Movie #492: Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! is a musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and starring Gordon McRae, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Charlotte Greenwood, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger, Eddie Albert, and Jay C. Flippen. Everyone's high school did it, including mine (though I didn't see it). Actually, this was the first time I'd actually seen any version of it. 

The story is really tight; it all takes place over the course of a day. Curly (McRae) is in love with Laurey (Jones), but neither of them want to admit it. The farmhand Jud (Steiger) is creepily lusting after Laurey, and asks her to the dance, which Laurey accepts to make Curly jealous. Meanwhile, Ado Annie (Grahame), the true hero of this story, is trying to reconcile the fact that she loves attention (and sex, it's implied) with the fact that she's supposed to marry, and juggling the affections of her true beloved Will (Nelson) and the traveling peddler-man Hakim (Albert). All of this winds up with Laurey and Curly getting married, Jud dead, Will and Annie betrothed, and a big chorus number.

Musicals, man. You can love 'em, hate 'em, or appreciate 'em. Like most Rodgers & Hammerstein, this owes a lot to the structure of opera, though of course it's not tragic. The singing is good, though there's a huge juxtaposition between the dialog (which is folksy) and the songs (which, with a couple of exceptions, are not). The other thing is that no one writing this show had any idea what Oklahoma was actually like, in terms of agriculture (corn does not come from OK) or dialect ("care" is not pronounced "keer" in OK). The dialect thing in particular stuck out to me, because the actors basically speak in Midwestern/northeastern English with some words pronounced differently ("cain't" for "can't"), but with no elongation of the vowel sounds or anything else that would phonologically make the dialect sound like Okie.

Also, the scene in which Curly confronts Jud for the first time and sings "Pore Jud is Daid", basically consists of a dude coming into another dude's house and saying "hey, man, everyone hates you because you're creepy and weird, but if you were to hang yourself, then at your funeral people would say how much they liked you." Yes, it turns out that Jud really is an asshole, but at that point in the musical he hasn't really done much except creep on Laurey from afar, and the scene comes off as really weird.

In any case, it's interesting to see a stage musical so directly translated to the film (they cut a couple of songs but didn't add any), and for my money there was a bit too much dancing (I have no appreciation for dance and so my eyes kinda glaze over). It's light, though, and I'm familiar with the music, and I like the cheeky gags that they managed to slip past the censors.

My Grade: B

Rewatch value: Low

Next up: Oliver & Company

Blades in the Dark: Lashed by Wind and Rains

One of the things I like about Blades in the Dark is that the system scales nicely, so that even when characters have three dots in a lot of their actions, it's just a matter of raising the stakes. Even when characters usually succeed, "success" can mean something different.

And, of course, sometimes folks just have a bad dice night.

Last time, the scoundrels effectively knocked the Spirit Wardens down a couple of tiers, and catapulted their own organization to Tier III. This puts them on equal footing with folks like the Gondoliers and the Bluecoats, which is nice, but it has its own set of problems.

Tonight, most of the crew is at the Ruby. Copper is talking about goats (as usual), One-Eye is taking inventory, and Cage is unwinding. Siren is out on one of the crew's delivery boats, bugging the adepts who work with Widdershins for more information on Kotar.

A gondola slides up beside their boat, and Griggs, a Whisper and higher-up in the Gondoliers, asks to speak with Siren. She boards his craft, and he tells her that he has a job for them. There's a fella coming in to Doskovol on a ship, a doctor and demonolatry expert. He needs to be transported from the Docks to Charterhall so he can perform an autopsy on one of the bodies that's come out of the canals, and then transported to the Iruvian Consulate for safety. Siren asks if there's trouble to be expected, and Griggs says that yes, there probably is, but he isn't sure of its exact nature. Siren says she'll pass it along to the crew.

And indeed, she talks to the crew and they all meet with Griggs the next night. Griggs clarifies that this is a joint venture between the Bluecoats and the Gondoliers, bringing in Dr. Sanaat to do this investigation. One-Eye asks that Widdershins be privy to whatever information is revealed, and Griggs is amenable to that. He also clarifies that they need to stay with Sanaat during the autopsy, just for safety's sake. The crew agrees, and Griggs tells them when his ship is arriving.

Unfortunately, when the ship does arrive, it's in the middle of a vicious storm. The Iruvian craft, lighter than the Akorosi ships that frequent these waters, is getting tossed about as it puts in to the Docks. The crew lifts lanterns to help guide the ship in, but it loses control and crashes into the docks. The crew jumps clear, but the ship is damaged.

Siren starts lashing the boat to the docks, while Cage and Copper climb aboard. Almost immediately, lightning strikes the ship, splintering the deck and lightning the ship aflame. Cage and Copper pick themselves up, and Siren comes aboard and asks about the doctor. One of the mates tells her that he's in his cabin at the back of the ship. Siren yells that out, and Copper runs into the boat and finds the cabin. The door is blocked with wreckage, so she smashes through it with a hatchet and tries to kick it in, but manages to twist her knee. One-Eye arrives and knocks the hinges off, and Cage ties everyone together to help get the doctor out of the room.

Out on the deck, Siren grabs a bucket of sand and tries to douse some of the first, but realizes too late that this "sand" is actually a highly flammable signaling powder, commonly used on Iruvian ships. The powder explodes, blowing a hole in the hull. The ship starts to sink.

The scoundrels manage to all get back onto the deck when the ship collapses, and all five of them wind up in the drink. Copper, realizing that with this weather it's likely that they'll all drown, calls on all her strength and surges forward, dragging all of them out of the water...and collapsing.

The doctor examines her, and (through a translator that the crew brought, as he doesn't speak a lot of Akorosi) informs the crew that she has a concussion and needs rest. They debate sending her back home with the carriage and the translator, but decide they don't want to split their forces that much, so they just load her (and Button) into the carriage and head for Charterhall.

They arrive at the university without incident, and note that the Bluecoats are directing people off the roads (but are watching the doors). One-Eye pays off a Bluecoat to watch Button and Copper, and the rest of the crew head into the lab. Sanaat gets to work, examining the body and measuring the wounds. After some time, he (in halting Akorosi) identifies the body as a "sacrifice" to something called "Setarra."

One-Eye questions him inasmuch as she can, and learns that Setarra is a demon of the oceans and storms. This causes the crew to look askance at the weather currently rolling across Duskwall, but before they can leave the building, a hull kicks in the door.

A hull, of course, is a mechanic body possessed by a ghost. One-Eye grabs Sanaat and pulls him out a back door, into the cold stone hallways of the medical building. Cage tries to force the ghost out of the hull, but just winds up getting feedbacked and knocked down. Siren shoots it and stuns it, and Cage redoubles his efforts and forces the ghost out.

Unfortunately, One-Eye is hopelessly lost. She emerges from the building through a door that she thinks is near the carriage, but it's actually completely on the other side, and the door locks behind her. Assuring Dr. Sanaat that it's all under control, she starts heading back toward the carriage. A door in front of her opens, and a dark, scary figure steps out. She blows a handful of trance powder at it...and realizes it's Siren (who had come through a side door to find her).

Leading Sanaat and the now-dazed Siren, One-Eye finally gets to the carriage. Cage has gone back the way they came and is waiting. One-Eye calls out, and the Bluecoat standing by the carriage reaches up and breaks a silver thing around her name. Cage feels spirit disturbance, and realizes that the "Bluecoat" isn't a Bluecoat, but someone else who killed the Bluecoat and stole their uniform.

Cage, who has denied his violent impulses long enough, charges over and puts a knife through the imposter's head. The damage is done, though, and two more hulls leap over the building and give chase. One-Eye stuffs Sanaat and Siren into the carriage (and realizes that their translator has also been murdered; Copper is alive, but Button is nowhere to be seen). They take off, but the hulls are capable of catching them.

One gets close to the back of the carriage, but Cage activates a spirit barrier and sends the hull flying back (singeing himself in the process). The other hull flanks the carriage and leaps at it, but Siren, going on pure muscle memory, shoots it down, and the scoundrels fly off into the night to the Iruvian consulate. They deliver Sanaat safely, and head for home, though Cage takes the time to use the ghost field to find Button for Copper.

Back at the lair, Copper wakes up and cries upon learning of the dead translator (she's getting a little soft, it seems). The crew meets with Griggs, who pays them, and opines that the people trying to kill Sanaat might have worked for the Church of Ecstasy.

The scoundrels go to ground a bit; demons from the storm come looking, and it's better to avoid notice. Cage researches Setarra, and learns that she's a very powerful sea-demon, but according to the legends, she's imprisoned in the ocean. He also finds that her name comes up in conjunction with the Scurlock family, but the relationship is unclear - master and servant? If so, which is which?

This job improves the crew's relations with the Bluecoats and the Iruvians, and that's good, but the Church of Ecstasy is on the verge of war.

Chill: A Tense Reunion

And also, Chill.

Last time, the envoys kinda got the heads handed to them. Mohammed, Blake, and Jordan are in the hospital with gunshot wounds, and that means talking to the police. Beth Anne is unharmed, and she calls the ranch for backup. By about 4AM, Jennifer Joyce, BB, Jeanie, Dylan, and a woman named Emily Montgomery arrive (Emily is a friend and former colleague of Mohammed, also a vet, also an envoy, also a PTSD sufferer. He recommended that she come out to the ranch to do some work and relax, and she just happened to arrive today).

The envoys talk with Beth Anne (and Emily touches base with Mohammed), and get a sense of what happened. They fall back to a hotel so that they can all get some sleep, because they don't fancy the idea of going out to the murder-farm in the middle of the night. Dylan and Jennifer do some research, and find SAVE archives about a creature called a "ravager" - essentially a serial killer who made a deal with the Unknown. Wray fits the profile. SAVE intel says that these things can die normally, but it takes some doing. Meanwhile, Jennifer finds some case history for the "blood thistle," a plant that grows from the graves of human sacrifices and can animate the bodies of the dead. It seems like they have their answers, now they just need to do the hard work of cleaning everything up.

In the morning, they call Darnell down from the ranch with another vehicle. Emily suggests just blowing the house up, while BB very reasonably points out that doing so will likely attract the attention of law enforcement and he, Jeanie, and Dylan are all on probation (as established here). They argue for a while, and eventually get some gasoline and make some Molotovs, but keep them covered up. They head out to the farm and have Darnell wait by the side of the road with the SUV, and head down the driveway. The other SAVE vehicle is still in the driveway, and the barn has burnt down, but it doesn't look like any emergency vehicles have been here.

The envoys approach cautiously. Beth Anne uses her Leave the Body discipline and searches the house, but sees no sign of Jack Gordon/Franklin Wray. They investigate the barn and find burned-up plant matter. At one end of the barn, they find the thicker stalks of the plant. Emily and Dylan dig a little (it's February, after all, the ground is frozen), and find part of a skull. This, then, was the burial site.

Inside, Jennifer and BB look around and find a lot of papers and bills on the table. Buried amongst all of that are some letters from a fellow named Alford Price to Greg Fossly (remember, Fossly used to own this house, Gordon claims he bought it, but in truth probably killed Fossly). Price and Fossly were in WWII together, and Price has apparently been writing and receiving letters with "Fossly" for years now. That might be where Wray sodded off to.

The envoys get in their vehicles and head west. When they get cell service back, Jennifer calls Price and asks if he'd be willing to sit for an interview, him being one of the few remaining WWII vets in the area. He cheerfully agrees ("Oh, I can talk forever!") and mentions that his friend Grey, also a vet, is here, too, if she'd like to talk to him.

The envoys decide that Jennifer, Emily (posing as a military expert) and Dylan (in his capacity as a professor) will go into the house and talk with Price and "Fossly," while the others will wait nearby. They don't want to attract attention; this town (Lawen, OR) only has about 200 people, most of them older.

The three go in and meet Alfie's wife Marie, who happily makes them tea and sends them down the hall to where "the boys" are talking ("just follow that awful cigar smoke!"). They get and see Price and another older man. Beth Anne, present through Leave the Body, recognizes Wray, but has to go back to her body before she can convey that. Emily Senses the Unknown and feels the hate and power coming off Wray.

They all sit down and start talking; Price, true to his word, is gregarious and interesting, and Wray, for his part, is adept at tossing in a detail now and then to make it seem like he was really there. The envoys aren't sure what to do, here. They don't want to start a fight, as that will certainly get Alfie and Marie killed, but they can't stay here all day. Finally Dylan throws caution to the wind and puts up a Sphere of Protection.

Wray immediately gets up in disgust and pain and leaves the sphere. Alfie tries to go after his "buddy," but Emily gets there first and says that she'll take "Greg" out for some air. They walk outside, and the others pull into the parking lot.

Wray smiles at Emily. "OK, now what?" he says. "Want to kill me? Do it." Emily doesn't respond. "OK, then," says Wray, and focuses on Emily...and Emily feels pain creeping in. Only for a second, and then she focuses and drives it out, and smiles again.

Wray snarls in disgust, and then turns to the window. "Fine," he says. He waves to the window at Marie, and then from inside, the envoys hear a scream.

BB and the others take their opportunity. Jordan activates her Quicken discipline and runs up to Wray, tripping him up with a staff. Wray points at the stick and it snaps, but Emily activates Feat of Strength and puts Wray in a chokehold. BB runs up and cuffs him, and they throw him in the bed of the truck and blindfold him. Darnell starts the car and they speed away.

Meanwhile, inside, Dylan and Jennifer help Alfie to the kitchen, where Marie is lying there on the floor with a bloody nose, weeping. They help her up and Alfie tells Dylan to call an ambulance, which he does. Marie, once she regains a little composure, says she felt a pain start at the base of her skull, like nothing she's ever felt. Alfie assumes it was a stroke, but Dylan knows the Evil Way when he sees it.

The envoys now have the ravager cuffed and blindfolded in the back of their truck. They drive off away from town, hoping to find a safe place to have this out. BB is still hoping to save Wray, because everyone deserves justice. We'll see, next time, if that's possible.

Blue Rose: The Exploration Continues

Considering resetting this blog to only be visible to subscribers; it's not like I have a huge audience here anyway, and all I'm doing is nattering about the games I'm running and the movies I'm watching anyway.

Anydangway, the other night I ran Blue Rose again, continuing this game. Having dispatched the corrupted wolves, the characters press on into the Tanglewood, and find a young vata'an man lying unconscious in the brush. He's cut up a little from running through the brambles, but, as Kisha notices, his real injuries were made with fists. Also, he made very little attempt to defend himself, which makes it look like he was ambushed or attacked by someone he trusted.

Whirlpool makes with the medicine and revives him, and he introduces himself as Talaith. He and his cariad (a non-gendered Blue Rose term for partner or lover, which I think is awesome), Dartis, are part of the outpost at Servat. They were patrolling through the Tanglewood and found a ruined manor near here, and while exploring it they found a black skull mask.

When Dartis touched it, he just went berserk, attacking Talaith. Talaith barely managed to get away and send a psychic cry for help before collapsing. He begs the characters to go and save Dartis, since the latter is obviously being possessed. The characters agree, and head deeper into the wood, but tell Talaith to head back to Servat where it's safe. Talaith sends them a psychic impression of the path to the manor so they don't have to blunder around in the woods.

They follow the path, and come to a ring of standing stones. A woman in a dark green hood leans on one, weeping. Kisha, being Daring, is immediately moved to comfort or help her, but Whirlpool readies his trident - this feels like a setup. And indeed, the woman whirls on them, revealing herself to be a fey reveler, but with the reddened eyes of the corrupted.

She entrances them all with her magic and the characters stand there, transfixed, but Pansy the dog zips over and trips up the fey, which breaks the dance effect enough to allow the characters to act. This combined with a really lousy initiative roll on my part meant that Whirlpool closes in and stabs the corrupted fey twice with his trident, and Dobbin puts an arrow in her leg, and Arlen calls up brambles and traps her, allowing the heroes to finish her off quickly, at which point she evaporates into black mist.

Arlen says a little prayer for her - obviously this corruption is making folks do stuff they wouldn't normally, and although it's not curable, that's pretty awful. The heroes press on, and come to the manor. They're approaching from the south, and enter a big courtyard through a ruined wall. The place is basically falling apart, but Dobbin hears noises coming from a small outbuilding, perhaps a forge. Kisha notes that there's a domed section of the manor that might be a shrine over to the east. They decide that noise might mean trouble, so they check that out, first.

In the forge, they find a fey man sitting at a desk, tinkering with clockwork, apparently making clockwork sprites. Around him, several already completed models buzz aimlessly. Kisha tries to engage the fey in conversation, but he just shrugs and mumbles, continuing to work. Kisha puts a hand on his shoulder, and he tenses up and glances back, and they can see that his eyes are red.

Whirlpool immediately draws his dirk and makes ready to throw it, but Kisha intercepts him and catches his wrist, while Arlen grabs his other arm, and they start to frog-march him out. Whirlpool feels Corruption well up within him as his predilection for arbitrary violence takes hold, and he calms down. The characters don't pester the clockwork-maker, and he leaves them be.

They go across the courtyard and check the door into the shrine, but it's magically sealed. Kisha deduces that a Ward spell might be able to get them through, but Arlen doesn't know that spell. Battering the door down might be possible, but the heroes aren't sure that even Whirlpool is strong enough for that. They decide to enter the manor and find an interior door.

They wander a bit and gain entry through the kitchen, and begin searching the place. They find nothing of particular interest until the hit the great hall, and then they find a crest mark on the wall - the crest of the Ebban family. Kisha vaguely remembers that this ancient family was magical in some way, but not the particulars. They also find that the corpse of a giant spider blocks the door into the kitchen from the hall, and they warily poke it out of the way.

Further in, they find a library. Most of the books have been destroyed by time, but they find notes on potions, elixirs, and a page from the journal of Thaddus Ebban. In it, he describes the blight of corruption changing the local fey, and the death of one called "Brae." The characters proceed on through the master bedroom, and then into the a study, wherein they find the remnants of Ebban's lab.

Clearly he was an alchemist or sorcerer; he's got beakers and vials around (now largely reclaimed by the elements). They find a vial with a wax stopper containing a potion; Arlen identifies it as an arcane recovery elixir, something that would make the imbiber able to resist fatigue. Arlen also finds a killing jar with the body of a small fey sprite preserved in a liquid...the sprite matches Ebban's description of Brae. Another journal page reveals Ebban's first forays into the Tanglewood and meeting the fey. The heroes now realize what happened - the corruption claimed this place, and the local fey are still under its shadow.

They still need to go to the shrine, but it's getting dark and they're tired. They decide to camp out in the master bedroom. Arlen sets a couple of noise traps to alert them in case someone approaches, and Dobbin and Kisha sleep against the doors. Hopefully the night will pass without incident.

Character Creation: Nemesis 382

I am, still, behind on my chargen posts. Been having problems working up the inspiration and the focus to do it, as I rather feel like I'm teetering on the edge of "fuck it" a lot more than is comfortable. Unlike the past year, though, "fuck it" feels less like "find a high structure and jump off" and more like "cut off all contact with anyone that I don't physically see on a regular basis, because the internet is dark and full of horrors."

(This is no one's fault, but it doesn't help that since G+ is going away, the traffic on my blog is dropping. It's not like there were ever a lot of comments anyway, but it does feel like I'm talking to myself. Which is fine, I'm not doing this for money or love, just for the hell of it, but still, it does contribute to the feelings of isolation.)

WOW TOO REAL. Anyway.

The Game: Nemesis 382: The Point of No Return
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press, as part of Seven Wonders
Degree of Familiarity: None, reading it now.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

Nemesis 382 is a game about exploring a black hole, but apart from that, it's meant to be hard sci-fi. First step is to set the tone, which for my purposes isn't really important, but the default is tension/horror and I'm fine with that.

Next step is to set the scene, but that would consist of the GM reading out a brief passage. The gist of it is: It's 2237, we've got FTL travel but for the average person, life isn't much different because space travel is hella expensive. We're on the cusp of a new frontier - traveling into a black hole to see what (if anything) is in there. The hole in question is Nemesis 372, a supermassive black hole. The ship is the Albert Einstein III.

So, my first actual step for character creation is my role on the ship. I don't think I want to be the captain. I like Corporate Sponsor, for some reason, and I also like the idea of playing a mechanic or maintenance tech (which are kinda opposite ends of the spectrum, as I think about it). I think I'll go the latter and play the ship's Mechanic.

Next question: Where is my character from? My character grew up in Germany, but his family is from Belarus. Figure that there has been plenty of conflict in that part of the world in the ensuing decades, and he and his family got forced out (and it's not like the US was accepting refugees).

Name and description. His name is Mikalaj Rusiecki, but folks on the AEIII call him Nico. He's in his late 40s, heavyset, bald, wears a short beard (once black, now grey). He likes to sing; most of the songs he knows are in German, but he knows a few in Belarusian. (He does speak Russian, but prefers not to.)

Why did you join the mission? Nico is a good mechanic and he knew the right people. He and his wife divorced a couple of years ago and he's estranged from his daughters, so he doesn't have a lot keeping him on Earth. He took the job because it's a job - it pays well and it'll be interesting, and his dad taught him that you don't turn down work.

What did you leave behind? Nico's left behind his family in a literal sense, and his country and culture in a more abstract one. He hasn't fully internalized that, in all probability, he's not coming back from this.

The only other thing left that I could do on my own is decide whether Nico really wants to go into the Black Hole or not. And I'm gonna say no, when it all comes down to it, he'd rather live on Earth and try and to fix things with his family, but that may not be in the cards.

The other part of chargen is deciding relationships with other characters, but since it's just me, that's me done.

Blue Rose: Shadows of Tanglewood

Some time back, we (by which I mean Michelle, Al, and my kiddos) made characters for Blue Rose. Last night we played the first session. But let me back up.

I wanted to run a game for my family; my son is able to focus enough now to play a session, and I definitely think my older kiddo needs the outlet (and I'm always happy to spend more time with both of them). But what to play! Cael doesn't like horror particularly, so I was leaning toward something more fantasy-driven, but the problem with that is that I don't tend to like fantasy, and we all know it's a terribly idea to run something you don't enjoy.

So we sat down and used the Spark method of picking a game. I've done this a couple of times; we all pick a piece of media that we like, explain why, and then try to find a game that hits the right notes or evokes some of the same feelings.

• Cael chose Undertale, because he likes the idea of searching out hidden knowledge.
• Kai chose the music of Samsa, because of the very pleasant, smooth, chill lyrics.
• Michelle chose this trailer for John Wick: Parabellum. She likes the scene at the end where they fight alongside doggos.
• Al chose Warcraft, for the stylized and unusual character presentation. 
• And I chose Batman: Arkham City for the stealth and planning that goes into it (I've been replaying the campaign challenges of late). 

So with all of that, we wound up choosing three possibles. We considered Familiars of Terra (you've got animal companions, after all!) and Pugmire (doggos!), but in the end settled on Blue Rose. It just sounded interesting to everyone. 

So then we made characters:

• Cael's character is Whirlpool, a sea-folk expert. Whirlpool is a treasure hunter, interested in finding relics of power and mystery. His Calling is meditation of extremes. His Destiny is Charismatic, and his Fate is Arbitrary. 
• Kai's character is Arlen, a vata'sha adept. Arlen is from Rezea, and never really fit in. He's not much of a ride, preferring to draw, and he's a witch, touched by Selene. His Calling is protection of nature. His Destiny is Judicious, and his Fate is Jaded.
• Al's character is Kisha Lost, a vata'an expert. Kisha is an escapee from Kern, heading south into Aldis. Her Calling is discovering and learning secrets. Her Destiny is Daring, and her Fate is Overzealous. 
• Michelle's character is Dobbin, a human expert from Aldis. Dobbin travels with her little dog Pansy. Her Calling is atonement. Her Destiny is Patient, and her Fate is Cynical. 

These characters are all moving away from their homelands - Whirlpool is heading north along the Rose River, Arlen is heading east from Rezea, Dobbin got lost while wandering in the northern forests, and Kisha, as mentioned, is heading south from Kern. 

Whirlpool first meets Dobbin when he bursts forth from the Rose River, thinking that Dobbin was a threat, but immediately realizes she's a traveler, too, and tags along. Kisha meets Arlen as the latter is sitting on a boulder sketching, and they bond over shared (missing) heritage. The two pairs meet up in the woods and share shelter under a huge tree during a thunderstorm, and decide to stay together. Whirlpool is pretty convinced these folks are going to need a mediating influence at some point. During that night, Arlen sees the stars come out early, and takes this as a sign from Selene that something important is happening. Kisha wakes up and sees Arlen standing with a book in his hand staring at the others, and this makes her a little concerned. 

On this particular day, the characters are in the Pavin Weald, a stretch of woods in the northern part of Aldis near the Icebinder Mountains (this is a little closer to Kern than Kisha would like, so she'd probably like to turn south at some point). As they're walking, they feel a psychic contact begging for help. 

They follow it - they're all decent folks, after all - and they find Servat, a watch-tower station along the border. A quick search of the place reveals that it normally houses three people (a couple in one shelter and then one other person in a second), but no one's here now. There's no sign of a struggle, though, so it doesn't seem likely that the psychic contact they got was from here. 

Arlen notes a forest sprite following them, and talks to her gently. The sprite mentions that two of the people who live here - the two that sleep together - went off together some time back and she knows where they started. Arlen asks the sprite to show them, and the party starts tracking the trail into the Tanglewood. 

The Tanglewood is aptly named; it's full of brambles and thick brush, and the characters have trouble fighting through. They finally break into a clearing with a big, rotted fallen tree in the center...and Dobbin notes Pansy growling and raising her hackles. She calls a warning to the others, just as a pack of wolves breaks into the clearing. 

The wolves are night-black and their eyes gleam red; they're clearly influenced or corrupted by the Shadow. As if their general appearance weren't evidence enough, they immediately attack! 

Two of them jump Kisha, knocking her down and biting at her. Arlen runs over and smacks one into the woods, but another bites the adept and drags him back. Dobbin readies her bow and fires arrows at the wolves, while Whirlpool readies his trident and lays waste to the monsters. Arlen turns invisible and, hoping to give his companions an advantage, casts Plant Growth and causes part of the clearing to become just as overgrown and dense as the Tanglewood. This traps two of the wolves, but also Kisha. 

That makes the difference, though, and between Dobbin's arrows and Whirlpool's trident, they kill the unfortunate beasts. Arlen says a prayer for each wolf - he knows it isn't their fault. Whirlpool checks the area for relics or anything interesting that the wolves might have been guarding, but doesn't find anything. The party takes a breather and binds their wounds, and then sets off along the path, hoping to find the source of the distress call before nightfall. 

(NB: Shadows of Tanglewood is a sample adventure that appears in the Blue Rose book, but I liked it and it's easy to follow, so I'm using it as our jumping-off point.)

Night's Black Agents: Chaos in the Underworld!

Over the weekend, we finally played Night's Black Agents (it had been a while). The agents scored a major victory. They are, perhaps, in the endgame now. We shall see.

Last time, the agents developed a projective model to figure out where Vilmos Hajnal might show up next. They narrowed it to Prague or Bratislava, and sent out feelers to await any word.

Parker returns from her trip to London, MacAteer continues to run tests on his blood. He discovers that if he introduces the serum that he created to his own blood, the cells mutate and explode, but if he introduces it to a sample of Parker or Hanover's blood, their blood becomes like his. This is...worrisome. He doesn't trust Carlsson (too paranoid) or Firinci (too new to this and too reactionary) with this information yet, though.

The data comes back - Prague is the most likely place. Firinci sends Berger on ahead to set up a safe house and scout a few things out, and then the agents do a little prep. They put their scientific samples and data, as well as personal effects and weapons, in stashes around Innsbruck, and shut down operations in their house. They argue a lot about the next step.

Hajnal is going to touch down at the airport in a flight on Rus-Bel air that probably contains a lot of his guys. Is it all his guys? They could RPG the plane as it lands, sure, but that would probably kill a lot of people, make for a lot of noise, and they couldn't be 100% sure that Hajnal wouldn't survive it. They ultimately agreed to have Firinci hack into the airport's systems and steer the plane to the runway they wanted, have Hanover and MacAteer in a baggage train to nail Hajnal with a dart, and then have Parker and Carlsson outside the airport in a field ready to snipe. The biggest hitch, here, of course, is getting out once the shit goes down.

The agents take their positions as the plane begins to land. Hajnal steps out onto the tarmac, and Hanover nails him with a dart (Shooting MOS). Hajnal yanks the dart out of his chest and collapses, and then starts to twitch. The folks around him start to go into crisis mode, but then Carlsson shoots him and folks scatter. Carlsson then shoots him twice more, and then hands the rifle over to Parker.

Hajnal, meanwhile, is shaking and convulsing, and then raises up a bit...just in time for Parker to shoot him in the back of the neck. He collapses, bleeding blue, and the agents bug out.

MacAteer and Hanover head towards the terminal in the baggage thing (which, unfortunately, Hajnal's guards have already noticed). They get out and split up, dipping into the crowd. Firinci, in the van, tries to put the airport's security systems into "AAAAAH" mode, but he's getting locked out, so he goes in and pulls the fire alarm instead. All of the agents fall back; Parker uses Preparedness to have a car stowed at this airport, and they all head back to Innsbruck rather than even bothering with their safe house here.

Which, as it turns out, is a good thing. As they're watching the coverage later ("Notorious Crimelord Assassinated at Prague Airport!") they discover that their safehouse exploded around the same time as their attack. No bodies were found, just one head...Lazlo Berger.

The agents have some questions, here. Who blew up the house? If the conspiracy knew about them, why didn't it stop their assault on Hajnal? The criminal underworld in Europe is in absolute chaos, so it doesn't look like they were decoyed, it looks like the really killed him.

In any case, by their calculations, that leaves only two known vampires - Ioan Koltay and Tesla himself. They have no idea where Tesla is, but they figure they can find Koltay easily enough. That's the next op.