(still continuing the story of our first game).

John was still kinda out of it from the endorphins arising from his "distraction", but the 4 of them stood around a gaping hole in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Eliah was the first to take a look around, and thus the first to really notice the hot, damp and alternating directional currents of air near the cave mouth.  None of the characters are that dumb and they fairly quickly realize there's something big down there.

They debate for a while about going in, but finally man up and start the descent.  Martin with his flashlight and Angelique with her Night Eyes going first, Eliah and John behind them (though not as far behind as they would have preferred...back at the hotel sounded good).

Martin is working on the assumption that the play is a front, that some sort of cult is kidnapping people and bringing them out here for a sacrifice of some nature.  He's still rationalizing away anything remotely supernatural, though it is getting more and more difficult to do so.

The trail leads to a dead end, well a huge chasm easily 300 yards across.  To Martin's trained eye it looks fairly new, like something simply broke away into a large sinkhole of sorts.  Some small time spent looking around leads them to conclude that its probable but not certain that the cultists and victim didn't know about the chasm and fell into it.  Getting the distinct feeling that perhaps someone led them out here so as to leave the city open, Martin sends Eliah and John back to the city with information to pass onto the ATF group so he can get some manpower out to help him, while he and Angelique see if they can't bypass the chasm (they are the two most athletic ones).

So Eliah and John leave in the SUV.  Martin's pretty sure he can climb/skirt the wall across the cavern while Angelique holds onto him, piggy back style.  Some Monkey Climbing knack and Epic Strength make it so, as Martin appreciated the time he spent lately on the rock wall at the gym.

Continuing on past the chasm, the two of them are fairly sneaky...enough so they find the source of the breathing without being spotted.  A huge Toad/lizard/bird type thing with mouths at its joints, sharp teeth...etc.  You all know the description.  Angelique's near encyclopedic mind (Epic Intelligence) and knowledge of the occult let her deduce what sort of critter (player rolled almost as many successes as she possibly could) and she especially remembered something about it being largely diurnal since moonlight was painful to it.

The two PCs quickly vacated the area, going back the way they came.  Once clear of the cave, Martin realized that he had asked Eliah and John to bring in a field team, some agents and others who would be slaughtered.  Thankfully he got ahold of them and called off the group, though his reputation will likely take a hit (calling in agents and then minutes later calling them off because its a false lead...doesn't look good).  John and Eliah turn around on the highway and head back.

Conferring via phone about how best to block off the creature they toss around various ideas that basically boil down to "steal an 18 wheeler from a nearby truck stop and drive it right into the hole, blocking the whole thing off" or "steal a gas truck from a nearby truck stop and flood the cavern, then light it".  Its a testament to the way pressure affects otherwise rational beings as those seemed to be the best ideas.

Luckily (or not...a massive crash/explosion would have been cool), they never got a chance to put either idea into practice.  Angelique and Martin felt a tremendous tremor and realized the things beneath them was moving and there was only one entrance.

Figuring (correctly) that there were probably more then a few bodies buried in the desert, Angelique poured some of the rum her dad had given her onto the ground, raising a small group of zombies and really unsettling Martin in the process (Rum - Relic 3 Unique Power - Unquiet Dead, as long as there is a corpse somewhere nearby.  Basically if the players makes some general reason why there should be bodies nearby its good enough.  Zombies are excellent fodder).  Knowing the creature was getting closer and glancing down at his meager service issue 9mm, Martin was very torn.  He'd been a rational man all his life, his entire existance built around law, order, sanity and those other cornerstones of his mundane existance.  In desperation he made a plea/prayer/bargain to his "father" along the lines of "I'm about to fight a really big dragon here, give me a bit of help and I'll open my eyes and accept what you've been telling me".  There was a sudden darkening of the overhead sky and even though it was daylight, a bright beam of light arced from the moon into the tunnel, around a bend and onwards.  There was the sound of sizzling and the smell of something meaty cooking as the sky returned to normal.  Martin stood, shocked while Horus clasped him on the shoulder (having appeared with the moonlight unnoticed to either of the PCs) and said "glad you're coming around."  A quick exploration of the cave (to make sure) led to the discovery of a feathered tunic lodged in the lower scales of the beast (like when you get popcorn stuck in your teeth).

Eliah and John arrived to the smell of BBQ as Horus vanished and Angelique was putting her guys back to rest.  Not much was said, but everyone knew that everything they'd been told was true.

Returning to the city, Martin got a call from his surveillance team.  They had intercepted a call from the Luxor suite to the Wynn.  The cult was planning something at midnight, to correspond with an eclipse.  It was going to happen on the roof of the Wynn, after the amusement rides had shut down for the evening.  The fact that the call went to the Wynn was not lost on Martin and he suspects someone inside the hotel (or worse) is involved.  This gave Martin very little time (less then 12 hours) to put a plan together.

------so that was our first game.  Lots of RP, no combat, some very good distinct personalities coming out of the characters.  My wife is surprised at how well her PC (John) gets along with Eliah, but he's the only person since John left the island that hasn't treated him like a hick.  Martin is on board now with what's going on, Angelique is doing her best to make daddy proud and Eliah...well he's looking for more trouble to get into-------

(Spoiler alert if you're one of my players) - Next week on Scion - Cultists, Bikers, Giant Snakes and more Aphrodite.