Bealphares, reliever of War: a cute l'il winged turtle with a mean bite. Well, potentially.
Bishop Bertani, human: a minor mover and shaker in Rome.
Blayell, Ofanite of Dreams: textbook case of asexual reproduction pairing two recessive Forces.
Dominic 3.0, First Lord of Judgment: a harsh serpent-creature from Tau Ceti.
Eli, Archangel of Creation: pregnant with Lucifer's lovechild.
Eli 3.0. First Lord of Creation: archvillain engaged in a horrific plot, the details of which he is not entirely certain.
Ethan Howe, Seraph of Trade: Seneschal at Jack's House.
Falendric, Malakite Master of War: nice guy. Member of the Black Wing.
Gabriel 3.0, First Lord of Fire: an energy being from Antares.
Gerar, Malakite of the Sword: PC. Member of the Black Wing.
Hadasdagedoy, Cherub of Judgment: Dominican middle management.
Irijah, Ofanite of War: PC. Member of the Black Wing.
Laurence, Archangel of the Sword: a man, a plan, a canal - Armageddon!
Lucifer, Archangel of Light (retired): a Demon Prince, we assume.
Lucifer 3.0, Rebel King of Hell: a rebellious alien who wants to turn the Moon into a projection TV.
Lucifer, Seraph of Judgment: a stout member of the Black Wing. His name is just a wacky coincidence. Sort of.
Malphas, Prince of Factions: sweet ol' Kyriotate.
Meremoth, Princess of Death: a Lilim newly promoted.
Michael, Archangel of War: a decent chap, all in all.
Michael 3.0, First Lord of War: not a decent chap, all in all.
Nybbas, Demon Prince of the Media: a right royal bastard.
Nybbas 3.0, Rebel Prince of the Media: stylish, dashing, and generally wonderful in every respect.
Father Peter Faith-Makes-Us-Strong, human: a dramatic/comedic character found in St. Peter's Basilica.
Unnamed aliens, angels, Archangels, corpses, demons, ferrets, humans, mooks, named characters, programmers, relievers, and starship troopers.
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.
Bassoons: the sound of danger in the Symphony.
Boom-Stick, the: relic shotgun with the Song of Thunder.
Borg Cube: Nybbas' flying cubicle.
Durendal: Gerar's current sword, somehow snuck to him during the whole Nybbas affair. Another divine gift, perhaps.
Golden Rings: one reliquary/2 per angel.
Warpspace Tree: the mathematical construction that holds all the worlds in its branches. Unclear whether it is fictional or real, despite the fact that the PCs climbed about on it.
Gerar and Irijah return to Heaven, after some unnerved chitchat on Earth, and collect their messages. This includes congratulations from various comrades, a note from a Dominican inquiring as to the progress of the investigation into the Angel of Rolling Ladders and the Angel of the Game, and messages from Michael and Laurence advising them about the first meeting of the Black Wing, an elite group of Servitors they have been invited to join. Specifically, Laurence listed time and place, that being X:00 at the Parade Grounds behind the Cathedral of the Sword. Michael just noted that Irijah should "be there." They also receive congratulations and thanks from Meremoth, the Lilim they faced outside Saminga's castle. (Gerar, trying to place the handwriting, rolls a Divine Intervention, and realizes that such a note could only have come from the new Princess of Death.) Finally, Irijah receives a note with a red line on one side and a red circle on the other. He uses the circle-side to write a note to the Dominican stating that the investigation has been suspended due to more important matters coming up, which a turtle-reliever (evidently aspiring to become a Cherub) carries off. Then the two head off to attend the first meeting, where they reencounter Falendric the Malakite Master of War as well as various angels of the top six Choirs. They find out from Falendric that the day of dawn has apparently brought the entire world into a single time zone.
Michael and Laurence arrive, and Michael explains yadda yadda yadda that they are a multidisciplinary team of angels assembled to serve as the executive arm of the Seraphim Council. More precisely, they are expected to go and execute things that Laurence or the Seraphim Council wants executed. They also have ceremonial functions and may occasionally work as bodyguards. The Black Wing was formed in response to the development of the Song of Unity, which the GM is officially rewriting as a perversion of the Song of Division that Malphas brought up from Hell with him. The small time lag between Malphas' Redemption and the formation of the Black Wing comes from the time that it took Michael and Laurence to develop the clear division of responsibilities and lines of command necessary for a group of angels to function well while under the influence of the Celestial Song of Unity, which connects its targets into a kind of group mind. The angels are issued amulets that will allow them to Unify with the others assigned to their mission, which may be one other angel but might instead be the whole Wing. (Admittedly, that's twenty-three whole angels, but hey.)
Various angels are paired or tripleted or quadrupleted off, and then Michael explains to Gerar and Irijah that angels not affiliated with Heaven have been turning up on Earth in droves. They have been counseling the world's leaders to follow the path of unity and peace and love, as opposed to fighting nasty wars with one another. Michael and Laurence are concerned, because if even one continent is not at war when December 31 hits midnight, Armageddon is off. Irijah and Gerar are dispatched to make sure Africa and Western Europe fight internal or external wars with someone or other.
Gerar and Irijah requisition an angel of Dreams as a temporary member of their sub-unit so that they can speak to world leaders in the Marches; they also pick up miscellaneous relics, assisted by the turtle-reliever and a dove-reliever. This includes a boom-stick, a shotgun with the Song of Thunder. Blayell, the Ofanite of Dreams who comes to work with them, has an intellect that clearly makes her "expendable" from Blandine's point of view, but hey. They descend to Earth to cause trouble. First stop is the Hague, where they plan to get some IDs showing them as European Union personnel. Thanks to a vicious mugging and a polite pickpocketing, made more complicated by the fact that the victims were comedic characters and Irijah and Gerar were guesting on their shows, they obtain these IDs. The angels decide to leave Blayell behind, and Gerar takes her back to the local Tether of Trade. At some point, while speaking to the Seneschal, they lose track of Blayell, which they decide to ignore so that they can move on with their lives.
Their next stop is Madrid, to stir up some trouble in Spain. Fortuitously, the entire trip happens offscreen, and they segue directly from one train stop to another. They sign in ostentatiously, using their now-doctored identification, and head up to their room to begin annoying people. The scheme, of course, is to make sure that everyone at the hotel can place them as "those obnoxious Euro people" after they make trouble. However, shortly after calling room service -- actually listing food would be boring and uncinematic, so in Nybbas' world, the room service person simply knew what they wanted -- and having it arrive, Irijah's danger sense stirs! Bassoons! It's bassoons in the Symphony! ... in any case, they scheme and plot and finally weaken their second-floor window so that they can jump through it easily. A few seconds before the danger peaks, they leap out. It's a good thing, too, because a hail of bullets follows almost immediately after.
Irijah and Gerar land cinematically in the swimming pool, which is less good, because black-suited men with guns are now appearing in their room. And about twelve other rooms on various floors of the hotel and connected shopping center, which together cover all four sides of the courtyard around the swimming pool. Irijah fires the boom-stick with a bunch of Essence, shattering all the windows and confusing the situation, as well as stunning fourteen of the thirty-five demons that have come to kill them. Gerar, somewhat slower than Irijah, is punctured by a heckload of bullets. Irijah snaps off a shot at a mook and races inside the building, to get up close and personal. To Irijah's horror, it turns out that the mook is a Named character, which makes him too tough to kill with one shot. He leaps to the only logical conclusion -- whomever sent these demons to torment them sat down with each of them before the mission and assigned them interesting hobbies, family members in odd predicaments, or distinguishing quirks and characteristics. Inside the lobby, Irijah encounters a group of three demons -- a Calabite-type with a sawed-off shotgun, an unknown-type, and a Djinn-type with a ferret on his shoulder -- in black suits holding a gun on the manager. He fires at and hits the Djinn, because anyone with a ferret is too dangerous to live. The unknown entity holds his hands together and a spark of energy forms between them, immediately afterwards shooting out towards Irijah! Irijah dives behind the desk for cover. Then the Calabite opens fire on him with the shotgun and the mouse attached to the manager's computer lashes out and wraps around his wrist, tangling one of his gun-hands. Irijah is seriously spooked and races into the manager's office, firing a few parting shots behind him. Gerar staggers, bloodied, into the general vicinity, and decides that it would be a clever idea to heal himself before making himself obvious. It's not like the Song will reveal his location, what with the 10-Essence Song of Thunder still echoing in the vicinity. The martial artist lashes off another bolt, which actually curves around the desk and darts through the door into the manager's office, knocking away one of Irijah's silvery guns. The Calabite makes a big hole in the door in that inimitable Calabite fashion and then the bookcase in the manager's office falls on Irijah. He mostly gets out of the way. Gerar successfully heals himself. Irijah uses the amulet, reaching Unity with the universe, or at least with Gerar. The funky energy guy concentrates, and a really big sphere of energy begins to form within his hands. The Djinn and Calabite attempt to shoot through the hole in the door. Gerar steps out and gives challenge, immediately before slicing a big hole in the funky energy guy, successfully breaking his concentration. Irijah heals himself. Gerar cuts the Calabite's weapon up and hurts the demon himself, too. The energy guy attempts something acrobatic and fumbles terribly, which, given his horrible wound, kills him. The Calabite suddenly realizes that he has a rocket launcher strapped to his back, which he takes out and readies. The ferret leaps viciously for Gerar and misses. Gerar slices up the Djinn and Calabite, finishing them off, but not before the rocket fires! In the wrong direction, but fires! Irijah realizes that there is another, even bigger danger coming, not to mention that the other demons from the hotel will be heading there at all speed now that half the room has exploded. Gerar dives out of the way of shrapnel. Irijah takes celestial form and makes tracks. Gerar also takes celestial form, although it requires two attempts. He is immediately graced with a lethal high-Essence shot of Celestial Light from elsewhere in the hotel. Irijah, who made it outside, notices that there is a big Borg Cube-like thing, only with more giant television screens on the surface area, heading their way at great speed. They decide "the heck with this!" and ascend. Gerar goes off to find a celestial healer. Irijah encounters Michael, who asks how it's going, but accepts a vague generality in answer.
The two meet up at the Library, where they watch the news on tape. (It's technically the news of half a second ago, and new tape feeds into the volume continuously as events transpire on Earth. Fast-forwarding is not advised.) The cube is not reported, although there are discussions of the shocking violence. They realize that not only has their role not been sorted out yet, but that they do not actually appear to be the violent terrorists in this scenario. Oh well! they decide. Time to go to Rome and stir up trouble there.
They descend in St. Peter's, and Irijah goes off to find a priest to harangue while Gerar goes out on the streets to begin preaching about how Lutheran bankers have hired mercenaries to destroy Rome. (Naturally, they intend to provide the mercenaries.) Irijah has an extensive conversation with a young and terrified priest and then a bishop who believes that he has gone insane -- not because of Irijah, as mortals have become somewhat less skeptical in recent months, but because Irijah's explanation that the Pope has to encourage everyone to go to war is so very non-Christian. (Well, non-modern-Christian.) Meanwhile, Gerar is politely asked to move along by the police, which he finally agrees to do and then begins preaching somewhere else. This time, however, after a while, the people watching begin twitching. And then, one by one, running. Is it religious fervor? Is there danger in the air? NO! It all goes back to Nybbas' second wish, which retroactively caused the invention of a nanotech virus that modified human brains to give them instant wireless access to all media programming and a somewhat more advanced Internet. Now, Nybbas' men -- for such these are! -- have picked up on an email someone sent commenting on this ranting priest matching Gerar's Vessel's description, and have critically failed an attempt to unleash a virus that will hook into human optical perception and transmit back images and location information if the human is in Gerar's presence. Instead of sending a message, the virus frotzes the neurons of people in Gerar's presence. (As for why they're running, well, wouldn't you run to a phone or medical help if you started having a small seizure but were still completely conscious?)
Irijah catches up to Gerar when the looming sense of danger finally congeals into a fixed time when stuff is going to happen. They decide to move to a high place to watch the fun, which actually makes the sense of danger recede. Indeed, as it turns out, Nybbas' men emerge from the sewers (their suits still pristine, of course) on all sides of Gerar's preach-spot and begin combing the area. The two angels descend to the ground a ways away to wait for the outlying members of the search party to find them. Unfortunately ... the programmers in Rome have caught and nullified the virus, causing Nybbas' programmers to release another one. They critically failed on this one too -- and people all around Gerar and Irijah begin dying. The angels realize that they will have no witnesses, and give up in frustration to return to Heaven.
(It's not the GM's fault. Those programming rolls were a 556 and a 566, fair and square.) :)
Laurence has a manifestation waiting in the Cathedral for returning angels of importance, and immediately yanks Gerar and Irijah from active duty on Earth. "It seems," he explains, "that Lucifer is in Heaven and wishes to discuss the terms of his surrender. The Black Wing will provide additional security for the Seraphim Council if we do come to a satisfactory agreement on the conditions of this cessation of the War."
The angels kick around Heaven for a few hours and then come to the Seraphim Council chamber, where they stand guard by the doors as Lucifer acknowledges, one by one, the terms of the surrender. (Oddly enough, he's a Seraph.) Then the Media Calabim come, in their legions of them, poofing into existence in wave after wave. (They poof out of existence almost immediately thereafter, as the Archangels focus a bit of attention on them -- but the time lag allows a stable population to build up to 3.) These Media Calabim, with great dexterity, forcefully shove Gerar and Irijah into Lucifer. But why? you ask. Surely they have better things to do under these conditions than pick on Gerar and Irijah? And what is shoving them up near Lucifer expected to accomplish?
Then, suddenly, things are different for Gerar, Irijah, and the Archangel of Light. In fact, they are all on the moon, attempting to stop Lucifer from turning the entire Lunar surface into a projection television and beaming messages of subliminal and overt evil into human minds. Their target - Lucifer's Moon Base Alpha - is in sight, and their commando angels stand ready.
Now, normally the fact that Lucifer was right next to them would render this mission moot, one way or another. However, as it turns out, the fact that their good brother Lucifer of the Black Wing and the archtyrant Lucifer, enemy of Heaven, have the same name . . . is just a wacky coincidence.
Things begin to go wrong immediately. Irijah charges the Moon Base and a horrific spaceship shimmers into view overhead, immediately dropping a bunch of power armored infantry down around him. Both Gerar and Irijah launch themselves at the spaceship, Irijah actually disappearing into it through the hole the infantry is pouring out of. Gerar slices up the spaceship's wing and it blows up. Irijah gets hit by a small explosive which clamps to his arm before going boom, holing his suit, but he indomitably begins firing at various consoles. A strange hissing noise can be heard under the Moon's surface. "Paratroopers" hit Gerar a few times. Then the Moon Base targets the spaceship with a giant laser and Gerar goes down under a heap of demons, shortly before the whole mess of them get swallowed by a giant moon creature that lives beneath the surface. (Lucifer gets swallowed too, but it's probably a blessing -- he ran out of time in celestial form and had to take his Vessel while on the Moon's airless surface.) All this is cruel, arbitrary, and unfair; then again, it's a world designed by Nybbas, who did get humiliated by them on live television.
The angels snap out of death without Trauma back in Heaven. Gerar goes to check his messages, and receives a warning from Gabriel that Eli has gone bad, a note from Dominic to investigate allegations that Michael has planned to kill off the Black Wing, a note from Michael asking him to report for new orders, and a note from Eli explaining that while he doesn't actually know what he's doing that's terribly evil, the PCs can't stop him, bwahahahahaha. (In essence, anyway.) Irijah goes to the Seraphim Council, where the burly Malakite guard has no idea that Lucifer was ever planning to surrender. The Ofanite immediately scurries off to Michael, who doesn't believe a word of Irijah's ridiculous story. Irijah asks him if he doesn't *know* that Irijah is telling the truth, and Michael asks archly if Irijah really wants to be subjected to the Truth Technique. Gerar, meanwhile, attempts to cut reality, and indeed opens a small hole in Heaven, into which air begins to hiss. Any resemblance to events in my other campaign, Mary Mother-of-God is Missing!, is purely coincidental. There is evidently a vacuum beyond, so Gerar assembles space suits and quickly hurries off to join Irijah. Lucifer, their old boon companion in the Black Wing, also slides up. Gerar drags Irijah away from Michael, explaining that Irijah was confused by a demonic trick, and explains that they are going to cut open reality and therefore he should get dressed for space. Gerar then demonstrates his intentions and Irijah follows suit; soon all three of them are racing by boot-jet towards -- Earth, far below. It appears that Heaven is a space station in which every point inside is mapped to a point on the surface. (Lucifer was not given a suit, but he hung on until they went corporeal and then manufactured himself a Vessel with a spacesuit using Word Essence. He also creates an extra Vessel for the other two so that they can afford to get killed once on reentry.) Our heroes then use up a bunch of Essence swapping between corporeal and celestial forms while falling through the atmosphere, and finally assume an untouched Vessel form neatly on the surface of the Earth far below.
Irijah and Gerar think about going up a Tether, but soon realize that while they have landed in Paris, it is not the Paris they know -- and that their Hearts appear to be in a space station orbiting the Earth. The next best bet is to try a Tether to Hell. Lucifer leads them to a Tether of the Game, an old municipal building. Evidently, however, it is not a Tether to the Game or a municipal building, but a slave processing center owned by Stone. (This last they discover by viciously interrogating the man in charge.) Gerar, increasingly unhappy, attempts to resonate on the taxi driver that takes them to their next try -- a Theft Tether -- and discovers that he doesn't have time. Evidently the Malakite resonance involves a torture-induced hypnotic trance -- pain being as focusing and fascinating as comfort -- and then carefully directed questioning.
The Theft Tether yields fruit, however, and all three descend into Stygia. Lucifer guides them in their escape, with an occasional pause for thought and even one "I don't know." As he explains it, it's not that he's actually less intelligent or that he cannot access his Superior abilities, but rather the bulk of his thought processes and motivations seem to be altogether too ineffable for him to actually follow or direct with his conscious mind at the moment. They flee in dramatic Ofanite fashion through Stygia, and Gerar cuts through the force field barrier between realms. Around this point, the PCs have the unpleasant realization that they are not in fact angels but rather aliens who have come to Earth to conquer and enslave the humans, and Hell provides the brave if generally corrupt resistance. Nevertheless, they press on and march into Nybbas' headquarters.
Nybbas, a stylish, debonair, and masterfully polite and well-intentioned man, listens to their plea and explains that they are utterly insane, having bought not only into their own propaganda -- that they are angels -- but his propaganda, that his scriptwriters can rewrite reality. Things like that simply can't be done, he explains, even by someone as marvelous and super-competent as he himself. In other words, this is the Nybbas character and not the Prince of the PCs' natural Hell. However, he does obligingly open a gateway onto the warpspace tree, which supports all the worlds; perhaps he believes this to be good riddance. The PCs go to the base of the tree and shake it a bit, causing some universe or another to plummet off the tree into oblivion, and then push their way through the bottom of reality and into the Seraphim Council chambers. Although the Calabim are now ashes and less than ashes and the angels present are somewhat nonplussed, things get back on track in short order and Lucifer finishes the surrender.
GM's Note: In response to PC concern, no, this does not mean Armageddon is off. A dangling plot thread is going to come back and bite the world in the butt. Really really hard. J