Paranoia isn't a bug, it's a feature

 Before heading off to bed, Julius was fed some bottles of blood to make him wake up again, and that's just as well, as half his face seems to be missing. (Thanks, Ecaterina!) That's going to take a while to heal back up.

Lottie lures a group of fratboys back to the house as Julius is in no position to go on a hunt in his current state. The couple's particular way of feeding is somewhat unsettling to watch for anyone who isn't them.

They then have a catch-up. There's going to be an outright war with the Sabbat, and an Elysium will have to be called ASAP. The gold auras are gone. As new safehouses are needed, and a safehouse for LJ isn't safe if anyone but them know about it, Lottie hands Frankie the key to Jeanine's place, saying Jeanine left it with them (they swear they didn't kill her, but don't tell him they tortured her), that it's intended for him, and unlike the places he might want to go in Brooklyn, it's warded.

They have an outing to said apartment, near Morningside Park. Looking around the place (using one of the fratboys as a canary) they come across a kitchen drawer of "oppressive nothingness" and Jeanine's will, listing Frankie as her heir ...

Julius quickly averts his gaze from the creepy drawer, but Lottie goes full on Auspex on it - and starts having a seizure. She leaks blood and gold from her face, and Julius goes after her.

In the Dreamscape, as that's where Lottie ended up, she's seeing both Nordic mythology's icy plains with a giant trapped inside the ice, and a snake wriggling around his feet trying to eat through the ice. The Egyptian mythology's pyramid is also there, and she can see shadows of herself and the others from previous visits. The pyramid is bigger and more ornately decorated.

Neith, the goddess who wasn't there last time we encountered the Egyptian mythological dreamscape, talks to Lottie, offering her all the knowledge and answers she wants/needs, but it will hurt. She's fine with pain, as long as it doesn't hurt Julius. The gods propose a bargain of "perfect preservation" of LJ's relationship, but that sounds too much like a trap so Lottie doesn't take them up on it. She's told to climb the pyramid ...

We go to a land down under

We descend into the big sink hole! Therein, we encounter really big creatures, and the cave floor has a lovely mosaic pattern, which is a bit unexpected of a cave system. Seems like the tiles are Symbaroum-related, so someone's clearly behind this. It's not just a coincidence.

We also come across what appears to be a mushroom plantation, guard lizards, and spirit people in the water where there's an island of crystals. It would be beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying and deadly at the same time.

Deadliest Catch: Human Slaves Edition

In the final session of Rifts, for what might be a very long time because we've complicated things for the GM now, our best laid plans involved using a warlock to create a distraction. He unleashed a water elemental that would turn the town of Moreno into a lake. A lot of people, including the vampires' human slaves that we wanted to save. Gorbash managed to save a handful, and took them to safety, but not without a body count because he had to do it very quickly, in a kind of trawler manner.

But we got the people we were sent there to save, so that's good? Mission accomplished? There were a number of vampires in storage somewhere else and they appear to not be there any more, but that's not going to be a problem, right? No, let's head back home to Blackstone Juggernauts HQ and get ready for our next adventure, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Questions find answers

We went into an Aztec pyramid, where killed vampires and were very nearly killed in the process. At least Booker and Jayson were, had they not been pals with a dragon that turned their SDC armour into MDC armour. It was a tough fight, but we killed the vampires, removed some pillars and escaped with the target we were there to rescue. Yay us!

Does she need all her limbs?

Now armed with another PC in the party - yay! - we seemed to spend a heck of a long time trying to come up with a plan to maybe blow some stuff up and get an imprisoned god (?) from the ruins, and then that was decided against or something. It all got very jumbled up by the end of it that I lost track completely, and let's just say we're going to spend next session battling it out. Possibly in a Leeeeeeroy Jenkins style, because the Juicer might get bored with all the planning.

This is the way to Amarillo

First session after our holiday break, and during our break stuff happened over the internet. Booker went to Dweomer to find out stuff about a weapon, Gorbash and Jayson went to Psyscape to ... also find out stuff. Stuff was found out.

Booker also managed to marry his girlfriend Joan the Cyber-knight, and when we all finally met up at Blackstone Juggernauts HQ again, Booker had plastic surgery to change his face to be less recognisable and also he's now using the name Barnabas Dayeson. I might not be spelling that correctly.

From Splugorth with love

We got inside the flying fortress, somehow, and tried working the computer terminals to figure out where in this massive construction we were supposed to be headed in order to place the bombs ... and then we struggled a little to actually open the doors to where we were going.

We did decide that we were basically season four of Babylon 5, the plan being to have a big finale of the series, trying to cram everything in ... and then we find out last minute we got renewed after all and so then have to make up season five. Well, that's provided we actually survive this thing, because let's face it, the odds are not in our favour here.

I'm not foreshadowing or anything

Having defeated the group of spider creatures, we had eventually made it to the bottom of the stairs and found the other troll we were looking for, along with six trolls in a singing circle. That was the end of the last session.

In this session, we took on a couple of Spites - the creature that stung the trolls and infected them with murdery larvae! We also had to deal with the trolls, but the ones that were too far gone, we murderised and the ones that could be saved were knocked out and saved.

We realised that the Spites were coming out of a hole in the ground, and plugged it to stop further attacks. As a reward we were given the title "Defenders of Erdugald" and given a blue gem that will glow when Erdugal is threatened, which means we're supposed to come running to help save it again.

Oh, and it turns out that the Old Prios symbol Valgai's carrying is actually a spider symbol of some kind. THE PLOT THICKENS. Except not right now, because this is our last Symbaroum session for a bit. We're doing a few boardgaming sessions and then it's off back to either Godbound or Rifts, but we'll be back in Davokar eventually.

This is how Game of Thrones started

Exploring the burned remains of the cultist hideout, Elindra found a chest. A chest which she cut open and found some letters relating to the Blight Council. It's complicated.

She later went clothes-shopping with Valgai, who pretended to be her dad, because surely we all need to look our best if we're to have an audience with Baked Alaska Nightpitch, the ruler of Thistle Hold? Murmei and Nightpitch seemed to ever so slightly bond over not being keen on Murmei's mum arriving. She apparently wants Nightpitch to organise a ball.

We also made inquiries into who the burned-down building belonged to, and it turns out it's a noble in Ravinia - a.k.a. the duchy (or whatever) that the House Vesuvion estate is in, and Murmei's dad often goes to the capital city. So this is all connected??? Scheming nobles, cultists, Davokar, and everything else?

In a bid to avoid his mum's insistance on him getting married, Murmei had the brilliant plan that he and Elindra could get hitched (in name only) because if he's already married when his mother shows up, she can't insist on him marrying someone he doesn't even know. Elindra wasn't as keen on the idea, despite the fact she'd automatically become quite rich, but on the other hand, as Valgai kindly pointed out, marrying a Changeling would probably result in Murmei being disowned anyway ...

We beat the plot

We took a different route back to civilisation, Murmei's "great aunt Sandra" a.k.a. the Night Lady in tow. Elindra, out scouting, came across a patrol of Templars, so led them on a wild goose chase while Valgai, Murmei and "great aunt Sandra" sneaked past.

Night Lady delivered to her fanclub, and we proceeded further to Yndaros. Crossing a big river we were subjected to very thorough immigration controls (that's where the latex comment comes in), but managed to get through and boarded the rope ferry.

The Templars caught up with us, but by that time we had already made it to the other side. We managed to burn the rope, halting their progress for what might be a few days, and met up with more of the fanclub. Full payment received, we went shopping, as we were still a bit away from our final destination - Thistle Hold.

Can I have your autograph?

Elindra went around town doing some investigations and interrogations. This led to CLUES! There was also a guy who looked very quest-givery, so we ended up heading off into the wild in order to find Lady Elsana a.k.a. the Night Lady in order to bring her back to the capital for lots and lots of money.

We bypassed a troll cave and ended up in a secluded village in a sort of basin type thing. It was a bit Maze Runner-y. She agreed to come with us, even after Murmei asked her to autograph one of his books ...

Why do our plans keep succeeding?

We went through the portal and had a nosey, dressed up as cultists. It ended up with us throwing fusion blocks at them and their apparent leader in a corridor ...

Ranger danger!

We went further into the Xiticix territory, there was an attack. Booker tried to "save" some people. They died. On the plus side, so did the gang of baddies that were stalking us previously, so it all worked out.

We also found a camp with a nexus point. Maybe we'll attack it next week.

Gorbash went to Psyscape to chat with The Dude, but the place left him rather unimpressed ...

I don't read the script, the script reads me

We discovered what the Key of Solomon is for ... and that it's an orb with a lady in stasis in it. It's pretty out there. It can also be very useful. We were perhaps not in agreement with the Grey Seers and the other Cyber-knight about what to do with it.

To cut a long story short, Gorbash wrote and directed a play based (in the end) on Booker's plan, in which Gorbash would say "screw you guys, I'm going home! And I'm taking the Key (and my new girlfriend who coincidentally is also called Maria) with me!" in order to lure the Coalition States into Xiticix territory so we could sit back and wait for them to obliterate each other.

Plan went off without a hitch. Even Hecate got in on the action, vaporising a dude. Good times!