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.