Main Session 14: A Tale of Two Matties

Siobhan threw acid in her eyes to avoid Dominate.

This session had a lot going on.  It began with three crone threatening an Ordo Dracul (Dr. Jonathon Taylor) in the mangroves near Elysium, Talitha Salvatore throwing Siobhan's notes into the air to make it rain information, Mattie shutting the door in a blinded Siobhan O'Baoill's face (she has acid scarred her eyes to prevent being Dominated) and Prince Hadley having a rare moment where she could discuss matters in the court. 

Oh, and Jax brought along his werewolf girlfriend.  On the full moon.  Who was also a Rahu.  Who ran around in Urshul (dire wolf) for a chunk of the game and harassed Mattie for smelling badly until Mattie pulled out a fetish covered in the kind of scents that annoyed werewolves (actually a cover for something else but it worked and blame was placed on the fetish accordingly).  At one stage both Jax and Kat were in wolf form, howling at the moon, where Jax spent a stone to boost his blood potency from 3 to 6.

Later in a side room a group of neonates led by the Deputy Emissary and later the Marshall went to collect the orbs beneath the Gloom Walls, tricking their ways through areas where a sacrifice was typically in order.  Typically I wouldn't have any "Away Missions" during a LARP court session but orb collection is quite quick and I did check if anyone not currently involved in politics wanted to tag along.  There was a bit of mischief when the prince's childe commandeered the prince's limousine to take them all on their orb collection mission but nothing too untoward happened.  Mattie assisted with the orb collection.

Or rather, imposter Mattie did…  There were a few clues.  His eagerness to read the notes Talitha had thrown about and his occasional comments that set the record straight on occult explanations which had the prince wondering aloud how he, of all people, had come to know the details.

The Crone having a friendly meeting with Dr. Taylor.

It was only when the real Mattie Monroe arrived partway through the gathering that people twigged to what was going on.  There was a tense moment between the two of them as Real Mattie first thought it was a joke but when Imposter Mattie aped his first interactions perfectly, he shoved the imposter over the table with vigor.

Deputy Sheriff Jax demanded they both sit and Faux (Mattie's foster-sire) determined which one was real by asking where Mattie had been over the past month.  The imposter declared he'd been in Adelaide, while the real Mattie piped up that he'd been in Wonder City.  When the imposter stated that such a secret wasn't meant to be shared, Faux declared that Mattie can't keep his mouth shut and therefore identified the real one.  He made demands of the imposter, Deputy Sheriff Jax put the two Mattie's under the influence of a truth serum (basically a dissociative that makes people prone to rambling and weakens their creativity).  The imposter's greater self-protection allowed him to skirt around answering but didn't allow him to give credible lies instead of silence and weak declarations.

Then it was decided that the best way to tell a real vampire from a fake was to stake them in the heart which would tragically slay anyone not a vampire but at this stage things were pretty tense and no one was thinking that far ahead.  In truth, several figured he was likely either the Strix in possession of someone or a vampire using Obfuscate to look like Mattie.  Perhaps both.  The Deputy Sheriff hadn't known that Elysium was protected from Strix and incorporeals, in possession or not, due to the use of the Marshall's special stone in abjuration.

First Jax went to stake the real Mattie but when the imposter lurched forward to protect him (staking torpor does funny things to a vampire's mind and is really painful), he turned to stake the imposter instead.  Since the imposter has some fantastic defence, he missed and embedded the stake in the couch and wall.  A few others tried to grab the imposter or attack him but failed.  Real Mattie was too out of it to get involved beyond saying, "Is it my fault?" and the like.

In the end Jax gutted Imposter Mattie with his claws, and Faux tried to lay on the Kiss (i.e. vampire bite) to make him complacent but underestimated the effect of sinking your fangs in someone still trying to escape and instead tore his throat open.  The imposter collapsed to the couch, bleeding out, at which point everyone decided that they didn't want him dead after all and argued about how best to save him.  It was decided that Deputy Sheriff Jax would rescue him by feeding him vitae and ghouling him so that he could heal his wounds before he died for good.

At around this time Deputy Sheriff Jax set off a frenzy in Faux by declaring that he was irresponsible.  Somehow Jax made his own frenzy check, despite having a -8 due to cumulative frenzy check successes.  Luckily Kat (the werewolf) was there to pin Faux down and Gustaf used his web spitting ability to pin Faux to the ground.

Real Mattie not long before everything went crazy.

And that's when the imposter, whom Marshall FatherMother was still gripping, started to respond.  You see, the imposter was a fellow called Peter Walsh who had moved through the court on several occasions pretending to be a vampire but who had slowly but steadily been revealed as some sort of harmless shapeshifter on several occasions.  Over the forums it had become quite clear that he was mentally deteriorating after all the strain he had been under.

Losing his latest identity (duplicating Mattie) made matters worse and when people tried to ghoul him to pull him out of his faked death, he started to lash out.  His lips sealed shut and his chest wound warped to be mouth like, ribs cracking into position like teeth, and his slashed throat bulged with threat.  Things were about to get bad….  Very bad.

FatherMother almost shot him in the head but Taylor called out that it's Walsh.

Luckily Edward Kensington, Mekhet Elder and new player, happened to have a stone for this.  He strode forward and with a natural 10 threw the stone into the chest cavity just as Dr. Jonathon Taylor reflexively put Peter under Obfuscate.  FatherMother still held the man in a basic grapple (mostly by the head and hair), and she could feel his seizures as the stone did something unexpected.

When Taylor finally dropped the Obfuscate, all saw that the imposter was back to looking like Mattie, no more damaged belly or throat, though with fangs, and who seemed to be quite asleep but for minor tremors.  They took him into the cells and had a quiet conversation with him where it was discovered that he was feeling much better, thank you.

Edward Kensington advised he dyed his hair black so that the real Mattie wouldn't take advantage of the situation.  And he offered clothes to Peter to help people differentiate the real and the fake better, now that Peter's renewed sanity meant he could no longer shape shift and was body locked in Mattie's form.

Somewhere in the main area, Faux was yelling at the prince for a werewolf's presence before disappearing with Mattie.  Mattie was summoned back for more conversation.  Deputy Sheriff Jax was lectured.  Politics shifted up a notch as well.

All in all, this was a very busy session.  Especially as I have only reported what I was present for and thus there was much, much more.

Door Session #5: Quiet Werewolf Chat

Nikita and Gustaf ... together (platonically)
at last!

Sometimes you can have a gathering with very little pre-established conflict and it all goes up in smoke and fire.  Other times you can have a gathering fraught with internal tension and yet it all moves so very peaceably.  Gustaf Freya'barn yearned to bring back his lost werewolf friend, Nikita, who had died in New York shortly after he had freed her from her blood bonds.  After his time in the Cassandra session where he had believed her still alive, and himself a nomad who travelled with her pack, he became consumed by a need to re-create that world and wanted to draw across that sliver of reality.  In short, he'd hoped it had been a true but alternative dimension he could pull her from and in his torpid sleep he couldn't help but try.  Unfortunately when he awoke he was within a version of Elysium crafted from cold grey stone in the giant cavernous reaches of the Underworld with an even stranger creature sitting on the couch across from them.

Present were the following:

• FatherMother (Gangrel Crone)
• Gustaf Freya'barn (Gangrel Crone)
• Luke Garibaldi (Werewolf from a pack he can no longer reach)
• Jeremy Dartmoor (Urban pack member  Pack Gustaf used to run with)
• Sariah Dartmoor (Urban pack member Gustaf used to run with)
• Fangs Like Knives (Adelaide Hills pack member Luke used to run with)
• Old "One Eye" (Adelaide Hills pack member Luke used to run with)
• Nikita (only appeared in a ghostly form when Gustaf mentioned her by name)
• The Unknowable (strange entity who explained the basic circumstances)

The Dartmoors wanted to convince Luke to defect to their pack as they needed more members, he had invaded their territory on many occasions to reach the Port Adelaide Precinct where he worked, and he had been cut off from the Rural Pack anyways over the past year.  Naturally the Adelaide Hills pack still wanted him to hold on and pointed out that they'd given him Alpha while the others would let him be Omega at best.

Although typically vampires wouldn't be involved in such discussions, the secretive magic of the dissolved stone ensured that Gustaf's opinions remained front and centre.  He offered to assist Luke Garibaldi, first suggesting that he temporarily run with the Dartmoors and then when that turned out to be culturally impossible he suggested he wait for a few more months (while secretly planning to discuss the matter further with Luke when his pack-mates weren't around).

FatherMother also convinced the werewolves that she didn't throw her vitae around liberally when pressed on the matter by Old One Eye who worried for Luke's safety.  She stated that she only ever Embraced one girl who was otherwise going to die (true) but naturally didn't mention all of the blood bonds and ghouls she had strewn about the place, Crone beliefs regarding the sacred value of vitae, or the need to use it for Cruac rituals.

After a very diplomatic encounter, Gustaf then had to discuss with Nikita whether she would rather be alive yet human (wolf-blooded) or dead as a werewolf.  Nikita chose to live, but in the end she told Gustaf he would need to choose for her.  In the end, he chose to resurrect her as she could always still support the remnants of her old pack and even produce children of her own who might end up full werewolves able to run with a pack of their own.

It was a touching scene, and in the end no blood was drawn between the two packs, and Gustaf was allowed to dissolve their place in the realm to reappear in their individual beds.  All but for Nikita who reappeared by Gustaf's side, alive.

Session #13: Treaties, Negotiations and Selections

This was the first session back in the real world where everyone could share their information and figure out how to cope with the changes that have been happening in the city.  Unfortunately there was still plenty of hangover from when Sheriff FatherMother killed Detective Monroe in his sleep for fear he was a hunter (boss of Siobhan O'Baoill and potential lover of Seamus O'Baoill).  Professor Jasmine Hadley offered her a potential solution in exchange of the use of her stone to ward the main Elysium up at St. Kilda from any kind of nefarious Agatha Campbell or Taylor-Strix problems.

So then there were naturally plenty of back room wheeling and dealing that changed a few of the spots around, including swapping FatherMother and Novichkov's positions in a way that is arguably more fitting.  FatherMother is now Marshall in charge of dealing with external threats while Novichkov the scary Elder is in charge of internal matters and defence of the court.  The Emissary, Seamus O'Baoill, also won the right to add people onto a particular "Asset Register" where other vampires may not attack them lest it count as a direct attack on the court.

Siobhan O'Baoill even gave a speech based on the collated evidence she'd managed to gather so far on the Machine, while Seamus O'Baoill explained what was known of the potentially international police hunter cell that seemed to have been unleashed by Detective Monroe's death as well as the mysterious "Who is Caine?" attackers who seem to be spontaneously forming out of the general populace and which may be either possession or disease.

Jax confronted Taylor about a revelation regarding a threat against his girlfriend, Katharine's, life.  Katharine gave Jax purely good advice about how to entertain the gathering.  The Changeling from the Epcott door session left little jars full of Red Pills everywhere and Gustaf reminded people to list any offered resources with him.

Mattie Monroe, ever the entertainer, leapt around the corner of the building, shouted "Witness Me!" and sprayed his mouth with whipped cream -- then coughed up blood because vampires can't eat food without blush of life.  An actual canister of whipped cream and a blood pill were used to recreate the effect, and naturally I had been previously informed.

Faux and Mattie had a nice heart-to-heart with Talitha Salvatore and Geist boyfriend Nicks about Nicks' attempt to grab vitae from Mattie while everyone was away, and naturally while I played Nicks I walked around with my arm in a sling from when Mattie "responded".

Rowan gained a foster-sire as a last minute announcement, Zahra was reassured Master of Elysium after another busy session wrangling people, and far too many people dropped various disciplines so now there isn't a supernatural sense of safety and security making frenzies harder (no automatic failure on a 1 nor +2 to resistance rolls).  At least for the next week, unless people start behaving better.

Oh, and the Ordo Dracul learned they had to leave their old Chapter House behind due to its exploration by both changelings (damn you Darling!) and the police while the Ordo Dracul were missing.  People also discovered that Siobhan O'Baoill had been put on the Terror Watch List and will therefore anyone connected to her could well become a Person of Interest.  And finally the "Caine" situation means every Rack has taken a crippling blow -- dropping by a full point value and therefore less able to sustain the vampires present in Adelaide.

What else could go wrong?  Nothing, I'm sure.

Door Session #4: Mixed Cassandra Merger

See?  Nothing sus here.

Since a few of our new players couldn't attend the Season 3 finale that was our last Cassandra session, we decided to have one of our main characters use their stone at just the right/wrong time.  At about the same time as Lewis Epcott used his stone to open a doorway, Nurse Cassandra attempted to draw him into her realm which caused a few interesting glitches.  This gave the PCs access to the past three Cassandra sessions worth of on-screen dialogue (from the clips), populated the demi-realm with mock versions of some of the characters (who were portrayed by other players to ensure each was played slightly off), and threw in a few mysterious figures besides.

We had a changeling from the second Door Session arrive, Police Chief Gordon Leary, whom was thought to be a human by the majority for most of the session.  We had mock versions of Siobhan O'Baoill, Seamus O'Baoill (cloaked version), Dr. Jonathon Taylor, and Michael Novichkov.  We had the mysterious and elusive Peter Walsh and a seemingly random human called "David" who became a merchant toward the end when he tried to sell some intriguing wares to the PCs (props courtesy of Adam, Jamii-Lee and Brenda).

We had Contrary Mary, Mattie Monroe, MaidenLad, Daryl (ghoul) and Joseph Smith out of the main cast list (i.e. not mock ups but not completely player controlled) with Lewis Epcott (naturally),  Zahra al-Rassimi, Rowan and Faux as actual PCs.

So what happened?  Oh, so very much.

Well those who had yet to vote received their first stones while those who were main cast or real PCs found their stones in their pockets if they still had them.  Toward the halfway mark of the entire session, "David" came forth to sell four arcanotech items in exchange for stones.  Lewis Epcott was able to make his selection first as he had spent his stone to open the door and though he was initially suspicious he soon grabbed a relic.  Then Faux obtained one, followed by Mattie Monroe (who actually asked permission of his foster-sire before expending a stone!) and Daryl.  Since none of the other PCs were at all interested in using their stones, it made sense to allow the Main Cast to do so.

Zahra al'Rassimi also summoned the angel, Anuriel, into MaidenLad so that they could quiz it on the Throne and its plans.  Faux persistently mouthed off to "it" and so Anuriel cursed him with a permanently broken leg that reduced his walking speed to three yards per turn and his full speed to six.  Needless to say, Faux is no longer overly fond of the Throne.  The most poignant piece of information gathered was the simple phrase: "The Throne is blind to Walsh," which was repeated to a series of no fewer than six questions.

In the fenced in courtyard behind the venue (both in-game and out) stood a table full of all the Emotion Cards from Cassandra Session 3 which gave people the chance to re-read them and newer characters the chance to get a better understanding of everyone.  Since this was a transdimensional space, the building and yard was surrounded by sheer nothingness.  When Peter Walsh threw a cushion over the fence line, it simply curved through space and came back from the other direction, lightly smacking into Rowan.  Naturally he repeated the test which then sailed past her.

A carefully created psychiatric report prop complete with manilla folder for the mysterious Jack Frost was also found and quickly read by a few characters, though I don't know if it were read by many of those who were real characters and who could therefore retain their memories.

A severed hand lay upon a camouflage-coloured pack, clutching two flowers and a note: "To Rowan Tyler."  Rowan was quickly fetched by the vampire who discovered it and she located an empty crossbow in the bag.  Examining the hand once more, she found two explosive steel encased bolts where the bones should be in the hand.  Prising them loose, she loaded the crossbow.

An angelic visitation during one of the quieter periods.

Mattie Monroe was quick to look over the crossbow once they were back in the main room, using Dominate once again to gain access to what he wanted.  "Is it loaded?" he asked, and fired it into the ceiling.  The explosive bolt detonated, dealing quite a bit of damage to people.  Luckily much of it was bashing damage as vampires don't take lethal easily, though the ceiling did fall down (giving two characters a chance to hop out onto the roof for a look-see).

Mattie Monroe used the final bolt on the angel (likely due to it cursing his foster-sire) which conveniently caused it to depart of its own volition.  Strangely enough, because MaidenLad liked Mattie Monroe, he was shielded from the detonation and took no further damage - neither did Zahra.  Mattie fled to his foster-sire in the back room, only to become all cocky when MaidenLad came in to tell him the angel had departed.

All of this occurred in the space of around two hours, and once the place was fully explored, Lewis Epcott activated the chance to leave.  Those who had yet to vote with their stones were given a quick opportunity to vote at the end when a ghostly Nurse Cassandra appeared and telepathically projected the basic outline -- Chaos or Order, Cassandra or the Throne.  Those who had already sold their stones for relics, but who should be able to vote, received ghostly versions of their stones for the purpose.

It was a quick vote and those with more information on the situation were too distracted to provide much guidance.  Then they all appeared outside of the Art Gallery on North Terrace.  Those who were playing mock characters or "David", regained the use of their real PCs who appeared on the street fresh from the Cassandra session.  Those PCs who had been at the Cassandra session but whose players were not at this one had either left earlier or later (i.e. delayed) to justify why they weren't there.

This caused Professor Hadley no little bit of bother as she had to drum up a new safe zone using someone's stone -- yet FatherMother was not available to oblige.  Professor Hadley managed to do so and had a stone spent at the joint Elysium.  While she managed this, Talitha Salvatore ran off with the torpid Taylor to wake him up -- which led to hungry shenanigans.  The others were left to deal with a strange woman who approached them, demanded to know the whereabouts of Caine, and then attacked Mattie.

Mattie reflexively smacked her in the face, but that didn't stop her and Lewis Epcott was forced to pin her to the ground while Edward Kensington obfuscated the three of them (Fade in the Crowd) so people wouldn't pay too much attention.  Mattie bit her to shut her up, which was handy since he only had one blood point remaining because he loves to use Vigor and Celerity for funzies.

Then they all split up into separate cars (I put them into three different rooms) and travelled to the new Elysium.  Naturally the car with the greatest number of vampires (six) had a frenzy and the other two cars left them to it to set up Elysium.  We had about thirty minutes in Elysium itself where Dr. Taylor admitted to doing some dodgy things while possessed and then we ended it with Prince Hadley's vow to find a solution to the city's problems.

The next session will follow hot on the heels of this one and will be set directly after it.