Game was 1/30/21. Brain was not in the greatest of spots, but my players understood, and things went fine. We called it a smidge early before getting into two battles.
The hunters realize that dashing after the mages blindly is not a good idea. Josh and William both hesitate while Anita turns to the four dire wolves and asks, "Is there another way out of this building?" Cain nods and lifts her muzzle towards a side door, so Anita changes course and starts heading that way. Leta hands Veltis off to Josh and tells him sharply, "Stay here!" William hesitates for a split-second but realizes his place is to help protect his grandson. Doctor Ranjip eyes everything and then also decides to stay behind with Josh and William. There is a swift chorus of barking from the dire-wolves and finally one of them, a tawny wolf that the hunters are pretty sure is Heather, pads over to them for their protection. Abby hesitates for a split-second, casting a glance back at Josh, but then makes her decision and charges after Anita and Leta; Mick follows her while Cain, Lydia, and Valerie bring up the rear.
Anita plows through the side door and find herself outside, on the strip of lawn above Lower College Lane. The others stumble out after her as they see a white van come rolling around the corner and barreling towards them, followed by several shambling people. Anita unlocks the Rage Haunt while Leta fires off a blast of Hellfire; both women hit and blow out the front driver's side tire! The driver of the van manages to keep it mostly under control, although there is the scream of metal on asphalt and sparks as the crippled van continues on, passing the hunters and werewolves and continuing to barrel down Lower College Lane.
Before they can give chase, the shambling people reach them. To their horror, they see that these shamblers were once human but now stumble along with absolutely no facial features whatsoever; their faces are blank shells like an egg! Black veins stand out along the rest of their body and they move in a hunched gait. Anita is startled when she realizes they do not register as living or dead. Mick opens fire with his pistol and hits one, while Abby also unlocks the Rage Manifestation and strikes another one. However, the shamblers keep coming without any apparent damage, until the werewolves jump in and Valerie reaches out, locks her jaws around one of their shoulders, and then it's chomp, rip, fling!
The severed limb goes flying and the shambler emits a scream so high-pitched that the glass in Sage Hall starts to crack! Even more disturbing, a faint depression appears on the wounded shambler where their mouth should be, and then it ripples out like soundwaves or ripples across a pond. The shamblers then counterattack and that is when the hunters and their allies discover the horrible power these monsters possess! As they reach for their prey, the shambler's fingertips open to reveal lamprey-like mouths that they used to attach to their prey's skin! Anita yelps in surprise as one attaches itself to her and then drains her of some of her plasm! Leta stumbles back as one grabs her and then drains a significant portion of her willpower!1) The others are swarmed as well, while the van just drives off.
Back in the Earle Recital Hall, William, Josh, Doctor Ranjip, and Heather all feel the wards suddenly contract even further, pushing them closer and closer together up to the front part of the stage! Josh debates about listening to the pushy feeling, but William realizes that it is in fact the wards, so he falls back at their not-so-subtle insistence. They end up at the front of the stage, huddled together in a circle with roughly a twelve-foot radius. They then hear an eerie moan start to build from underneath them, and William is the first to see one of the trapdoors on the stage suddenly pop open as a rotting hand reaches out!
Seconds later, more trapdoors open and suddenly over two dozen zombies scramble out from under the stage and surround the four allies! One of the zombies tries to attack but bounces off the ward almost immediately! As the allies look frantically around them to realize they are fully surrounded, they all pick up on the fact that these zombies don't seem to be native to western Massachusetts. Thanks to scraps of clothing still on the living dead, they find one zombie has a keycard on a lanyard for MIT while another still sports their MBTA work jacket!
The two hunters and the changeling notice their werewolf protector is starting to flip out, so Josh turns to Doctor Ranjip and asks, "Do you know the best way to attack the zombies?" Doctor Ranjip hesitates for a second as he weighs the options and then he admits, "I hate to default to the movies, but in this case, they are probably right. You have to destroy the head, or else they'll keep coming after us." William comes up with a desperate plan to charge forward out of the wards and towards the same door the others used to exit just a few minutes ago. His plan means Heather will take point and Josh will follow still carrying Veltis. This will leave Doctor Ranjip and himself as the rear flanks.
Heather growls, now in her near-human form, "When do we do this?" William replies, "Now, unless the wards can move with us!" Doctor Ranjip suddenly snaps, "Guys! And lady! Look!" as he points out into the horde of the undead. To everyone's surprise the zombies have stopped attacking and are now just staring at the four allies. The hunters look around carefully and William is the first to spot a figure in the rafters above them. The figure is fully in the shadows, although William is fairly certain it is female. The figure makes a gesture and then the zombies step back even further. Josh spots the figure and chirps, "Are you having them surround us, or are you giving us more room? And hi!"
The figure in the rafters starts clapping sardonically and the sound echoes throughout the entire recital hall. The figure then calls out in a merger of two familiar voices, "William, old sport. I leave you to your own devices for seven months and look what happens?" The figure then leaps from the rafters to land right next to them and to Josh's horror he sees that it is Rhiannon Davies! William realizes that this is in fact Solomon, the mind mage who's been stalking the cell ever since they started back in 2006 and is now driving Rhiannon. He does note however, that apparently Solomon has kept his Rhiannon-shell in good condition; her clothes are clean, her hair is neat, and even her makeup is on point!
William concedes, "It has been a while." Solomon retorts, "You remain the master of understatement, I see." William says tersely, "Are you here to help us or hurt us?" Solomon replies, "Oh no, William. This time, once again, our goals are in alignment and I am here to help. These walking corpses used to belong to a fellow named Atticus, but I claimed them after his death. They're mine now." Josh looks confused and makes a reference to Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, and Solomon turns to stare at him before saying, "Wrong Atticus." Josh retorts, "Whatever."
Solomon turns back to William and explains, "So, as you obviously already know, you caused a political firestorm amongst the Wise in Boston. Unfortunately, this information did not remain solely within the Pentacle; we heard about it and then so did another faction. This faction is called the Scelesti but is sometimes referred to as the Nefandi or the Accursed." Josh demands, "So what do they want?" Solomon replies gravely, "So… what did you call it? The Nope-box? Yeah, these Accursed mages worship the Abyss. And since you didn't listen to me and there's now a massive gate to the Abyss less than a mile from here, my only surprise is that this is the first time one of the Scelesti has shown up."
Josh retorts hotly, "You wanted us to use the Nope-box in the asylum! We could have all died!" Solomon shrugs unrepentantly and says, "Well, yeah. You would have died. But you would have died saving Northampton, and we wouldn't be in this situation!" Realizing that Solomon will never actually admit that he was wrong, Josh decides to let this one lie. Solomon adds, "By the by, your allies are under attack from a pack of Empty Men, so we should probably go help them!" Josh demands to know what he's going to do with all these zombies, and Solomon says flatly, "Throw them at the Empty Men. They may be mine now, but Atticus was an utter asshole, and that's me saying that!"
William concedes the point while Josh asks Solomon pointedly, "Is there any way you can use another body?" Solomon looks down at his Rhiannon-shell and then shrugs and replies, "Nope." He adds, "The primary target is the Scelesti known as Father Jonah." Josh frowns and asks if they've encountered this Father Jonah before, but Solomon replies, "No, you probably haven't. I think the only one who's met him before is William here. One very important point regarding Father Jonah and the Empty Men: he found them and took command of them, but he didn't make them. Much like me and this collection of undead." Josh eyes the undead with distaste but asks if there are anymore; Solomon shakes his head and replies, "No, no time for anymore. We have to go now!"
Heather immediately bolts for the door and the others follow as quickly as they can. Josh pulls out his phone and starts a voice-to-text message; he says, "Solomon's here, says he's on our side, Father Jonah is the problem. Living dead, Empty Men. Management, let your people know." Josh hopes that Management is watching their phones and will get the message.2) Outside, the fight against the Empty Men has not gone well. Although through trial and error they have discovered that the lamprey-fingertips are their only weakness, Anita has been drained of more plasm, while Leta's willpower has been drained entirely and she is suffered extreme fatigue.3) Mick is even worse, and he is slumped against the wall gasping as he struggles to push past the fatigue to rejoin the fight.4)
To make matters worse, while Valerie and Lydia have mostly been untouched, Cain got jumped by several of the Empty Men and entered Kuruth - Death Rage! This is when the other stumble out of Sage Hall, to see Cain revert to the Gauru war-form and howl so loudly that it echoes across the campus! She then goes berserk and starts tearing into the Empty Men with bloody abandon! Valerie and Lydia scramble out of the way and both manage to avoid falling into Death Rage themselves, as does Heather. However, due to the unique link with the totem, Leta enters a form of Death Rage as her body transforms violently into that of a hellhound! A bloody muzzle extends from her face while serrated spines pop out of her back as she drops to all fours, and her skin is either bloody muscle or razor-sharp blades!
At this point, Veltis wakes up5) and gives a loud cheer as he jumps from Josh's hands to land on Leta's back! Without thinking, Josh pulls up his phone and takes a few pictures of the sight! However, Leta is not alone here, as Anita also feels her rage spike! The Witch merges with Anita's physical body, causing her to bulk up a bit and for blades to erupt from her fingers and all along her torso! As Anita is suddenly wreathed in magenta fire she calls out, "Suck it, Petite!"6)
Josh tries to get to Mick safely, while Petite takes Anita's challenge seriously and merges with Abby! Their shared form immediately grows a full foot in height as shimmering silver plates erupt and surround her body! Anita crows with approval, and then Abby turns and distends her jaw to spit several silver blades! Anita cheers louder as they plunge into the fray directly behind Leta! They start laying waste to the Empty Men but do note the undead running around and seemingly helping them by swarming one of the Empty Men and holding it down long enough for them to get there and dispatch it!
William stops on the lawn and looks out at the fight in horror while Solomon also stops and stands directly behind him. William ignores the malicious mage and tries to find Father Jonah. He spots the Scelesti and two other figures dragging an unconscious woman across a bridge over the Mill River to get to the Smith athletic fields! Next to them the van lies empty, and William realizes they're going to cross the fields and then run up the hill to get to the site of the former asylum! William yells, "Cut them off at the pass!" leading Solomon to side-eye him and snap, "Why did you just say that?"
William shrugs but his action is rewarded as there is a flash of light just past the bridge and then the three mages of the Shield & Crescent cabal suddenly stumble out, looking confused. However, Johann, TJ, and Atiyeh quickly realize that there is a Scelesti barreling straight for them, so they immediately fall into a defensive position. There is another flash of light and then Gothi and Aislin stumble out right next to the Shield & Crescent cabal! They also fall into a defensive position but Gothi looks up, sees the carnage on the road above, and groans, "Aw fuck, it's the Troys!"
William watches in horror and awe as a full-blown wizard-war erupts on the Smith athletic fields! Mages are throwing fireballs at each other, calling lightning down on each other, and then William sees TJ shoot forward and punch one of the unknown mages in the chest so hard the man goes flying up into the cloud cover! The hapless Scelesti suddenly comes down, flying on wings of broken metal! As William watches the magical carnage, he is gripped with the terror that reality is starting to buckle!
William realizes with a sickening sense of finality that all the Supernal spells being thrown back and forth next to a hole to the Abyss is only going to strengthen and expand that hole! He turned slightly and realizes that Solomon has come to the same conclusion, so he asks, "Can you help with that?" Solomon frowns for a second and then gives a series of hand gestures. Below them the undead suddenly abandon the fight with the Empty Men and go loping on all fours towards the van and the fight in the athletic fields! Anita sees the undead fleeing but remains focused on the Empty Men while Leta notices same thing and she sees the wizard-war happening below! She thinks to herself, "How do I stop that?" A voice from within replies, "Call upon my power!" Realizing the trap for what it is, Leta refuses her grandfather's offer, and takes several steps back. She then runs forward and leaps into the air! She soars over the Mill River with Veltis shrieking with joy still on her back, and she lands safely on the athletic fields and charges into that fight!
Josh makes it to Mick safely and calls out to him, "I wanted to warn you! We've gotten a little help, but don't be surprised to see Rhiannon! But Solomon is driving her!" Mick stares up at Josh in shock for a second before he suddenly screams in rage, scrambles up to his feet, and charges towards the side of the building where William and Rhiannon are standing. Meanwhile, William sees Leta soar into the air and next to him Solomon concedes, "Or we could also do that. Brace yourself!" William has just enough time to ask, "Wait, what?" before Solomon casts a spell which flings William into the air! Solomon laughs and then jumps behind William as well!
Mick screams in absolute rage as 'Rhiannon' soars over his head while Josh thinks to himself, "We blew the special effects budget for this episode!" He notices the fight alongside Lower College Lane has expanded as the Empty Men that attacked the five mages at the front of Sage Hall have now drifted to join the larger fight here. He sees the Empty Men pushing towards the athletic fields, which fills him with a bit of relief as this means they're not running away into the campus or the town. Doctor Ranjip runs along to Mick, trying to help him, but Mick is still charging forward, this time for the bridge. Up in the air, William has a split-second to realize where he is going to land. He then slams down hard, on top of Father Jonah!