Baal, Prince of the War: an interested party.
Blandine, Archangel of Dreams: mentioned in passing.
Dmitri, PC-sort-of: escapee from Heaven.
Eli, Archangel of Creation: notable in his absence.
Ezri, angel of the Sword: secretary at Adelaide, acting Seneschal.
Gabriel, Archangel of Fire: impetus to certain events.
Gerar, Malakite of the Sword: PC.
Irijah, Ofanite of War: PC.
Jamin, Seraph of the Wind: an old ally, returned.
Jechariah, Cherub of Creation, Seneschal of Morgaine's Jazz House: somewhat helpful.
Jordi 2.0, Archangel of Animals: helpful sort.
Joshah, Seraph of War, Seneschal of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: more helpful.
Laurence 2.0, Archangel of the Sword: leather and chrome.
Lyta Aram, Soldier of Trade ... or is she?: Scale hunter and book translator.
Michael 2.0, Archangel of War: a reasonably decent copy.
Novalis 2.0, Archangel of Flowers: dryad and flower girl.
Pimpernel, Malakite of Trade: horseman and trader.
Shannen, Mercurian of Flowers: healer at the National Botanical Gardens.
Triam, Malakite of Trade: the man with the burning hands.
Unnamed angels, dinosaurs, demons, great cats, humans, power tools, relievers, Soldiers, taxi drivers, and winged mice.
Gerar: a fairly straightforward Malakite sworn to give challenge before making an attack and never to lie for his own sake only.
Irijah: a freewheeling gun-fu Ofanite.
Endless Blade: a dagger that keeps doing damage long after it hits.
Scales of Baal: deadly weapons!
That Glove Thing: it has one of Christ's hairs in it.
The Malakim of the Sword herd Gerar into a cell in Jean's Halls of Order. It's a holodeck cell, and Irijah sets the simulation for Tahiti. Then the door closes and Gerar can no longer descend. Gerar deprograms his cell. Irijah orbits the Halls of Order. Then one of the constantly-sounding demon alarms goes away! Irijah darts inside, finds a reliever, and asks it what happened. The reliever explains that Eli came to Dmitri's cell and went inside, and neither came out. The demon-alarm Gerar is causing continues. Irijah gets the reliever to open the door a little bit before Jean's troops get there (they have to be ready for anything) and goes in. There's a hole in the floor and a golden ladder leading a long way down towards some city, and a guy (Dmitri?) climbing down. Irijah finds himself unable to go down through the hole, however. Soon Jean's troops are there. Thinking positively, they realize that they have a new phenomenon to study, and their leader orders an Ofanite to "fetch the power tools."
Irijah goes back to Gerar's door, makes it transparent, and sees that Gerar is still there. Then he sees a little stuffed tiger pacing towards him down the hall. It goes "rrow." Then it reaches Gerar's door, puts its foot upon it, and the door opens. Irijah approaches, at this point, startled, and it leaps on and clings to the top of the ring. Irijah is now very confused, and asks to know what's going on, and one of the Lightning Servitors looks over and grumbles, "Oh, it's Jordi again."
Irijah comments that Jordi seems awfully weak for an Archangel, so Jordi bounces up and down and knocks Irijah onto the floor and back up. Then Jordi "rrow!"s to Gerar and begins spinning Irijah with his paws to direct the Ofanite back along the corridor. Irijah decides not to mess with Jordi, and soon the group is in the Savannah. It's pretty normal, although our heroes can see a stuffed multicolored parrot circling in the sky -- not flapping its wings or anything, but circling. Jordi leads them to a watering hole and hops off, nudging the water. Gerar reaches in to get a drink, and discovers the top of a Tether. So he descends, and Irijah leaps in after him. Sploosh!
The two are now in a big safari-style zoo near Paris, where the animals run mostly free in a vast expanse of land. They arrive in the animals section, of course. Gerar immediately sings Ethereal Form. Then they make for the nearest wall, which of course is tall and barbed-wired -- to keep the teenagers out. About the time they get there, they notice the lion approaching them. Irijah hops up and begins prying up the barbed wire so that he can get a leg up. Gerar runs out and attempts, twice, to stab the lion to distract it, but misses each time. The lion fails, remarkably, to notice. Then Irijah finally gets the barbed wire free, pushes a loop off the wall, and climbs up onto the wall. Gerar does an invisible end run past the lion and acrobatically leaps onto the wall. Then they hop down into the zoo parking lot. Someone comes out from the nearby administrative office, so the PCs run for the road. Eventually, they get their first cab ride of the session. This one, interestingly enough, is to Washington, D.C., as Irijah wants to be out of Paris long enough for explanations to be made. They wind up in a D.C. Starbucks, and Gerar in fact makes some explanations.
The two hear a large disturbance at the nearby Museum of Natural History. Naturally, they head that way, hearing many human screams and seeing many cars tearing away from there. They also hear a loud, rhythmic clicking. Irijah stops a fleeing pedestrian and demands to know what's going on, and he explains that there's a dinosaur. In fact, as the PCs continue in that direction, they discover that the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the Museum of Natural History has come to life. It rounds the corner as they approach it, and one bony hand grabs Gerar, who fails to evade. Irijah Sings Corporeal Motion and fails. Gerar struggles, to no avail. Irijah leaps and grabs hold of a rib and pulls himself inside the skeleton. Soon afterwards, in a marvelous display of deft climbing, he zooms up and hides inside the brain pan. Gerar gets his knife out and attempts to cut through a finger. It gets annoyed after a bit of this cutting and squeezes Gerar very hard. Irijah realizes that he still has grenades. He crawls to the outside of the skull and tosses a couple grenades in, before leaping to the ground. The creature drops Gerar when its head explodes, and Gerar lands, completely stunned. Irijah pulls off a perfect landing, although it still hurts. Gerar manages to pull himself up a bit afterwards, and the creature recovers slightly, groping blindly about on the ground for Gerar. Irijah snatches the dazed Gerar and tosses another grenade, blowing the skeleton to bits. Then Irijah tosses Gerar over his shoulder and zooms for a pay phone. He calls his home Tether (in Georgia) and asks about local Tethers of War -- neither of the PCs could remember where the nearest one is. The home Tether tells him about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and mentions that the National Botanical Gardens is a Tether to Flowers, if they need immediate healing. Irijah decides that this is a good idea, and takes Gerar to the Flowers place first.
They talk to a nice Flowers Servitor, who fetches Shannen, a Mercurian with Corporeal Healing. She fixes Gerar up and mourns the plight of exploited dinosaur skeletons. Then the PCs zoom off for the Tether of War. The Seneschal, a Seraph curled around the tombstone, comes out of a light meditative state when they address him directly and becomes a small Asian man, who then leads them to a bench where the three can talk. (It's a stone bench. It has a little fountain opposite, with a gargoyle spitting out water.) The PCs summarize everything that's been going on, and the Seneschal agrees to relay things to his "temporary Bright Lord". They also beg for Essence; unwilling to delve into War's supplies, he instead fetches two level/2 reliquary rings from an underground cavern and loans them to the PCs. Then he asks them to hang around for a bit in the hopes that he'll have a clear insight. He reaches it while the PCs are talking about Gerar's predicament, and it lasts long enough for Gerar to mention the Lyta assignment.
The Seneschal admits that his vision in these matters could be clouded, as they indirectly concern Superiors. However, he relays the following Truths: that Gerar has been "linked" to the nature of the Balseraph, even though it would be impossible to change him into one -- by virtue of the relic claiming him. He has the Balseraph resonance. (In fact, he's had it for some sessions, and used it on a tentacled thing in the Mary Anvil-of-God episode.) His ultimate celestial form will probably look halfway between, until these matters are resolved. Irijah raises the suicide possibility. The Seneschal also notes that Lyta is not a Soldier of Trade, but a Soldier of Fire -- Belial's Fire. Her parents, however, were Soldiers of God.
Irijah spars with the Seneschal for a few hours, as a rite, and then dawn comes. The PCs assume celestial form, Gerar grabs hold of Irijah, and the two roll awkwardly towards Paris. Their celestial form runs out in D.C. They decide to return to the National Botanical Gardens and bum some money off of the angels there. They explain why they need the money -- to go to Paris and deal with a traitorous Soldier -- and, after Gerar promises not to hurt said Soldier, the angel gives them $200. They zoom back to Paris.
The PCs collar Pimpernel and explain things. He gets Triam to take over watch duty in Jack's House, not telling Triam about Lyta, and heads upstairs with the PCs. They go in and subdue her. Gerar uses his shiny new Balseraph resonance to convince her that she wants to talk, and she promptly resists with a check digit of 6. Gerar becomes dissonant, in an awfully embarrassing way. As Pimpernel and Irijah hold her down, Gerar goes downstairs and gets rope; then they tie her up and begin the interrogation. Gerar also uses his Malakite resonance on Lyta, and learns many interesting things.
Lyta's most ignoble deeds this year were as follows. She swore a false oath to Heaven. She used a Scale power she never mentioned to summon up the Vessel of Baal that it came from, a large invisible bird-like creature that drips hallucinogens from its wings, to deal with the Divine Lady's crew shortly before the War's attack. She engaged in a spot of arson. Her most noble deeds included: sending all the rats in the city to attack Saminga -- this one has not yet been explained; helping a pregnant woman escape the fire she set; and toying with becoming a Soldier of God in truth. Her greatest virtue is temperance; her greatest sin is a general lack of honor. Her ultimate potential for good is to become an effective Soldier of God, and her ultimate potential for evil is to get into large-scale destruction.
Lyta's motivation for being a Soldier of Hell, when she admits it, is a personal affinity for destruction and fire. She felt certain that she was doomed to damnation anyway, because of these tendencies, and felt that her best course of action was to acquire skills and capabilities that would make her too useful to indefinitely torture. She argues that the PCs need her help dealing with Saminga. She admits that her original mission had Belial's approval, although she's had to extrapolate a bit in the absence of leadership. The PCs point out that she could work for Gabriel Fire if she feels that way; she finds this notion ridiculous, and suggests they check the bedroom if they wish to see why.
Gerar does so. Jamin is sprawled on the bed, a bloody but breathing wreck, in general a frail shadow of what he had been. Gerar considers this, and walks back out. Lyta explains that Gabriel's Fire did it, or at least he had said so before collapsing -- evidently, they wanted information about Death, and he was an easy target. Irijah walks in, wakes Jamin, and Jamin elaborates. Evidently, after recovering from Trauma in Limbo, he received a gift of 75 Essence. He created a human Vessel and emerged in Jack's House. A few hours later, Servitors of Fire showed up, explaining that they had sent the gift, and wanted to talk with him. He went off with them, and discovered (a bit late) that they wanted more than conversation. Evidently unfolding his Forces strand by strand and studying them gave more information than his memory ever could. There were also various other machines involved. He confirmed that they at least believed they worked for Gabriel, and that he saw one as a Cherub. The person who ran the interrogation may have been an Elohite, or he may have been hallucinating. Irijah explains a number of things that have been going on, and somewhere in the middle Jamin falls asleep.
Irijah bothers Lyta some more. Lyta points out that Gerar is under orders to protect her. Gerar pretends this isn't true, using the excuse that there is no "Soldier of Trade named Lyta Aram." She doesn't know Laurence's dissonance condition, so she doesn't know this is false, but she finds it fishy. When everything else has failed her, she demands to see Marc. Pimpernel goes off to call Marc, and returns later, noting that Marc will have time to deal with this tomorrow. The PCs leave him watching Lyta and go off to Adelaide to talk to Laurence.
En route, the PCs pass a big disturbance in a residential area and circling helicopters. They decide that Saminga has sent another monster, and ignore it.
The PCs walk into Adelaide. Gerar randomly decides to resonate on himself, and with a sensation like falling into an endlessly dark pit, he passes out. Irijah slings Gerar over his shoulder and asks Ezri to call Laurence, assuring her that it's important. She does so, and Laurence comes out. He asks if this is about Eli. When Irijah looks blank, Laurence explains that Eli went into a cell with Gerar's partner and hasn't been seen since. Irijah admits that this is not why he called, instead explaining the situation with the scales of Baal and Gerar turning into a Balseraph and all.
Laurence doesn't know anything about the Scales of Baal, but he doesn't think fixing this should be a problem, knowing the situation. So he walks over and puts his hand to Gerar's forehead, and there's a full-sensory scream of light and sound and disturbance and everything for several minutes. When Irijah recovers and Gerar wakes up, Laurence is a melted puddle, with leathers in the puddle and sword lying neatly atop them. (It was a bad time to roll an Infernal Intervention.) Irijah and Gerar discuss this, and Gerar assumes celestial form to see if he was fixed. In fact, he was not; he looks a lot like a Malakite-winged many-eyed serpent with arms and oath-chains. Gerar returns to normal. Then Irijah notices that the sword, which has many fine properties, doesn't seem to have an attuned owner. Irijah spends a bunch of Essence to summon Michael 2.0, who steps out from behind a pew. A few moments into Irijah's explanation, he stops Irijah; he's very good at hearing the whole Truth. However, he explains that Laurence 2.0 is indeed dead. Apparently, the version 2 Superiors are extremely powerful Creation relics; the Scale is an extremely powerful relic of the War. Laurence 2.0 lost.
Michael gives Irijah some Essence back and shoulders the burden of running the Sword and War until Eli comes back. He also notes that if Jordi let Gerar out, he may know something about the situation; ergo, he will speak to Jordi and let the PCs know. Then he claps his hands and is gone. The PCs borrow Ezri's Tetherphone and call Morgaine's Jazz House, the nearest Tether of Creation. Morgaine, the Seneschal, attempts to summon Eli -- putting some Essence into it the second time -- but he doesn't respond. The PCs head that way. When they get there, Morgaine suggests that a jazz performance with lots of angels in it might get Eli to drop by and jam. Gerar practices in the back, wearing earphones, until he can keep general pace with a band using a one-key synthesizer. After a bit, the group rocks out, and does pretty well. Eli doesn't show up, but Novalis 2.0 does, a nude wood nymph wrapped in greenery and leaving a trail of living flowers wherever she walks. Novalis comes up and jams for a bit, and then draws the angels aside. She explains that she's been listening for Eli's calls since he vanished, although it's difficult to do so. Apparently, he had time to yelp, "Oh, man!" to her mind, with a tone a couple notches short of absolute emergency and a general "expression" of "I'm fading away and hiding." She thinks Jordi heard more, but it's "so hard to talk to Jordi these days." She refuses to acknowledge Gerar until he points out that he's trying to fix his situation; then she offers to close off the Balseraph resonance, although she can't remove the link. He says he'll think about it. Then she explains to the Seneschal that there aren't any trees in the club and she will have to fix that. The PCs sneak out as the redecorating begins.
The PCs head back to Jack's House, burning up cab money like paper, and go upstairs to get the Scales. They startle Triam, who is listening to a boom box and reading. Irijah lets slip that Gerar is a Balseraph, and Triam draws his sword. Then he resonates on Gerar and passes out. Lyta comments, "Neat trick." The PCs grab the Scales and Lyta's notes. The notes are written in Latin, but Gerar thinks he can piece together pieces of it. What he wants is a way to find Dmitri, using the Scale's attunement to him. They go to Adelaide, because Ezri knows Latin. In fact, they wind up in the Scriptorium, using a medieval book on learning Latin ("Latin for dunces," as it were.) They figure out how to use the Scale's curses, and learn that a ritual can cause the Scales to try and claim a guardian or guardians, and spot oblique references to the Vessel-conjuration trick. They try to cut the first Scale or snap it, but it's tough. Then they take it outside, set it down, back away a long way, and teleport the glove containing Christ's hair just above the Scale. A hand reaches out of the ground, drags the Scale a couple feet away, drops it, and disappears into the Earth, in the time it takes for the glove to fall. Irijah fiddles with it some more, getting a punch to the stomach from a quickly-appearing hand for his pains. Then the PCs ponder taking the Scales to Heaven. At this point, a Superior appears behind them.
The Prince of the War is a mannerly type. He kindly requests that the PCs stop messing with things, because as it stands Gerar and Dmitri are his only link to Saminga, and the Mercurian "is, well." He indicates that the connection to Saminga was formed when Gerar and Dmitri encountered Mary Anvil-of-God, although he does not elaborate on what this connection is. He notes that he would take away the Scales, but the effect on Gerar might be ultimately unpleasant. He admits that he's not likely to ever sever Gerar's contact with the Scale, but that when the situation is resolved, he will probably have no interest in maintaining it. (That is, he wouldn't interfere with an Archangel removing it.) On request, he gestures towards Lyta's notes, adding a section in wholly comprehensible Latin. This includes instructions on Vessel-summoning, activating the Seduction talismanic property, and finding a Scale's guardians. Then he leaves. The PCs butcher a squirrel and incant magical incantations, and soon enough the Scale pretends to be a compass of attunement. One gleam points to Gerar, and the other to Dmitri. The PCs head off to locate the Mercurian.