Leveling up, resting, buffing up, gathering salt, and starting the wights working - with a few breaks to empty my jugs - took an entire day.

Settling back into my hotel room, I fire up my chained vpn, and check my the email account I setup to talk to my attackers. I have six emails waiting. One is the obligatory welcome email that comes with any email service, two are porn ads, one is for discount medicine of questionable quality, one is "from a Nigerian Prince," and one that I actually open. The title? "Titans cannot walk the Earth" - and the 'from' email address is very obviously randomized. Just like I'm doing. I run a virus scan on it, and open the mail, declining the pop-up about sending a read receipt. The contents?

"There are many names for what you have consumed. It comes in many forms and has many names - the elixir of life, Iðunn's apples, the peaches of immortality... I am fond of the Greek spin, Ambrosia. In the end, they all do the same thing: Skew you out of line of mortality, and give you a grip in the realm of myth and legend. You gain the Power of Myth. The form of it is based on the myths and legends that most resonate with you, those you most identify with."

Ah, so that's why I'm living my character. I have spent months deeply immersed in the game, closely identifying with my toon, actively getting into the mindset and mulling over what to do with those powers in many different situations. And then I got dosed with super juice.  We are going to need to track down that bar owner, I think… although I suppose I don't exactly need the recipe, as I can just induct people now with that 8th level ability I picked up.

"You are not the first to partake. Our oldest records go back to pre-civilization Greece, with the Titans. They were a band of giant, murderous scumbags who killed people for laughs and took whatever or whoever they wanted by force.

"A brave band of souls fought them, won … and twelve of their number partook of the ambrosia. You have likely heard some of their names: Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Ares, Apollo, Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, and Zeus, as they came to be called. At the best of times they were hedonistic, petty, and self-serving. At the worst of times, they would hold competitions to see who could cause mortals to die of sheer despair.

"Prometheus managed to steal a recipe for Ambrosia, and was caught… after he passed it off to the founder of our order. We figured out how to manipulate it. We raised a little girl on legends of a beautiful half-deer woman whose blood was so deadly poisonous it could kill even the Olympians. When she grew up, we fed her the ambrosia… and she became the Golden Hind. We mixed her blood with the wine at a feast for the Olympians… and were finally free.

"But the Olympians were not the only ones. The Aztec pantheon was particularly bloody, the Hindus let Shiva run wild, the Norse group was always up for an entertaining war, and so on.  We took what we learned and, in time, freed all who suffered under the rule of those with the Power of Myth.

"But knowledge cannot be exterminated. And in small doses, the Power of Myth is useful. A coven of witches who can divine anything when they work together, but cannot stop a sword swing? They're not going to raise Mount Olympus again.  Those girls out in the Louisiana swamps are fine. A man who can turn into a coyote? Terrifying to most, but meat for the grinder in the face of a single trained and armed soldier. We leave the redskins alone.

“We want humanity to rule itself.  One with a light version of the Power of Myth that stays out of the limelight?  They’re fine, we’ve got no problems with them.  Those who dip into politics, make shows of their power, or could topple governments on a whim?  Those we end.  

"So get registered. Demonstrate you're harmless. If hiding from sight and healing is all you can do… you have nothing to fear from us, as long as you keep quiet, don't rock the boat, and pitch in when an actual threat arises. Come meet us, we'll have the witches clear you, and you can be on your merry way. We’ll back off for a week, let you decide to come to us and play ball like every survivor does.

"Or don't. Either way, we will win in the end. We took down Zeus, Odin, Quetzalcoatl, and many, many others.  THE TITANS WILL NOT RISE AGAIN."

It doesn’t include an address - just a set of GPS coordinates for a spot out in the middle of some swampland.

I look the spot up on an online mapping site: OK, there's a hillock there, so at least it's a dry spot. Not that I'm going to go, mind. Healing and hiding isn't all I can do, it's all I choose to do. Which I'm sure they've already figured out from the times my actions have made the news. Ultimately, my abilities are exactly what they fear. Yes, I could topple a government on a whim: All I'd need to do is start using mind control. Bobbie could pull it off too, although not as easily. Adam… could probably chew through most armies in an open conflict, and that was before I buffed him up. Dan… I just gave him the power to pull it off, he could do it nearly as easily as Bobbie.  Even Emily could replace the President quite easily thanks to me.

…

Great. Just great. Law of Unintended Consequences. Well, I should at least let them know… I send Adam, Bobbie, Dan, and Emily the same message: 《Just got a disturbing email. Looks like we all have targets on our backs from some anti-supernatural organization. Please try not to draw attention, and check in daily.》I also read it to them, and inquire, 《Any thoughts on how we should proceed?》

Adam goes for a straightforward approach:《Let’s just get them first. We know where at least one of them is going to be. Nab him for questioning, use him to find more, and dismantle the whole shebang.》

Bobbie is a bit more subtle:《We need more information. Scout the place out, keep tabs on folks with scrying, figure out their limitations, and then act based on what we find.》

Emily just wants to run and hide:《So… let's all go to Dan’s new place. I wouldn't mind retiring to a beach with You, my goddess.》

Dan? He's keen on distractions today:《Turn everyone to Your light, my goddess.  With Your power, You could make clerics of everyone, and then they'll be unable to suppress anything due to everyone having the power.》

Which… leaves me as a tiebreaker.  Yay. I should get everyone in the same room to discuss this. And my place has more room. So I message everyone again: 《Meet up at Dan’s apartment? I can Plane Shift us all to my Divine Realm, and we can discuss things there without worrying about being overheard. I'll even toss in a Mage's Private Sanctum spell to be sure.》

Everyone seems agreeable, so I head to Dan’s (Greater Teleport is nice), and wait for everyone to arrive. When they do, we all join hands and I Plane Shift to my Divine Realm.  WhereI promptly drop a Mage's Private Sanctum spell over us. Natively dismissable, so I can do it as a Swift.

"So," I address everyone, "We've all got targets on our backs. How do we want to handle it?"

After much bickering, we eventually settle on a hybrid plan.

I add a few things to everyone's buffs: All five versions of Energy Immunity, Spell Resistance (forever, this time; in the interests of protecting them as much as possible, I use Spell Enhancer and my spontaneous cast that gives a better caster level… unfortunately, that means I can't add the metamagic that makes it dismissable… but anyone other than me or themselves attempting to land a spell on them will need to make a DC 26 check, which means strong or specialized casters only), True Seeing, and Spawn Screen.  

Adam will shapechange into someone that can pass as a Carla, and up meet up with them (I'll lend him an Invisibility spell); if anything goes wrong, he'll take point. He's comfortable in the thick of it, it’s how he's built. I'll also provide him with a few dozen healing and stealth potions of various natures, so he can honestly say he has the capacity to heal folks and go invisible - and demonstrate, if need be.

Dan will stay here, keeping his rings on hand for a Wish-transport extraction. He'll be constantly chatting telepathically with me, to make sure I’m not compromised. His rings resolve at a caster level of 22, so SR 26 is just a speedbump for him - he only needs a 4 on the d20 roll,  so an 85% chance, and he'll have six tries available, any of which can grab everyone.

I have overwatch, primarily because I am our telepathy hub. I'll be sitting in the sky, looking down on the action and directing folks where they need to go.

Bobbie and Emily are reserve units. I'll Oracle up Emily the same as I did Dan, and Dan will give her all the build help she needs, with the assumption of unlimited bonus feats from me. We'll also be coaching Emily on what to do. She's never been to a game session before.

We plan to do this a full day before the deadline, which gives us time to prepare… and for me to collect my Keyhomes.

So we spend a few days buffing up, and giving Emily a crash course in how to play. Which is actually kind of fun, as we're crowded around a table with Dan for hours on end, just like old times.

Of course, time marches on, and the day rolls around… and few plans survive contact with the enemy.