The Strange: Appraising the Brewster Mansion

Yesterday I ran the first session in our new The Strange game (now that Night's Black Agents finished up. So, let's us do the set-up kinda stuff. We once again used the Spark method of picking a game:

• Glen chose Storm Front for the horror/serial killer angle. 
• Michelle chose Murder on the Orient Express for how everyone has an interconnected motivation, and in an extreme environment that forces their actions. 
• I chose Mother Night for the notion that you can pretend to be something so hard that it doesn’t matter what you really are. 
• Karafa chose Lucifer TV series. Likes the interplay between a supposedly evil character, being blamed for being the one to punish people for sin. 
• Morgan chose Firefly - character-focused heavily invested in relationships, but also with nonstandard genre. 
• Al chose the music of Five Finger Death Punch - action and surprising emotion and connection. 

I brought them four possibilities: Belly of the Beast, Summerland, The Strange, and Shadow of the Demon Lord. In the end, obviously, we opted for The Strange. So, characters! All of them are recruits of the Estate, an organization that works to manage Strange phenomena and keep other recursions from doing terrible things on Earth.

• Al plays Carmen Steele (Clever Pardox who Operates Undercover): She owns an antique shop, and was awarded the Fellowship for skill in appraisal. She's secretly a spymaster for hire, particularly on the Strange. Edward always sees through her disguises. 
• Karafa plays Edward Sawyer (Skeptical Paradox who Solves Mysteries): Awarded the Fellowship for debunking psychics. Illusionist and expert in sleight of hand. 
• Michelle plays Prof. Roxanne McPherson (Intelligent Spinner who Entertains). She was awarded the Fellowship after publishing a book about how Things Mean Stuff in Literature (Michelle swears she's not playing herself). A TV deal in the making! 
• Morgan plays Arnauld Jones (Strange Vector who Works the System): South African hacker, broke a security challenge, was awarded the Fellowship. 
• Glen plays Alexander Oakley (Strong Vector that Is Licensed to Carry): Awarded the Fellowship for advances in marksmanship. Great-great-grandson of Annie Oakley.

We open with the characters meeting with Vernon Belding, their handler in the Estate. Belding translates into Earth as a panhandler, so they meet him on a particular corner and take him to a diner. Belding tells them that they need to go to the Brewster mansion (jokes about "Punky" and "Millions" abounded), because the Estate has evidence of an inapposite gate somewhere on the ground. Such gates allow anything from other recursions to enter Earth, so it's important to investigate them and monitor them; they don't tend to last long. 

The Brewster mansion is owned by Mrs. Penelope Brewster; her husband John made his fortune in scrap metal, but he died 20 years ago. Arnauld does some hacking into financial records and discovers that the mansion only has three full-time employees; Edward Norris, Desmond White, and Brian Priestly. Priestly has been there the longest (over 20 years), but all of them have at least a decade under their belts. The house is far too big for three people to manage it, though, so there must be other employees. 

The character have cover - they're there to appraise antiques and books (meaning Roxanne and Carmen have the real expertise, and the others can just be their staff). Belding notes, though that they probably don't need to have too much contact with the other folks - just find the gate. Of course, the grounds are huge, so this might take some time.

They head out and ring the bell. Norris answers and admits them, and his eyes kind of light up when they tell him why they're there. He show them to the library so Roxanne can start working, and tells them to ring if they need anything. They pass several people cleaning on the way, so Arnauld goes and finds one of them and chats her up. He learns that Norris hires a rotating staff of folks, under the table, every few days so that the place stays maintained. It's not as much money as she'd make if Norris actually hired an agency, but it's tax free and in cash, so that's nice. 

Roxanne, for her part, notices that there are books missing. The bookshelves have been arranged to hide the omissions, but there have definitely been some removed, and based on the books that are there, they're pretty valuable. She asks Norris if there are any other books, and he mentions that there's a study upstairs that has some, but they're mostly law texts (one John's family was a lawyer). 

Arnauld and Oakley go outside and chat with one of the gardeners, who tells them that it's basically the same for him - Priestly comes out and hires folks from parking lots. They walk around the building and find Priestly working on a truck. Oakley chats with him. He seems amiable enough, and shows interest in what the characters are doing. He mentions being sure they go to the basement - there's stuff down there that hasn't seen daylight in a long time. 

Arnauld, meanwhile, does some more research and learns that the Brewsters were not exactly a passionate couple, but weren't dogged by scandal, either. Talking to staff, he learns that there's tension in the house - Brewster likes to threaten to cut people out of her will and give everything to the Debenhem Foundation (a conservative PAC), so it makes sense that her longtime staff are looking to cash in where they can.

Carmen asks Norris for admission to the basement. Edward, though, not wanting to wait, finds a wooden door, picks the lock, and has Arnauld and Oakley meet him. They go downstairs and find a lot of stuff covered in sheets. They poke around a bit, and Edward finds a stone in the corner. It's not part of the stonework in the basement - indeed, it has moss on it, so it looks like it was brought here from outside. Arnauld finds a cypher (a Remembering) - they show up in the darndest places. 

Norris, meanwhile, asks the characters if they're planning to stay; there's plenty of room, and this is going to be a multi-day endeavor. They agree, and Norris sets the staff to making up some rooms as the sun begins to set.