Promethean Notes

OK NO REALLY I'M DOING THIS.

Chill 3rd. Ed. Playtest - Blood Trade

So, last night I ran a playtest session of Chill, using some of the changes we've made to the system. I'm not going to talk too much about those changes here, because they're still in flux, but I will say that we're definitely accomplishing our goals of simplifying the system and removing as much of the at-the-table math as we can without sacrificing the feel of the game.

This was a one-shot game, so the pace was pretty brisk, but I like the way it turned out. Our characters were all taken from the 2nd Ed core book:

• Michelle played the Baroness Ilse Dumatriche, a Romanian expert in vampires.
• Gus played Basil "BB" Bottomley, an Australian bounty hunter. 
• John played Jennifer Joyce, an American investigative journalist. 
• Morgan played Dr. Thomas Simpson, a doctor and expert pugilist. 

The envoys were called to Washington, D.C., after a SAVE contact (an EMT at George Washington University Hospital) notified the regional headquarters about a Moldovan woman dumped at the ER with severe blood loss...but no visible wounds. The victim, Dana Albescu, was stable and wanted to check out, and the interpreter they'd brought in had trouble understanding her accent. Albescu was afraid of a man named Grigore, and had attempted to get up and leave as soon as she was stable, but the hospital had managed to talk her down. 

Figuring that a vampire might be at work, SAVE sent the team in to investigate the woman's story, try and gain her trust, and assess any threat. On the way there, Joyce attempted a Clairvoyant/Prescient Dream, but storms during the flight prevented her from seeing anything. 

Once there, the characters met up and formed a plan. Simpson and Dumatriche would talk to Albescu (Simpson had arranged to see Albescu as her doctor, and Dumatriche as an interpreter). Joyce decided to do a little research into Moldavan immigration and see if there was a pattern, and Bottomley hit the streets to see if he could dig up anything on Grigore.

This last was a bust - Bottomley's good at his job, but he's not terribly imposing (Personality 38) and he doesn't exactly blend in in downtown DC, not with that accent. Joyce learned that given Albescu's circumstance, she was almost certainly a sex worker, "recruited" from a smaller town in Moldova and taken first to western Europe, then to the US. Grigore was, in all likelihood, her pimp. 

Dumatriche and Simpson talked with Albescu and examined her, and sure enough, two pinprick bite marks - Dumatriche was fairly certain these were vampire bites. Albescu said that she had gone to a man's apartment (at Grigore's behest) and believed she had been drugged; next thing she remembered was waking up the ER. Simpson consulted her chart - her clothes were disheveled, but apart from the mysterious blood loss there was no injury, and her rape kit was negative. Simpson arranged for a residency condo for himself, and then arranged for Albescu to be released. The envoys wanted her as protected as possible. 

Simpson talked to Roxanne Blaisdale, the EMT who contacted SAVE about Albescu, and arranged an ambulance ride to the condo. She told him that she'd seen a man in a dark car shove Albescu out the door near the ER and then take off. 

They took her to the condo, and interviewed her a little further about the attack. She told them the address where it happened, and noted her address (not far from there), and said she needed to go back there and get some things and check in with her roommates. The envoys weren't keen to let that happen (since they didn't know where Grigore was and what he might do), so they asked her to stay put. 

She told them about the attack - she went into the apartment and remembered thinking that she hoped the man's wife didn't come home, because based on the decor she was pretty sure a woman lived there. The man - Alexandru - had her sit on the couch...and then she blacked out. No drinks were involved. Joyce used Telepathic Empathy on her during this interview, and she wasn't afraid, just confused - apparently the monster had influenced her mind before any real trauma had happened. She gave them a description of Grigore, his cell phone, and the make and model of his car. 

Simpson went back to the hospital and looked for records of similar victims, but there weren't any to be found. Wondering if that meant there weren't any surviving victims, he visited the morgue, and talked to the old coroner, who remembered a similar case in the 1960s - Soviet woman brought in bled dry, but no wounds. He assumed she had some weird disorder and moved on; she was an illegal and not exactly something he was encouraged to spend time on. Joyce, upon hearing this, dug into her own records and found that the neighborhood, which had crime problems now, was much worse in the 60s. Same vampire, maybe, just awakened from a long sleep?

Bottomley took the cell phone and ran it (bounty hunter!). It was a burner, but he was still able to get some data on where it was used - same neighborhood as Albescu, which made sense. They envoys told Albescu to stay put, and took the train to the apartment where the attack happened. Before they did, Dumatriche used her Premonition Discipline and foresaw no danger at the apartment, but did see Bottomley looking with interest out the window. 

They got to the apartment and looked around. They found that the person living her was one Cosmina Petrescu, a Romanian woman in school at GWU. She was gone, though, and the state of her apartment indicated that she hadn't packed for a trip, but that she hadn't been back in a few days. Bottomley found her wallet tossed under the couch, but no blood or evidence of attack. At Dumatriche's request, he looked out the window, and saw an Orthodox church on the corner. 

The envoys called the condo, but got no answer. Fearing that Grigore or - worse - the vampire might have found Albescu, they rushed back, but found a note from Albescu. She was going to her apartment to get some things. They envoys headed back to that area of town, and found her apartment building, with a rough-looking man out front, clearing acting as guard. Joyce distracted him with some targeted flirting and Bottomley (the only one with any stealth skill) crept past him and up to the apartment. She charmed his way in (rolled a Colossal success on Personality, which is tough for him!), and the woman there, who sported a shiner and an obvious drug habit, told him that Albescu had been here and then left...as had Grigore. Bottomley offered help, but she refused, and he told her how to find him, and then left.

The man out fronted spotted Bottomley as he left and stepped up to him, spoiling for a fight, but Bottomley didn't rise to it (and Joyce waved off Simpson, who was about to walk up and sucker-punch the guy). The envoys regrouped, and decided that Bottomley would get in a cab and see if he could catch Grigore, since he knew what the car looked like. Dumatriche would head to the church and see if the priest there knew Albescu or anything worthwhile, and Joyce and Simpson would get on the train back to the condo and see if they could catch Albescu. 

The cab driver had trouble with Bottomley's accent, so Dumatriche translated (he spoke Russian), and found he knew Grigore and was concerned about taking anyone to him. Dumatriche paid him off, and he took Bottomley there. Grigore was standing in a parking lot, near his car, alone, on a cell phone. Bottomley, not well disposed toward the creep, hit him with a damn bola, tied him up, and stuffed him in his car. 

Grigore was none too thrilled, but Bottomley was as cheerful as ever, and drove down the street to the church. Dumatriche was there and had spoken to the priest, but he didn't know Alexandru and expressed concern about Cosmina when told she was missing. 

Bottomley texted the others and they all met up in the church lot (Joyce and Simpson were still waiting for the train). It was just after dark when they arrived. They interrogated Grigore, and he said that Alexandru had approached him on the street about buying a girl for a while, but then when he'd gone to pick her up, she was sick. He also said that he remembered taking her down the stairs and then being at the hospital, but nothing in between.

At this point, the envoys saw a light in the graveyard. Figuring it was a flashlight, Dumatriche, Bottomley and Simpson headed in to check it out, while Joyce stayed with Grigore. The envoys had seen the light by one of the older crypts, but then it vanished. 

Joyce heard a noise behind her, and turned to find a slim, young man in a black suit. She used Telepathic Sending to alert Bottomley. The man seemed to sense this somehow, and backhanded her against the car - much harder than his slim frame would have indicated. 

The envoys came running, but a swarm of bats appeared out of nowhere and enveloped them. Bottomley swung his bola, knocking them away enough to get out of the graveyard, and Simpson just hunched over and ran, but it bought the vampire enough time to slam Joyce's head through the car window. Dumatriche placed a Mental Shield on Bottomley and headed for the church, hoping to get holy water. 

Joyce started limping away, knowing that one more blow would probably kill her. Simpson caught up and used his Heal Discipline to close up the wounds on her head. Bottomley flung his bola and wrapped up the vampire, and the envoys saw a wave of fog rolling up from the graveyard. Bottomley pulled out a stake, and the vampire glared at him...but he felt nothing (thanks to the Mental Shield, though he didn't know it). 

Bottomley drove the stake home, and the vampire fell paralyzed. Dumatriche came out with holy water, followed by the priest, who was at first incredulous, but then saw the vampire's fangs. The envoys beheaded it and placed a holy wafer in its mouth, and it crumbled away to dust. 

They left, and the priest call the police. The FBI took Grigore away, and they found the bodies of two women in the crypt (one of them was Cosmina Petrescu). Dumatriche was able to help Albescu get her papers to remain in the US, and of course the cops raided the building where she lived and removed the other women. The envoys debriefed the priest, as well, who agreed to act as a SAVE contact in future. 

All in all, not a bad night's work. 

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: Tautology Forecast, part 2

Part one here.

So, the demons got together and realized that we have a Burned demon and a soul pact. Well, that's a match made in Hell, right there. Lucia Sparks, it seems, dies tonight (or rather, has her marker called in).

Krispie and Harriet do a little research and find that Lucia Sparks lives in Cleveland, near the Flats, in a section of town marked by some very expensive apartments. We pile into the RV and head over there, park in a vacant area (there are lots of those). Then we form a basic plan.

Lee takes demonic form and, carrying Tamar, flies up and lands on the roof. The others will enter the building, get up to the roof door, and let him in, and then we'll all go down and get entry to Lucia's place and let Tamar call in the pact. No problem.

I failed the compromise roll for Lee, though, and decided I'd take the Hunted Condition (which, if we were going to play these characters again, might come back to bite me, but it didn't tonight). But Lee assumes demonic form: He's better than 12 feet tall, with big, sheet-metal like wings. His beard gets longer and is made of thin, copper wiring that sparks like a Tesla coil, and his tattoos fade to acid-etchings on metallic skin. He takes to the air with Tamar and, as planned, lands on the roof.

The other folks enter and make their way to Lucia's place. Lee comes down with Tamar (turns out the stairway door is unlocked from the outside). They knock, she answers but doesn't undo the chain. There's a couple of minutes of trying to con our way in (which she's really too smart for, and Krispie's use of Authorized failed), and then Anton decides, screw it, we're here for her soul anyway. He kicks in the door.

Lee uses Hesitation on the poor woman, and Yuri jumps in and uses Knockout Punch. Krispie calls up her EMP Field form power, and Harriet jams the elevator so we don't get surprised from behind. And then the dog wakes up.

There's a little dog sleeping on a doggie bed, but its eyes are huge and black, like a grey alien's. It stands up...and then without moving, it's next to Yuri. Its tail brushes him, and he's across the room, full of bashing damage, feeling like he's been through a wringer.

Lee braces himself, summoning up his Blade Hand (actually a giant stone hammer), but the dog doesn't stand a chance. Yuri takes demonic form, teleports over the "dog," and drops down on it, digging his claws into it. That does aggravated damage, folks. He tears the dog in half.

We let Tamar into the room, and she touches Lucia's unconscious body and holds up the soul pact. And then the soul pact kind of digitizes...as does Lucia. And then that digitization reforms around Tamar, and now she's Lucia.

Anton uses Break to Heal to fix Yuri up (the TV shatters). The rest of us calm down a bit. We talk a little about how Lucia's memories will come back to her a bit (and she marvels in the knowledge that she has work in the morning), but this does make us wonder where the dog came from. Lee looks at it and tries to figure out if it's a Hellhound, but it doesn't seem to be. It might be just a cryptid that's been trained somehow. But then we realized that it's still got some magic in it, because when Yuri pokes it with a stick, the stick disintegrates.

We gather the body up in a blanket, take it to the roof, and Lee nods to Anton. Anton uses Hellfire on his pistol, and Lee throws the blanket out into the night. "Pull!"

Anton shoots it, and it explodes into a fireball. If that doesn't kill it, man...

Since we basically just set off a beacon, though, we decide that going out for drinks and now being here might be wise. So we hit one of the bars (Flat Iron, maybe? I don't remember) and have mojitos, and try and figure out where that dog came from.

Lucia finds some of her business cards, and hands Harriet one. There's an equation on the back. When solved, it yields a phone number and the word "Reese." Harriet calls it, and a mechanized voice answers. She asks about the dog, and "Reese" seems confused, but then says, "oh, we're in that reality?" He indicates he'd be willing to get together and explain that, but the general consensus is that that's a bit more angelic than we're comfortable with. Anyway, Lucia's a demon now, we can all help her get established (Anton especially), so that's all good, right?

Some Demon: The Malachi games end with explosions, some end with mojitos.

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.

Demon: Tautology Forecast, part 1

Last Monday, we played a playtest game of Demon: The Champaggin (didn't know you were such a coin-assuer). I didn't get the write-up done before now because I've been busy writing Demon. So yeah.

I actually got to play in this one, which is a rarity. The game is set in Cleveland, and our characters are all aware of each other and more or less friendly, but largely unaffiliated. Our characters:

• Lee Colvin (Messenger/Integrator): Lee is a big, burly, bearded preacher. He was sent to build up a following as a kind of guerrilla minister, doing sermons out of the back of his RV. He was then told to deliver a sermon of apocalyptic portents, and Fell rather than (as he saw it) end the world. It never occurred to him that his portents might not be true. (My character, so I might wax long-winded a bit.)
• Yuri Ivanov (Destroyer/Saboteur): After the Fall (he Fell for love, or at least appreciation of human beauty), Yuri was a hitman for the Russian mob. He cashed in a soul pact to take on the identity of a tattoo artist in Cleveland. 
• Anton Gaspar (Guardian/Tempter): Anton is our other "connected" guy, but he's rich and trades in favors and pacts. (I don't know much about his backstory, 'cause I'm not running this game.)
• Mnemosyne (Messenger/Inquisitor): She goes by Harriet now, and she works at a library in a lousy part of Cleveland. As I recall, her library was supposed to be destroyed (it was part of her angelic mission), and she Fell to preserve it. 
• Shawn King/Krispie (Psychopomp/Tempter): Krispie had been a demon once before. She Fell, was recaptured, recycled, and some part of her remembered the freedom. Her catalyst for Falling on her character sheet is listed as "No Disassemble/Fuck This!".

So, we begin our story in Cleveland one evening. Anton, in his office, gets a phone call. The caller ID doesn't register it, and his secretary (when asked) didn't hear the phone ring or route the call to him. The caller just says a series of numbers (which Anton memorizes, being a demon) and hangs up. 

The numbers don't mean anything to him, and he can't figure out where the call came from, so he calls Harriet. She checks the numbers and, sure enough, she finds that they correspond to two books in her system. One is Cyberbullying by Lucia Raatma, and the other Wanted: Alive or Undead by Kerrelyn Sparks. Harriet had no idea whether they had any demon-related relevance. Anton, still wondering, called up Krispie (who is a hacker and information junkie). Krispie drives an RTA bus and her line stops right in front of Harriet's library, so she decided they'd get together once her shift was over. Anton played with the numbers some more, and figured out that they also worked as a coordinate: in Lakeview Cemetery.

Anton let Krispie and Harriet know, and then called up Lee and Yuri (in case he need muscle or, like, someone preached to, since Lee is no great shakes in a fight. Unless he goes making Hellhounds, but that's another story). They all arrived in a lot across from the cemetery entrance, and wandered across to look for the site. And indeed, they found the coordinates - a gravestone. The name on it was Lucia Sparks (note the authors of the books). The grave was also obviously Infrastructure.

Now worried that they might be intruding on some angelic operation, the demons decided to dig a little further. Literally. Yuri and Lee grabbed shovels out of the back of Lee's RV and started digging, figuring that it was in keeping with the God-Machine to bury a Lynchpin. The others looked around a little further, and felt Aether coming from the ruins of a building that had been recently torn down. Looking in, they found a demon...in demonic form. She was very short, almost child-sized, and obviously frightened.

She told the characters that she'd been sent to seduce a minister at a nearby Baptist church, but when she'd gotten there, she had been unable. She felt nothing for him, just a revulsion for the situation, and Fell. But she didn't have a Cover, which was strange - most of the time, when an angel Falls, the keep whatever Cover they had (which is why Lee is still a street preacher, Harriet is still a librarian, etc.). Exposed like this, the demon was a liability for all of them - demons in demonic form attract angels, and no one was in a hurry to fight angels tonight.

Meanwhile, Yuri and Lee dug to the grave until the shovels went clunk. They opened the coffin and found no body, but a scroll. Unrolling it (because if there's one thing you should always do in a horror game, it's unroll scrolls you find in graves), it turned out to be a soul pact. Yikes. But actually, this turns out to be a bit of serendipity, because the Cover-less demon could use this soul pact to get herself a Cover...if we can find whoever signed this pact.

The characters all got back together and the demon rode in the RV with Lee. She asked some questions about Falling and what this all meant, and the other players reflected that maybe this wasn't the smartest idea, letting her ride with the Integrator (Lee just wanted to go home). Lee asked her name; she said she didn't have one. Lee named her "Tamar."

The demons all got together at Yuri's Safe Place (his studio, I believe) and talked this out. They decided that they should go talk to the minister she was supposed to seduce and try and figure out what was going on. Lee and Harriet went (they're kind of the most socially adept of the characters). They talked to the minister, who was an older, and kind of obese, fellow. Trying to get information on this required some finesse ("Say, anybody try and seduce you lately?"), and neither of us have any of the powers that make people talk, but eventually Lee got an exceptional success on a Persuasion roll and I put the Trusting Condition on him. So he opened up.

The minister told us that he'd been outside one evening recently, and had seen a beautiful light, and an angelic vision in it. It had come toward him, but then it vanished.

This made some sense; if that was Tamar, and if she was sent to seduce him as an angel, then she wouldn't have a Cover per se. It's still a strange set of circumstances, and we still have a demon with no Cover.

Next time (which is a week from tomorrow) we'll finish this up. 

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. 

Conclusion of The Key, Part One

We were supposed to end this game on Monday, but we got a late start (it was Michelle's birthday, and we were finishing dinner and so on), so it's gonna wind up going one more session. I think, though, that it's going to wind up being a nice segue into my Demon playtest, which is only right.

So last time, Lundy decided the characters would split up, some going to Hackensack, NJ and some going on to Utica, NY. Berry got a call from Cohen, their mysterious time-shifting informant, who told her to make sure they didn't split up. Berry took this to heart and spent the plane ride convincing Lundy. Lundy finally agreed (mostly to shut her up) that they would stop in New Jersey, take or copy the files (since this was very much a cold case, there would be nothing of a crime scene to process) and then get back on the plane and head to Utica.

The characters arrived at the facility that held all these old case file boxes. The cop working the desk was a young guy with his arm in a sling (obviously on injured leave). He checked the characters' credentials, and then asked one of them to come behind the locked cage door to help him lift the box. Lundy, of course, volunteered Mallory.

Mallory and Officer Kondrilik walked down the aisle toward the box, and Mallory saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He had time to react (and use his Defense, which probably saved his life) - a man struck out of the shadows and cut his neck open with an ice pick.

Mallory drew his gun (Quick Draw) and shot the dude, and then wisely backed up so he wouldn't get stabbed again. Berry jumped over the fence around the files area, and King followed (also a parkour practitioner, as it happens). Cochrane tried to shoot the lock on the door and failed; Lundy shoved her out of the way and did it.

The man moved around Kondrilik and stabbed him in the throat. Mallory shot the man again, twice, but the man ran to the end of the aisle. Lundy moved around to the other aisle, but the aisles were closed at the ends. Cochrane used the desk phone to call backup, and then started tending to Kondrilik. The assailant was nowhere to be seen.

Quick work on the characters' parts saved Kondrilik's life, and though Mallory was injured pretty badly (four lethal damage; in story terms, the ice pick pierced his neck and ripped the skin open, but missed his jugular by that much). Mallory had a breaking point when he saw Kondrilik lying, apparently dead, but just picked up the Shaken Condition (again) and didn't lose Integrity.

But then there was the issue of the vanishing man. Cochrane looked over the crime scene, and found that all three of Mallory's bullets had connected (and were retrieved). Blood spatter indicated that the last shot had pierced the killer's heart, so he would have died in 60 seconds or so...but then where did he go? Cochrane had a breaking point, succeeded (no Integrity loss) and picked up the Obsessed Condition, trying to find the piece of evidence that makes this all make sense.

King and Lundy watched the camera footage and saw Mallory shoot the guy...and he just vanished. Lundy had a little breaking point there, too, and picked up the Spooked Condition. King, for his part, accepts that something supernatural is happening, but unlike Berry, he doesn't have the direct experience necessary to put it in any kind of context.

System notes: As I suspected, the revision of Defense combined with the new damage rules means that combat-build characters are scarier. Both Mallory and the bad guy are such characters, and if Mallory hadn't succeeded on the Reaction to Surprise roll he'd probably have died. But the real test this time was the Social maneuvering system, which is what Berry used to convince Lundy not to split up (which, in turn, probably saved someone's life).

I like the system, and I think what's going to have to be important is setting things up so that your impression level gets as good as possible. Otherwise, you're talking days or weeks of game time, and for simple requests that's just not feasible. I think the system works for what it is meant to do, though, and I think it complements, rather than replaces, the idea of using simple Social actions (which means that as I'm writing Demon powers I'm approaching things the right way).