Picking up the Pieces (2/19/22)

I do not believe I have ever felt myself so close to death than that, whatever we unleashed by grabbing Tessa should have killed us. About 10 days had passed when I came back with Igor tending to the wounds of our group. We took a few days to explore our new home, As Ameena and Igor were the first to wake up, they had first dibs on rooms, so I suppose it isn't a surprise that Ameena claimed the master bedroom. Igor decided to claim the small courtyard on the side of the house. I myself decided to claim the farthest bedroom that overlooks the Seer pool. I of course want a good view but don't want to be too close to he entrance for when the fortress inevitably gets invaded. The group gets to work on cleaning up the fortress of Olympus, which has been left in shambles. Igor uses his powers to mend the damage done as well, making cleaning up a lot easier. We gathered the group to discuss the question of leadership once more, who should be the king and queen of Olympus? Naturally I briefly considered taking the throne myself, but I decided against it, it would be better to remain cautious. Skyla and Desdemona, however felt that the "crown" should belong to them, apparently the rest of the group had the same idea, none of us contested them taking the throne, but none of us would pledge fealty either. They, or rather all of us, would need to prove that we have what it takes to be our leader.
 
After about 4 more days had passed, Skyla and Ameena spotted strange visitors approaching us, all of us but Igor came to greet them. Apparently they were Fae from the summer court, a woman named Jill and a green skinned woman named El, who was Jill's assistant. Of course, Skyla and myself invited them in for tea, and we brought them to the dining room upstairs. But not before having a small conversation with the Fae, Jill apparently found it quite interesting that we had a winter Fae in our group, finding it even more interesting that Desdemona knew nothing of her heritage. It was at that point that Igor followed us up, he tried to help me and Skyla make the tea the British way, but he mostly just got in the way than anything else. Finally we got to discussing things with our Fae visitors, knowing what I do about the Fae, I attempted to remain a little more tactful in my introductions to them, Ameena explained that we were under the mind control of Hydra which led us to Olympus, I explained generically that the magic of Olympus had freed our minds, after all I would rather not reveal more information than I needed to. Unfortunately my tact went wasted, as Bullwinkle blatantly displayed Tessa, which easily captured the Fae's attention, the group unwisely showed off our magic items to the Fae, great, in the process clearly proving how naive our groups is, great we have made ourselves targets. Apparently Igor's real name is actually Bullwinkle, and he gave out "friendship bracelets" made of flowered he had collected, I definitely did not ask for one myself.
 
The summer Fae reveal to us what has been happening back on Earth, it is apparent that whatever we unleashed that nearly killed me, wrecked havoc on the entire world for a single week, this "nether storm" unleashed many monsters upon the world, untold amounts of chaos and destruction, and many people were forced to hide in a terrible week of darkness. With the help of the Seer pool we could at least tell that those Hydra bastards were utterly destroyed by what we unleashed, while they were waiting for us to leave Olympus. Of course, we decided it was better to admit it was Hydra that unleashed the horror upon the Earth, which technically was true, for we were under their control.
 
We then decided to give the summer Fae a tour of our home, which while still not in the best shape was admittedly looking a lot better than it was when we found it. I of course made sure that we didn't show them the secret areas of Olympus. When we showed Jill the lab/workshop she offered her brother Shill, apparently an excellent alchemist, to offer his services to us. I of course said he was welcome come and join us, after all, I would like to start learning about the mechanisms of dimensional travel. However it was then that the Fae of the winter court arrived, Scotty and Pippy. We also let them come in, gave rather the same information to them we did the Summer Fae, the winter Fae were most interested in Desdemona though. Both courts apparently used to have alliances with the Olympians, who, judging by the state of the fortress when we found it, I would say they are likely dead. Regardless both courts were interested in potentially forming alliances with us, but that we would need to meet their queens.
 
We decided to meet the summer queen first, Jill lead us through the forest to a very large tree, inside was a mirror, which I could sense was a Fader device, how intriguing. With that we were brought to the Summer Fae realm, I admit it was quite beautiful, but it was obvious that we were being watched, Jill warned us to not veer of the path, we of course complied. We were led to a castle made of natural materials, where Jill then handed us off to another Fae named Nissa, apparently Jill's boss. Nissa warned us not to touch anything in the castle. Which we agreed to. Finally we were greeted to the queen, for which we all bowed to. The Queen Titania introduced us to her daughter Aurora, which I will admit was quite beautiful, and some knight named Obryn Silverleaf. We again introduce ourselves, this time to Queen Titania, though we decided to keep this introduction rather brief. El then gave the queen her verdict on our group, and as expected, we looked like bumbling fools that needed help, so the Queen put El in our service, so that she could keep an eye on our group. She would be our Emissary to the Summer Court. Though we would not have a formal alliance, I showed the queen the respect she deserved for her decision. Queen Titania then told us something about stoking the flames of rebellion in Italy against Mussolini. Apparently Hydra was working their way to attacking Ameena's father, some British Indian general currently in Africa. With that Nissa escorted us back out before Jill took us back in her care. Jill, as promised brought her brother Shill to provide his services as an alchemist.
 
Our next appoint to make was with the Winter Court. Which was terribly frigid, I was shivering terribly, I have never been a fan of ice and snow. So one of the Fae cast magic on me to protect me from the cold. In the Winter Fae realm, all we could see was ice and snow, and hear the howling of wolves, this place is absolutely dreadful. At least I don't feel the cold right now. They again warn us to stay on the path... I am sensing a pattern here. We are lead to a castle of ice, which I admit is breathtaking. We were greeted by a winter Fae at the gates named Ilsa. She embraced Desdemona before once again warning us not to touch anything... I get it. We were brought to the ice queen, who demanded Desdemona pledge fealty to her, which Desdemona agreed to, so much for Desdemona being queen. The queen made Desdemona a knight, granting her her gift, creating some impressive looking ice armor to boot. The Ice queen asked us for help, we were supposed to find Valhalla for her. She also offered a formal alliance with us, thanks to Desdemona. But we would still need to prove our worth.
 
With that we went back to Olympus, to discuss our options, we could go save the tiger, Ameena's father, or head back into the frigid cold. We decided rescuing the tiger seemed the most pressing, and took a trip to Italy first. As I was entrusted the key to Olympus I made sure to take the door with us. Skyla was able to lead us in the right direction so we went to Sicily. We started exploring the city, I decided to start by asking for directions with the help of Bullwinkle and the help of our new Summer Fae Emissary. However we eventually ran into a blockade by Mussolini, but I managed to make a teleportation gate that let us easily bypass it. Finally we found Antonio being held in some catholic church. We put on commoner cloths (I would much rather be wearing a suit), I also decided to conceal a weapon, just in case. I sat on one of the Pews and started exploring the church, we determined that Antonio was in the basement and I found him being watched by two very strange looking mobsters. Skyla used her abilities to link us all telepathically, making communication much easier. I informed the party that I found Antonio in the basement, all the while Bullwinkle was apparently healing the sick and injured when he noticed a man that looked like a mouse, and a weird dog man. We also found them going downstairs.
 
I led our group downstairs, and decided to play this out diplomatically, I explained to them the situation, that we went to Olympus and had our minds freed. They wanted us to prove it, but Skyla grabbed the mouse's arm to see if he was someone we could trust, she told us that they were, so I opened the gate to Olympus so that Skyla could grab Tessa so we could free the tiger, but all the same I made sure to watch the entrance, I still wasn't so sure I could trust these Scions. With the return of Tessa, she was able to convince them, and they allowed us to use Tessa on Tony, freeing his mind. Finally they revealed to us who they were, They were "Agents of the Cross", hidden inside the Catholic church. They knew I killed Steve Rogers. I told them I was sorry for that, Like tony I was under the control of Hydra. They needed our help to put a stop to Mussolini, but we weren't sure where to start, we told them to contact us after they collected intel, and to contact us when they have something for us.
 
Next we were to head to Africa to find Ameena's father, but we had to get their first, Skyla forged some plane tickets for us, so that we could find General Shrike easier. Eventually Skyla pinpointed in him to be in Zambia. Once we arrived there I was quickly able to determine that we were being followed by commandos, Skyla, copying my skills, also noticed them, El Wood also seemed rather lucky, and noticed all of them following us, in total 8 people were following us. Skyla once again mentally linked us for easier communication. Bullwinkle had separated off, and I noticed a commando split off to follow him as well. I decided to avoid attention, as we wanted to confront our followers, we led them into an alley. Ameena noticed her boyfriend was the one leading their group and she called out to him, I felt someone stick a shotgun to my head and I heard a familiar voice telling me not to move, it was Dugan! I was rather joyed to hear a familiar voice, admittedly I wish it were under better circumstances, but I understood him perfectly, so I of course complied. I set my weapons on the ground, including my fancy spear. The commando met up with Bullwinkle and brought him back to our group. They asked us what we wanted, and Bullwinkle pulled out Tessa so that she could explain the situation, and they decided to take us to the general for him to decide what to do with us. On the trip over there, I of course spent the trip talking to Dugan, I told him all about what had happened (leaving out the more incriminating aspects), I told him of Olympus, both Fae worlds, how Tessa freed our minds, He was likely just trying to wrap his mind around the situation, he obviously wasn't sure if he could trust me yet, but I wasn't worried. Ameena went to talk to her father, when she came back out they briefed our whole team, apparently monsters had appeared in the swamps and were killing lots of people, we of course agreed to help, and they let us have access to their armory, I've always wanted a big sniper, so I took one, and a couple grenades.
 
We went on the hunt, these monsters were very strange looking indeed, and they were quite dangerous. However we were able to kill several of their patrols around their hive. Finally we made it to their hive, and it was one hell of a fight, Bullwinkle used his divine light to (I'm not sure if he is actually Jesus or not), which proved very effective against the monsters. I didn't want to take any chances so I went invisible, and teleported so they wouldn't know where I was. Desdemona proved herself to be rather terrifying, she dashed around the battlefield lobbing of heads as she went. The monsters looked like they really tore into our team, but they were no match for divine light. I myself popped the heads of a few of their snipers. El managed to find a magical axe in a log. After defeating the monsters we examined their hive, we found their larva, which looked absolutely disgusting! We made sure to kill them all.
 
Back in Olympus, to further continue my arcane studies, are started having the summer Fae Shill teach me about the Arcane. It is a world I would love to understand better. I am determined to understand how those magic mirrors work, after all, it would be nice to have my own private pocket dimension that I could access easily enough.