The City of Bridges

Summary

Session 1

10-16-2011

On Monday, Oct. 10 Georgio received an invitation through work to attend a party at the Pittsburgh Museum of Art, the part was being thrown as a local fund raiser and would be attended by most of Pittsburgh's high society. The party was set for Saturday Oct. 15. Sanura was asked by a friend if she was available to work on Saturday night, she knew of a place looking for hostesses.

Magnar noticed that a small but notable gang that controls several corners in the slums of Pittsburgh went missing rather suddenly while making his rounds through the familiar streets. He started out by doing some street level investigation, asking around if the locals knew where the former occupants were. Magnar found the locals to be rather unhelpful, and instead relied on his street smarts to locate the gangs hang out. He discovered the run-down bar was in worse shape than normal and was infact no longer in operation, the windows and doors were boarded shut and locked. Undeterred, Magnar picked the lock and entered, hiding up in the rafters of the bar for anyone to return. Several members eventually show up and load up several bags from the back before taking off again. Magnar follows the the group that leaves by using his supernatural sense of smell and finds a safe house on the eastern outskirts of the city. He stakes out the house for the night but security never obviously lapses and he decides not to risk direct conflict.

On Saturday Oct. 15 Georgio and Sanura prepare to attend the event, meanwhile Sven calls Magnar and asks him to look after someone that may be in trouble tonight, Rune Johansson. Magnar gets to the museum early with his equipment and climbs up into the bathroom ceiling, replacing the ceiling panels he is able to hide until the museum closes and the party begins. While lingering awkwardly at the event Sanura recognizes him and retrieves some spare clothes from the kitchen to make him blend in better. Georgio and Sanura both recognize Rune as a supernatural being but are unable to get him into a situation where he is alone and can explain himself, Georgio recognizes that he is an Alfar.

As the party gets into full swing Sanura hears a break in through the kitchen and runs out to find Magnar before the assaulting gang enters the party, as a result the Scions are more prepared for the assaulting gang members and meet them with force. Magnar immediately attacks the gang memebers, while Sven secures Rune for his escape, meanwhile Georgio and Sanura observe from a distance before being forced to enter the fray. Sanura recognizes the gang members as Thralls and alerts the other Scions, who make quick work for the dozen gang members before escaping in Georgio's sedan. The group returns to Georgio's penthouse where they introduce one another and exchange contact information, Magnar stays the night but the other two scions leave.

+5 EXP

Session 2

11-6-11

After leaving Georgio's penthouse Magnar informed the group via text message that he would be returning to the house that the gang had been using as a safe house, he hoped to find the giant responsible for creating the thralls there. After receiving confirmation from Sven, Sanura, and Georgio that they would be interested in attending Magnar designated Georgio's penthouse as a meeting place. On her way Sanura stops by the museum to pick up her car from the parking lot, a police officer questions her briefly. The group takes 1 car while 4 of Georgio's bodyguards take another to the house, they park approximately a mile away and discreetly hike through the woods to the safehouse, 1 guard stays with the cars.

Upon arriving the group scoped out security from a distance, one of the bodyguards climbed into a tree and took sniper position and silently shot the guard out back. The Scions picked the lock and entered silently, but found 3 thralls waiting for them. A quick skirmish followed resulting in all three thralls being quickly dispatched; Magnar and Georgio checked the front while 2 guards checked the upper story. 2 more thralls were dispatched with on the 2nd story, followed by a quick search before the group entered the dark basement.

The dimly lit basement was a maze of boxes, furniture, and other various piles of junk and with no real source of light the group was drawn into a prolonged gunfight with the thralls as they slowly revealed themselves from hiding places within the maze. It soon became evident that a fire had been lit in 1 corner of the basement and it began to spread heat and smoke throughout, one of Georgio's guards was the first on the scene and discovered a Medusa had started the fire. He was too terrified to alert the others but opened fire on the creature, slowly but surely the others discovered the creature, proving their courage they stood their ground and Sven eventually delivered the final blow to bring it to rest. Magnar cut off the Medusa's head to save the blood as a trophy while the others fled the heat of the flame to investigate what was left of the house before the flames claimed it or the cops arrived.

+5 EXP

Session 3

11-12-11

Sanura left the basement and the gunfight while things were still going on and immediately began to investigate the upstairs levels of the house, looking for any sort of information on what brought all this about. Somewhat unsurprisingly there wasn't a wealth of information in the gangs safe house, however she did find some interesting things. First she found several duffel bags full of drugs, mostly cocaine, followed by a few smaller bags of cash, totaling approximately $20,000. She also separately found several small pouches full of gold jewelry that appeared to be stolen. Upstairs in an office she found a couple of manilla folders containing information on Rune Johansson, pictures and other documentation that made it clear they had been tattending argeting him for quiet some time. Once the Medusa was killed, Magnar claimed the head while Sven began an instant investigation of the downstairs, at least what hadn't been scorched by the growing fire yet. He found a few assorted items of interest and quickly threw them into a box together to be sorted through later. The Medusa had a dwarven made monocle that showed the appearance and epic appearance traits of anyone viewed through it, as well as several dwarven maps of Pittsburgh.

The group made a quick escape in the black SUV, heading off they discovered that one of the guards had been shot in the chest by a 3-round burst and needed medical attention immediately. The Scions were unable to stabilize him so they dropped him off at a hospital along with Georgio and Sanura, who stayed to explain to the hospital. This turned out to be a rather difficult task as the serious injuries from gunshots had to be reported to the police. Through the combined efforts of Sanura and Georgio they were able to convince the attending doctor to not report the shooting, however they had to take injured man from the hospital tonight. Georgio was forced to come up with $50,000 cash, $20,000 of which they used the drug money, and Sanura called her father to do a political favor to hide the events that transpired. The three of them returned from the hospital to Georgio's penthouse to find that Sven and Magnar were making themselves at home, they all changed clothes and gathered themselves before going over the evidence collected.

Sanura and Sven were able to read the maps of Pittsburgh and revealed that they were actually showing a network of tunnels under the city, there were three entrances in the city and no end to the tunnels shown on the maps. The safehouse that just burned down was one entrance, there was another fairly close to Georgio's home downtown, and another in the slums near the gangs original territory. The group has Sven contact Rune, Sven uses a set of Nordic runes to speak with his guide; Rune did not know about the tunnels under the city and isn't aware of any nearby communities of dwarves. He is aware of a large community in the Appalachian Mountains, but he has never come in contact with them. He mentions that they would be wise to hold onto the gold they confiscated however. He also reveals that he had encountered the Medusa they found in the safehouse previously, she has been attempting to steal his eyes to fuel her supernatural beauty. The gala was the first time he had encountered any Thralls however, and he wonders if she had acquired new allies recently.

The group decides that before they go exploring into the underground tunnels of Pittsburgh they should attempt to acquire more information, and ideally a guide. Unfortunately the only place to start that they have is the dwarven community in the Appalachian Mountains, and that's hardly a specific place. The group makes arrangements to make a trip there, getting their outdoor equipment and setting aside their mortal lives for an unspecified period of time to explore the mountains.

(Magnar harvested 4 doses of blood from the Medusa. The doses are being stored in tupperware containers in Georgio's fridge. It was ruled that they do not have to be refridgerated, but he has not taken them out yet. He plans to secure the tops, probably with Duct Tape, and take them with us on our trip. They will be stored in his bag with his axe and cloak until otherwise specified. -DK)

+5 EXP

Session 4

11-20-11

The group of Scions head out to the mountains of Appalachia in southern Pennsylvania to begin their search for the dwarven community that Rune informed them resides there. They gather the necessary gear and pack into one of Georgio's Escalades and Sanura's minibus along with 3 of Georgio's guards. They decide to start with an abandoned coal mine which they find and break into with little difficulty, picking the locks to the gate and door and taking the door off it's hinges for safety. They enter the mine and find the elevator which is without power, the generator gets started enough to get the elevator to the bottom and the group climbs down the service ladder to the mine shaft. Exploring the shaft for about half an hour they found a fork in the mine, Sanura finds a disruption in the dust that covers the mine that leads them down the newest shaft of the three.

They climb down the shaft for approximately 4 hours before the group comes to a stop finding themselves rather fatigued and a few members of the group need several hours of rest before they can resume their exploration, finding the air in the mine particularly difficult to deal with. The group travels for the rest of the day in 2 hour intervals and taking rest to avoid the fatigue from travel. Throughout the continued journey through the mine shaft the group explores and investigates to the best of their ability, finding similar disruptions in the dust at various places throughout the day. When they break for the night they discover that the disruptions are often accompanied by small patches of different soils which the group guesses is most likely to be caused by some sort of tunneling creature, likely not of this world.

The next day they explore by digging into several of the loose soils, but they mostly just discover the soils appear to tunnel deep into the earth. They spend the next half day going deeper into the mine and continuing to discover the odd disruptions, this time even finding some different sorts of marks in the coal dust in the path. As the mine gets deeper the tunnel gets smaller and the mining locations smaller and less frequent, eventually they find a caved in mining location. Magnar digs through the rubble enough to lets Sanura's cat climb in and explore, when it comes out it reports several open tunnels. Magnar and Sven proceed to dig through the rubble while the rest of the group gets some rest, the group is awoken when they make a large enough hole to get through and Sven notices some noise and air movement inside.

When the group gets through they find a small mining area with about a dozen open tunnels, they drop a smoke grenade down a hole they can hear something down to smoke it out. A few minutes later with smoke coming out of several of the holes a giant Lindwurm emerges and attacks the group, 3 feet in diameter and about 30 long. The Scions and their guards manage to take down the mighty wurm and Magnar skins it for the trophy and gets 6 doses, while the rest of the group staunches their wounds and prepares to move on.

+5 EXP

Session 5

12-4-11

After dispatching of the wurm and collecting themselves and bandaging their wounds the group investigates the the den of the wurm, discovering that two of the tunnels are the source of the fresh air. Initial exploration by Sanura's cat the group decides to bind themselves into a line with rope and crawl down the abandoned tunnel of the wurm in search of fresh air. Led by Magnar they find the end of the tunnel after several hours of climbing through the narrow, dark space and discover a sheer cliff of rock into a large cavern. Two at a time Magnar lowers the group down the towering cliff to the surface, from there the group begins to explore following along the banks of a small underground stream. During their exploration the group discovers two Harpy's perched on the stalactites above, rather than wait to be ambushed the group engages the creatures outright. Though a large portion of the group is left to uncontrollably vomit due to the rancid smell of the awful creatures the remaining members of the group, led by Magnar, fell the two creatures relatively quickly. Magnar collects their talons as a trophy before the group heads downstream hoping to find the dwarven colony they set out for initially.

The group eventually finds the end of the cavern, forced to enter the freezing cold stream to follow the smaller opening it has carved out through the rock after years of erosion. The group wades through the waist deep water until the cavern opens again, the cavern on this side of the stream is dimly lit by glowing rocks along the ceiling and the sides of the stream are a well beaten path. Following the path leads the group to an outcropping with a rather startled dwavern guard inside. They halt to identify themselves and eventually convince the guard they are not here to cause trouble and to call someone for them to speak with about a guide.

They are met by Dugar Ironfist, a person of authority within the dwarven communities guard who informs them that the tunnels under Pittsburgh, assuming they exist, are both not connected to their tunnels and not created by the dwarves here. Georgio leads conversation with Dugar asking for a guide through the tunnels and possibly a craftsmen for the talons Magnar retrieved, Dugar escorts the travelers to another small outcropping in the rock where they can make themselves at home while waiting for someone to discuss these matters with. Marrec Gamaleif greets them several hours later and admits that he is unaware of the Pittsburgh tunnels and has no interest in leaving, however Magnar gets him to agree to crafting the Harpy talons into daggers for 1/4 of the gold they brought with them as well as sending someone who may be more willing to travel. Later that day Marra Kuldrum arrives with Marrec and examines the map and monocle they brought with them. Marra informs them that the map is made by a Dwarf by the name of Balim Nuraal, but that she can tell them little else without seeing the tunnels. Sanura and Georgio discuss with Marra the prospect of her coming with them into the Pittsburgh tunnels, eventually the negotiations lead to Marra agreeing to be paid the remainder of the gold with them as well as $1000 worth of gold for each day she is with them.

On Friday, October 21st the group departs the dwarven community up a massive set of stone stairs until they reach the surface, after a small trek back to their vehicles they drive back to Pittsburgh under the cover of darkness, for Marra's safety, and decide to rest for the night before departing for the tunnels the following day.

+5 EXP

Session 6

Date

Coming Soon...

+ EXP

Characters

Primary

• Georgio Paleiotheodorus
• Magnar Odinson
• Sanura Weisz
• Sven Maximilian Ahlgren

Secondary

• Minor Characters