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.