Blandine, Archangel of Dreams: besieged in the Marches.
David 2.0, Archangel of Stone: the mass-mind of the new order.
Dmitri, Mercurian of Creation in Service to Wind: PC.
Dominic 2.0, Archangel of Judgment: guidance counselor of Heaven.
Ethan Howe, Seneschal of Trade: you want it, he's got it.
Ezri, Secretary at Adelaide: information conduit and seriously Swordy.
Gaian Revolutionary Army, the: an organization demanding angelic surrender.
Gerar, Malakite of the Sword: PC.
Gina Vance, Nurse: helped Misery recover from the shock.
Heliotrope, Lilim of Technology: mentioned in passing.
Jamin, Seraph of the Wind: an ex-sidekick.
Jeezer, familiar of Trade: a proud talking horse.
Laurence 2.0, Archangel of the Sword: leather and chrome.
Lyta Aram, Soldier of Trade: Scale hunter and book translator.
Mabden, Seraph of the Sword: local Commander of the Sword.
Maven, Seneschal of Theft: wheeler-dealer extraordinaire.
Misery Maim, Seneschal of the Divine Lady: crazy Elohite.
Pimpernel, Malakite of Trade: horseman and trader.
The Three-Armed Wretch: a failed attempt at a Demon Prince.
Triam, Malakite of Trade: the man with the burning hands.
Tryphosa, Seneschal of the Sword: in a deathtrap.
Uriel 2.0, Archangel of Purity: leader of the new Purity Crusade.
Yves 2.0, Archangel of Destiny: your personal Destiny consultant.
Unnamed angels and demons.
Dmitri: a dashing, stylish Mercurian with Eli's Malakite Attunement and an invulnerable umbrella.
Gerar: a fairly straightforward Malakite sworn to give challenge before making an attack and never to lie for his own sake only.
Dmitri's Umbrella: whereabouts unknown. Gives Umbrella/1 and is indestructible -- but Dmitri can be tracked by its holder.
Durendal: Roland's sword, once repaired and wielded by Laurence himself, containing relics of Christ, Mary, and the saints in its hilt.
Endless Blade, the: a weapon that keeps doing damage round after round until the original wound is dealt with.
Liber Mors Mortis, the: a book compiled by an Empty Habbalite on Saminga's demons and practices.
Monofilament Sword: an experimental Jeanite weapon. It must be plugged in regularly to keep its edge "stable." Has a forcefield sheath.
The PCs take Misery to a hospital, so that he can be treated for shock. Then they go to Adelaide to check in. The secretary briefs them on a variety of things, such as:
The secretary (Ezri) also tells them that someone called "Maven" had asked Gerar to get in contact with her. The PCs get in their Lexus and head for Jack's House; on the way, Dmitri calls Maven. Dmitri makes random comments about Malakim, causing Gerar to take the phone and wonder what she wants. She explains that she has a deal for them: she wants to trade them a tome called the Liber Mors Mortis, the most comprehensive work on Saminga and his demons, powers, and methodologies, for a sword called Durendal. Gerar rolls, with a bonus, to see if he recognizes the name; he rolls an Infernal Intervention. Suddenly, the deal sounds real sweet. So he agrees, and Maven explains that she thinks the sword is in Trip's personal quarters. They set the meeting time at an hour after dawn.
The group arrives at Jack's House, encountering Lyta, who is happy because she has found the location of another scale. This one is kept in an underground temple beneath the bay, accessible via the sewers and occupied only by the "Three-Armed Wretch." She hasn't been able to find out enough about this entity to determine whether he needs to be fought or given a coin. Gerar gets Pimpernel to agree to accompany them to Maven's Tether, to verify that the book is real, and then drives back to Adelaide to pick up the sword.
Lyta sends Dmitri up to Heaven to talk to Yves about the Three-Armed Wretch. (She even gives him Essence.) Dmitri ascends, and appears beside his Heart in the giant Halls of Creation. He flies out, and sees a huge and glorious Heaven with mecha stomping about in the distance and giant butterflies fluttering around overhead. He finds this cool, and stops by the Halls of Technology to see what's up there. The Halls have a new nameplate, reading "The Order of Guardians: to Protect and Serve." While Dmitri is watching, the wall spins halfway open and another giant mech stomps out. Dmitri wants one of these, so he makes an appointment to see Jean in two weeks. Dmitri then zooms off towards the Eternal City, because he wants to get a sword for Gerar as apology for something. Laurence's cathedral has a giant stained glass window depicting Mary and baby Jesus, crossed by an equally giant sword. Dmitri makes his way to the armory, and when he reveals that he is collecting the sword for a follower of the Sword, the Kyriotate there agrees to help him. He offers Dmitri a new Jean-tech item: a monofilament-edged sword. Unfortunately, that edge is a bit unstable, and the sword needs to be plugged in regularly. Fortunately, the button in the handle can wrap it in a shimmering forcefield, making it safe to sheath. Dmitri then heads for the Library, and the guardian there asks him if he wishes a personal Destiny reading. Dmitri does, indeed, and heads into the Library, making for Yves' room, where the new Archangel of Destiny sprawls on a beanbag chair. (Cue Handel's Messiah as the doors open.) He sees "Seraphim Council" for Dmitri, although a long way in the future, and ideally if he helps to fix the Saminga situation. He also reveals that the Three-Armed Wretch was a creature who tried to become a Demon Prince and failed. The details of his punishment, besides a curse of poverty, are unknown -- but some of his old powers remain. He can hit anything he can see or sense with his third arm, and he is immune to conventional weaponry. Dmitri then heads out to get an aerial view of Heaven; at around then, the clock strikes dawn, he receives Essence, and he decides to go back down to Jack's House.
Meanwhile, Gerar sneaks into Adelaide and collects the two swords that hung in Trip's cell (unable to tell which one is Durendal.) He takes them back out and sees a winged mouse fly past. Then he gets in his car and drives back to Jack's House. He speaks with Lyta, who identifies the golden-hilted sword with the French writing on it as Durendal, and assures him that it has a history of bringing its wielders to a bad end. At least, that's what he heard -- if he thinks back, he may discover that this is not what she actually said. Gerar sits down and watches the swords to keep them from coming to any harm. Then it is dawn, and the PCs go to the parking lot. Pimpernel has attached a horse trailer to the car; Dmitri looks inside, and the horse greets him with "Whinny, I say!" After a few moments trying to deny that it had actually said anything, it admitted that it could talk, and Pimpernel explained that Jeezer was his familiar -- a gift from the original Marc. (At some point, someone asks Pimpernel what the new Marc was like, and Pimpernel said that he wasn't actually sure -- he'd gone up and met him, and he had this vague feeling that he'd had more stuff before he did so, but that's about all. He felt happy afterwards, though!) Then the group drives off to Overlook Castle, the Tether to Stone and Theft. Two Servitors of David greet them with identical and simultaneous words, identifying themselves as David; even after the two separate, they continue to use the plural for themselves. They lead the PCs down to the Tether of Theft, and a demon leads them the rest of the way into Maven's office.
Maven offers them a drink, and Dmitri has some coffee. Gerar doesn't even want to sit down. Maven puts a giant book on the desk; after Pimpernel confirms that this is the right book, Gerar makes the trade. Just before they leave, Pimpernel thinks to check what the sword means to Maven, and learns that it's one of the great holy relics; as he reveals this, the fog of that first Infernal Intervention lifts from Gerar's mind. However, he thinks that the book is necessary anyway, and the trade has been made, so the group leaves peacefully.
They park, and Pimpernel takes care of his horse. As they walk around the corner towards Jack's House, they meet a man in an orange robe with a cowl (back against his shoulders); he greets them and both resonate with CD 6. It's -- Dominic! Come to check on them in person.
They lead Dominic inside -- apparently, his sight is clouded by the beauty of the Symphony all around him -- and take a seat, ordering breakfast. Dominic explains that he's there to help them work through their unresolved feelings about the Event and the New Heaven and all of that, explaining that angels who bottle up their emotions are more likely to Fall. Dmitri assures Dominic that he has no problem with anything, and Dominic finally relents on him; Gerar's careful wordings and evasions, however, lead Dominic to the conclusion that Gerar is hiding a deep rebellion against the new order, and that he just doesn't understand how glorious the new Heaven is. Dominic looks forward to the day when everyone in Heaven has a mecha, and Jean can lead a vast giant robot army against the forces of Hell. Gerar points out that Malakim don't Fall, and therefore he should be left alone. Dominic agrees that the first is true; however, the Archangel notes, Malakim can become confused, lose touch with reality, and suddenly their honor and goodness in intent no longer matches their honor and goodness in action. "My predecessor," Dominic explains, "would tear apart the forces of such Malakim, -- And That's Okay -- but I prefer the gentler approach, gently clearing their mind of their troubles." Eventually, because Gerar is stubborn, Dominic sends him to examine the new Heaven and assures Gerar that they will meet again in a week. Then they help him out of the restaurant and he walks through the wall and is gone.
Gerar goes to Adelaide to return the second sword, and rolls Divine Intervention while sneaking in. At this point, he knows that there were hairs taken from Christ's head in the sword's hilt, and he notices gleaming hairs on the hook where Durendal once was. Leaving the other sword behind, he takes one of the three hairs there, intending to sew it into a glove. When he has done, he explains to Lyta that he would like to hit a demon and see what happens. She explains that, usually, the demon will hit back or run away. He then explains that he might want to tie the demon down first. Lyta finds this rather a bothersome notion. It comes up, incidentally, that Jamie returned to the Tether in a human Vessel a while before Gerar appeared as a snake -- and went off with some Servitors of Fire and never returned.
Gerar, as he promised, goes up to New Heaven while Dmitri attempts to translate the Liber Mors Mortis, written in celestial, for Lyta. (Lyta knows of the volume; it was written by a mad Habbalite who invoked Emptiness on himself, and then spent 50 years writing a text on his Dark Lord before attempting Redemption and failing.) Unfortunately, while looking for Jamin in the book, Dmitri rolls Infernal Intervention, and gets stuck flipping through the pages over and over and over again, somehow never making it to J. Eventually, Lyta snaps him out of it and Dmitri tries again at the 'tactics, powers, and methods' section. After a while reading this, Dmitri spends an XP on Saminga Knowledge.
Gerar visits Laurence's Cathedral, and gets in to see his boss -- a silver robot in tight black leather, carrying a sword bigger than he is. He greets Gerar and asks Gerar to offer his opinions on the current situation before Laurence gives him his orders. Gerar votes, carefully, for an alliance with those demons who are not on Saminga's side. Laurence reveals that Baal's forces on Earth are fairly strong -- almost as if he knew this was coming -- and that some kind of dark energy is coming from an unknown location into Saminga's castle in Paris. Laurence admits that he's fighting a holding action -- rather than taking the battle to Saminga's stronghold, he's engaged Saminga's forces in non-Paris locations throughout the world. He can't do otherwise, because an area that becomes completely dominated by demons becomes a living nightmare for the humans therein. He also can't make any compromises with the forces of Hell; the Seraphim Council won't allow it. On the other hand, he is not ordering his troops to refrain from making such alliances, and, of course, he must support their honor as best he can.
Misery calls, and (amid much incoherent stuff) tells the PCs about "something" that moved over his boat, and then his crew lost their lunches to the hungry sea and began hallucinating. He also can't leave the general vicinity of his ship, so Dmitri advises that he go back and forth between the New Heaven and Earth ends of his Tether.
Dmitri, reading, learns that Saminga has made an extensive study of the boundaries between worlds, life and death, and so forth -- that one of his deathtrap styles involves fields that are essentially pocket universes that must be passed through to reach the other side. This has some other unsettling implications, besides what it may mean for Trip. Then Gerar returns to Jack's House, and the session closes.