If you're from Asheville, I just wanna let you know you guys rock. Unless you read what I spoiler here, or any further posts in this thread, in which case you suck. So move along, nothing to see.
Last week I ended the session with a cliffhanger. The PCs had just gotten out of a late-night meeting with a college professor who specializes in local folklore and is familiar with the Cherokee demons that have been causing trouble lately. Of course, he is so familiar with them because he is summoning them, trying to scare the uppity local paranet back into the shadows. After they left, an unkindness of Raven Mockers attacked them in the parking lot of his university. Since his goal is just to scare them, he planned to wait until he heard sufficient chaos outside, then he would leave his office, use a prepared potion (in the form of specially treated pipe tobacco) to create a smoke screen for their escape, and then do the classic "Don't worry about me! Just get out of here, I'll handle this!"
Of course he could. He was just going to dismiss them.
However, his plan crumbled in seconds when one of the PCs (a sneaky wereraven) flew over to where he was standing. Two of the PCs in the van refused to leave without the wereraven, and grabbed the wheel from another pc until she relented (yay for good self-compels). So they pulled the van around, rolled down the window, and let the wereraven inside. On impulse, they also grabbed the professor and threw him in the van.
They assumed the look of sheer horror on his face was for other, more obvious reasons.
The raven mockers found the van through the smoke screen, landed on it, and started breaking windows. The professor, now in just as much danger as they were and unable to dismiss the Raven Mockers without tipping his hand, started understandably freaking out. It's also worth noting that our magically active PCs were not present at the moment.
"Do something! You have magic!"
"Not that kind of magic! I can only do rituals!"
"Do a ritual then!"
"Oh yes, because it's just that easy! If I had a circle, it'd at least be something to work with!"
"What kind of circle? Like a tire? The van has tires! Oh! I have a magic ring!"
"That would be great for trapping magic earthworms."
"So it needs to be bigger? How about the concrete island? OH! We could do a doughnut with the van!"
That one hit me like a cold bucket of water on a hot day. It was that unexpected and refreshing. I should mention the PC who came up with that idea has actually read none of the books, yet that is totally a Harry Dresden thing to do.
So they cut it into doughnut, andhe professor jumped out, waited until the Raven Mockers were all over the van, then empowered the burnt rubber circle. The Raven Mockers all screamed and evaporated into ectoplasm, just like Binder's minions.
I had to share this scene because it was so awesome and unexpected. Not only did they deal with the threat in a clever manner that totally blew my mind and fit in with the books, they also accidentally made the villain I was worried may be looking a little suspicious to look like he was completely on their side, just by grabbing him and throwing him into a van with them.
