Session 16: Ashes to Ashes Act 1: End Report
General Summary
The battle continues...
Inside the ritual circle, Killian & Eleanor engage in direct combat with the Prioress, Eleanor trying her hand at negotiating a little bit as she fires shots into what she believes to be a misguided cultist. She quickly learns that Maeve is very self-assured in her mission, knowing in her undead heart that the Sabbat may be "humanity's only hope" at destroying the antedeluvians before they destroy us all. A few hundred humans sacrificing their lives to potentially save millions? But a small price to pay in Maeve's mind. The frenzied Killian has no mind for these negotiations and focuses more on delivering painful bludgeonings to the witch, fighting valiantly despite his missing arm and horribly destitute state.
In the bathroom, Adel and John come up with the idea of blessing the water in one of the toilets of which John's "God" decides to humor in doing so. This provided an ample basin to begin breaking the demonic binding of the plush anchor. In the midst of this, the demonic creature bound to the doll tries to negotiate with Adel, trying to offer her something in exchange for leaving its anchor be, only for Adel to respond by waterboarding the plush again with almost morbid glee.
After some blows are exchanged, Maeve eventually notices that the anchor had been displaced from the ritual circle. Connecting the dots, she sends three of her cultists to try breaking down the door to the bathroom to retrieve the anchor. One cultist begins working on breaking the door down, a second summons a swarm of supernatural mosquitos, and the last one awaits for the door to be opened with a cruel dagger in their hand. As the door comes down, John is swarmed with these bloodthirsty insects that quickly drain his remaining resistance, but in an effort to continue being a distraction and buy Adel the last few moments she needs to dissolve the anchor, John throws himself through another bathroom wall before collapsing in the debris and once again entering torpor.
Adel has just enough time to finally scrub the remaining vitae out of the plush's fur, enduring numerous divine burns to her hands. As the wall comes down behind her, Adel turns invisible before creeping out of the hole to try and set a trap to protect John long enough for someone to come by and help him. It is around this moment that Windora finally re-emerges after hiding behind the curtain and trying to aid in protecting Adel and John, ensnaring the dagger-cultist into some kind of dominate-related ability. The cultist that broke down the door makes their way through the bathroom and through the hole in the wall and just as they do, Adel manages to trip them before staking them through the heart, sending them straight into torpor. Windora's ability appears to fail as the cultist breaks out of the trance she was trying to send them into, pushing her aside as they enter the bathroom and spot the unconscious John lain amongst the rubble. Dagger in hand, they make quick work of the defenseless John, sawing their knife right through their throat and beheading him.
"For Caine!"
Dismembered, John crumbles away after experiencing a final death, his last subconscious thoughts in torpor hoping that his efforts weren't wasted and hopeful he leaves this cursed life a hero rather than as a monster.
In a similar beat, Eleanor, Maki, & Killian are able to wear Maeve down a decent amount, but she doesn't seem afraid of failure. However, fed up with constantly being battered by Killain, she blood surges and finally manages to boil him through his pain threshold. Vitae explodes out of his eyes, nose, and mouth as she seemingly explodes the inside of his skull with a single touch, Killian finally slowing and sinking down, leaving only ashen remains and a destroyed suit behind. Maeve seems satisfied that she finally received the bloodshed she requested, her ears perking as she looks behind herself to see the ritual circle behind her has started to evaporate away. And so- she admits defeat and looks to Eleanor to deliver a final message before retreating;
"An elder you serve is betraying you."
With that, she makes her escape, stepping on a previously concealed rune before vanishing. As she does, her remaining cultists begin to flee. Eleanor catches sight of the cultist crouched over John's remains and immediately avenges him by planting a bullet in their skull, killing them instantly.
Beat to shit and feeling bleak, Eleanor, Adel, and Maki survive alongside Juno & Windora.
Ultimately, after the battle, Marcel shows up followed by Elias and Teddy of whom begin investigating the convention center after all the dust has settled. Both Elias and Teddy ask why they weren't informed of this and Eleanor expresses, now feeling foolish, that she felt maybe Nick would have passed the message along. Elias states rather plainly that, "Nick doesn't feel like we're on the same side anymore," and that it was pretty presumptuous of her to assume Nick would do any such thing. And hey, it doesn't look like he showed up to save you anyway.
Marcel takes care of capturing the remains of John and Killian as Teddy invites the remaining coterie to the Ivory Tower to have a drink and unwind a little bit- stating that it's the least he can do.
All the while, Eleanor and Adel are left wondering why Nick or Lumis haven't returned their calls, concerned that something horrible may be amiss with them.
