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I really don't have anything to say in this post that wouldn't be more appropriate for a filtered one, so...



Before I get into the actual write-ups, there is something I'd like to discuss in here since it's only relevant to the gaming synopses themselves. Fact of the matter is, recounting everything that happens in the games I play/run gets more than a little tedious at times. Part of it's the fact that I play/ST as much as I do (and on top of that, people keep trying to recruit me into more stuff since Saturdays opened up with the hiatus of Greg's game, but I've really drawn the line on not getting into something new). I'm thinking of just mostly limiting my write-ups to my Promethean game (fact of the matter is, I think I enjoy going to the effort of sharing that one more than the others combined, even though I'm still a few sessions behind on posting them to the [livejournal.com profile] ptc_playtest community), or just the games I've got a hand in running, or something like that. So what are you all reading? Do you read my Promethean write-ups and just skim through the rest? Do you just keep up on the miracle that is running a vaguely-coherent LARP just to shake your head in awe or pity? I'm actually wondering. I'd really like to trim it down to one or two games with the occasional update for major stuff in the others, but I'd really like to hear the opinions of the folks that read these write-ups.


The throng's road trip to Waco, Texas was mostly uneventful. The most significant things that happened on the way were a couple of discussions... One about an artifact left by the VW Bus' previous owner... an old dancing hula-girl figure (you know the sort) where the torso had been removed and replaced with the upper half of a Buddy Christ figure... something we'd just kind of improvised in conversation. It was decided such a symbol way too appropriate for a Promethean Throngs' own personal Mystery Machine... or as someone (I think Sean) put it: "Composite Christ stays."

The other discussion was about the staked vampires they were keeping in the van. Rudolf insists that he might be able to trade them to some other vampires for something, but it was certainly distressing to them that one of them had obviously started to dry up like a corpse and curl in on itself. Their wounds had begun to heal as well over the course of the trip.

When they got to Waco, they spent a couple of hours driving around until they found an RV campsite where they'd be able to park the vehicle for a while. Father John used Mesmerism to put in a post-hypnotic suggestion to keep the guy who ran the place from noticing that they were parked there illegally. Rudolf dug his fingers into one of the unhealed wounds on the vampires to get some sort of congealed blood residue on them and wiped it on the back of his neck... sure that vampires are consummate predators of the highest order, he'd convinced himself that they'd all have senses sharp enough to notice even the slightest trace of vampire blood on him. That way he'd be able to track one down to whom they could trade their captives.

On the way into town proper to track down the spot in the center of the map, Father John ducked into a church where he used his priest outfit to get some free holy water, just in case.

They found the spot... a junkyard called Odell Auto Parts. They walked around the outside of the place and saw an odd stack of cars... a stack of cars that appeared to be completely rusted over. In fact, there were even newer models that appeared to be covered with rust even though their frames would have been made from materials that shouldn't have degraded like that so fast. Rudolf is the first one to make the connection to the "Mountain of Rust" seen in the notes.

The throng headed around to the entrance and knocked on the door to the Odell house to see if they could get someone to take them out into the yard. A young man by the name of Dennis said he'd help them find the parts they said they were looking for (they claimed to be looking for parts for the van). Once they were a short distance away from the house, though, Father John hit him with a Fixed Stare and then Suggested that he 'go back inside and read his bible' so that they would get some privacy.

Well, that did the trick. They checked out the Mountain of Rust, to find three of the junkyard dogs waiting for them. One of the dogs came forward and Father John chased it off with Flight Instinct. The other two attacked... there was something of a frightening moment when they all distinctly felt a familiar spark coming from one of the dogs as it spent a point of Pyros -- yes, Pyros -- to enhance its attacks. Steve injured one with his knife and Father John eventually used his Transmutations to drive them off altogether.

Now that they had a few minutes, they took a close look at the rusty vehicles. It looked as though the newer models, the ones that shouldn't be rusting this soon, had something of a rusty film over them; not unlike some bizarre version of moss. Steve insisted on climbing over the structure to see if there was anything on top or something hidden inside. Rudolf's sure there's something underneath the structure, although they'd have to find some way to get under there. Sure, the crane could work, but doing it while being unnoticed would be next to impossible.

Father John checked the area for spirits and found a rust-spirit of some sort. After trying to get its assistance, they were able to determine that there was someone else in the house besides Dennis who only goes out at night. Apparently it's Dennis' father, although the spirit acknowledges both Dennis and his father as 'the man in charge of the junkyard.'

While he was up top, Steve noticed more dogs closing in on them, darting between the stacks of cars. They also heard someone yelling inside the nearby house. They went back up to the house, wanting to get to the bottom of this. The door opened and Dennis was there, telling him his father was coming to figure out what the hell they're doing in the yard, and that he'd just called the police and was getting his shotgun. They demanded that they be told about whatever it was that was lying under the junkyard, and when Dennis expressed that he didn't know what they were talking about Rudolf pulled his gun on him. Steve quickly reached over and grabbed the gun, hitting the clip release before it went off, and they decided now was as good a time as any to run like hell.

They decided to go back after dark, although Rudolf made it clear he was pretty much giving them one chance to convince him to not just kill everyone to save time. Jack set up a stakeout nearby (buying a birdwatcher's guide that came with a cheap pair of binoculars) and saw that the dogs were regularly patrolling in circles around the Mountain of Rust, while Father John went to a church and gave confession, feeling guilty about his recent gratuitous use of mind control powers (and in the process hitting one of his Milestones, 'Give a genuine and honest confession to a priest.'). Rudolf went out and *ahem* hired a streetwalker and then forced her at gunpoint to leave without the money he promised her, just as a method of blowing off steam over having to restrain himself earlier.

Steve did what he originally came to Waco to do... he hit a couple of VFW's, looking for veterans who might know about the folks in the photograph. He pretended to be the guy's son, saying his 'father' never came home and he wanted to know more about him. One of the old men identified some of the people in the picture, remembering which ones came home and which ones he lost track of. The one with the tattoo, though, was a guy named Grant Kirby, a name that felt innately familiar to Steve (and it just so happened that learning his real name was a small Milestone for him). The old man told him there would be a weekly veterans' meeting that night if he'd like to attend.

During the preparations, Jack and Father John in particular also found out a bit of interesting news... Waco has been seeing a series of ax murders. Bodies chopped up, pieces missing... no suspects yet other than suspicions of a cult said to have popped up in the area. It was a cult made up of high school kids called the "Cult of the Neverborn Shadow." The two of them also took advantage of the opportunity to get around to finally calling upon their Elpis Merits, trying to get some hints as to their upcoming milestones (and possibly related plot-hints). Jack saw one where he was in a high school hallway, surrounded by kids... in the vision, he was normal, human. But he saw that a bunch of the kids were wearing some very familiar cloaks, and that one of the non-cloaked kids suddenly manifested the same disfigurements he had. Father John's vision put him in a church, yelling at his creator, also in priest robes (Father John is the only member of the throne who's creator is unknown or simply missing in action for the last few decades, after all), for abandoning something that he should have taken care of.

They all got back together at the junkyard, where Steve filled the rest in on the veterans' meeting. He said he'd be back as soon as he could, as this would be perfect chance to find out more about his past. While he went to the meeting, they spiked some ground beef with some baking cocoa and tossed it over the fence to try and do something about the junkyard dogs while they waited for the owner to leave.

The veterans at the meeting shared some stories with Steve about 'his father' and Grant's girlfriend, whom they'd lost touch with after the war. He also found out that Grant still had family in the area, making a note to look them up.

By the time he got back, not a whole lot had happened... four of the dogs just sat there, staring at the meat... and a fifth came up and wolfed it down (pardon the pun), before crawling off to die from the inevitable aftereffects. With this strange behavior filed away, we left off for the moment...


The Hunter game wrapped up the plot concerning the mobster... Jack, Greg's character, introduced everyone to his new friend Daniel. Daniel had a chat with them, getting up to speed on what they'd been working on regarding the zombies. Everyone also told him about the circumstances of their friend Josh, who called security when confronted with a monster and cowered because of the terrible pounding in his head. While they were getting caught up, Adam got a phone call from someone (presumably more of the zombies) who was holding Walter Ford prisoner and said that unless he helped them find Andrew Tolino they'd kill him for good.

Drawing off of their individual resouces, they started putting together some info on where he'd be. Between license plate numbers to check out and underworld contacts, they figured that he'd be with his old second-in-command, Michael Lake.

They arranged to track him down while Adam received more threats about the well-being of Walter. They got to Lake, and Adam gave Walter's kidnappers the address of his house.

A couple of folks went inside to talk to Lake, and while there they discovered that Tolino was living there, posing as Michael Lake's father. He said he was tired of hiding and wanted to come clean with what he'd done. They told him about the zombies, and he accepted it rather well-- apparently he'd heard about the sightings as well. The people inside weren't happy when they got word that Adam had called the police as well.

While they were in there, a car drove by outside at high speed and threw Walter out the door before taking off. Everyone started getting ready to get Tolino out and someplace safe. Liz, the cop, was hanging around out back and saw someone sneaking across the rear lawn. She went out and got his attention, but everyone took the noise for the actual police showing up and ran like hell. She managed to take out one of the zombies on her own, her Cleave using up a tactical baton and a crowbar in the process.

Everyone went back to her place, and she caught up to them. They were talking about what to do with Tolino and Ford, and a fight broke out when Daniel insisted on just killing the zombie. While the debate raged on, a couple of the folks contacted Walter's family and let him have some last words with them before putting him out of his misery.

The argument was broken up by the shattering of a window and the smashing of a molotov cocktail on Liz's rug. One of the confirmed zombies (what Brendan's character Matt has referred to as "Eloquent Dead" as opposed to "Walking Dead"), a former leg-breaker named John Modin (whom I occasionally refer to jokingly as "Maxwell Carpenter, Jr"). A bunch of the folks went out there and although he put up a good fight he didn't last very long.

Everyone but Liz and Tolino split when they were aware that police were on their way, as Tolino had decided with the help of William (Shomo's character) to turn himself in and answer for what he'd done.


Sunday saw a pair of games... first, Sean running Ravenloft d20.

After the character creation part of the session, the story opened in Dementlieu, at the birthday ball of the Lord-Mayor. We were all friends and locals in the area. I'm playing Skalla, a half-Vistani (although he hides it with makeup) Master Craftsman locksmith (taken from a Dragonlance supplement, the various versions of the 'Master' class are for all intents and purposes a version of the Expert class suitable for PC use). We've also got a Noble (apparently also taken from a Dragonlance supplement and PC-fied), a Ranger, and a Rogue. The Rogue, a pirate-ish sort by the name of Jack Thompson who supplied the wine for the ball, was seduced into going outside by some creature that attempted to kill him. As his friends, we stepped in and did our best to help.

Afterwards, everyone who drank the wine passed out... apparently that particular batch had been swiped from The Brain, a crime lord in the region. The Lord-Mayor was not pleased about this, given that not only were we associated with the guy who got the drugged wine but we also kind of left a dead monster on his lawn. He gave us a couple of days to do something about this whole mess with The Brain, which led us to track down the guy who sold Jack the wine at a local tavern. There was a huge crowd, which led a couple of us to break in while I simply picked the locks on the basement entrance with about as much ease as getting out of bed in the morning.

The bar was crowded because a fight was going on between an old man with a blindfold and a huge guy... we watched the old man clean his clock, and made our way through the crowd to the contact. We were just about to get some information out of him when someone killed him with an arrow through the window. As I'd brought out my crossbow (unloaded, mostly threatening to club him with it), everyone assumed that we did it. The Noble (whose complicated-ass name I can't recall) threw some money at them to distract everyone while we got out and chased the guy who shot the arrow. He managed to get away, though, between a combination of dark alleys and magical cloaks. We called it about there.


The Requiem game brought a couple of new characters in to join Amanda's Sanctified Daeva in dealing with the threat in Morgantown. Sean and I are both running Acolyte Nosferatu intent on dealing with the Ordo Dracul's coup of Fairmont and the rumors of the presence of VII in the area.

We planned a strike against the Ordo Dracul Elysium in Morgantown to get some answers, moving in and well... there were some fight scenes, a secret passage we accidentally stumbled onto that didn't really take us anywhere, and some more asskicking. We were pretty sure the Ordo Dracul might not have been behind the VII, but in true Acolyte fashion we felt that sending a message was the higher priority. It ended with Sean's character diablerizing one of the Order characters, who just happened to be a Nosferatu of the Azerkatil bloodline... so goodbye Willpower dot for him, hello fourth Discipline and extra clan weakness.

I'm sure Shomo will be disappointed at the lack of detail, but well... I mean, I'm honestly not sure what else I can add. Besides, I was really tired throughout the session. I'm not recalling it all properly.


This took me forever to write for some reason. Later.

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