Our cast:
- Marco McQueen: A Wizened Oracle who helps run McQueen Automotive with his father. Related to the Zerilli crime family, he works as an informant for the few honest cops in Detroit.
- Miroslav "Mir" Callaghan: A Palewraith Darkling and member of the Guild of Shadows. He is intrigued by certain artifacts and puzzled by strange gaps in the Guild's occult library. He is investigating an artifact that will allow him to rewrite time.
- Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: The cold Flowering Fairest with the gift of artistry, she has become a world-class art thief. As a child she traded away her emotional attachments.
- Rocco McQueen: Levinquick Elemental who seeks to push the boundaries of where he can go both physically and in cyberspace. He is also looking build a new guild, one for people like himself.
Can't Go Home Again
Rocco wanders around his old home, Reichardt Apartments, in his dreams. Strips of sunlight peek through the boarded up windows, illuminating peeling wallpaper and thick layers of dust on the floor.He hears a scratching from the walls, as if something was crawling around inside them.
Creeping closer to the cracked and crumbling drywall, he calls out to Ulf, the strange brownie that used to live there. He hears a noise from the other side of the wall. Repeated thumps, a sound of something hard striking wet meat. Getting closer, he can see movement through a crack in the wall, a figure swinging something at a dark lump on the ground.
Thump. Thump. The beatings push whatever it is against the wall. The repeated pounding slowly damages the wall. Blood begins to leak out onto Rocco's side.
The Changeling rushes out of the room and through a door to the one next to it. The figure is gone but a bloodstained bat lies on the ground. So does the broken corpse of a man. A wax mask sits on the floor beside him. His face has been reduced to a gory pulp but Rocco can tell he was tall and Caucasian. The mask makes Rocco think of the Minister of Doors, Vincent Ingress.
The dream slowly fading, Rocco searches for more clues. A cat mews in the distance. He finds nothing. Then he wakes up.
Rocco rolls Wits + Empathy to see whether these are real events (as in happening right now). He fails and doesn't know. For now.
In the morning Nikki gets a hold of her old friend Maeve. The Mob associate seems surprised and excited to hear from her again. They arrange to hang out that night at Motorcity Casino. As Maeve says, she has the friend's discount.
Rocco visits Miroslav at the Hollow to discuss his dream. Miroslav seems suspicious of the cat, claiming cats are shifty. He admits he has not seen Vincent in the last day. They discuss visiting Reichardt apartments to be sure. Rocco has a feeling the dream could be prophetic.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Occult to determine that the dream might be prophetic. I also try to point out that it isn't necessarily literal.
Rocco asks his brother Marco to help out. His girlfriend Charlie tags along. Then Rocco sends out a text to Nikki. He tells her they are investigating the house but neglects to mention the specifics why. Nikki agrees to come regardless.
The motley arrives at their old home. Nikki arrives in a trench coat and large sunglasses, to hide from any onlookers. Miroslav shows similarly hidden but mostly to avoid sunlight.
The neighborhood is even worse than they remember. Half the homes are gone and most of the rest are rotten and abandoned.
The siding has peeled off the building and only the wooden walls and boarded up windows repel the elements. Red gang tags stain the front of the house, while the side features a terrifying image of a ten foot high mouth of a cat. The initials in the corner read GZ.
Nikki looks over the frond door lock and windows for any security system. She points out a line of salt along the entrances to her brother. He recognizes it has mystical protection but not one specifically religious. Miroslav invokes a few spirits and draws some symbols around the edge of the door. He explains the defenses should be weakened.
Nikki rolls Wits + Larceny + her Security System specialty and discovers no mundane security. She does however find some magical form of defense. In game terms this location has the effect of a the Merit Safe Place at 2 dots.
Miroslav rolls Int + Occult + Superstition specialty to identify the effect and rolls an Exceptional Success. He learns it is not religious. For his Condition we agree he can place it on the location to temporarily negate the bonuses it would give to those inside.
Nikki quickly unlocks the door and they quietly creep in. The entrance way is darker and drearier than they remember. The old elevator is stuck partway between the first and second floor. From the relative lack of dust on the floor they can see there is regular foot traffic on this level as well as going up. A large number of beer cans and bottles are piled up near the front door. The stairs down seem less used.
Everyone rolls Dexterity + Stealth. Rocco fails and something hears them. Miroslav rolls Wits + Investigation to work out which parts of the house seem occupied.
Marco walks over to the light switch and pulls out some of his tools. He pops the case for the switch and tests the lines for current. The needle on his gauge jumps up. He warns the others this house has electricity.
Marco rolls Wits + Crafts + Appliances specialty to quickly check if the house still has electricity.
Miroslav meanwhile calls out to any ghosts. He gets no answer but notices a pair of cold iron horseshoes over the door. Whoever lives here wants to protect themselves from the Fae.
Miroslav tries to use his contract to talk to ghosts but there are none here. He does get a Beat for the Aspiration "Go to the old house and see if there are any ghosts there".
Rocco thinks back to his dream. From the way the light was coming in, the body must have been on the first floor in the Callaghan's apartment. He goes through the south door. Inside they find a pair of dirty mattresses and more alcohol containers.
Rocco has Eidetic Memory so I don't even bother asking for a roll.
Nikki at this point asks for the full details on Rocco's dream. The Elemental explains what he saw. It is clear no one was murdered here. Charlie however thinks the bloody bat is significant. Recently Detroit has had a serial killer who preys on young white men, beating them to death with a bat. They call him the Michigan slugger.
I shared this with Marco's player earlier. Only now did it seem relevant.
Nikki finds this fairly dull but does point out Vincent was white. Though much older.
I let Nikki roll Wits + Socialize to see what she knows about Vincent from prior interactions.
The motley decides to look around. Something is going on here. They find the area has been used regularly, probably by gang members. There are bullet holes in the south wall and shell casings on the floor. Then Nikki pulls out a red bandanna from under a mattress. Only the Reds wear that around here.
The group does a Teamwork investigation with each of them rolling Wits + Investigation and adding the results to Miroslav's final die roll. Marco and Rocco both roll 1 success, while Nikki rolls 2. Mir gets a final result of 3 successes. Miroslav also tries to use Eye For Strange on the situation but fails his roll.
Finally I rolled some Wits + Composure rolls for the PCs against an NPC's stealth roll. It remained unnoticed.
They check the other apartment on this level but it is also empty. They decide to head downstairs first and check out the old Hedge entrance.
From the landing they can see debris, mostly empty bottles and furniture has been tossed down the stairs to the basement. They can also make out a narrow path through the junk. Clearly someone has been visiting the basement.
The group files down and follows the relatively clear path to the old storage room. They find the same old wardrobe with the same dusty mirror. As they examine it however, a groaning noise can be heard directly above them.
Suddenly a terrific crash comes from the floor above them as something begins to smash down through the upper levels.
Nikki and her brother duck out of the room to safety while Marco manages to push his brother out of the way moments before a piano crashes through the ceiling and demolishes the wardrobe. Charlie ducks out of the room at the last moment. The two brothers are showered in falling boards and shards of mirror.
Everyone makes a Wits + Composure roll (+2 for Danger Sense for Nikki and Marco) and -2 due to the sound absorption of the walls (enhanced by the Darkness Contract). Rocco fails so I let Marco roll Wits + Athletics +Willpower to push him to safety. He and his brother do suffer some Bashing damage however.
As the dust settles. Marco and Rocco dig themselves out of the rubble. Nikki peers inside. A coil of rope sits atop the devastation, one end sheared off. Looking up through the hole in the ceiling she can see up to the second floor where a chain in the ceiling rocks back and forth.
Realizing whoever dropped this is still here, the young thief runs off. Quickly and stealthily she ascends the stairs and reaches the room to see a pair of twig-like legs disappear into a hole in the wall.
Nikki rolls Dexterity + Stealth and beats Ulf's perception roll. He doesn't know she is there.
The rest of the motley slowly follows. A step creaks under Miroslav's weight as they move to the second level. They find Nikki, her ear up against the wall, silently following the brownie's progress through the wall.
Miroslav fails his Dexterity + Stealth roll. Nikki rolls Wits + Composure at -2 to track Ulf and hear something else.
She motions to them to be silent. In addition to Ulf, now moving through the ceiling, she hears someone on the third floor. The person quickly walks across a room above, opens a door, and then vanish. There are no footfalls anymore.
Ulf meanwhile progresses to the ceiling above the second floor landing. The Fairest points up to where the villainous Hob is lurking. Further down the stairs, Marco is distracted by the growing number of squeaks he hears from below. Rats begin to pour out of the wall and from under doors.
Rocco decides to deal with the dangerous fae. Calling on the electricity in the house, he arcs it through the ceiling and into Ulf. There is a cry as the landing light illuminates and then a thump of something collapsing on the floor above. An acrid smell fills the air. The rat begin to disperse.
Rocco uses his Elemental Contract to electrocute Ulf, rolling Wyrd + Manipulation to fill the area with electricity. Ulf takes 4 bashing which knocks the small Hob out (in fact wrapping around into Lethal).
Marco and Rocco grab a chair from one of the room and tear open the ceiling with some tools. Inside they find a singed and unconscious Hob. In the last decade of so, Ulf has grown thinner and stick-like. He is still dressed in rotten hides and wearing his badge of authority, a rat skull which Nikki snatches.
They tie him up and head upstairs. The door to the northern upstairs apartment is in much better shape. Nikki easily unlocks it and starts to swing it open. At the last moment she spots a trip line. Deftly disabling it she finds the door was rigged with a military surplus grenade. She tosses it back at the others and walks into the room.
As I describe the trap, Nikki's player brings up her security system disabling Condition. I decide to let her use it here, taking out the trap and gaining a Beat.
The apartment has air conditioning and electric lighting. A thick shag carpet covers the floor and a tea set is laid out on an elegant glass table in the main room. Rocco quickly looks around while Nikki looks for the Hedge gateway whoever was here used.
Rocco fails on his Wits + Investigation roll.
She opens the closet door to the Hedge, carefully checking for any traps. She finds the sod floor of the trail spongy and suspects a pit trap. The bramble lines wooden walls of the path should be easy enough to climb past she decides. She starts to make her way over.
Nikki rolls Wits + Larceny and gets an exceptional success. We decide to impose a Condition on the person living here: Knows My Tricks, which will give them a -2 penalty to any actions involving hiding something physically from Nikki.
While the others make their way across, Miroslav sniffs around for magic. He finds a cookie jar full of shadows, some hedge fruit in the fridge, and a large magic mirror. He notes them down for later.
Once across the pit, the motley begins to hurriedly track down the mysterious person who was living there. Rocco takes the lead, taking them down twisted paths of vine-covered brick, through brambles growing out of concrete, and along paths of broken glass.
We do this as an extended chase with the quarry rolling against Rocco who has the highest Stamina + Athletics. The target has a head start of 2 successes but Miroslav blessed Rocco's first roll using the Hearth contract. The first roll brings them to 6 successes to 4 with the quarry keeping their lead. The second roll however brings them neck and neck at 7 successes.
Rocco spots black threads caught on the thorns. A moment later they spot a figure in a black cloak running ahead of them. It stumbles, dropping a bundle of letters. Miroslav grabs them and they race on.
The next roll sees lots of Willpower expenditure and ultimately the quarry escapes reaching 10 successes before Rocco.
The figure ducks behind a bush and disappears. Rocco rounds the bend and finds a door out of the Hedge. He pushes through and finds himself in the dimly lit backroom of a supermarket. Looking about he spots the cloak, discarded in front of the plastic barrier separating the backroom from the aisles. He steps into the supermarket but doesn't spot anyone suspicious. He does take note of security cameras at the entrance to the back and by the cashier.
Rocco returns to the others. With this lead lost, they decide to search the apartment and interrogate Ulf.
They easily make their way back, laying a board cross the pit, revealing the bear traps at the bottom.
Miroslav looks over the letters. They seem to have been sent to a Kristen Murray. While most of them are not signed, the handwriting for most of them appears to be from the same individual, one who starts off in Russia and ends up in the United States. They recall Ruzena is Russian. The subject matter involves a plot for revenge against someone who banished her.
Rocco decides to investigate Kristen. He rolls Intelligence + Investigation -2 for her Anonymity Merit. Marco rolls Intelligence + Streetwise to see what he knows about the Reds.
Rocco does some quick internet searching but quickly reaches the conclusion Kristen is an alias. Marco remarks that the current leader of the Reds is a woman. If she is working with Ruzena, they must be plotting against the Queen of Shadows.
Miroslav turns his attentions to the magic mirror. Just before he touches it to get a read, he sees something off in the reflection. He realizes this is a trap, a device which captures those who touch it inside the reflection.
Mir rolls Wits + Occult - 3 to detect the trap.
As he wracks his brain he can think of a few ways to build such a device: hedge spinning, an obscure Contract, and a rare power of a powerful fetch.
At this point I award a Roleplaying Beat.
Charlie tells the others that Ulf is waking up. The tiny Hob opens his eyes groggily. Miroslav steps close to him, calling on darkness to decreases his resistance to fear. Then Marco bluntly asks him who is working for and what he is up to.
Miroslav's Contract eliminates the penalties Ulf would impose for manipulating him with hard leverage. Marco rolls Presence + Intimidation and the Hob cracks.
Ulf hurriedly explains everything. He's been trapped here, unable to go back to the Under-King since he fails his mission. He agreed to work for the Queen of Shadow's fetch, Evelina McQueen. She was working on a plan with Ruzena, something to do with a trap at the Goblin Market. She was also controlling the Reds, hoping to use the mortals against the Queen.
Marco earns a Beat for his Aspiration to "find his mom's fetch" while Nikki earns one for "suffering no personal blow back from the plan to get the time traveler's blood."
As they take this in, they hear a couple of cars pull up in front of the building. Looking out a window, they can see a dozen gang members in red bandannas walking up, guns drawn.
Rocco hurriedly asks Marco for his phone. He sends a text message to his cousin Joe Zerilli about a gathering of Reds outside the house, hoping the gangster will use the opportunity to strike at them. Then they leave via the Hedge, dragging Ulf along with them.
Miroslav heads off to warn the Queen of Shadows. He finds her at the guildhall. She seems interested to see him but not for the reasons he expects. She wants to know about the Quill. He manages to push that off for the moment, alerting her to the ambush. The queen apparently was unaware she had a fetch and immediately sends her followers to search for it and Ruzena.
They discuss the disappearance of Vincent. The Queen shares his concerns and will keep an eye out for the Minister of Doors. Then she returns to the matter of the Quill. Miroslav explains he needs to study it longer. She agrees to give him time, but sends Erin Cobbleflesh to watch over it until it can be moved to the guildhall.
Rocco, meanwhile, tries to hunt down where the fetch went using the information on the supermarket security cameras. Unfortunately he discovers those are just dummies.
Later on Nikki finally gets to visit Maeve. The two share a drink at the casino and catch some shows. While they enjoy themselves, her old friend begins asking what she has been up to and seeing what she is town for.
Nikki uses lies and evasion to answer most of her questions while trying to pump Maeve for answers. By evenings end, both learn a little bit about the other. Nikki lets on about her extra-legal activities while Maeve admits to being in bed with the Mob. She also admits to wanting to get out in style.
Another round of Social Maneuvering. Both use Manipulation + Socialize to get good impressions with each other allowing a roll each day. They both also manage to open a Door that night.
Maeve suggest Nikki and her might work together. There is a gang that moves in drugs from time to time for the Mob. They get paid in odd but compact wealth: diamonds, artworks, and the like. Maeve suggests setting up a deal and Nikki could steal the payment. Then they could split the proceeds.
Nikki considers it and they go back to Maeve's boyfriend's house. It is in one of the few upscale neighborhoods, large with a nice lawn. Nikki makes friends with his dog while they hang out. Eventually Joe Zerilli shows up looking a bit irritated. Maeve cheers him up and Nikki makes his acquaintance. The two plan to meet up for lunch later in the week.
Nikki rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken, befriending the dog should she need to come back. She also earns a Beat for utilizing Maeve to learn more about Mob.
Miroslav and Rocco meanwhile spend the evening at Charlie's Hollow, an old partially submerged bus. Things are bit noisier now with Erin looking over Mir's shoulder and Ulf confined to a small cage. Charlie chooses to stay at Marco's house.
Marco meanwhile finds the Reds harassing his customers again at work. He scares them off again but the thugs make it clear they want protection money or they will come back. Marco gets the distinct impression that they might also be worried about the Mob.
Later that week, he gets a call from his friend Officer Chris Allen. The stakeout at the harbor turned up some odd weapons that criminals dumped. Seems the shipment was not what the Mob expected. He asks Marco if he can have a look. The police officer discretely picks up the Wizened at the edge of the city and takes him to the evidence room downtown.
There Marco finds a crate full of strange rusted weapons like a miniaturized Tommy gun and a pistol modified for automatic action. Along with them are a series of blueprints for these devices and more. Marco takes pictures of them on his phone to examine later.
Later that day word arrives that the another victim of the Michigan Slugger has washed ashore. It belongs to an older white man. Vincent still hasn't been seen.
Marco rolls Intelligence + Crafts + 3 for willpower to understand the devices. He gets an exceptional successes and finds himself with the Inspired Condition. He is going to need to do some crafting. He also satisfies the Aspiration "learn about high-tech weaponry."
Finally we get to experience. Before we give them out however we have a discussion about how to handle Beat for skill improvements (such as you get if you have Professional Training 4) since we are doing group beats. I decide that any Beats for raising skills will be applied the next session.
That out of the way we count Beats. Nikki resolved one Condition and two Aspirations. Marco also took care of two Aspirations. Miroslav dealt with an Aspiration as well. This averages to 2 Beats per person plus another for roleplaying and a fourth for the session. The final tally is 4 Beats.
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