Session #2: Investigative Burglary

What is the Kogaian plotting now?

Floor GM: Yours Truly.

Assistant GMs: A.L. and T.B.

This session was a smaller than usual one because the heat kept several players indoors and the date just didn't worked out for a few of them as well.  That ended up working out great, though, as it meant that those who were there were freed to investigate a number of leads.  It did make the game more of a multi-form than a true LARP, but we used the space enough to keep it interesting.

Firstly we used the main space to represent the Ordo Dracul haven as they meeted, greeted and mingled.  A few aspirations were met.  A few goals were put forward.  Some of the information from earlier downtimes including Siobhan O'Baoill's police report on the missing folks from Delphin Island (prop) and Thomas McAllister's investigations into the missing Invictus Duchess Alicia Brown was shared around. 

Folks decided to chase up on the break-and-entry into one of Duchess Alicia Brown's old  properties, figuring it might also be a lead to a missing Ordo Dracul and the old human confessor.  They all piled into Professor Jasmine Hadley's fancy large van and headed straight for the location which was an old house used as storage facilities for a Historical Society.

McAllister and Talitha Salvatore busted in by themselves (other players sat around the table to chat in the van) by avoiding the few sensor lights and creeping in through the roof.  Once inside they found a stuffed eagle with a heartbeat (actually a recording that can be automatically heard by vampires even if it's too quiet for humans to notice) and a note written in dried blood.  They also found a safe. 

McAllister temporarily disabled the security systems and everyone else came inside.  Acute Senses deduced which four numbers held the code: 1, 2, 7, 9.  Doctor Jonathon Taylor correctly guessed it was 1927, representing the year before his Other Version went insane.  Inside the large and very thick safe sat a magpie feather, small rose quartz, little device and two autopsy reports on a pair of deaths that occurred over the past few months.  I had props for all of these things, using one of those little puzzles where you have to pull a little steel doodad from a plastic casing just the right way.  I didn't have a prop for the safe or the bird, obviously.  They gathered these up and left.

They chilled out for awhile, reading the props and looking the items over.  Dr. Jonathon Taylor got the doodad out and found that the shorter point always pushed in the direction of the nearest section of gloom, kind of like a weird compass.  The gloom being like a darker overlay on certain sections of the city.  They now had a map to compare it too (also a prop) which Guilherma de Miramont had put together during the downtime period.

Conversation then turned toward a known werewolf pack who work out of the Inferno Nightclub (which they own).  They decided to head down there and leave Seamus O'Baoill outside because he's too valuable (and because I needed the A.L. who plays him and is my aGM to play an NPC).

I quickly re-set the room while they lurked in the corridor and made their plans.  I shoved the round table out of the way and put chairs up against the counter in a make-shift bar.  I also put out a single chair which A.L. covered in a red sheet to represent a kind of creepy throne thing.  I acted out the bouncer as they arrived, forcing Taylor to dump his loose blue shirt which was deemed too unfashionable, and Siobhan O'Baoill flashed her badge with a demand to see the owners.

While Siobhan O'Baoill and Michael Norvichkov went to meet Jeremy Dartmoor (played by A.L. who had quickly changed his outfit and was sitting on the red chair), the other four went to the counter to talk to another werewolf called Andy Curin who was currently tending the bar.  Thomas McAllister remained in Obfuscate, whispering tidbits to Dr. Taylor, Professor Hadley and Talitha Salvatore so that they could ask the werewolf.

They learned some things but then on the way out they were confronted by Sariah Dartmoor, who demanded they return to the VIP room for further discussions.  There was some kowtowing on behalf of a few vampires, some posturing by a few others, and then they finally left. 

Siobhan lingered to ask Sariah a few more questions, and when she followed the others, a fourth werewolf who was about to enter instead lunged at her, got her in a pin, and demanded to know where Samantha Ehrenstein (their missing human confessor) was.  Siobhan frenzied, there was a standoff, but Talitha's dominate and Seamus' demands caused the werewolf to release Siobhan and chat in their van.

Finally they all got to leave and chat together.  A few PCs remained to talk while the other players headed off in a final meeting, and all in all, it was a good session.

Session #1: Freedom From Darkness

The discussions took many worrying turns.

Floor GM: Yours Truly.

Assistant GMs: A.L. and T.B.

The players began in the rather long corridor, clutching their prop stones that were used to vote for the God Machine or the Ghost (or for themselves if they chose not to vote) during the one shot.  As they slowly came through the corridor, they discussed their circumstances among themselves and used Obfuscate where necessary to cover any blood stains.  Once they left the corridor, they were described as entering North Terrace from the front doors of the SA Art Gallery.  They also realised when they checked their mobile phones that three months had passed since they were last out and about.  It was now the Autumn Equinox while their last memories were of the Summer Solstice.

There they stood in the central game space, discussing where to go now, and they decided to go to Amity Fine's nightclub.  I'd already chatted with Amity Fine's player about The Velvet Nightclub as it seemed a likely option and I'd dressed the main game space accordingly.  I'd also set up a playlist for their arrival.

However I wanted to give the PCs a chance to gossip among themselves and witness the strange darkening shadows that pressed around certain sections of the city (namely a chunk of the ring road around the Adelaide CBD) so I set up Amity Fine's player (whose PC had her car parked nearby in a parking garage with massive fines) and two new players whose characters weren't present thus far to describe what they saw en route.  We used the two side rooms and the main game space to represent the cars and I set up the chairs accordingly.

The two new players were also to play taxi drivers.  One was meant to be an overly exuberant ranty driver who liked to honk the horn, and the other was slightly creepy.  Finally one of the players decided his PC would walk to the destination, because that's just how he rolled.  He got to stand in the kitchen for a bit before being paired with the taxi driver player (once the others had been dropped off) who now played the role of a random drunk here to harass him.

The taxi cab including Seamus O'Baoill (Gangrel Ordo Dracul and Kogaian), Siobhan O'Baoill (his childe) and Yzador (very old Mekhet from the Circle of the Crone) was certainly amusing.  The cab driver could only see Siobhan because the other two were using various obfuscating powers to be ignored in the back seat.  At one point Siobhan whispers to the back seat that she has no money and the cab driver near flips out until Yzador hands her a fifty.  The taxi driver gets given the whole note.  So yeah, it certainly worked out to give the players a chance to define their characters all the more.

Finally they head into Amity Fine's nightclub, music goes on, and her player describes the club and the VIP section to people.  We assign one room as a private meeting area within the VIP area and the other room counts as "Everywhere Else" outside the club.  Having three rooms really works out brilliantly as it's great to split people up though since we use a private house the main area is just large enough to accommodate everyone.

I, as Lead GM, portray Amity Fine's simpering ghoul for a bit and do a little bit of fetching here and there.  One of the taxi driver players enters the game pretty quickly after their arrival as her actual PC, Guilherma de Miramont, is a local vampire who just happened to not be sucked off into the One Shot session.  The other taxi driver player had to wait a bit, but not too long, as his PC was getting picked up from the docks by Gary Dodd (a PC currently in the game).  I sent them into the "Everywhere Else" room for ten minutes to represent the car ride and give them a chance to chat en route.

There was a third PC to be introduced in game but he wasn't ready to join in as a player until about halfway through the game.  That worked out well enough, though, as just as the game was starting to slow down I got to dress up as a fave NPC from the first campaign arc called Peter Walsh and haul in a staked vampire that he'd fetched from inter-state.  Staked vampires from other cities certainly cause a bit of a splash and there was some searching of his pockets and later some interrogations in a side room. 

Walsh ended up owing a boon to Amity Fine for just dragging in a random staked vampire unannounced.  He ended up owing another one when the staked vampire (called Thomas McAllister) drank half a bottle of Lacrima without asking (vampire wine, costs around $1000 due to rarity).  There were words exchanged between McAllister and Amity Fine, and finally he was kicked from her club.  That could have been an awkward moment but Amity Fine's player needed to head off early so it ended up being a very convenient excuse to leave.

Amity Fine ended up in the harpy role that session, too.  Vampires and their love of boons.

It's been a couple of months but the other major events that happened included:

*  Siobhan O'Baoill got drunk on Lacrima after realising that she dumped her fiancé to protect him after her Embrace (she has amnesia over the past couple years) and despite the other fledglings trying to distract her, she slipped out and was followed by Talitha Salvatore.  She got spotted by a cop (she has a police cover identity, night shifts, long story) who pulled up onto the sidewalk and then they almost went out through one of the Shadow Walls together in his car when a ghostly image of her sire, Seamus, flashed before the car and she grabbed the wheel to swerve them out of the way.  They then went to bust into the old Women's & Children's Hospital where Talitha and Siobhan had once been held hostage but their antics were stopped at the door by Seamus' arrival.

*  Jonathon Williams has no sire.  In fact his creation just after his possession by a Strix has left him a creepy Khaibit and with BP 2.  His accidentally manifested some shadows on a few occasions, creeping out the court.

*  Attempts to call out to other vampires and contacts in the court met with mixed success.  I traded notes with FatherMother to represent a texting palooza.  Some folks just got Message Bank.

*  Many discussions from those with history in the city (i.e. from the first campaign), those who attended the one shot and knew about the votes, and those who had newly arrived.

It was a pretty quiet first session (compared to the others) but it worked out pretty nicely and gave people a good launching point.