Our cast:
- Marco McQueen: 12-year-old Wizened Oracle who used to be a bully. Now he seeks to reconnect with his father and protect him from Ruzena, a Changeling resembling a Rusalka, or river fae. They drown their victims.
- Miroslav "Mir" Callaghan: 13-year-old Palewraith Darkling who has joined the Guild of Shadows to learn real magic.
- Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: sticky fingered 10-year-old sister who traded her emotional attachments for the gift of artistry. She is a Flowering Fairest but also possesses something like the Artist Kith.
- Rocco McQueen: 10-year-old genius hacker and Levinquick Elemental who was crippled in childhood accident. Now able to walk again he wants to confront his absent mother.
Also with them is Charlie Cobwebs, a young runaway and Venombite Beast. She's a bit skittish but owes the motley for saving her. She might also have a thing for Marco.
When last we left our protagonists, they had become separated. Some had been "captured" by the brownie servants of the Under-King while the others lurked in the darkness, trying to figure out how to help. They had just been led before the King and his bride-to-be...
Lords of the Under-Hedge
Charlie glances anxiously to Marco as they are brought before the Under-King. The tiny figure stares down at them with his single baleful eye. Nikki's attention is on the young girl beside him. 7-year-old Yvette is quiet, clutching her black cat, Mr. Soot, for dear life.Nikki waits for Marco to take the lead while she takes in the root lined chamber where the king holds his court. Two flame filled braziers barely extend their light into the shadow filled space beyond, where thousands of roots reach from floor to ceiling, like twisted columns.
Marco eyes the five brownies assembled around them. He wets his lips as he takes in their small but menacingly sharp spears.
He greets the King and explains they are here because they want to see his lost princess, Yvette. They were worried when she vanished so suddenly and wanted to make sure that she was alright.
After a brief discussion, Marco leads the negotiation as the largest member of the group. He rolls Presence + Socialize to make a good impression.
The Under-King seems mollified and invites them to join him and his bride-to-be in a meal. Several of the brownies leave to retrieve wooden chairs and a table for the meal.
As the four brownies wrestle in a wobbly old table, Nikki watches Yvette carefully. The little girl's only movements are to cringe when another brownie appears. If anything her cat looks more relaxed.
Nikki rolls Wits +Empathy to read Yvette's body language.
Meanwhile hiding in the shadows, Rocco decides to secure an exit if they have to leave fast. He stumbles about in the dark trying not to attract attention. Moving clockwise from the entrance way, he finds an lit tunnel where the smell of cooking food emanates.
Rocco rolls Wits + Stealth to both hide and search.
Hurrying past the kitchen entrance he makes his way almost halfway around the vast chamber before finding another tunnel. A cool breeze comes down this gravestone walled exit. His fears getting the better of him, Rocco stumbles away. As he makes his way back to Mir, he spots another possible exit, a wooden board laden with rocks sealing off a tunnel in the floor of the chamber.
Rocco carefully pulls the rocks off one by one and slides the board aside. A musky odor wafts up to him. Not willing to risk a light here, he slides down the tunnel a ways. His passage stirs up some stick like objects on the floor of the tunnel. He lights his flashlight, illuminating a narrow passage lined in the bones of hundreds of rats.
Rocco rolls Dexterity + Stealth to move the rocks without attracting attention.
Miroslav meanwhile focuses on the scene enfolding in the small lit area. As the meal is brought out, a gray furred cat walks up beside him and rubs against his leg. It looks up at him with bright green eyes and then looks at the Under-King.
As Mir tries to make sense of this, the cat pantomimes pouncing in the direction of the King. A pair of cats join the one in front of him. Miroslav asks if the cats want to attack the King. As three more cats approach, Miroslav gets a strange sense that the cats are offering to attack the Hobs for a later favor. Mir tells them to wait. He watches the scene hoping violence won't be necessary.
Back in the throne room, Nikki sits next to King at the newly set table while Marco places himself next to Yvette. As Charlie sits down between them, a plate of Goblin Fruits is placed before them. In addition to a pair of murples, there are several waxy white fruits and a bunch of orange-brown tubers.
Nikki asks what these things are. The Under-King explains they are cheese melons and peartatos. He cracks open one of the waxy spheres, revealing a soft cheesy center.
Cheese melons have no special effect other than being like cheese but peartatos grant a +1 bonus to Study (for child characters) or Academics (for adults).
As Nikki bites into a sweet and juicy tuber, she recalls who Yvette's teacher should be. She asks the little girl if she is looking forward to going back to Mr. Matthew's class. The Under-King's lopsided face twists in displeasure but Yvette haltingly says yes.
Nikki rolls Intelligence + Study to recall which teacher Yvette has and then Wits +Socialize to gauge what the diners think of this topic of conversation.
Marco meanwhile leans over to grab a murple. As he bites into the purple flesh, he casts his thoughts to Yvette's desires. He can feel her curiosity about this strange place boiling just beneath the surface.
Marco refills his Glamour pool with the Murple and then uses Fleeting Spring (rolling Wits + Wyrd) to read Yvette's surface desires.
Marco starts to tell the little girl what he knows of Hedge. The Venombite to his left adds tales of her own explorations. Gradually Yvette becomes more animate and talks more freely.
Satisfying Yvette's Aspiration to know more about the Hedge opens a Door should they need to convince her of something.
A few minutes later the main course is brought out. The roast beast is the size of a cat but with a trunk and a long skinny tail. Its savory smell contrasts with its odd appearance. Nikki asks what kind of animal this is. The Under-King proudly says that the best roast rodelephant was cooked for this meal. Nikki then turns to Yvette and remarks on how much food has been prepared. She asks if Yvette has eaten since she was brought to the Under-Hedge.
The Under-King supplies that Yvette had asked for a candy bar and some of his brownies have procured some to be baked into the desert. Nikki offers her Skittles to add to the final course, informing the King that they taste like rainbows. The King accepts her gift graciously and lets the cooks take the slightly crushed candy to the kitchen.
As the group puts Yvette at ease they open a door for the Under-King as they fulfills his aspiration of making Yvette comfortable. Also Nikki gets to share fulfilling Yvette Aspiration of getting lots of candy with the King.
Out in the darkness, Miroslav realizes he hasn't seen Rocco in a while. He looks at the spot he last saw him. A faint glow comes from a hole in the ground.
It was around this point that Miroslav asked where Rocco went. I had him roll Intelligence + Composure with a - 2 penalty due to the distraction of the cats and Rocco's own stealthiness.
In the hole, Rocco freaks out about the bones and scrambles back up. He regains his composure though and carefully replaces the plank. He leaves the rocks where they are though, they may need to flee this way.
Rocco still has the Condition Madness which we've determined is tied to death and being underground. It is around this point that I awarded a group Beat for roleplaying.
At the dinner table, Nikki leans over to the King and quietly asks him if he really is going to marry Yvette. The King lets it slip that his connection to Yvette is deeper than marriage. She is his lost twin. They were separated when they were but infants. Now they can be together again.
Nikki rolls Manipulation + Socialize to get the Under-King to open up about his secret. The other people in the room roll Wits + Composure -2 to overhear it. Only Mir succeeds.
Nikki's thoughts flick back to a rumor she heard about the little black girl, that Yvette was born deformed. In the darkness, Mir also hears the Under-King's the secret. He thinks back to an episode of the X-files, the one with a parasitic twin. The Under-King must have been a twin fused with Yvette at birth.
Mir rolls Intelligence +Occult to recall what he knows about conjoined twins. The group's reaction was a hearty ew.
Mir relates what he heard to Rocco. His friend seems unbothered by the King's plan to merge with his twin, pointing out he himself has merged with lightning. Disturbed Mir asks for the password to make sure he really is Rocco.
Dessert comes out. On a large plate is a confection made from melted chocolate wrapped around redberry jelly and decorated in molten Skittles. As they dig in, Charlie uses the distraction to ask Marco what their next move is. The boy replies that he isn't sure, he gestures for her to ask Nikki's opinion.
The Beast leans over to the 10 year old and asks. Nikki confides that she is trying to learn everyone's goals here. Charlie passes the message and Marco tries to read the Under-King's desires. He gets a murky vision of complicate plots but no details.
Marco tries Fleeting Spring again, spending willpower, but the Under-King's Composure + Wyrd roll equals his total. I give him a hint but not enough to go on.
Nikki reads Marco's head shaking as a failure. She turns to Yvette and asks if she misses home. Reluctantly the little girl says she would like to go home. The King tries to convince her that she has everything she needs here. Nikki points out she has to go to school and see her family. The King offers to bring the best tutors but his argument carries no weight with the scared little girl.
Getting Yvette to reveal she wants to go home is easy at this point. Nikki rolls Presence + Persuasion to counter the Under-King's argument.
Marco takes this opportunity to argue that the king should let Yvette return home. Charlie touches him on the shoulder as he launches into his speech. He points out that if the King wants to win Yvette over to his plans, he should give her freedom to chose.
Charlie blesses Marco with Hearth 2. So when he rolls Manipulation + Persuasion he gets a + 4 bonus to counter the - 2 penalty for the remaining Doors he has to open to convince the King (base 3 Doors for the Under-King's Composure 2 + 1 for opposing an Aspiration). He gets two successes.
The Under-King listens to Marco dourly but reluctantly tells Yvette she is free to return home. He does provide her with an honor guard, sending his most faithful brownie, Ulf, to guide her home and watch over her.
The children make their way back, reuniting with Miroslav and Rocco along the way. Returning to the dirty mirror they first enter this strange world through, they return to the basement of the Reichardt house. Ulf disappears at this point, slipping through a small hole in a wall.
Rocco gets back into his wheelchair. Marco pulls Yvette along as they head to the old elevator. Rocco tells the little girl not to let anyone know what they saw. As they ascend, they can see their parents through the elevator's grill conferring with some police officers. The adults notice the children and hurry up the stairs to intercept them. There is a clamor of voices as everyone Mr. McQueen, Mrs. Callaghan, Ms. Gambol, and the cops try to find out where the children had wandered off to.
Rocco sourly rebuffs them, claiming he and Marco discovered Yvette while playing in the basement. He manages to convince the police that this fuss was all just a case of overprotective parents. They leave in a huff. Once out of earshot, Ms. Gambol scolds Yvette and hurries her home for some punishment.
Rocco rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge gaining a + 2 bonus from Marco's assistance and a further + 1 from Yvette. He gets 3 success. He also gets a Beat for standing up (figuratively) against an authority figure thus satisfying an Aspiration.
Later that night once things have settled down and Ms. Gambol has gone out drinking, Rocco calls the Gambols. His classmate, Everett picks up. Rocco talks to him a bit about the day's events and hints that if he wants to learn where his sister disappeared to, he should talk to him later.
Rocco has a long term goal to rescue Everett from the gangs. He rolls Presence + Empathy to establish a good impression so he can begin manipulating him.
Mir spends the rest of the evening researching cats. That night however, he sneaks out into the Hedge and down to the Night Market. There a gathering of black robed figures waits for him.
Silently they lead him to a worn wooden door just outside the Market. Inside there is only blackness. One by one they disappear inside. Mir hesitates for moment before plunging inside.
The darkness breaks and he finds himself in a portion of the Hedge where the walls are huge stacks of books. Every so often another book or pamphlet flutters down from above. The cloaked figures walk down a narrow path between two huge stone minotaurs.
Mir follows them into a large chamber with a pentagram in the center. A lectern sits within the pentagram and atop it lies a massive book. As he passes by he recognizes its glimmering dusty pages: the Book of Ages.
The Queen of Shadows emerges and addresses the assembled members of the Guild of Shadows. Miroslav is led to her and she shows him the book. He can see his entire life up to this point written within its margins. Even now another line is being added. The Queen introduces him to the Guild as a new member and he is given a ceremonial draught of shadows and asked to swear to the Guild's ethos: to protect the shadows, keeping the mortal realm separate from it, and to gather occult lore.
Once the ceremony ends the cloaked figures throw back their hoods and mingle. Mir joins in the gossip. He asks one member, a fellow with one eye scarred white, about the restriction on no cats in the Night Market. The withered figure doesn't know all of the story but explains it is part of a powerful pledge that protects the Market from dangerous Hobs and mortal witch hunters. The founders of the Guild swore it less than a decade ago. He also warns Mir not to trust cats.
Mir rolls Manipulation + Streetwise to pick up some more rumors.
He learns from another member that the Book of Ages itself was retrieved by the Guild founders. He is surprised to learn how recently it came into being: less than 7 years ago. As he takes this in, the Queen of Shadows looms over him. She smiles as she asks what he wants to know about the book.
Mir asks a few questions, some of which she tells him and others of which she warns will have to wait until he has advanced further in the Guild. She seems confident he will. He learns the Guild seeks the Quill of Fate, an artifact that will allow them to rewrite the Book of Ages and alter reality.
Mir earns a Beat for learning more about the Book of Ages and the Quill of Fate.
Miroslav mentions he has met someone who may have altered history already: a madman named Hedge. The Queen is intrigued and offers to trade a favor for an introduction to this time traveler. He says he will think it over.
Days later he discusses this with Rocco. The 10-year old says Mir should push for something more permanent in his deal. Like having the Queen as a mentor.
In the meantime, school starts up again. While the teacher's try to the student back to the task of learning, the thing on everyone's mind are the rumors about Chris Allen. The schoolyard bully is missing and conflicting stories are circulating. Some people say he was in a car accident, others that he was a victim of a hit and run. Ryan says he was attacked by a mugger.
While Miroslav is happy with this turn of events, Marco worriedly arranges to visit his friend at home. His father drives him over to Chris's house. The stylish home sits on the nicest part of their school district. Chris's stepfather, Dr. Allen, greets Marco at the door and shows him to his stepson's room.
He finds Chris stuck in bed with a back brace and shoulder cast. The teen smiles as he enters and eagerly explains what happened. It was a bit after midnight, about a week ago when his step-dad yelled at him to take the garbage out. As he pulled the can to the curb, someone came up behind him and clubbed him across the back with a metal pipe. As he collapsed the ground he was hit again.
Marco swallows hard as he realizes the dates and details match when he took down Chrome-Tooth, the ogre of Mo-Hedge. Chris fails to notice his friends discomfort and ask Marco for his help in getting revenge. The boy seems convinced that either Mir or Eric is to blame. Marco resists his friend's entreaties but says he will ask around at school to see if anyone heard about the attacker.
Marco resists Chris's Social Maneuvering pool of 4 with some misdirection. He rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to misdirect him. Marco wins this round.
The next few weeks pass quickly. The children's routine returns to an ordered schedule of schoolwork and play.
Rocco begins to fake his recovery, slowly revealing the sensation in his legs and gradually showing he can move his legs to a limited extent. It is hard but he restrains himself to only being able to get by on crutches. The doctors are amazed and his father overjoyed, but he is just waiting until he can run again.
The computer genius makes use of his spare energy by examining the disk the mysterious person, Troll, sent him. Wary of viruses, he first opens it on the school computers one cold January afternoon. The disk is filled with scraps of odd useless code and lists of email addresses and webpage links. Looking closer at the files, he sees some signs of malicious code but nothing that should actually run.
Suddenly the fan rattles on the desktop he is on. Leaning over to see what is the matter, he realizes that tiny voices are coming from the computer. Something is moving inside the case. He's just infected the computer with gremlins.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Computer to find the "viruses". This is my beginning of introducing the Hedge-Net, a weird internet of Hobs and broken code. Where gremlins rattle from the inside of electronics and digital fairies manipulate an unaware public.
More intrigued than scared, he jots down all the code by hand. It takes days, but he isn't going to risk his own computer.
Nikki meanwhile concentrates on getting her art behind the teacher's desk. She spends hours focused on making a beautiful picture of her home to impress Mrs. Connor. At the same time she begins to spend more time with Maeve, helping the other girl with her homework and winning her over.
Nikki makes about 7 rolls on an extended Wits + Expression roll to create some great art (each increment taking about 15 minutes) . She finally gets her art behind the teacher's desk and earns a Beat for her Aspiration.
At the same time, she wants to become friends with all of the popular girls. Maeve is a lazy conniver and as such it is easy to open a Door by doing her homework for her (fulfilling Maeve's Aspiration) and then get in her good graces with a Presence + Persuasion roll. A few more friends like that and she'll have the Heathers.
Marco engages in his own social manipulations as he tries to dissuade Chris from seeking revenge. His friend finally returns to school in the second week back. Marco tries distracting him with video games, playing with him every day after school. When that wears thin, he indulges his friend's complaining and lets him vent.
Finally towards the end of the month, Marco tries to point how futile this quest is. The culprit must have been some gang member and not someone from school. Chris concedes to his friend's logical argument and lets it drop.
Marco is trying to get Chris to give up on an Aspiration. So he needs to open 3 Doors (2 Doors for Chris's Composure + 1 for going against his Aspiration of revenge). In week 1, he rolls Presence + Persuasion to distract him. The following week he rolls Presence + Empathy to listen and help him get over his anger. Finally, he rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge to get him to drop it. Each roll opens a Door and finally Chris gives up.
Then Marco gets a Beat for fulfilling his Aspiration of helping Chris let go of revenge.
Miroslav spends his spare time researching cats, fairies and magical quills. After the second week of school, his mother asks him what is wrong with his sister. He can tell she realizes Nikki has changed. He decides to bend the truth. He tells her that Nikki is cursed.
It takes a while but Nikki notices that her mother is placing lots of charms around her and the apartment. She mistakenly concludes her mother is warding off fairies.
Nikki's mom is a believer in superstitions and knowledgeable about the occult. Nikki isn't. She tries to guess what she is doing but fails on her chance die. She chooses to make it a Dramatic Failure and makes a incorrect assumption. At least she earns a Beat.
By early February, Rocco decides it is time to confront his mother. The others agree to help him and join Marco and his brother in their trip across town. They take a bus on a chilly Saturday in February. Rocco's crutches get some odd looks as does a bunch of children going across town on their own but no one stops them.
They soon reach a stretch of empty shops and once glamorous apartments. Most of the names are missing on the buzzer to the building she lives at, but Rocco knows number. As he reaches up he hears someone go "psst!"
Glancing back, they see Feral Tom poking his head around the corner of the building. The mangy Beast beckons them over. He tells them they can't go in there. As they confront him, he explains that she is not their mother.
Marco casts his vision to the future. He sees a maze of paths before him. In some they walk away, leaving the matter of his mother behind them. No one is hurt but also nothing changes. The other way, pursuing their mother, shows a chance for danger but also much reward.
He tells the others they can't walk away.
Marco uses his Oracle power to ask what is the worst choice here. He rolls Wits + Composure and succeeds. The worst choice is to leave the matter of his mom alone.
Nikki meanwhile brings up the fact that Feral Tom abandoned them when the Ogre showed up in Mo-Hedge. She tells him that she will tell the Queen of Shadows unless he promises to reveal all he knows. Faced with having his cowardice revealed he caves.
He apologizes for abandoning them earlier, making a pledge with Nikki for her silence. He tells them that the thing in there was left in their mother's place six years ago when she ventured into the Hedge and never returned. Rocco's true mother is the woman now called the Queen of Shadows. She left after her son's accident, hoping to repair the damage she did. Feral Tom told her of the Book of Ages and how it could be used to rewrite her history. But obtaining the book cost Mrs. McQueen her memories.
Rocco reacts bitterly to this revelation, upset that his mother abandoned him. Mir meanwhile is curious about this double. Feral Tom knows a bit about these things, which he calls a fetch. They are made of magic, sticks, and odd junk. Some Changelings can make them and sometimes they spontaneously appear. There is a rumor that some come from the Witch-House.
Marco meanwhile realizes they are on one of the better paths he saw. Visiting the thing in the apartment up above is unnecessary. Rocco also realizes it is pointless. He has already seen his mother. She just doesn't remember him.
Rocco earns a Beat for "seeing" his mother. Its not the literal form of his Aspiration but its close enough. The group as a whole earns a Beat for roleplaying.
The children discuss their next move. Marco and Rocco feel they need to do something about their father's new girlfriend, Ruzena, river faerie. If she is going to try to kill him, they need to stop her. Nikki points out that her mother is making charms against faeries. Maybe they can use those to repel Ruzena. Mir keeps quiet.
Mir can't lie (its part of the motley pledge) so I expect this to add some fun to next session.
Experience time. I awarded 2 Beats for roleplaying plus another for the session. Rocco fulfilled two Aspirations for Beats. Everyone else fulfilled an Aspiration and Nikki earned another Beat for a Dramatic Failure. We average that to 2 Beats. The total is an Experience.
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