Our cast:
- Marco McQueen: 12-year-old sometimes-bully seeking respect and to reconnect with his father. Suspicious of Ruzena, a Changeling seeing his father. He knows the Contract of Fleeting Spring.
- Miroslav "Mir" Callaghan: 13-year-old goth kid who wants to learn real magic. Thus far he has learned the Contract of Darkness and is looking to get into the Guild of Shadows.
- Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: sticky fingered 10-year-old sister who traded her emotional attachments for the gift of artistry. She has something like the Artist Kith.
- Rocco McQueen: 10-year-old wheelchair bound genius hacker. He has learned the Contract of Dreams and is seeking to walk again. Then he wants to confront his absent mother.
When last we left our protagonists, they had reached the front steps of the Witch-House.
The Horrors of the Witch-House
Next we inventory the outstanding Conditions. Rocco still has his Madness Condition which I continue to forget to use. I would use it in this session but he does not make a single Mental or Social roll. Sigh. Marco is Spooked and Steadfast.
Spooked is going to be popular this session.
The children stand before the darkness clad Witch-House. The tall grass presses against the narrow stone steps lead to the front door. With a moonless night overhead, the children are left with only their flashlights and a few dimly lit windows to see by.
They discuss their first move. Mir and Marco suggest exploring the exterior of the house first. Mir agrees to stay behind with Rocco while his sister and Marco explore the tall grass and brambles of the grounds surrounding the house.
As the two children push through the thick foliage, they snatch occasional glimpses of the side of the house. Old wooden boards cover half of the windows while the others are cracked from age and neglect. Unlike any abandoned house they have seen, no one has broken in the windows with rocks or tarnished the walls with spray paint. They also see no windows or storm doors leading into the basement.
Marco does notice an obscured trail of slate squares. The two children take this marginally easier path around the house until they comes across a stone that is not part of the trail.
Nikki shines her flashlight on the worn granite surface. Rough lettering can just be made out. She makes a rubbing with her art supplies:
Johnny McNab
1984 - 1994
Marco shines his light away from the house and upright stones nestled in the grass and shrubs. Nikki calls out to him as he hikes out to see what they say. He ignores her. He pushes clear of the grass and a dark hole gapes before him!
Marco resolves Spooked, earning a Beat. He then has to make a Wits + Dexterity roll at -2 as he falls into an open grave. He succeeds.
Marco throws out his arms and manages to grab a large handful of grass before he tumbles into the pit. As he swings his other arm onto the lip of the open grave, his flashlight shines over three other holes, each with a blank headstone at the far end. He looks up as Nikki almost stumbles into him.
Nikki follows Marco and must make a Wits + Composure at -2 gaining a +2 bonus for Danger Sense. She succeeds.
In front of house, Rocco expresses his concern. It has been several minutes since Marco and Nikki wandered into the overgrown lawn and the glow from their flashlights is no longer visible. Miroslav hears some noise from above and shines his flashlight onto a pair of crows in the trees above.
One of the crows remarks to its companion that there are more kids here. It's squeaky voice is child-like but full of menace. Looking down it asks if Mir would be willing to give them his voice if Mir fails to escape the Witch-House. Mir points out that he intends to make it out and that he couldn't really trust what the crow has to say if he did.
Miroslav asks who was the last person to visit the Witch-House. The crow tells him it was boy named Johnny who came carrying a soccer ball. He never came out. While the crow prattles on about the soccer ball, Rocco starts to freak out. The crow asks Mir if they can have his friend's voice since he can't walk and probably won't make it out.
Around back, Marco pulls himself out of the hole. The two children decide to check one of the windows. They trudge up to the weathered old building and look inside. They see a dusty but richly appointed bedroom. The mounted head of a deer hangs over the bed while a well preserved wolf's head guards the door.
As they continue along the edge of the house they spot an overgrown greenhouse as well as a back door. Nikki suggests checking it out. The undergrowth goes right up the scratched wood surface. Marco pulls on the battered handle. It resists for a moment and then swings open with a squeal. Nikki thrusts a large stick into the door jamb. With an escape route secured they make their way around the other side of the house.
Several minutes later as they leave earshot, a horrible crunching noise comes from the door. The door slowly crushes the stick and locks shut.
Good try but this is a horror story.
Mir spots the approaching light of Marco and his sister. As the children regroup, the two explorers tell them what they found. Rocco seems even more worried, particularly about ghosts. Nikki seems to think the house is trying to scare them. Mir decides they need a code word in case one of them is possessed. Nikki seems to think it is all silly. Defiantly she writes down a code word: pussies. Her brother reluctantly agrees to it but tries to get her to eat the paper so the code remains secret. She refuses and he is forced to hide the paper himself.
Marco manages to push Rocco up the steps with Mir's help. They approach the front door of the house. Mir tries the handle. The old wooden door swings open easily, revealing a hallway lit by flickering gas lights. A dusty red rug covers the floor and several paintings decorate the walls.
As they walk inside they see two pairs of doors on either side of the hallway as well as a large rosewood door at the far end.
Mir opens the first door on the left. Dozens of coats hang in the darkness. The clothing ranged from 19th century military coats to modern sports jackets. Nikki rifles through a few pockets and pulls out a handful of knuckle bones.
While Marco and Mir check out a door to an empty parlor, Rocco and Nikki notice that some of the pictures seem to move when no one is looking at them. A woman holding a parasol lets it fall to the ground when Nikki looks away. Rocco starts to shake while Nikki tries to figure out how the artist did it.
The first of our many Integrity rolls. Nikki and Rocco roll Resolve + Composure and succeed. Rocco gains the Shaken Condition while Nikki is Spooked.
The others soon return and they continue down the hall. The next door on the left reveals another hallway that turns right after twenty feet. The doorway opposite it however opens into a short hall with a set of stairs going up.
They decide to investigate that first. Passing another nondescript door, they walk past the the stairs and see if there is way down into the basement beneath them. They don't find any stairs, but they do discover a small door, scaled to someone Nikki's height.
They find the door locked but Nikki easily picks it. Shine their light inside, they see a small hallway that ends in an ornate wooden door, covered in a diamond pattern. Mir stooping to get inside makes out alchemical symbols covering the lintel of the door. They have something to do with the Philosopher's Stone or eternal life. Mir is intrigued but hesitates.
Nikki rolls Dexterity + Larceny to pick the lock. Mir meanwhile rolls Wits + Occult to learn the meaning of the symbols. Each succeeds.
More importantly Nikki's action represents the first of 5 Doors that need opening to convince the House allow them into the basement. The House for its part wants to tempt and terrorize them.
Mir suggests they check the door they passed first. Nikki sighs at her brother's cowardice.
Backtracking they open the door in this hall. It opens into the bedroom Nikki and Marco spied from outside. While Rocco looks up warily at the mounted heads of animals, Mir spies a book on a desk.
Flipping it open he finds that someone was using it as a journal. The entires are dated 50 years ago but they mentions the hallway beneath the stairs. He or she comments on a large library behind the ornate door. The author was interested in perusing the occult tomes as well making a copy of the ornate map of the Hedge that hangs on the North wall.
The House can pursue Social Maneuvers as well and exploits Nikki and Mir's Aspirations: "Map exits from the Hedge" and "Acquire more occult books" respectively. Though we never quite get to it they are on their way to being manipulated.
Mir lets Nikki know about the painting and the children return to the tiny door beneath the stairs. Rocco's chair barely fits into the small hallway. Mir and Marco have to crouch to make it through. Nikki turns the silver latch on the door.
The door swings open on a huge room walled in books. Shelves of leather bound tomes rise up to a second story where a wrought iron catwalk allows access to them. Two spiral staircases to either side of the room rise from the ground level to the catwalk. The only section of wall not dominated by books is a patch on the second level opposite them where a massive painting covers a half of a wall.
As their attention moves from the walls to the floor, they see a large glass case in the center of the room. Inside it is a mummy along with an ornate gold necklace and dagger.
Mir turns to the books. He can't find any order to the library but spots the title Encyclopedia of the Occult and pulls down a volume. Nikki's attention is focused on the massive painting. It stretches from the ceiling to the base of the second level and is twice as wide. She recognizes sections from her own work. She wonders if it is like the others and moves when not watched. She scampers up the stairs to begin copying sections down.
Nikki earns a Beat for fulfilling an Aspiration. I also decide to award a role-playing Beat for everything thus far.
While Mir reads his book, Marco stays close by. The child occasionally looks over his shoulder, keeping an eye on the mummy. Mir finds a passage about something called the Book of Ages, a book that chronicles the past of every person who encounters it. Intrigued he reads on.
It seems with the proper ceremony and an artifact called the Quill of Time one can rewrite the book and thus the past. Mir decides to see if the book is here and also track down the missing volume detailing the quill. Marco trails along.
Just a bit of foreshadowing.
Rocco decides to find a nice medical textbook. The book he finds is filled with gruesome descriptions and pictures. Gradually though the subject matter moves from medicine to forbidden experimentation. After a nasty page about resurrecting the dead, he comes across a page with only the words:
If you want to walk again Rocco then when the time comes push one of your friends into the mirror.
He hurriedly closes the book and thrusts it onto the shelf.
In the meantime, Nikki has noticed some queer things about the painting. Besides the fact that the leaves move when she blinks, she sees that some of the doors on the map are actually buttons. Two of the buttons are out of easy reach but the third isn't. She shouts down her findings to the others. Then she presses the button.
Nikki resolve her Spooked condition and earns a Beat.
There is a bang as the only door to the room slams shut. Miroslav tries to open it but there isn't even a handle on this side. As Rocco begins to freak out, Marco sees the mummy stir within the glass case. He yells to the others.
Upstairs Nikki tells them to look for secret doors. She starts pulling books off the shelf. There is a click and the bookcase next to the painting swings into the wall.
Nikki rolls Wits + Investigation to find a secret door. This opens up one of the Doors for the House as well.
The mummy pushes the glass lid to the floor, sending shards of glass skittering across the room. His heart pounding Marco hoists Rocco onto his back and carries him up the spiral staircase. Mir meanwhile wrestles the heavy chair up the steps.
Strength + Stamina rolls for both Mir and Marco. Marco makes his roll with 4 successes. Mir gets 1 success which means he makes progress but is still only part way up the stairs.
Nikki pegs the mummy with a book as it lurches to the stairs. Marco looks back, letting Rocco slide to the catwalk floor. The older McQueen boy helps Marco get the chair up to the landing by the time the mummy's withered hand grasps the railing at the base of the stairs.
Nikki rolls Dexterity + Athletics -2 (since books are not aerodynamic). She hits.
As Mir heads for the exit, Nikki flings a second book at the mummy before fleeing herself. Marco pushes the chair the short distance Rocco has managed to crawl. He helps his brother into the chair. Glancing back, he sees the mummy slowly lurch up the stairs towards them. Marco runs pushing the chair ahead of him.
There was a final Initiative roll but the PCs beat the mummy by a wide margin. Rocco earns a Beat for the Scene due to his Crippled Condition.
Mir races down the dusty corridor, barely glancing behind him to be sure the others are following. The darkened corridors wind through the house, lit by shafts of light coming through eye holes in the walls. Nikki is right behind him. The squeal of Rocco's wheels assures her that the McQueens made it.
Mir spots a thick wooden door, bound with strips of metal. He pulls on the simple handle until it swings open. The children slip inside and pull it closed behind them, sliding a bar into place before catching their breath.
Belatedly I ask for Integrity rolls. Resolve + Composure at -2 for all of them, except Mir who gains a +1 bonus for playing with his spider earlier (using his Pet Merit). Nikki fails her roll, loses a Dot of Integrity and takes the Shaken Condition. Rocco also takes Shaken while Marco and Mir both take Spooked.
I think I may need more Condition choices.
Nikki slides into a corner and whimpers. As the others catch their breath, Mir takes in their surroundings. Strange flasks and glassware cover a decaying wooden table in this dusty stone chamber. Recognizing an alchemist lab, Mir starts to look around.
A battered door on the other side of the room seems to be their only exit. An old book attracts the Goth's attention but it begins to disintegrate when he tries to put it in his pack.
Then he spots the box.
The golden metalwork shines through the dust. Unable to help himself Miroslav begins to manipulate the puzzle box.
Nikki spots him first. She shouts at her brother to stop.
Rocco recognizes the artifact from the Hellraiser movies. He tries to collide with his friend, to knock the cursed item from his hands. But his hand shakes as he pushes the joystick on his electronic wheelchair. He collides with the table instead.
Miroslav is resolving his Spooked Condition with a device that according to the movies will open a gateway into someplace like hell. Rocco chooses to resolve his Shaken Condition to automatically fail his attempt to stop Miroslav.
The box makes a click and opens.
What happens next isn't clear. It seems like darkness rush out of the box and swallow Miroslav. One minute he is there, the next he and the box are gone. All that is left is his flashlight clattering on the ground.
Miroslav disappears. He makes an Integrity roll at -4 and somehow succeeds. For the troubles he is about to have he gains a Beat. He also gets the Darkling Seeming. Oh and the House accepts this for the purposes of opening a Door.
The children freak out. Rocco tries to find his missing friend. Nikki points out they need get out of the house. With disturbing calmness, she explains they need to get help at the Night Market to free her brother. Reluctantly they move on. Before leaving Nikki leaves a note in case Mir somehow returns.
Glumly they wander the maze of hallways within the Witch-House.
After a half hour, they find themselves in a hall lined with mirrors. Nikki glances at their endless reflections. For a moment she thinks she spots her brother eight reflections in.
She alerts the others and they stop. Rocco warns them not to approach the mirrors though. He tells them what the book in the library said. The House wants them to enter a mirror. They decide to keep their distance but Nikki calls out to her brother regardless.
Her voice echoes through the endless reflections. At this the reflections of the children wander off in different directions leaving them unreflected.
They push on with Marco leading the way. A half minute later he runs into a glass surface. The end of the hall is a mirror. Pressing his hand against it, it seems oddly flexible. Rocco warns him to stay away from it. Marco listens to his brother and they backtrack. But a minute later he again collides with a mirror. They are trapped!
This time Marco presses his hand hard against the mirror. It flexes and the image in the mirror warps until Marco reappears in it. Then the image grabs his wrist.
Marco resolves his Spooked Condition and earns a Beat.
Marco pulls his hand free from the doppelganger and stumbles back. The mirror version of Marco steps forward. The bully can see this 'Marco' isn't friendly. He punches it in the chest while deftly dodging it's return swing.
Marco rolls Strength + Dexterity to slip free. Then everyone rolls Initiative. The order is Marco at 15, Mirror Marco at 13, Rocco at 7 and Nikki at 6.
Marco goes first. He swings rolling Strength + Brawl - 3 for 'his' Defense +3 for Willpower. He deals 1 Bashing while his doppelganger rolls no successes (lacking willpower and thus using a Chance die).
Rocco pushes his chair to its maximum speed and tries to knock this 'not brother' over. Jittery with adrenaline his hand slips and the chair turns too hard. He falls over and hears the sound of shorting wires and grinding gears.
Rocco resolves his other Shaken Condition (I am not sure if you should have two). He also accepts a Dramatic Failure instead of a normal Failure. So he earns two Beats.
Also his chair is broken. He is reduced to 1 Speed (at best) even with help.
As Nikki hangs back, Marco puts everything into his next swing. Smashing 'himself' in the face, he knocks the doppelganger back into the mirror. The glass shatters revealing a door behind it. There is no sign of the fake Marco.
Marco rolls Strength + Brawl - 3 for 'his' Defense +3 for willpower +2 for sacrificing Defense. He gets 2 successes which would put the doppelganger out of the fight. Victory opens the fourth Door of the House.
Expect to see Mirror Marco again.
Since opening the box, Miroslav has spent ages in a realm of terrifying darkness. Endlessly scrambling from the unseen things that live here has left his shirt and pants scraped and torn. Feeling his way with his hands he found some moldy cheese to sustain himself. Even so he has had to tighten his belt two notches. He has lost count of how many times he has slept. He is fairly sure it has been seven time since he last fed on a rat.
Maybe it was the mold, but he saw a glow in this chamber recently, the first light since the box clicked open. There was music and ghostly dancers. They have vanished and now he is alone in the darkness again. As he plans his next step a blaze of light envelopes him.
Marco opens the door behind the mirror, spilling light into a large dusty ballroom. A figure is crouched on the floor, shielding its eyes from the light. The person moves his hand aside and they can see a pale version of Mir, his skin turned translucent.
As he recognizes his friends, he asks in disbelief if they came back for him.
Then his sister lunges at him with a fist. As Mir shields his face, she trips and falls flat on her face. She slides a short distance across the floor.
Miroslav doesn't look like himself anymore and has suffered something like a Durance. Nikki meanwhile resolves her Shaken Condition trying to attack the impostor. She earns a Beat.
As they recover from their shock, Nikki points out it might not be her brother. Mir though is able to supply the code word. With his identity proven, Miroslav is shocked to find that they haven't left the house since he vanished. Rocco explains it has only been an hour.
Reunited the children decide to find the basement and get out quickly. They leave the haunted ballroom by the side entrance.
The group earns another Beat for roleplaying.
They enter another parlor. A pale green couch and chair are arranged around a glass table with a silver tray on it. Horribly patterned wallpaper covers the walls.
In the tray they spot a small bottle with a tag saying "drink me." Miroslav warns them against taking it but Nikki looks closer. On the back of the tag "elixir of smoke" is written. She pockets the bottle.
Learning the Contract of Smoke is an Aspiration for Nikki.
A door in the far right corner leads out from the room. They open it and walk into a stairwell with stairs leading up and down. Excited to find a way down finally, they descend a set of stairs. On the next landing is a door.
Curious they open the door. Inside is a parlor, set up identically to the one above. Only the bottle is missing. Disturbed Mir takes out some chalk and scrawls a number 1 on the door.
Carefully pushing Rocco's broken chair forward, they descend another set of stairs. The next landing also has a door. The number 2 is marked on it in chalk. They look inside. It is the same except there is now a knife on the silver tray.
Worried they continue down. Rocco points out each level is getting worse. Mir however is curious. Marco pushes the chair down the steps, the gears grinding horribly.
The next door is labeled 3 in what looks like dried blood.
They open the door. Blood and dried gore stain the walls. The tray is drenched in it. Mir steps inside to look more closely. A sticky floorboard shifts under his feet. He pulls it up. Beneath the floorboards are four child sized skeletons wearing what appear to be their clothes.
Hurriedly they go back upstairs. The door here no longer has a number on it. The room inside seems normal. A paper has joined the knife on the table. Miroslav snatches the paper before the others can see it. It says:
The House demands a sacrifice.
Marco says he thinks he can fix Rocco's wheelchair but it might go faster if he does it alone. He helps his little brother onto the coach and wrestles the broken device into the stairwell. He pulls out his toolkit and gets to work.
Marco has Brownies Boon which means he can work twice as fast if unobserved. He rolls Intelligence + Crafts +2 (for his tools). The first roll (taking 15 minutes) isn't too good getting only one success. The second roll however he gets 4 successes and finishes the repairs.
In the parlor, Nikki hangs around her brother, trying to get a look at the paper. Miroslav crumples it into a ball and holds it in his hand. As they try to pass the time, Miroslva's attention is drawn to a painting on the wall.
Nikki encourages his attention. There are familiar figures in a the Bosch-esque artwork: Rocco in a cage, Mr. Callaghan being taken away by some pig-people, some woman trading for a book, and Mr. McQueen being drawn into a river by what Miroslav recognizes as a Rusalka, or a Russian River Fairy.
Miroslav asks Rocco if the fairy resembles the woman Mr. McQueen is dating. The crippled boy confirms it. Mir says he may be in danger.
Nikki meanwhile flinches the note. Disappointed at the secret, she lets it drop and turns to the map of the house she is building. However this latest set of rooms is completely at odds with the dimensions she has established so far. She crumples it up in despair.
One of Nikki's Aspirations is to Map the Witch-House. She tried but it isn't possible (as I warned the player). She earns a Beat in any case.
Outside, Marco is finishing up the repair work. Every so often he hears something moving through the house. Creaking floorboards, thudding steps, but always where he can't see it . The noises are getting closer. He tightens the last bolt and wheels the chair into the room.
No one is there.
Keeping calm, Marco listens intently. He can still hear them, talking about some painting. He follows the noise to the far wall and calls out.
Marco rolls Wits + Composure and hears his friends.
This and the ensuing puzzle opens the final Door to the basement.
The others hear Marco calling from the wall nearest the stairwell. Nikki pokes her head out the door but he isn't in the stairwell. The others however can hear him as if he was almost in the room.
To Marco, Nikki sounds distant. He relays what he sees and hears to the others.
Miroslav has an idea and snatches the knife from the tray. He stabs the wall which turns out to be paper thin. He cuts ahole in the wallpaper revealing Marco standing in an identical room. They cut way in for him and he wheel's Rocco's chair into the room.
Nikki then notices a draft from the wall opposite the stairwell. Using the same logic they slice open that wall revealing a dark doorway with stairs leading down.
They discover the way to the basement and earn a Beat for roleplaying.
Suddenly the children find themselves in the Market, standing in front of Dr. Salvador's booth with the Queen of Shadows. The patchwork woman thanks them for giving her the vision of the basement and that she is ready to begin "repairing" Rocco.
The children question that they would have traded their memory of the Witch-House. Dr. Salvador looks anxiously at the Queen of Shadows before saying that she really thinks they are better without them. Reluctantly they let it go. Miroslav learns that he will be inducted into the Guild of Shadows.
Rocco is led to a metal table and strapped to it. Electrodes are hooked up to him. Dr. Salvador asks if he is ready. He nods.
She flips the switch and he is wracked with pain for several minutes. A low moan escapes his lips until a strange tingling takes over. Then gradually he feels the arcing electricity become a part of him, or perhaps he becomes part of it.
The doctor unstraps him with rubber gloves. As he gets up, stray sparks arc off of him. He moves his legs and unsteadily stands up. Looking at his hands, he sees that his veins have become like wires in a circuit board. His whole body glows with energy.
I award everyone 1 Beat as their Shaken and Spooked Conditions are resolved, sometime in their experience in the basement of the Witch-House. Rocco earns a Beat by regaining the ability to walk. He also gains the Elemental Seeming and the Levinquick Kith. Miroslav earns 2 Beats for fulfilling the Aspirations to Explore the Witch-House and Join the Guild of Shadows. He also gains the Merit: Mantle (Shadows).
Finally every one reaches 1 Wyrd.
So experience. Nikki and Rocco earned 5 Beats each. Mir was awarded 4 Beats and Marco earned 2. 3 Roleplaying Beats were awarded. So the total is (5+5++4+2)/4 +3 +1 for the session for 8 Beats. As this is the end of a Story I round this up to 2 Experiences.
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