Session One: During a pleasant dinner at New Hawkinsburg's finest Italian restaurant, our heros find themselves embroiled in a gunfight against four gangsters. Despite being severely underarmed and taking any number of rounds in the Chorister's chest, our heros carry the day, due in large part to Noah's precision shooting (with assorted cameo appearances by the Buddy Christ and various Native American Deities of note). As the last gangster falls, our heros, panicking, flee for their lives, piling into ex-priest Jason Stallwick's station wagon and heading for the abandoned church shared by the cabal and their vampire roommate, Count Notappearinginthispicture. Assuming the worst now over, Noah seperates from our heros (her player had to leave early), and everyone beds down for an otherwise uneventful night. The next day, Alistair the amnesiac hippie cultist gets it into his head to ask John Walking-Pine for his help in securing a katana, which Alistair had just remembered was always a long-time goal of his. And so the Raven spirit was summoned, asked politely for his aid, bargained with, and eventually dismissed. Another productive day through, the cabal beds down after calling in influence to try and cover up the previous evening's altercation in the restaurant. However, as they learned in the FBI's dawn raid the next morning, all was not well, and Jason Stallwick was carted off in a federal convoy to be detained, a result of forensic analysts analyzing the one bullet he'd fired (and missed) in the restaurant. On the way, Jason calls down the wrath of God, causing a severe traffic accident and getting free, only to find himself being chased down by one very angry federal agent, one Tobias Witherspoon of the FBI. Fleeing into the subway, Jason only escape the wrath of Fed thanks to Raven's intercession in the form of a Native American man "accidentally" colliding with Witherspoon on the platform. Fleeing further, Jason finds himself surrounded on a cliff overlooking the sea, and, rather than be captured, he jumps into the sea, only to be caught and borne away by a pair of ravens. Days pass and the cabal grows paranoid of the FBI and Noah's continued absence. The paranoia and terror only escalates when Jason is abducted, Alistair steps into a Paradox Realm, and John Walking-Pine Dreams of the crucifiction.
Session Two: As dawn breaks several days later, the FBI raids the church serving as headquarters for our heroes. Confused, they try to surrender, only to find that the agents raiding the church have orders not to capture, but rather to kill. Falling back within the church, a firefight ensues, broken briefly by the appearance of the prodigal cultist Alistair, Father Stallwick falling under a hail of gunfire, and the rise of a "make machines break" field surrounding the area. Their technological advantage thus shattered, the FBI, led by Tobias Witherspoon (now revealed as a Technocrat agent), beats a hasty retreat. Afterward, Alistair reveals that it was he who had betrayed them to the FBI, agreeing to testify to Stallwick's running a cult out of the church in return for legal immunity. Walking Pine storms out angrily and walks until he find himself along Umbral Interstate 666, a plot device roadway with correspondance 10, allowing it to run literally everywhere. After an enlightening conversation with the enigmatic Ezekial Reed, an old man walking along the roadway, Walking Pine returns to the chantry to tell Alistair that he does not intend to forgive him, and will keep a close eye on him. The session closes as Jason Stallwick suffers a bullet-induced crisis of faith, taps a wellspring on his node, and stumbles in amazement as the pure, holy Quintessence flowing from the node becomes black with corruption.
Session Three: A group of Inquisitors arrives at the church to take Stallwick into custody for a later heresy trial. Noah and her newly arrived ally, the monsterous Demosthenes, attack the Inquisitors while Alistair bests their leader in single combat, decapitating the priest. John Walking Pine, in an uncharacteristic burst of greed, claims the priest's sword, a jet-black weapon with the amusing habit of absorbing magical energy thrown at it, as his own.
Session Four
: John Walking Pine and Alistair decide to tolerate each other for the time being as John offers Alistair a sword to replace the weapon Alistair lost in the previous battle. This sword, however, is magical, intelligent, and speaks at the most annoying times, providing hours of comic relief with such lines as "I'm a moonblade!" and "Hot Buttah!!!" The cabal is invited to dinner at the villa of one Jacob Carver, legendary Chorister and former partner of the late Brandon Dilet, who was killed by Alistair when he attempted to abduct Jason Stallwick. Carver and his group of fanatically loyal priests makes it clear that if the church is placed in harm's way again, it will be repossessed, and the two groups part on less than amiable terms. The cabal makes their way back to find their church occupied by a trio of werewolves and a furious battle ensues. Three dead wolves later, further properties of John Walking Pine's mysterious black sword are revealed as it possesses John's mind and compels him to attempt to kill the others. Fighting the sword's urging out of their heads, the two, thiinking quickly, open a portal to the Deep Umbra, throwing the sword in. Unfortunately, the portal expands to suck Alistair in as well. Trapped in the Deep Umbra, Alistair uses the sword and another amusing application of it's powers to rip a hole back to the real world. An unfortunate side effect of this hole is a brand new splotch of red, resembling a star, across the Umbral Sky.
Session Five
: Seeking information about the Red Star and their newfound black sword (and, in Alistair's case, a fast and easy route to Time 5), the cabal piles into (or on top of) Stallwick's station wagon and heads for umbral route 666, taking that until they reach Horizon, accompanied by a constant chorus of "Are we there yet?" from the sentient katana. Arriving, the Cabal splits up, Alistair goes to speak to the Council of Nine (who are busy). Skyye, a cultist from Alistair's club, goes to play in the Chorister ball pit. Walking-Pine goes to speak to the Dreamspeakers and find information on the black sword or red star (and comes up empty). Demosthenes the monstrosity asks a passing Etherite to patch his mechanical parts up, and comes out with his operating system upgraded to NaziWindows 95, while Jason Stallwick wanders into the Euthanatos section of Concordia, and is promptly distracted by a lack of shiny things. Alistair soon gives up on trying to get in to see the Cultist Councilor (Annabelle Vinichus, a bored woman who doesn't see much of anyone these days), and the Cabal meets up in the city's center to discuss their next move, which turns out to be selling the black sword off to one Abi Dhalzim, collector of fine artifacts since 1893. Black sword off their hands, all but Alistair leave, Alistair stays behind to study Time.
Back in the city, the cabal defends their node from various mooks again before checking their mail and finding a dinner invitation to the mansion of one Samuel Hacksworth, who is gathering mages together to discuss the Red Star. This discussion swiftly devolves into an argument, which is broken up by the arrival of Tobias Witherspoon, with HIT Marks and FBI in tow. A firefight erupts, several HIT Marks explode, and the mansion (with Witherspoon) is destroyed by a railgun in the sky. The cabal escapes. Somehow. Then they go back to horizon to hide out.
Session Six
: In Horizon, Demosthenes buys back the Black Sword of DOOM and tosses it in a lake in Canada for safekeeping. Unfortunately, he is then confiscated by a Technocrat Quick Response Team, foreshadowing the holy flaming hell which rained on Horizon moments later. In the ensuing confusion, all the characters are captured, finding themselves in a Technocratic prison. A breakout is staged, during which Jason Stallwick jumps into Hell #368 and leaves the group more or less permanently. The rest of the cabal hightails it to the Russian border, only to find themselves trapped in Russia. End result: KGB intervention, a rescue from Baba Yaga, an unnoticed cameo by Tobias Witherspoon's personnel file, and a slew of Russia jokes and bad Slavic accents.
