Game Write-Ups Before the Long Road

We're leaving tomorrow, but not on a jet plane. A jet Civic, I guess. Heading for Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, and then home. I enjoy road trips, I really do, and I'll be doing a running travelogue with pictures and everything!

But for now: Pirates.

Last time we met, we didn't really play much, because Sarah drank something she shouldn't have and got sick. So this time, we had our ambush set up. We got to the island, and found that Jack Snow's treasure was buried (supposedly) in the ruins of an old fort. We set up four cannons, armed two of them with chain shot, and angled them so as to bottleneck any incoming thieves. Then we hid and waited.

Captain Mauser and his crew came aboard, looking for the treasure of the "frosted captain," and we let fly with the chain shot, killing Mauser and several of his people. Blaine stepped around the corner (choking down bile, since he's afraid of blood) and told the survivors to stand down. Morgan rounded the cannons - and they agreed.

We tied them up, and left our captain and a couple of sailors to watch them, while we got on their boats and headed back to the Poseidon's Due. They'd left a few men behind, but we boarded and jumped them. It took some doing - one fellow in the crow's nest had a device that spat fire! But they were outnumbered, and soon enough they were incapacitated.

We discovered that the fire-spitting device was the clapper to the bell, the one that puts people to sleep. So now we have this weird artifact, and two ships...and next time (which is a while from now), we'll flip to the modern day, and find out what has become of these mystical artifacts in the ensuing centuries.

And then, last night, the exciting conclusion to our Demon: The Descent game: How An Angel Dies.

The characters, you'll recall, were in quite a pickle. Will was facing off against the demon-wolf, Marchosias, with Edgar and Luke nearby. Simon had sucker-punched Jamie, and Amy had caught her as she plummeted earthward. And Saskia was stuck in her own little reality-bubble.

Marchosias was cowed, but the characters weren't really sure what to do with him. Edgar used Interference, but instead of scattering the demon-energy around, he tried to focus it all on Marchosias. He did that, and Saskia, stuck in her bubble, saw the world around her in faint, blue-light outlines. And then a wave of...well, light started washing toward her, destroying and resetting everything in its path.

Back in the world, Edgar warned everyone to lie low. Everyone but Will (who was keeping the wolf at bay) dropped back into human form. And then the wave hit.

It filled their Aether pools, so that's good news, but it also reset everything. When the dust cleared, several of them were injured, the Aether scorching them, but it was April 21, 1962. The time-bubble had reset. Marchosias was gone. Amy looked at him with Clairvoyant Sight, and saw him back in his fire-pit. They broke into the house (now empty and not destroyed) and found the basement to be a bit warm...he was trapped again. They looked in on Simon, and he was on top of the Space Needle in present-day, looking sad. Had this reset been the Lambent's mission?

They took a cab to Fremont, hoping to use the Troll's car to get back...and found the gate closed. That left the Space Needle, but they were worried about that, seeing as how a) it's public and b) not all of them can fly. Will suggested going through the Underworld and emerging in modern day, and Luke agreed it might work. He used Rip the Gates, and the six of them trouped through the Underworld, and emerged through an Avernian Gate in the basement of a coffee shop, staffed by a barista called Charlie.

They went to the Troll, and learned that a crazy guy with a hammer had wandered down the street and smashed up the Troll's car. That, then, had been the Lambent's mission. Looking in on Simon again, they found him to be in an office at the Space Needle - apparently he works there. They went there, bluffed their way in (Authorized), and took an audience with him. Will made it quite clear he'd love to kill him, but they were willing to talk.

Simon told them his plan had been for Marchosias to wriggle through the portal into modern Seattle and burn it, but he hadn't known about the Lambent (if he had, he'd have angel-jacked the Lambent himself). The others reminded him that, y'know, they live here, but Simon acknowledged that - he just wanted to see the city burn. Will made it clear that when/if word got out about what he tried to do, it wasn't just this ring he'd have to deal with, and Simon understood that. Jamie said that, instead of trying to end the world to work through his issues, maybe he should just come down to the bar and have a drink?

Simon agreed that, in light of the day/night he'd had, that might be preferable. And so that's where we end - heading to the bar to have a drink and talk this out, like reasonable demons.

How an Angel Dies: Part 4

Wednesday, we played our fourth and probably penultimate session in How an Angel Dies, the SAS for Demon: The Dysphagia. If you want a refresher, last session is here.

So, the first thing we did was spend some experiences. Michelle bought the Fungible Knowledge Embed, and then plugged that into her Cipher (formerly known as Interlock Matrix). Her character experienced an epiphany, and achieved her first Interlock: She can convert her own Skill dots into Willpower, temporarily, to refresh her Willpower pool (so if you're going into a fight and you don't reckon you'll need to know how to whittle, you can convert Crafts to Willpower). She also gained a dot of Primum and gained a permanent glitch: her voice echoes slightly.

Edgar hung out in the lobby as the second act of the ballet progressed, and wound up missing something important (he rolled Perception, failed, took the dramatic failure for a Beat). Whatever that was, though, that let him ask the next question for his Cipher. Now he knew that the next Embed for his Cipher was a) in the Vocal category and b) used Wits. That narrowed it down to one of five. Figuring that Voice of the Machine was the most likely (or at least the most interesting), he spent some experience and bought it, and then, crossing his fingers, tried it in his Cipher.

Success! He, too, gained Primum and a glitch (tattoo of a wristwatch on his wrist; it'll start moving and ticking if he gets temporary glitches), but also his first Interlock: He can divert an angel to another target, which can give him a reprieve or make someone else's life hard. But all of this doesn't help him to figure out what he's missing.

He feels a ping of Aether, as do several of the demons in the house. Will goes out to investigate, but sees nothing. The show ends, and the characters follow the cultists out. Saskia buys the Across a Crowded Room Embed, and attempts to use it, but fails. She takes the dramatic failure for the Beat, and can only whisper for the next hour. She also notices Will's shadow detach itself and slither across the room to attach itself to one of the cultists.

The characters mean to follow the cultists, who go to the parking lot and pile into two cars, but they realize belatedly that they didn't procure a way to do that. Luke hails a cab at the taxi stand, and Jamie uses Lucky Break - it's a checker cab, and those thing seat nine. They also wind up with a cabbie who's a little on the shady side, and totally willing to play "follow those guys."

They ride through town to Bellevue, into Redmond, into a subdivision full of identical, 50s housing. They get out of the cab and follow the cultists to a house in a cul-de-sac, and Amy sneaks up to the window to peak in. Sadly, she fails the Stealth roll and (again) the player takes the DF for the Beat. She doesn't see the cultists...but she sees someone sign at her, "I'll be right out."

They figure (correctly) that he's a demon. He walks out and introduces himself as Simon Flannery. He chats with the characters for a moment, claims not to know Gordon or have any idea what he was up to, and claims that this cult is just an experiment - he wants to push the limits of the time splinters. Will mentions that he wasn't expecting such a polite confrontation, and is a little disappointed (he's a Saboteur through and through); Simon says that, since they've brought this "cult is getting more important" thing to his attention, he'd better go and make sure it doesn't get worse. Edgar asks him what would happen if he stops the ritual now, and Amy uses Freudian Slip, just to see.

Simon snaps, "Then all my hard work would be fucked."

(As an aside, I don't know that Freudian Slip should work on demons, certainly not without a resistance roll of some kind, since it technically forces an honest reaction. Since it was a PC using it on an NPC, however, and since said NPC has kind of a low Cover, I was fine with it. Context, people.)

Anyway, Simon, realizing he's fucked (the characters hadn't really been believing his line anyway), turns around, bursts into demonic form and dives into the ground, phasing into the basement. Will and Edgar both change to demonic form. Edgar crashes through the picture window and runs halfway down the stairs, where he sees the cultists performing their highly stylized ritual. Will smashes through the front door ("OH YEAH!") and gets to the top of the stairs.

Amy changes to demonic form and uses Clairvoyant Sight on Simon, since she's met him. He's surrounded by fire, apparently about to punch upwards. Amy says, "He's in a pit of fire!"

Jamie says, "A pit of fire? You mean the firepit?" and uses Play on Words. They run around to the backyard, where, indeed, Simon is standing in the barbecue pit that houses in this era almost always had, and is looking very confused.

With Blind Sense, Edgar can tell there's a stone slab in the basement, below which is a hollow. He relays this to Will. But then Simon uses Swift Resolution (which is a gamble, because while it ends the conflict, it means he loses because he's clearly outgunned). I got an exceptional success, so I stipulated that the characters couldn't kill him. But they chose to stop him. He changes to human form and holds up his hands.

This could have been the end of it...but then Will decided to get dramatic. He jumps down the stairs and smashes the stone slab in, taking most of the foundation out (using Shatter). And lo, Marchosias was released.

The demon-wolf was apparently trapped beneath the house, an immense, fire-breathing monster. The cultists are already dead, killed by the destroyed of the slab and the backblast from below, but now the beast is free.

Edgar uses his newly acquired Voice of the Machine Embed and learned that the Lambent was incoming - apparently they'd missed their chance to angel-jack.

Saskia uses Combustion to make the stones around Marchosias more flammable, figuring maybe he'd burn himself up. Luke uses Multiple Images (himself now in demonic form) to confuse the demon-wolf, which works; the wolf snaps at them. Edgar and Will get out of the basement, and Marchosias breathes fire. The whole place goes up in an inferno.

Meanwhile, Simon changes back to demon form and takes to the air, using his wings. Amy and Jamie follow, starting a chase.

Marchosias leaps out of the pit, burning and angry. Luke teleports up and tries to grab Simon, but misses. He alters his descent to land on Marchosias, and the demon-wolf yelps like a wounded dog (but otherwise, it growls like a diesel engine). Edgar tries to banish it using what he remembers from The Lesser Key of Solomon, but nothing happens. Saskia spends more experience to buy Solitary Confinement (not an Embed!), and tries to imprison the wolf in an oubliette, but again, fails and takes the dramatic failure. She vanishes into her own little prison-dimension.

Jamie catches up with Simon and grabs him, but he punches her and uses Knockout Punch. She plummets toward the earth, and Amy flies down to catch her, but now Simon is far ahead of them.

Will calls up his Intimidating Aura and roars at Marchosias, and the wolf backs off into the fire and snarls. He's cowed it for the moment, but Simon is gone, Saskia is trapped, Jamie is unconscious, Amy is carrying her, and the Lambent is apparently en route.

Tune in next time, and find out the exciting conclusion of How An Angel Dies!

How an Angel Dies, Part 3: Into the Past!

So! Last time, the characters met Comrade West, learned that they had an angel en route that they could theoretically jack, and learned that they could travel back in time.

Yeah, that last one was kind of weird for everyone.

Well, the next evening (I'm a big fan of treating games like TV series, so fading out and then fading back in when it would be most interesting, rather than tracking every minute of the characters' lives), they all got together at the bar again. Jamie called up Comrade West and asked him about the portal to the 60s. He came to the bar, rather than talk about it on the phone.

West strolled in, wearing a new Cover (he later mentioned that he goes through Covers like some people go through condoms), and talked with the characters about the portal. He told them that Seattle has a few of these "fractures," places that allowed for travel into the past - but it wasn't really time travel. These places seemed to go in cycles, and folks in these pasts can't change things in the present, because the fractures reset themselves (for example, in 1962 it's always the World's Fair). West did say, though, that some manipulation of the past is possible - a clever demon can established a generational aspect to a Cover, making the Cover harder to blow. The demons discussed the implications of all this, but it sounds very God-Machine-y to them.

But if this "Simon" character is going into the past and shoring up an apocalyptic cult (the Fellowship of the Final Awakening), that probably bears investigation, because nothing good ever comes of doomsday cults. The characters therefore spend some time hunting down vintage clothing, and then head down to the Troll.

There, they find a couple of tourists climbing on the Troll and taking pictures. Jamie and Saskia grab cameras and start taking pictures. Jamie winds up taking a dramatic failure on a roll for a Beat, and when Saskia takes her picture on her smartphone, a man in a black suit walks around the corner, wearing shades. He doesn't speak, and the characters realize that he's probably an angel (remember that Jamie has the Flagged Condition from the little incident on the bridge, last session).

Everyone else Spoofs, appearing human to the angel, but Jamie doesn't risk it (she also has to convince it that she's human without Spoofing to resolve the Condition). She takes its picture, and sees, instead of skin, a blue circuitry pattern - definitely an angel. Will, noting this, puts a hand on his gun, but Jamie is chatty and vivacious and eventually the angel leaves, apparently believing that they're all human.

During all this, Edgar notices a ticket stub on the ground. Picking it up, he sees it's from the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, dated September 2, 1962. It's got some grime on it, looks like it's been here a while (but not 50 years). This might give the characters a starting place.

The couple leaves, and they crawl through the window of the Beetle into yesterday. Now they're in Fremont, which in 1962 is pretty unpleasant. They walk up the hill into a more civilized area and find a newspaper - it's Saturday, September 1st, 1962. The ballet is tomorrow night. Edgar uses In My Pocket to pull out some money from the era, and they hop a cab to the World's Far. Jamie uses Lucky Break as they enter a hotel lobby - someone just cancelled their reservation, allowing Edgar to book a room. With accommodations handled, they head to a bar and start drinking.

Saskia finds a rich-looking business man and chats him up. As they talk, she uses Addictive Presence on him, fascinating him (but not completely addicting him yet, because it's an extended roll). The businessman, named Roland Wright, is here from Chicago scouting new technology for his company. This, to the characters, seems like a good person to follow, since they're worried that members of the Fellowship in the 60s might wind up being influential people in the modern day.

Will talks with the bartender, and learns that a guy was in here earlier looking for a bodyguard (Will asked the bartender if he knew of anyone looking for such). The bartender produces the guy's card. It just says a name and a number.

Saskia goes upstairs with Roland, the others share their suit. The next day, they decide, they'll head to the Fair and scout around. They do that, and Saskia finds Roland talking with some other businessmen. She goes over to talk with him, and Roland is pretty mortified and doesn't speak with her (giving Saskia an unfortunate lesson in the social mores and gender roles of the day).

The demons go up to the observation deck of the Space Needle, and several of them sense something weird. Not Aether, just...odd. Trying to pinpoint it, they realize it's coming from a window on the lower deck. Amy feigns a fainting spell, and Luke (a doctor, remember) and the others draw the crowd around her. Edgar, meanwhile, opens the lock, opens the window, and sticks his head out.

He's looking out over modern-day Seattle...but only with his head through the window. The window is another portal, but not an easy on to access, apparently. Edgar can't fly, and doesn't wish to crawl out and climb down, so he closes the window, Amy "recovers," and life goes on.

Saskia had asked Roland to get them all tickets to the ballet, but when she goes back to the room (he gave her a key in the morning), he's moved his stuff out. Feeling perhaps a little salty, she rejoins the others, and they go to procure their own tickets. That's easy enough, though they wind up split, three on one side of the auditorium and three on the other, but now they need evening wear.

They head to the Bon Marche, get fitted for tuxes and gowns, and Jamie goes up to pay, and uses Lucky Break. She's only charged for her dress, which is good, as the characters don't have enough old-timey money for everything, but they also don't have a huge ethical problem with this, so they take their clothes and go.

That night, at the show, Amy, Jamie and Will sit on house left, while Edgar, Luke and Saskia sit house right. They watch the show, and Luke spends a point of Aether and sends out a "ping," looking for other demons (this is risky, because if there are angels around they might notice, but they figure it's a calculated risk). A man in the center of the house, near the front, perks up and starts looking around. Edgar activates Sense the Angelic, but doesn't sense anything, so they figure the man is either stigmatic or some other kind of sensitive. Jamie uses Across a Crowded Room to whisper to Luke "Everything OK?" Luke signs back (since demons all know sign language, as we realized yesterday) that the man in question seemed to notice the Aetheric "ping."

Intermission comes. The man gets up, and the characters notice that he's apparently talking with a half-dozen other folks sitting with him. He walks out, followed by a younger, tougher-looking guy - Will figures this is the guy that was looking for a bodyguard yesterday. They follow him out, and into the men's room, but the bodyguard is just standing watch.

Jamie talks with a couple of the other guys at the bar, and winds up Spoofing instinctively (meaning one of them has a way to check her for being non-human). They don't say anything useful, though, and then head back to their seats. Amy uses Eavesdrop on the group, and realizes that one of them is concerned that this ballet will take too long. But no, the older one reassures him, they'll have plenty of time to get to the site in time for the ritual.

Oh. This, then, would be the Fellowship of the Final Awakening. But what "ritual" are they performing? And does it have anything to do with the Lesser Key of Solomon? Will theorizes that the 35th demon, Marchosias, is the one to watch because JFK (currently in office) is the 35th president.

We shall see.

Demon Playtest: How An Angel Dies, part 2

Part one is here. All rules and conditions (not Conditions) still apply.

Before we started, I told the players something that their characters would have noticed last time, but that I hadn't mentioned: the George Washington Bridge is Infrastructure. All of it. That must have been a recent thing (existing structures can become Infrastructure, and in some ways the God-Machine prefers to do that because it's more efficient), but unless you're walking on the bridge, not driving across it, you wouldn't notice. But it is, and the smashed phone is a linchpin. Curious.

So, last time, you'll recall, Luke, Amy and Saskia were down by the Fremont Troll with Saskia's new addict. They decided to open a gate to the Underworld, because they'd heard that Regina (the woman who broke the phone up on the bridge, and whom they'd bailed out of jail) had a family member jump off that bridge to his death, so maybe his ghost is around?

Whew.

Anyway, Luke uses Rip the Gates to open up a gate to the Underworld, but could only keep it open for a turn (low Primum), so they all had to rush in. Saskia leaves her addict outside a lookout. In the caverns, they find a young man with a guitar over his shoulder. He introduces himself as Isaac Donahue, Regina's brother.

In talking to him, it becomes clear that he killed himself after losing a lifelong battle with depression. He's been hanging around the bridge ever since, but just recently he just appeared in the Underworld and can't get back to the surface. The characters talk with him a little about what he's seen, and he talks about a guy named Simon (who's "like you, whatever 'you' is", he's informs the demons) who comes down here sometimes at night, crawls through the window of the VW Beetle that the  Troll is holding, and disappears. He returns up to a few days later, but when he does his clothes are different - outdated.

At this point, the addict that Saskia brought with them appears next to them, looking mighty confused. He's got an exit wound in the back of his head; clearly he's been shot. This unnerves the demons to no end (but they are nice enough to inform him to keep walking into the Underworld and pass on). A guardian angel for the bridge, maybe? Isaac writes them a note to give to Regina, and Luke rips another gate, and out they jolly well go.

The addict's body is lying nearby. Saskia, investigating, realizes that someone lean over the bridge and shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly. They decide to call the police and claim to have found the body, rather than risk someone seeing them leave.

Meanwhile, back in the bar, Jamie, Will and Edgar talk with Regina. She's keen to accept whatever the characters want to do for her, including buying her dinner and beer, and she talks about Isaac and the phones (after a little social greasing from Jamie). She says that she was just pissed - the phones are an afterthought. There's no real help for people with mental health issues when they need it, which in Isaac's case would have been in his teens or earlier. She confirms that although Isaac has been dead for a couple of years, she only started smashing the phone a few months ago. She also says that she's seen Isaac on and under the bridge (and is in general not horribly upset by the notion of supernatural stuff), but not recently.

The other characters get back, and Luke uses Idle Conversation so they can talk without freaking Regina or anyone else out. A few of the characters notice that Regina's hair, done up in dreadlocks, has a few strands of what seems at first to be grey, but is actually shiny silver wire. So Regina is stigmatic, but is she in the same group as the cultists from before?

The demons talk with her a bit more, and learn that she's never heard of Gordon Reardon (who, remember, was the demon that the cultists killed, and who indirectly sent the characters to Regina). So why would Gordon care about her? The demons realize that they left that apartment pretty quickly and didn't really give it a good going-over, so they decide to go back. First, though, they give Regina the note from her brother. She breaks down crying, distraught but not terribly confused or disbelieving. Figuring that they'd better keep her here for her own protection, Edgar uses Ellipses on her to keep her rereading the note and drinking a beer until they get back.

They walk down to the apartment building and claim to be residents to the cops watching the place. They get out at Gordon's floor, and there's a cop on the floor as well. Will claims to be dating the guy across the hall, and sells it with some good Manipulation rolls (it helps that demons lie like nobody's business). They walk down to that apartment, Will knocks, and then uses Authorized to gain entry to the guy's flat. Edgar uses Ellipses on the original cop, and they walk across the hall to Gordon's place.

The demons investigate, with Will (and his Trained Observer Merit) taking lead. Jamie, as she has no Investigation, watches the door. Saskia finds a DVD in the player - It Happened at the World's Fair, starring Elvis Presley. Interesting.

Amy finds a police scanner on the floor next to the couch; Will probably knocked it over in the fight.

Edgar finds a copy of the Lesser Key of Solomon on his shelf. They know Gordon had an interest in demonology and cults, so that's maybe not so surprising, but he grabs it to look through it.

(An aside: Demons don't have any particular need to keep notes, since they don't forget. This makes investigation stories a little harder to write. Moving on.)

Luke finds a set of photographs in the bedroom, all of the Troll. Some are day shots; they have an X drawn over them. Three are night shots, one with a street person in the background (that one has an X), and the other two with the window of the Beetle circled. This would seem to tie in to what Luke and the others learned earlier.

Will finds an envelope stuck to the wall, and then painted over. In it is a name: "Priscilla Benedict", along with an address off Aurora Avenue. A contact? A safe house? Only one way to find out.

Jamie manifests her Sense the Angelic power (no need to go full demonic form, here). She senses that, yes, angelic Numina were used her recently, probably from the icy guy that melted her during the fight. But if he's an angel, did the God-Machine want Gordon dead? Where's that angel now? And why didn't Gordon change to demonic form and defend himself?

The characters head back to the bar and free Regina from her loop (she's surprised by how much time has passed). Knowing that the bridge is Infrastructure and having access to a linchpin, they decide to go look around there a bit. The other thing is, too, Luke is out of Aether, and he knows he can siphon some from active Infrastructure. That's risky, but you do what you must.

The characters head onto the bridge and Will, Jamie and Amy work on taking apart the phone. This is an extended action and it very nearly fails because they run out of rolls (by the end, it's just Will because the girls run through their dice pools). But he discovers that the phone isn't a phone, and never was. It's got weird blue wires that go straight back into the concrete - that's Infrastructure, for sure. If the phone isn't broken, it forms a circuit that builds up power until a switch flips in the receiver. Since it doesn't have power at the moment, Will flips the switch just to see what will happen. He hears a voice from the speaker say, "Connected. The Lambent has been dispatched."

Initially this is worrisome because it's obviously and angel summoning, but they realize there was no aetheric burst of energy, so this is just what will happen when the Infrastructure does what it's meant to. Luke picks up a phone and puts it to his ear, sucking up Aether, and then hangs up again, no problem. Saskia does as well. Edgar does, but stays on too long and those blue wires shoot out and lodges his head and ear. Fortunately, Luke is a surgeon, and removes them deftly.

But then poor Jamie tries it. She gets the Aether, sure, but when she tries to disengage she fails the compromise roll (the others were making them, but just taking minor glitches for successful rolls, and actually I think Luke's player got an exceptional success and got a Beat out of it). She takes the Flagged Compromise, loses a dot of Cover, and those needles are in tight. And then all the phones start ringing. Angels incoming.

Edgar uses Interference and gets something like seven successes, so any incoming angels will take a -7 to find the characters. Saskia tackles Jamie, ripping the wires out of her head and doing some lethal damage, but she's free. Luke bandages her up, and they flee back to the bar to talk this over.

They theorize that Isaac was banished to the Underworld when the bridge became Infrastructure. They also now know that the bridge is meant to summon an angel called "the Lambent," but they don't know why. And they know that the Beetle's window is a gateway to somewhere

They decide to split up, because that's the best way for exciting things to happen. Will, Edgar and Luke will go to the Troll and see if this window leads anywhere (Luke initially states it leads to the Underworld, but then realizes that he's just guessing about that). Amy, Jamie and Saskia will go to Priscilla Benedict's apartment and investigate who she is.

The boys go back down under the bridge, and one after another, they wriggle through the window. The world goes weird, and they wriggle out again...but the neighborhood is different. There's no Troll, and this car is just a burned-out husk. And on the hood, a woman is currently shooting up heroin (and so is too out of it to notice that three men just appeared from nowhere).

Based on her clothes, though, something's off - her fashions are 50 years out of date. Will finds a newspaper machine and buys one. It's August 31, 1962.

Meanwhile, back present-day Seattle, the girls take a drive up Aurora Avenue into what amounts to the red light district. They pull into the Sterling Apartments, which does appear to be something of a shithole. They walk in, and see a guy on the staircase, holding a bag with a big glass bottle, blocking their path. They say they're going up to see Priscilla. The man says she isn't here.

"These are Sterling Apartments, right?" says Jamie...and uses Play on Words.

Reality shudders a bit. Jamie's hair turns fluorescent (glitch). But now instead of being a shitty apartment building called "Sterling," these are really sterling apartments, at least for a few hours. The building gets cleaner, the doors are now freshly painted, and the man on the stairs stands up, is wearing a suit, and carrying a bottle of good vodka rather than cheap malt liquor. He still doesn't think Priscilla is home, however, but he doesn't stop them from going upstairs.

The door is locked, and none of them have especially high Larceny scores. Saskia, however, manifests her Spatial Distortion form power (we redid demonic forms, and OMG they're so much more balanced now, as unclean as I feel typing that) and slips under the door. She opens up for the others, and they get searching.

They find the same painting on the wall as they found in Gordon's place. Amy finds a dead, disemboweled dog in the fridge - apparently Priscilla had done some entrail-reading. They found an envelope on the wall, same as in Gordon's place, but this one with "Gordon Reardon" on it and his address. They found a map with routes from both apartments, routes to and from the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project...but all avoiding the bridge. And they found a book.

The book was Cults in America: The Harmless, The Hoax and the Horrors by Eric Rasoletti, PhD (anyone get that reference?). There was a section in the "Harmless" section with notes in the margins. The section was about a cult called the Fellowship of the Final Awakening, an apocalyptic cult active in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1960s. According to the book, they were largely just wealthy white guys pretending to occult significance, but the really weird thing was, according to the margin notes, this section used to be just a paragraph. Now it was five pages. Is this cult becoming retroactively more significant?

At this point, a man walks into the apartment. He asks if the girls are looking for Priscilla, and then adds "Me, too," in Serbian. Jamie follows up in Swahili, and when he responds, they know they're talking to a demon. He calls himself Comrade West, and he runs the Demon's Republic of Seattle, a kind of communistic Agency - everyone gives, everyone gets. He confirms what the characters suspected; Priscilla and Gordon are (were) the same demon, just different Covers. He's sorry to hear that she's dead (West refers to the demon as Priscilla, but pronouns are a bitch), and doesn't know who the cultists are or why. He does note, though, that stigmatics with matching marks are often created in the same incident...or by the same demon.

They tell him the rest of their story, including the bit about the Lambent. He points out something they hadn't considered.

If they know where and when an angel is going to appear (or, as in this case, they can control it)...they can jack it.

Game Writeups, part 3: Demon: The ???

So! On Sunday, we played a session of the forthcoming game from Onyx Path, Demon: The Leopard Gecko (OK, I'm not gonna keep doing weird names for the game. Much. Just remember it's Demon, we have a subtitle, we haven't released it yet because it might changed, move on).

Before you read any further, I want to be absolutely sodding clear about a few points:

• THIS IS A PLAYTEST. Things might change. Names of powers might change. Names of splats might change. Names of everything might change. Some of this might be "official," some of it might be things I've done for my own game. But beware of making too many assumptions, is my point. 
• THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS for the Demon SAS, which I'm writing, and I'm using this playtest to hammer out some kinks. I did with this Gloria Mundi and Fallen is Babylon (run the game and then write it) and it works pretty well. 
• I MIGHT NOT TELL YOU EVERYTHING. We've been pretty open so far about Demon, and the stuff we've deliberately held back is either a) stuff that has a good chance of changing (like the subtitle) or b) stuff that I'm saving for a special occasion (like the signature city). If you see something in the playtest write-up that's marked as [REDACTED], I'm not being coy, I'm just not willing or able to tell you yet, but I really want to. 
• I'M NOT EXPLAINING EVERYTHING. If you have a look over at this thread, you'll see that we've spoiled a lot of stuff about Demon. Why there? Well, honestly, it's mostly because I like their software. It's easy to follow and I can answer people's questions easily. I'll probably do some more official releases, but for right now, you're well served to read that thread if you want a lot of the background assumptions about the game. 

Let's move on! The game is set in Seattle. Meet the characters:

• Will Jerico (Destroyer/Saboteur): As an angel, assigned to kill a barista working at the original Starbucks. He Fell when he realized that Edgar was assigned to protect her. Definitely the combat-monster of the group. Works as a bodyguard. 
• Jamie Stephens (Messenger/Inquisitor): One of a pair of Messengers. She Fell when the other one (Amy) did, trying to save her. Works as a bartender at a bar called Thrift Shop in Fremont. Fun note: She refers to drinks as "bar things" when she's not paying attention, but she's really good at mixing them. 
• Saskia Ellis (Destroyer/Tempter): Sent to torch a building, but Fell when she saw a beautiful pregnant woman living there and couldn't bring herself to kill her. Now has kept her Cover as a building inspector. 
• Dr. Luke Fear (Psychopomp/Tempter): Once in charge of taken the souls of the unborn to the Underworld (when the God-Machine needed such souls moved). He didn't object to this on moral grounds. He objected because he felt it was inefficient to give a person a soul if they were just going to die before being born. Keeps his Cover as a doctor. 
• Amy Staley (Messenger/Inquisitor): She Fell because she realized that she was giving people messages that weren't true. Now she plays bass in the house band at Thrift Shop. 
• Edgar Motte (Guardian/Integrator): Sent to guard the barista that Will was sent to kill. Now he performs as a street perform at Pike's Place (which is actually a pretty sweet gig, so as Covers go that's not bad). Wants to get back into the God-Machine, but he wants to fix it so that things like this don't happen. 

The characters know each other, but aren't necessarily allies or chums. Edgar and Will are, obviously, as are Amy and Jamie (yes, their names rhyme. Their stats are also all but identical), but otherwise they're just acquaintances. Still, it's good to stay friendly with the demons in your area. Never know when you might need help fighting off an angel.

We start off in Fremont, not far from the George Washington bridge (under which is the Fremont Troll, which is awesome). Saskia is drinking at the bar, Jamie is behind it, and Amy is tuning her bass. Will and Edgar are hanging out a block down (Edgar is busking in Fremont today, rather than in Pike's Place - maybe too much rain down by the water?), and Luke is on his way to the bar in his car. 

Will gets a text from another demon he knows, a fellow name Gordon. The text simply says "help." Gordon lives in an apartment just a block away. Will wonders whether it's worth the risk, but shows it to Edgar, whose Guardian instincts kick in. They head for the apartment. As they get closer, they feel a large amount of Aether, dwindling down. That's not good - demons read as more localized blobs of Aether. What reads as a large burst is an angel using its powers. 

Luke is driving by at this point and feels what they do, and sees them heading up. He joins them, but sends a text to Jamie, Amy and Saskia (since he knows that at least two of them are nearby; we fudge this a bit for the sake of getting everyone together). Will charges up the stairs, while Edgar and Luke take the fire escape. Edgar pauses a minute to activate Interference, to try and hinder any angelic attempts to find them. 

The other three demons get there a minute later (they're just across the street; evidently Fremont is demon-town) and head up the stairs. 

Will gets to the door, and sees it has been smashed in. He enters, and sees several people with weird, circuit-like tattoos on various parts of their bodies. He also sees a man in a black coat standing over Gordon's body, pointing a gun. He shoots Gordon twice, and then turns the gun on Will. 

Watching from outside the window, Luke uses Just Bruised on Will. The man shoots (and the gun expels a puff of steam, like your breath on a cold day), but the bullet just wings Will. Will, noting that he's outnumbered, decides to pull out the stops, and goes to demonic form. 

His demonic form, armor and super strong, is pretty terrifying. One of the man drops back in fear. There's a downside, though; he fails the compromise roll and loses a dot of Cover. Rather than take a Condition, he takes a glitch instead; Will can no longer drink straight water (minor glitch, but it's permanent). 

At this point, Edgar goes demonic form as well. He phases through the walls into the apartment and over to Gordon, hoping to get him out before he dies. Luke manifests a few of his demonic forms powers, but doesn't go full transformation. Neither of them fail the compromise roll, though they both pick up a Condition (Shaken and Spooked, respectively). 

The women get to the top of the stairs. Saskia stays by the elevator, figuring that with gunshots happening the police will be here soon and she can talk them down. Amy and Jamie run for the doorway. Will punches the ground in front of the man in the coat (he missed), but the cultists can do nothing to get around his armor. The man in the coat draws in a breath, and Edgar and Will both feel some of their Aether drain away as their bodies get cold. 

Luke, who has teleported near Gordon, doesn't lose any Aether but hopes to use this power against the man (probably actually an angel). He tries, but fails. Edgar picks up Gordon's body and heads for the door. Jamie and Amy are there, and see a cultist draw a pistol behind Edgar. Amy draws her own gun and takes a shot, but misses. Jamie charges in, brandishing her nightstick, and swings...but misses. The player decides to make it a dramatic failure and get a Beat out of it, and the nightstick goes out the window onto the landing of the fire escape, out of reach. 

Will rears back and punches the angel, this time he connects. The angel freezes solid and then shatters into a million snowflakes (probably just bugged out, rather than getting his ass pounded). The cultists, still there, attempt to escape. Will breaks one of their arms, and then intimidates the others into getting on the ground and shutting up. One of them pushes past Jamie and gets down the fire escape. Another fights past Edgar and lands on Gordon's body, smashing his head in with a small club. 

The demons try to stop him, but the dice weren't going their way. That one runs into the hallway...but now he's got to contend with Saskia. She manifests one of the powers of her demonic form (and picks up a minor glitch - her hair goes fiery red - instead of a Condition). She gives him the Swooning Condition, and then turns on her Addictive Presence power. Normally she'd need a few days to make this work, but because he's Swooning she can roll once per turn. It only takes two - he's addicted to just being in her presence, and that plus Swooning basically makes him a Retainer (at least for the time being). 

They go to flee, because now there are sirens out on the street, but the cultist tells her that they need to take the painting. What painting? The one on the wall in the hall of Gordon's apartment. They do, and go to flee down the fire escape with Jamie and Amy. Jamie tries to use Lucky Break to get by the cop now walking down the alley below, but fails.

Fortunately, Edgar, Luke and Will (all having teleported to a nearby rooftop) can see this. Edgar uses Ellipses to make the cop just...keep walking. The others get down the alley (and Jamie finds that her nightstick is still there on the stairs; I rolled to see if the cultist that escaped noticed it, but he didn't) and they all head back to the bar. Luke, actually, takes his human form and then goes back and tells the cops he's a doctor, and can he help? He's able to confirm that Gordon is truly dead, but his use of Synthesis doesn't reveal anything the characters don't already know - door kicked in, gunshots, blood, fight, death.

At the bar, Saskia shows them the painting. Will studies it, and realizes that (in addition to depicting a covered bridge), it means "Go bail Regina Donahue out." The characters all know Regina; she's a local fixture, known for getting arrested every few months for vandalizing one particular phone on the George Washington bridge (emergency phones, y'see, it's known as a suicide bridge). Jamie asks the bar if anyone knows where she is; someone yells back that she got arrested earlier. Someone else says that her brother jumped from the bridge at that spot; someone else yells no, she's got three sisters, not a brother. 

The cultist tells the characters that Gordon focused on that painting before they jumped him (the other demons aren't crazy about this guy, and Jamie, having read the cultists' aura earlier, knows that they're touched by the God-Machine, which makes them unsafe). But he's basically a Saskia junkie now, which means they'll at least hear him out. In the end, they decide that Jamie will stay at the bar to finish her shift. Amy, Luke and Saskia went to the bridge to see if they could learn anything. 

Edgar and Will bailed out Regina with no real problem. She gave Edgar a hug and asked for a ride back to the bar. He agreed, and she said that yes, she'd broken the phone - she'd had to. She didn't say why, however. 

At the bridge, the others found the broken phone. Synthesis told Luke that the receiver had been ripped off and used to smash the keypad, but the phone wasn't working anyway. Amy looked more closely at the phone, and realized it didn't seem to work anyway. The rest of them did, though. Odd.

They walked around down under the bridge to the troll, figuring that if Regina really did know someone that jumped, maybe they could find his ghost. Luke used Rip the Gates to open passage to the Underworld (and succeeded on the compromise roll, but gained a minor glitch - the smell of dirt - in the process), and the three demons entered, looking for a ghost that knew Regina. 

Next game in April (sorry, just a monthly group). But we're doing chargen for another game next Monday, and that's biweekly.