Philly on Fire #1

The morning after, Mike was in the process of setting up a new residence. His old place had been ransacked, so he couldn’t go back. There was a knock at the door and his aunt, a white court vampire, and 3 of her friends wanted to talk. Before he could bolt, they kicked the door in and told him to have a seat. She wanted her money back, with interest. And while he was working on that, she wanted him to take out a pack of lycanthropes, called the Rax, that was in her way.

Alvin heads into the police station and is called into a meeting with all of the other cops. They’re told that with all of the banking systems cleared out, they won’t be receiving a paycheck this week. They also called in all available officers to keep the peace in case people riot.

Kara is woken by her man-servant and given the newspaper, which clearly notes the global collapse. She’s loaded, so she’s got some cash laying around. But her fortunes are gone. She makes some inquiries, but no one’s got any answers yet. She decides to head into town to volunteer her time. As she’s leaving, 3 winter court soldiers stop her and declare the winter queen’s displeasure that she’s working with sorcerers. Kara’s involvement clearly means the white council is involved as well, jeopardizing any relations she’s been trying to foster between them. Though she disavows any involvement with the sorcerers, the soldiers don’t care. They’re following orders and the winter queen is not known for her mercy. Kara manages to buy herself some time before she has to turn herself in to the winter queen for punishment.

Maeve gives her report about the Denarian to church officials and then heads out to help people. She happens upon a man stealing money from a woman and her 3 children in their apartment. Maeve quickly subdues him and takes his gun. She lets him go, but as he leaves, a shen demon coming in the front door sets him on fire and attacks Maeve.

Sean is passing by, looking to help people, when he sees a shen demon land on the roof of an apartment building. He climbs the fire escape to investigate and finds Maeve fighting another. The hallway catches fire as Sean dispatches one of the demons with a single blow.

James is finally released from police custody (he was implicated in the chemical plant explosion) and learns that Reg, one of his team, is missing. He also hears of the economy collapse. But more importantly, a member of Charon has been implicated in the assassination of several Pennsylvanian politicians. Just then, the FBL come knocking on his door. James grabs his gun and heads out the fire escape as the FBI agents pursue. It takes considerable effort for him to lose them.

Mike, who was a pawn in the plot to collapse the economy, does some research and uncovers the news about Charon. He also finds that similar assassinations, occurring in every city with a U.S mint, and perpetrated by Charon, have occurred this morning. When Mike fails to get in touch with James, he takes matters into his own hands and begins erasing James’ identity from every database he can get access to.

Alvin and 2 other officers are assigned to protect a block with 3 banks. When people start congregating at one of the closed banks, Alvin knocks some heads together and sparks wave of terrified people (those knocks were pretty scary). As the panicked populace threatens to trample each other, a small, jesterly man gets Alvin’s attention and tells him the winter queen wants to speak with him. Alvin has no time and wades into the sea of people to rescue some children who were being trampled, He tosses the unconscious man (who got knocked), the children, and the jester into a bus to protect them. With the crowd dispersed, the jester offers Alvin some money to go with him to see the queen. Alvin agrees and soon the winter queen is offering to reward him if he seeks out some criminals and makes an example out of them. He agrees, she sends him after Kara and the sorcerers, and hands him a fat stack of cash to help him out, with the promise of a more reward when he is successful.

Maeve defeats the other shen as a bunch of small shen come down the stairs to face Sean. Sean tries to intimidate the smaller foes, but they merge together to form a much larger demon. Sean struggles to hurt it. Maeve works to put the fire out before it spreads throughout the apartment building. As Sean and the shen fight, the floor collapses, leaving Maeve stranded. The shen grabs Maeve and tries to leave with her, but she breaks free. Before they’re able to destroy the demon, it flees. They get the fire out and help the people evacuate. As the cops and fire department begin to arrive, Maeve flees and is immediately arrested for possession of a sword and firearm. Sean ponders whether he’s going to have to break her out of jail.

James gets in touch with Mike for help. They meet in Rittenhouse Park at dusk. Mike tells James the bad news about the other Charon attacks. He then comes clean about the hacking plot. Mike also gives James the intel on the Rax, who James has a history with (and has been tracking for years). They’ll need to work together to take care of the lycanthropes.

Session Report #12 & 13

It actually took us 2 sessions to finish up, since there was some real life stuff that cropped up. No biggie. And the conclusion was, I think, rather epic.

Pavel, Arkady, Felix and Olie (a soldier from a similar team) hunkered down in an old French castle while the rebels deciphered the books. As a week passed, they remembered their real lives, the horrible things Rocard had done, and the pitiful state of the world. They knew he had to be stopped.

They also still had lifetimes of memories from other people. They quickly found they had the skills and class abilities of all previous characters. 

The rebels learned where R'lyeh was sunken and that Rocard would be able to complete the ritual in 2 days time (when the stars were right). The PCs would be dropped into the ocean, swim to the city as it rose, and stop Rocard (and his wife, Maria) once and for all. The rebel forces would attack Rocard's forces in the ocean around the city and hopefully buy them time before they were overrun. 

In the fly over, Olie noticed a heat shimmer and Rocard and a strange lizard-woman appeared from nowhere. The team splashed down and hit the shore.

They encountered a patrol of lizardmen and confronted them, but at great cost. The majority were injured and Pavel gravely so. They opted for stealth to circumvent a shoggoth patrol, and that served them well.

When they made it to the city center, they found a ziggurat with Rocard and his wife atop it, already engaged in the ritual. There was resolve loss in seeing them both for the first time, as well as resolve loss from Maria's hauntingly alien song during the ritual. 

The party's plan was thus: split into two groups, approach by stealth, and use their skills as vicars to try to incapacitate Maria. They hoped that what would bolster the resolve of the mortal would be enough to shatter the resolve of the unknown. This they did with surprising effect, including an apology and promise from Pavel, aka Pepe, that while he was unable to save her 700 years ago, he wouldn't fail her now. 

As Maria fainted, Rocard spit a curse at Arkady that caused flesh-eating crabs to burst from his skin. The others wrested the idol and the book from Rocard with their attacks and severely injured him, but Pavel was mortally wounded. 

Rocard fled between dimensions, but Arkady grabbed hold and was able to follow. Through the formless twilight the two fled until they entered a columned gate into another realm. Arkady stuck swiftly, but Rocard struck truer. Arkady died on an unnamed alien planet.

So in the end, they apprehended Maria, drove off Rocard, recovered the book and idol, and stopped the end of the world. Their success was mixed with failure, but in the end, they won out.

The players surprised me with their tactics. I hadn't planned on them striking at Maria's resolve, but I thought it was such a good idea I let it work. They dropped her resolve to the point, without a physical attack being sent her way.

The dice were definitely against them again that night, and that least to some mishaps. But I had fun, and I think they had fun too. I really liked the idea behind the adventure and I loved the revelations given to the players in pieces. It was neat seeing them question and begin to realize the situation.

Next week is a new system (one I'm writing) and a new adventure. More fun to come!

Session Report #10 & 11

Pavel, Arkady, and Felix searched Chauvet to little effect, though they discovered that the people knew about Lord Rocard, they just weren’t talking.

While Arkady worked the inn, blessing each table and trying to suss out what was going on, Felix noticed some townsfolk who were watching them. When the townsfolk left, Felix followed them. Pavel headed up to his room to try to search the rest of the inn.

The townsfolk went to a well-appointed house. Felix was able to climb up to a window to overhear a discussion between the townsfolk and Lord Rocard. They told him that the inn keeper had done his job and the snooping outsiders would be dealt with tonight.

Felix headed back to report his findings. Arkady confronted the inn keeper while Felix went to check on Pavel. Arkady learned that the group had been poisoned. He puked up his food to minimize his exposure.

Felix found Pavel asleep in his room and was unable to rouse him. After several attempts, Felix grew tired and sat down. Arkady checked on them and forced them both to puke up the poisoned food. Felix was drowsy, but ok, and Pavel was roused with difficulty.

They all raced to the well-appointed house to find it empty, except for two caretakers. While Pavel and Arkady went upstairs to search, the caretakers attacked Felix. They inflicted some serious wounds on him before he received backup and the party dispatched their attackers.

While searching, Arkady found some books describing where the lost city of R’lyeh might be and what was required to summon the dark god. Pavel found a map of underground tunnels with a hidden chamber under the inn and a scrap of paper serving as a diary to a woman named Maria.

As a girl, she was hiding from the town monsters in the woods when she met some travelers who offered to help her. They took her to the church in Desport for safe keeping, but the priest there handed her over to Rocard (she’s convinced the travelers were working for Rocard and betrayed her). Rocard has been victimizing her since, slowly turning her into a monster. She is scheduled to become Rocard’s bride soon, and that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea anymore.

As the party left the building, they recognized the off-tune piping of a shoggoth. They chose to flee with the books, hoping to bury them for the future to find. They stole some horses and rode off. It became clear that the shoggoth was following them, and it seemed to be calling to another shoggoth in the distance (in Desport).

They wrapped the books in oil cloth, searched for a cave, found one, and rigged it to blow, hopefully burying the books. They left Felix to detonate the cave while Arkady and Pavel went to distract the shoggoth. The cave failed to detonate, Pavel fell in combat, and Arkady returned to the cave. Arkady was able to collapse the cave and he and Felix rode out to fight the second shoggoth. Felix fell in that combat, leaving only Arkady.

As he was disposing of the bodies, the ground shook in an earthquake.

*  *  *

The party woke in the traditional white room, though they could hear explosions outside. Dust filtered through the ceiling and an annoying, constant, high-pitched whine filled the room. Three other people were laying on beds, all of them were unresponsive.

The left the room, found that Rocard’s men were assaulting the base, and General McLaughlin’s soldiers were being routed. The remaining soldiers and the party were able to escape the base, located deep within a blasted, barren mountain, via aircraft. They were barely able to escape the enemy aircraft, some of which seemed to be airdropping shoggoths onto the base.

They gave the general their news and flew to France, where met up with more rebels. They were able to find the books. After two weeks of the rebels studying the books, they believe they know Lord Rocard’s plan. During this time, the party’s memories slowly came back and they remembered their true identities for the first time since this began.

Lord Rocard plans to raise the sunken lost city from the ocean and perform the ritual in 3 days’ time. The rebels will airdrop the party onto the city where they must stop Rocard. The rest of the rebel army will face Rocard’s army, hopefully buying them time to end the war.

Tonight should be the epic finale of the adventure arc.