Most of the players who showed up to create characters last time have shown up to actually play: Chris (Fixer), Nick (Billy) and Bruce (Akkoth). Little Chris is sick, and cannot show up.
In addition to those Angels listed on the web page, there are two additional Angels in the Mojave Desert area:
There are only five Angels with Master rank in the area. Among these are William, an Ofanite Master of the Granite Hand who is the Angel of the Western Ideal. He is very fond of getting groups together to try new things. Because these new project have lately tended towards business ventures, he is on good terms with the Servitors of Marc, the Archangel of Trade. He and Zachary, a Malakim Friend of the Sages and Angel of Historians are the most powerful Celestials in the Barstow region.
The characters arrive in the Barstow region, dispatched there by their respective Superiors. Initially, the characters know little about each other. Billy is an Ofanim, accompanied by two redneck servants, Jimmy and Doc. He wears a big cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and rumpled shirt and pants. He is a bit unhinged, perhaps because he started out as a Reliever helping people in Appalachia. Akkoth is a Malakite, edgy just like most of that breed (Billy thinks of him as a madman). He is bald, and has browned, wrinked skin. He wears a wide-brimmed hat, a dusty leather jacket and khaki pants, with an aged satchel slung across his shoulder. His desire is to eventually become Angel of the Desert Heat. Fixer is a Mercurian who isn't sure what he looks like yet.
The characters introduce themselves to each other (though both Billy and Akkoth know each other from Heaven), then search out William, as the senior angel in the area. Fixer manages to locate him by talking to some cops who turn out to be his Soldiers.
William rides in from the edge of town on a huge motorcycle. He is built like an ox, with huge flowing blonde hair and a broad chest. He tells the characters that some of his Servitors at the DMV can fix them up with license plates, social security numbers and other details. He also urges them to use names that sound a bit more human (Akkoth decides to call himself Eric Akkoth). As a final warning, he tells the characters that there are demons active in the area. In particular, William has recently lost a lot of Soldiers around Newberry Springs, and suspects that a Baron of Factions is operating in that city. Hinckley is another known center of demonic activity.
William gives Fixer a business card bearing a huge array of phone, cellular, pager, fax, and other numbers. It appears that William has at least one PO Box in every notable settlement around Barstow, and feels the need to list them all.
As an Angel of Technology, Fixer is carrying the following items:
He resolves that he (and the other characters) will be self-reliant, which appears to impress William (who is, of course, the Angel of the Western Ideal). The other characters have much simpler equipment (though Billy has some firearms and a few sticks of dynamite).
After the characters finish their business with William and his Servitors, they head to the Barstow Police Department to check out the police blotter and find criminals to punish. Fixer is interested in finding criminals who are likely to have money that can be taken. Billy (whose two Servitors are both licensed bounty hunters) gets a printout of the four people who have recently jumped bail around Barstow:
There is a reasonable amount of detail on all of these folks, including known aliases and associates, known vehicles, and so on.
While Billy and "Eric" Akkoth think about hunting down the wife-beater, Fixer sneaks back into the police station to get some information.
Fixer uses the Ethereal Song of Form to turn invisible and sneak back into the police station. He notices that many of the police officers and one of the recently-arrested suspects turn to stare at him when he spends the Essence to disappear. He quickly realizes that they all were able to sense the disturbance he created in the Symphony by using the Song. Suspecting the nature of the one suspect, he attempts to divine the man's relationship to the others in the room, but fails to exercise his resonance.
After failing to learn anything about the suspect, Fixer slips into the office area, uses the Celestial Song of Form to take the face of a police officer he just saw leaving the building, and proceeds to take advantage of the man's computer. He quickly gets access to the Barstow crime database, but then decides to drop the plan because getting permanent access would take too much time and probably attract attention (due to the Essence use).
Billy and Akkoth drive over to Leonard Duval's house. The place is a dilapidated duplex with plastic sheeting over several windows. Akkoth knocks on the door, which is answered by Pam Greer (Leonard Duval's sister). Akkoth reads Pam's greatest virtue and sins, learning that she is intensely loyal to her friends and family, but that her worst sins are welfare fraud & adultery against her husband.
Akkoth demands to know where Leonard Duval is in a threatening monotone. Though Pam refuses to speak, Leonard shows up anyway and points a gun at Akkoth. Akkoth quickly reads Leonard's most recent three sins and virtuous acts, learning that while he did beat his wife, and steal $400 from his sister, and strike a neighbor's child, he also paid off his credit card, filled up his son's gas tank, and returned some mail that was delivered to him incorrectly. By the time Akkoth does this, Leonard has taken a shot at him. A brief fight breaks out, and Leonard is quickly captured.
The characters drive him out to the desert and beat him with a sack of oranges until he goes unconscious. Akkoth then heals him with the Corporeal Song of Healing. When Leonard regains consciousness, he blearily agrees to repent his sins and answer to the authorities. Billy, Akkoth and the rednecks drive him to the police station where the rednecks turn him in for $1000 reward money.
Some hours afterwards, the characters are driving from their hotel to a restaurant when Akkoth feels a disturbance in the Symphony in a nearby business. He yells out, "Stop the truck!" to Billy and rushes in. The place is a florist's, and has clearly seen some disturbances recently: a stand of flowers is knocked over, and the door to the back room is askew. As Akkoth waits, he hears a whimper and the sound of a gun being cocked emerge from the back room.
Akkoth walks into the back room, where he finds the mom & pop proprietors, obviously nervous and under duress. He has a strange and tense conversation with them, finally agreeing to go out into the store, pick out what he wants (probably filed under item #91), then hit one on the cash register and leave some money. He notices at least one shadowy figure behind some plants, and a few drops of blood on the ground. Akkoth walks out to the front of the door, then waits as Fixer and Billy move in.
Fixer turns invisible and looks for the gunman. He finds three of them, one of them with a hole in his shirt but no visible wounds. Billy and his Servitors hide around near the back door. A fight ensues, during which it quickly becomes obvious that the three gunmen are actually vampires: undead Servants of Hell. Akkoth kills one vampire in the front while Fixer and Billy deal with the undead in the back. Billy stuns most of the combatants in the back room with a quick Song of Thunder, and is struck in response with a Celestial Song of Light from the undead with a shotgun. Akkoth rushes onto the scene and throttles a second vampire to death. The third vampire, obviously unhappy at the way the fight is going, vanishes in a puff of smoke.
By the time the police show up, the characters flee out the back of the building.
Each character gains two character points.