Highway to Hell - A Cityless DFRPG/Core campaign

[admiralducksauce]

My brother got back to me with Scott's stats:

Scott Specter
ASPECTS
High Concept: Mean Motherfucking Servant of God
Trouble: On a Mission from God
Driven by Redemption
Outlaws to the End
Path of the Righteous Ex-Con
Occult of Personality
By the Skin of My Teeth
SKILLS
Great (+4) Conviction, Discipline
Good (+3) Intimidation, Rapport
Fair (+2) Presence, Empathy, Driving
Average (+1) Lore, Weapons, Fists, Endurance, Guns, Athletics
STUNTS & POWERS
-1 The Sight (+ Soulgaze)
-2 Righteousness
-1 Holy Touch
-1 Devout Words
Refresh: -5

(crossposted to Spare Character Concepts)

[admiralducksauce]

At long last!

Apologies if some of this seems a little jumbled.  The session ran just about double the expected time, plus I’m writing this up 2 weeks later so some of the details of how the gang got from point A to point B are fuzzy.

Session 6

Bill Stockburn, Clayton Haycock James,  Carter Mews, Scott Specter, and Kathryn Bryant
Reward: Major Milestone

NOW
Welker College
Kansas City, MO

The two men burst into the college junior's dorm room a split-second after she cracked her door.  The struggle that ensued was longer and louder than the girl’s attackers had planned, but the Alpha Sigma Sigma sorority was used to not knocking when one of their dorm rooms was rocking.

“Hold her down!”
“I’m trying, man!”

Alpha Sigma Sigma was not used to terrified death-screams, nor was it accustomed to the heavy thud of hammers driving stakes through ribcages.

Silence.

“Um... isn’t she supposed to burn up or something?”
“I don’t know, man!  Maybe sunlight?”
“Sunlight!  Yeah! Get her over to the window!”

The freshly-staked, still-bleeding corpse of Buffy Covington, age 20, crashed through her dorm window to land heavily and messily on the sunny sidewalk below.

“Shit!  Still no fire, man!  I thought you said they burn up in the-”
“Like I’ve ever done this before!?  Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

OPENING TITLE!
“Rolling Blackouts” is a hell of a Severe consequence to have when you’re trying to drive a motorcycle across state lines.

That’s why our intrepid heroes were currently shacked up at a Section 8 motel just outside Kansas City limits.  Clay was sleeping off his latest tumble and Chip Wakizashi, anchor for Action News 7’s “News of the Weird” segment, was talking about a stripper who had been staked and decapitated at the gentleman’s club PURE in downtown Kansas City.  The gang perked up as the news broadcast went on to say that Amy DeLuca, age 20, was murdered only a few days after an earlier murder-by-stake at Welker College, where junior Buffy Covington was staked and thrown from her 5th story dorm window.

I went around the table with Compels as best I could.  It seemed maybe the wrong people were getting staked, or the girls WERE monsters but not vampires, or any host of explanations.  Either way, the gang’s reasons for getting involved ranged from “saving college girls” to “killing possible vampires” to “teaching whoever IS doing the killing how to do it RIGHT”.

Fresh Meat
NOTE: This was Kathryn Bryant’s player’s second time at our gaming group.  He found us through Carter’s player’s wife, and took to roleplaying very quickly.  With RPG elements pervading video games now, it makes it really easy to transition over to tabletop.  Kathryn’s player was familiar with Fallout 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect, and so on, and he fit right in.  This was also his first time with the FATE system, which was neat to see someone without RPG preconceptions play it.  His High Concept for Kathryn was amazing (“Hot Slice of P.I.”; it’s clever, accurate, and connotates Warrant all at the same time), and his aspect “Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone” was practically printing FP for him.

I forgot to get her full sheet (again!!!), but here's her Aspects:
Kathryn Bryant
Hot Slice of P.I. (HC)
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (T)
Bookworm
Shoot Your Way Out
Not Safe Anywhere
Friends in Low Places
Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone

Never Been Kissed Starring Sam Elliott
The gang motored their way up to Welker College.  Most of my group attended the same college, so I provided easily-recognizable analogues and the jokes starting flying, especially since most of us are a decade or more out of school.  Clay kept on lookout, while Scott and Kathryn hit up campus security individually.  Scott covered up his prison spiderweb tats with his clerical collar and offered psychological counseling to Buffy’s friends (and got a list of names to check out).  Kathryn, disguised as a college student, distracted campus police for Scott’s next move, which was an entirely unsuccessful attempt to glean any information on Buffy’s attackers from surveillance recordings.

Carter went dressed as a professor, and bluffed his way into the registrar’s office to get the class schedules for the girls on Scott’s list*.  A quick readthrough put all the girls in the same American History night class, “A Changing America: 1860-1960”, taught by one Professor Patrick Rogers.

*Scott’s List:
1.  Buffy Covington, dead, not a stripper
2.  Amy DeLuca, dead stripper
3.  Ginny Hamilton, stripper, not dead
4.  Patty Blake, Buffy’s roommate, currently missing
5.  Jessie Summers, the Dumbest of Blondes (her High Concept)
6.  Angela Tucker, the token black friend

At this point, somebody said, “Ohhh, he’s a vampire and he’s teaching from personal experience!”  Sure, they were right, but their characters didn’t know that yet, and besides, if Rogers was a vampire, why would he be staking his students?

Bill snagged coveralls and went up to the crime scene in full “don’t mind me, I’m an old janitor” mode.  We had discussed this while Kathryn’s player was choosing stunts and skills, but Kathryn has a stunt that lets her use Scholarship for the “research” trappings of Lore.  This impeded somewhat on Bill’s chosen niche and his high Lore, so I decided to open up more of the “arcane senses” trappings of Lore to those characters who did invest in that skill.  Gut feelings, sniffing corpses, sixth sense, these were all things Bill could now do that Kathryn wouldn’t be able to without upping her Lore skill.  Bill didn’t need any of that stuff, though - even in a crime scene picked over by police, Bill could tell that Buffy possessed superhuman strength (there was a man-sized dent in the drywall, the carpet was ripped up by main force, and there was more junk food lying around than Buffy’s bikini-ready physique would indicate).  The peanut gallery threw out some ideas (ghoul, red court infected, white court, fairy knight, scion), but “strong creature that looks human” is, like, the baseline for the Dresden bestiary.  Bottom line is, their investigation at Welker turned up leads but wasn’t enough on its own.  They drove to PURE.

Stripping Your Way Through College
The gang hit PURE early in the afternoon, after some employees would be there but before it opened its doors.  Kathryn went “undercover” as a prospective hire using her “Hot Slice of P.I.” Aspect, Carter simply cased the joint with some Burglary maneuvers and snuck in the back, and the rest of the gang put on their “angry Italian family members from back east looking for answers about what happened to their cousin/granddaughter/niece Amy” faces and Intimidated the lone bouncer-in-training at the door.  Unfortunately, Kathryn’s ruse worked a little too well - she accepted a Compel on her “Hot Slice of P.I.” and the manager invited her back to his office for an “audition”.  With this Compel, I felt we might be skirting the line just a bit, especially with a new player, but I think I made it clear that the Compel was not for Kathryn to give the slob of a manager a blowjob or anything, the Compel was that the manager made the advances in the first place, and that Kathryn could respond as she liked.  What Kathryn did was pretty clever, and with the single sultry question “Do you like it tied up?” she had the manager restrained, gagged, and blindfolded and was rifling through his office with Carter a moment later.  Carter accepted a Compel to simply rob the place (knowing when the manager called the cops, it’d be Kathryn he’d be telling them about). 

Meanwhile, the guys out front got some choice intel from the poor beleaguered bouncer.  1) Amy wasn’t the only stripper out of their list of friends; Ginny Hamilton was also stripping her way through college at PURE.  2) Bobby Sutherland was the bouncer on duty the night Amy was killed (Kathryn got his address from the manager’s office).  3) They snagged a ton of dressing room photos so they had pictures of the entire group, plus Bobby, and plus Patty’s boyfriend, Fred.  4) There was more evidence that Amy and Ginny were eating way more than normal, like they were trying to satiate a ravenous hunger.

Splitting the Party For Fun and Profit
The group was tied up in figuring out what the girls actually were and how Professor Rogers fit into it, not who was killing these girls.  They were pretty sure Rogers was a Red Court vampire based on what they knew about various vampires’ enthralling abilities, and Carter struck out on his own to check out Rogers’ townhouse while the suspected vampire had office hours at the college.

Those Hot Pockets Were Expired
Bill and Clay decided to pay the bouncer, Bobby Sutherland, a visit, and went on up to the guy’s apartment high-rise.  Once again, Intimidation proved a valuable skill as Bobby backed down from an armed confrontation.  The bouncer was suspicious but offered what information he had, if the two armed men in his apartment would just leave.  Bobby confessed to banging Amy and Ginny, he corroborated the list of girls’ identities and addresses but only knew Buffy’s boyfriend Fred in passing, and he told them he was tased and held down by a huge dog the night of Amy’s murder, after which he gave chase but lost the two culprits.  He gave enough of a description that the pair of hunters figured one of the murderers was Patty’s boyfriend, Fred.  While Bill could tell Bobby was hiding something, they couldn’t tell if they had gotten the whole truth from him (they had some bad dice luck and decided it wasn’t worth the FP).  For our studio audience, however, Bobby was totally a RCV.  It’s just that when you work a night shift and live alone, subtle clues like thick drapery blocking the sun and a fridge stocked with naught but frozen entrees and beer are reasonable accoutrements.

Fangbanger
Kathryn and Scott paid Ginny Hamilton a visit.  Her fairly classy apartment close to Welker spoke to a wealthy family, and the gang breathed a sigh of relief that Carter and his kleptomania were elsewhere.  Ginny was more evasive than Bobby had managed to be, but Scott and Kathryn had pretty good rolls on top of high social skills and cajoled the truth out of her.

Ginny was part of what she affectionately termed “the vampire club” (“And we all had vampire names picked out!  MY vampire name is ‘Nyteblade’!”*).

*Updated Scott’s List, Now With Vampire Names
1.  Buffy “Buffy, tee hee” Covington
2.  Amy “Dracula” DeLuca
3.  Ginny “Nyteblade” Hamilton
4.  Patty “This is stupid, guys” Blake
5.  Jessie “Bella *groan*” Summers
6.  Angela “Angela” Tucker

Professor Rogers was totally a vampire, and although his class was legitmately interesting, it was also a sort of recruitment test for a burgeoning Kansas City vampire nest.  Now, Ginny didn’t know all that - the players pieced it together - but what Ginny did know was that Bobby at PURE was also a vampire, and Buffy and Ginny and Amy and their friends wanted to all be sparkly awesome sexy vampires together.  Buffy, Ginny, and Amy had managed to “convince” Bobby to infect them when Fred started noticing Patty acting strangely (narcotic saliva in the classroom watercooler makes ANY class highly entertaining) and told her to transfer out of Rogers’ class.  The Alpha Sigma Sigma girls didn’t want their group broken up, so they got Bobby to infect Patty too, and that’s when the “vampire murders” started.

Carter: “Fred told Patty, or asked Patty?”
Me: “A guy like Fred doesn’t know the difference.”

Clay: “When we are done with this, we are going to fucking murder Stephanie Meyer.”

[Sanctaphrax]

Huh, sounds like a pretty cool session.

Hope there's a part 2 to this story.

[admiralducksauce]

There's several more parts - I just got interrupted while posting. 

She’s Not a Monster... Yet
Since the Ginny exposition was taking a fairly long time, and the encounter with Bobby was over very quickly, I let Bill and Clay meet up at Ginny’s apartment, where I was astounded and pleased to watch my players start arguing about what should be done with Ginny.  When I planned the adventure, I was hoping to spark some moral quandaries revolving around the group doing the killings, not the victims themselves, but what happened in Ginny’s apartment was just balls out awesome roleplaying.

Bill immediately argued for killing Ginny.  She was Red Court Infected.  There was no cure, no hope, and judging from her college career so far it didn’t look like she had the willpower to refrain from killing for a week, let alone forever.  She was practically a vampire already, she was just easier to kill now.  Bill got a FP for his “Former Host of Pantagruel” aspect as he argued what it was like to be a monster and how he would not willingly let someone else follow the same path he did.

Clay knew what it was like to be broken by something beyond his control (and got a FP for “Wrecked as a Soldier”), and argued that Ginny COULD hold out.  Clay was proof - out of his platoon he might have been the only survivor but he DID survive.  To deny Ginny that chance would be wrong.  Clay wanted to just keep tabs on her, and if she did change, they’d come back at that point and finish the job.

Scott was “Driven By Redemption” (another FP), and sided with Clay.  Ginny was still human, despite the curse in her blood, and it was their job to protect humans-

Bill: “It is our job to hunt monsters, and she is a monster.  Goddammit, boys, I ain’t gonna be around forever!  I’m tryin’ ta teach you what ya’ll need to know before it’s too late!  If you cain’t do what needs ta be done ya’ll end up dead or worse!  Let her live if ya want, but when you get yer balls back give me a call!”

With that, Bill thundered off into the sunset to the opening chords of “Blaze of Glory.”

Scott wanted to help Ginny see what she was up against, and soulgazed her.  Scott stood beside Ginny as she admired herself in a full-length mirror.  Her reflection was perfect, immortal, powerful, and yes, even a little bit sparkly.  Her real self, however, was embraced and entwined by the horrific visage of a Red Court vampire.  Scott drew up his will, smashed the mirror, and with it, smashed Ginny’s preconceptions about life as a bloodsucking abomination.  It was just a free tag on a single Aspect “Knows What She’s Up Against”, but it was more than Ginny had before.  Clay gave her the number to his burner phone as well, in case the other hunters caught up with her.

Home Alone
We all forgot Carter was still patiently waiting his turn in the spotlight after that intense intraparty scene, but I set the scene outside Rogers’ well-aged flagstone townhouse for Carter and he staked out the location for a while, placing helpful Aspects for his impending burglary.  Some distant gang gunfire, some barking dogs, a few passers-by, and Rogers’ neighbor leaving for work were the only highlights.  Carter narrowly avoided tripping a series of heat sensors but made his way in through the window unperturbed.

In contrast to Bobby Sutherland’s spartan arrangements, Rogers’ home was filled with over a century of valuable academia and antique furnishings.  His fridge looked well-stocked but it was mostly for show.  The majority of the food had long shelf lives and sat untouched; Carter surmised Rogers, as a tenured professor, simply made more money than Bobby did and so could afford to “dress up” his home on occasions where he would have had to meet people there or bring back a promising student for some personal tutelage.

Unfortunately for Carter, Rogers’ townhouse was slathered in bookshelves full to bursting with rare occult volumes.  Carter happily accepted a Compel on “Arcane Acquisitions Expert” and loaded “as many books as would reliably encumber him” onto his person and then into more satchels for his bike.  Had Carter escaped unnoticed, Rogers would still be tipped off that someone who knew occult valuables had been in his house.  But Rogers wasn’t home; he was at Welker College in his office, the sun had set not long before, and Carter figured he had a couple hours to poke around.

Carter didn’t find a single thing out of place.  There were no vampiric attack dogs, no Saw-style torture pens, no coffins.  The bedroom windows were tinted opaque, however, and the drapes were the heaviest he’s seen.  I’m afraid I don’t remember if Carter found anything on Rogers’ computer; I think he just stole the hard drive out of it and figured Scott or Kathryn could make use of it.

In the basement (which looked like a completely normal bar / den), Carter discovered a cleverly-hidden passageway behind (of all things) a bookcase.  He also discovered that there was no trick to the secret passage - it was just a damn heavy bookcase.  It would take multiple people to move it, or some time with some tools Carter didn’t have, or, say, a creature with Inhuman Strength to move the case.  It looked like it led into the neighbor’s basement.

Carter knew he was running short on time and called in Kathryn; her previous life as a private investigator might turn up something that Carter missed, and he wanted the backup.  Carter’s best combat skill was Weapons +1, whereas Kathryn rocked a Guns +4.

Maybe You're The Bum
Carter broke into the neighboring unit and he and Kathryn found a nearly-empty townhouse.  There were just enough furnishings to pass casual inspection, but this was clearly a bolt-hole or diversionary dwelling.  The basement door was retrofitted steel and was padlocked.  Carter had his way with Sargent’s finest and the duo headed down the stairs into a vampire larder.

The basement walls were lined with soundproofing, and padded cages had been set into the floor.  There were five hobos and a single hospital patient, still in his gown.  All were restrained with fuzzy handcuffs that looked like castoffs from PURE.  I immediately compelled Carter on “Good, Bad, I’m the Guy with the Goods”.  He had his loot, he had the intel, it was time to get out.  He was no hero.  At the same time, I compelled Kathryn’s “Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone” Aspect.  She couldn’t leave these victims behind, not after she’d come this far.  Luckily, Carter refused his Compel and the pair set about freeing the saliva-addicted-but-not-infected victims.  The more cognizant of the hobos recounted how they were regulars at a soup kitchen in midtown-

Carter: “Eww, they’re spiking the soup?!”
Kathryn: “How many of them are there?”

The sole hospital victim couldn’t remember much, but he did remember the same nurse always changed his IVs over at Truman Medical Center.

Carter and Kathryn called the rest of the gang and quickly agreed it was time to leave.  No sooner had they reached the top of the basement stairs than they heard the neighbor’s SUV pull into her parking spot.

Catch and Release
They wisely decided not to hide in the basement-that-locked-from-outside, and instead set up a hasty ambush.  The freed victims rushed for the townhouse’s backyard while Carter and Kathryn laid in wait just inside the basement doorway.  Sure enough, a vampire CCH Pounder-alike sprinted into the townhouse, dropping her latest victim on the kitchen floor.  She passed the basement stairs and was nailed by a barrage of gunfire!

(I was using the option where any hit of 3 shifts or more over the target qualifies as a gutshot on a RCV.)

Cecilia Potts (the soup kitchen vampire), now “Gutshot”, easily won initiative-

Me: “Okay, surprise round’s over.  Roll Alertness for initiative.  ...And... Cecilia goes first with a 6.
Kathryn: “What?!”
Me, smiling: “Vampires are fast.  Don’t worry, you’ve got that stunt that lets you defend with Guns.  Carter, however, does not.”

And indeed, Carter did not.  The unbelievably fast grandmotherly vampire punched a hole in her drywall right where Carter had been a second ago.  The thief took a Mild consequence “Fell Down the Stairs” as he poorly dodged the vampire’s attack.  He landed on his back at the base of the steps, handgun pointed up at the melee between Kathryn and Cecilia.  I offered Carter a FP because he “Had No Shot”, which he accepted.  He then took a round to aim.  That was a fine way to think his way around that complication.

Meanwhile, Kathryn showed Cecilia that having a +1 to Athletics dodges doesn’t mean shit when you can’t roll above a -3 on the dice.  Kathryn blew half Cecilia’s head off with her next attack, Carter plugged the vampire with an aimed shot, then Kathryn finished splattering cherry pie across the stairwell.  Cecilia tumbled down the stairs, her neck stump oozing what blood hadn’t already leaked from her belly wounds.

Clay burst through the sliding glass door (with Scott and even Bill, lured back into the action at the promise of killing real vampires, just blocks away)  just as Carter and Kathryn pronounced the house clear.  Clay was disappointed.  His victorious teammates returned from the basement with Cecilia’s phone and scoured it for clues.

Holy crap, there were more vampires in Kansas City than they thought.

There Are Many Vampires... and They Have a Plan
The gang pieced together Rogers’ cadre of vampires from Cecilia’s phone and the hobo intel:

Bobby Sutherland, bouncer.  Turned because Rogers needed some muscle and a seedy guy with a different kind of contacts.  Nothing the gang had seen thus far indicated the vamps were feeding on strip club patrons but they might have been simply rotating their food source.

Cecilia Potts: Cecilia was a social worker who volunteered at the soup kitchen in midtown.  She supplied the RCVs a diet of homeless unfortunates whose disappearances would be missed by few and investigated by fewer.

Linda Holloway: Linda was a late-shift nurse at Truman Medical Center.  She also supplied victims and her job allowed her some measure of access to spoof medical records and incident reports.

There was no time to keep up their vampire-slaying momentum, however - the police would be on their way (over a dozen shots fired in a few seconds tends to draw them out) and to top it off, Clay got a call from Ginny on his burner!

Ginny, panting with exhaustion: “Those killers are after me!”
Clay: “Where are you?”
Ginny: “Wabash and Lake- oh God!  They have a dog! Help me!”

[admiralducksauce]

The Scooby Gang
Bill and Kathryn, both being more scholarly types, were happy to load their bikes down with portions of Carter’s big occult score.  A few moments later, the gang roared out of Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood and beelined for Ginny’s last known position.  I had the gang roll Driving; they would arrive in that order across a number of rounds, and at differing positions in the chase.

Kathryn found Ginny first.  The college student was sprinting inhumanly fast down the street, but it was clear she was tiring.  A massive black dog snapped and growled a few car lengths behind her.  Its eyes were big as saucers and shone with a baleful light.  Kathryn aced an impromptu Lore roll and identified the beast as a Black Shuck.

Bill: “Hell yeah!” (Bill’s player loves random weird monsters)
Scott: “Is it like a demon, or what?  Can I hurt it?” (referring to his Holy Touch power)
Me: “Well, it burned down a church during the Renaissance, so yeah, I’d say it generally tends towards evil.”

Behind the Shuck, an old green GMC van swerved and juked to avoid the sudden onslaught of bikers in its path.  The shaggy-haired driver looked completely stoned out of his mind, but it didn’t stop the polo-shirt-wearing frat boy douchebag in the passenger seat from leaning out the window with a crossbow!

We paused here for a moment while I was simultaneously berated and complimented on working Scooby Doo into the game.

I Can See Through My Leg Hole
Kathryn kicked off the chase proper by scooping up Ginny onto the back of her crotch rocket.  I had explained the rules about Feeding Dependency and the Hunger stress track at this point, and Kathryn was feeling pretty vulnerable driving three times the posted limit with a Red Court Infected sitting behind her fighting off hunger pangs.

The rest of the gang tried to head off the Black Shuck, but the demon dog was just too fast.  They swarmed in around the green van, powersliding out from side streets and alleys, and... well, they kind of had another conflict of interest.  Do they kill these two morons in the van?  Do they help them?  How did they end up with a Black Shuck?  Do they go Old Yeller on the thing?  Can you kill a Black Shuck if you’re not Scott?

They took the mature route and decided to talk things over with the guys in the van.  One flat tire and a skidding, sideswiping stop up against a line of parked cars later, they escorted the wounded van into a nearby alley and surrounded the green and teal GMC.

“Call off your dog!” the PCs shouted at the duo.  The driver shrugged and, not entirely believing it would work, called out, “Hey, Shaggy, come ‘ere!”

The Shuck slid to a stop, leaving Kathryn and Ginny speeding away on the bike, and trotted back to the alley.

Bill: “How did you do that?  And... how did you get a Black Shuck?”
“I can answer that,” called a voice from the back of the van.
Scott: “Oh, right.  Velma.”
Me: “Well, this one’s Valerie, but yeah.”

Valerie (no, not Velma, not at all) Dinkley explained the situation while Fred (Bundy, Patty’s boyfriend) sulked and Sonny (Falco, Fred’s dealer) took a handful of dubious pills to calm his nerves.  Patty told Fred about the vampire club after she was infected at PURE, and Fred went berserk.  He didn’t go to the cops because if vampires were real, they would definitely have influence over the police (“Just like in Blade!”).  He roped Sonny into his scheme during a smokeathon and the pair of morons approached Valerie, the mousy emo girl whom they figured would appreciate the attention.  Little did they know Valerie spent 2 Refresh on Ritual (Summoning), had a real book of magic, and was just itching to try out some real spells.  The summoning spell was supposed to bind “Shaggy” the Black Shuck to Val’s will, but for some reason it bonded to Sonny, who was there trying to help the casting by placing drug-fueled maneuvers on the ritual.  It didn’t quite work, and Sonny ended up with a big black hellhound that talked to him.  Val’s book apparently only had information about killing Black Court vamps, judging from Fred and Sonny’s previous efforts.

This Scooby gang took it upon themselves to do whatever it took to rid Kansas City of vampires, and it struck a chord with the PCs.  Scott saw it as a chance to start building something larger than a lone motorcycle gang.  Bill and Fred saw eye to eye on the subject of wiping out the nest, and besides, Bill’s player wasn’t going to miss the chance to team up with a Black Shuck.  He’s easy like that.

Meanwhile, Kathryn had Ginny at a McDonald’s and the girl was tearing into the dollar menu.  They had actually drawn a small crowd as the tally hit $20 and kept going.  Ginny had used 4 points of powers in her escape, and if she failed that Discipline roll, it would be in a crowded public establishment.  Ginny was rolling with a Discipline of Fair; I rolled the dice and Kathryn held her breath... +2 on the dice!  Ginny just made her roll!

It’s Not Really a Brains Kind of Operation
Now that everyone was teamed up and sharing information, the gang started scheming.  First, they called up the rest of the vampire club - this wasn’t so much a call for backup as a tactic to have the infected all in one place just in case things went to shit.  Fred picked up Patty from his dorm and they added Jessie Summers, dumbest of blondes, to their party as well, but Angie Tucker wasn’t picking up.

They decided a single decapitating strike on the vampires was worth the increased personal risk compared to tracking them down individually and risking them tipping each other off.  The one place they knew there wouldn’t be a vampire that night?  Cecilia Potts’ soup kitchen.  They had phone numbers for Rogers, Bobby, and this other nurse vamp, Laura Holloway, from Cecilia’s phone.  Bill and Scott scouted out the soup kitchen and then ran the homeless off.

From there, the plan was simple.
1.  Text the RCVs something worrying and vague.  “Problem with tonight’s acquisition.  Meet at soup kitchen.  Radio silence” or similar.  Anything to bring the vamps out and hopefully keep them from calling back.
2.  Rig the soup kitchen to create a killbox; use Sonny’s van to block the rear door and rig the security grates to close quickly and easily lock.
3.  Trap the vamps inside with the gang and, in the immortal words of Axe Cop, chop their heads off!
4.  Not only would this plan result in dead vampires, it would act as an impromptu pass/fail class on monster hunting for Fred, Valerie, and the others.

To my surprise, and despite my counter-scheming (It’s easy to shut down players’ plans by fiat but it’s an order of magnitude harder to think like the villain and limit yourself to reasonable precautions based on character knowledge), the actual events didn’t stray too far from the plan.

No Soup For You
Carter might not have been the best combatant, but tonight his Deceit skill paid off for every nasty hit he took during the campaign.  All 3 RCVs fell for his texting ruse, and his disguises (through direct rolls or maneuvers) were tough to see through.  The rest of the gang wasn’t sitting around, either; I let every PC make a roll to establish a helpful Aspect, and then I tossed in some obvious scene aspects.  The players chose to have the soup kitchen “Brightly Lit” as opposed to “Dim Lighting”, for example.

Bill, Clay, Kathryn, and Fred were out in the soup kitchen main area.  Kathryn spent her pre-fight rolls failing to acquire heavier weaponry from Kansas City’s lowlifes, so she was making do with a one-shot potato silencer*.

*We already shot down the coke bottle silencer idea.  I wasn’t going to piss in her Cheerios over a single-use item, despite the dubious effectiveness.  She had Guns +4, she could make it work.

Scott, Val, and Patty were behind the serving line, which was stocked with all manner of dangerous aspects like “Boiling Soup”, “Gleaming Kitchen Implements”, and so on.  Scott and Bill had teamed up for their pre-fight rolls and blessed the building’s sprinklers ala Constantine.  I dithered over the effects, but decided that the sprinklers would make it so ANY attack satisfied the vampires’ Catch.

Carter and Jessie were in the back kitchen, making soup and putting on a good show.

Jessie: “I’m cutting carrots!  I’m a Hufflepuff!”

Shaggy was hiding in the restroom and Sonny was out back waiting in his van, keeping watch.  The gang had wisely kept him away from both HIS drugs as well as the hot college girls’ narcotic spittle.

While the gang prepared for vampire beatdowns, Professor Rogers gathered his own troops and met a few blocks from the soup kitchen.  Angie Tucker was with him; she had been a promising enough recruit that Rogers went ahead and infected her, he needed the backup / fodder, what with people running around killing people and asking questions.  He had a few other infected minions as well; his TA, Martin; Susan, an older Alpha Sigma Sigma student who had gotten the ASS girls interested in Rogers’ class in the first place; and Tom, another student from his current class.  Bobby and Laura showed up and were none too pleased to learn that someone had freed their dinners.

Can You Fly, Bobby?
Rogers also hinted at something greater going on in his cutscene with Bobby.
Bobby: “It might be a trap, boss.”
Rogers: “I know.  That’s why you’re going down there to check it out.”
Bobby: “Yeah, I’ll- what? Why me?”
Rogers: “Because you handed out immortality for a couple of blowjobs, Bobby.  I have a selection process for a reason and you have threatened everything I’m trying to build here.  Now Cecilia is dead, our food is gone-”
Laura: “Hisssssss!”
Rogers: “- and someone has been killing my students.  All this attention is going to ruin our relationship with Mr. Santos.  He is flying in for a meeting to see our operation here, so sending you down there, Bobby?  It is going to prove one of two things to Mr. Santos.  Either one, you go down there and it’s a trap; you kill everyone and we show Mr. Santos we can take care of business... or two, you go down there and it’s a trap, they kill you, and then the rest of us kill them and Mr. Santos sees that we can clean up our own messes.  Now walk the fuck down there and check it out.”

Achievement Unlocked
One of the fun things I am trying in my game now is the idea of Xbox-like Achievements.  Instead of just calling a chunk of advancement a milestone, I want to give it some flavor based on what the group actually did to earn that advancement.  The idea needs some refinement still, but the one I came up for this game was:

Problem Solved, Problem Staying Solved: Take Out a non-minion enemy with a single attack (+1 Skill Point)

Bobby walked into the back of the soup kitchen and completely blew his Alertness roll to see through Carter’s various ruses.  Now that vampires were on site, and seeing how useless Jessie had been during food prep, Carter sent her out back to Sonny’s van after Bobby entered the main dining floor.

Bill had been using his newfound Arcane Senses trappings pretty frequently throughout the session, and I figured what was good for the goose was good for the Red Court.  While Bobby might not have seen through the disguises, there were enough supernatural beings in the soup kitchen that maybe his Echoes of the Beast could pick up on the Black Shuck or Scott’s holy aura.  I wasn’t holding out much hope for Bobby, but called for a roll anyway: Bobby’s Lore+Echoes of the Beast vs. Scott and Shaggy’s Discipline.

Bobby rolled a +4 on the dice.

The jig was up.  We rolled initiative.

Kathryn beat the vampire on initiative, raised her potato-suppressed .45, and blew a hole straight through his blood sack.  Bobby ragdolled to the floor and bled out in seconds.  It was amazing.  Bobby was still considered under ambush until his action (I figured it was like being flat-footed in D&D), Kathryn rolled ridiculously well, and Bobby’s roll was well in the negatives.  Kathryn added a heaping helping of scene aspect tags and FP and blew the vamp to hell.

[admiralducksauce]

They Check In But They Don’t Check Out
Kathryn’s silent takedown gave the gang a few minutes to clean up Bobby’s mess before Rogers called the dead bouncer’s cellphone.  Confident in their superiority and assured that they’d outnumber what they assumed was a small band of hunters, Rogers, Holloway, and their infected minions strode through the soup kitchen’s front door (accepting Compels for their pride).

Rogers (to his infected): “You are all promoted.  Kill and feed as you desire.”

Scott tripped the sprinklers (DC4 Craftsmanship to bypass the PCs’ trickery) and Clay dropped the security grates (DC5 Might to break through).  Out back, Sonny rolled his van up against the back door.  The vampires didn’t seem that perturbed until 1) the blessed sprinkler system started burning away their flesh masks and 2) Patty Blake leapt over the serving line with a chainsaw!

Rogers’ infecteds split up - Tom moved to block Clay from getting to his masters, Martin tried to make it past Scott and shut off the sprinklers, Angela went for Fred, screaming “You killed my friends, you popped-collar frat-boy fuck!”, and Susan just flat-out charged Patty, chainsaw be damned.  Rogers himself turned and started beating the security grates, but they held up to his inhuman tantrums.  Holloway sprinted for the back door and made it into the kitchen hallway in time to see Shaggy blast out of the men’s room like Zuul from Ghostbusters!  Carter wisely stayed out of the vampire-Shuck brawl.

In the main floor, Bill and Patty ganged up on Susan.  Patty didn’t have the Weapons skill, but Bill ably inflicted a consequence on Susan right off the bat and Patty tagged it to land a vicious hit straight out of Gears of War.  Susan used her one Recovery boost and cracked Patty’s ribs with a kick.

Fred was in trouble, however - literally.  His trouble aspect was “Has No Idea What He’s Doing”, and he was just not prepared for all-out warfare.  Fred froze up but Kathryn came to his aid.  Her handgun blossomed gory flowers across Angela’s torso before the infected coed could maul Fred. (GM note: What really happened was there were so many people on the map that I forgot to have Fred take an action.  After that point, it became a sort of retroactive Compel.)  The same thing happened with Ginny, who I decided was in shock at seeing what vampires were really like combined with a refusal to attack and kill her friends.

Kathryn and Bill had no such qualms.  They shot Susan and Angela to death respectively, then turned their lethal minstrations towards Martin, who had reached the sprinkler controls only to find that they were rigged!  Not only were they rigged, but Valerie was hiding behind the counter with a pot of boiling stew (nobody expects the witch to simply hit you with her bubbling cauldron)!  Martin’s screams were cut short by a fusillade of gunfire from Kathryn and Bill.  Valerie picked up a second pot of soup and returned to her hiding spot.

Boots of Escaping
Rogers managed to beat his way through the security grating and ran outside with Clay, Kathryn, and Scott hot on his heels.  Tom tried to stop Clay with a grapple and got two consequences for his trouble (“Ouch, my fangs!” and “Ouch, my knee!”).  Once he was out in the open, Rogers bolted for the alley beside the soup kitchen and leapfrogged up the fire escape.  Clay managed to stop the cardigan-wearing vampire professor with a string of taunts before Rogers could disappear onto the rooftop.  Clay’s provocation mixed with Rogers’ own predilection towards monologuing, and he paused on the roof ledge just long enough for Scott to aim and plug the ugly bastard.  Rogers ran for it then, but now he was leaving a blood trail.

Clay took off up the fire escape while Tom, seemingly forgotten during the struggle to catch Rogers, limped to a parked car.  He almost wrestled the door open before Kathryn shot him in his other knee (“Ouch, My Most of Me!”) and finished him off with a brutal axe kick to the skull.

You Just Got Killed By a Daewoo Lanos
Bill and Patty were closing in on Holloway, who was holding her own against Shaggy in the backroom kitchen brawl.  Both creatures had identical stress tracks and were dinging each other for about the same damage, so the additional hunters would really tip the scales.  Like Rogers’ success against the security grates, Linda Holloway managed to shove Sonny’s van back far enough to escape the soup kitchen.  Sonny and Jessie started screaming as the inhuman monster broke free.  Linda tossed Sonny from his own GMC and climbed in next to Jessie.

Sonny: “Get out, Jessie!”
Jessie: “I can’t!  My seat belt’s stuck!”
Sonny: “Why were you wearing your seat belt, man!?”
Jessie: “I DON’T KNOW!!!”

Carter and Shaggy burst out of the back door before Linda could take advantage of the 8 pints of blood wriggling in the captain’s chair next to her.  The black dog leapt into the van as Linda floored it in reverse, trying and failing to run over Sonny! (Sonny had 2 skills worth a damn: Athletics and Alertness).  Carter snagged a beater of an Oldsmobile someone left in the backstreet courtyard and set to hotwiring the thing.

Set Facebook Statuses To “Single”
Inside, the battle was pretty much over, so it was time for the surviving infected to make hunger rolls.  More specifically, the best time for an infected to make hunger rolls is when they’re surrounding by endearing but tasty NPCs and the party is scattered to hell and back and unable to respond.  Ginny actually didn’t have to roll - we forgot about her during the combat, so she didn’t use any powers.  Patty had used 4 points of powers, but she also had the highest Discipline, at Great.  I’m thinking, “Patty’ll have no problem with this.  She’s set up to be the Final Girl and be Daphne to Fred’s, well, Fred.”

-2 on the dice.  Patty turned on Bill, hunger branded across her every movement, only to find that Bill already had his Judge aimed at her head.  Bill blew Patty’s brains out and hobbled out to ride shotgun in Carter’s stolen car.

You Just Shot Marvin In The Face
Linda Holloway was in a tight spot.  She was wrestling with Shaggy while driving down the street in reverse, pursued by two gunmen in a stolen Olds.  Fighting Shaggy was forcing Linda to use her primary actions for combat; if she could get rid of the damn dog she could at least roll Driving and get the van turned around.  Despite taking more damage from Shaggy’s claws, she managed to Maneuver Shaggy out of the van along with the driver’s side door.  Shaggy hit hard and rolled, but shook it off in time to leap into the Olds with Carter and Bill.  He stuck his head out the window (of course) and just glared at Linda with those baleful saucer eyes.

Linda looked over at Jessie, who was still wearing her seat belt.  She could feed on Jessie, heal up, and then take down these hunters - and their little dog too!

Carter set Bill up with a Driving maneuver: “Holding Her Steady”.

Linda’s fangs snapped towards Jessie but buckshot travels faster than vampires.  Now Jessie was 1) wearing her seat belt, 2) drenched in vampire blood, and 3) hurtling backwards in a driverless van!  The players braced for the worst, given Jessie’s past history with, well, everything, but Jessie’s previous pratfalls had been earning her FATE Points.  Bill and Carter were surprised as hell when the mean green GMC machine skidded to a perfect stop and Jessie got out.

“I’ll just make my own way home,” she said, and walked off into the night, clearly finished with the whole situation.

It’s Pretty Much a Pass/Fail Class
Clay half-tracked, half-chased Rogers over the Kansas City rooftops and through cluttered backyards and alleys.  Rogers was fast and agile, but Clay’s Endurance was the kind of Endurance you get from humping half your body weight through the desert.  He pressed on, utilizing his own variation on Daniel Craig demolition-parkour to counteract Rogers’ inhuman abilities, and phoned the rest of the gang once he determined Rogers was heading back to Welker College.

As great as Inhuman Speed is, it can’t outrun cellphones and motorcycles.  Thinking he had handily lost his pursuers, Rogers strolled into his campus office, talking on his cellphone.  He retrieved his emergency go-bag from under a pile of books while assuring a “Mr. Santos” on the other end of the line that there were “a few minor setbacks” and that perhaps they should “meet at a later date”.

Then he noticed Scott waiting in his nice leather chair.

I Don’t Always Drink Blood, But When I Do...
Rogers: “I’m sorry, sir.  I’ll have to call you back.”
Mr. Santos, the Most Interesting Vampire in the World: “Of course.  Stay thirsty, my friend.”

I wish I could remember more of Rogers’ and Scott’s dueling monologues.  Rogers accepted a Compel on his “Caught Me Monologuing” Trouble Aspect, so Scott would be able to stall for time, baiting Rogers into the classic trap of explaining his evil plans while the gang caught up.

Rogers: “...And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you pesky motherfu-”

It is a standing rule at my table that Clay doesn’t need to roll to kick down doors.  The PCs swarmed into Rogers’ office but Rogers’ initiative bonus finally worked as expected, and the vampire laid down a zone-wide attack using “Storm of Punches” right off our very own Custom Stunts List!  Rogers was a destructive blur as he shredded his office in his attempts to kill his would-be slayers.  Sadly, although the attack forced the gang to burn FP to dodge, Rogers only struck Carter, slamming him into and through the drywall into the main hallway.  I figured that was the only attack Rogers was going to pull off, so I savored my one hit and braced for impact.

There is a reason monsters fear the torches and pitchforks of the common man.  Common men often have stockpiles of FP and are more than willing to burn them if it means killing the shit out of a vampire in a single round.  When it was over, Scott laid hands on the mangled thing that had masqueraded as Professor Rogers and asked God if He would please wipe that fucking abomination off the face of His earth.

God obliged, and Scott’s Holy Touch burned the vampire corpse down to unrecognizable charred lumps.

The gang snagged Rogers’ phone, but refused Compels to stick around and comb through his office (thus giving campus security time to investigate the half-dozen motorcycles on the Humanities building lawn and the reports of a few dozen shots fired).  They took off just as the campus golf cart trundled into view.  The stunned security guard stared after the rapidly retreating bikers before uttering, “Mother of God.”

4.0 GPAs For Everybody
The green van sped down the dark stretch of interstate.  The bikers didn’t stick around for fond farewells, but Fred, Sonny, Valerie, and Ginny had seen the news about Rogers’ “abrupt disappearance amidst signs of a struggle” as well as other reports surrounding the “Soup Kitchen Massacre” from the dingy Kansas motel room the night they put several hundred miles between them and the multiple homicides in Kansas City.  Their new life on the road would be hard, but they knew they weren’t alone out there.  There were other people fighting the things in the dark.

Shaggy perked up as a lone deer approached the highway.  The ancient omen of doom fixed the animal with his stare, then the van was gone.  The deer, unsure of just what it saw but sure it never wanted to see those eyes again, bolted across the roa-

It never saw the semi truck.

[admiralducksauce]

Epilogue

The PCs made it out of KC with a Major Milestone under their belts and hints of a Mexican vampire cartel trying to get a foothold in the US.  They also, for good or ill, set a ragtag bunch of college kids on a warpath against creatures of the night.  It was a hasty parting, and likely the last time the two groups would meet as allies.  After all, it wouldn’t take Fred long to figure it was Bill that killed his girlfriend.

Jessie Summers was picked up by police for trying to catch a bus while looking like Carrie.  Between her dubious accounts of the previous few days, the boatload of corpses, the surveillance cameras that caught the Scoobies and the PCs, and the PURE manager’s claims of robbery, it is guaranteed that the gang will never set foot in Kansas City again.  In fact, Project BLACKBOX might take another look at the gang, now that it’s been confirmed they’ve been slaying monsters across state lines.

Welker College renames its Humanities building in honor of the well-loved but eccentric Professor Rogers.  The scorch marks never come out of the office floor where Rogers died.

Autopsy

All right, let me break down the session a little bit, then I’ll post stats for the things I had stats for.

The Good

This was the longest session of DFRPG I’ve run yet, but it didn’t feel as meandering as my last session (Stackhouse, LA).  I had a few days off before the game, so I had time to really buckle down and work up a lot of details about how Rogers’ cadre worked, how they got their food, why they were doing this, and so on.  It all didn’t come out during the game, but having those details planned out helped me improvise in a consistent fashion.

The players really earned that Major Milestone, man.  They remained engaged even as the session ran longer and longer, their roleplaying around some of the tougher issues (the solicitation at PURE or the debate about the infected) was fantastic and nothing degenerated into too much immaturity or real argument.

On a selfish note, I am pleased that my Scooby Doo references were subtle enough that it wasn’t until the car/Shuck/van/bike/Ginny chase that it clicked for them.  I use references everywhere, but I know it’s a good session when the references take a back seat to what’s actually going on with the PCs and the story.

We hit just about every skill on the list during the session, too.  With 5 PCs and increasing advancement options, niche protection could be a problem but we all work together as a group to make sure that most of time everyone’s got something to contribute.

Finally, we hit a home run with the moral choices and nature of monsters this session.  One of my silent rules for this game is that I never want to have a sympathetic monster.  The PCs are there to hunt and kill things that eat people.  That said, within that framework there’s room to explore the ramifications of holding to those tenets, and Red Court Infected are the perfect foil for that.  I mean, the infected are simply tragic.  The Alpha Sigs were lured into something between rape, human trafficking, and a drug cartel.  Being addicted to the “vamper juice” is bad enough, but once you’re infected you’re absolutely fucked.  Ginny is looking at a life of constant struggle - if she slips up once, she vamps out and that’s it.  It’s less vampire and more zombie movie, except it’s worse because when you screw up and vamp out, it’ll be because you yourself lost control.  Looking at it like that, Bill was probably right.  On the other hand, until they slip up, they’re human, and Scott and Clay were right to give them a chance.

Last session I wanted to incorporate NPC hunters that operated on a “study and learn” mentality.  This time, I wanted to do it with NPCs who were less experienced but more bloodthirsty hunters.  My idea was that maybe Fred would take Bill’s “kill ‘em all” stance, but when the PCs got into it without NPC involvement, I shifted the NPCs more to the “less experienced” side of things and just let the players handle the morality of it all.

The Bad

When I was setting up this session, I wanted a city setting and I wanted to involve the police more, to contrast big-city monster hunting with the small towns the gang usually finds themselves in.  It just never happened, though.  Police involvement would have only served to sidetrack the plot and waste time.  With better planning, I could have figured out a way to work cops into the story a little better and have it drive events to their conclusion rather than threatening to be a giant “instant GTA rampage” time sink.  Maybe have one of the vampire club girls be taken in by the cops for protection or something.  Of course I think of that NOW. 

I missed another opportunity when Bill left the party after their argument.  Typically on Supernatural, when one brother goes off on his own, he gets “endamseled” as my wife and I put it, and it’s up to the other brother to rescue them.  Bill could have totally been captured (for FP, naturally) by soup kitchen vamper juice addicts or something and then the gang would rescue him, and they would all learn the value of teamwork or some shit.  On the other hand, writing that out sounds kind of lame.  It sounded better in my head. 

I should have pushed the party towards encountering the Scoobies a little earlier I think.  The investigation was fun, but I think I could have dropped more obvious clues earlier on.  After all, Fred and Sonny were not exactly masterminds.  I reflexively get vague with clues, thinking “ZOMG what if they figure it out too early?!” and only later do I realize that not only do I want the guys to figure out the culprits, it’s fun as a player to figure out the mystery.  I don’t need to pad out the session like that.  Now I just need to remember that when I’m actually running the game.

The danger level was never very high this game, save for the Cecilia Potts townhouse brawl.  Shit got real once Carter and Kathryn realized just how strong and fast a RCV was, and it felt really good to get a little “oh shit” moment from my players.  The soup kitchen was mostly against just punching bags with fangs.  I’m going to have to jack up my average minion to Good to compensate or start rolling better, which brings us to...

The Ugly

The goddamn dice rolls were truly abysmal this session.  I have never seen that many -3s from anyone.  I mean, I threw more infected into the soup kitchen fight because I wasn’t confident in the dice - and I was right!

I’ve already mentioned how long the session ran.  I don’t like to run over that much, and I’m beginning to think session overflow is proportional to how much investigation I have in any given session.  Stackhouse had a lot of investigation and it ran long too.

[admiralducksauce]

The Scoobies

For most of the Scoobies, I took Scooby Doo and looped it around through the “Dia De Los Muertos” Venture Brothers episode, then ran it through this picture.  The day of, I was thinking of actors to “cast” and I knew I didn’t want Matt Lillard for Sonny, because that would have been too obvious.  After I thought of Pineapple Express, the idea of Sonny being Fred’s dealer really pushed the final pieces together.

Shaggy the Black Shuck
For Shaggy’s stats, I glanced at the Hellhound entry in OW but mostly just tried to make him a dog-like monster.  The other Scoobies?  I kinda half-assed it.  I statted out a few Aspects and some meager skills, but I wasn’t looking to make people who could stand toe-to-toe with the PCs.
ASPECTS
Black Shuck
Man's Best Friend
Easily Distracted
Omen of Death
SKILLS
Good (+3) Alertness, Fists
Fair (+2) Stealth, Endurance, Athletics
Average (+1) Lore, Conviction, Discipline, Empathy
STUNTS & POWERS
-2 Inhuman Speed
-1 Claws
-2 Inhuman Toughness
+1 Catch: Holy stuff
-2 Inhuman Recovery
+1 Catch: Holy stuff
-1 Supernatural Sense (Smell)
-1 Echoes of the Beast
Refresh: -7

Sonny Falco
Sonny was a conglomeration of James Franco from Pineapple Express, Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and the Son of Sam killer.
ASPECTS
Cowardly Slacker
Under the Influence
Bottomless Pit, Bottomless Pockets
Scooby Doo, What Are You?
SKILLS
Good (+3) Athletics, Alertness
Fair (+2) Driving, Empathy, Stealth
Average (+1) Endurance, Contacts, Craftsmanship, Burglary
STUNTS & POWERS
-1 Marked By Power
Refresh: -1

Fred Bundy
Fred was a mashup of Fred from Scooby Doo, the stereotypical popped collar douchebag frat boy, and Ted Bundy.
ASPECTS
Vengeance-Obsessed Frat Boy
Has No Idea What He's Doing
My Dad Owns a Dealership
Whatever It Takes to Save Patty (changed to “Whatever it Takes to Avenge Patty” after the soup kitchen)
SKILLS
Good (+3) Athletics, Endurance
Fair (+2) Guns, Weapons, Resources
Average (+1) Intimidation, Driving, Presence, Lore
STUNTS & POWERS
Anything Goes (ability to find impromptu weapons means Fred never has to use Fists)
Refresh: -1

Valerie Dinkley
Valerie was pretty much Velma run through a grimdark filter and given the powers of witchcraft.  She was going to be more Linda Cardellini-like until Kathryn’s player chose her.  Val took a back seat for the most part, since two PCs had Scholarship and Lore covered.  She was there because I needed a way to get a suitable Scooby Doo-alike, and with Val on their side, the Scoobies might actually have half a chance of surviving their future crusades against evil.
ASPECTS
Know-It-All Amateur Detective
Knows Too Much For Her Own Good
The Brains of the Operation
Stolen Grimoires of Forbidden Knowledge
SKILLS
Good (+3) Scholarship, Lore
Fair (+2) Investigation, Discipline, Conviction
Average (+1) Athletics, Endurance, Craftsmanship, Alertness
STUNTS & POWERS
-2 Ritual (Summoning)
Refresh: -2

Patty Blake
I statted up Patty Blake thinking she’d play a larger role than she did.  She was completely Sarah Michelle Gellar, although “Buffy” and “Daphne” were used equally.  Finally, the name Patty was for Patty Hearst, which was both Venture Bros reference and a possible thematic link if Patty ended up vamping out, which is... I guess... kinda similar to Stockholm Syndrome in a way. 
ASPECTS
Infected Party Girl
The Vampire's Curse
Danger-Prone
Patty the Vampire Slayer
SKILLS
Good (+3) Discipline, Fists
Fair (+2) Presence, Rapport, Empathy
Average (+1) Deceit, Contacts, Resources, Endurance
STUNTS & POWERS
-1 Addictive Saliva
-1 Blood Drinker
+1 Feeding Dependency
-2 Inhuman Strength
-2 Inhuman Recovery
Refresh: -5

Team Edward

The only vamp I had stats for was Patrick Rogers.  For the other RCVs, I used the OW stats.  His Infecteds had Fair Athletics, Weapons (where applicable), and Fists, and were running Inhuman Strength and Recovery (Susan also had Inhuman Speed through a clerical error on my part).

Professor Patrick Rogers, RCV
ASPECTS
Vampire College Professor
Caught Me Monologuing
Intriguing Eccentric
Teacher's Pets
Creature Of The Night
Nesting Instincts
SKILLS
Great (+4) Fists, Presence
Good (+3) Scholarship, Athletics, Deceit
Fair (+2) Empathy, Lore, Stealth, Discipline, Might
Average (+1) Contacts, Resources, Alertness, Rapport, Conviction
STUNTS & POWERS
-1 Addictive Saliva
-1 Blood Drinker
-1 Claws
-1 Echoes of the Beast
-1 Flesh Mask
-1 Feeding Dependency
-1 Cloak of Shadows
-2 Inhuman Strength
-2 Inhuman Speed
-2 Inhuman Toughness
-2 Inhuman Recovery
+2 Catch: holy stuff, sunlight, gutshots
Heavy Rep (Presence for Intimidation when referencing rep)
Authority Figure (+2 Presence on students and spawn)
Personal Magnetism (+2 for charisma)
Footwork (Fists to dodge)
Storm of Punches (-2 to make zone Fists attacks)
Refresh: -16

Next Time

We don’t get to play that often, and I’m realizing that I have more ideas for this game than I can probably realistically run... but I’m gonna try anyway. 

From the various PCs’ backstories and other plot ideas they’ve stirred up:
Pantagruel
Ghost Centaurs
Houdini’s Keys and what Crowley-Lampkin needs them for
BLACKBOX Shenanigans

And then I’ve got my own bucket of ideas:
Ghost Rider, Denarian of Vengeance
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
The Orks of Hazzard
The Most Interesting Vampire in the World
Atomic Fire is the Antithesis of Magic

[Sanctaphrax]

Wow.

I should keep this session log around in case someone asks for an example of how this game is supposed to work.

[admiralducksauce]

Thank you, that's high praise man. 

With the recent Lost Room thread, I'm really leaning towards the Houdini's Keys idea for next time.  I feel like I could probably combine some villains into a massive treasure hunt/chase/fight, like Carter's nemesis, Crowley-Lampkin, is after Houdini's Keys because they open something or other, and then Pantagruel can get involved because I see him as almost a cartoon mastermind but with an apocalyptic mindset - "Once I have acquired the WOSSNAME I'll be able to destroy the world once and for all!"

Oooh.  Maybe Houdini's Keys can unlock wherever a cache of denarii are stored, and he's cut a deal with the CEO of Crowley-Lampkin.  He gets a coin and unlimited power as an "equal partner" and Pantagruel gets enough minions to finally start his apocalyptic conquest of Earth.

[Sanctaphrax]

Sounds cool.

Keep us posted.

[admiralducksauce]

Session 7

Bill Stockburn,  Carter Mews, Scott Specter, and Kathryn Bryant
Reward: Significant Milestone

THEN

Crowley-Lampkin Enterprises Home Office
Chicago, IL

Alex Abel, CEO of Crowley-Lampkin Enterprises, entered his luxurious high-tech penthouse office.  The office was dimly lit by a combination of Chicago night sky and sickly green owllike eyes.  Abel let his scotch fall from his hands as he flattened against the armored glass wall of his office.  Two orange eyes, below and in between the lantern-sized owl eyes, held the CEO’s gaze while Pantagruel, the loremaster of the Denarians, emerged from the shadows.

“How did you get in here?!” Abel demanded.

“Wasn’t easy,” Pantagruel hissed.  He grasped for the Crowley-Lampkin CEO without further preamble, only to stagger back as Abel slashed his feathered arm with a jagged glass knife.  Pantagruel’s face twisted in surprise and pain, then he swatted Abel’s curious shiv across the room and wrapped him in the time-honored “human shield” position just as two of Abel’s top men, Tannhauser and Warfield, burst into the office.  The goons pulled up short, but the chunky AA-12 shotguns in their hands didn’t waver from the demon.

“Hold your fire,” Abel choked out.  “What do you want?” he asked the Denarian.

“Ahh, there’s that famous business acumen I was hoping for,” Pantagruel cooed.  “You have access to certain magical artifacts.  I need a handful of those items.  I’m willing to make it worth your while.”  A silver denarius flicked out from behind Abel’s ear, like Pantagruel was a simple stage magician.  Abel flinched away from it.

“What?” Abel retorted.  “You wanna recruit me?”  His men looked at each other nervously.

“Alex, I know why you hoard your trinkets.  You’re grasping for power, true power.  You’re railing against the limitations of your pathetic mortality.  All the trinitite knives and ruby slippers in the world won’t compare to my offer.”  Pantagruel wiggled the coin for emphasis.  “Immortality!  Unlimited power!  A place among the chosen few in the aftermath of this world!”

Abel grimaced.  “Boys,” he commanded.  Tannhauser and Warfield nodded their assent.

“Shotguns?  Really?” Pantagruel taunted.  “Hardly the right choice for a hostage situation.”

“You’ll like these,” Abel replied.  “We call ‘em ‘mutts’, ‘cause they’re a little mix of everything.  Silver, rock salt, steel, even gold for those pesky horsemen.  And blessed by Crowley-Lampkin’s on-site clergy, of course.”  Abel nodded and his men opened fire!  Pantagruel went a little fuzzy around the edges as the parts of him not covered by Abel’s body shredded and blew away in great bloody swaths.  Abel’s desk blew to flinders and the armored glass bucked and spiderwebbed under the sustained onslaught.

Nothing hit Abel.  Not a single pellet.  He ducked lower now that the Denarian’s arms were blasted off its torso and the automatic shotguns emptied the rest of their 20-round drums into Pantagruel’s center mass.  Alex Abel absentmindedly patted his breast pocket and watched the feathered, hairy, bloody thing transform back into the gory rags of what once was a man.

A charred and scratched denarius rolled innocently across the crimson-spattered marble floor.

“You fink I’d be content to spend eternity as your fookin’ stooge?” Abel shouted at the denarius.  “Oh no no no.  We are going to renegotiate.” He reached for the coin.

NOW

Las Vegas, NV

Bill, Carter, Scott, and Kathryn were fast asleep in the dingy hotel room off of Fremont Street.  Something’s hairy corpse was soaking in the room’s bathtub, slowly dissolving in the last of their whole milk.  It was the kind of hotel that started off CSI episodes, sporting sanity-blasting carpet patterns, an old TV flickering through Tony Little infomercials and dating services, and a pervasive feeling of grime despite the spartan accoutrements.  The room was on the first floor and the guy at the front desk was a cheap bribe, though, so it was as good as most of the places the hunters stayed.

At least it was until Warfield kicked in the door.  “Carter! Carter Mews!” he shouted, staggering into the hotel room.  The big black retrieval expert pulled up short as several guns appeared from underneath pillows.  Warfield clutched one hand to a bloody wound in his side but held his Uzi above his head.

Bill continued to snore.

I Sleep In the Nude

After a brief but tense staredown, the gang and Warfield decided that a gunfight was not on the menu, and after rousing a sleepy Bill “I sleep in the nude” Stockburn, Warfield explained that he needed Carter’s help.  He needed all of their help.  Warfield was unapologetically in it for the money, but when Alex Abel took up the coin, Warfield knew things had gotten out of hand.  It wasn’t about the money for Abel anymore; the hired thug didn’t even know if that thing was Abel anymore.  Warfield thought his partner, Tannhauser, would see things his way and would abandon ship with him, but Tannhauser was perfectly fine with a denarian for a boss.  Their argument turned into a brawl which degenerated into an elevator gunfight.  Tannhauser lost, but not by much.

Bill looked Warfield’s wounds over.  He’d live, but the dressings were sloppy and needed to be changed.  While he did that, Warfield produced a grimy old compass. Yep, somebody with insider information probably stole the idea for those pirate movies.  Warfield stole the compass on his way out of Crowley-Lampkin for two reasons.  The first and most important reason was to deny its use to PantagrAbel.  Oh, the demonic CEO had other means of finding the Key, especially now that its arcane knowledge was combined with Abel’s resources and contacts, but now Carter and the gang had a fighting chance of finding Houdini’s Key first.

The second reason was that Warfield needed to find Carter.  “I ain’t apologizin’ for any of the shit I did,” Warfield monologued.  “And even though you ran my ass over last time we met, I know you’ve got a better shot at this than I do.  I use the compass to find the Key and what?  I’m just one motherfucker with a gun, and Abel’s got Bonney’s Bane on ‘im.  Ya’ll can stop this thing, whatever the hell it is.  But ya’ll ain’t got much time.  See, after Carter left they made sure to get samples from everyone... hair, blood, whatever.  No doubt they got a trackin’ spell on me right now, so you gotta move. Right now.”

It was dark in the hotel room, but now the gang could see Warfield was completely shaved, right down to his eyebrows.  With that realization came the whup-whup of helicopter blades.  Abel’s men had found them!

He Got You With Those Stupid Beanbags, Didn’t He?

Warfield tossed Carter the compass, checked his Uzi, and prepared himself for a last stand as the gang ran for their bikes.  They burst out onto the parking lot asphalt just as four men in paramilitary gear and balaclavas fast-roped from a hovering Bell Jetranger, painted up to pass as a news chopper.  The four-man team hit the ground not 20 feet away from the four hunters.

There was an awful, awkward pause, then the tactical team rushed into the hotel.  They were after Warfield, not the compass, and not the PCs!

That’s when the Compels hit the table.  Bill would go back inside anyway, because Bill’s player just loved a good tussle.  Scott was easy, too - “Driven By Redemption” covered Warfield’s situation quite nicely.  Kathryn “Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone”, and while Carter’s player was somewhat recalcitrant, Warfield was basically doing exactly what Carter himself had done to Alex Abel years ago.  I was glad they chose to accept the Compels - I liked the name “Warfield” and I liked the idea of a potential recurring “frenemy”.  First, however, the gang would have to take down a team of trained mercenaries.  Here’s how that went:

Me: “Okay, you’re not going to be able to ambush them so just roll Alertness for initiative and... wow, that’s a shitty Alertness roll.  Everyone acts before the tac-team.”
Cut to: Scott snaking his arms around the tailgunner’s neck and pistol-whipping the dude in the side of the head
Cut to: Bill putting a beanbag round right into the back of the pointman’s skull.
Cut to: Freeze-frame!  Carter, one ASP baton raised in terrified fury as he delivers a savage beatdown on the shotgunner.
Cut to: The fourth man’s kneecap explodes in crimson gore!  Kathryn’s short-barreled carbine leaves everyone’s ears ringing.

In the time between the one-round takedown and the helicopter figuring out what went wrong, the gang managed to get their bikes and motor to a rendezvous point in the scrublands outside Vegas.

Phat Lewt

The sun stained the pre-dawn sky as the gang regrouped and compared notes (and Lore rolls).  There were at least three magical artifacts mentioned, and everyone knew a bit about each. The bikers felt they had Houdini’s Key pretty well figured out.  It would unlock anything, and it was academic whether its power extended only to locks or to metaphysical concepts because an apocalypse-minded Pantagruel with access to any locked room or vehicle or nuclear football was a terrifying proposition.

Next up was the as-yet-unnamed compass Warfield had given them.  After what they had seen at the hotel, Warfield’s story seemed to hold water, and as their Lore rolls weren’t as incredible as their rolls for the Key, I explained how the compass worked mechanically but offered no additional backstory.  To be honest, I didn’t really have any backstory for it other than some vague notions about pirates, because I sure as hell did rip off the idea from Jack Sparrow.

The third Lore check was for Bonney’s Bane, an artifact Warfield warned them about. Carter knew the most about this little item (and thanks to you guys for the feedback when I posted it in the Items of Power thread).  The bullet that killed Billy the Kid was rumored to protect its wielder from gunfire.  It was a smart move on Pantagruel’s part; most of what the gang had that would get past his denarian Toughness was firearm-based, and that was useless now unless they could figure out another way around his defenses.

Carter was the “Arcane Acquisitions Expert”, so he spent the Fate Point required to activate the Compass.  It pointed east by southeast.

Meanwhile, Back at the Evil Ranch

Deprived of his “Easy Button”, Pantagruel / Abel spent the next few days scouring the country via mundane and magical means for any sign of Houdini’s Key or anyone who might have even seen it.  With Tannhauser dead and Warfield missing, Abel put Mr. Ransom and Mr. Bale on Carter’s trail.  They had put two and two together once they looked over the fiasco at the hotel.  Mr. Rowsdower and Mr. Troy were standing by at O’Hare, ready to intercept the Key as soon as it was found.

[admiralducksauce]

Austin City Limits

The hunters followed the Compass southeast for days.  They passed through Phoenix and followed the Mexican border into Texas.  The Compass’ needle started moving slightly as they neared Austin.  Carter led the gang into a maze of developments predominated by single-story southwestern-styled homes, and I made my first major logic blunder of the night.

Basically, I wanted a scene that would give the players a little bit of info about the Key’s current owner, and I wanted to show that Abel’s men were only a step or two ahead.  The Compass should have led them straight to Houdini’s Key.  Somehow that little bit of continuity slipped past me and the gang pulled up to one of the houses.  Carter spotted signs of forced entry and the hunters burst into the house from multiple directions.  Professionals had given the home a tossing to make it look like a simple robbery, but they were clearly after the Key.  The house was well-appointed but kept to the basics, and to Kathryn’s investigator’s eye, it looked more like a comfortable safe house than an actual home.  The garage told the story of a man (“Are we sure it’s a man?”  -”Go look in the bathroom.”) who really cared for his car.  Bill could appreciate that; after all, he loved his “Custom Ride”.  And then it hit them.

“This guy is a car thief.”
“He uses Houdini’s Key to steal... whatever car he wants?”

That kind of shortsighted use of ultimate power was enough for the gang to form a pretty good picture of their Keymaster.

Me: “I need a name for this guy, a name for a dude Nicolas Cage would play.”
Scott: “Just pick a name of a city.  Vegas, Amsterdam, Fresno, Dallas-”
Carter: “Intercourse.”
Kathryn: “Bird-in-Hand’s on the way to Intercourse!”
Me: “Dallas.  That’s good, since you’re in Austin.”
Scott: “Or you could use his name from one of his movies, like Junior.”
Me: “When was he Junior?”
Scott: “That one movie he was in with David Caruso?  Mom and dad had it on VHS, Kiss of Death or something.”
Me: “Oh right!”
I’ll do us all a favor and skip the tangent that followed.
Scott: “Dallas Brown, Junior!”
Me: “Dallas ‘Junior’ Brown!  It’s more Ricky Bobby if the ‘Junior’ is in the middle.”
Scott: “So, where’s the Key?”

And thus I realized that I had blundered.  Dallas wasn’t home - he was driving like a maniac through Round Rock with Abel’s agents hot on his heels!  I couldn’t figure out a rational explanation for why they possibly could or would have stopped at Dallas’ hideout, so we agreed to just handwave the GMing gaffe. At any rate, it was my intention to have the Compass needle visibly moving now, so it was clear that the hunters were close to their quarry. They tore out of the development, using Driving-as-navigation checks to take side streets and access roads to approach Dallas (whatever he was doing, he was doing it quickly) without drawing too much attention to themselves.

We’ve Got a Great Big Convoy

The gang found Dallas Junior Brown tearing through the Austin burbs in a midnight blue Chevelle.  Two men in a black Crown “We’re cops or something, honest!” Vic trailed the wheelman, while the bikers converged from several side streets or followed the chase from a distance, looking for the right time to make their move.

It was time for a car chase! Ever since Spycraft I’ve been entranced by the idea of simulating car chases in RPGs. I’ve worked up homebrew chase mechanics for everything from Savage Worlds to ORE, but hadn’t tackled FATE yet. This scene was pivotal, and I wanted to emphasize the monster-hunting bikers aspect of the campaign by having a chase. But because I didn’t have anything concrete mechanically ready to go, I asked the table. We felt the “default” suggestion of “best X of Y” rolls wasn’t going to be satisfying. The SOTC idea of “follow the leader’s roll” was too simple - again, not varied or satisfying enough. Each party in the chase had a stress track?  Too fiddly, and how would you handle this three-way chase if there was only 1 stress track? I felt going back to the FATE fractal was the right idea, though, and Diaspora’s social combat popped into my mind. My ORE chase rules involve participants shifting in between abstract states or range bands, and this idea mapped well to a zone map! I hastily scribbled out the following zones on our map:

Lost
Trailing
Sight
Shoot
Ram
Cornered

Abel’s men and Dallas started in “Sight”. The gang all started in “Trailing”. The idea here was if you and another character were in the same zone, you could do that action to them. I ruled that opposed Driving checks would let you move yourself OR another character, and if you beat the DC by 3 you could move an additional zone. Abel’s goons, Rowsdower and Troy, wanted to get themselves and Dallas Junior Brown into the Shoot, Ram, or Cornered zones. Dallas wanted everyone “off the map”, and tried to keep himself down towards the “Lost” zone. The PCs mostly went after Abel’s men but worked to hinder Dallas and keep him from giving them the slip. I saw a few potentially weird conditions in this thrown-together map but the problems were specific to the map I’d designed and not the basic idea.  I’ll get into that after the session writeup.

Engines roared and tires squealed as Dallas and his pursuers ripped through the strips and suburbs of Austin. It was a close thing - Dallas had a Driving +4 compared to everyone else’s +2, but the bikers used Maneuvers and teamwork to even the odds.  Rowsdower and Troy got Dallas into “Shoot” - Dallas threw the Chevelle into reverse down a narrow alley and the Crown Vic followed, headlights to headlights.  Troy carved up Dallas’ hood with a Micro-Uzi but Dallas blanketed the mercs’ windshield with buckshot. Rowsdower and Troy didn’t see Bill roaring up alongside them until it was too late. The former denarian host unloaded his Judge into both the Crown Vic’s left tires (it could’ve been damage, but Bill wanted to name the nature of the Aspect himself and so rolled it as a Maneuver). The black sedan trailed sparks as it slid into the main throughfare, unable to follow Dallas as he executed a perfect J-turn and headed for the highway. In zone terms, both Dallas and the PCs conspired to move the Crown Vic into the “Lost” zone.

Scott was ahead of the chase nearly the entire time. He saw Dallas trying to escape and swerved in front of a semi making for the onramp.  The truck blocked the freeway exit and forced Dallas back into the rat’s nest of strip malls and Whataburgers. Dallas knew he had to get these bikers off of him one way or the other.  He chanced moving Scott into the “Ram” zone (it’s like the friend zone but more violent), but it backfired.  Scott’s store of FP prevented him from falling back and clever use of saved free tags led to Dallas being forced into the loading dock at the local Home Depot.  The wheelman, a showoff until the end, put his blue Chevelle up on two wheels to fit through the loading door. Tires squealed, the car slid sideways, and Dallas parked his muscle car - hard - into the lumber aisles.

Oh, You Mean This Gate Key?

Dallas tried to bolt, but Scott penned him in between plumbing and lumber, using his motorcycle as a Driving-based Block on Dallas’ Athletics. The rest of the gang arrived soon after and Kathryn fired a short burst into the air to send the onlookers rushing for cover.

Dallas didn’t immediately cop to having Houdini’s Key. He thought the PCs were Detroit Mafia at first, but when that didn’t pan out he admitted to having the Key. He had stolen a car and the previous owner had left the Key inside. Nothing more complicated than the intersection of happenstance and absentmindedness. After that, well... Dallas was a car thief already but he became a great car thief. What he really wanted now, though, was to remain a breathing car thief.  Satisfied with his answers, the hunters let Dallas go and maneuvered their bikes back to the loading dock just as an ominous black Suburban skidded to a halt outside.

Kathryn: “Cops?”
Me: “Well, that’s a good question.”

We decided that Abel’s thugs arriving would be more fun than the police, and it was definitely a Compel-worthy complication for them to show up.  We decided that Abel had enough clout to hold off the police response for just long enough for he and his men to swoop in and grab Houdini’s Key.

Me: “Carter knows these guys.  That’s Mr. Ransom and Mr. Bale. One looks like Bruce Willis and the other one looks like Robert Forster.”
Bill: “It’s Bruce Willis!  We’re fucked!”

The gang rushed back inside and checked the front. Shit! Rowsdower and Troy were pulling up through the crowds of people trying to escape the chaos inside the Home Depot. To top things off, a goddamn helicopter was already circling the area! The guys put together a quick plan: First, Scott and Kathryn Intimidated the terrified crowds into a panic. Then they tagged those Aspects to get a headstart as they peeled out through the garden center. Abel’s men on the ground got tied up with fleeing bystanders, but the chopper banked around to give (another) chase. The side door slid open and Alex Abel simply fell out of the helicopter. A sigil blazed on his forehead and his human form twisted and reshaped into the feathered owlbear-demon form of Pantagruel!

On a slightly less impressive but no less dangerous note, the chopper’s door also revealed a Crowley-Lampkin merc manning an M60 machine gun.

[admiralducksauce]

On the Road Again

We set up the chase map again - this time everyone started in the “Sight” zone. The group’s initial strategy of splitting up was foiled with a Compel on Carter’s “Cain and Abel” Aspect. The bad guys knew Carter and they knew that if there was a magic item floating around down there, he’d be carrying it. The chopper would be focused on Carter, but Pantagruel accepted a Compel for his own Aspect - the demon really wanted Bill taken out first, but the Abel side of the monster wanted Carter. The complication here was that if Pantagruel didn’t attack Carter, the Key had a better-than-average chance of slipping through Pantagruel’s paws. Bill received a FP as well, because his nemesis would shortly be trying to hellfire him.

Carter swallowed Houdini’s Key (which looked like a handcuff key, of course).
Pantagruel: “Fool! Nothing will stop me from opening the gates of Hell, least of all your pathetic entrails!”

Kathryn: “Can he open that?  Is that a thing?”
Bill: “Oh sure. We went to the Greek Hell before.”
Me: “He certainly thinks so. That’s pretty much his entire plan.”

Pantagruel’s Trouble Aspect was known to the players: “Starscream Syndrome”. He’s ambitious, treacherous, and somewhat of a coward. By unlocking the gates of Hell, wherever and whatever those are, he’d be breaking that ancient covenant that restricts the number of fallen angels on Earth to thirty. Pantagruel was looking to either make a power play for Hell itself or curry favor with Lucifer. The fact that Mark A. Sheppard plays Crowley, the current “King of Hell”, on Supernatural was just meta-icing on the meta-cake..

A Plan is Just a List of Things That Don’t Happen

Back to the chase! Right away the guys used Maneuvers to force the helicopter into downtown Austin, where taller buildings and ample cover made it difficult for the M60 gunner to draw a bead on Carter. Kathryn wasn’t in the “Shoot” zone with the chopper, but she quickly used Guns to place “Suppressing Fire” on the helicopter (and refused a Compel to run out of ammo). With the helo handled temporarily, the gang turned their attention to Pantagruel. The players started bandying about complicated plans where one PC would drive this way and get Pantagruel to turn his back on someone else, and I realized they had misunderstood my explanation of Bonney’s Bane’s Catch. I didn’t want their machinations to simply be foiled by miscommunication, so I explained that it wasn’t simply shooting Pantagruel in the back that would do the trick. He had to be caught unawares. Furthermore, any attack that would satisfy the Catch on Bonney’s Bane would also have to contend with his Denarian-given Toughness. They still came up with a pretty good plan - Carter and Bill would lure Pantagruel into the “Ram” zone, then they would Maneuver to put the him between them and the M60 gunner. I said that friendly fire would satisfy the Catch, and a machine gun was definitely beefy enough to punch through most of his supernatural protection on raw damage alone.

Maybe They Can Blame It On The Gas Main

Pantagruel started conjuring up great gouts of hellfire - asphalt geysered up and Munchian faces screamed in the eldritch blazes. Bill was not impressed with Pantagruel’s poorly-aimed sorcery. The Austinites gawking at the chaos, however, were incredibly impressed and ran for their miserable, misbegotten, youtube-video-taking lives.

Meanwhile, the helicopter tried for Carter despite Kathryn’s bullets cracking around it. The M60 chugged away but Carter dipped his bike into a sharp turn just in time (tagging the “Downtown” Aspect placed early on in the conflict) and the machine gun chewed into high-rise apartments.

At this point, Carter and Bill were in the “Ram” zone. Pantagruel was in “Shoot” along with the chopper and Kathryn, while Scott hung back in the “Sight” zone. For their plan to work, they needed to lure or otherwise move Pantagruel into the “Ram” zone. Bill drew Owlfucker, his special Pantagruel-only magnum, loaded with blessed custom rounds (see Session 3). Despite having a magic bullet that protected him from gunfire, Pantagruel still flinched when Bill fired. The bullet did nothing to the Denarian but raise his ire. “Allow me to retort,” Pantagruel said (or would have said, if I were that clever during the game). He gathered his will and called hellfire once more. A pentagram flashed on the road ahead of Bill for a brief second, then a volcanic torrent of hellfire ripped skyward, buckling the street and sending rubble smashing into parked cars and buildings. Bill hit the buckling asphalt like a makeshift ramp and went airborne just as the conflagration enveloped him.

Bill was impressed with his nemesis’ sorcery this time. Three FP later, however, Bill sailed out of the blast with mere Stress damage. Pantagruel had thrown his biggest evocation and it had failed! He’d have to kill Bill up close. Pantagruel swooped lower, heading into the “Ram” zone to melee his former host.

Bill’s player was rightly nervous. Bill wasn’t much in a melee, and I figured with Pantagruel’s Inhuman Strength, the Denarian could pluck Bill off his bike and drop him or do something equally sadistic. And then I checked Pantagruel’s sheet.

Guns, sure, he had Guns because Alex Abel would have had Guns. Weapons, too, because Pantagruel took another artifact from Abel’s artifact vault - General Custer’s Saber. Weapons wasn’t very high, however, and I knew Pantagruel would have a better chance with his Fists skill...

Where was his Fists skill?

Me: “Guys, I completely forgot to give Pantagruel the Fists skill.”
Bill (after the jeers died down): “It kind of makes sense. He’s a Denarian librarian. He’s a geek.”
Me: “And he’s like Starscream - he wouldn’t want to get too close... heh, ok, I like that. He’s got no Fists, then! It’s my mistake and I’ll let it stand. But that means he’s gonna hellfire you again, Bill.”
Bill: “Uh-oh.”

Bill’s worries were unfounded, however. Pantagruel stopped cursing his rotten dice luck and looked around. He realized Carter had just Maneuvered him between Carter, Bill, and the helicopter!

[admiralducksauce]

Chopper vs. Chopper

As the chase progressed, another plan began to take hold. Scott couldn’t directly affect much but he could beat the helo with a Driving check, forcing it into the “Ram” zone along with... well, everyone else but Kathryn.  Kathryn had an assault rile and was still in the “Shoot” zone. She leveled her rifle at the chopper and unloaded on it. Bullets punched though the fuselage and painted the canopy with the pilot’s skull. The chopper, already barely skimming the ground, began to spiral out of control, barrelling straight for Bill, Carter, and Pantagruel!

Pantagruel tried one more time with the hellfire, this time at Carter. The thief’s last few FP reduced the hit to Stress and used the newly-geysered street to launch his motorcycle straight at his demonic former boss! Carter leapt free as the bike plowed into Pantagruel, sandwiching the fallen angel between a flying motorcycle and a berserk helicopter!

It was glorious.

The burning wreckage finally rolled to a halt in front of the Capitol Complex. Carter, now merely a pedestrian, used one of his magical rings to locate Bonney’s Bane, which had somehow flown free of its former owner. It was fortuitous news indeed, because the debris shifted and a mangled Pantagruel forced his way out of the flaming wreck!

Veiled Threats

I had no idea how to gauge a chopper crash, damage-wise, but I did know none of what Pantagruel suffered satisfied his Catch. Supernatural Toughness makes you pretty tough, and without any real guidelines beyond “yeah, this feels right”, I marked off all but the stress afforded by Pantagruel’s Toughness. Then I decided that he would have used his regeneration from Supernatural Recovery as well, which left the Denarian without any consequences but in such a state that any damage that satisfied his Catch would inflict them.

The pathetic creature that stumbled into the street didn’t even try for the Key. It ran for it, hobbling along until its wings finished regenerating. The gang knew it had lost its protection from gunfire, and they unloaded on Pantagruel. Most of the shots either filled in Toughness-based stress or were stopped by Pantagruel’s Armor:2, but Bill’s Owlfucker thundered and tore through the demon’s knee. Pantagruel toppled onto one bent leg, wailed in pain, and brought the last of his rapidly-dwindling power into a veil. Pantagruel was swallowed by the black smoke pouring from the chopper and the next moment he was gone.

Carter and Kathryn decided they didn’t give a fuck if they could see him or not. They blazed away, hoping for a lucky hit, but their shots went wide. That’s when Scott decided it was worth risking a little insanity for the chance to put down Pantagruel and opened his Sight.

Super Run Away

I honestly had no idea what Scott saw. I told him as much, and tried to describe Harry’s experience with Shagnasty without spoiling it too badly for Kathryn’s player, who had not read that far in the books (Scott’s player only knows the TV series). I’m normally a quick hand at coming up with suitable if not terribly inspired visions for the Sight, but I was at a loss for how a fallen angel would look. Hey, even Jim copped out on that one. The one thing I did say for certain was that despite all its terribly glory and power, the thing was casting about frantically for an exit like a cornered animal. Its wings were living arcs of energy, grasping at the buildings around it, trying to hurl it aloft.

Scott took some mental stress and shot the thing in the back but the bullet thunked harmlessly into the Denarian’s hide. Pantagruel turned and Scott rolled his Discipline a second time. This time Pantagruel saw Scott more than Scott saw him. The fallen angel felt the power that hummed around the ex-con, and he was afraid. He felt rage that such an animal could receive one single iota of God’s love, and he was alone. He felt God’s will, and he was ashamed.

With an animal screech, Pantagruel took to the sky, clumsily banking out of sight. This was a Concession - Pantagruel got to live but he’d also lose the third and final magical item he brought to the fight - General Custer’s Cavalry Saber. Carter used his ring again to locate the sword near the crash site, then hopped on Bill’s custom ride. The police were playing their song and it was time to leave.

I placed the PCs on the chase map for the third time that evening along with a police helicopter and cop cars, but the bikers weren’t in danger very long. They split up and each of them focused on the police cars. My rolls were for shit and in a single exchange the police cars were firmly in the “Lost” zone.

The lead cruiser fishtailed around the last intersection before the Capitol Complex just in time to see the gaping crater blown in the street by Pantagruel’s hellfire. Unable to stop, the police car slid into the maw with a sad little “bloop” from its siren. The cruiser directly behind it couldn’t stop either and it slammed into its comrade. The third car swerved right and ramped off the ever-growing wreck, A-Team style. After that miraculously poor showing, losing the helicopter was almost an afterthought. I mean, it shouldn’t have been, but it was. That helicopter sucked.

Epilogue

“Ew, don’t you have something better to wash this off with than bottled water?”

“Gross!  Boil it or something! God!”

Bill, Scott, Carter, and Kathryn regrouped and left Austin and the setting sun behind them. Carter... recovered... Houdini’s Key, and the gang planned their next move. They knew that this was only a setback for Pantagruel, and now the Denarian had access to Crowley-Lampkin through Alex Abel. The creature had gotten his diabolical chocolate in Abel’s sociopathic peanut butter. The next morning, Carter stole a new BMW motorcycle and the gang vowed never to return to Austin, Texas.

The countless eyewitness accounts and reports about the events in Austin that day only served to further muddy the truth of what really happened. There were the usual youtube videos shouted down as fakes or CGI test reels. A lot of cryptid enthusiasts attributed Pantagruel’s antics to the Mothman (and let me tell you, Mothmen do not like being mentioned in the same sentence with Denarians). The hellfire spouts and gunfire were passed off to a worried public as domestic terrorism, and although there was enough evidence to prove otherwise, what possible explanation would be palatable to the public?

Warfield and Dallas ‘Junior’ Brown both survived their encounters with Crowley-Lampkin and the PCs. Brown remains at large and is wanted for questioning in connection with that day’s events. Warfield’s current whereabouts remain unknown.