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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: mroehler on April 19, 2010, 07:31:27 AM
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The other day the remnant of my gaming group, myself and two others, embarked on the first step of our DFRPG campaign, rolling up characters and a city. We live in St. Louis, but let's face it, that's a boring city and would just come off as Chicago-Lite. So instead, New Orleans. We ended up giving NO the three main aspects of Devastation's Wake, Voodoo, and Let It Slide.
The first of the two characters are a War Vet Warden named John Whitfield, specializing in Air Magic and Wards (although I suspect this might change to a more Evocation-based caster), with the trouble Haunted By His Past. He was the former apprentice of Morgan, and is rattled by the constant violence he's exposed to, in both of his careers as a soldier in Desert Storm and a Warden. Other aspects include Rebellious Heir of the Whitfields (his upper-class WASP family), Fights for the Little Guy, Summer Hatin' and Band of Brothers. Superb Lore, Great Conviction, Discipline, and Resources. Sadly, does not have a Warden sword, bu the does favor a semi-automatic rifle.
The second character is a little outside the archetypes, with the high concept Unkneeling Coinbearer. Temperance Smith's story is that she killed a Denarian and picked up the blackened coin without fully realizing what it was; now she uses the powers of the coin to turn into a scorpion monster and fight against all the tyranny in the world. Trouble is "They're Out to Get Me; other aspects are Daddy's Paramilitary Princess, Strength Through Adversity, Whispers in the Dark, and "Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives." Her powers are Inhuman Strength, Claws, and Superhuman Toughness while in her Monstrous Scorpion form, with two Mortal Stunts, one increasing her ability to take Social Consequences, the other boosting her ability to use Demolition explosives. Great skills are Discipline, Fists, and Alertness.
I added in a third character, an NPC, but the guy I would be playing if I could, Jack Ellis (based off the incomparable Jack Burton of Big Trouble in Little China fame). A Pure Mortal with the High Aspect of Unwitting Sidekick, and the trouble In Way Over His Head. Works as a car mechanic, and while we were fleshing out New Orleans, we discovered that he also created and leads the citizen's vigilante group called the Privateers.
So with character creation done, we decided to start the first adventure with a fight scene. As the PCs were leaving the Speakeasy, Accorded Neutral Ground, an old sedan pulled up to the parking lot where John parked his classic Rolls-Royce (Temper just rides a bicycle), and out steps two Red Court Vampires. The Red Court has a significant presence in New Orleans, with two separate factions vying for control of the city. Interestingly, in my world, the Wizards have arranged a cease-fire with the vampires after significant losses on both sides. While it's a very uneasy peace, no one expected two vamps with Uzis to start trying to gun down NO's only Wizard. And the fight was on.
Temper used maneuvers to get cover immediately, while Whitfield stood out in the open and tried to Hex their submachine guns. Damn, those rules are incredibly complicated. We read the rules for a little bit, before we just decided to use an Evocation spell as a maneuver to put the Jammed tag on their guns. Anyways, however we did, one of their guns jammed, so that vampire moved in to melee. Temperance and the other vampire continued to exchange gunfire rather ineffectually. Whitfield used Thaumaturgy to create an instant Ward against the vampire attacking him (which you can't do). Then we had a few more rounds where the they were all attacking, Temperance using her pistol, the vampires using a combination of guns and claws. Then the Warden called down an Evocation to fry a vampire with Lightning, inflicting 8 Physical Stress on Mr. Vampire (ouch)!
Here's where I screwed up. He had already taken a gut shot courtesy of Temper (a moderate Consequence, among other things); I should have just Taken Him Out. Unfortunately, I just gave him the Severe Consequence Extra Crispy, and he continued to fight. It took three or four more rounds of combat to kill the now berserk vamp, while the other one drove away after he saw which way the fight was going. The PCs picked up a Mild Consequence each, and the Warden got a Moderate Physical One, Cracked Ribs IIRC. As the GM, it was my job to take out the nameless schmuck when it was dramatically appropriate, instead of just laying down condition after condition.
So now the question if why the RC vamps would risk violating the cease fire, and figure out what's going on. I'm still having trouble figuring out when to give Fate Points to my PCs as well; in retrospect, I should have handed one to the Warden when the vamps came gunning for him, right?
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So is Temperance's Denarian letting her use it's powers to corrupt her enough to take her over completely?
For the Fate Points, my suggestion would be to reread the Aspects chapter. I probably would have given a compel to the Wizard when the RC came a gunning.
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I would have given the warden a fate point, but it wasn't strictly necessary in that circumstance. You give a fate point to a player whenever you compel one of their aspects to make life more difficult for them (or when a player self-compels). You should generally try to put the characters in situations where you can get some interesting compels on them, so that their fate points don't run out too quickly. Just remember, a player can refuse a compel by paying a fate point, so don't treat compels as a way to push the PCs onto a pre-built plot path.
So, to get back to the scenario with the RC vamps attacking the wizard: I'd give the wizard a compel (with the attendant fate point) on his high concept aspect, because the Vamps attacked him for being the cities warden (and I'd pray that the player doesn't refuse it, because it would be a pretty boring campaign if the warden got to go home in peace and do nothing). Then I'd compel Temperance's They're out to get me aspect to give her a fate point if she jumped into the fight because she falsely believed the vamps were gunning for her.
As to the problem of how many consequences you let the NPC's take: It is generally a good idea to let the number of consequences they take be proportional to how large of a role they play in the story. So for unnamed characters, you let them take a minor consequence at most, and the have them taken out or concede (which would be running away in this instance) once they take stress beyond their boxes. For named characters that aren't central to the story, have only able to take a moderate and a minor consequence before needing to concede or be taken out. Then when your characters face down one of the Big Bads or one of the top lieutenants, you can make the NPC take whatever consequences he can to stay in the fight and try to beat the heroes.
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i totally agree with the above posters idea on how many consequences to give opponents. Also if your having trouble with compels tell your players how they work and let them try to keep track of when they do stuff "in character" that causes them problems i tried that in my first session and its worked so far.
Also
"Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives."
Thats a tf2 quote right? lol ;D
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So is Temperance's Denarian letting her use it's powers to corrupt her enough to take her over completely?
Probably.
However, Denarians supposedly thrive on suffering and fear. A campaign to explode or otherwise kill monsters - especially monsters that tend to attach themselves to high places in mortal society, like Red and White vamps - might further its aims as a byproduct. It might not have to do anything besides nudge a bit more towards paranoia and violence.
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The end of the fight was prolonged for more reasons than just consequences dragging it out though. First of all, Whitfield wasn't carrying a gun, and didn't have fists or weapons. He took some backlash as mental stress (and took a minor physical consequence early), so his evocation juice ran out swiftly. He wasn't packing heat and had neither weapons or fists, so he had no attacks at the end. I had some bad defense rolls, so I was burning the free tags from John's maneuvers and the vampire's consequences to boost dodges instead of improving a hit by 2 more damage.
Also, Temper didn't turn into a horrible scorpion-person-thing that had +4 Weapon 3 attacks and Armor 2. That would have done damage faster, and let me save free tags for offense since Supernatural Toughness would have meant less need to dodge. Maybe not using her powers to avoid corruption and dependency would have been worth a Compel?
Finally, I'm kind of glad the fight went like that. I was pretty worried about taking any consequence besides mild. It was enlightening to see exactly how tough someone could be when going all out. I wouldn't want every enemy to fight like that, but it was good to learn how of a difference it could make. You can get a lot of variation in enemy threat from the same stat block just from increasing their willingness to concede or take consequences. It'd kind of suck to be used to fighting 'wimpy' vampires who get taken out easily and then caught off guard by how damage they can potentially take later.
Thats a tf2 quote right? lol
I think it was in Homestar Runner first.
Then I'd compel Temperance's They're out to get me aspect to give her a fate point if she jumped into the fight because she falsely believed the vamps were gunning for her.
We generally play very team focused games, and our characters had worked together in a few background stories, so I had her jump in without any prompting. Besides, I'd figure that a Compel of that aspect might involve her taking cover from the wizard AND the vampires, since he 'obviously' set her up... A compel for a fairly combative character to help an ally in a fight seems pretty weak.
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I'm not much help for gaming mechanics, but let me know if you need local advice on anything for the setting. :)
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"Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives."
Win.
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Hey, expert local knowledge on the city is always appreciated :)
We had our first real session of DFRPG today, again with John Whitfield the War Vet Warden and Temperance Smith the Unkneeling Coinbearer. Having survived the attempted hit by the Red Court, the duo got the hell out of Dodge, speeding away in the shot up classic Rolls Royce. They called their buddy Jack Ellis for some help to run the license plate number of the car that the vamp drove away in; he also agreed to help fix up the Rolls Royce. In return, he offers them a pickup truck that's older than Temper and John's ages put together, saying he doesn't trust them with anything nicer. Everyone starts to recover from their Consequences. John calls his old mentor Donald Morgan, warning that the vamps may be on the offensive, and urged caution. Morgan just told him to try not to restart the Wizard/Vamp war.
Meanwhile, Temper returns to her home, gets some sleep, and gets a job from a couple to hook their home with water, gas, electricity, etc. after FEMA rescheduled their activities, giving help to a different neighborhood. Here's where we fill in Temper's final missing Aspect, Stick It To The Man, throwing her a FP, and causing her to investigate. The Vampire Hit started the A Plot, here's the B Plot. She does some digging, meets with a plumber, and finds that the entire neighborhood has been skipped over. Posing as a reporter, she learns that the reassignment of personnel was by the order of Simon Walters (High Concept: Scheming Greedy FEMA SOB, Face of Legacy of Corruption), the head of the FEMA-led reconstruction efforts in New Orleans. She then met up with John for breakfast, and they ate at a Waffle House (for some reason?).
The group then tracked down Maya Stephenson, famous author of the bestselling vampire novels (and the leader of one of the factions of the RC in NO) to her loft apartment in the Warehouse district. Temper waited outside, not wanting to reveal her face to the vamps; John was admitted entry after agreeing not to start any trouble. Her bodyguard was some goth-looking poser with a trenchcoat, sunglasses, and a katana (Damocles lives again!). She offered him some coffee, which he accepted (I thought about having it laced with vamp spit), then she apologized for the attack against him, saying they acted without any consent from her or the RC. Evidently a vampire had been killed by an entropy curse, and some vamps blamed the local wizard; she then told him that he needed to investigate the affair, or else THEY would (and the Council would have no cause to complain). The two interacted for a little bit, and she used Rapport to reveal one of her aspects: Hates the Count (the other big RC vampire leader in NO). In retrospect, this really should have been a full blown social conflict. Oh Well. John left thinking that the Count had something to do with the assault, among other things.
Meanwhile, Temper noticed a man taking pictures of the building from a window across the street. I threw a FP at her to compel Paranoid, suggesting that she get rid of that camera. She climbed up to the roof, broke into the building, and tried to confront the photographer. She failed Stealth, and the PI, one Vince, ended up pointing a gun at her threatening to call the cops. Temper attempted an Intimidate, but failed when he revealed one of his aspects, Licensed Private Eye. Here we had a real social conflict, with the PI eventually winning (and inflicting a Flustered Minor Consequence on Temper), forcing Temper to leave. I tried to Compel her with Whispers in the Dark, the Fallen angel urging her to throw the guy out the window; sadly, she gave up a FP instead :( . When she returned to the truck, she got John to throw a hex onto the entire room, hopefully getting the guy's camera.
John then left with Temper to check out the crime scene where the boiler exploded, killing the vamp. He "dusted for prints" and was able to learn that there was an entropy curse, but not much else. I wasn't really sure how much to give him; I don't think that you can track someone just with the trace of a spell (otherwise BR would have been a much shorter case!). I think maybe I should have revealed more. Oh well.
The two then went to the city's foremost non-wizard practioner who happened to run a magic supply shop, Etienne Moiret. High Concept Power Hungry Houngan, a sorcerer who led a group of minor spellcasters (He's totally based on Russel Carson, but with specs in Curses instead). Here we had our first real social combat, with Temper and John up against poor little Etienne by himself. Sadly, it was kind of a drag; everyone had Great Discipline, and no one could do all that much to each other. John did do a great little maneuver by reminding him that he was a reasonable man (unlike some other Wardens), and tagged with Afraid of Donald Morgan (although we pointed out that everyone should have Afraid of Donald Morgan on them by default :)). One funny moment happened when Etienne pointed out how the wizards didn't do jack against the RC until the War, and that most humanity was at war with the vamps by default; Temper then assisted the guy :). However, eventually, Etienne offered a concession: he'd reveal what he knew about who used the entropy curse on the vampire, if the WC would sign on to him being a Freeholding Lord under the Accords. Whitfield agreed, and he learned that it was a woman named Cassie (and that Etienne basically taught her how to throw such a curse, and hooked her up with all the supplies).
John went to the address that Tien gave him. During this time, I think that Temper was attempting to find out why Simon Walters and FEMA was rescheduling their work orders to nicer neighborhoods; she learned that they were being bribed by some shell companies with links to Central and South America. While doing so, however, Temper attracted the attention of Simon Walters (she technically failed her Investigate, but I thought that success + bad consequence was more interesting. More to come on that later.
The house was in a run-down neighborhood battered by Katrina, and a woman answered the door. John introduced himself, and the woman hollered that someone was here to see Cassie. He noticed that a ring of salt, taped to the floor, ran all the way around the house. He also heard a door slam out back, and saw a woman running. They had a short chase scene, but John caught up and then used an Evocation to stop her with Air Magic. (He changed his character to be a lot more Air Evocation focused, instead of Thaumaturgy. Unsurprising.) He interrogated her, playing the nice guy and saying he was just here to help; it turned out she did cast the Entropy Curse, but that she also had Cassandra's Tears (hence her name. heh.) and that she Foresaw the vamp killing her. John pointed out that now all the vampires wanted her dead. It wasn't a real social conflict, but she agreed that next time she would go to him. When he helped her up from the ground, she had a vision about him, and seemed afraid for some reason. (Generic plot foreshadowing).
The two then met back up, compared notes, and then ate at Denny's (again, I don't know why; we joked that John should have the aspect Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day). While they were eating, some Blackwater-esque ex-military commandos showed up and told them that Walters wanted to meet them. They made it clear that there wasn't really room for them to say no. Another social conflict! Joy! Walters first tried to play it nice by invoking his aspect Ex-Tank Commander and pointed out they both served in Desert Storm. No go. Then he tried to Intimidate them to back off, inflicting some stress. Still, not much, given everyone's Disciplines. He mainly ignored Temper, thinking her a bodyguard or detective, although he did try to use his Resources to bribe her, an automatic failure. John responded by creating a small vortex in the center of the room, a small Maneuver that resulted in Walters getting the Mod Consequence Freaked Out. I'm sure they'll find a way to invoke that next adventure too. In the end, John got the advantage, Walters Conceded to tell them stuff, and learned that he was being bribed by some shell companies, actually a man named Jacque St. Germaine (aka the Count, the other RC leader) to delay rebuilding in certain areas. He was curious as to why, so he hired some detectives (including Vince) to spy on St. Germaine and his known associates (like Maya). John and Simon exchanged some threats, then the heroic duo left.
Damn this is long. There's still two Scenes left, including the cliffhanger ending, but I'm gonna post this now. Overall, my impressions were pretty favorable, but social conflicts took WAY too long. There's no weapons or anything, so I guess the real way to do them is to put a billion or so tags on them, then hit your enemy with something big. It's a real pain when your two PCs have average social skills and great Disciplines though. Bleh. I just used Concessions to say "Okay, the other guy's kind of losing, here's some info or something."
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Right before the building exploded, Temper tells the Warden: "I told you so."
Her failed investigation was also sidetracked by her "discovery" that the secret ingredient of Coca Cola was derived from vampire venom. :)
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Sounds great so far. I agree that the social combat aspect of the game sounds like it could drag out if you're not able to use aspects willy nilly. Would this be like using a manuever in regular combat to speed things up?
PC1 - I add manuever "prey on your fears of DM" (assumes success)
PC2 - I add manuever "support PC1 with evidence of what will happen with DM" (assumes success)
NPC - Holy crap, I have to defend myself (total defense of +2)
PC1 - going for the kill shot at +4
PC2 - just in case PC1 blows it I can follow up at +4
Would that work to speed things up or am I missing something mechanical?
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Whitfield used Thaumaturgy to create an instant Ward against the vampire attacking him (which you can't do).
That actually depend son the total complexity of the ward"ritual" and weatherit was equal to or less then the charecters lore +complexity bonuses.
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That actually depend son the total complexity of the ward"ritual" and weatherit was equal to or less then the charecters lore +complexity bonuses.
And whether the vampire was willing to wait 15+ minutes for the wizard to finish the ritual.
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And whether the vampire was willing to wait 15+ minutes for the wizard to finish the ritual.
Its noted that the merlin used a rather large ward in the middle of combat in one of the books, also if you have sponsored magic you can use thaumaturgy at evocation speeds, thirdly it dose not say that if you have enough complexity to combat cast an thaumaturgical ritual that it still takes 15 minutes in fact theirs no mention of specific time frames at all. so the assumption based entirely on the rules mechanics and the supporting evidence of the merlins"combat ward" is that if you can get enough success and have a high enough complexity threshold you can in fact combat cast a ward.
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The Merlin was in a big battle with armies, it may be assumed he actually did have 15 minutes to work while his people held off the Red Court.
That said, while you're right about the lack of a specific time frame, aside from Sponsored Magic that makes it the GM's call, so it'll depend on your GM whether combat Warding is possible. Personally, I'd probably allow it, but I'm definitely not the only GM out there.
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Damn this is long. There's still two Scenes left, including the cliffhanger ending, but I'm gonna post this now. Overall, my impressions were pretty favorable, but social conflicts took WAY too long. There's no weapons or anything, so I guess the real way to do them is to put a billion or so tags on them, then hit your enemy with something big. It's a real pain when your two PCs have average social skills and great Disciplines though. Bleh. I just used Concessions to say "Okay, the other guy's kind of losing, here's some info or something."
I strongly encourage you to have your NPCs be all about stacking up maneuvers in the first several exchanges of a social conflict. Great Discipline won't do much if your opponent's gotten the chance to hit several tags for a big bonus on the roll.
That said, I'm really worried that your PCs are all one-noting their defenses here using only Discipline: are their characters all a bunch of emotionless poker-faced types? Were the attacks all about trying to score mental stress hits (and if so what was the rationale for that)? Because Discipline is about emotional self-control -- making it an edge-case social defense only for particular kinds of attacks -- and about *mental* defense. If you look at the chart on YS120, social defense is much more about Rapport and Empathy (the ones that actually list Social Defense as a trapping).
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I think I remember reading that at minimum, Thaumaturgy takes at least a minute. I'm not sure how long a combat round is, but it's a good bet it's nowhere close to a minute, especially with a vampire up in your grill trying to tear your arms off.
Having gotten to the bottom of both their mysteries, the question remained of what to do about them. Temper and John then concocted a somewhat true story to tell Maya Stephenson about the entropy curse, how it was provoked by Jacque St. Germaine and was basically self-defense (Cassie's house was in one of the neighborhoods that Jacque bribed Walters to stay out of). They agreed to meet her in the nightclub Purgatory, a gothy place in an old church.
They met her in a backroom, where Maya was working on her latest novel. John flippantly asked if "Edward," one of the characters in her vampire series, would turn out to be gay. She gave them a cooler with the severed head of the vampire who got away inside. They worked out a deal where Maya would let the matter drop, in exchange for a weregild: St. Germaine's head. John happily agreed to this, but was worried about the possible consequences. Maya swore that she would take full responsibility if they killed St. Germaine. John was ready to go, but Temper had her reservations about the entire plan. She thought that they were somehow being played. Maya also gave them a map of the compound, and reduced her rivals numbers by calling away six of his vampires away on an imaginary errand.
They waited until nightfall, then climbed over the manor's wall and attacked. This time, Temper used an AK47 and John a Springfield rifle. They also tagged the Map of the Grounds to give them a bonus to Stealth. They spotted two vamps as guards; John used an Air Evocation to prevent any sound from leaving the Zone. Temper, attacking from surprise, killed one of them immediately. Note: don't get surprised in DF-RPG. It hurts! The other one put up more of a fight, but was also dispatched. They climbed up a vine trellis to the top level, broke in by smashing a window quietly (duct tape ftw), then made their way to the Vampire Count's room. They got into another fight with more vampires on the way.
I managed to throw John off an indoor balcony. Falling damage is incredibly deadly. His shield ring, a 3/session enchanted item with a 6 Strength block, helped a great deal in this fight. That sucker is incredibly powerful. Temper finally turned into a monstrous scorpion, going after a vampire with an HK-MP5SD; her armor 2 from Scorpion form helped a shitload here. John also threw out an incredibly powerful Chain Lightning here, cooking another vampire. Go Evocation! I didn't really give any consequences here, b/c I wanted the fight to get over with quickly.
They finally busted into St. Germaine's room, where a video monitor was; his face was there. He congratulated them on being such saps. Maya also appeared, and pointed out that she would take responsibility for the assault if they KILLED the Count. Clearly, he wasn't here. The Count also recalled how the war first started when a wizard burned down a vampire's home; Maya pressed a button, and a firebomb went off in the house. That's where I ended it.
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A lot of the social attacks were Intimidate, where Discipline is listed as a basic defense. Moreover, the interactions generally involved only a few people, so avoiding an emotional reaction so you don't give something away seemed like a decent defense. As opposed to a situation with an audience, where having the witty comeback prevents you from looking bad in front of the other people.
I don't know about the NPCs, but our maneuvers and assessments we did try also failed most of the time. We ended up using a maneuver with magic because we had trouble succeeding at them normally. Also, being able to take a flexible approach in conversation takes a lot of skills. There were several times when the conversation gambit that seemed to make the most sense didn't correspond with our best social attack skill.
Whitfield could have made better use of his 3 Presence to compliment other skills or generate maneuvers. We forgot that it could do things besides give him 4 stress boxes.
But overall, the social combat was pretty disappointing. In physical combat, we each only have 2 Guns, but my character was still able to dish out the hurt to some vampires in a pair of fights with only mundane attacks and she avoided serious injury with 3 Athletics. On the other hand, 2 Empathy and 3 Deceit didn't seem effective at all for me in social situations.
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Temper was the one thrown down the stairs, not John. I'm not sure why we bother attacking people. Finding ways to make them fall seems like it'd do much more damage. :)
Some of those vampires would have been screwed even if they were taking consequences. IIRC, we had a few hits dealing around 10 damage. And John's Chain Lightning was overloaded for +2 power, hitting for Weapon 5 on 2 targets - once of which flubbed the defense roll and was especially fried.
Supernatural Toughness was amazing. Normally a Red Court guy hitting Temperance by 1 dealt out 4 damage, so she'd have to take a minor consequence (I could only spare an average Endurance). Transformed, that was only 2 damage on a stress track going up 7, so she could take 6 such hits (starting fresh) before exhausting her stress track. Potentially, she'll be fine even from the explosion. OTOH, I expect that she might have to run around in a burning building for a bit to check for other people.
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A lot of the social attacks were Intimidate, where Discipline is listed as a basic defense. Moreover, the interactions generally involved only a few people, so avoiding an emotional reaction so you don't give something away seemed like a decent defense. As opposed to a situation with an audience, where having the witty comeback prevents you from looking bad in front of the other people.
It's not just about that; it's also about not tripping over your words, sussing out what the other guy is after, all that sort of thing. I think what I was driving at, really, was the notion that hey, if it's just Intimidation vs. Discipline over and over, something's wrong in the approach. "Ah," says the intimidator, "I won't get them to crack that way. I should go for a softer approach, then..." and changing up to a mixture of Rapport and Deceit strategies.
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New session.
Social combat worked better. Some maneuvers/assessments actually stuck, so people could deliver useful attacks. Not using Disciple against Rapport also helped. However, it was still considerably less decisive than a physical combat. Another thing that helped in the social conflict was that we were doing a better job of playing to our strengths, instead of making an appropriate sounding but mechanically terrible Intimidate at +0 or something.
OTOH, I think we still needed to do a better job setting stakes for the social conflict. The voodoo practitioner (now a Freeholding Lord thanks to the White Council, Red Court, and unknown faction) was trying to make a big reveal of telling us that a seriously powerful mortal wizard was behind a hurricane. It was somewhat unclear what we had to gain or lose since he was going to tell us anyway. However, I did discover two of Aspects ("Knows where the bodies are buried", and "the Laws hold us back" or something like that) and lead him to think he could divide us. Mr. Nice Guy warden gave him a guilty conscience consequence, taking only stress in return. I guess if he lost, then the White Council would have looked guilty or stupid in front of everyone in the neutral ground.
Also, in Whitfield's report to Morgan, he made up some gossip about Harry Dresden so he wouldn't look so bad in comparison after restarting the Vampire War - "Now I have TWO Wardens working for vampires..." But Morgan is always angry, right?
In the end, we let the vampire writer get away because we decided to focus on the badly wounded spellcaster they had kidnapped (the girl who threw the entropy curse). We would have had a chance at doing both if some moron had kept his mouth shut, because they would have been confident in holding the exit. I might have able to demolish the wall facing the sun if they weren't chasing us down.
When the vampires used a poor addict as cannon fodder when they moved out, they also kept the wizard from nuking 4+ vamps in the zone with lightning. It really sucks when the bad guys use the laws of magic against you.
And the session ended with an ominous threat against Temper from Maya: her 'friends' have been called in... If only she had the Lore to understand the true nature of the threat. ???
But I raised Scholarship instead - both its first aid and information gathering abilities have come up. It seemed to help open up more things than Might, the other Average skill I was thinking of bumping up. I want to raise Athletics to Great, so I need to increase a bunch of other skills to create that opening in my skill triangle. :( Not the best character design for quick growth, except to raise a Great to Superb (which I will need to do as part of increasing Athletics instead). That's probably something I'd take into consideration in future characters. Whitfield increased his Scholarship as well - now he has Average and can speak Latin like he should have been able to do in the first place. :)
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So yeah, the last session ended pretty much as Victim described, with John Whitfield restarting the vampire war. Way to go John Whitfield the Third (we decided that as a group that the name John Whitfield just wasn't WASP-py enough). So now we're kicking off a new adventure, where Nicodemus and the Denarians come to town to recruit Temper do other evil things. What these evil things are, I don't quite know yet, but we'll have to find out.
We also had two of our players back from grad school, and joining the campaign themselves. Neither has read the books (unlike the original trio of us, all big fans) or ever played FATE before, so this should be pretty interesting. Note: adding new characters mid-campaign is really, really annoying, given how tightly characters and their aspects are intertwined with the narrative and city. Bleh.
Anyway, the first new character created is flying his Pure Mortal flag quite proudly; this guy is based on one of his old 3.5 Eberron characters, best described with the phrase "Vatican Assassin." I think that if the Catholic Church actually had assassins, he would be first in line to volunteer (as long as the uniform was cool). Anyway, the base of this character is Superb Fists, with the Mortal Stunts Footwork, Martial Arts, and the one that lets you use a weapon: he chose the baton and knife (police training, I guess, although this guy isn't a cop). So this guy now attacks (with a Weapon 2) and defends with a Superb skill; absolutely brutal. He also grabbed some ranks in Intimidate, Deceit, and Stealth to complete the assassin theme. In this campaign, Ignatius Salvatore works for the Venatori as an assassin. High Concept is Venatori Assassin, Trouble is something like No Shades of Grey; other Aspects include Firm in Faith, This Place Is Cursed, What Do You Think I Am, A Hippie, and I'm Trying to Help You. Probably not the best aspects, but oh well. His Trouble is fantastic :). Anyway, he's in New Orleans keeping tabs on the Denarians, particularly one called Soneillon (Temper's Fallen). Ignatius also has an incredible 8 refresh (he also grabbed the Initiative stunt).
The other guy was a lot slower picking his character, but found the idea of a "sex vampire" too amusing to resist. He was torn between the Vampire and the Virgin, but upon learning that the Virgin couldn't actually sleep with anyone (w/o killing them, at least, and going full vamp) he quickly went with the normal vampire. He's got the typical WCV powers, and ended up with 3 Refresh. He decided to base his character on Sawyer from Lost, a con man and seducer who preys on women, feeding on them and taking their money. Obviously, he isn't really going to be closely connected to any of the main White Court houses; maybe he's some 'bastard' or offshoot. But finally we get a character actually from the Big Easy. He's got Superb Deceit, Good Guns and Athletics, and I forget exactly what else. But his mental attack is gonna be hella good. Anyway, this guy is something Lefleur. His High Concept is simply enough White Court Con Man, and his Trouble is Sometimes Does the Right Thing. Other Aspects include Price On His Head, and I forget what else. As for what Lefleur was doing in NO, we decided that he was a greedy conman, so he was trying to rob FEMA and that SOB Walters out of some government cash in a land deal, selling Walters (or perhaps the government; it could all be a giant conspiracy! just ask Temper) a bunch of land in the devastated areas of the city that he didn't own.
So now that we had the characters mostly completed and some of their basic motivations constructed, on to the adventure and the little we managed to actually accomplish! Next post, I guess.
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In another note, we're now using the changes to some of the talents, like No Pain, No Gain, as well as the upgrade to the Claws power. I'm sure that the Scorpion-Denarian is very happy.
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I can just hear his American counterparts referring to him as Iggy... ;D
For a future tie in it might be worth taking a look at the character interaction from The Da Vinci Code between Bishop Aringarosa and Silas.
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The game started with the Warden getting a call from his boss Morgan, telling him that Summer was once again preventing the wizards from using the Ways of Summer. Summer would allow the wizards free passage if Whitfield consented to a duel with the Summer Knight, Fix. He told John that he had to accept, and that he would be contacted by the emissary chosen by Summer to mediate the duel. Morgan also asked if he needed a second, but John said t/ he would be fine.
He then decides to call his old friend in the Venatori, Ignatius (he was called Iggy a few times, but in one of our old games we also had an ice sorceress with the same nickname; also, we're used to pronouncing Ignatius w/o shortening it; I think his real name is actually the Spanish Ignacio) Salvatore, currently tracking the Denarian Soneillon...aka Temperance Smith. Ignatius was doing surveillance, and completely undetected by Temper. Ignatius was getting Legendary or Epic rolls with all of his Stealth rolls; at this point, he added the Mortal Stunt that gives him a +2 bonus when just trying to blend in. His repeated success was very disappointing, b/c I really wanted to compel Temper's Paranoid aspect to get her to attack him. As awesome as Ignatius is, I don't really think he could beat down someone with Supernatural Toughness. In my initial plan for this session, I was going to have an early Temper vs. Michael Carpenter battle, but Michael was replaced with the Venatori Assassin.
During Ignatius's very successful surveillance, he got a call from his old buddy John Whitfield, the new warden of New Orleans. During one of Iggy's background stories, he worked with John Whitfield successfully on some case or something. John wanted Ignatius to be his second on the duel. Is it just me, or did Temper get snubbed here? They agreed to meet at the Speakeasy to work out the details, since Ignatius must have been pretty bored watching Temper go about her daily routine. Where was all the evil?
Meanwhile, Lefleur was just finishing up a meeting with Walters, where Walters promised to check up on the specifics of the land deal. Or something. I had real trouble improving a role for the WC Con Man into my game, especially when everyone else was all about monster hunting and he had other goals. I'll have to think of something better for next time. I had him make a Contacts roll, which he bombed terribly, so I threw a FP at him as a Compel for one of his aspects (not sure which) for him to hear about some serious supernatural forces rolling into town, and he thought they were here for him. He does have a Price on his Head, after all.
So Lefleur heads over to the Speakeasy, knowing he's safe there, and to figure out exactly what's going on and if he needs to leave town. He hears the particulars of what's going on, and recognizes John as one of the two people topping Simon Walters shitlist. He goes over, buys John and Ignatius a beer (both almost immediately twig to the fact t/ he's WC), and starts making some chat about how they have a mutual enemy. Knowing how much Temper hates Walters, he calls her up and tells her there's someone here she should meet.
Temper grabs her bicycle and heads out to meet John and his new friends, when she sees a gang of thugs menacing a girl wearing a Catholic school uniform and a middle-aged man in a wheelchair. Temper's neighborhood isn't exactly a nice place after dark, or before it. But she approaches the thugs, tells them to get lost, then pulls out her Colt, cocking the slide. Temper absolutely blows her Intmidation roll (it was like -3 or something equally pathetic). So the slide of the pistol just comes off in her hand, causing the thugs to all laugh and make fun of her. Rightfully so. Then the girl asks "Father, can I kill them now?" in a British accent. The man in the wheelchair reminds his daughter that they have other engagements, and then throws out some Superb Intimidation and scatters the guys. One of the thugs warns that Jimbo will about this! The man in the wheelchair greets Temperance by name, introducing himself and his daughter. Enter Nicodemus. ;D
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You'd think that failing would be punishment enough for a bad roll, but my stuff gets broken and my character becomes a joke in addition. >:( And I think it was -4.
Iggy was throwing out like +2 on all his rolls. I was -1 on most of mine. I think I'm going to start rolling out of cup.
Snubbed? That's just the beginning! John invites Temper there and introduces her to a WCV. Without any sort of indication that Lefleur is in fact a mind bending monster. To get ahead of the summary a bit: Iggy kind of freaks a bit when Temper sits down there because John told him about her being the person he's looking for. And then Nicky enters the bar a bit later. Again, no mention of how dangerous this guy is. And there's some back room dealing... Temper has noticed how John was very quick to tell her the weaknesses of his enemies, but not so quick to mention anything else.
So, what do we think the odds are that Nicodemus actually needs his wheelchair? :)
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At this point, Nicodemus and Temper start chatting fairly amiably, with Temper wanting to know how Nick knows her name and where she lives. Nick tells her that he got the information from one of her enemies, Maya Stephenson, who probably wanted Nick and the Nickelheads to try to kill Temper. Instead, Nick says that he wants to recruit her. He hands her his business card, then apologizes, saying that he has another engagement. Nick also hits Temper with a Rapport attack for 4 stress, inflicting a minor condition, Likes Nicodemus, onto Temper. Exit Nicodemus and Deidre, stage left.
Note: IMG, Nicodemus survived the encounter with Dresden at Demonreach. However, he was grievously injured by the strangulation and drowning, and he's now partly paralyzed. He no longer wears the Barabas Noose, although he may have some other way to be invincible these days. Nicodemus is slowly recovering his strength and healing, while still weaving his plans. I gave him the Aspect "Damn this chair," and he's lost the use of many of his skills. For example, he can't really use his Fantastic Weapons skill anymore; he can still use his evil shadow magic to kick ass, not to mention his superb social skills.
Meanwhile, Jack Ellis the mechanic/citizen's vigilante and some other guy with white hair. They appear to be friends. The guy comes over, introduces himself. It's Fix, the Summer Knight. He seems like a nice guy, and regrets having to fight John Whitfield. Given the amount of damage that John can throw out, I think I'd regret having to fight John too (Fix seems pretty weak from a look at his stats, in my opinion). The Warden routinely throws out 7-8 shifts for both attack and damage with his lightning spells, so this doesn't look like a duel that Fix can win. Anyways, Fix says that the neutral emissary selected said he would meet them here. Fix's second, a centaur, also had trouble getting here (b/c he's a centaur!).
Temper finally shows up, so the band is now all back together. For the first time. John introduces her to Lefleur; Temper asks if she's being set up (for a date). Lefleur shoots down that idea rather quickly, then tells her how they have a mutual enemy, and he wants to hurt Simon Walters as much as she does. He says how he plans on robbing the FEMA director, presenting himself as a kind of Robin Hood figure. Go go gadget Deception. Temper, of course, buys the whole story. Ignatius gives Temper the cold shoulder, and throws a few subtle threats and warnings at her while doing so.
The emissary arrives: it's Nicodemus! Go figure. He wheels in, then gets John and Fix, as well as their seconds, into a backroom to work out the details for the duel. Nick isn't a big fan of tradition, so for the weapons he just suggests anything you can carry into the dueling area. No messing around with Flesh, Skill, Energy, or Will. And it's going to be to the death, of course. John's player suggests the Superdome for the duel, and that's agreed to. So now they set the date for two days from now.
Meanwhile, Temper and Lefleur work out some kind of tentative plan to screw over Walters, and Nicodemus leaves. Evidently there's some historic animosity between Ignatius and Nick as well, although Nicodemus isn't quite sure why. He wheels his way out, and John briefly considers hexing Nick's electric wheelchair just to be an ass. He decides not to.
As the group leaves, they get ambushed outside (AGAIN!) by a group of Gruffs. The Gruffs ask politely for those not involved to stand aside, and Lefleur does so. Then they open fire on the wizard, trying to kill him. Well, actually Ignatius goes first with his 6 Initiative, running up and bringing out his asp (a collapsible baton). He then attacks one of the Gruffs. Here's where I ask John's player just what an asp is made out of; he smiles and replies steel. So, ow. With one attack, Ignatius drops one of these fairy tale rejects in a single hit. Lefleur ducks behind cover, and Temper moves forward and does the exact same (taking cover behind John's Rolls Royce, an example of one of our running jokes). The Gruffs are pissed that Ignatius dared to use cold iron against them, so three of them surround him and try to beat him up. Two attempt maneuvers, the other attacks; all miss. That Superb defense is just incredible.
The other ones open up on John, to no real effect. He sets up a shield. The fight continues, with Lefleur and Temper adding in a few gunshots to weaken the enemies while Ignatius dances in the melee beating up everyone, and then John fries two Gruffs with lightning, killing them. Ignatius was a little more merciful. Here's where I offered a concession, having the gruffs pull back. As they leave, John says that Titania is a real bitch, arranging a duel then just trying to kill him in a parking lot. They just laugh in his face (knowing more than they let on). And there's where I ended the session, just trying to get things started.
Here, we have a few compels on everyone to get the adventure moving. It looks like we have the Summer Court trying to do something involving John, but the situation is more complicated than it is at first glance. One of my players (Victim) has guessed that Titania is actually using John to try to kill Fix, so she can pick her own Summer Knight. Nicodemus is in town, but it's unsure how many Denarians he's brought with him, and what his real goal is (it can't just be to recruit Temper and ref a duel). With luck, I'll have some more great social combat between him and Temper, along with some compels from her Whispers in the Dark to get her to cause some real mayhem and havoc. Maybe I'll get her to try and kill Simon Walters. Plus, there's Walter's evil greedy plans, along with Jimbo Hill, a WereGator, and his band of thugs.
On a side note, it's really annoying adding new characters to a city and campaign jointly created by the original players.
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Whitfield #3 actually shot down the date idea. And I think you forgot the thing with Lefleur and individual running the place.
It's actually sort of disappointing that you dropped Michael's role for Iggy. Michael is fundamentally decent guy - his mission is redemption. Iggy, essentially, is a lot like Temper: a dangerous, tricky sort of person with an extremist worldview that justifies a lot of violence. A lot of their skills are even the same. So the dynamic would be completely different between the characters.
I suggested that Fix rig up an improvised Faraday Cage to help mitigate the Warden's lightning. Get some use out of that superb Crafting. And maybe he could tag it as a heat source to boost a fire attack after it is used up as a defense.
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Sounds like a really fun game. :)
Regarding Fix: Keep in mind he should have 4 Focus Item slots, minimum, to enhance his magic (give him a level of Refinement and he could easily be a 4 shift spellcaster), and that the listed stats may be a bit low depending on the chronology (I certainly don't think they give him enough credit).
Also bear in mind that, due to Inhuman Speed he flat-out wins Initiative, and can move fast enough to attack in melee (with his Great Weapons) the first turn, and has a Superb Defense, base. A fate Point or two and he can absolutely dodge the Warden's attacks.
And finally, bear in mind that he can take Sponsor Debt to enhance his mystical power. For about 3 or 4 points he can match the Warden's Evocations for a turn. That's not ideal...but if he could reduce the Warden's effectiveness somewhat (say, that Faraday Cage mentioned...which I'd make a scene Aspect he could tag for free every time lightning is used) he could manage it cheaper, maybe 1-2 Sponsor Debt.
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Alright, we just met with our fifth and final player who missed the Friday game, and talked with him about character concepts. He decided on another spellcaster, this one a Focused Practioner who specializes in Crafting and Alchemy. Throw in some attitudes and phrases from the chef Emeril (or Elzar on Futurama), and you have the High Concept Iron Alchemist. Bam! His Trouble is This Works in Theory..., to reflect both his vast knowledge of all things alchemical, and the tendency to sometimes screw things up a little bit by experimenting (in one of the guest stories, the Escape potion he sold the WC Con Man transported only him, not his clothing).
Other Aspects include Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy, reflecting the fact that he grew up in New Orleans and has a lot of criminal and underworld ties, "Bam! Let's Kick Things Up a Notch!", his favorite catchphrase, and Collector of Rare Junk. Hasn't settled on the rest of his aspects yet.
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Oh, yeah, one other point is another rules change I made to the game. Implemented it back in Session 3, the one that Victim typed up. As is stand, the rules for enchanted items kind of suck. There's a very significant imbalance between offensive and defensive items that needs some kind of redress. You can craft your own defensive item (John uses an Air Shield Ring) to give you a free block 6 three times per session as a reaction to any kind of attack. At no additional cost. When using spells or whatever, it takes an action to set up your block; with items, you can just use it whenever your Athletics dodge roll wasn't enough to save your bacon. It would be equivalent to letting an offensive item (like Harry's force ring) be used as a "free action" in addition to whatever offense you were throwing down that turn.
*Note: I'm using the values for John's items in these examples. The numbers could be anything.
Furthermore, I wonder what kind of idiot you have to be to pick up an Armor defense instead of a block. First of all, armor like Kevlar vests and the like is essentially free (costs no actions, no points, and it's not even illegal or particularly cumbersome). Second, with a free item block, you get a Block 6; with Armor, you reduce the damage by 3. The Block will reduce the damage by 6. Now, I realize that there are a few circumstances where the Armor is going to be better, but these are exceedingly rare. According to John's player, the Block even lasts for the duration of the round (exchange?), so it's going to provide a 6 Strength defense against every attack they hit you with for that round (one instance where it might be conceivably possible for some kind of magic armor to pull ahead).
Anyway, the change I made was that throwing down the Block costs an action, just like it would if you were using a spell. It just saves you the mental stress without giving you any kind of action advantage over your opponents.
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Okay, so here's my latest session report. We have a new character, Lenny (Leonard de Rossi), the Iron Alchemist: a flashy, showy focused practioner who knows more about alchemy than just about anyone. Unfortunately, he thinks he knows more than he does. He just finished a major project, a potion of the living death, for the city's local wizard, John Whitfield. John sent the order in by mail, and now that he's finished the order, Lenny wants to collect. (GM Spoiler: John didn't actually order the potion. It was someone else in John's name.) Lenny's also a Collector of Rare Junk (the player later changed the aspect to Collector of McGuffins) and was hunting for the gris gris bag once owned by Marie Laveau the voodoo queen of New Orleans (Twenty bucks says she was a powerful spellcaster. And a hairdresser to boot, so double ouch for thaumaturgic symbolic links.) I threw a compel Lenny's way to get him to go after the bag and get him into the adventure.
Lenny goes over to the seller's house, to find it in a state of disrepair. The old man from whom Lenny was going to buy Laveau's old voodoo bag sees him, tells him how a band of thugs came over and wrecked his place, took his things. Lenny, the soul of tact and a Ruthless Competitor, tells the guy that if he doesn't have the bag, he's not going to pay him the money. Obviously. The old man tells Lenny that the leader of the thugs was some guy named Jimbo, and asks Lenny to break Jimbo's legs. Lenny happily agrees to that request, at least. Using his contacts, Lenny learns that Jimbo's gang is having some dealings with that FEMA SOB Simon Walters, and that the two groups have arranged a meeting. Lenny decides to show up, see what's going on, and take back his rare junk.
By some massive coincidence (aka b/c the plot demands it), Lefleur hears about the same meeting from Simon's secretary (he's a WCV, I'll let you figure out how). He also knows that Walters isn't going to be there, but a briefcase full of cash will. Lefleur wants money. So he tells Temper about the meeting, and how they can gather information and disrupt Walters's dealings. Temper's game, of course, so on to the meeting.
It takes place on a deserted outdoor basketball court in the Ninth Ward, the two parties each parking on different sides. A bunch of motorbikes and pickup trucks on one side, dark sedans on the other. They're walking towards each other, meeting in the middle of the courts. Lefleur shows up in his 93 Firebird (which may be stolen), Lenny in a windowless van with his company's logo painted on the side (which we hereafter jokingly referred to a kidnap van), and Temper on her bicycle. Much laughter ensues at Temper's expense, as well as quotes from Burn After Reading. ("You think that's a Schwinn!")
The two sides meet, some threats are exchanged, but the suits drop off the cash to the hillbilly's. Evidently, the plan emerges: Walters is using the gang as a way to lower the property values in the reason, and convince people to sell. Just like a Western (it doesn't matter which one, they're basically ALL like that). I'm so creative sometimes. Temper and Lefleur each hide from each side, Lefleur "pretending" to be a bum. (The bumness is fake; the whiskey is real). Lenny, master of subtlety, just wanders onto the court, says he also has a meeting with Jimbo. The suits agree to let him be there as long as he doesn't make any sudden moves.
The meeting goes well, with Jimbo's boys taking the cash and leaving. But Jimbo isn't there! And Lefleur wants that cash. So he fires off a shot towards the suits, , causing a massive firefight as each side thinks the other started shooting first. Deceit is Lefleur's best skill, after all, and it was pretty hilarious. Temper and Lenny take cover, while Lefleur uses the opportunity to shoot out the tires on one of the pickup trucks...he has a plan.
Temper's idea of cover, as it turns out, is a playground slide. The two sides continue to fight, and one of the suits is wounded. Each side is withdrawing. Lenny grabs the wounded guy and starts to drag him to his kidnap van. I think maybe he was trying to help him, or something. Who knows. Anyway, one of the mercs notices, and starts firing at Lenny, forcing him to retreat. Lefleur enacts his master plan, jumping into the bed of the other, undamaged pickup and hiding there. The thugs and mercs each leave, content to retreat. A problem quickly emerges: Temper wants to follow the thugs in case Lefleur needs backup, but she isn't going to be catching up to a truck on her Schwinn. So Lefleur throws his keys out the bed of the truck, so Temper can follow. Lenny wants to find Jimbo, or at least Laveau's old voodoo bag, so he follows the pickup truck as well.
The car chase is on! It's not much of a chase, however. One of the thugs hops into the bed as the truck pulls away, noticing Lefleur. Lefleur moves to shoot the guy, the guy turns into a gator. As it turns out, Jimbo Hill leads a gang of weregators. A wrestling match ensues, with Temper and Lenny each trying to catch up. Temper blows a driving check (I guess she's used to her Schwinn), damaging Lefleur's car in the chase. Lefleur, meanwhile, is trying to subdue the weregator, grab the briefcase of cash stowed in the cab, and get out with his skin intact.
Lenny realizes that perhaps car chases aren't his forte, so he wants to stop the thugs' truck. With Sovereign Glue. I compel his "This Works in Theory" aspect, causing a massive car accident as the truck flips over, knocking end over end, taking out the two guys in the cab. The weregator and Lefleur both take a lot of stress, and Lefleur has to take a Moderate Concussion consequence. Poor Lefleur...he didn't even get the FP. Comments on that? It was Lenny's trouble, but it screwed over the vampire. Lefleur grabs the case, gets into the F-bird, and the duo drives away. Temper can't help but notice, however, that Lefleur is more than your ordinary everyday con man. He also talks about needing to Feed. Uh oh. Too bad her high Lore Wizard buddy never told her she was working with a WCV. Kind of important, don't you think?
Lenny grabs one of the wounded guys, intent on finding out the whereabouts of his McGuffin, and drags him into his kidnap van. I had intended for the three to be united with some common goals, but instead the Iron Alchemist nearly killed the sex vampire. You know, I'm not sure how fair his Trouble really is. It causes more problems for everyone else down the line. I guess as long as it's entertaining, it's okay. Lefleur has even more things go badly for him in the second part of this update, taking a Severe Consequence. :) In a way, the Musts he has kind of screw him: he has Inhuman Strength, but none of his skills really use it. Maybe I should allow him not to take some of his Musts, for a better character (require additional expenditures of Refresh, perhaps, getting higher in the Incite Emotion tree).
Victim, otoh, suggests, that Lefleur uses a bow instead of a gun, since it nets a +1 damage. Kind of. Considering the size of a bow, it's really more comparable with an AK-47 than a Glock. Otoh, the example bow we've seen (used by the 3 ft. tall Keebler elves) is more of a shortbow/horsebow than one of the big Longbow models. Lefleur could be even more like the Robin Hood figure he pretends to be! :)
And just from this first session, Lenny is bad ass. He's got an armor item with 3 uses, a Weapon 7 attack with 3 uses (universal solvent), a weapon 5 zone attack with 3 uses (exploding flask), and 3 uses of his sovereign glue that imposes the stuck aspect on the target for 2 exchanges. As I said, Bad Ass. And he's got like 5 potion slots, and Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility. He's also got Great Weapons, and carries a baseball bat that he uses to surprising effect. Bam! He really Kicks Things Up a Notch!
Part Two to come later, when it's not so damn late.
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Maybe the other players might consider an aspect of "Now I know why there're so few Alchemists" so that whenever something goes wrong (which sounds like it might be a FP magnet) they can at least get some FP for these disasters. I think it would be a real possibility if the group stays together for any legnth of time (using the group aspects from Biff, Mouse, and Montrose as an example).
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Lefleur and Temper get into a brief argument about what to do with the car. I throw a FP Temper's way to compel her Paranoia, and she advocates either burning the car, leaving it somewhere to get stolen, or at least wiping it down and leaving it in a parking garage for a few days. Lefleur doesn't want that, and he's already a little pissed at Temper for denting his car. He decides to drive on over to John Whitfield's place to park his car and borrow one of John's (he's rich, he can afford it). Temper rides her cute little Schwinn (the players now decide it has a basket on the handlebars) over to Jack Ellis's automotive garage.
And meanwhile, the kidnap van has been used according to its name, and now Lenny is interrogating the captured thug. He treats some of his injuries, restrains him, and feeds him a Serum of Truth. I wondered if this was against the Laws of Magic, but it essentially seems incredibly similar to a love potion, which was okay. Well, it wasn't illegal at least; Lenny's not going to tell the wardens about this. He asks some questions, finding out what happened to Marie Laveau's gris gris bag: Jimbo thought it was valuable, but it turned out just to be an old bag of junk. So he sold it to Simon Walters for a hundred bucks. The thug exalts in how they managed to cheat Walters; awesome conman Lefleur this guy ain't. Actually, for Jimbo's Trouble, I gave him "Plays Checkers in a World of Chess." :)The thug then wonders why he's talking so much, asking if he gave him some kind of truth serum. Lenny admits the truth of this. The thug then smiles, and tells him another true thing is that the ropes Lenny tied wouldn't hold an alligator. ;D
Lenny: "Shit."
Another battle is on, with a savage gator menacing Lenny. He doesn't want to use a deadly attack on the thug, so he just grabs his Louisville Slugger and makes like a Jersey bookie. Lenny beats the weregator unconscious, puts him in a sack, and dumps him somewhere in the marsh, to awaken with a headache. Or a concussion. At least he's alive. Lenny figures he might need to try to buy the McGuffin from Walters, so he wants his money from John. So he heads over there.
Lenny meets Lefleur, but only Lefleur remembers the guy driving the van that caused that car accident. Lefleur purposefully rams his firebird into Lenny's van while parking, now damaging Lenny's bumper. Lenny gets pissed, so Lefleur opens up his briefcase full of cash and dumps some twenty's on the ground. "Happy now?" They both ring the gate for admittance, but no one is answering. It's here we all have a good laugh at John for living in a mansion with no other person in it: no faithful Jeeves, nothing. So the two start arguing, and Lenny finally recognizes Lefleur as that guy in the pickup truck rasslin' a gator. Also, Lenny's Superb Lore allows him to recognize Lefleur as a WCV.
Jack and Temper meet, with Temper wanting to know more about Lefleur. Jack tells her that he's some kind of sex vampire or something, causing Temper a great deal of distress. She also learns that John off-handedly mentioned it to Jack (but not to Temper). Jack also tells her some British guy in a wheelchair is here to meet her. It's Nicodemus. He inquires after Temper, and she confesses how pissed she is at John for not mentioning the whole sex vampire thing. She also wonders if John is trying to set her up to get killed or addicted. Nick brushes aside her concerns, saying that it probably just slipped John's mind. And he adds that while John may be a master evocator, he's nowhere near as sharp as a Warden's sword (the one he doesn't have; we came up with the idea that he used it to seal a portal to the Nevernever, and it broke as a result). Temper admits that this is God's honest truth.
Nicodemus begins his "We are not so different, you and I" speech. Man, that should really be one of his Aspects or something. Telling her how they both wish to slay tyrants. Nicodemus's goal, he claims, is to slay the ultimate tyrant: the Almight, aka God. Even Temper thinks that Nick's a little crazy; Lenny and Lefleur's players were both making cuckoo noises. Nick admits that this is a long term goal, of course, and Temper tells him how they've disrupted some of Simon Walters plans. Nick asks why she doesn't kill Simon Walters, instead of going after his pawns.
Begin the social combat. Nicodemus hammers Temper with Superb Rapport attacks, offering his support in her endeavors. He counsels her to aim higher, and she begins to agree with him. She asks him what the catch is, and he says his help is freely offered. Nicodemus is impressed by Temper, and hopes that she'll work with him in the future. Nick also says he can't imagine how impressive she'll be in a century or two. Temper realizes that Nick wasn't kidding when he told her how old he was. Temper gets taken out by Nick's Rapport attacks, and agrees to go kill Walters. She suggests hitting his car while travelling to his work. Nick laments his disability, but says he'll help with the planning and intel. Maybe Deidre will help with the killing. Nick also mentions that John might be in trouble from the Fey, and he doesn't mean the duel. Temper calls John, but doesn't get his answer, so away she goes.
Lefleur and Lenny, tired of waiting, just open the locked gate and find Ignatius sprawled out in a pool of blood. He's unconscious. They revive him, and he tells the pair that John and him were ambushed by gruffs, beaten up, and John was kidnapped. They didn't even need a special van for that. The enemies were going to kill him, but their leader told them not to. Evidently, the Lady's orders were to only hurt John, and no one else. They also said that they'd be delivering John to Nausica for her amusement. Lenny's heard of Nausica, a powerful Nixie aligned with Summer. Even while being barely able to stand, Ignatius shoots out some threats and makes his disapproval with Lefleur very known. Temper shows up, and the trio agrees to rescue John Whitfield from the Faerie.
Enter the Contacts and Investigation. Lenny traces the kidnap sedan to the docks (no surprise), and considers using a bunch of his magical contacts to help find John. Cassie the prophetess could be helpful, or Etienne Moiret the sorcerer (he'd use the blood for a thaumaturgic link). And there's no doubt that Nick could find him. Instead, they decide to go the CSI route. Temperance Holmes and Lefleur Poirot, with a 6 and 5 Investigation respectively, figure out where the faeries took him: to an old, abandoned oil rig out in the gulf.
They need a boat, and they don't have the money. Well, both Lefleur and Lenny probably do, but they seem unwilling to spend it. So instead, Lefleur takes one of John's cars and trades it for a boat. If they get John and the boat back safely, then Lefleur figures they can just reverse the trade. They head out, and Lenny captains the boat to the old oil rig. In the middle of the night. Spooky.
They pull up to the rig, and start to climb up, when a kelpie attacks. It pulls Lefleur off the ladder, and he quickly scrambles back up the ladder. "Fire in the hole," Lenny calls, as I hand him a FP for his Trouble once again. He intends to use one of his explosive flasks as a depth charge, to drive off the kelpie. It works: he seriously injures the thing, and it retreats. The underwater explosion is more potent than realized, however, and destroys the boat. The boat they came here in. "Isn't the captain supposed to go down with the ship?" Lefleur asks. Lenny just shrugs. The faeries came here in a boat, obviously. They'll just take theirs. (Quick heads up here: the faeries dropped John off at the rig. Then they took their boat and left. I have NO idea how they're going to get back.) Lenny also finalizes some of his potion picks, and gives everyone a water breathing potion. He mentions how one time the cops were dredging some parts of the bayou, and some friends of his had to move something.
Temper just quips "How educational," and Lefleur is concerned that the police dredged the bayou, worried that some of his own crimes might surface. They reach the top of the rig, and find some shellycobbs scuttling around, not making any aggressive movements. Figuring they'd restrain John in a circle, they head to the one place where there's already a circle in place: the helicopter pad. Deciding this is awesome, that's where John is being held. They climb up, with some shellycobbs climbing after them. John is being held there, restrained in troll manacles, over open water, with a circle of blood drawn. Fantastic. He also looks entranced, perhaps by the Nixie that's there.
She starts talking, saying how she'll return John in a day or two, no worse for were. In fact, he may even come to enjoy it. The groups says that they believe her, but it's not good enough. Temper makes her displeasure known by shooting at the Nixie. The fight is on. Lenny has used his chameleon cloak to remain unnoticed, and launches a devastating sneak attack at the Nixie and a shellycobb, inflicting some serious stress.
Temper starts trying to ruin the circle and the bindings; we decided Craftmanship was the best skill for this. Lefleur starts firing, but his entire rolling was basically shit this fight. And the Nixie starts hitting Lefleur with her beguilement attacks, giving him the Turned On minor condition. Temper breaks the circle, frees John, but then gets in a fight with two of the Shellycobbs. Lenny uses his sovereign glue to stick one of the shellcobbs to the helipad, unable to move, and Lefleur continues his losing battle against bad luck. The Nixie continues the psychic whammy, nearly taking Lefleur out. Instead, he gives himself the Severe Condition "I <3 Nausica."
Enough is enough, thinks Lenny, kicking things up a notch by throwing some solvent on the nixie. It really hurts her, and I throw a compel on Lefleur's I Love Nausica to get him to defend her. He refuses the compel, the girl, and continues trying to fight the Shellycobbs. Poor guy. Nausica is hurt, and her new boyfriend isn't helping her, so she does what any good faerie would: jumps off the oil rig and escapes. Just the shellycobbs now.
Temper finds her AK just isn't enough against these giant crab things, as one of them pins her with its claws. She hadn't wanted to use her coin with two people she doesn't trust watching, but she no longer has a choice. She turns into a scorpion, and the battle evens. Realizing that Lefleur is kind of pathetic, the other shellycobbs turn on Lenny, doing some major damage to him. Lenny tries to stay alive, using all of his alchemical tricks, while Temper poses the ultimate question: Who Would Win, Monster Scorpion or Monster Crab? In the end, Lefleur saves Lenny's life using his flashlight to momentarily blind a Shellycobb, and Lenny goes to town with his baseball bat, of all things, smashing crabs and complaining how he doesn't have enough butter. Temper the Demon Scorpion proves victorious as well, snipping off the arms of the Shellycobbs. The heroes win, John is rescued and is now free to fight his duel against Fix. Temper is now serious about killing Simon Walters, and maybe Lenny will get that voodoo bag. Or at least get paid for that potion he made John.
Unfortunately, they're still stuck on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf, with no means of transport. Fantastic. And Lefleur now <3's Nausica. Aww. Actually, with their dual Beguile/Lust powers, they might actually be a nice match. :) Jimbo Hill is going to want some revenge for robbing him and hurting his boys, and Nicodemus in undoubtedly planning something evil other than Temper's corruption.
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Maybe we can salvage some of the boat pieces. Between Craftmanship and Sovereign Glue, it might be possible to rig up something at least a little seaworthy - if not, we still have those water breathing potions. Even if we can't recover or fix the motor, John has both air and water magic, so he could generate favorable wind and water currents. Calling for help might also be possible, but that's for wimps. :)
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What skill to buy after you kill a bunch of people?
Empathy. :)
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Well, with this third session we finished up the adventure. The group consisted of Temper the Unkneeling Coinbearer, Lefleur the White Court Con Man, Lenny the Iron Alchemist, and once again John Whitfield the War Vet Warden. The four of them were stuck on an old oil rig, with no way to get home thanks to the explosions of the Iron Alchemist. Temper managed to find an old radio, and fixed it; Lefleur used it to contact the Coast Guard and ask for help. Temper then tried to argue that it would be less trouble to Sovereign Glue together the blown up pieces of the boat and steer the remnants back into port across miles of open ocean with no real means of navigation or propulsion than to ask the government for help. Thanks Temper. Needless to say, more sensible members of the group shot this idea down. Not wanting to get arrested, the group dumped their guns into the ocean before the CG showed up.
While Temper and Lefleur worked to get rescued, the Iron Alchemist delivered the draught of the living death to John, who was perplexed. After all, he didn't order the thing. Nevertheless, he paid Lenny the agreed upon amount and took it, asking some questions and the letter he supposedly sent. He wanted to find out who sent it.
With the help of the Coast Guard, they made it back into town; Lefleur spun a story about how a fuel line broke, causing an explosion and forcing the survivors to take shelter on the oil rig, deflecting any suspicion. Everyone went back to plan their own business. Lefleur arranged a meeting with Simon Walters to continue his long con; Walters wanted to check out the property before he bought it. Lefleur scheduled it slightly before John's duel with the Summer Knight, to meet up at the property he claimed to own. Knowing Lenny's plans, he also informed the Iron Alchemist that Walters would be out of his office.
Lenny brewed up some potions to help with his planned burglary of Walter's office. He wanted to steal Marie Laveau's gris gris bag, since it was rare and possibly magical.
John had a duel to prepare for, and whipped up a potion to shake off mental fatigue. He had a rough night, beaten up by faeries and everything. He also did a thaumaturgy ritual to try and find out where that letter came from; it turned out to be from Edinburgh. Another member of the White Council wrote it for him? He also arranges a meeting with Fix before the duel, to basically whine about sending dudes to attack him. Fix denies involvement, and John remembers that the gruffs said something about orders from "the Lady." By now he probably thinks Lily is behind these attacks, but I don't think he's really figured out what's going on.
Nicodemus contacted Temper with what he learned. It appeared that his driver was trained in tactical driving, and took multiple routes to work. Instead, he presented another solution: attack him at an off-site meeting with some other crook in the 9th Ward. He had gotten a copy of today's itinerary, and that meeting with Mr. Finn (aka Lefleur) was the perfect opportunity. His daughter Deidre would accompany Temper as backup (and because she loves killing people).
Whitfield shows up at the duel in the Superdome, with Fix and his second the centaur whose name I have conveniently forgotten. Also present are the injured Ignatius, John's second, Jack Ellis, to cheer on his team, and Titania the Summer Queen. Nicodemus is there as referee, and even Morgan shows up in case his pupil needs any help. Jack tries to tell John that Temper is working with the creepy wheelchair guy, and that she might do something stupid, rash, or evil. I throw a compel John's way on his Summer Hatin' aspect, saying he wants to concentrate on the duel, not whatever Temper's doing. So he blows Jack off, and doesn't try to stop Temper. :)
Fix comes onto the field wearing an improvised Farraday Cage, sporting his magic sword and a sawed-off shotgun. John brings his gun and copper rod. Without any preamble, Nicodemus says begin. The duel is on! Fix goes first, trying to overwhelm John with a torrent of summer flame before he can even respond. Fortunately, John put up his shield before the duel, and avoids being cooked. He does end up Singed (minor consequence). John avoids any lightning attacks, instead using air attacks to throw Fix up into the air and slamming him into the ground. What a cheater. Fix ends up with the Bruised consequence and some more stress. Fix gives up the magical attacks, charging across the football field to attack with his sword; John takes a Deep Cut from the attack, then responds with another brutal wind attack. This time, he manages to break Fix's leg from the fall.
At the end of his rope, Fix is determined to win. Or at least take John with him. He uses his sword as a crutch to rise to his feet, then attacks John once again, but his broken leg slows him down too much: John dodges the attack. John responds by creating a vacuum sphere around Fix, holding him in place and suffocating him. Both sides took some consequences and a lot of stress, but John was victorious. Fix was taken out, knocked out by John's attack. John walks over to Fix's unconscious body, kneels over him, then pores the draught of living death down the Knight's throat. Fix dies (temporarily).
Nicodemus checks out Fix, and declares Fix dead. The duel is over. Titania recovers the Mantle of the Summer Knight from Fix, what she wanted all along. John was a most useful pawn. Morgan congratulates John, asking what he poured down the champion's throat. John tells him that Fix is only temporarily dead, and he'll recover. Jack then tells John about how Temper is going to kill Walters, so he has to hurry off to try to stop her. He asks Morgan to tell Fix's second about the potion, so they don't bury him alive or anything. Morgan agrees, then John is off to intercept Temper.
He's far, far too late. Lefleur meets with Walters first, and they work out the details of the deal. Walters uses some high pressure tactics to knock off some money from the price, but Lefleur doesn't care. It's not like he owns this land. What he has been doing, however, is installing his own locks in all of the houses. He attracts some unwelcome attention during this time, and they're on the move. But Lefleur is clueless about this, and the deal is almost finished. Walters is about to transfer the bank money to Lefleur's account, and he's about to sign over the deeds. Then Jimbo Hill shows up, identifying Lefleur as the guy who stole his briefcase full of cash.
Chaos and mistrust ensues, and Lefleur tries to pull some con, but it isn't quite working. So instead, he just turns on Inhuman Speed, steps forward, and transfers the money from Walters for him. Everyone reacts with hostility, and Walters tries to Intimidate Lefleur, invoking his "I Own This Town" aspect. Lefleur takes some stress, and decides he best get going. So he runs, cutting through yards. Jimbo and his boys chase after Lefleur, some on vehicles, some on foot. Unfortunately for the thugs, none of them have Inhuman Speed. Lefleur avoids the cars by cutting through yards, and keeps ahead of the weregators. After a few rounds of a foot chase, he kicks open a gate, then hides inside one of the homes, invoking his Price on His Head aspect to boost his Stealth roll. He's now lost the pursuing thugs; he waits a few minutes for them to pass him by, then sneaks back to where the meeting was, to see what was going down while he left. He's also too late.
Temper and Deidre park near the meeting site, shifting into their evil demon forms to avoid identification (and just to be overall badasses). They move closer to the meeting, and arrive in time to watch Lefleur and the thugs run away. While Walters is pulling out a cell phone, probably to get some more information about Lefleur, Temper charges. A monstrous scorpion now menaces Walters, and he dodges out of the way. He begins firing point blank at Temper with his pistol, but it's ineffective vs. her Armor 2 and insane Stress box track. The bodyguard also tries firing, and radios for the tail car to come in and get them out of there. Deidre moves in and quickly kills the bodyguard.
Walters runs towards the tail car, heading away from Temper. Temper follows with fury, while the mercs in the tail car open up on Temper...doing no real damage with their fancy assault rifles. The driver also tries to ram Temper with the car. If only they had holy water or something. Temper then invokes Walters' Disbeliever aspect, forcing him to stand still and deny that he's actually being menaced by a pair of monsters. Poor guy. Temper inflicts some awesome damage on her nemesis, giving him the Extreme Consequence "The One Armed Man." Heh. :) Deidre moves in and kills the driver with her razor hair. Walters continue to fire at Temper, acting on sheer reflex, but it doesn't make a difference. She kills Walters, pinning him to the hood of the car with her scorpion tail. Deidre finishes off the last two mercs in the tail car.
Lefleur shows up, and demonstrating more bravery than common sense, asks what's going on. Temper's dead father appears behind Lefleur, telling her that Lefleur is no better than Walters and that he deserves to die as well. Temper sadly resists my Compel, and escapes from the crime scene with Deidre. Lefleur then books it himself, happy that he's now several hundred thousand dollars richer. By the time Whitfield shows up, the police are there, photographing the crime scene; he's shocked by the brutality and blood, and just drives by.
During all of this, Lenny tries to rob Simon Walter's office. Between a blending potion and his chameleon cloak, he has no trouble bypassing most security. He uses his solvent to melt through a locked door, then finds a still security guard outside Walters's office. He's dead, but Lenny isn't observant enough to notice this. The office door is open, and Lenny finds the safe, using his criminal past (Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy) to aid his burglary check. He sees the Gris Gris bag, but then grappled from behind. It's some kind of monster made out of grey tendrils or cord, in the shape of a man. They struggle over the bag, but Lenny ends up dissolving one of Pierce's (the name of the Demonic Thief) tendril arms with his Solvent. He also uses his Ruthless Competitor aspect to stop Pierce from grabbing the bag. Lenny doesn't want to deal with this guy, who/whatever he is, so he drinks an escape potion, phasing up to the roof.
Showing more faith in his potions than perhaps he should, he drinks a potion of feather falling and steps off the edge of the skyscraper. This wasn't even a compel or anything, this is just something Lenny did. Pierce is pretending to be Spider Man, however, and is clinging to the side of the building. As Lenny floats down, he uses his super long arms to grab hold of the superlight Lenny. Lenny considers using Solvent to dissolve the tendrils again, but I invoke his Now For Something Completely Different aspect and force him to use another method to get free. I want Pierce to escape with ML's voodoo bag. Instead, he uses a crowbar to break free, floating down to safety. Lenny taunts Pierce from the ground, saying how that Pierce would never, ever find him...then slides his van door shut, revealing the name, address, and phone number of his alchemy company. Awesome, and similar to Indiana Jones, so double awesome. I gave Lenny a FP for this awesomeness, since he wouldn't have the name of his business on the van if he weren't a Ruthless Competitor.
With all of these scenes ended, the adventure was over, and everyone had fun. I hope. We did the denouement as well, with Lefleur arranging to pay off the man he owes money to and call off the Price on His Head. This will play a major role in the next adventure. Lily and Fix show up to meet with John, and they thank him for his cleverness in sparing Fix's life (even if Fix lost his job as the Summer Knight). Now Lily says that she owes John a debt, and she kinda apologizes for sending the gruffs to kill/kidnap him and prevent him from winning the duel and killing Fix. Temper, after killing Walters, is lying low and staying away from the other group members. Shame, guilt? Paranoia? Who can tell? She's certainly on a dark road now though, if you ask me.
And, of course, Nicodemus and Deidre show up at Lenny's alchemy shop. Nick, still in his wheelchair, talks about how he wants Marie Laveau's voodoo bag. Lenny tells him that he wants it too. Nick suggests buying it, but Lenny isn't interested in the money. "Deidre, the knife," Nick calls out, and Lenny, in a flash of fear, goes for his weapons. Actually, Deidre was pulling out a case holding an ancient knife and offers it to Lenny. Nick suggests an even trade, the knife of Brutus for the gris gris bag. Lenny looks it over, historically it might be the knife, and it has a lot of mystic power as well. Nick takes the bag, and warns Lenny that if he uses the knife, to only use it once. With some study, Lenny learns that the knife can inflict 40ish stab wounds on someone in one blow. Neat, he thinks, and takes the deal. He also figures that if he refuses, Nick and Deidre will kill him (he isn't wrong).
So that ends the session. I figure the next session, the A Plot will focus on Lefleur trying to pay back his debt to "Jabba," with some B Plots focusing on some of John's family, maybe Temper being wanted or just more of her descent to the Dark Side. Everyone gets a skill point, and John might switch out his Summer Hatin' aspect for something else.
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Unfortunately, I didn't actually have much reason not to kill Lefleur besides the metagame issue of trying to avoid attacking another PC. He's a vampire after all. What makes him so different from the monsters we were just hunting down before?
I guess the main reason would be that when you start hallucinating, it's not a good time to be making life and death decisions... :)
Lenny used an escape potion to 'escape' into the locked room. He didn't dissolve it with Universal Solvent. That'd be a bit more obvious.
John's player, the GM and myself are the only ones who have read the books. So only John's player and I could figure out what was going on with the Fey. And Temper has no Lore (which I might change soon). So no one could figure out that the duel was about Titania vs Fix+Lily.
I think that the Faraday cage should have been described only. It was kind of lame that it didn't come up - especially since it was my idea. Let John find out the hard way or roll Scholarship. He used a nice variety of attacks though.
Lenny is pretty funny when he's only screwing himself. :)
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These writeups are really great to see the system at work, and for entertainment. I'm getting really psyched to run a game as soon as my hard copies arrive!
I have a question, if one of you could spare the time. I notice that the players seem to split up frequently and often have differing agendas. In itself, I find that fun and it makes for a great read, but at the game table, does it lead to trouble? I know my group gets bored if they don't get to throw the bones at least once every 10-15 minutes, and they'd probably wander off if they had to wait for entire scenes to resolve that they are not a part of. Perhaps the scenes are highly narrative and are resolved quickly in just a few rolls?
I'm mostly concerned that I'm going to have 5 players who all want to play something different, and it'll take quite a lot of doing to get them to have any common ground to stand on. It's my goal to let everyone play what they want, but if I have to restrict character types/templates to keep everyone involved, I'll do it.
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The climatic sections - John's duel, Temper's assault and Lefleur's chase, and Lenny's break-in were all essentially occurring on the same initiative list. So they were all going down at the same time, which lots of cutting back and forth. Fix and Pierce were both going on 7, then Lefleur and Deidre at 6, Temper at 4, ..., Lenny at 0. So the biggest split up wasn't really much different in execution then having all the characters in the same split up. Similarly, we were cutting back forth through each character's prep scenes. But this session was also a bit short. With 5 players, finally, we took the time to bust out some Battlestar Galactica (http://"http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111/battlestar-galactica") the way it's meant to be played.
I think that we've usually tried to create at least one pairing or otherwise arrange for multiple PCs to be in the same scenes though. However, it is kind of unusual for us, since our games have generally encouraged tightly knit parties previously. It should be interesting to see how the PCs end up working together or not in future sessions.
I think that briefcase full of cash will perhaps not be as useful to Lefleur as he hoped. After all, Simon Walters was spying on the vampires after making a deal with them to make sure he had the upper hand. What contingency did he have for dealing for Jimbo?
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About splitting up: I hate it. Hate it hate it hate it. Unfortunately, it's necessary. In any group with good, interesting characters, they're going to have different motivations and goals. And they're going to split up to cover more ground (not an automatic death sentence like it is in D&D :) ) I guess the important part might be to make sure that they're all together for the big scenes (not that it happened this time). But that single initiative trick worked pretty well though.
The other thing is that we get distracted easily, and love making fun of each other. So the other players are involved in the scene just as the peanut gallery. With Compels and everything, I would imagine that most Dresden games are going to be very entertaining to watch as well.
Man, one thing I should have put in my session report. Before the duel, I'm telling John's player how everyone is getting set up, and I use the boxing analogy how you've got "Jack [Ellis] and Morgan in your corner." As I say this, I start laughing, because it sounds like I'm referring to Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan. :)
Yeah, that briefcase full of cash is full of cash that's been reported stolen from banks, and has radioactive dye. Not a huge problem for Lefleur given the success of his real con, but he's gonna have trouble spending it.
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I could use some feedback on a few things.
First off, the status of my character mechanically:
Temper's skills and powers:
Great: Alertness, Fists, Discipline
Good: Empathy (just increased), Deceit, Athletics, Craftsmanship
Fair: Guns, Stealth, Scholarship, Investigate
Average: Conviction, Presence, Endurance, Might, Survival
Demolitions Training (use Craftsmanship for explosives attacks) -1
Unflappable (+1 mild Social consequence) -1
Human Form +1 covering:
Claws -1
Supernatural Toughness (Catch: holy type stuff) -2
Inhuman Strength -2
-6
My current advancement plan is to bump Fists to superb, and then increase Athletics to Great - which is what I actually wanted right away. I'm mostly satisfied with what she has, with two main exceptions. First of all, a lack of Might means that Grapple related stuff is terrible. Which is a huge shame with strength powers and huge scorpion claws. Second, it makes a lot of sense to pick up Lore in some fashion - but what to drop? Maybe Might, actually, since 1 isn't really enough to do much with it.
The social toughness stunt seemed really cool when it was 2 extra consequences. It's still coming in handy sometimes at 1, but generally only once per session. So I could just drop the stunt and then spend the FP a social defense roll to also bleed off 2 stress - or use it for something else.
Future powers: Venomous seems appropriate - and let's face it, who else would use this power? However, the additional attack comes with no damage bonuses based on my reading of the power. So it seems highly likely to be filling in stress boxes below the damage dealt by most other attacks - if it can do any damage at all against Armor powers. That's not going to help take somebody out any faster, unless someone else (Lefleur?) is doing lots of little hits to fill in those low level boxes. And that's ignoring the opportunity cost - an upgrade to Supernatural Strength has the same cost, and gives Weapon 6 total plus other benefits.
That leads us to another power: Supernatural Strength. Another expensive -2, Weapon 6 is pretty hard hitting. Plus easy lifting or smashing. However, that's still not going to match the damage from Weapon 7 acid or Weapon 8+ Lightning from Lenny or John. Competing on pure damage seems like it might be losing proposition.
Beast change (into monster scorpion) could make her skills much more effective overall. Might could be an only monster mode skill, so the claws could actually grab enemies.
Supernatural Senses for a vibrational tremor sense could be appropriate. However, sense limitations haven't been a big deal.
Finally, Ursiel was a bear - but with horns, tusks, and an extra pair of legs IIRC. I need some ideas for making Temper's monster form more monstrous.
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I'd recommend Beast Change. Big boost to Endurance and Might will do a lot for you - 2-stress hits from grappling are no joke when the enemy has no realistic chance to escape. After that, taking Supernatural Strength makes your grappling truly horrific. After that, Inhuman Recovery and assorted Toughness powers mean you can pretty much wade into combat, pick the most dangerous foe (pick on spellcasters, they're unlikely to have kept up with their sumo training) and kill it without stress (on your mind or on your tracks) before moving on to the next. Remember that grappling is a TOTAL BLOCK on that opponent - AND you can drag them around while you crush them to death, throwing them into zones to be blasted by casters.
Plus, you've pretty much got heavy lifting covered forever.
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Yeah, I just messed around with Beast Change. Temper could go from the skills listed early to these sets:
Temper, human form:
5: 0
4: Alertness, Athletics, Discipline
3: Guns, Craftsmanship, Deceit, Empathy
2: Fists, Scholarship, Stealth, Investigate
1: Conviction, Presence, Endurance, Lore, Survival
Temper, monster scorpion form
5: Fists, Might
4: Alertness, Discipline
3: Stealth, Endurance, Athletics
2: Scholarship, Empathy, Survival
1: Conviction, Presence, Lore, Deceit
+1 Fists over the current build, and +4 Might. Ouch. Temper gets better speed and dodging normally, and more guns. I'm not sure increasing Endurance is all that great, since 7 stress boxes and Armor 2 makes her quite a tank already. But what else would go there?
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I wonder who the new summer knight will be?
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Why keep the Discipline? When you're in scorpion form you're probably not facing a ton of mental attacks, and maybe calling on the demon so directly causes her self-control to suffer. You could also drop Alertness (making Endurance and Athletics your +4 skills) and gamble on your sheer toughness and power compensating for any ambushes you miss. Not sure if it's worth the +1 on grapples, but Endurance at 5 is more then just a Superb defense, it's an extra consequence slot - and a perk of Inhuman Strength is that you can still get a +1 from Might on brutal Fists attacks regardless of its actual value.
Just some thoughts, your setup is great already.
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Losing the ability to fend off Mental attacks might go badly if she is on the receiving end of some command type magic (the attack your friends type). While it would make for an interesting encounter, you'd probably end up with some dead PCs when it was done.
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Perhaps more importantly, she's kept all her mental skills, reflecting a change that may effect how well she deals with people (what with being a huge scorpion-thing) but not how she thinks. It's an important thematic distinction.
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About splitting up: I hate it. Hate it hate it hate it. Unfortunately, it's necessary. In any group with good, interesting characters, they're going to have different motivations and goals. And they're going to split up to cover more ground (not an automatic death sentence like it is in D&D :) ) I guess the important part might be to make sure that they're all together for the big scenes (not that it happened this time). But that single initiative trick worked pretty well though.
Ahhh I see now! Reading the write up I didn't get the impression that was how it was run at all. Very cool. I'm still worried my brain might explode if PCs try to split up in 3 (or more) directions, but running it that way might actually be workable! Thanks very much for the food for thought.
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do you mind posting lenny's stats. I'm interested to see how he was set up.
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Lenny had Ritual for Crafting along with 4 points of refinement. He has 5 Lore, a +2 crafting power focus item, and a +2 crafting frequency focus. So his items come in at 7 power and 3 uses by default.
His 12 enchanted items slots buy 5 potion slots (:)!), a Weapon 7 spray of Universal Solvent, a Weapon 5 zone attack explosive flask, an Armor 3 block that lasts an extra round, a power 5 Veil that lasts for 3 rounds per use, and a Sovereign Glue maneuver that also power 5 IIRC and lasts for 3 rounds.
The glue and super acid can solve a lot of physical problems, and his huge Lore makes it really easy for him to make the roll and just happen to have an appropriate potion on hand.
Other notable skills include Great Weapons and Contacts, Good Athletics and Scholarship, and ZERO Alertness.
He of the 15 damage zone evocation was bitching about how good Lenny is. ???
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Ignatius's player again couldn't make it, so it was John the War Vet Warden, Temper the Unkneeling Coinbearer (Denarian), Lefleur the White Court Conman, and Lenny the Iron Alchemist. Last time, Simon Walters was killed by the fury of the monster scorpion that is Temper, and John Whitfield defeated the Summer Knight in a duel to the death without actually killing Fix.
This time, we begin the game with Lefleur in a hotel room downtown, the Hilton, with his True Love, Nausica. Yes, that severe consequence is still sticking around, and evidently Nausica enjoys his company for some reason. It's 3 in the morning, and then his window explodes inward, which is more than a little unusual. Lefleur is, after all, 11 floors up. Taking cover by pulling up the mattress to block the explosion, he sees a faerie-looking woman with dragonfly wings hovering in midair, with two silenced pistols. The assassin admits that it's foolish, but she has orders from Daniels to tell Lefleur why he's being killed: he owes Daniels lots of money. Then she opens fire, causing some stress and giving Lefleur a Graze (minor condition). This was a Compel on the Price on His Head, of course, and the first of the hitmen coming after him.
What ensues is a very one-sided gun battle, with Elli the Sylph Changeling Assassin blasting away at Lefleur while he hides behind cover, trying to land a shot. Elli is amazingly fast with a base Fantastic Dodge; nothing even touches her. Here's where I worry that Lefleur's player doesn't know how outgunned he is by the faerie master of gun-fu. He tries to offer to pay the money back, but she's only concerned about collecting her payment from Daniels, nicknamed "Machete Dan." She does graciously offer to accept a contract on Machete Dan from him posthumously, like Angel Eyes in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Nausica promises to slow her down, urging Lefleur to book it. He does so, heading for the elevator. Nausica throws up a Mental Block, but Elli fights through it easily, used to faerie magic. Elli does pause to throw an Intimidation maneuver at Nausica, telling "the Summer bitch" to stay out of her way. Yeah, it works. Meanwhile, Lefleur's used the distraction to pry open the elevator doors, sliding down the cable. Elli follows, continuing to fire at Lefleur. Unfortunately, the cramped confines of the elevator shaft make it hard for her to maneuver, and Lefleur manages to evade her long enough, tears off the top elevator hatch at the ground floor, and runs into the lobby and the night. Lefleur has bled a lot of fate points from this escape, because Elli was kicking his ass otherwise. As she was meant to.
Lefleur does grab some clothes at a store, treats his Leg Wound (moderate consequence), then calls John Whitfield and asks for some help. Whitfield agrees to shelter him. Here, I think I threw a Compel at his Band of Brothers aspect, since Lefleur has helped him out on occasion.
Now we skipped to the morning, when John got a phone call from his younger WASP brother Roger, a trader on Wall Street. Note: Roger's kind of an ass. He informed John to send a car (a hybrid) to the airport, because he was coming in for a few days. He was hosting a charity fundraiser for some stupid hippie function, an oil spill off the coast. Roger freely admits that he doesn't care, but it's good publicity and the Whitfield family needs to do their part. Right before he hangs up, Roger tells John that he's hosting the event at his mansion. Here I offered John a choice: take the compel and agree to that, or not. He took the Fate Point, as I knew he would. :)
Lenny's business isn't doing so well, ever since Etienne Moiret headhunted his partner and offered her a better job with his magical organization. And ever since Etienne became a Freeholding Lord (thanks John!), he's been doing even better. Times are tough. Then, a miracle happens: a short man in a black suit, black hat, and black sunglasses enters the shop, offering to buy every single dose of antivenom and bottled sunlight Lenny has. Lenny agrees, and offers to sell him even more once he can make it. Lenny also asks if the vamps are making a move, and the man in black says they are. Also, he tells him the name "vampires" reeks of folklore; the MIB prefers to call them Stage 2 Infected. With his supply of antivamp stuff, the MIB leaves. I gave Lenny the compel on his Stiff Competition aspect, because he would probably need that stuff later in the adventure. Too bad, you sold it all!
Temper's been keeping her ear to the ground, and she knows the situation in parts of New Orleans is getting worse. With Walters gone, violence has shot way up, and all kinds of criminal organizations are moving against each other. The big winner in all of these conflicts SEEMS to be Jimbo Hill and his gang of weregators, which seems odd to Temper (and everyone else in the know). Jimbo was never the sharpest knife in the drawer; it's probable he has some new backer or ally. Anyway, the weregators are kicking ass and taking names. The FBI and the police, meanwhile, have their own theory: the rise in violence may be due to the work of criminal, arms dealer, and suspected domestic terrorist Temperance Smith! She's now a "person of interest" in the investigation, and sought for questioning. There's a compel against her "Daddy's Paramilitary Princess" aspect, but she moves around too much for the police to track her down...for now.
Lefleur continues to shelter with John, and then Roger shows up. Roger sees John as being a useless layabout who does nothing to earn his trust fund, and isn't particularly shy about telling him so. He also says how he didn't tell John about the event b/c he knew John would otherwise find some way to weasel his way out of it, like he has with every other family duty. John admits there's some truth to this. Roger's already arranged the guest list, catering, everything; he also encourages John to invite some of his friends. Yeah, like that won't be a problem. John gladly does so, sending invites to all his buddies who are going to fit in with New Orleans rich and powerful: Lenny the Alchemist, Lefleur (who's already staying there), Anja Dahl the WC Virgin Clubowner, Jack the vigilante/mechanic, and Temper the person of interest in a wave of violence. Also, Lefleur wants the opportunity to pay back Machete Dan without any violence, so he urges John to invite Machete Dan as well.
Soon, it comes time for the party, with various people getting ready for it by going out and buying/renting clothes. Not Jack Ellis, though. He doesn't have a tux, so he's going to wear his denim jacket. :)
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The party could have gone better. :) John's brother was attempting to influence the guests against him. With John helping to negotiate, Lefleur reaches a settlement with Machete Dan. Temper, after consulting with occult expert Lenny, decides that John is being mentally influenced by Lefleur. Then she contacts his boss using the information from when John checked in after restarting the war and nearly getting blown up... Lefleur notices her absence, however, and he and John confront her. She is asked to leave. Lenny convinces some people to try out some of his beauty products that "don't quite have FDA approval yet," covering up the actual magic nature of his business.
Oh, and the caterer drugged the wine with vampire venom. John, fearing an attack, goes all Batman Begins and insults the guests until they leave. Too bad the whole point was to addict the other rich and influential people.
Good times. And to think John was just worried about getting his house burned down.
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At the party, we had John's asshole brother Roger making the rounds and talking to people. It became apparent to some (but not John) that Roger was basically badmouthing John while using his house. John also introduced his friends to Roger, which strained his politeness when meeting some of them, especially Jack Ellis the mechanic. Roger was less than impressed. Temper didn't end up wearing a dress made out of duct tape or camouflage, so she actually made a pretty decent impression pretending to be with one of the charities. Lenny took the time to network, but he came across as a little pushy or predatory (he also left fliers under everyone's windshields!). He was able to drum up some business though, mainly with his anti-aging potions.
Lefleur and John arranged a meeting with Machete Dan, with the greatest High Concept ever devised: Bloodsucking Lawyer. I know I've already mentioned it, but it's so awesome. Enter the social conflict, with Machete Dan being all pissed and throwing a lot of Intimidations around. Lefleur and John gang up on the poor RCV, and eventually get a Concession, with Machete Dan saying that as long as the money's good he'll call off the hits. It may take some time to call off the hits, though. Success for Lefleur? You know it's not going to be that easy. At one point, I have Machete Dan throw like 3 or 4 Fate Points at Lefleur, but the attack still did didly. I couldn't roll above average at all.
Meanwhile, Temper and Lenny have a discussion: how to tell if a Sex Vampire is controlling someone. Lenny has the best answer: does that person LIKE the WCV? If yes, then the vampire's probably in control. Lenny is evidently blinded by the finery, however, and misses all the subtext. So that's when I throw a Compel at Temper for her paranoia, and she sneaks upstairs and starts looking at all of John's stuff, trying to find some way of contacting John's superiors. Temper is convinced that Lefleur is manipulating John; it's understandable. I don't see why John's always helping Lefleur either. PCitis? Then she remembered that at one point John used her cell to call his boss, so she uses that, reciting the code he used to get in touch with Morgan. John's player attempts to argue this point, saying he kept all of this information secret, but in reality he wasn't; he was right next to Temper when he made that call (Temper held the phone while he talked from inside a circle, IIRC). And in any case, I never recall him acting all paranoid either, so he was just trying to edit circumstances after they happened (and let's face it, John is not a subtle or paranoid guy).
So, Temper calls up Morgan going through the switchboards (it's an older code, but it checks out :) ), meeting a very pissed off Morgan. He sounds busy. Like, killing vampires busy. Temper warns Morgan that John might be controlled by the White Court, playing on his paranoia. Morgan tells her that he'll check it out and to never call again. What a charmer.
Lefleur noticed Temper head upstairs, though, and alerts John to this whole development of Temper sneaking upstairs. They find Temper in John's bedroom, with his sock drawer strewn out over the floor. John wonders what the hell is going on, and Temper counters with a lame lie about checking for bugs. No one believes her. At this point, John's player asks for a Compel on his Band of Brothers aspect, as Temper leaves the party at John's request. He says that the Compel is for him NOT stopping Temper and making her tell the truth. WTF? I'm not exactly sure what he had in mind other than somehow restraining Temper and torturing the information out of her. Which, quite frankly, wouldn't really work. In any case, he doesn't get a compel for acting like a rational human being and letting Temper leave.
So, Temper leaves the party early. On her way out, she passes a woman waiting outside the mansion, who asks her if she's seen someone of Lefleur's description. It's Elli the Changeling Assassin. Temper notices that the woman is packing twin pistols, but doesn't care; she tells Elli about Lefleur being there. Temper just misses the excitement of finding the vamps spiked the wine.
After having a glass, John and Lenny discover that the wine is laced with vampire spit. I made a mental attack on everyone, and no one was hit with a single consequence, damn it all (they all only failed by 1). Save the rest of the party, some of the richest and most influential people of New Orleans. Uh oh. And everyone is drinking it, save a few. Roger seemed normal (I don't think Roger actually drinks), and Jack (who brought a cooler full of beer) was just Jack. John, realizing danger, asks Jack to help get everyone home for some reason. So he essentially makes the same speech from Batman Begins, insulting everyone until they leave. What a jackass.
Also, kind of stupid. He was worried that the vampires would all bust in through the windows and start shooting, I guess. I mean, they just hit some of the richest people in NO with addictive saliva. That's called winning, in my book. They were actually with the catering staff, spitting into all the wine then. And John sends them home, easy prey for more saliva. Maybe John should take Egocentric as some kind of Aspect. :)
Roger bitches at John for his actions, his friends, and everything else, leaving in a hissy fit. So the rest of the group, Lenny, Lefleur, and John sit in the mansion and wait for the vampires to attack. And wait. And wait. They realize the vampires aren't coming to attack. Temper, about to leave, comes back after she sees everyone leaving. She wonders where everyone was going, and why. John explained the vamp's actions, and it's clear that Temper thinks John is an idiot. They hear sirens, and Temper flees around to the back to leave that way, hopefully avoiding the police.
Then the cops show up, to ask John some questions about his known association with Temperance Smith, domestic terrorist. They wonder if he's somehow funding her organization or something. John denies everything, including Temper being at his party tonight. Doesn't know her, hasn't heard of her. The FBI guy tells John that he'll be back. John: "Yeah, I know :(" This is where I threw a Compel at John for his Band of Brothers aspect, since he was defending Temper against the police.
While she makes her way through the back way across John's monster yard, she heads into the small woods at the back of John's property, walking her Schwinn. She's naturally sneaky, so she sees a group of mercs in full camo, NVGs, and M-4s heading towards John's place before they notice her. The fact that one of them is playing his iPod may also have something to do with it. She calls up John, warning him of the danger, then makes her way home again.
The mercs try to sneak up to the mansion, hoping to kill Lefleur, but they find Lenny, John, and Lefleur waiting for them. With a magical blinding flare, a few precise gunshots, and the overall insanity of Lenny the Iron Alchemist, the mercs are driven back and take their wounded with them. Those guys were schmucks; Pure Mortals with no FPs. They were actually the remnants of some of Walter's private army of security personnel, wanting to collect on Lefleur's contract.
However, the gunfire draws the cops back again. Damn it. The quick-thinking Lefleur sets up an impromptu firing range in the backyard, so the cops find him and John shooting at cans. The cops are pissed, and tell them to stop firing their guns in the middle of the night in a residential zone. They'd clearly like to arrest John, but they don't really have anything they can make stick. Lefleur's Epic Deception rolls help smooth things along as well.
John performs a quick Thaumaturgy ritual to locate the vampires, using some of their spit as the symbolic link. Clever bastard. This is one of the few Thaumaturgic spells John's ever used. I don't really know how the rules work myself, I really need to read up on them. Like, seriously. When my NPCs use them, it's basically just plot magic. He finds them, using a map of the city and some triangulation, so him and Lenny suit up and drive towards the vamp's location. It is ass kicking time.
Lefleur, meanwhile, takes the opportunity of the cops to sneak away from John's mansion, heading to yet another hotel room. He meets a pretty girl at a bar, seduces her, then brings her back to feed from her. During the night, he gets a call from Machete Dan. Remember Walter's briefcase full of irradiated money? That's half of Lefleur's payment. And the Machete Dan is pissed off, and spends twenty minutes telling Lefleur exactly how he's going to kill him. Machete Dan really has anger issues. There's another Compel thrown at Lefleur.
Lenny and John find the vamp's hideout, a catering place. The very same catering company that did his party. Now things begin to make sense. Lenny breaks the window, and the two let themselves in, finding some vampires there. Led by Maya's lieutenant the Goth Poser Raven Darkblood, who was nearly killed by John their last battle. Raven starts saying something threatening, but John just raises his copper rod to blast him. It's on! And it's over quickly. Raven and another vampires charge towards the front of the building, but John had set up his magical defenses before entering, and Lenny defends with his trusty baseball bat. The other two try their hand at automatic weapons fire, but it's even less effective.
John makes like Thor and calls down some lightning, frying the two vampires in the back, ruining the store and setting it on fire. No compel here, I think; this is just what happens when you throw like 15 dice of evocation around in a building. Shit gets messed up. Lenny then melts the vampire in his face with some solvent, leaving Raven. Raven's number is clearly up, so I suggest a concession where Raven runs and escapes. Lenny and John are having none of it, though, demanding that Raven tell them everything he knows.
Instead, we compromise. Raven runs across the street into an alleyway, bragging about how the party was just the beginning, and the vampires are going to addict a whole lot more people to their Kiss. Then he trips over some garbage cans and falls, causing John and Lenny to laugh at him. He does manage to escape though. They search the burning catering place, find some unconscious people who have been clearly hit with addictive saliva. The answer is clear: haul them out of the building and put them into the kidnap van. John's player is excited that he gets to experience the thrill of using the kidnap van, since he missed out on it last time. :)
And that's where we ended. It really seems like the party is fragmenting, with John pissed at Temper for thinking he's somehow being influenced by a vampire, and Temper not trusting Lefleur (or John now). We also had a discussion over who the "wildcards" of the group were, the ones who do the unexpected things. Lenny and Temper's players insisted that they weren't the crazy ones. They totally are though, and that's fine. :)
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He's right about the party fragmenting. I wonder if it would have gone different if we had all created our characters at the same time. Not that we could have helped it. And it probably wouldn't have changed much anyway- our group enjoys intra-party conflict too much. Well, certain players do :)
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Lenny, I presume?
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Good Guess. Your chances were only 1 in 4 ;).
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It's my opinion that if there is no intra-party conflict in DFRPG, the game isn't being done right. These write-ups make y'alls game look pretty interesting.
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Last night we had our second session of Blood in the Streets, and Lenny's player (Scipio,, I guess) couldn't make it. Some shit went down. Temper headed back to "her" home (actually a vacant house she's squatting in), noticing that Jimbo's gang was driving around her neighborhood. It seemed like they were looking for someone. I wonder who?
Temper figured they'd find her sooner or later anyway, so she went into her house, grabbed all of her guns and explosives (well, okay, not ALL of them; that would take several trips), then fired her AK into the ground, drawing a lot of unfriendly attention. She tried to sneak away into the night, cutting across yards and hopping fences, trying to force them to chase her on foot.
Instead, some of Jimbo's boys had radios, and they signaled some of their friends to circle around. Eventually, Temper found herself surrounded, basically trapped. So she retreated to a house she hoped was empty. Then she laced that place with explosives, turning it into a deathtrap if she ever used her radio detonator. Unfortunately, she was stuck in the house with the explosives. No way out.
Jimbo called out for Temper to come out so they could have a face to face chat. Temper said nothing. So then all of Jimbo's men opened up on the house with automatic weapons fire, sending bullets flying throughout the structure. Fortunately, Temper was taking shelter in the bathtub, if you can believe it. Then one of Jimbo's buddies had the bright idea of burning down the house, so a few makeshift Molotovs were assembled outside.
Temper heard someone else inside the house, but didn't hear any sound of anyone actually entering. No doors opening, no crunching of broken glass. So she sneakily approached whatever was making that noise: it was a ghoul. A huge, very scary ghoul with a big damn axe. The same ghoul, in fact, that helped her and John out when they fleeing the burning mansion of the vampire count. Temper used her stealth to disarm the ghoul of her axe, just as the molotov cocktails started to burn down the house. The ghoul with the axe offered Temper a choice: leave with him, or burn to death.
Temper chose the option that didn't involve burning, and at the ghoul's request, handed him back his axe. He then used it to cut a hole through reality, leading into a dark, scary, swampy forest and left through the Way. Temper's dead father then appeared in front of her, warning her not to trust the ghoul. At all. Temper is at least sane enough to know when she's hallucinating, so she ignores Ghost Dad (actually her Fallen Angel) and she follows the ghoul.
The ghoul tells her that they're in the Nevernever, in Faerie, and that she would be quiet. And if she hears hounds, to RUN. While their walking, Temper tries to get a read on the ghoul, learning one of his aspects: More Than Just a Merc. Which implies his concept is something like Ghoul Mercenary or something. He leads Temper around, then cuts another hole in reality and tells her to get going. Before she leaves, he insinuates that the Reds are Jimbo's secret backer. Soneillon/Temper's Dad warns her again not to trust the Ghoul. Here's where John's player postulates that the Ghoul is actually a good guy! Right... :)
After Temper's little adventure, the trio agree to meet up at a Waffle House, to compare notes and come up with a plan. And because, you know, this is a group game. No one talks about Temper's little espionage expedition of the last night. John says he's going to track down the Man in Black who bought all of Lenny's stuff; he assumes the MiB also bought stuff from the other alchemist in town, Lenny's old partner. I don't think we even have a name for yet, thanks Lenny. Or at least not one I've heard yet. Lefleur wants to get some more info on Machete Dan, thinking about framing Daniels for some crime, preferably Walter's murder. Or at least the sudden rise in gang violence. Temper is very skeptical of this plan, and wants to find more about Jimbo and his new ally/puppetmaster.
John meets with Etienne Moiret, the Power Hungry Houngan and new Freeholding Lord, checking to see if he knows anything. Moiret plays coy at first, but is willing to deal. Someone did buy all of his antivamp venom, and Moiret is surprised that it wasn't actually a rep from the Council. He wants a favor from John in exchange for what he knows, but is willing to take some of John's cash. Go Resources 4! It turns out that the MiB has some name that I've forgotten already. It wasn't really important.
John takes that name to his "buddy" Vince the Sleazy PI, who quickly finds out a lot more. He also mentions how the police would be very interested in his actual association with Temper (he still has those photographs, I believe), and extorts John for more money. John takes the blackmail surprisingly well, putting Vince on retainer. The MiB is actually an expert in infectious disease from the CDC, staying at some hotel in town. And also that he's not here on official business, and one of his coworkers was "exsanguinated" quite recently. John thinks that maybe this guy is here to help. He isn't.
John tracks down his hotel room, sliding a piece of paper with an eye drawn on it under the door, then using a thaumaturgy spell to spy on the room. It's empty. No dead body like John was expecting. He waits until the MiB shows up, then tries to talk to him. The guy isn't opening the door, though, so John just talks to him through the door, saying how he's a Warden fighting the vampires, or Stage Two Infected if you please. The guy is evasive and tries to keep John talking. During this time, he sends a text to a buddy of his, who does...something. Hotel security arrives, escorting him from the building, and John approaches his car. Fortunately, his wizard sense tingles and explodes the carbomb underneath his Rolls-Royce prematurely, probably saving his life. Then the cops show up, taking John in for questioning about the attempt on his life.
Part Two to come.
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I'm not sure where the Ghost Dad thing is going for Temper. Why create an illusion that's obviously false? Sure, I can think of a few benefits. OTOH, compared to making up an ally - one who is a touch paranoid and thus wants to avoid meeting the rest of the gang - it seems kind of weak.
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Lefleur starts using his Contacts to find out about Machete Dan. Unfortunately, he learns that Machete Dan had an alibi for the murder of Walters. Lefleur's tertiary plan of just killing Walters is waylaid by the fact that Walters is out of his office. However, by chatting up the firm's receptionist, he learns that Machete Dan is on vacation, probably at his cabin. He likes to go there to "get away from it all." Or to drink blood and get rid of the bodies. Lefleur also manages to talk his way into Machete Dan's office, and finds himself free to rummage around in Daniel's stuff.
Lefleur finds some very interesting documents that reveal Daniels has some kind of partnership or employment with a "Mister Raxxus." He lacks the Lore to really find anything about the name, so he does what anyone would do. He sends out a call, blind, to this Mr. Raxxus. Raxxus picks up, asking who this is. Lefleur introduces himself and tries to find out some more information about their working relationship. It turns out that Machete Dan works for Mr. Raxxus, representing the man's interests in the American South. Raxxus also speaks with a foreign accent, sounding like he's from somewhere in North Africa (which was the international code on the number as well). Lefleur then explains himself to Raxxus, presenting himself as a victim of Machete Dan's irrational hatred, then insinuates that Daniels is trying to cheat Raxxus out of his money. Raxxus says he'll look into the matter himself, and thanks Lefleur for bringing the matter to his attention.
Lefleur then leaves the office building, ambushed by three ghouls on the way to his car. He runs in, but they try to pull him out and eat him. Instead, he drives away, and the world's worst car chase happens. No one involved has any Drive, so they both end up getting in a minor accident and running over some small obstacles before Lefleur escapes. At least Lenny has Fair Driving, and the invincible kidnap van. It is, after all, the only vehicle that hasn't been wrecked/shot/damaged/blown up so far, other than Temper's bicycle. Maybe someone could steal the Schwinn when Temper doesn't secure it to a bike rack properly. :)
Temper does some investigating into Jimbo's phone records, but doesn't find any phone activity out of the ordinary in recent days. So whoever his ally is, they're probably not contacting him via phone. It's not much information, but it's something. She also finds Jimbo's headquarters, some kind of alligator ranch outside of New Orleans.
John, of course, is being questioned by the police, who are urging him to give up the location of his ally Temperance Smith. The police are convinced that Temper was responsible for the car bomb. John has a new aspect, Doesn't Know When to Shut Up, and the player asks for a compel here. So then he starts to talk about how the real bomber is somehow connected to the MiB and maybe Jimbo Hill. I tell him that trying to steer the cops in the right direction isn't really a real Compel; it's basically what anyone might do in that situation. So instead, John tells the cops and the FBI that vampires are trying to kill him, and that the MiB is working for them. He also mentions how Lenny the Alchemist will corroborate the story. The FBI calls up Lenny, who denies everything, of course, being sane. So now the police think John is nuts. Then in comes his brother Roger and a damn good lawyer, who get John out of there before he finds himself committed or something. Roger's opinion of John is even lower, now, thinking he's completely nuts. Consequences will come from this later, I'm sure. :)
The trio meet up once again in the evening, to compare notes and formulate a plan of action. They want to find out who Jimbo's backer is: the Red Court Vamps, Machete Dan and Raxxus's organization, or maybe even that axe-wielding ghoul. With John's Lore, he also recognizes Raxxus as being a likely alias of Anaraxxus, a powerful dragon based in Africa. A serious badass dude. So they check out Jimbo's ranch in the middle of the night, where they see a small army of weregators being assembled. Jimbo and gang drive out to the waterfront, where they attack a boat and kill everyone on board (presumably). They hear brief gunfire, at least.
The group has assembled in a building near the docks to watch this barbarity unfold, doing nothing. Lefleur, perhaps motivated by some kind of civic duty, calls the cops (it's not actually civic duty, btw). Jimbo's gang is transporting some crates (full of drugs) from the boat onto their pickup trucks; John takes the opportunity to hex the pickup truck to prevent a clean getaway (he has to spend a FP to succeed, IIRC). Now unable to start their truck with the crates on board, they move their crates back to the ship they invaded. Evidently they plan on using the boat to sail away, maybe drop the cargo somewhere for pickup later.
Now the police show up, after Lefleur's report of automatic weapon fire. And like good New Orleans cops, they have their sirens blaring, hoping to frighten away the criminals before they arrive. Unfortunately, the hex on the truck slowed Jimbo down a bit, and John used his air magic as a veil to stop the noise of the sirens, so the cops confront him and his gang. It's dark, so the cops don't see many of the guys with guns. Jimbo tries to bribe the police to turn around and walk away, but something goes wrong and the battle is on. Jimbo and his gang turn into alligators and attack, surprising the hell out of the police.
Lefleur takes the opportunity to head out of the building towards a closer firing position, sporting a brand new SCAR rifle; Temper and John take aim at Jimbo in the middle of the battle, staying out of sight for now. The police don't last long against a bunch of alligators, and by the time everyone's in position and ready to fire, they're all taken out. Evidently Lefleur's plan was to use the cops as a distraction for his attempt to kill Jimbo; what a guy. Then the firefight happens with all three PCs target firing Jimbo; it's dark out, I gave the scene aspect Dead of Night and everyone a free tag on it they could use (primarily defensively, or with stealth; at one point someone asked if it could somehow help their offensive abilities...no)
Temper, perhaps bored with just firing her gun, turns into a scorpion, skitters down the building, and makes her way towards Jimbo. The few number of Jimbo's men who haven't turned into gators open up at John in the building, doing some stress there. Others use the opportunity to drive the boat away, with the cargo. The rest attack in gator form, two heading towards Lefleur as he crouches behind some cover, the other three move into the building to corner John.
Lefleur continues firing at Jimbo while dodging the gators, taking some stress. He keeps on using his Inhuman Speed to shift between two adjacent zones, forcing the weregators to continually take a -1 supplemental action penalty for switching zones. Kind of cheesy there. Anyways, here I Compel Lefleur's Price On His Head, to have an assassin show up in the middle of the fight. Lefleur's player is having none of it, however, and resists the Compel. Wimp. Lefleur keeps pounding away at Jimbo though.
Temper the Scorpion vs. Jimbo the Alligator, the final question can now be decided. Again. I Compel Jimbo's Son of the Bayou aspect to give him another fate point, and for him not to accept the aid of his gang in the fight against Temper. They can still kill John and LF though. Jimbo inflicts a few points of stress against Temper, spending lots of Fate Points, but it's not enough against her higher rolls and Supernatural Toughness. She keeps inflicting conditions on him, like the Moderate condition "Clamped," and the Severe condition "Double Clamped" (Futurama). Use the clamps!
John finds himself cornered in the building, menaced by weregators. And he's used a lot of magic already this scene, and can't kill any of the weregators either (damn you Laws of Magic!). He has managed to use his enchanted item to put up a shield though, that lasts for 3 exchanges. That shield manages to defend him against the gators for now, but his rifle is proving to be underpowered against 3 gators in close quarters. He considers a zone attack spell to throw everyone out of the building with gusts of wind, but I point out he's in the zone too; he'd have to defenestrate himself as well.
Temper does manage to finally kill off Jimbo though. And they hear more cops showing up, so the weregators take the opportunity to run like hell, jumping into the ocean and swimming away in their alligator forms. John and Temper run for the car and drive away, while Lefleur picks up a badge off one of the cops and poses as an undercover detective at the scene of the crime. Lefleur's epic deception skills once again carry the day, however, and the police totally buy his story. He heads off because he needs to "make a few calls" to keep his cover intact. I think he's actually planning on running like hell once no one is watching, but I Compel the Price on His Head once again, and he lacks the Fate Points to resist it. Then Lefleur blows his Alertness roll.
Elli, badass changeling assassin, is back. She explains calmly that she's pointing a silenced weapon right at his head, and to drop his guns. He complies. Elli complains about how this job was a major pain in the ass, and now Machete Dan wants Lefleur alive, a very inconvenient change of plans. For torture, presumably. She directs him into a car, then tells him to drive as she sits in the backseat. They're headed towards Machete Dan's cabin. It's not just some shack in the woods, instead a small yet luxurious place to "get away from it all." With satellite internet connection and TV, of course.
Elli leads him inside, where LF is searched for weapons and then restrained with handcuffs by a pair of burly bodyguard type guys. Machete Dan is extremely pleased that Lefleur is his, and makes a few threats towards Lefleur. Elli just asks for her money, and she's handed a briefcase full of cash. Lefleur, cunning bastard that he is, warns Elli that the bills might be marked or radioactive, explaining that Daniels once cheated him that way. LF's Deception continues to be successful, and now Elli is pointing guns at everyone. LF continues to try and egg her on to start shooting, while Machete Dan tries to negotiate. Unfortunately, the banks are closed in the middle of the night, so they can't do a wire transfer or other alternate payment. Things are tense, but it doesn't seem like Lefleur will be able to manipulate Elli and Dan to kill each other.
Then Raxxus calls on the videophone, seeking more information. Machete Dan tells him that the situation is soon to be resolved, while Lefleur starts using his Deception on the dragon. He continues his claim that Machete Dan is trying to cheat his boss. He also says that Machete Dan tried to cheat the hitwoman he hired as well; Elli pipes up to voice her displeasure with Machete Dan as well. Machete Dan tries to respond with Rapport, but unfortunately his Rapport sucks, and he comes across looking pretty lame and ineffectual. Lefleur also states that Machete Dan's actions aren't based on good business decisions, but instead his mad whims. He's losing it, man! A few more Superb Deception attacks and weak Rapport defenses and Raxxus has had enough. Raxxus tells Elli to kill Machete Dan, and she does so before he even finishes the sentence.
Raxxus then offers Lefleur a job; Machete Dan's old job, in fact. He says he never actually believed Lefleur's lies, but he admired how he was skilled and resourceful enough to dodge assassins and turn people against one another. Lefleur, always looking for an angle, accepts the job and the high annual salary that accompanies looking after a dragon's interests in New Orleans. Raxxus does warn Lefleur to never cheat him, or Machete Dan's fate will look a mercy. Here's where we ended the session, with Lefleur kicking ass with some quick-thinking Deceptions instead of the claws, guns, and lightning favored by other characters. He's going to change out his aspect Price On His Head with something about working for Raxxus. Also, he's now a Face in the city, representing Legacy of Corruption.
I can just imagine John and a very reluctant Temper mounting a rescue mission, to find Lefleur sitting in Dan's cabin smoking a cigar or something. :)
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Regarding Lefleur: In a way, he's the odd man out of the group. John's a Warden who fights monsters. Temper is a Denarian who wants to use her evil powers to fight monsters (and other bad guys). Ignatius beats up scary dark monsters with nothing more than a pair of metal sticks. And Lenny is some nut who'll use any excuse to blow something up (like monsters). And then he'll gut them for alchemy components.
LF, on the other hand, is less motivated by fighting monsters and often more motivated by personal gain. His Trouble is basically Sometimes Does the Right Thing, implying that he more often does not do the right thing. Just kind of interesting. Anyway, the final scene with Lefleur was essentially put together to let him use his top skill to solve the situation, his Superb Deceit, instead of the violence we more typically see as the final solution to problems (every Dresden book tends to end with a big fight saving the day). So he beat up Machete Dan socially instead.
And Elli the Changeling Sylph Assassin, is pretty damn badass. She was built as a PC, with Superb Guns, Great Athletics, Stealth, and Deception. So she attacks at 5 and defends at 6; add on Supernatural Speed, Inhuman Toughness/Recovery, Wings, and Glamor, and you get an incredibly mobile ranged attacker who can do some neat tricks as well. Against most melee opponents, she's basically unbeatable: staying in the air and retreating two zones every turn while constantly shooting. She was designed to be the kind of enemy that Lefleur couldn't just beat and had a hard time running away from, to add some real teeth to this "price on his head" aspect of the adventure. She's the Boba Fett to the other Greedo hitmen. Against some of the more combat focused members of the group she'd be in real trouble, but she's smart enough to avoid picking fights when Lefleur has backup from his bodyguards (who happen to work for free).
Victim: maybe the point of Ghost Dad IS that he's an obvious hallucination. Use your imagination. :)
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Regarding Lefleur: In a way, he's the odd man out of the group. John's a Warden who fights monsters. Temper is a Denarian who wants to use her evil powers to fight monsters (and other bad guys). Ignatius beats up scary dark monsters with nothing more than a pair of metal sticks. And Lenny is some nut who'll use any excuse to blow something up (like monsters). And then he'll gut them for alchemy components.
LF, on the other hand, is less motivated by fighting monsters and often more motivated by personal gain. His Trouble is basically Sometimes Does the Right Thing, implying that he more often does not do the right thing. Just kind of interesting. Anyway, the final scene with Lefleur was essentially put together to let him use his top skill to solve the situation, his Superb Deceit, instead of the violence we more typically see as the final solution to problems (every Dresden book tends to end with a big fight saving the day). So he beat up Machete Dan socially instead.
I think group cohesion could be really helped if we caught Lefleur taking some Compels on his trouble, so we could see some of his good side.
Elly is pretty badass. For essentially being designed around the fast flight + Guns gimic, she has some surprising versatility with Glamors+Deceit for general trickiness and social conflict. Elly is pretty resilient too, with Good Endurance and Inhuman Toughness - 6 Stress boxes and 6 dodging means she can actually take one of John's 8/8 lightning attacks with only a moderate consequence. Not exactly great, but still better than most enemies, and she'd probably just want to live long enough to run away.
Victim: maybe the point of Ghost Dad IS that he's an obvious hallucination. Use your imagination. :)
Yeah, I mentioned that I could think of a few benefits:
An obvious illusion could be used to cover up a few more subtle alterations. OTOH, once she figures it out, the whole thing becomes a lot less likely to work.
Or creating the impression of mental illness or influence could be the goal.
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Lenny meets up with John and Temper once they realize that Lefleur is gone. Kidnapped. John isn't sure where they should go to look for the White Court Vampire, until Temper reminds him acidly about Machete Dan's cabin in the middle of nowhere. Perfect for interrogation and murder. The three saddle up (Temper reluctantly, more to protect John than help Lefleur), then sneak towards the cabin. They see a pair of thugs inside cleaning up some bloodstains. Fearing the worst (or best, in Temper's view) has passed, they bust in, John holding the thugs up at gunpoint. Lenny, in his most menacing voice, demanded to know where Lefleur was. He hit one of the thugs with the baseball bat to show he was serious. The other thug stammered that LF was in the television room. Not believing the man, Lenny that proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy with the baseball bat while John checked out the television room. Lefleur was there, drinking a beer and smoking a cigar. "Hey," he called. Lenny went "Well, isn't my face red" and left the thugs in a bruised heap.
LF was sketchy about the details of his arrangement with Raxxus, but revealed the basic truth of their new relationship. The magnificent four then figured they had to stop the vampires before they took over the whole damn city with their narcotic saliva scheme. Realizing that the MiB (who was renamed this session as the sinister sounding Rothchild) was somehow key to their scheme, Lenny arranged another meeting with Rothchild, saying he had a new shipment of antitoxin to use against vampire venom. His Deception wasn't the greatest, so Rothchild was suspicious, and stopped by after dark. Instead of antivenom, though, Lenny cooked up a fake batch made from household ingredients, trusting that Rothchild wouldn't know the difference. Rothchild also buys some universal solvent from Lenny, and compliments him on his customer service. He offers his help and the help of his 'associates' in removing Lenny's competition (Etienne Moiret), but Lenny reluctantly turns him down. He wants to beat Moiret as a businessman, not as a thug.
While he's talking to Rothchild, Lenny sends Lefleur a text: Lefleur and John are waiting in some dive nearby. Lefleur gets into a small fight with a local meathead bully over where LF chooses to sit, as I compel LF's Smartass aspect, but John solves the situation with diplomacy and cash. Pansy. Temper arrives soon enough, and the trio follows Rothchild as he walks away from Lenny's shop with a grocery bag full of alchemical goodies (Lenny cuts costs wherever he can; he steals grocery bags from the supermarket and just uses them at his store). Rothchild sends a text, an SUV pulls up, and Rothchild is about to get in. Using his favorite disguise, Lefleur 'pretends' to be a drunk, stumbles up to Rothchild and picks his pocket (do you need a stunt just to pick pocket in this game? we just let LF roll with it after some thought), stealing his phone. Temper memorizes the license plate, and Whitfield uses his air magic to blow out the car's taillight. Maybe he's hoping the cops will give Rothchild a ticket? No, he actually picks up the pieces of the taillight for tracking magic later on.
The trio is successful. However, Temper becomes convinced that she's being followed by this young couple. I throw a Compel her way, and she decides she needs to lose them as quickly as possible. So she jumps down a storm culvert and makes her escape that way. Victim initially just wanted to try to lose them in an alleyway, but I wanted something kind of extreme that would actually draw attention. When I throw Compels, I think they should be entertaining and, well, loud, not just the kind of action you'd take if you actually were a person of interest in a major investigation. Instead, the kind of action you take if you think fluoride is some kind of mind control chemical. We agreed that Temper needs her own late night radio show where she can talk about how the vampires control Washington or something.
Temper attempts to do some Investigation that ends up being fruitless, while the three guys head back to John's bachelor pad. John does his tracking spell, only to be interrupted by the cops. Evidently someone took a picture of the crazy lady jumping into the sewer on their phone's camera, and it turned out to be a major suspect. So they're hear to question all of Temper's known associates again. And this is in the middle of John's ritual.
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I thought the Compel would be about complicating their investigation of the vampires because she had to dodge the cops, not do something crazy.
Maybe the radio guy should just be an NPC that she knows and sometimes passes information to.
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So the cops show up, right in the middle of John's divination ritual. Lefleur, however, answers the door, telling the cops that John can't come to the door, he's in the shower. He's definitely trying to give the impression that the two of them are gay. This really annoys John's player: it's okay that everyone thinks he's crazy (vampires are real, and I'm fighting them!) as long as they think he's straight. Heh, that's funny. Lenny listens in, but makes himself scarce once it's clear the cops are involved.
Lefleur challenges the cops' legal right to be there asking questions and detaining them, but the pair can be held for twenty four hours without officially being charged with anything (I think-LF's player is a law student, I'm sure he'd tell me if I got something wrong). They do need a warrant to search the house, however, which the lead detective Griggs gets surprisingly easily from the judge. Almost suspiciously easy. They search the house, take John's gun, and arrest both Lefleur and Whitfield, dragging them to the police station.
The police interrogate John and Lefleur, asking about their relationship with the domestic terrorist, criminal, and overall 'person of interest' Temperance Smith. Here we have a nice social conflict between Detective Griggs, who thinks that this entire situation is fishy, and the dynamic duo of Lefleur and Whitfield. Griggs has overall Good social skills, and starts off just trying to hammer John (in his mind, the weak link of the pair) with attacks, revealing all these crimes that Temper is suspected of, threatening John, etc. However, Lefleur and Whitfield, through a combination of Rapport and Deceit, change the Detective's tune. Griggs in particular is concerned by the irregularities involved in their arrest, thinking some larger game that reeks of politics is afoot.
He agrees to let them go before the twenty four hours is up, insisting that he's going to keep an eye on them. If only he had time to match the ballistics of John's rifle to some of the bullets found in Jimbo Hill's body. That would make for a much different conversation. Meanwhile, the two wild cards of the group, Lenny and Temper, make a plan to get Lefleur and John out of prison. Temper blowing up the wall with C4 was briefly considered, but the less obvious plan involved Lenny sneaking in with his chameleon cloak and passing out escape potions for the trio to escape police custody. It turns out that the first priority was to recover the tracking spell locator, and rescuing the pair was the secondary objective.
As John and Lefleur were being released, John's personal effects were given back to him. His wallet was missing all of its money, however, and his copper blasting rod was gone! Where could it be? Using his Wizard's Sight, he scanned the station, looking for anything out of the ordinary. No sign of his focus item, but it was clear that one of the police lieutenants was a vamp saliva addict. Rather than confronting him or somehow slipping him some antivenom to clear his mind, John and Lefleur left him to meet up with Temper and Lenny (preferably before they blew up the building or something), leaving his focus item behind. This really surprised me; if I thought he was just going to leave his item behind, I would have thrown him a FP or something. I guess he didn't want to attract any attention in the police station. Weird though. To ditch the detective trying to follow them, John hexes his car and they make their escape, stopping somewhere along the way to load up on there illegal weaponry (although Lenny still prefers the solid bat swing to a real weapon).
The four meet up, now able to use the tracking spell to hopefully find the sinister Rothchild, kick his ass, and find out where the rest of the vampires are. They use the tracking spell to find a small winery and bottling plant, where they bust in ready to kick ass. They find a few workers addicted to vampire saliva there, and one Red Court vampire. In exchange for his life, he agrees to tell them everything he knows. The vamps are set up like terrorists, in separate cells, to reduce the risk of being found out. The vampire only knows where a few others are, but evidently Rothchild knows where they're all at. He's key to the entire thing.
Amazingly Temperance doesn't kill the vampire, so the vampire escapes, as the Magnificent Four move to intercept Rothchild's next appointment in the middle of the night. Just as he's getting out of his car at another small local bottling plant, the kidnap van pulls right alongside him. Rothchild barely has time to call for help before he's grappled; he was trying to reach inside his pocket for some vial, but Temperance stopped him from pulling it out. Then two vampires appear at the windows with submachine guns and open up. Lefleur and John drag Rothchild into the kidnap van, Lenny takes cover, and Temper opens fire
After securing Rothchild with plenty of duct tape, John heads out of the van into cover, activating his air shield. Lenny moved up to the windows where the vampires were firing from, using a few hits from his baseball hit to disarm an attacker. Temper fired off a few bursts of suppressive fire on the other hand while Lefleur drove the van right through the doors of the bottling facility, surprising the hell out of the two vampires and getting himself stuck. John moved up to grab the disarmed vampire's gun, while the disarmed vampire, now very pissed about the whole baseball bat to the wrist thing, drops his flesh mask and grabs Lenny through the window, pissed. Lenny, now certain he was dealing with a nonhuman, responds with some of his trademarked Universal Solvent to the face. Ouch. John manages to finish off the vampire with a close range burst from its own submachine gun. A close ranged gun fight occurs between Lefleur, Temper, and the second vampire, quickly resulting in another dead vampire.
Lenny and Temper decide to exercise their core competency of Smashing Stuff to start breaking all of the bottles in the plant, to disrupt the vampire saliva distribution network. Lefleur and Whitfield, meanwhile, interrogate Rothchild, forcing antivenom down his throat. Rothchild starts telling them how horrible it was, being a slave of the vampires, but Lefleur sees through the BS and quickly elicits the real story from the vampire saliva addict. He was afflicted with a terminal illness and worked with the vampires as an expert, in exchange for a second shot at a life. Despite being addicted to their feelgood saliva, he entered into that partnership willingly. The plan was to addict most of the people in New Orleans with venom, allowing the Red Court to essentially run the entire thing. Pretty scary.
And then Rothchild tells them that one of the best ways to insure the spread of an infectious disease is to neutralize those who would treat it. John, always the self-centered one, figured this meant him, but Rothchild clarified: it was the convent affiliated with the Fellowship of St. Giles that treated the saliva addicts. Temper, now joining the conversation, pipes up that she meant to investigate them. Sure you were, Temper. :) And that's where it was likely you could find Maya Stevenson and her vampiric scourge of baddies. Surprisingly, John and Lefleur agree to let Rothchild go, especially since that without becoming a vampire he was dead soon anyway. They don't bother to mention to Temper and Lenny Rothchild's full complicity with the vampire plan, his involvement in the likely death of a dozen nuns, or his other sins, so they let him go as well. Where's the justice here?
The now-damaged kidnap van drives off to the convent, where they meet with a Sister outside the place, as is typical. John uses his Sight to determine that she's addicted to Saliva; Temper grabs her while the others force antivenom down her throat. Maybe they should just get a tranquilizer gun instead loaded with antivenom. She starts weeping, telling them how horrible it was, and how evil Maya is. True dat: She wrote my universe's equivalent of the Twilight books. :) She tells the story how the vampires used threats and lies to breach the threshold, then overcame the sisters, turned some of them and addicted the rest. A few managed to retain their humanity as just Infected, but it would only be a matter of time.
A plan was quickly devised, sticking to their strengths: BLOW SOMETHING UP! Temper and Lenny were going to climb onto the convent's roof, lace it with explosives, and at sunrise, expose all of the vampires to sunlight (and explosions, and shrapnel/falling rubble, whatever), then hit them with everything they had in one brutal assault. It was a good plan. Unfortunately, the Sister pointed out how the vampires would quickly suspect trouble if she didn't return quickly. She was clearly scared, but was willing to go back and pretend to be addicted; she did ask for a poison from Lenny (one WITH an antidote), which she took. If the plan worked, then Lenny could give her the antidote; if not, then at least she wouldn't be tortured, and any vampire who fed on her would also die. So they sent the poor sister back in, where she tried to fool the vampires. I actually tried to compel Lenny's aspect Works In Theory for some weird potion side effect to come up, but he paid me off. Jackass, ruining my fun. I guess Lenny draws the line at experimentation when poisoning nuns.
Into the nunnery she went, and I rolled her Deceit. It came up at -1. A quote from the table: "Everyone knows how good nuns are at lying." Yeah, not very. :) The game was up. Lenny and Temper were up on the roof, planting explosives, when Temper saw Tim the Sniper come up onto the roof, laying down and being very sneaky. Temper turned on her flashlight, clearly illuminating the sneaky vampire for all to see. Other vampires had approached the stained glass windows while Tim went to the roof. Tim's snipery ambush ruined, battle quickly opened.
It was chaos. Raven came out of the convent with his katana, ready to fight John. He used some maneuvers, including a successful untrained Intimidation to put a maneuver on him, then attacked, dealing lots of stress to poor John. Which is kind of sad, since Raven is an embarrassment to vampires everywhere. Other vampires unleashed streams of automatic fire on the two guys on the ground, mainly Lefleur, who was busy trying to line up a shot on Raven. Raven managed to throw his trenchcoat over John's face, really pissing him off, before John fried Raven with lightning. Raven was rolling exceptionally well, however, and managed to survive. As he maneuvered for another katana assault, Lefleur shot him in the back. Raven's last words were of disbelief; he couldn't believe he was killed by LEFLEUR instead of someone badass. Then more automatic weapon fire came pouring out of the convent (you know, this might be the first time in the history of the english language that the prior sentence has been written :)).
Meanwhile, on the roof, Temper turned herself into a monster scorpion and went after Tim the Sniper, who started using the patented Lefleur shuffle to move zones every round to give his slower attackers a -1 penalty on their attackers. He would aim at Temper, then fire, then aim, then fire...he inflicted quite a bit of stress. Lenny tried to stick him to the roof with really sticky glue, but it didn't quite work, since Tim is just too dodgy. Any time any vampire not named Tim climbs up to the roof, Lenny blows them to pieces with explosive flasks. At one point, two vampires come out onto the roof gingerly carrying holy water, which they then chuck at Temper. The burns! And Temper's Armor 2 and extra stress boxes, it does nothing! Take that, incredibly cheap Catch on your defensive powers! Temper, of course, doesn't know it's holy water; she thinks it's flesh-eating acid. Then Lenny blows up those vampires too.
Both Temper and Tim are inflicting some major damage on each other, with Tim inflicting a Grazed consequence on Temper. It's not often I get to put consequences on Temper. Then Temper finally catches up to Tim, getting a solid hit and causing the cry of "Use the clamps" to spring forth from the table. Really, that should be one of her aspects: the Clamps. Temper cuts off Tim's leg, causing him to stumble backward and fall off the roof. Goodbye Tim the Sniper.
Lefleur and John are returning fire; John, having already used his air shield ring this session, keeps throwing up powerful blocks and then spending more magical power to keep it running. It takes several of his actions, but on the other hand, he is mostly invincible for most of this fight. Evocation needs errata kind of badly, especially since that anyone with half a brain will just use one Element for just about everything, just buying up Control/Power in that one thing. Spirit works pretty well in that area, but John uses Air. His lack of a focus item is hurting him though, offensively, and he's not sure whether or not he wants to start blasting the inside of a convent with massive lightning attacks. Then four vampires jump out of the church, grab Lefleur, and pin him to the ground then smash his head against the pavement. Ouch. Lenny, ever vigilant during his own battle atop the roof, throws down some bottled sunlight, causing the vamps to escape and run shrieking back into the church. Go Lenny.
Finally, John has had enough, and throws down some Fate Points to launch a two zone evocation attack, making every vampire inside extra crispy. Seizing the advantage, Lefleur runs inside to finish off more vampires, where he gets attacked by two other vampires from another zone. They finish him off, Taking Him Out, and then drag him inside further inside the convent. Poor bastard. By now, Lenny and Temper are done on the roof, and they climb down to continue the ground assault and recover Lefleur. John follows, his evocation air shield now out of juice.
As they head deeper inside, Maya strikes from ambush, hiding in a corner and waiting for John to walk by. She's sneaky, and she's damn good with that shotgun of hers. Maya hits John for 9+ stress from ambush at close range, now giving him a minor and a moderate condition from the shotgun blast. More vampires run out into the hallway from the cells, some dressed in habits. Temper fends off the vampires with claws and tail while Lenny whips out more bottled sunlight. John responds with an absolutely devastating evocation attack against Maya, but she dodges some of the blast, ending up only horribly injured. Just like John. She fires a second shotgun blast point blank into John; many other players would simply accept being taken out at this point, but not John's. Instead. John takes the severe consequence of Punctured Lung and loses even more stress. Although he really shouldn't be able to talk, he quips "I've thought of an ending for your next book. All the vampires die, forever." Then takes a second minor mental consequence and roasts poor evil Maya (John's taunt made her roll like shit, not that it would have mattered). The other vampires flee from the sunlight and aren't seen from again. They'd like to go after them, but let's face it, the group isn't in much condition to. Except Lenny; he cheerfully points out that he's fine. Untouched, even. :) Thanks Lenny.
And with that we ended the session and the adventure, with a massive, massive fight against Maya and her cronies. Maya spent most of the fight finishing off and turning any nuns that she could, just to make it a completely hollow victory. The Sister they sent in: she died (but took two vampires with her b/c of the poison). I'm not going to tell if she died because of the vampires, or because of that massive two zone evocation John threw out. :) So the group finds Lefleur in another room (they didn't kill him b/c of professional courtesy: he is a vampire, after all) and evacuate, right before one of Maya's customary firebombs burns the convent to ruins. I know I considered having Maya run away, but she had a long invested in the plan, and she had stripped away most of the group's stress and item uses. She wasn't going to have a better chance than this, so she took it and failed.
Everyone got a skill point and a point of refresh from reaching this milestone. Lefleur increased his Intimidation to Superb, grabbed more Incite Emotion powers (now including fear, so he can attack dudes/ugly women as well as hot chicks with his mental attacks :)) Lenny just banked the refresh, and Temper increased her Fists to Superb and got even more strength for her scorpion form.
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Lenny wasn't going to use his experimental potions on a nun: He's a good Catholic, after all! ;)
He got lucky being the least dangerous guy on the roof at the time; Tim spent all of his time fighting Temp, and the vamps on the ground focused on John and LeFleur. So Lenny was never really attacked. :)
The interrogation with Rothchild was pretty great-He wasn't afraid of death, and he was more afraid of Maya than he was of us because of what she would do to him if he talked. At this point, LeFleur asks him what Maya will think WHEN WE LET HIM GO. LF then scored on his intimidate, and Rothchild freaks out. John eventually promised him protection or something, and then he agreed to spill the beans.
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It was pretty funny when Lefleur chased the vampires who had just been grappling him and otherwise dishing out the pain. If he was losing outside against them, changing the venue shouldn't make much difference. I think his player was mostly frustrated, since he kept missing everything.
I had one trick planned in the roof battle, but Lenny didn't cooperate. When Tim the vampire sniper (stolen right from the rulebook), I was thinking of switching back to normal and then detonating the explosives we had planted there. But Lenny never moved his ass until after Tim was down, so he would have been in the zone too. It may have served him right though. :)
I had thought about investigating the convent. But I thought it would just be more of her paranoia (are the people John says help the victims really treating them?) than anything bad actually happening, and it seemed like there was tons of stuff going on already. So I was like, "sounds like something to bring up next adventure." And now they're all dead. :(
Temper let the vampire go because she wouldn't have been able to one shot it with a gun. So it just would have run away, and then John would have been pissed she ruined his whole 'let's talk about this' deal. But if she had known the full story on Rothchild...
The holy water "acid" flasks are still funny. No one even knew better to correct her, either. ;D
Regarding John's focus item, I was assuming that it had already been transferred away from the police station during the interrogation - it makes sense the vampires might want to get their hands on it or destroy it. So trying to trick the Lt into drinking the antivenom wouldn't have helped in that case. Obviously, that wasn't the case, so leaving it behind looks kind of dumb. But from our PoV, it could have been anywhere, and not just in the trash right behind the station.
Temper had never taken a consequence while monstered up before that fight. Supernatural Toughness is pretty damn tough as long as you aren't facing serious evocation specialists.
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Outstanding issues/things to do:
Have someone keep an eye on Rothchild. His knowledge is pretty dangerous if he seeks out more vampires. Fortunately, most of them aren't as modern as Maya - her different sensibilities made her a serious long term threat (John and Temper actually prioritized her over the Count before she was a noble) - so he might have trouble finding buyers.
Try to find Jimbo's backer. Looking into the boat he was robbing might help. I had Temper check into any land deals going on and came up blank, so his new partner didn't seem to be using Walter's strategy.
???
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Rothchild totally deserved to die. Just to put it out there. Anyway, we played a session a few days ago, starting a new adventure. John's player couldn't make it, and Ignatius's is out of the state for some reason. So it's Lenny, Lefleur, and Temper. We start off with Lenny getting a phone call from a Professor of the Paranormal at Tulane, an Arthur Gose. He was doing a television show in New Orleans, and wanted some kind of expert from the occult community there to serve as a kind of adviser. Arty and his team were going to be exploring the Lalaurie House, one of the most haunted buildings in the country. Here's where I threw a Compel at Lenny for his Now For Something Completely Different aspect, which is kind of a stretch but pretty funny anyway. It was something totally random and out of left field. Lenny accepts, mainly so he can plug his business.
Out of curiosity, however, Lenny asks who recommended him. It turns out that Etienne Moiret (the Power Hungry Houngan, now a Freeholding Lord) was Professor Arty's first choice, but he said he was too busy. So he recommended Lenny. Lenny figures that this is some attempt to insult/distract him; actually, Etienne sent him into the Lalaurie House because he thought Lenny might die. :) So Lenny agrees to meet with the Professor later. It also turns out that Arty is under the impression that Lenny is some kind of voodoo practitioner. He's not, but Lenny doesn't bother to correct him, and he's got the Lore to fake it.
Temper, meanwhile, is sleeping. A nightmare. She's having dreams about a scary house. Her dad (actually Soneillon) warns her that she's under psychic assault, and then she gets a Discipline roll. She's still sleeping, but can now confront the Cauchemar, or Nightmare Hag, directly in her dream. For stats, I just used the Hecatean Hag stats in the book, but made their specialty Spirit and gave them the option of doing mental or physical damage with their spells. Temper started fighting them, manipulating her dream environment to give herself a bazooka. Unfortunately, she kept missing, while the Cauchemar kept inflicting some stress. Eventually, Lenny's player (I think it was him) just said "Look, have you ever regretted scorping out? Use the clamps!" And, finally, Temper uses the clamps and drives away the Cauchemar. Go Temperance. Temper's dad is still around, however, and says that she needs to seek out and destroy the Cauchemar who dared to attack her. Leave none alive. This is a Compel (a pretty reasonable one, but I want to get Temper used to dealing death to her enemies without mercy or hesitation-THEN she can go full evil).
Lefleur is at his new office that Raxxus bought him, chilling, when he gets a call from the boss dragon. Raxxus makes a few pleasantries, then says "There is an adolescent, Jean Baptiste Parent. I want him." Oookay. LF makes a few inquiries, perhaps hesitant to engage in human trafficking, he learns that J-B Parent attends a local private high school as a boarding student and has disappeared. Raxxus wants him on a plane to his location. So, here's a compel on Lefleur's Aspect Works for Raxxus (or whatever he calls it), and he takes it of course.
The three then meet for some lunch, after all of them have gotten their respective adventure hooks. Since John is busy with White Council business, they didn't end up going to Waffle House. Thank God for that. Temper asks Lenny about a blueish/purple hag creature that attacks your mind. Lenny is curious as to why, and Temper lies, saying that John gave her a book and she's doing some research. Not the best lie, since if Temper were actually reading the book, she's already have her answer. However, both Lenny and Lefleur begin making jokes about how Temper can't read, and she was actually just looking at the pictures. After Temper flips them both off, Lenny says it's a Cauchemar, and they eat people's souls, especially people with supernatural power. Cheery. I guess that explains why it was going after Temper then.
Lenny brags about how he's going to be on TV with Gose's Ghostbusters exploring the Lalaurie House, and the trio splits up again. Lefleur heads over to LeRoi Academy, a private boys prep school, with an adjacent dorm for the boarding students. It looks like there was recently a bad fire at the dormitory. Lefleur busts out his fake police badge, asks some questions, and gets a copy of Jean Baptiste's file. It turns out that the Parent boy was quiet and unremarkable, his parents were rich but died, and he had some rich uncle/benefactor who lived in a foreign country. LF thinks that this benefactor "might" be Mr. Raxxus. He then talks to a student, again pretending to be a cop, asking about J-B Parent. He gets the same information mostly: quiet, keeps to himself, dead parents and rich uncle. He also learns that Parent's roommate was badly burned in the fire on the night where Parent disappeared. LF already has a suspect: Lenny and the kidnap van! It all makes sense now.
LF heads to the crime scene, stepping over the tape, into the burnt dormitory. He tries to make heads and tails of the place, but his Investigation isn't quite up to code. In fact, I don't think he even has any. So LF calls up the one person who he DOES know has some Investigation. Hello Temper. Temper isn't quite keen on helping the vampire, but she wants to know what he's up to, so she shows up to help. Temper learns that the fire had multiple ignition sources, and there's no trace of any accelerant. Does that mean magic? Could the kid be a spellcaster? That's all the help Temper can muster (she didn't roll like Sherlock Holmes this time, at least). LF then heads to the hospital to talk to Parent's roommate at the dormitory, who was badly burnt. He talks about how he was having this nightmare of a scary house, and then he remembers waking up when Parent was crying out in terror during his sleep. Then Parent seemed to spontaneously combust, shooting out fire like the Human Torch, and ran out of the room in the middle of the night, presumably lighting the rest of the dormitory on fire on the way. And it also sounds like he may have been the victim of another Nightmare Hag.
Lenny, meanwhile, is meeting with Arty at his offices in Tulane: Arty is a cheerful older man in his 50s or 60s who wears a lot of tweed. He introduces his two graduate students who will be coming with him, Jake, an ex-football tackle with a busted knee and an enthusiastic attitude, and Marie, the quiet and studious one. He also meets another member of their ghost hunting expedition, the skeptic Edgar (a physics grad student who thinks everyone involved is full of BS). What's funny here is that I'm sure that all of the players in RL want to like Ed and sneer at Arty, Jake, and Marie for their made-up subject. But in the Dresdenverse, those three are right! I still don't think that Temper's conspiracy theories will EVER be right, no matter the universe (maybe Dark Matter?). He also meets their cameraman Alex, a film student willing to work cheap.
Arty mentions how they're going to have a surprise guest, but doesn't say who it is. He also mentions how they need one more person, preferably another subject matter expert. Well, Lenny mentions his buddy LF, a subject matter expert and PI who's seen some real messed-up shit. LF isn't actually a PI, but oh well. Lenny shows Arty a picture of LF, and Arty immediately agrees; evidently he wants some eye candy for possible female viewers (sorry Jake). Lenny calls up LF, asking if he wants in, and he senses the connection between the two cases. And he figures being on TV may improve his ability to chat up women. LF inquires if there's any attractive women going to be on the show; Lenny, looking at the very serious Marie (nice skin, black hair in a braid, dresses like she's going to an interview) and says "kind of." LF agrees.
Okay, now that they've got two of the party members in, they figure they might need some close in backup, IE Temper. They need an excuse. So Lefleur heads on over to talk to the cameraman, trying to scare him. He mentions how this is the third time Arty actually tried to cover the Lalaurie house, and that the third time's the charm. Alex isn't fazed much, but LF's Intimidation attempts are starting to concern him. Then LF hammers it home with one of the best lines ever, delivered so off-handedly: "I need to pick up more trash bags." Yeah, Alex isn't going to show up. So on the day of the shoot, Alex calls in sick, and Arty is desperate for another cameraman; Lenny is happy to recommend Temper. She shows up, careful not to appear in any shots herself, and the expedition heads out to the Lalaurie House. As it turns out, the surprise guest is Nicholas Cage, the owner of the haunted mansion. Jack is pissed about the star power, and mentions this to his new buddy Lenny.
So the television crew enters the spooky old manor in the French Quarter, where, according to folklore, America's first female serial killer tortured and killed dozens of her slaves in the early 19th century. It's the most haunted building in the city, and rumor has it that no one has managed to remain inside past midnight. Yes, I'm obviously stealing from an episode of Supernatural, they can sue me. Arty starts talking about the history of the house, while Nicholas Cage tries to look cool on the camera. Lenny gets asked a few questions. They then split up the crew to cover more ground, with Jake and Edgar going off in one team; Lefleur is quick to pair himself up with Marie (armed with another handheld).
Jake, showing a little more sense than some others, asks Lenny about some ghost countermeasures. Jake's heard that salt will work to disrupt them, and if you can just throw it at them. Lenny, armed with Superb Lore and his own supply of Ghost Dust, shrugs and says "Sure." Is he TRYING to get Jake killed? I guess so. Then the group splits up with a bunch of academics in the most haunted house in New Orleans. Will they even make it to midnight?
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Eventually, Lenny's player (I think it was him) just said "Look, have you ever regretted scorping out? Use the clamps!" And, finally, Temper uses the clamps and drives away the Cauchemar. Go Temperance.
Well, she hasn't regretted it YET. Not using it all the time seems like a good way to avoid regretting it in the future. I really wanted to get out of that scene without using her powers at all, but the dice were not on my side. Temper was getting decent rolls for defenses, but her attacks were coming at -3 on the dice. :( Even tagging some of the maneuvers she did wouldn't have helped. I even spent most of her Fate Points. But the Nightmare Hag seemed to have poison (Temper's Endurance is only 1), could force her into consequences on any physical hit, and dangerous mental attacks (she ended up with a mild mental consequence) so it seemed like she was running out of time. Naturally, the turn she uses her power she rolls +2 and the Hag rolls -2 or -3, so pretty much anything could have landed a decent hit. But that attack hit for 11, so the Hag might think twice before going after her again.
Lenny is curious as to why, and Temper lies, saying that John gave her a book and she's doing some research. Not the best lie, since if Temper were actually reading the book, she's already have her answer. However, both Lenny and Lefleur begin making jokes about how Temper can't read, and she was actually just looking at the pictures.
Yeah, because all the texts about magic are in English. :)
And Lefleur doesn't have much room to complain. IIRC, Lenny has as much scholarship as everyone else (everyone else who matters; I don't know about Iggy, but you may have noticed he doesn't show up) combined at 3 (I figured that he should have good normal chemistry on top of his alchemy when I picked his skills). And Temper has 2. So yeah.
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But Lefleur doesn't believe in things like the Illuminati and the Bildeberger Group running world affairs. :) Although Temper was spookily accurate about vampire venom being the secret ingredient of Coca Cola. I think Maya must have read Temper's blog. And Lefleur probably thinks he's smarter than he really is, since he just lies about everything. Temper should just run him over with her Schwinn. Or fall in love and then punch him to bypass his Inhuman Recovery.
I really need to put some lovebirds in there to do physical harm to Lefleur. That would be funny. I also need an NPC friend of Temper's who's some late night radio talk show host / conspiracy nut. Maybe have him stumble onto some real supernatural event going down.
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But Lefleur doesn't believe in things like the Illuminati and the Bildeberger Group running world affairs. :) Although Temper was spookily accurate about vampire venom being the secret ingredient of Coca Cola. I think Maya must have read Temper's blog. And Lefleur probably thinks he's smarter than he really is, since he just lies about everything. Temper should just run him over with her Schwinn. Or fall in love and then punch him to bypass his Inhuman Recovery.
The amusing thing about playing Temper is that her conspiracy theories aren't crazy enough for the setting. :) I mean, all those groups are basically people. No one predicted economic shadow warfare between immortal vampires and the ancient order of long lived wizards...
She's been working on revising them to account for the supernatural.
And why would she put surveillance on herself with a blog? The whole blogging and social networking fad is just a way to encourage people to spy on each other, feed information to the Echelon supercomputers, and expedite social conditioning. :) But she's not above using them to help build cover IDs.
Why would Temper need to fall in love to hurt Lefleur? She could just use The Clamps! :D
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This thread is like 4 sessions behind now.
"I survived the zombie apocalypse and all I got was one party kill" :)
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Regarding Temper's paranoia and Victim's comments: Victim is the only person in my peer group who doesn't have a Facebook page. My mom has a Facebook page!
While the Lenny, Temper, and Lefleur spend the night in a haunted house with a Tulane professor and Nicholas Cage (and they don't even get to keep the house if they survive!), Whitfield is stuck in Atlanta doing a White Council meeting. He's still got his Severe Consequence Punctured Lung though, and probably not in much condition for real heavy fieldwork. But this is one of those talking meetings, specifically called on whether or not the White Council should temporarily suspend the Laws of Magic for their Wardens in the vampire war. Evidently the vamps have been taking some strategy from Maya and using human shields and mortal mercenaries to really put the hurt on the wizards in any open engagement.
So the wizards are taking testimony from many of the Wardens, including John (and Morgan and Ramirez). Morgan meets with John before the meeting to tell him how important this is, and how he suspects the hand of "the warlock" is behind it. Morgan hates Harry Dresden. John is also quite celebrated for his victory in the war against the vampires, killing a vampire noble, disrupting her evil scheme, and destroying most of her retinue. You'd almost think he had help or something. Ramirez gives testimony about how relaxing the Laws during the prosecution of the war would be helpful to his job, and it wouldn't really matter in the end: any time mortals show up, he just blows them up with grenades. Same thing, right?
John also gives testimony, saying how he didn't need to break the laws of Magic to defeat the vampires, and how suspending the laws would destroy everything the wizards stood for. In the end, it would kill them surer than the vampires ever could. During his testimony, however, I Compel his new Trouble Loose Lips Sink Ships to reveal that he had quite a bit of help during the big vampire fight (you can almost hear Morgan's hand slap into his forehead :)). White Court Vampire, Denarian, Alchemist...yeah. John quickly tries to turn this to advantage, talking about how the wizards need to build bridges and work with other members of the magical community against the Red Court. So John makes a Rapport check to determine how effective his testimony is; he gets a Good result. Here, the table brings up how maybe John should invoke his Aspect Lets Talk About This to boost his speech; John's player says he wants to save it, for something more important like a boss battle. I ask him if he thinks that testimony that might very well influence the destiny of the entire White Council (and thus humanity) is less important than whatever it is he's going to be fighting. Then John's player spends the fate point, boosting it to Superb. His speech effects a warm reception.
The Council meeting ends with the wizards agreeing not to change the laws of magic, but the Merlin does promise that the Senior Council will take efforts to curtail the effectiveness of the RC's new use of humans in their attacks. Thanks Merlin. Any guesses on what this might be? John also gets a message about how Lenny and the others are going to appear on TV exploring the Lalaurie House; John is obviously less excited about that than Lenny, and figures that they're in a bunch of danger. So he gets into his car and drives down to New Orleans in a real hurry.
The rest of the team, on the other hand, are splitting up to explore the haunted house. Lefleur and Marie head upstairs to check out the spooky attic. As they climb up the stairs of the Lalaurie Mansion, bloody writing appears on the wall. "Death Walks Among You." (Just today, Victim realized that this phrase might have been directly specifically to Lefleur) Lefleur isn't concerned, making some flippant comments. Marie is interested, and a little concerned, but she hasn't devolved into screaming fits or anything. Lefleur takes a sample of the blood; perhaps he's interested in channeling his inner Ghostbuster. I think it's about at this point that we argue who corresponds to each member of the Scooby Doo Gang: Lefleur, perhaps being the good looking "alpha male," is Fred; Marie is Daphne, I guess because LF wants to sleep with her; Temper, being the frequently portrayed in unattractive terms yet extremely capable, is Velma, and Lenny, a skinny guy who experiments with all kinds of fumes (and may be a drug addict himself), is Shaggy. Although Lenny has certainly proved himself to be fearless, and perhaps the rest of the group, by their association with the mad (or just careless) alchemist, nearly as fearless. Or maybe they just have no sense of pattern recognition. By process of elimination, that makes John Scooby Doo. :)
The main group, composed of Temper, Lenny, Arty, and Nick Cage, are exploring the basement. A ghost confronts them, warning them to leave, trying to frighten them away. Lenny busts out some of his homemade Ghost Dust and blows it in the ghost's face, driving it away. Then Lenny acts like it was some kind of voodoo magic. Arty continues to explain the history of the house, with Nicholas Cage chiming in trying to look smart. What a camera hog.
Then everyone hears a high-pitched girlish shriek. It doesn't come from Marie. Instead it comes from Ed, who's running away from where he and Jake were exploring. I bet he believes in ghosts now. The group reassembles (Nicholas Cage is a little slow in getting there), calms him down and learns that a group of ghosts attacked him and Jake, pulling Jake through a wall somehow. He's practically incoherent. It should have been obvious: the black guy is the first to go down. Arty is insistent that Jake might still be alive, and that they need to find him. They head to the scene of the ghostly abduction, and find Jake's dropped camcorder. Lenny reviews it, hoping for clues, and sees the ghosts attack. He also sees Jake attempt to throw salt into the ghost's faces, and it proves ineffective. Lenny then erases the footage, and any incriminating evidence of his own bad advice. What. A. Guy.
Lefleur shows off his muscles and tears down the wall, revealing a space between the walls big enough for a person to fit through. Inhuman Strength finally gets some screentime! This must be where the ghosts pulled Jake. Some quick Investigation, and they find some nail marks on the floor and one of Jake's shoes. Near a dumbwaiter! Reasoning that Jake must have been pulled up the dumbwaiter (or down it), they split up again. Marie and Lefleur head upstairs, briefing considering using the dumbwaiter before a brief flash of common sense makes them think twice, fearing a poltergeist severing the cable. So they use the stairs. LF isn't quite as eager to seduce Marie now that they're a man down; it's a side project now. So they start searching the upper floors, tearing through the walls at each likely place where the ghosts could access the dumbwaiter.
Temper and Cage head down to the basement, where Temper discovers an old, stuck, nearly invisible door. Nicholas Cage tries to bust it down, and fails his Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll. :) Temper offers to try and help, and as she tries to kick the door down, she sees a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. Nick Cage has grabbed an old wooden board and tries to beat up Temper. He's incredibly strong, far more than he should be; remember when Nick Cage was a little slow meeting up with the others? That's when he gets possessed.
Temper wisely decides to avoid using the clamps, instead using her superior unarmed skills to beat up Nicholas Cage. "That's for Face Off! That's for Ghost Rider! And that's for National Treasure!" "Hey, that last one was good!" I'll avoid recounting our table's trashing of Face Off and the debate of whether or not National Treasure was, in fact, good. Today we discovered that we will, in fact, argue about the color yellow. :) Even against a man possessed by a supernaturally strong ghost, Cage falls pretty quickly, but not before Delphine Lalaurie, the uberghost possessing Cage, throws off some insults towards Temper. Temper is, perhaps, fortunate, that she set down the camera before attempting to batter down the door and the camera only records the sounds of their skirmish.
With Lenny and Arty, Edgar is now insisting that he needs to get out of there. Arty and Lenny figure that this might be for the best. Lenny finds it quite difficult to force open the door, however, but his knack with the crowbar serves him well here. Weren't people supposed to run from this house before midnight? No, that's only the smart ones, or the ones without supernatural power. If you've got supernatural power, it's a little more difficult to leave. But Lenny does manage to pry it open, and shoves a chair between the frame and the door as Edgar runs, preventing any Final Destination-esque improbable fatalities involving the door. Edgar makes it out of the house alive, with his dignity in tatters! Then the door shuts, trapping Arty and Lenny inside once more. But they're not eager to leave, they still need to find Jake!
Upstairs, LF and Marie finally reach the attic, and find some evidence that Jake was taken up there. At the time of writing this, I forgot what; it's not important anyway. They're also menaced by a ghost, but Lefleur whips up a circle of salt and blood, protecting them from the ghost. LF tries to communicate with the ghost warning about death and murder, and he begins to think that maybe the ghost is trying to warn them away from the house, not kill them itself. Then Lefleur used his fancy new fear power to frighten the ghost away, and the duo continued their search of the attic. They eventually found Jake unconscious, on the roof, beaten up but not dead. Lefleur tried to revive Jake and hung out on the roof of the house; he called the rest of the group up to the attic.
Temper, dragging an unconscious Nick Cage, meets up with Arty and Lenny. Temper explains that, basically, a ghost beat up Nicholas Cage. Close enough, right. So they hurry upstairs, glancing at their watches to note that it's near midnight. They've almost broken the record!
Lefleur tells Marie that he's got a bad feeling about this, and that maybe she should head out onto the roof with him. He's got some pretty decent instincts, I have to admit. His great Empathy also allows him to discern that Marie is excited by all of this, and intellectually interested; she's not going to leave the house before midnight. LF also sees headlights pull up, and John run out of his car. John just knows that something bad is going to happen at midnight, and the shit is really going to hit the fan. So he hustles on up, his injured lung slowing him down, just reaching the door of the house before it becomes midnight. LF also relents to peer pressure and drags Jake inside the house as well, out from the roof. Marie is watching the house with great interest.
Then, the clock strikes twelve, and everything changes. Everyone feels different, a sudden sensation of vertigo. The house looks younger, cleaner, not as deliberately spooky. And, oh yeah, it's daylight out. Cue the "Duh Duh Duh," as Delphine Lalaurie the uberghost just shifted her entire old house to the Nevernever right at midnight.
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White Court Vampire, Denarian, Alchemist...yeah. John quickly tries to turn this to advantage, talking about how the wizards need to build bridges and work with other members of the magical community against the Red Court.
Temper loves it when John runs his mouth and blabs about her. She would be so mad if she ever found out.
Temper wisely decides to avoid using the clamps, instead using her superior unarmed skills to beat up Nicholas Cage. "That's for Face Off! That's for Ghost Rider! And that's for National Treasure!" "Hey, that last one was good!" I'll avoid recounting our table's trashing of Face Off and the debate of whether or not National Treasure was, in fact, good. Today we discovered that we will, in fact, argue about the color yellow. :) Even against a man possessed by a supernaturally strong ghost, Cage falls pretty quickly, but not before Delphine Lalaurie, the uberghost possessing Cage, throws off some insults towards Temper. Temper is, perhaps, fortunate, that she set down the camera before attempting to batter down the door and the camera only records the sounds of their skirmish.
Actually, we were saying those things as Temper beat up Cage (including a dislocated elbow from her counter attack after the possessed actor punched through the wall); she isn't a big movie watcher and had little to complain about besides his boring information on the house.
Temper, dragging an unconscious Nick Cage, meets up with Arty and Lenny. Temper explains that, basically, a ghost beat up Nicholas Cage. Close enough, right. So they hurry upstairs, glancing at their watches to note that it's near midnight. They've almost broken the record!
"A ghost possessed him and caused him to do things that injured himself..." If only she had that Deceit stunt, but it didn't prove necessary here.
And she sent Lenny a text to get the alchemist and professor downstairs so they could help carry the KO'd man; she didn't carry him herself.
Now, our readers may be wondering, "Why the hell is Nick Cage in this adventure?" According to mroehler's exhaustive :) research, the actor actually did own the real life version of the house for several years. This detail seemed too funny not to include.
Death Walks Among You could actually apply to pretty much all of our characters, besides any NPCs of surprising dangerousness. We're a pretty violent bunch. Lefleur killed someone becoming a vampire (and is now a sort of crime boss); John was a soldier and has probably been involved in putting down some warlocks, Temperance is a killer. It could have been warning the NPCs about us.
However, at the time, I suspected that Marie was a disguised Nightmare Hag, because the Lalaurie House appeared in her dream.
Conventionally, the skeptic guy will freak out and get himself or someone else killed. So far, the escort mission is proceeding fairly well.
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Death Walks Among You could actually apply to pretty much all of our characters, besides any NPCs of surprising dangerousness. We're a pretty violent bunch. Lefleur killed someone becoming a vampire (and is now a sort of crime boss); John was a soldier and has probably been involved in putting down some warlocks, Temperance is a killer. It could have been warning the NPCs about us.
It seems Lenny is the only one in the party who isn't a killer ::)
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It seems Lenny is the only one in the party who isn't a killer ::)
Oh, he never beat anyone to death with his bat? And I'm sure it's just a matter of time, considering your use of alchemy. :)
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The last movie Temper saw was Red Dawn, and she thought it was a documentary. ;D