TheStarsAreRight:BaileySessionDecember2010
Carl determines that the Tsar is close enough that it would make sense to travel down to meet him. Several people follow him.
Redland, Patrick (can't remember if the 'k' should be in this), Henrik, and Rebecca remain behind at the 'dead spot'. Trying to determine their next move, they discuss a list of eight possible objectives and five possible research options. Since summoning Outsiders is easier at dead spots, the idea of having Redland summon up 'his' Outsider is put to the vote. Henrik and Patrick outvote Rebecca, and the decision is made to summon the Outsider that evening.
Some time is then spent on determining what questions should be asked and how the questions should be worded. They settle on asking it about:
(1) The 'traveling' capability of the dead spot
(2) The Brotherhood of the Beast
(3) 'Skull Island'
(4) The New York incursion
After Redland mentions that he has a difficult time understanding the Outsider, Patrick suggests using an intermediary (as we did at the Alchemist's house). Henrik is determined to be too valuable, Patrick's psychic defenses are too undeveloped, and Redland needs to summon the guy up and chat with him. Only Rebecca conduit. The idea is put to the vote and Henrik and Patrick outvote Redland, and the decision is made to have Rebecca be the intermediary, if necessary.
While waiting for nightfall, Redland sets up a couple of Hayes-Waite wards, one to contain whatever he summons and one that encircles Rebecca, who has been tied to a tree. He botches up the wards, but Patrick and Henrik set him straight.
Redland does his usual wrist-slitting thing to summon up the Outsider. At first nothing seems to be happening, so he's forced to cough up a little more blood. This seems to do the trick, and the correct Outsider is summoned into the middle of the Hayes-Waite ward. He appears to be much larger than in previous meetings. The ward effectively repels his movements.
They try talking to him, but it rapidly becomes clear that communication will not be very productive without an intermediary. The Outsider is allowed access to Rebecca and she gets possessed.
Tired of calling him the 'Alchemist's Outsider', unable to speak his symbolic name, and unwilling to call him 'Joe', Redland bestows the name 'Prometheus' on the Outsider (figuring that a little Greek will class the joint up).
Talking with Prometheus, they discover that instant travel does appear possible through the dead spot. However, in order to do so, you need to abandon to death your current body and then 'take over' another body at the place where you want to go. Prometheus could teach them how to do this, but no one seems particularly interested at that price.
Switching topics to the Brotherhood of the Beast, questions put to Prometheus reveal that their main base of operations is located in Cluj, and that two important leaders are Diana Stevenson and Petter Varr (there may be more, but Prometheus is better at answering yes/no type of questions, and the only names the group tried were: Roger LeForge, Diana Stevenson, Ian McCollum, Petter Varr, and Baron Hauptmann).
They are able to pinpoint the location of 'Skull Island'. It is a small island off the coast of Sumatra. The 'Sword of Solomon' is, apparently, an object that is useful in 'killing' Outsiders. The Sword is located at Skull Island, but will 'not be there for long'.
In terms of the New York incursion, it seems that all sorts of Outsiders will be coming. However, they will mostly be 'small', at least by Outsider standards. Efforts to figure out a way to stop them from 'attacking' were relatively fruitless. Also, trying to mitigate the damage through negotiation did not appear terribly promising (the Outsiders were coming to experience new things, be made whole, and eat people, maybe some other things as well). Prometheus did not really grasp the concept of not eating people.
Redland fell ill here from the presence of the Outsider and the strain he was under. He loses his grip on what is going on, so I'm a bit hazy on the next few things.
Henrik produces a map of New York and tries to isolate the location(s) at which the Outsiders will incur. I didn't quite catch what the answer was, but I think they were fairly locally contained around the city of New York.
Patrick followed up with a couple more questions, but I'm not sure what they were.
Redland recovers a bit and his allies are encouraging him to dismiss Prometheus. Before he does so, he asks if Prometheus can put him into contact with another Outsider who might be friendly/useful. He receives a 'Name' and is staggered. He gouges at his wrists again, gives the Outsider some more blood, and then dismisses him.
They determine that they need to hurry to Skull Island, since the Sword sounds valuable and might go missing soon. They discuss the best way to get there and decide that flying may be the best option. They engage in various telepathic communications to coordinate this with the Russians, so that a plane will be available by the time they take the train back to, I believe, Moscow.
Rebecca is not feeling too great and Redland is a bit under the weather, so they camp for the night.
In the morning, they hike back to their train. Some peasants are there looking for Patrick. They need the assistance of a priest at their village, as a boy has fallen mysteriously ill.
The group investigates and it seems that the boy has suffered from massive ponic exposure. They check out the area where he fell and find a weird, metallic 'insect'. Henrik suffers an injury when tampering with a weird metal tube. Further investigation makes it appear that someone is using leylines to gather and store energy. Feeling pressed for time (and since it appears the boy will be okay), they return to their train before fully exploring this mystery.
From John:
Adding in a few more details:
"Prometheus" said that the incursion in New York would happen in a number of places, but all contained within the limits of New York City. With all this globe hopping, he has a good pocket atlas. The place where the Brotherhood usually talk to Outsiders from is a few miles north of Cluj.
As far as we can reconstruct, what happened in the village is this: There are a series of metal jars buried just under the ground along the ley line. If tilted, they will explode, releasing massive ponic energy as well as molten metal. An articulated metal bug was crawling along the ley line and doing something with them. Somehow the boy poked the bug with a stick and it exploded, burning his arm and the release of energy also filled him with ponic energy. He is going to get better on his own, and we don't have any solid clues as to who is doing this.
