Recap Session 25: "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"

Confused? Lost track of what's going on and who's fighting whom? Too many things to keep in mind?

Me, too. Welcome to Owl Cross...

OK, this was a really busy session, and trying to sound clever is making my head hurt, so I'll try to be brief:

The session started right after the last one ended:

• Hill is gathering influence and terrorists into Owl Cross, with two new organizations, the Red Hand and the Three Burning Embers wishing to join him.
  
  
• Powell is running Owl Cross, as Patrician (sort-of) but has many problems: he lost virtually half his business plan in one blow, his Traders and Nobles are shouting at him to take care of Hill, and the Station's systems are falling apart and no-one knows why (but do we know? We know!)
  
  
• Zeb is coming with his brother from near-war experience, the chips are starting to fall and light bulbs are lighting everywhere: the WDF, working on information from three different PCs (hey, I urge them to talk to each other) figured out the Theocracy are moving forces through the Black Wormgate in Oceania, into Eden, and out to Assyria through another Black Wormgate. Zeb, reading the invaluable (yet dully named) Khabir Khan File, figures out who Darkwaters is, and the shit is truly about to hit the fan...
  
  
• Rain and Anansi work hard to find the key; Rain wants to get into Celerity Greenway's office (she has a box; not a big box, and everybody knows the Key isn't in it, but he wants in anyways) but as soon as Anansi steps into the Grid, Fenris tries to kill him (Fenris? Here! What are the odds?) they fight, Anansi has the edge, at least until Morgana scrambles in a nano-second before the Red Queen (cue threatening music). This massive, shielded, AI is about to have Spider Kebab for lunch, but Morgana brings help and the Queen chooses to flee before the Cheshire arrives (is it because she's allergic to cats?)
  
  
• While this is happening, Rain is elsewhere, being ambushed when trying to get one of five crew members of the Helcyon, the ship that dropped off the Key. He figures out something fishy is going on, but has no idea what - so he gets back to the Veil. Some good news, though: a shifty man called Maynard and his bitch, Relyon, wish to help with the Rain Clouds endeavor. Rain conscripts their help fighting the Theocracy: they are to find agents of the Theocracy, and figure out how to stop them.
  
  
• Anansi decides to do something else, and turns out to be smarter then anticipated: his clever Seeker sniffs out De Vinci, sitting and eating shrimps at the Zocalo. He brings De Vinci to the Veil, only to see Alan Shepherd, sporting a nasty bite scar on his left cheek, smiling and waving. Back the ship, Rain and Anansi fail to convince De Vinci to stay and help. He does, however, tells them everything he knows about the Key: how he created the Encoder/Decoder (the Gi helped, a little), how he found out the crystal the Key is made out of responds to Wormgates, and how he used that knowledge to create a Gate Detector, and then a Gate Changer. He claims the way to open the Third Face of the Key is to bring it to Eden, to the original Wormgate that taught him how to use the Key as...well... a key. He also tells Anansi, who boasts he will destroy the Key, that he probably won't: he too would want to open the elusive G351, the closed gate that was opened and closed with the same technology as the Key's by... someone else... (all this is starting to sound suspiciously like something that should have taken several session to uncover...)
  
  
• Emboldened, Rain goes out to find the remaining Helcyon crew members before they catch a bullet, and Anansi goes to create a Key detector. Half way through, Sunamoon, the Witch of Night's Hunting and Crossroads, pays him a visit, warning him that someone is trying to hurt him (this friendly advise, meant to help, would only hurt later on; but that's cause Sunamoon is by definition bad news...) Rain and his crew get to Anansi, and are attacked. Seraph dies, but the rest get back to the Veil, where Anansi operates the Key Detector to find the Key in the Morgue.
  
  
• Meanwhile....
  Hill is gathering support and supporters, and is virtually "King of All Terrorists" - this side of the Galaxy, anyways. Even Leah and Yehuda, of the former "Insane Terrorists Club", want in.
  Powell cuts a deal, and Celerity Greenway pays him 430,000,000,000 $OC (wow!). He sold something, we just don't know what...and frankly, he doesn't either. We also find out Johanna Banecraft no longer loves him, and pulled her Trust Fund for Rising Young Stars back from his control.
  Just make sure they remember each other, they keep causing each other troubles: the Station is constant unrest, with the terrorists coming to town and Powel apparently isn't doing anything, while all those terrorists are still trying to figure out what Hill's big plan is. All this energy and nothing to do is abound to cause trouble.
  
  
• Zeb gets into Owl Cross System, ahead of his brother and his fleet, and docks in Owl Cross with the Libby (oh, joy of joys!). The Theocracy invaded Jackson and soon Avalon System. Cyprus is up in arms, and Zeb gets the summon, informing his "brothers-in-arms" that his fighting the same enemy but elsewhere, which they think is very cool. Between Powell's mercenary legions, the Star Diamond of Avalon and the Cyprian troops, the full might of the South Wing needs to stop for a few hours to deals with things - this allows Simeon and his mighty fleet to enter the system and assume defensive positions around the Jockville/Owl-Cross Wormgate.
  
  
• Key location ascertained, our heroes spring into action... er, more action. Rain has Mirror, so Anansi goes and gets back-up, as well. Cheshire left to get help, we'll recall, and Morgana is still hiding on board, but the Cat gave Anansi the number of a couple of friends: Spirit of the Gaming doesn't want to help, though, but the Dodger, does. However, mindful of Sunamoon's warning, Anansi decides to ditch the dodgy decker, and go about it alone, ignoring the old Zelda adage.
  
  
• Our crafty politicians finally decide to do something, so first Yehuda dies, then the "Real Faithful" declare war on Hill and his organization, and finally Powell is having Hill and Zeb for a sit-down. Those of us with the gift of being in more then one place, knowing what Hill and Zeb know or suspect, wander at this. Could it be some clever ruse? Nope. Zeb and Hill are actually going to the meeting... On the way, "Faithful" attack Hill and his posse, prompting riots downtown, since everyone is certain Powell tried to kill their fearless leader. Vi going about saying Hill ain't coming back is not reassuring. But Hill survives, and gets to the meeting.
  
  
• Rain has still to solve the Helcyon crew members mystery: he gets nothing other then learning they were given five pages out of some tourist guide, told to make hats and see the sights. Not exactly a killing offense (well, at least not in most parts of the OC...) When Anansi tells Rain that the Key is moving, they decide to act. Rain and Mirror get on the Magline to the Main Dock of Owl-Cross, to intercept the Key. If Anansi wishes to help, he has to go into the Grid, so he takes a deep breath and dives in.
  
  
• At the Patrician's Palace, John St. John stays outside, and Hill, Saif, and Zeb go in. They are met by Karen, Powell's head of security, who refuses entry to Saif. Refusing to part with his survival insurance, Hill stays put and Zeb goes upstairs. Then the comm in the Palace crashes. Powell and Zeb have words in the Crescent Office, while Hill and Saif discuss things in the Lobby. She wishes to leave, he wishes to stay, she gets up to leave, and Karen comes back. Saif can't go in with Hill, so the meeting is postponed. Wishing to avoid the media's attention, Saif leads Hill the backdoor.
  
  
• On the way to the Main Dock, Rain speaks with Hill, requesting riots in the dock to delay whoever has the Key. Hill sends anonymous messages to his followers that SSF is moving his dead body to the Main Dock, and the Station's corridors, predictably, burn, and the SSF is pressuring Powell to let them use lethal force. Also, Maynard calls Rain to tell him he knows where Tzefa is, and that "his people" are ready to help Rain dispose of him. They set up a meet, which presumably Rain is going to get to, if he survives.
  
  
• Back on the Libby, the Circle Breakers are having lunch, when Hill tells them Zeb left. They don't believe him, and are forced to leave the Libby when Hill and Saif take it out.
  
  
• On the Grid, Anansi finds the Queen waiting for him, with the Big Bad Wolf. The Wolf attacks, the Spider bobs and weaves, cause he doesn't want to kill the Wolf, but has little alternatives, since the Wolf is pretty rabid. Finally the flaming diva burns a hole in the Wolf's thick hide, and Anansi sticks in the "Queen Black Heart" code he got from the Gi. The code kills Fenris, and Anansi then uses the code to stop the Queen in her place. He runs to the center, where he finds out what the Gi was doing: in the center of Owl-Cross's system is a chrysalis, with an evolving AI in it. Tending to it, is Sha Shi Chi An, the Nanny. Without thinking once, Anansi curls into a tight ball of flaming code, and jumps right in...

And now what?


What did Anansi do?

Where is Zeb? Will his minions come through, or is he lost for good?

Can Simeon and the WDF withstand the onslaught of the South Wing?

Are Hill and Saif really leaving? Will Galaxy Adams let them?

And what of Rain? And the Key? Is Tzefa really dead? Is the Patrician?


And will the enchanting, awful, dangerous, expensive, romantic, elusive and too damn big and complicated space-station we call "Owl-Cross" doomed, burned by greed, power-hunger, and all-consuming faith, or is there still a chance?


Anything can happen in the very last episode of this wonderful first season of "Owl Crossings"... where things can end before somebody sings... believe me, you don't want me to sing...