerably less full house than last time. Considerably less breaking and entering too, but at least we got in some property damage.

When last we left our party, they had crossed over into Faerie via the door of the Unicorn Tapestry. We picked up on the outskirts of a village, with some of the party members in trouble. Victoria’s arcane senses were overwhelmed by Faerie, and she seemed delusional. Vinny slapped at his neck, and suddenly fell unconscious, while the rest of the party observed a butterfly wafting away, apparently shouting something about vengence against the despoiler.

After determining that they couldn’t awaken Vinny, the party set Victoria to watch over him, and addressed the issue of entering the town. Their unusual clothes would mark all but Obediah as outsiders, but Ray remembered some folklore about reversing your cloak, and decided to try it. The party members turned their jackets inside out, while Obediah scoffed…until they vanished from his view. Much pleased, the mostly invisible party wandered into town.

Most of the party found the people and environs pleasant, but Ray, with his First Sight, saw torture devices in the town square, and thought the inhabitants were quite threatening. He didn’t say anything, though. Obediah stopped in a tavern he remembered, where he found an old friend, whose name I have (of course) forgotten ( Pin -ed. ). Said Friend was startled to see Obediah, to say the least, but warmed up eventually. He revealed that the local Great High Muckety-Muck was somebody Obediah was familiar with of old. (I couldn’t even get that guy’s name right on Sunday, so I’m certainly not going to get it now…I’ll just call him His Nibs. Cernunnos – ed.) His Nibs, as it turns out, is the leader of the Wild Hunt, and the Hunt is the reason why Obediah fled Fairie in the first place.

The party regrouped outside the tavern and digested the news. They concluded that the Wild Hunt is almost certainly the source of the murders near the Cloisters, but they didn’t know what they could do about it. They reasoned that if they had to fight the Wild Hunt, they’d be better off doing it on their home turf, instead of in Fairie, even though trying to open the Door home might draw the Hunt.

Obediah paused to visit the local smithy, in the hopes of finding a sword he could use. Unfortunately, the smith was more of the “horseshoes and nails” type than the “arms and armor” type. He did have one old rusty sword that he offered to Obediah in exchange for a song…for his cow. After much grumbling, Obediah cast aside his last shreds of dignity, and sang for the cow. The smith was pleased with the results, and gave Obediah the sword.

When the party returned to where they’d left Vinny and Victoria, they found only a fairy ring in the clearing, with no sign of their companions. The group was distressed, but (after a nudge from the GM) reasoned that they couldn’t do anything for their lost friends, and decided to press on with the plan.

The party returned to the spot where they’d come through the door from the Cloisters, and found that the black gash from Vinny’s knife mark had grown to encompass quite a bit of ground. Obediah advised using salt to stop its growth, and fortunately, found a few McDonald’s salt packets in his coat. With the environmental disaster contained, if not fixed, the party decided to rest for the night, figuring that they should be at their best when they faced the Wild Hunt. Obediah attempted to polish his sword, Ray went over tactics, and Chucky attempted to teach himself all of Western magic in one night, with Tamsin’s help. Fitz did nothing useful.

The next morning, the party figured they were as ready as they were going to get, they braced themselves, and Obediah cast his spell. The Door opened immediately, showing the interior of the Unicorn Tapestry room. Nothing bad happened right away, but they heard some baying in the distance, so they hurried through the Door. As each party member passed through, the figures on the other side seemed to move backwards, until finally they were in the exact spot they’d been when the party left. Soon, the party found themselves standing in the Cloisters, with no time having passed.

Obediah, unfortunately, was back to his shabby, nonsensical self, but Fitz managed to talk him into closing the Door. The security guards were quite startled to find people standing on the wrong side of the ropes, several of whom had guns out. Ray immediately took off running, and the guards dutifully gave chase, giving the rest of the party the chance to conceal their weapons and slip out the emergency exit that Vinny had disabled earlier.

Ray’s earlier recon enabled him to give the guards the slip, and the party regrouped in the parking lot. Vinny still had the keys to his cab with him in Faerie, but this was no barrier to Obediah. Chucky, for no reason anyone could determine, scribed a communicate scroll that let Obediah “talk” to the cab, which wanted to go back to the Fratone Brothers’ shop. Fitz and Tamsin went back to the theater in the Audi; Chucky took the subway.

What will the party decide to do about the Wild Hunt? Will we ever see Vinny and Victoria again? Will Tamsin’s head explode if the others try to burn the Unicorn Tapestry? Tune in next time to find out!