Our first session was made up of small individual preludes. This was our first real game.

The PCs (with an idea of who would play them in a movie).

John - Layabout Scion of Erzulie from Santo Domingo (Keith Hamilton Cobb). John kind of accepts the  whole "I'm a god, you're my child" but in begrudging sort of way.

Angelique - Forensic Pathologist Scion of Baron Samedi from New Orleans (Halle Berry). Like John she begrudgingly accepts the situation.

Eliah - Street urchin Scion of Loki from New York (Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko). Eliah wholeheartedly believes in the Titan War, his job in it, his father's a god etc. 110%. Oddly enough, Loki was the most upfront and honest diety during the Visitation.

Martin - ATF agent Scion of Horus from Amarillo Texas (Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart). Martin doesn't believe any of the crap he's heard.

Setup Following their visitations, each of the Scions has been tasked with going to New Orleans for different reasons. John, because his mom is severely disappointed in him and his lifestyle so he needs to "be better then you are". Eliah is on his way from London after performing some break and enter and theft for his father (including Horus' egg). Martin is hunting down the leader of a cult dedicated to Apep who happens to be a powerful businessman. Angelique, well her dad wants her out of the lab and to experience life before she dies.

Angelique is driving (she's got a few zombies and thought better then to take them on the plane), while the other 3 are flying and all three of them end up in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

Part One - On the Road Again

Angelique

A furious rainstorm forces her off the road at a small diner called Moira's (idea gleefully stolen from Nyarlathotep999). Inside there are but 3 people, the waitress Chloe, the cook Leisha and the cashier Amanda. As Angelique is eating her special, the hairs on the back of her neck stand up...she can sense the presence of death. In a flash outside, she sees some sort of shambling undead coming towards the diner and knows they're not hers. Chloe makes a "oh, here we go again" comment and when Angelique catches her on it, the waitress tells her that its not the first time one "of you" has come by. Apparently Scions come by, something happens, they deal with it and they move on. Like a testing grounds of sort. Of course "sometimes the zombies win" isn't very reassuring. Angelique resigns herself to the fact that its up to her and gets up as Amanda tosses her a shotgun. The Scion of Baron Samedi blows away the first zombie through the door of the diner, knocking its pieces back into its fellows (big damage and knockback=fun). She cocks the shotgun Linda Hamilton style (Epic Strength) as she draws her own 9mm pistol and downs two more zombies in an Equilibrium-esque display of Epic Dexterity. The final one gets a little two close to her, she ducks under its feeble grasp and puts the barrels of both weapons right in its chest and pulls the triggers just as the storm breaks. Angelique walks in, pays her bill ($11, including the door) and gets ready to leave. Amanda tells her to keep the shotgun, just in case and Chloe lets her know that Moira's is a franchise if she's ever in the mood for their special (a very tasty hot hamburger sandwhich).

Martin, Eliah, John

The three of them are waiting for their flight to Las Vegas. Each of them notice the others right away (I've decided that Legendary beings tend to see each other for what they are unless pains are taken to hide it), but they each keep to themselves. The flight has been long delayed due to a thick fog settling in, many of the other travellers have retired to the nearby hotel. Only the 3 Scions, a Japanese businessman and a family of 5 with 3 very overtired children are still in the terminal. Martin notices the businessman's attache case is secured to his wrist with state of the art titanium cuffs.

John is staring forlornly out the window into the fog when he sees something move and jumps back.  Martin notices this and comes over to look as well. He notices a faintly humanoid form melting into the fog, and goes to notify the security guard. Eliah has noticed the other two standing close together so he comes to have a looksee too. Martin is keeping an eye on the security guard who's going outside to investigate and sees him get yanked into the fog by something. The other two are oblvious, so he tells them to wait there and he heads out to see what happened. He finds the guards unconscious body and brings it back inside. John's had some basic first aid, enough to tell that the man was knocked out by blunt force trauma but he's not in any serious danger. Martin takes the guard's gun and goes outside to investigate.

Outside, Martin's supernatural senses (Subliminal Warning) let him deftly dodge the ninja's attack and Martin, good old boy, long time ATF agent finds himself staring at an honest to goodness Ninja. Only this one is completely silent and black (Shinobi). The ninja is far to fast for Martin to get a bead on with his pistol, but years of field work make him no slouch either. Both of them stand a few yards apart, weapons ready. Martin yells "Freeze" (Overt Order) and fires. The ninja never moves as the bullet rips into him. The shadowy figure disappates, leaving behind only a black metal shuriken.

Inside, Eliah and John are looking after the guard. The businessman looks slightly nervous and walks over to the family and says something to the father. The family quickly leaves, dragging the kids the whole way. John and Eliah notice this peculiar behaviour just as the terminal lights go out. They can hear a fight, like a Martial Arts movie with no picture and as the emergency lights flicker, the attache case slides across the floor to stop right at their feet. The handcuff and forearm of the businessman still attached. After a very breif panic, the two of put the case on the abdomen of the guard, grab his legs and arms and hightail it behind the bar in the small lounge area and hide. Eliah opens the case, while John lights a candle from his voodoo kit. Inside is a black diamond about the size of a fist. Before deciding what to do with that, Eliah decides to peek over the bar. He comes face to face with a ninja silently drawing his sword. Eliah quickly reaches into his backpack, finds his Peacemaker and draws and fires but misses. John is completely curious and pokes his head up. The two of them realize that they aren't combat oriented enough to be facing down shadow ninjas in an empty airport terminal and need a plan. Remembering his encounter with the giant snake back home, John locks eyes with the Shinobi and holds its stare (Serpent's Gaze) while Eliah sounds his horn and summons the Einejahar his father gifted him with. Martin gets back inside the terminal just in time to see the mythical viking warriors come out of the fog, chop the ninja to pieces and disappear. He's becoming less and less skeptical. During the commotion with the Vikings, Eliah manages to pocket the diamond.

The lights come back on and Martin calls in the attack on the security guard. He presents his credentials, answers a few questions and is then informed that the bureau has made a private jet ready for him to get to Vegas as soon as the fog burns off (which it is quickly doing). He offers a lift to Eliah and John who are eager to get on the way.

-----Part Two Coming Soon, in which Angelique needs to sneak Zombies into her hotel Suite, John has a run in with his mom's chief rival, the Scions meet the Gods and confront a mythical monster in the desert. Oh and there's an orgy too--------

(still continuing the story of our first game).

John was still kinda out of it from the endorphins arising from his "distraction", but the 4 of them stood around a gaping hole in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Eliah was the first to take a look around, and thus the first to really notice the hot, damp and alternating directional currents of air near the cave mouth.  None of the characters are that dumb and they fairly quickly realize there's something big down there.

They debate for a while about going in, but finally man up and start the descent.  Martin with his flashlight and Angelique with her Night Eyes going first, Eliah and John behind them (though not as far behind as they would have preferred...back at the hotel sounded good).

Martin is working on the assumption that the play is a front, that some sort of cult is kidnapping people and bringing them out here for a sacrifice of some nature.  He's still rationalizing away anything remotely supernatural, though it is getting more and more difficult to do so.

The trail leads to a dead end, well a huge chasm easily 300 yards across.  To Martin's trained eye it looks fairly new, like something simply broke away into a large sinkhole of sorts.  Some small time spent looking around leads them to conclude that its probable but not certain that the cultists and victim didn't know about the chasm and fell into it.  Getting the distinct feeling that perhaps someone led them out here so as to leave the city open, Martin sends Eliah and John back to the city with information to pass onto the ATF group so he can get some manpower out to help him, while he and Angelique see if they can't bypass the chasm (they are the two most athletic ones).

So Eliah and John leave in the SUV.  Martin's pretty sure he can climb/skirt the wall across the cavern while Angelique holds onto him, piggy back style.  Some Monkey Climbing knack and Epic Strength make it so, as Martin appreciated the time he spent lately on the rock wall at the gym.

Continuing on past the chasm, the two of them are fairly sneaky...enough so they find the source of the breathing without being spotted.  A huge Toad/lizard/bird type thing with mouths at its joints, sharp teeth...etc.  You all know the description.  Angelique's near encyclopedic mind (Epic Intelligence) and knowledge of the occult let her deduce what sort of critter (player rolled almost as many successes as she possibly could) and she especially remembered something about it being largely diurnal since moonlight was painful to it.

The two PCs quickly vacated the area, going back the way they came.  Once clear of the cave, Martin realized that he had asked Eliah and John to bring in a field team, some agents and others who would be slaughtered.  Thankfully he got ahold of them and called off the group, though his reputation will likely take a hit (calling in agents and then minutes later calling them off because its a false lead...doesn't look good).  John and Eliah turn around on the highway and head back.

Conferring via phone about how best to block off the creature they toss around various ideas that basically boil down to "steal an 18 wheeler from a nearby truck stop and drive it right into the hole, blocking the whole thing off" or "steal a gas truck from a nearby truck stop and flood the cavern, then light it".  Its a testament to the way pressure affects otherwise rational beings as those seemed to be the best ideas.

Luckily (or not...a massive crash/explosion would have been cool), they never got a chance to put either idea into practice.  Angelique and Martin felt a tremendous tremor and realized the things beneath them was moving and there was only one entrance.

Figuring (correctly) that there were probably more then a few bodies buried in the desert, Angelique poured some of the rum her dad had given her onto the ground, raising a small group of zombies and really unsettling Martin in the process (Rum - Relic 3 Unique Power - Unquiet Dead, as long as there is a corpse somewhere nearby.  Basically if the players makes some general reason why there should be bodies nearby its good enough.  Zombies are excellent fodder).  Knowing the creature was getting closer and glancing down at his meager service issue 9mm, Martin was very torn.  He'd been a rational man all his life, his entire existance built around law, order, sanity and those other cornerstones of his mundane existance.  In desperation he made a plea/prayer/bargain to his "father" along the lines of "I'm about to fight a really big dragon here, give me a bit of help and I'll open my eyes and accept what you've been telling me".  There was a sudden darkening of the overhead sky and even though it was daylight, a bright beam of light arced from the moon into the tunnel, around a bend and onwards.  There was the sound of sizzling and the smell of something meaty cooking as the sky returned to normal.  Martin stood, shocked while Horus clasped him on the shoulder (having appeared with the moonlight unnoticed to either of the PCs) and said "glad you're coming around."  A quick exploration of the cave (to make sure) led to the discovery of a feathered tunic lodged in the lower scales of the beast (like when you get popcorn stuck in your teeth).

Eliah and John arrived to the smell of BBQ as Horus vanished and Angelique was putting her guys back to rest.  Not much was said, but everyone knew that everything they'd been told was true.

Returning to the city, Martin got a call from his surveillance team.  They had intercepted a call from the Luxor suite to the Wynn.  The cult was planning something at midnight, to correspond with an eclipse.  It was going to happen on the roof of the Wynn, after the amusement rides had shut down for the evening.  The fact that the call went to the Wynn was not lost on Martin and he suspects someone inside the hotel (or worse) is involved.  This gave Martin very little time (less then 12 hours) to put a plan together.

------so that was our first game.  Lots of RP, no combat, some very good distinct personalities coming out of the characters.  My wife is surprised at how well her PC (John) gets along with Eliah, but he's the only person since John left the island that hasn't treated him like a hick.  Martin is on board now with what's going on, Angelique is doing her best to make daddy proud and Eliah...well he's looking for more trouble to get into-------

(Spoiler alert if you're one of my players) - Next week on Scion - Cultists, Bikers, Giant Snakes and more Aphrodite.

(or the continuing adventures of Martin, Angelique, Eliah and John).

Following their various encounters en route, the Scions made their way to Vegas.  By coincidence they all ended up at the fabulous Wynn, home to rooftop amusement park rides, luxurious casinos and neighbouring evil death cults.

Angelique arrived first and managed to sneak her zombie entourage up to the suite her dad had reserved for her, ordering them to stay put while she went to find some better clothes (she left New Orleans in a bit of a hurry thanks to her Dad, some  police sirens...its a long story).  She finally just asked the Concierge to bring her something to wear and made her way to the Casino to "live life" as her dad had requested.

Meanwhile, Martin, Eliah and John had arrived.  John had no particular place to go, whereas Eliah was specifically supposed to meet Loki at the Wynn.  Martin was just dropping them off before going to the room he had booked at the Luxor (to better keep tabs on his quarry, an evil perportedly immortal Priest of Darkness named Maxwell Davies) but this little thing and that little thing just seemed to keep him around the Wynn.  When he was finally ready to leave he bumped into his "dad" Horus, who instructed him to stay for a bit and come to a meeting in 1/2 an hour.

Eliah and John, never ones for simply laying low made their way to the floor.  They were drawn to the craps table where a beautiful blonde girl held court, giggling, bubbly, ditzy...both John and Eliah wondered fleetingly if it was their mom or dad (Loki had previously demonstrated a talent for shapeshifting to Eliah).  It was neither, instead it was Aphrodite a recognition that sent shivers down John's spine.  He knew she and his mom had some personal issues (something about Erzulie calling her a "skank" and "Goddess of one night stands") and he was deathly afraid she may take it out on him.  Of course the two of them were swept along in her wake, held fast by her beauty and warmed by her presence.  Until she realized who John was and immediately cut them off, leaving them emotionally drained and cold (the two players played this very well).

Martin had given his father the run down on what happened, including the mention of the breifcase.  Horus was immediately intrigued, but suggested Martin talk to someone else, and motioned to Izanami who was an old woman playing the slots...you know the type...just sitting there...alone...plugging in quarters.

Martin went to talk to her and found out that the businessman at the airport was working for the Japanese.  He was transporting something very dangerous called The Heart of Erebus, giant black diamond.  Apparently the plan was to have a more ornate courier with all the bells and whistles as a diversion while the lone, very skilled, courier carried the actual package discreetly.  Not discreetly enough though.  Martin admitted that he had no idea where the Heart was, even when told it was a very dangerous thing (he tends to downplay the situation when people start going on about anything outside his worldview).  He did admit to there being others present (Eliah and John).  Before he could talk more, the aforementioned meeting was scheduled to start.

The four of them were ushered through the Wynn, rapidly losing track of how to get to where they ended up, an ornate marble hallway with thick wooden doors.  They knocked and quietly made their way inside, to be greeted by the sight of their parents and a dozen or so other beings, seated around a conference table.

Eliah tried to give the egg to Horus as Loki had asked him to do, but was asked to watch it for a little while.  John tried, to no avail, to escape Aphrodite's withering gaze.  Martin simply stood quietly, while Angelique was sort of amazed and happy when her dad snuck her a small smile.

There was some back and forth between the Gods and the characters, highlighted by Aphrodite asking Erzulie if John was "one of the smart ones, or one of the pretty ones" in a particularly catty way.  In the end though, they asked the characters to run interferance while they had their meeting.  Basically a "watch out for weird shit" combined with a "do  not disturb".  The only real protests where Martin, who is technically on a case and Angelique who wanted to at least shop for some new clothing.  Horus made a deal with Martin so that he could do both, since stopping Maxwell also was in his interest.  After a slight hint of something between The Baron and Aphrodite, a few of her nymphs (naked of course) took some measurements and made Angelique some clothing.  With a "have fun, see the shows, stop some evil", the PCs were shown the door.

Tired of Martin and Angelique making fun of their easy going ways (calling them "Dumb and Dumber" of all things, even though Eliah is most certainly neither), John and his new best friend went to take in the Panegyris which sounded at least vaguely educational/cultural.  Angelique hit the tables and Martin called in some ATF favors and set up surveillance on Maxwell.

Angelique's sense picked up that the guy next to her was no longer amongst the living.  He just didn't know it yet.  One of those sad sack types, who was just now on his way back to recouping his losses.  His heart had given out but he was determined to win back his money.  Fairly quickly figuring out that if she could take his attention away from the game for long enough, the obsession might fade and he would pass on.  Granted her choice of subject matter (something about lividity and rate of tissue decay in low pressure areas) may not have been the best, but she is used to holding the attention of hundreds of bored pre-med students.  This wasn't much (Epic Charisma and Teaching Prodigy) harder.  The poor guy died never having known what winning was.

John and Eliah found the show fascinating and vaguely disturbing.  More so when they noticed that a "volunteer" from the audience may have been kidnapped during the preceedings.  After the show they made their way backstage, thanks to John's preening and cooing about the Performances and Eliah's insistance on getting autographs (both character's Social heavy).  In the crowd John was quickly starting to gather, Eliah slipped away and using Instant Investigator pieced together what happened.  He just needed a distraction to draw the security guys out of their office so he could slip in and see the tapes.  Thinking (??) quickly, John started an impromptu orgy, even making sure to position it under the video cameras so he could use Come Hither on the security detail.  Eliah made for the office, running in to Martin and Angelique in the process.  The three of them found the tape and saw the kidnap victim being ushered into a van through the bay doors props were moved in through.  Deciding this may be the "weird stuff" they were asked to keep an eye out for, they decided to track down the van, picking up John en route.  While it did serve the purpose, John's quite afraid his mom'll find out.  Since her main complaint about him was the lack of any actual relationships, this whole orgy thing could really piss her off.

Martin's time in the ATF had served him well as he was able to track the van, even through the crowded Vegas streets, while he hung his head out the window of Angelique's SUV looking for the most minute detail (Supernal Hunter).  They finally found the van abandoned at the site of a large rent in the ground.

More to come as the PCs ...fight....their very first monster.

So a bit of info about the characters and their divine parent, as presented by Scion and filtered through my interpretation.

Thor - Thor's the guy you love to have visit, but hate to have crash on your couch for prolonged periods of time.  Nice enough guy, bit dumb but wow does trouble follow him like white on rice.  Course he tends to solve most of his problems by hitting them.  His son, Mad Dawg, is much like his old man.  Big and strong but always looking out for those weaker people who maybe can't protect themselves.  Runs a bike repair/customization place in Canyon, Texas.

Erzulie - Erzulie will be the first to tell you that she's the Goddess of Love, not the Goddess of one night stands.  That's for Aphrodite (or so claims Erzulie) to handle.  Stunningly beautiful, amazingly pampered and she knows it and worse yet expects it.  Her son's been making a comfortable living as a tourist "companion" at Casa de Campo in the Dominican, but Erzulie's grown a little tired of his "lazy ass lifetsyle" and is about to shake things up.

Xipe Tetoc - Its pretty evident a guy that into well...skin...has some issues.  He loves to shock, shake people out of their mundane lives and "reinvent" themselves as someone new.  He's currently in the middle of a sold out "sideshow" tour that's been picketed by the religious right for its overtly occult nature, by Peta for its abuse of animals, by the far right because of its crossdressing star, by the far left because of its demeaning attitudes towards women.  Everyone and anyone has a reason to hate the show.  Does't stop them from coming though.  His son, a huge beast of a man with a genius level IQ (or beyond) is quietly working as a bouncer in San Luis, Arizona.  Little does he suspect that his own dark secrets are about to cause him to reinvent himself.

Baron Samedi - The (un)life of the party.  Wherever there's rum and cigars, there's the Baron having a grand old time.  How in the world did his daughter end up so non-social?  So she's good with forensics, but when she talks to corpses more then real people...well Daddy's got to intervene and send her out into the big bad world and make him proud.  First stop though is to get her some good travelling rum, not that cheap swill the local places serve.

Loki - As always, Loki's never around when needed.  On one of his semi-rare visits to earth he knocks up some poor girl and doesn't give it any thought for a number of years.  Sure he's not the best dad in the world, but what do you expect?  More Fagin then Daddy Warbucks, he only visits when he needs something so he's never visited his son in New York.  Until now that is.

So this will be a place to post stuff for our Scion game.  I hope to include stuff leading up to the game as well as game writeups, character sheets etc.

What is Scion?  Its a roleplaying game from White Wolf, set in a sort of mythic modern day where the characters are the children of the Gods of old (Thor, Athena, Xipe Tetoc etc.).  Its best described (at least in the way I plan to run it) as Clash of the Titans crossed with Hellboy, directed by Michael Bay with an unlimited effects budget.

We've got 5 characters so far, with one more on the way.  So far we have children of Thor, Loki, Baron Samedi, Erzulie and Xipe Tetoc.  As things progress further we'll have writeups and such here.