Episode 2 - Scene 8 "The Ritual"

He could feel them, his cat's eyes, as soon as he passed through the magical threshold in order to stand before the demon's domain. The magical energies had only intensified in their absence and they were stirring the Beast. As the seconds passed, he felt himself becoming more and more feral. He growled in pain as he took up his designated position. For the spell to work, they would apparently need to be standing in a circle all around the property when they spoke the words. It was then that he realised he couldn't even speak. He could only growl and roar, and he did so, eventually attracting the wide eyes of the rest of the group.

Pri came to him at once, cupping his face. 'Valentine, look at me,' he did as she asked, staring into those beautiful light brown eyes of hers. 'You need to bring yourself up to the surface,' she said but all he could think of was having her, holding her, fucking her. His cock twitched, which was the wake up call he needed. He wanted her but he didn't want to hurt her. At once, his senses returned to him and he felt his eyes shift back to their natural hue. 'Right, let's get on with it,' she said, her hand lingering on his face just a moment longer than necessary before she took up her position.

Then, they each began to chant, out-of-sync at first but soon altogether, as Priyanshi cast her spell. The change in the atmosphere was palpable as the storms of coloured light began to subside and the mansion drifted slowly back down to the ground. Once it was done, he and Joshua drew their swords and went charging in.

Harnarax met them, in his nude demonic form. The Beast trembled but Valentine held true, bringing the Sword of Kings to bear. The incubus was startled by its appearance, allowing him to get a nice clean cut across his belly. The monster then yowled in pain and sent him flying with an open palm strike in the centre of his chest. Before the demon could follow-up, however, Joshua came at him, catching him with slashes across his wings. Harnarax delivered a brutal headbutt in retaliation, clattering his curled horns against Josh's unprotected forehead and driving him to the ground.

With injured wings, Harnarax managed something closer to a leap than to true flight but came down on Valentine all the same, stomping him with his clawed feet. The Lionheart seethed in pain and choked out blood but he did not lose sight of his opening and drove his sword up through the demon's belly and into his heart. In his **** throes, the incubus was able to dig his claws deeper into Valentine's abdomen but the fight ended, nevertheless, with Harnarax dead and the Lionheart victorious. The pain made it hard to think but he still found time to brood over the killing as the group began to search the mansion for the girls and set them loose. There were about eight of them, as it happened, and most were pregnant.

The walk back to headquarters was difficult, on account of the late evening darkness and the severe pain he was in. Like clockwork, eight pseudo-golems appeared from the north, as they made their trek. Though it pained him, Valentine readied his sword. Pri rushed over to him, however, saying, 'no, Valentine, you need to bare the Beast. There are far too many of them. Just give them a little flash, that's all.'

He looked back at Josh, who was almost as beaten and bloodied as him, and received no contrary advice. 'So be it,' he said, harshly, and let his cat's eyes flash. A second later, the golems had collapsed and they were able to get back unmolested.

Notes:

The Chaos Factor being set to 8 really mattered here, since I rolled an 8, getting an interrupted scene. This was the second time the climactic showdown with the villain was potentially being thrown off, so I was tempted to just say that the Chaos Factor shouldn't have been moved up and simply proceed with the scene as planned. I decided, ultimately, to go with the die, however. For as much as I might seem to complain, I really enjoyed this session and, next time, I think I may leave even more things up to chance.

Anyway, I got a 71 on the random event focus table, meaning, "PC Negative," a 77 on the first actions meaning table for, "repair," and a 70 on the second actions table for, "personal." The descriptors I rolled for were quite weird, with a 22 for, "deliberately," and a 74 for, "plain." I kind of got the feeling that something weird happened to Valentine so, to confirm, I rolled against the animal actions meaning table, getting an 11 for, "bold," and a 34 for, "ferocious." Rather tortuously then, I decided that the magical energy surrounding the mansion had become so intense that his animal spirit was drawn to the surface and he had to be calmed down by Pri, which sort of fits as him being repaired and made, "plain," but I wasn't altogether happy with it.

For the fight, I allowed Harnarax the ability to sustain 10 harm before ****. Valentine made his, "Kick Some Ass," move first, getting a 1 and a 4 plus 2 for a 7, which meant that Harnarax took 3 harm and Valentine took 1. Then Joshua followed up with the same move, rolling a 4 and a 5 plus 2 for an eleven, meaning that Harnarax took another 3 harm and Joshua took 2. I then used my keeper move to inflict 1 harm on Valentine. Then, the final move of the fight saw Valentine roll a 6 and a 5 plus 2 for a 13. Harnarax took 4 harm, taking him up to 10 and killing him, but dealing another 1 harm in the process.

With Valentine and Joshua both in bad shape, I decided to ask a Fate Question: "Do the Pseudo-Golems still show up?" I decided there was a fifty-fifty chance before rolling against the Fate Chart but then I realised that a Chaos Factor of 8 meant that I only had to roll under 85 for a, "yes." So, I rolled a 74 and they showed up. If the fight had played out with traditional moves, we'd be looking at a TPK but that was never my intention. All that was really at stake was whether Valentine was **** to bare his beast again, which he was.