Paul (Max) observes Bruce (Albert Ferrel) getting out his laptop and mourns, "And now he's going to type something vicious about us..." Chuck observes, "Perhaps that's because we've spent the last ten minutes mocking the background image on his computer." Chris (Titus Glossner) replies, "I know, but it's so much fun. He's really the ideal victim for this sort of treatment. First off, his twisted Yankee upbringing has left him with no natural defenses against mockery. Second, all of his secondary behavior traits just scream out 'I am retarded! Mock me!' I don't think I could stop even if I wanted to." Georgina (Brighton Beach) suggests, "Of course, everyone also realizes that Chris doesn't actually talk like that, so it's plainly obvious that his words are being ghostwritten. Maliciously ghostwritten."
And then Patrick (Michael Winters) shows up. He complains, "What's this with you people getting back from lunch on time? I've been waiting out in the driveway for an hour!" Chris chuckles. But nothing can stop the ghostwriting from going on.
Last session, everyone was very disturbed after Brighton Beach spent an hour of unsupervised time in a room with the succubus, emerging with tousled hair and disarrayed clothing. They became even more disturbed when Brighton commented, "She reminds me of Mom and the way she used to tuck me in at night." Group shudder, everyone!
The characters also learned that Akira's tass look like AOL disks. And they found out that Gwen has had bad luck with men, best symbolized by her decision to let her ex do her familiar pact.
To top it off, they also discovered that there are werewolves in the park. Jennifer Anderson says so, and she must be telling the truth because she's just an ordinary mortal.
And then there's the magical jerk who sent out the goons, Tibideaux. He lives off in a fortified office building downtown.
The characters begin this session at the venerable Elderwood Hotel, a surviving remnant of a more elegant time that remains popular only with mages planning summit meetings. The White Queen shows up, quickly followed by the varied membership of about a half-dozen cabals, including the War Cabal, the Silver Nights (who report to the White Queen), the Vigilantes, the Night Walkers, the Fourth Estate and the characters. Kashka reports that her cabal won't be attending, as most of them are dead. It was very tragic.
All the arrivals and important mystical personages are just a prelude to a long conversation among all the mages about what to do with all of the Illuminated mortals in the crowd. They seem to be involved but they don't really belong. The final conclusion is that they can hang around, but they don't get to vote. Titus Glossner comments, "I don't really like conversations about what we're going to do with That Guy, when I'm That Guy."
Then the conversation turns to who should be in charge now that the Consilium has been taken out of the picture. The mages elect to wait until tomorrow night when everyone will be around, and then to hold a vote to decide who will be in charge. Michael Winters comments, "It's a good thing I don't get a vote, because I'd vote for Tibideaux. He seems way more professional than any of these clowns."
Titus Glossner steals some silverware and uses his Crafts skill to make enough silver shotgun pellets to fill out three shotgun rounds. Then he organizes the clips for the five silenced submachine guns the characters took; he comes out with enough ammunition for two and a half full clips.
Max realizes that Elderwood is a Hallow, so he takes advantage of the occasion to put various enchantments on Titus Glossner and Michael Winters, including luck (9-again for 24 hours) and armor.
Everyone assumes that Albert Ferrel goes off to create new forms of life. "I call this the Apple-Fritter Squirrel! It looks like a squirrel, but it's sweet and covered in frosting!" They find this sort of image much more comforting than the much more mundane reality: he goes to get dinner. Out behind the kitchen. In the dumpsters. With his familiar Scamper as a dining partner.
By the next evening, it is clear that there are three leadership candidates: the White Queen, Rupert (the Mysterium mage who thought that magically forgetting his own identity was a good crisis response) and Jackson (the Silver Ladder mage who belonged to the same cabal that thought Rupert's idea was pretty good).
The White Queen's platform is simple: mages should be on the top of the food chain, vampires are vain idiots, and werewolves are dangerous monsters that need to be controlled. And the Free Council hippies need to be reigned in.
Jackson's platform is to try to get through the current crisis as best we can, then figure out what's going on later on.
Rupert's platform is to keep on casting Mind magic on himself until he no longer has to deal with being in a leadership position.
Max points out, "We don't want Rupert: he'd be too easily manipulated. And voting for the White Queen would be like voting for George Bush." He offers an impassioned speech on why the mage community shouldn't launch into a war with everyone when it is already so weak.
Albert Ferrel agrees, "I'm a Jackson man all the way. But I can't speak in public to save my life."
Michael Winters, Brighton Beach and Titus Glossner all back the White Queen.
By the end of the voting, it is clear that Jackson will win the voting: he gave the White Queen a thorough lashing in the debate. The White Queen is very, very upset. And she can't possibly let it go, so she challenges him to a duel.
| Composure | Manipulation + Subterfuge | Gnosis | Arcana | Health | Willpower | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson | 5 | 5 | 3 | Life 4; Spirit 3 |
9 | 7 |
| White Queen | 3 | 4 | 2 | Forces 3; Prime 3 |
8 | 6 |
It doesn't take more than a few rounds for Jackson to beat her to zero Willpower. This stage of the dual isn't very interesting to the illuminated mortals: the two of them stand there looking angrily at each other. Only the mages can bring up their mage sight and enjoy the full spectacle of two committed combatants pounding each other into oatmeal.
Titus Glossner notes that Jackson is getting the upper hand. He grouses, "Great. The guy who wanders the rooftops with his shoelaces untied is winning."
Then the duelists start doing physical damage to each other. It starts out with nosebleeds and develops into huge angry welts and broken bones. And then the White Queen falls down, spitting up blood.
Titus comments, "You two deserve a beer. I brought a straw, so the White Queen's broken teeth won't get in the way."
Jackson exploits his twelve-die healing pool to bring the White Queen back, then tells the others, "I'm going to rest. We'll have a meeting tomorrow."
The characters look up Jennifer Anderson to tell her not to go looking for werewolves in the park. She assures them that she has a silver cross now, so she'll be fine. Titus Glossner suggests that this isn't likely to do much; he gives her a silver shotgun shell instead.
It is at this point that Albert Ferrel mentions that he's got an Occult specialty in "monsters", and actually knows quite a bit about werewolves. He knows that the creatures generally start out fairly nice, but that the old ones tend to get cranky. A lot of it depends upon what the person was like before they were inhabited by a predator spirit and turned.
Max suggests that Mama Lucy and her cabal might know quite a bit about werewolves. The characters travel over to her mobile home to ask. They find her sitting in the living room with three of her lesser cabal members (mages with perhaps Gnosis 1, one Arcanum and perhaps one rote to their name). It looks like they're sharing cookies and sharpening machetes.
Titus asks, "Why the warm welcome?"
Max comments, "You're just saying that because three of them are standing there with huge grins, feathered hats, and big axes clutched in both hands."
Titus asks Mama Lucy, "Do you know that there are werewolves in Center Park?"
Mama Lucy replies, "Yes, I've talked to them a few times."
"We think they're eating drug dealers, so we're wondering if we need to do anything about them."
"You could try talking to them. Their leader is J. C. Sanders, and I know her pretty well. There are three other packs in town. Brian Fuller and his pack are out in the Misty Woods."
Michael Winters observes, "Oh yeah! We've met him! He never changed his form, but he told us all to get lost!"
Mama Lucy agrees, "Yep. And there's the Hellhounds, who hang out in the North End and act like a biker gang. There's also supposed to be a pack in the swamps, but nobody ever comes back from talking to them. The thing about werewolves is that they're mortals who have been possessed by a predator spirit: they need to have some kind of predatory release."
Titus asks, "So they don't go for housewives, but they might do well as meter maids?"
"Yes. And they're very territorial, unlike us mages. You see, we can stand here and talk to each other without me getting upset about you pissing in my yard."
Albert Ferrel apologizes, "Woops. Sorry about that." Zzzzip!
"Yeah, you keep that under wraps, rat-boy. But anyhow, the fact that your little sleeper friend saw them means they need to be more careful."
And then the goons show up, clad in blue jeans, Kevlar vests and gas masks. And they're carrying submachine guns. They have "SWAT" stenciled across their vests, but it's done lazily enough that they're obviously impostors. One of them tries flinging a tear gas grenade in through the window, but Michael Winters is too fast for him and knocks it back outside.
Four goons come plowing in through the front door. Three attack the side window. And to complete the picture, the characters can hear the sounds of two more storming in through a back window. Cabal members drop like flies.
Max throws himself behind a couch and casts Acceleration on himself. Sadly, paradox intervenes and the spell hits Michael Winters instead. Winters exclaims, "Wow! I'm moving in bullet time! This is even better than meth!" He draws a pistol and starts shooting out the window.
One of Mama Lucy's cabalists unleashes his magic against a goon, to no obvious effect. The goon complains, "I feel a slight loss of appetite!"
Brighton Beach pulls out his submachine gun and empties the clip out the window. One goon staggers a bit, but doesn't drop. The goons' return fire staggers Brighton and brushes past the accelerated Winters.
Albert Ferrel's familiar Scamper throws himself at a goon and gets shot for his trouble. Scamper squeaks and plays dead. Another goon pistol-whips Titus, who groans something about how the goons are more effective with their pistol butts than the characters are with actual bullets.
Winters howls out, "Has anyone told these guys that this isn't the meth lab they want? That place is in the next trailer over!"
Max sends a hairy eyeball out through the window at three goons. All of them feel deeply, deeply cursed. Brighton and Winters take advantage of this to put down two of them. The third runs away, but not before one of his comrades finishes gunning down Mama Lucy.
Albert Ferrel looks through his bag of tricks and concludes that there isn't much there to help deal with gun-toting goons. So as a backup plan, he runs behind an entertainment center and awakens the spirits in three goons' submachine guns. This doesn't exactly have the effect he'd hoped: the newborn submachine gun spirits are really enthusiastic about shooting things, so even though the goons want to do short, controlled bursts they end up emptying their clips all at once, hitting friend and foe alike. The goons start to reload, so Ferrel orders the spirits to switch their safeties on.
Winters realizes that he has no more bullets, so he draws a knife and runs across the room to stab another goon. In response, some of the goons start yelling at each other in Russian. Titus curses, "So its Kashka who's trying to off us? That bitch!"
Ferrel points out, "I think you're unfairly accusing her because she's Russian. And because she controls the local Russian mafia. And is constantly surrounded by big Russian men wearing Kevlar vests and armed with submachine guns." He scampers through the gunfire to heal Mama Lucy. He tells the others, "Don't worry! She wasn't as badly hurt as it looked! See! She just healed four lethal wounds!"
Max ignores everyone in favor of launching the evil eye at the remaining four goons. They get unlucky. And then he curses their armor. "Go go monkey's paw!"
The two remaining goons turn tail and run. Titus, covered in blood, calls back, "Hey Max! You want to follow those guys?"
Max chirps out from behind his sofa, "Heck no! I'm staying here where nobody's shooting at me. Except for those over-enthusiastic submachine gun spirits."
Titus replies, "Whatever." He runs after the fleeing goons to hit them again.
Winters boasts, "I can run faster than you!" He follows.
The two goons leap out a front window and flee. Titus runs one of them down, but the second manages to escape. He's able to see him leaping into one of two vans and driving off. Titus yells, "I'm not letting him get away! He shot me, I'm going to mess him up!" He leaps into the van and finds himself face-to-face with four guys. He yells back to Winters, "Shoot the tires!"
Back in the mobile home, Ferrel heals the wounded and comforts the dying.
Titus yells out the door of the van, "Help! Winters! Get in here!" Winters obliges by running at the van and throwing himself into the back. Titus flings himself at the driver, trying to seize control of the vehicle.
Max peers out the door and sees what's happening. He waves his magic wand and arranges for a cluster of large nails to be in the road right in the van's path. He's hoping that a nail will take out a tire. He doesn't quite get what he wants: one of the goons takes a shot at Titus and accidentally shoots out the tire in the process.
Titus reaches past the driver and slams the steering wheel hard right. The van slews across the road and plows into a tree. Down the street, Max congratulates himself on his mastery of Fate magic. He casts the evil eye upon the goons as they stagger out the back of the van.
Winters runs one of them down and stabs him until he surrenders.
Another goon makes a break for freedom. Max quickly curses him. Then he curses his shoes. The luckless goon drops his wallet. Then he tries leaping over a short chain-link fence, trips, and falls headlong into an empty swimming pool. Max turns to Brighton and offers, "Let's go after that guy in the pool." They run up to see what the man is doing. He's coated in mud and trying to clamber up the opposite side of the pool. He's left his shoes behind in the muck at the bottom. He realizes that the two characters are pointing guns at him, so he surrenders.
The characters quickly strip the goons. They come up with:
The characters have a total of three prisoners. Titus figures out that one of them is able to answer questions, so he sets the man down and starts the interrogation:
Max notes, "We've captured Yakov Smirnov. I say we kill him." Titus disagrees and follows through on the threat to drop him in the middle of nowhere, along with his surviving friends.
Mama Lucy has no idea why anyone would have attacked her. She blames the characters for the attack, throws some things into a pickup truck, and drives off. She indicates that she's going to bury her dead friends someplace nice.
Titus calls up Kashka to ask, "You know Tolinov? Would he be the sort of guy to send eleven guys to kill us? Including one guy wearing a 'Roolex' watch?"
Kashka replies, "Yeah. Except you're actually looking for Anya Tolinov. I know her very well. But you need to understand something very important: she is a mortal. Between everyone in town, including the vampires and the werewolves, she's protected. She will sell her services to anyone and not talk. So she's much more valuable as a source of goons than as a corpse. You can talk to her, you can buy and sell stuff, but no supernatural hanky-panky."
The characters are unable to dissuade Jennifer Anderson from wanting to go talk to werewolves, so the next evening they drive out to find some. First, Titus takes Jennifer's silver shotgun shell back. He tells her, "You can have this back when you can tell the difference between Yankees and Chechens."
Anderson chirps back, "Oh, they're from Canada?"
Titus groans, "What kind of college are you going to anyway? Community college on the cheerleader scholarship plan?"
Ferrel decides that he wants some allies in the encounter. He awakens the spirits in Titus' axe, Brighton's flashlight, and three disposable cameras. They're very enthusiastic: "Can I take a photo now! Can I? Can I? Click!" It's really too bad that they're only going to live for 24 hours. The others ask Ferrel why he thinks self-aware cameras will be helpful, and eventually he's forced to admit that he really doesn't know.
The session ends with the characters on the verge of going out to look for werewolves. Each character gains four experience points.