Our cast:
- Marco McQueen: A Wizened Oracle and former bully, Marco has come to see the error of his ways. Now he seeks to become a better person and protect his father from Ruzena, a Changeling resembling a Rusalka, or river fae.
- 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.
- Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: The cold Flowering Fairest with the gift of artistry, she is focused on social climbing using advice from her contacts in the Court of Jewels.
- Rocco McQueen: Genius hacker and Levinquick Elemental who was crippled in a childhood accident. Now able to walk again he is focused on exploring the boundaries of where he can go while looking for a place for himself in the world.
We pick up almost a year later as Ruzena's deal to watch (and not kill) Mr. McQueen draws to an end.
Growing Pains
This session was a bit different with the action bouncing around in time as we established the major life events for each character over the next 15 years. So lots of time jumps and a focus on filling in blanks instead of mechanical details.First up we began by updating the character sheets. I uploaded a new Adult Character Sheet for the game and detailed the system for updating the characters:
Step 1: Shift around an Attribute dot or two if desired.
Step 2: Gain a Specialty and 2 Skill dots to make up the difference between 12 year old child and Adult. Split dots in Study between Academics and Science. Also they were allowed to move around a dot from a Skill another Skill as their character's focus changes.
Step 3: Gain 3 Merit dots to bring them in line with other Supernaturals using the God-Machine Rules (GMC) update. Replace Odd Jobs with Resources and reassign dots in Pet and Prized Item. Move around Merit dots if desired.
Step 4: Spend 10 Experiences as desired.
Step 5: adjust Speed and Health for increased Size. Possibly change Virtue and Vice.
As the year draws to a close, Marco and Rocco grow more concerned about their father's involvement with the river fae Ruzena. The two are growing closer but with her deal with the Queen of Shadows drawing to a close, she might try to kill him. She vanishes on trips to a lake or sea with growing frequency as the new year approaches. Marco keeps a close eye on her, sensing her desire to kill is more of a compulsion than a conscious plan.
The McQueen children rolls Wits + Empathy to get to know her. Marco succeeds.
Their father and her plan a holiday cruise, sending warning bells off in the minds of his children. Rocco decides to take action. Digging into her past for incriminating evidence, he finds details on the deaths of her previous two husbands. One died in a boating accident, the other slipped in the bathtub. But the evidence is all circumstantial. But then he finds deaths whenever she went on "vacation." On each one a young man drowned.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Investigation and gets 4 successes.
He tells his brother and they come up with a plan to derail the cruise trip. Marco distracts his father and Ruzena with conversation while Rocco steals and maxes out their credit cards. Without money to spend they can't leave on their trip. He sneaks something for himself amid the furniture and electronics: a high end computer he sends to Miroslav. Then he gets Nikki to mimic an adult's voice using her powers. Pretending to be a cop, she calls the families of the victims until someone believes their story about Ruzena being a serial killer. Lastly he mails off a report of his findings to the FBI.
Marco distracts the adults with Manipulation + Persuasion + 3 for willpower, just barely succeeding. Nikki uses her Mirror Contract to change her voice and then rolls Manipulation + Persuasion until someone believes her story.
In early December everything goes crazy. The FBI follows up and connects Ruzena to the murders. Though he saves his father, Rocco does escape punishment. His father is angry but even more worried about the actions his son took. He grounds Rocco for "life" and takes away his computer privileges. As for Ruzena, she disappears from police custody. Having (unwillingly) broken her word to the Queen, the oathbreaker flees Detroit. Rocco keeps an eye out for her.
A couple years later things have improved for many of the children. Rocco's grounding ends after a few months and his father relents on his computer privileges after a year.
Miroslav and Marco enter high school. The Goth sticks to the fringes, using his magic to curse bullies and people that cross him. Thanks to Marco's influence, Chris isn't one of them. The former bully becomes a better person in later years, even winning an election for class president with Marco's help.
Marco rolls Presence + Persuasion to campaign for his friend.
Ryan isn't so lucky and ends up haunted by ghosts for a while. The experience leaves him twitchy and bitter as well as pushing him to become even more unlikable. In another low note, one of the children's neighbors, the precocious 5 year old Willow Vaughn, is a victim of a kidnapping. Despite the authorities best efforts, she is never seen again. Miroslav tracks down a crooked cop who might have been involved but the police officer died in the line of duty before he could be questioned. After this Rocco helps his friend build a database to track all of the strange events the Darkling is researching.
I seeded plenty of dark and sad events in the time they were growing up. It is Detroit in the World of Darkness. Things are bad.
When I mention the kidnapping, Mir tried to use Eye for the Strange to see if the Slender Man or some other supernatural was involved. He rolled Intelligence + Composure and succeed. Unfortunately this is (mostly) just mundane villainy. He gained a + 2 bonus to his subsequent Intelligence + Investigation roll. But again this is more a background detail (and seed for a later game), so I cut the investigation short.
During high school, Mir dates Jennifer Conner. With his encouragement she explores ghost haunted locations in Detroit and studies Wiccan magic. By their senior year they are going steady. After a private session with her coven, she meets Mir at an independent coffee shop. When she spots him though, the color drains from her face. She sits down, staring at him in shock. Miroslav seems surprised but gradually comes to realize that she can now see through the Mask.
This time his Eye for the Strange merit points to her developing Unseen Sense (Fae).
He tries to convince her to come with him to the Night Market so he explain his secret to her. But she rejects his offer and says she can see through his skin. He is a freak. Miroslav appeals to her sympathies, pointing out that they are both freaks. But it is too late and she leaves. As he tries to talk to her in the days to come, she avoids him, telling him and his freaky sister to stay away.
Miroslav rolls very poorly here. His first Manipulation + Persuasion roll fails despite using Willpower. His second attempt uses Manipulation + Empathy but fails as well.
Then my off hand "freaky sister" comment developed into something awesome.
Nikki hears about Jennifer's comment through the grapevine. Protective of her reputation she gets her posse of popular freshman together and confronts the Goth after school. The freshman manages to cow the older outcast into promising not to tell anyone else about what she saw. Then Nikki seals the deal with some Glamour.
And here I thought I was done with bullying. Nikki rolls Manipulation + Intimidate + 1 for her developing Striking Looks + 2 for her gang while Jennifer resists with Resolve + Composure -2 for her outcast status. Nikki wins and forces a Pledge.
The Pledge holds for a week until Jennifer breaks it. It was after school on a Thursday. Nikki never learns who she told. But Jennifer finds her words magically disbelieved. Everyone assumes she is lying when she tells the truth, including the truth about Nikki and Miroslav. The curse and the strain on her mind eventually leads her to being committed to a psychiatric clinic.
Nikki is a horrible person. I'd normally have her roll Clarity but we are also going to redefine Breaking Points this session.
Marco meanwhile comes to realize that Charlie Cobwebs has feelings for him and they start dating. With his brother's help they set her up with a fake ID. Using the information for someone who died as a child, she adopts the identity of Tegan Strickland. They work up a story that she is from the next school district over. Her parents are a firefighter and a waitress and thus busy most of the time. Marco eventually introduces her to his father and even takes her to prom.
As high school comes to an end, another neighbor, the elderly Mrs. Sanchez, passes away. Her horde of cats disappears to parts unknown but Miroslav spends some time chatting with her grand nephew Miguel who helps move her stuff out.
A nice little cameo for Miguel Sanchez, were-cat NPC from my Chicago game. I've been waiting for this since session 1. The players were also happy.
Miroslav leaves for Europe as soon as school is over while Marco goes to work full time with his father at McQueen Automotive. Somewhere along the way, Mir's friend Eric drops off the grid. Some say the once violent Goth died, others that he joined the army. But no one is really sure.
The younger children make their way through high school alone. Rocco stays in touch with Everett but otherwise sticks to himself. He focuses on track and never does team sports. Outside of school he does some urban exploring, taking pictures of Detroit's decay. As he grows older, he continues to hear gremlins inside computers. Eventually he starts seeing them sneaking around corners and chuckling inside gym lockers. Before Miroslav graduates, he confides in him that he thinks there is another layer of reality other than the Hedge. Mir asks if he has investigated it and Rocco admits that the gremlins and sounds vanish when he tries. Miroslav realizes his friend's grasp of reality is tenuous and endeavors to talk to him regularly in later years.
Rocco has Clarity 5, which is where I'm imposing some social penalties due to an inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.
Miroslav works mundanely as an occultist and mercenary archaeologist. Meanwhile he continues the search for Hedge and the Quill of Fate. He keeps in touch with his sister and Rocco, keeping the motley going. Along the way he picks up some survival skills from the bargain bucket at a local Goblin Market.
The Survival, Firearms, and Brawl skills of a survivalist using the Second Hand Skills market.
Nikki is fast with her relationships, dating football players and even Rocco for a short time. An avid social climber, she makes her way to the top of the cheerleading team. She tries to be polite and nice to other students, seeing them as resources to be tapped later. She stays a secret art geek and gets some joy when her only competition, Raven Rose, drops out of high school sophomore year due to pregnancy.
After high school, Nikki talks to her father when he next stops by. She uses her knowledge and powers of persuasion to get him to teach her all he knows about grifting and theft. Later she joins her brother in traveling, attending art school in Paris for a time. But her sticky fingers lead her to supplement her income from sales of her own art with jobs for clients seeking to obtain paintings illegally.
It is during one such job that she runs into Rocco again. After a fun encounter she gets him to make a false ID for her, using a disguise she has been practicing.
The assumption is that she at some point managed an exceptional success on Mirror 2, eliminating the need for future rolls for a particular face. Nikki of course buys Alternate Identity.
Next we paused to address updates to the Integrity/Clarity questions. I decided that encounters with the supernatural will no longer require Clarity rolls. By this point they have all been Changelings longer than they were human.
We went around and checked if anyone's answers had changed. In several instances the worst thing that had happened to them or that they had done had happened in-game.
Then we explore how their adult lives went.
The two encounter each other when they case the same museum. Rocco wants to get to the top of the building while Nikki has two paintings she wants to steal: one for a client and for herself. As she usually does, she is already working on a forgery for the latter, intending to replace the real one with a copy. This way her artwork will be the one that is admired. Rocco reluctantly helps her break in. The job goes smoothly and soon another fine piece of art graces Nikki's studio apartment.
We quickly do the rolls for such a heist in preparation for more intense version next session. To make the forgery, Nikki rolls Intelligence + Expression + 2 for both her specialties of Copying and Painting plus willpower and a -3 due to the difficulty of the piece. She succeeds and we do the heist itself. She rolls Dexterity +Larceny with a - 2 penalty due to the security system. Again she succeeds.
Other than breaking into museums and climbing Big Ben, Rocco spends his time on the Internet and in the Hedge. He discovers sites advertising for videos of Hedge gateways, people looking for evidence of the supernatural. He watches the sites and uses his hacking skills to take them down once they get something of substance. Or he does until he realizes someone in the government is doing the same thing. Then he backs off. But he keeps watching.
As the 21st century wears on, Rocco starts trying to build a guild of his own, one for traveling hedge merchants, for people who farm and harvest the Hedge's bounty. He gets some interested Hobs and Changelings, including Leo the Rook. The freakish Hob directs him to Grandmother Stone, a Baba Yaga like figure, who dwells deep in the Hedge. Leo claims she helped the Union become a guild.
Rocco contacts Miroslav, hoping he can tell him more. Miroslav meanwhile has been busy chasing leads on the time traveler and the Quill of Fate. He has been to Hedge's hometown of Rosebriar but instead of Hedge, he found an old man that looked like him: a Father Albright who lives there with his daughter Lucy. There is nothing unnatural about either of them and there are no changelings in town.
On a more positive note he too has heard of Grandmother Stone. She supposedly has an item that will let one find their heart's desire. Miroslav helps Rocco on his quest, hoping to obtain it and a way to the Quill of Fate.
The two of them spend weeks traveling through the Hedge, pushing past the thorns until they finally discover a long overgrown road leading even deeper. Mighty trees have pushed through the flagstones and the thorns are deadly sharp. Eventually though the thorns part and they can see a massive ruined gate, a titanic arch rising hundreds of feet into the air.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Survival to guide them here.
Beside the gate, dwarfed by it, is a hut on chicken legs. Just outside the hut is a bubbling pot tended by a tall woman with skin like weathered granite.
Nervously they approach. Grandmother Stone sees them and asks their business. Miroslav brings up his quest. The aged crone has what he wants but asks the price of some of his sanity. Miroslav agrees and she gives him a potion, promising he will find what he seeks.
And the last person with Clarity 7 is gone.
Miroslav then asks her if she knows anything about the Slender Man. Grandmother Stone smiles and says he no longer exists. Then the towering woman leans over and whispers "but you'll see him soon."
Rocco brings up his own quest. She seems sympathetic, advising him to gather others to pledge to his leadership. She tells him that to become a true Guild however, he will need to make a powerful sacrifice. She leaves him to ponder that.
As they leave, she tells them to "tell the blue man, hello. I miss his stories."
Back in the real world, Marco and his father barely get through the recessions. His father has to lay off all of his staff and can barely pay his son. With his uncle sniffing around, Marco decides to make a Pledge with his father. He agrees to keep the business open with Marco as a full partner and Marco will make sure money comes in. Sealed with the Wyrd, fate brings more business to the door. While other repair shops go belly up, McQueen Automotive stays strong. Meanwhile Marco begins passing information on his mother's family's doing to his friends on the police force, including a Sgt. Allen.
Eventually Miroslav returns to Detroit. The potion leads him to the Detroit Institute of Arts. There he finds that a painting of the Roman Forum by Giovanni Paolo Panini contains the Quill. Miroslav stretches out with his magic. He is surprised to discover the large oil painting is a magical gateway activated by a specific mix of paints. He can smell the Quill however. It is close. He can feel it. He starts to make some calls.
And thus we bring the group back together in Detroit.
Miroslav uses Spellbound 3 to identify the painting as a magic gateway, getting asn exceptional success on the roll. In addition to determining how to open the portal, he gains the Condition Scent of the Quill which will guide him to it inside the painting and earn him a Beat when he reaches it.
As for experience I awarded Beats for both the High School section and the Adult section of the game. Adding the session Beat the group gets 3 Beats.
The McQueen children rolls Wits + Empathy to get to know her. Marco succeeds.
Their father and her plan a holiday cruise, sending warning bells off in the minds of his children. Rocco decides to take action. Digging into her past for incriminating evidence, he finds details on the deaths of her previous two husbands. One died in a boating accident, the other slipped in the bathtub. But the evidence is all circumstantial. But then he finds deaths whenever she went on "vacation." On each one a young man drowned.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Investigation and gets 4 successes.
He tells his brother and they come up with a plan to derail the cruise trip. Marco distracts his father and Ruzena with conversation while Rocco steals and maxes out their credit cards. Without money to spend they can't leave on their trip. He sneaks something for himself amid the furniture and electronics: a high end computer he sends to Miroslav. Then he gets Nikki to mimic an adult's voice using her powers. Pretending to be a cop, she calls the families of the victims until someone believes their story about Ruzena being a serial killer. Lastly he mails off a report of his findings to the FBI.
Marco distracts the adults with Manipulation + Persuasion + 3 for willpower, just barely succeeding. Nikki uses her Mirror Contract to change her voice and then rolls Manipulation + Persuasion until someone believes her story.
In early December everything goes crazy. The FBI follows up and connects Ruzena to the murders. Though he saves his father, Rocco does escape punishment. His father is angry but even more worried about the actions his son took. He grounds Rocco for "life" and takes away his computer privileges. As for Ruzena, she disappears from police custody. Having (unwillingly) broken her word to the Queen, the oathbreaker flees Detroit. Rocco keeps an eye out for her.
A couple years later things have improved for many of the children. Rocco's grounding ends after a few months and his father relents on his computer privileges after a year.
Miroslav and Marco enter high school. The Goth sticks to the fringes, using his magic to curse bullies and people that cross him. Thanks to Marco's influence, Chris isn't one of them. The former bully becomes a better person in later years, even winning an election for class president with Marco's help.
Marco rolls Presence + Persuasion to campaign for his friend.
Ryan isn't so lucky and ends up haunted by ghosts for a while. The experience leaves him twitchy and bitter as well as pushing him to become even more unlikable. In another low note, one of the children's neighbors, the precocious 5 year old Willow Vaughn, is a victim of a kidnapping. Despite the authorities best efforts, she is never seen again. Miroslav tracks down a crooked cop who might have been involved but the police officer died in the line of duty before he could be questioned. After this Rocco helps his friend build a database to track all of the strange events the Darkling is researching.
I seeded plenty of dark and sad events in the time they were growing up. It is Detroit in the World of Darkness. Things are bad.
When I mention the kidnapping, Mir tried to use Eye for the Strange to see if the Slender Man or some other supernatural was involved. He rolled Intelligence + Composure and succeed. Unfortunately this is (mostly) just mundane villainy. He gained a + 2 bonus to his subsequent Intelligence + Investigation roll. But again this is more a background detail (and seed for a later game), so I cut the investigation short.
During high school, Mir dates Jennifer Conner. With his encouragement she explores ghost haunted locations in Detroit and studies Wiccan magic. By their senior year they are going steady. After a private session with her coven, she meets Mir at an independent coffee shop. When she spots him though, the color drains from her face. She sits down, staring at him in shock. Miroslav seems surprised but gradually comes to realize that she can now see through the Mask.
This time his Eye for the Strange merit points to her developing Unseen Sense (Fae).
He tries to convince her to come with him to the Night Market so he explain his secret to her. But she rejects his offer and says she can see through his skin. He is a freak. Miroslav appeals to her sympathies, pointing out that they are both freaks. But it is too late and she leaves. As he tries to talk to her in the days to come, she avoids him, telling him and his freaky sister to stay away.
Miroslav rolls very poorly here. His first Manipulation + Persuasion roll fails despite using Willpower. His second attempt uses Manipulation + Empathy but fails as well.
Then my off hand "freaky sister" comment developed into something awesome.
Nikki hears about Jennifer's comment through the grapevine. Protective of her reputation she gets her posse of popular freshman together and confronts the Goth after school. The freshman manages to cow the older outcast into promising not to tell anyone else about what she saw. Then Nikki seals the deal with some Glamour.
And here I thought I was done with bullying. Nikki rolls Manipulation + Intimidate + 1 for her developing Striking Looks + 2 for her gang while Jennifer resists with Resolve + Composure -2 for her outcast status. Nikki wins and forces a Pledge.
The Pledge holds for a week until Jennifer breaks it. It was after school on a Thursday. Nikki never learns who she told. But Jennifer finds her words magically disbelieved. Everyone assumes she is lying when she tells the truth, including the truth about Nikki and Miroslav. The curse and the strain on her mind eventually leads her to being committed to a psychiatric clinic.
Nikki is a horrible person. I'd normally have her roll Clarity but we are also going to redefine Breaking Points this session.
Marco meanwhile comes to realize that Charlie Cobwebs has feelings for him and they start dating. With his brother's help they set her up with a fake ID. Using the information for someone who died as a child, she adopts the identity of Tegan Strickland. They work up a story that she is from the next school district over. Her parents are a firefighter and a waitress and thus busy most of the time. Marco eventually introduces her to his father and even takes her to prom.
As high school comes to an end, another neighbor, the elderly Mrs. Sanchez, passes away. Her horde of cats disappears to parts unknown but Miroslav spends some time chatting with her grand nephew Miguel who helps move her stuff out.
A nice little cameo for Miguel Sanchez, were-cat NPC from my Chicago game. I've been waiting for this since session 1. The players were also happy.
Miroslav leaves for Europe as soon as school is over while Marco goes to work full time with his father at McQueen Automotive. Somewhere along the way, Mir's friend Eric drops off the grid. Some say the once violent Goth died, others that he joined the army. But no one is really sure.
The younger children make their way through high school alone. Rocco stays in touch with Everett but otherwise sticks to himself. He focuses on track and never does team sports. Outside of school he does some urban exploring, taking pictures of Detroit's decay. As he grows older, he continues to hear gremlins inside computers. Eventually he starts seeing them sneaking around corners and chuckling inside gym lockers. Before Miroslav graduates, he confides in him that he thinks there is another layer of reality other than the Hedge. Mir asks if he has investigated it and Rocco admits that the gremlins and sounds vanish when he tries. Miroslav realizes his friend's grasp of reality is tenuous and endeavors to talk to him regularly in later years.
Rocco has Clarity 5, which is where I'm imposing some social penalties due to an inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.
Miroslav works mundanely as an occultist and mercenary archaeologist. Meanwhile he continues the search for Hedge and the Quill of Fate. He keeps in touch with his sister and Rocco, keeping the motley going. Along the way he picks up some survival skills from the bargain bucket at a local Goblin Market.
The Survival, Firearms, and Brawl skills of a survivalist using the Second Hand Skills market.
Nikki is fast with her relationships, dating football players and even Rocco for a short time. An avid social climber, she makes her way to the top of the cheerleading team. She tries to be polite and nice to other students, seeing them as resources to be tapped later. She stays a secret art geek and gets some joy when her only competition, Raven Rose, drops out of high school sophomore year due to pregnancy.
After high school, Nikki talks to her father when he next stops by. She uses her knowledge and powers of persuasion to get him to teach her all he knows about grifting and theft. Later she joins her brother in traveling, attending art school in Paris for a time. But her sticky fingers lead her to supplement her income from sales of her own art with jobs for clients seeking to obtain paintings illegally.
It is during one such job that she runs into Rocco again. After a fun encounter she gets him to make a false ID for her, using a disguise she has been practicing.
The assumption is that she at some point managed an exceptional success on Mirror 2, eliminating the need for future rolls for a particular face. Nikki of course buys Alternate Identity.
Next we paused to address updates to the Integrity/Clarity questions. I decided that encounters with the supernatural will no longer require Clarity rolls. By this point they have all been Changelings longer than they were human.
We went around and checked if anyone's answers had changed. In several instances the worst thing that had happened to them or that they had done had happened in-game.
Then we explore how their adult lives went.
The two encounter each other when they case the same museum. Rocco wants to get to the top of the building while Nikki has two paintings she wants to steal: one for a client and for herself. As she usually does, she is already working on a forgery for the latter, intending to replace the real one with a copy. This way her artwork will be the one that is admired. Rocco reluctantly helps her break in. The job goes smoothly and soon another fine piece of art graces Nikki's studio apartment.
We quickly do the rolls for such a heist in preparation for more intense version next session. To make the forgery, Nikki rolls Intelligence + Expression + 2 for both her specialties of Copying and Painting plus willpower and a -3 due to the difficulty of the piece. She succeeds and we do the heist itself. She rolls Dexterity +Larceny with a - 2 penalty due to the security system. Again she succeeds.
Other than breaking into museums and climbing Big Ben, Rocco spends his time on the Internet and in the Hedge. He discovers sites advertising for videos of Hedge gateways, people looking for evidence of the supernatural. He watches the sites and uses his hacking skills to take them down once they get something of substance. Or he does until he realizes someone in the government is doing the same thing. Then he backs off. But he keeps watching.
As the 21st century wears on, Rocco starts trying to build a guild of his own, one for traveling hedge merchants, for people who farm and harvest the Hedge's bounty. He gets some interested Hobs and Changelings, including Leo the Rook. The freakish Hob directs him to Grandmother Stone, a Baba Yaga like figure, who dwells deep in the Hedge. Leo claims she helped the Union become a guild.
Rocco contacts Miroslav, hoping he can tell him more. Miroslav meanwhile has been busy chasing leads on the time traveler and the Quill of Fate. He has been to Hedge's hometown of Rosebriar but instead of Hedge, he found an old man that looked like him: a Father Albright who lives there with his daughter Lucy. There is nothing unnatural about either of them and there are no changelings in town.
On a more positive note he too has heard of Grandmother Stone. She supposedly has an item that will let one find their heart's desire. Miroslav helps Rocco on his quest, hoping to obtain it and a way to the Quill of Fate.
The two of them spend weeks traveling through the Hedge, pushing past the thorns until they finally discover a long overgrown road leading even deeper. Mighty trees have pushed through the flagstones and the thorns are deadly sharp. Eventually though the thorns part and they can see a massive ruined gate, a titanic arch rising hundreds of feet into the air.
Rocco rolls Intelligence + Survival to guide them here.
Beside the gate, dwarfed by it, is a hut on chicken legs. Just outside the hut is a bubbling pot tended by a tall woman with skin like weathered granite.
Nervously they approach. Grandmother Stone sees them and asks their business. Miroslav brings up his quest. The aged crone has what he wants but asks the price of some of his sanity. Miroslav agrees and she gives him a potion, promising he will find what he seeks.
And the last person with Clarity 7 is gone.
Miroslav then asks her if she knows anything about the Slender Man. Grandmother Stone smiles and says he no longer exists. Then the towering woman leans over and whispers "but you'll see him soon."
Rocco brings up his own quest. She seems sympathetic, advising him to gather others to pledge to his leadership. She tells him that to become a true Guild however, he will need to make a powerful sacrifice. She leaves him to ponder that.
As they leave, she tells them to "tell the blue man, hello. I miss his stories."
Back in the real world, Marco and his father barely get through the recessions. His father has to lay off all of his staff and can barely pay his son. With his uncle sniffing around, Marco decides to make a Pledge with his father. He agrees to keep the business open with Marco as a full partner and Marco will make sure money comes in. Sealed with the Wyrd, fate brings more business to the door. While other repair shops go belly up, McQueen Automotive stays strong. Meanwhile Marco begins passing information on his mother's family's doing to his friends on the police force, including a Sgt. Allen.
Eventually Miroslav returns to Detroit. The potion leads him to the Detroit Institute of Arts. There he finds that a painting of the Roman Forum by Giovanni Paolo Panini contains the Quill. Miroslav stretches out with his magic. He is surprised to discover the large oil painting is a magical gateway activated by a specific mix of paints. He can smell the Quill however. It is close. He can feel it. He starts to make some calls.
And thus we bring the group back together in Detroit.
Miroslav uses Spellbound 3 to identify the painting as a magic gateway, getting asn exceptional success on the roll. In addition to determining how to open the portal, he gains the Condition Scent of the Quill which will guide him to it inside the painting and earn him a Beat when he reaches it.
As for experience I awarded Beats for both the High School section and the Adult section of the game. Adding the session Beat the group gets 3 Beats.
No comments:
Post a Comment