Managing the timeline between my wife and the others worked much better this time and both sides had the information they needed to stay in sync.
Also we had our first combat! I ignored some rules toward the end in the interest of action over exactness. Did my players get off light? Yes but it benefitted the pacing of the game.
Our cast for this session:
- Accabish (a.k.a. Priscilla Webb): Saboteur, Inquisitor, and editor of the Slog news blog.
- The Hunter (a.k.a. Joseph Mutsinzi): this Saboteur, janitor, and former child soldier is a blunt instrument.
- The Naturalist (a.k.a. Dorian, Jenny Olson, ‘Nat’): a master of covers, this Tempter has recently discovered its husband, John Olson, might not be entirely faithful.
- The Weaver (a.k.a. Jeanette Teller): Inquisitor and chemist, it has acquired several mysterious gadgets recently. It is also being followed.
Alligators in the Sewers, Part II: the Mutation
As a side note, I watched too many terrible horror movies as a child, including the Alligator movies. Hence the title.We start with my wife’s character, Accabish. It was a bit slow, partly because she was tired and partly because I didn’t push the plot towards more action. I need to change that in the future.
Before play I clarify her goals for the relaunch of the Gossip Column. She sees it as a source of information via a tip line and web crawl code. Functionally it will be a Library Merit that she intends to buy.
As Accabish breaks from editing the latest articles for the Slog, she considers how the ring might remove the sewer cult as a threat. From what the Naturalist saw, repeated verbatim to her in the early hours of the morning, while the cult was connected by their beliefs and a desire to serve Sobek, it was the cult leader that kept them unified. Without him, the group would splinter.
Accabish rolls Intelligence + Empathy + her Confidence speciality at a - 4 penalty to determine how she might destabilize the cult. She succeeds and determines the leader is the linchpin.
She decides to pay a visit to city hall later that afternoon.
The demon finds Sgt. Spencer at her desk, looking at her own reports. The officer keeps a careful eye on the security monitor, always wary of threats to her charges. As Priscilla Webb, Accabish tells the officer about a potential threat to Donna Angstrom. She shows Spencer a drawing of the cult leader and suggests that he has been making threats involving the bureaucrat.
Accabish rolls Manipulation + Persuasion with a +1 bonus to get some information from her police Contact.
Convinced that he might be a person of interest, Spencer runs the face through their database. As they wait to hear back, the pair talk a bit about other threats to Donna, as Kenny Nguyen storms out of her office. Spencer explains, the head of animal control is normally quite relaxed. She confides he has been heard shouting about alligators in sewers lately. He apparently complains that the authorities won’t take him seriously. Spencer thinks he is simply stressed since one of his employees went missing.
The report on the sketch comes back. Unfortunately the man doesn’t appear in their database. Spencer says she will show it around the precinct.
Back at the office, Priscilla has the Slog’s IT person, Vince, look for the man. The young technician moans it is like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Accabish uses her Retainer to do some searching.
The next morning however, Vince informs Priscilla that he managed to locate a man who might be the cult leader in a paper from 2007. He shows her the photo. He’s younger and healthier looking but it could be him. He appears at a protest over layoffs at a recently bought supermarket. Accabish sends the photo to the Naturalist who confirms that it is the man they are looking for.
As Priscilla, she arranges to meet the former owner’s widow, Christine Morris, for lunch. She explains she is doing an article on the fate of local mom and pop businesses in the Seattle area. Mrs. Morris agrees to talk.
Over lunch, Accabish learns a lot about the supermarket and its troubles. She makes a particular effort to learn all she can about the employees who lost their jobs: their names, stories, and contact information. Christine doesn’t have a contact number for Daniel Montgomery but she does recall him. He had been with them for six months when the store closed. Both of his parents had died while he was in his teens. He was only 18 when the store closed and he lost his first job.
As she returns to the office, Priscilla gets a call from Sgt. Spencer. A colleague from the department recalled the young man from a few years back. The youth had the misfortune of being mugged and robbed in the same week. She confirms his name was Daniel Montgomery. Spencer suggest he might be among the local homeless and offers to send his photo to the city shelters.
Several days later, Spencer gives her a few more bits of information. Daniel has been staying at an Eastlake shelter. Apparently he managed to get off the streets briefly a few months ago but falling back into homelessness. He got a job with Windermere family, the Boltons.
Accabish decides to contact the Boltons to learn more about Daniel. The father claims he was lazy, a thief and sex offender, but Accabish reads between the lines. The Boltons have a college age daughter. She decides Daniel and the girl must have been too friendly.
Accabish rolls Wits + Subterfuge + her Lies speciality to sense the truth.
She contacts the shelter and arranges to volunteer there before the cops confront him.
That evening, she doles out soup to grateful people. One of them is a dark man with scaly skin. Daniel thanks her for the food and even takes her up on a second helping. Convinced she has the right man, she puts in a call to Joseph.
And now for the rest of the Ring.
First I deal with Joseph’s Surveilled Condition. I roll 10 dice - his Cover and get a success. My total is 2 now. If I get to 7 it will trigger some escalation.
Next up is some left over material from last session: the Cipher. Given all the investigation of the God-Machine’s plans last session (including a scene where I awarded a roleplaying Beat), the Ring has an opportunity to learn more about their next Key. Everyone rolls Intelligence + Wits and succeeds. All the demons learn the attribute used by the Key Embed. Weaver gets an exceptional success and so learns the category of the Embed as well.
Meanwhile the rest of the Ring coordinates a raid on the cult’s meeting location in the sewer. The Naturalist hunts for a disposable Cover for Joseph. After several days of careful observation, he locates several people who might give up part of their lives for the right deal. But only Jillian Day fits the profile he is looking for. The elderly African American woman lost her house and savings in an insurance scam. For the past few years she’s lived on the streets.
The Naturalist makes a Wits + Empathy roll to find some prospects. In addition to Jillian Day, he also discovers Gerald Reilly (an African American man once involved with the local gangs but now trying to leave it all behind for seminary school) and Roberta Chu (an older Asian American woman whose beauty has been marred by cancer treatments).
Under the guise of Dorian, the Naturalist gives Jillian a dollar while she panhandling. She soon notices the phone number and note claiming that the person on the other end can solve her problems. She calls and arranges to meet the Naturalist under the Ship Canal Bridge. The Naturalist dons a facade and cuts a deal with her. It offers her a job and shelter for her experience on the street. It also offers a more permanent solution but sensing suspicious about the well dressed man, she declines, taking only the lesser offer. She signs away part of her life for a month and the Naturalist secures the new paper thin cover.
The demon fails his Manipulation + Persuasion + 1 for his Closing a Deal Speciality. In the interest of moving the story forward, I give him the temporary Cover. The pact involves a trade of Resources 2 (Lesser Asset +1) in exchange the relationship of homelessness (Medial Cover +2) for a month. The willpower cost is relatively unimportant given the time table. The Naturalist creates a Facade (functionally a Cover with a rating of 1 that only lasts a short time). He gives it to Joseph.
In the life of Jenny Olson, the Naturalist discovers that John, her husband, has been flirting with a barista named Jackie. Using its supernatural powers, the demon continues to record John’s activities from the nascent adultery to how he plans to teach his kids to program. For now he is none the wiser.
The Naturalist succeeds on his Manipulation + Socialize to avoid raising suspicions. He continues to use Living Recorder him each day.
The Weaver meanwhile focuses its free time on unravelling the mysteries of the various gadgets it has. The demon learns the final secrets of the rod, how it works and its creator: the mythical first demon Lilith. Turning to the strange goggles with salt orbs in the place of lenses, it finds that they were forged from a demon’s eyes. The gadget confers the power to sense things without sight though the controls will require more work to decipher.
This was a series of Wits + Investigation +Primum (-2 for the form gadget). Each roll took an hour and each success revealed a new fact.
The Weaver also notices a man watching Jeanette’s home. When Jean tries to confront him, he speeds off. She notifies the homeowner association and trust them to handle it.
The Weaver’s Wits + Stealth (or really Wits-1 roll since she lacks Stealth) failed to beat the stalker’s Wits + Composure roll. The homeowners association will however be a thorn in his side.
Joseph’s week is quiet. A few times he notices some men in dark suits shadowing him but otherwise the only thing that surprises him is Bob Jenson new friendly demeanor. The janitor seems to be covering for him and even got him off bathroom duty for the week, passing it off on the new guy. Joseph concludes that Bob wants something.
Bob is using Social Maneuvering. He opened 1 Door this session. He has 1 more Door to open at which point he’ll either apply a condition or ask Joseph to do something for him.
As the day of the mission arrives, the Weaver seeks out someone who can provide it enough material for a quick Cover. It finds a skateboarder kid and makes him a deal. In exchange for some cash, it will cover for him at school. The kid agrees and takes off for the day.
The demon rolls Wits + Empathy to determine what the kid might want and Manipulation + Subterfuge to convince him to play hooky for cash without the deal scaring him off. The pact is 1 day duration (+0), Resources 1 and Barfly 2 (+2 for student), and the student relationship (+2 for the Weaver). It pays a willpower and makes a Facade.
A street kid meets up with a homeless woman and a well dressed construction worker just after 1 PM that afternoon. Joseph in the guise of the old African American woman tells them to call him Hunter for now. She leads them to the sewer entrance the cultist couple used last week.
Luckily they find the manhole cover pulled aside in the alley. Waiting until the street traffic thins, Hunter slides into the shaft. The Naturalist follows but trips over the metal cover. As the loud jangle attracts attention, Weaver the street kid quickly follows the others down.
As I approached this part of the story, I realized I had a bit of a plot hole. Opening a sewer cover is a loud endeavour, something the adventure I am adapting points out. But the cult has to be able to sneak in themselves. So I figure there is a chance the manhole cover is already open and thus requires that they only sneak quietly down (given that it is broad daylight). I roll a die and get a 10 so not only is it open but they can easily get down.
Even so I ask for a Dexterity + Stealth roll. Since only Joseph has that skill, this goes badly. The Weaver and the Naturalist both fail and the Naturalist decides to take a Dramatic Failure and a Beat. So the cops will be on them very soon.
The trio find themselves splashing through six foot tunnels half filled with gray water. Small dark objects float past them as they try to navigate the dark labyrinth.
Something bounces against the Weaver’s leg. It shines a flashlight down. A bundled pair of pants floats past. A sock and a lost shoe drift after them. The demon reaches into its pocket and pulls out a pair of latex gloves.
Donning them, the teenager grabs the pants. No blood stains or other violence mar the intact pants. The demon plucks a wallet from the soggy clothes. In addition to a twenty, a soggy free sub coupon, and a credit card, it find the driver’s license of Glen Jacob, an Eastlake local. Noting the details, it tosses the rest back into the sludge.
The Weaver succeeds on a Wits + Composure roll. The demon also uses the In My Pocket Embed to have latex gloves on hand. Eidetic Memory means it does not need to write anything down.
Back the way they came, the demons hear voices shouting down for them to come back. They push on and the Naturalist soon finds the tunnel that matches its memory of the path the cultists took to the meeting.
The Naturalist makes a Wits + Composure roll to find where its memories (from Eidetic Memory and the Clairvoyance demonic form ability) match reality. Since they are hurrying everyone rolls Dexterity + Athletics - 2 for slipperiness. The Naturalist fails but chooses not to make it a dramatic failure.
The passage slowly shifts as they push forward through the increasingly turgid and warm water. Along the tunnel walls, the ceramic tiles grow larger until heavy sandstone blocks replace them. Mold and later moss grow up the sides which expand outward and upward as they go. The now vertical walls appear covered in graffiti which on closer examination appears to be hieroglyphs.
They reach a large stone arch inscribed with solar discs and humanoid figures in profile. The Naturalist looks up, spotting a crocodile at the apex.
Then it slips.
Before the water can wash the demon away, the elderly seeming Hunter grabs the burly man and effortlessly sets him back on his feet.
Joseph reaches out and grabs the fallen Naturalist with an Exceptional Success on his Strength + Brawl roll. I give him the Steadfast Condition.
Just beyond the arch, the space opens out more, revealing dry paths along each side of the waterway. They pull themselves up and take a look at the symbols decorating the walls. The Weaver explains they are gibberish. However mapping their path to the sewer maps that Daemon retrieved for them, it says they must be standing within an extradimensional space. They should be in solid stone right now and passed through what should have been a subbasement fifty feet back.
The Weaver succeeds on an Intelligence + Academics roll to determine relative location.
Deciding they are close enough, Hunter lets some of its demonic form through. Instantly the old woman’s eyes glow green and she begins to fade from sight.
Joseph manifests Night Sight and Mirrored Skin by spending an Aether. On its Wits + Manipulation -2 for Cover + 6 for unmanifested traits, it gets an Exceptional Success and takes a Cover Beat.
They push on and soon see a red glow from around the next turn. The Naturalist informs them that the meeting location lies in a large chamber just around the corner. The demon extends its senses to detect any Aetheric resonances. Beyond a pool of Aether in the direction of the glow, they seem to be alone.
The Naturalist uses Aetheric Resonance.
The Weaver decides to test one of the gadgets and rings the rod on the stone wall beside the teenager. Extending its senses, the demon picks out traces of Aether racing along the walls and glyphs, percolating out through the streams of water, and concentrated in three log sized objects just below the surface a few yards away. It alerts the others.
The Weaver gets a clearer picture doing the same thing as the Naturalist thanks to the rod.
Cautiously they move on, staying as far as possible from the water. The chamber they find is empty with the glow coming from a rose colored bulb in the ceiling. The size and shape of an eggplant, it contains a snake biting tall which functions as a filament. The Weaver notices a clear liquid collecting in the bottom of the glass. It removes a small screw from the base and collects the Aether that pours out. Hunter asks if there is any more. The Weaver calculates it should regenerate in a day.
Weaver taps the small piece of Infrastructure for 1 Aether.
As they look around, the sound of someone splashing through the tunnels comes from the way they came. A man’s voice calls to them, asking them to turn themselves in. Realizing the police are still following them, the Naturalist heads back to buy the others time to explore more and keep the cops out of danger.
The Naturalist manages to catch the pair of officers before they reach the full strangeness of the God-Machine’s Infrastructure. The men seem to believe the demon’s story about coming down here to find its lost friend, or at least the part about investigating alone. As they head back to the surface, the demon subtly directs them to the quickest route out.
The Naturalist rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge to guide them quickly out of the Infrastructure.
The Weaver and Hunter push deeper into the tunnels, looking for the main Infrastructure.
I have them roll Intelligence + Occult to find something interesting. They fail and Joseph takes a Dramatic Failure for a Beat.
The Angel Sabek finds them and lurks nearby in Twilight.
Instead, they suddenly find six large alligators slowly encircling them. One pulls itself onto the path in front of them and growls. The creatures approach in uncharacteristic aggressiveness. The Weaver notes a tattoo on the lead reptile’s front limb. A second one has eerie blue eyes. A third looks almost piscine with webbed limbs and a narrow body.
Sabek summons alligators.
Weaver succeeds on a Wits + Science roll to realize they are acting weird. It also correctly guesses they are made of people.
As the beasts lunge for them, Hunter fires three times. As the scaly forms collapse in pools of blood, the two demons fend off the survivors. Hunter’s gunshots eventually drive them away with help from thrown rocks by Weaver.
In the aftermath, the soaking wet street kid helps the old woman, limping from a leg wound, out of the Infrastructure and quickly to an alternate exit.
Hunter uses the Merciless Gunman Embed but fails. It uses the Steadfast Condition to get one success. With the damage bonus from its heavy revolver, that causes 3 alligators to die. It also marks a Beat.
After that we roll Down and Dirty Combat. Hunter rolls Dexterity + Firearms and Weaver rolls Dexterity + Athletics from thrown rocks. I fudged the rules since if I totalled the alligators’ numbers they would be dead. So I had the alligators use teamwork (I probably should have had the PCs do the same but it was a spur of the moment decision). The result was a tie so the conflict was inconclusive. Joseph takes a Lethal and the remaining alligators fled.
The demons succeed on a Dexterity + Athletics roll to avoid slipping and the Weaver also succeeds on an Intelligence + Composure roll to navigate them out.
They remain unaware of the Angel trailing behind them. Sabek indulges in his Vice of Indirectness.
The echoes of the gunfire reach the Naturalist just as the cops begin hauling the demon up the ladder to the surface. As one of the officers considers heading back down, the Naturalist quickly stammers that they should call for backup. They take him up and head for their squad car.
One of them sticks him in the back of the car while the other radios for backup. The demon looks at both of them and uses its supernatural powers. The first remains a mystery to it but the demon sees a certain tension in him, a desire for companionship not approved by his comrades in the department.
The Naturalist succeeds on a Manipulation + Persuasion roll to keep them together. The demon also attempts the Heart’s Desire Embed (Wits + Empathy - Composure) on one cop but fails the roll. It succeeds against the other officer (both have Composure 2) and learns he is a closeted homosexual.
The Naturalist tries to convince the officer to let him go. He was just looking for his friend, the demon tells him. He just had an argument with his boyfriend and if he gets arrested, he’ll lose his job. The cop tells his partner to stay here and takes responsibility for bringing the Naturalist in.
The officer does drive the demon to the station but instead of bringing the Naturalist in, he gives the trespasser a stern lecture and warns him he’ll face a large fine if he tries that again. The Naturalist looks contrite and thanks him.
The demon succeeds on its Manipulation + Persuasion roll and gains a +1 bonus for using the officer’s Aspiration against him.
Elsewhere, Weaver hears someone trudging through the sewage near their exit. Hunter fades into the background, its mirrored skin blending into the brown tile.
An Asian american man in waders shines a light in the demon’s direction. Weaver shields its eyes and spots an animal control badge on his shirt.
“Kenny” warns the street kid that it is dangerous down here. The man waves a long control pole as he tells the soaking wet teenager there are alligators down here. They killed a friend of his, Kenny adds. The youth lies and says he hasn’t seen any gators. He wandered down here from an spillway.
Kenny leads him out, unaware of the mirror skinned woman trailing him or the silent presence hunting both the intruders.
Hunter easily makes the Dexterity + Stealth roll (+3 for Mirrored Skin) to remain hidden.
The Naturalist calls the others and they arrange to meet in front of a bar. Looking to change covers quickly, the demon first finds homeless man who might make a deal.
Specifically one who it can use Heart’s Desire on first.
The foul smelling individual it finds is scrawling symbols into the cement with a shard of green glass. The Naturalist considers backing away. Instead the demon looks into his desires. The man seeks redemption in the eyes of his master, Terentius of the 11th circle, for losing a scepter. Cautiously from the safety of a nearby alleyway, the Naturalist manifests the copper tendrils that allow it to detect Angels. The man is merely human.
The demon succeeds on a Wits + Manipulation roll to manifest Sense the Angelic. It should have gained a Condition or glitch though. Oops.
As Dorian, he approaches the beggar. He offers him the phone number of someone who can help redeem the beggar in exchange for his current state for a short time. Cautiously the madman agrees. A new Facade in hand, he finds the others.
The Naturalist makes the Manipulation + Persuasion + 1 for the Closing a Deal speciality. The pact is very one sided, just the contact information for another deal: Day Duration (0), cover Pact (+1). Normally this would cost 2 Willpower but since the Naturalist has the Efficient Dealer Merit, it costs 1.
The Ring regroups and discuss the recent events in front of the bar. The crowds give the two homeless people and the teenage hooligan, most of whom reek of raw sewage, a wide berth. Then Joseph gets a call from Accabish. She explains that she has eyes on the cult leader and directs them to the homeless shelter.
They hurry over as quickly as they can.
My notes indicate I awarded a Roleplaying Beat here for the various jokes made around this point.
The two demons with homeless facades enter a half hour’s walk later. Hunter’s old woman is immediately pointed to the showers. Still dripping with sewage she reluctantly heads in. The Naturalist meanwhile meanders towards Daniel and sits down in front of him. Rocking back and forth in a fetal position, he delivers a rambling message from Sobek and how Daniel must go to the women’s showers.
Sadly for Daniel, this is exactly the sort of sign he looks for from his god...
As the cult leader sneaks into the showers, the Naturalist creates distraction by screaming about fleas.
Which apparently happened to the player at work. Libraries are crazy.
Oh and the Angel continues to trail Joseph...
Daniel finds Hunter waiting for him. The freshly washed woman smiles at him. As he tries to excuse himself, she greets him and explains she has something to say. Displaying her inhuman strength, she mocks his god and tells Daniel to flee the city. Terrified by her display of power and the growing inhumanity of the old dark woman before him, Daniel flees. The demonic voice of Hunter chases him out of the shelter as well as causing everyone else to hurry from the building.
Hunter manifests Inhuman Strength and then later Glory and Terror. Both times it makes the Wits + Manipulation roll (-2 for Cover 1 +6 and 5 for unmanifested traits and -3 for the Angel right there). I forget to throw on some Conditions however.
The first Presence + Intimidation roll succeeds in breaking the cult leader’s faith (despite a -4 penalty) but a second roll (with no penalty due to Glory and Terror) gets him to flee for good. At least as long he has free will.
As the crowd spills out into the street, Accabish and the Naturalist notice a large Nordic man fall to his knees. Accabish manifests her angelic senses and spots the angel Sabek actively enrapturing the man, who clutches a large wooden cross. Realizing the threat, she causes the man to lose track of time. By the time the Angel realizes its new minion is befuddled the Ring has dispersed and doffed their facades.
Accabish and the Naturalist succeed on Wits + Composure roll to notice the large man. The Angel intended to send him after Hunter’s facade (since it is still not sure it’s a demon) but a timely use of Ellipses (Manipulation + Expression) gave everyone enough time to escape.
Technically I should have had Accabish roll for compromise but in the interest of time, I skipped it. I’ll have to decide at the end of the story if this counts for the purpose of Cover (where is makes a difference in the amount of Cover Experience she earns). But hopefully there will be another clear Compromise and it won’t matter.
In the aftermath, the demons make new plans. The cult has begun to destabilize but there is still the tunnels and Sabek’s mission to disrupt. The Naturalist decides to scout the house of the Stanley Company’s founder and learn what it can about them. The Weaver begins building a bomb to take out the Infrastructure under Eastlake or at least its core. Joseph will snoop around the new Anthropology building the Stanley Company constructed.
Privately the Naturalist visits the woman John has been seeing. As Dorian, it asks Jackie for a job application at the coffee shop while flirting with her and tagging her as a Living Recorder. The espionage on the nascent affair expands.
Experience! The demons earn 1 base Beat + 2 roleplaying Beats. Accabish and Joseph earn an additional Beat for fulfilling an Aspiration. Joseph receives 1 Beat from an exceptional success on a Cover roll and 1 more from resolving a Condition. Dramatic Failures earned an extra Beat for Joseph and the Naturalist. Everyone also receives 1 Cover Beat.
As Priscilla, she arranges to meet the former owner’s widow, Christine Morris, for lunch. She explains she is doing an article on the fate of local mom and pop businesses in the Seattle area. Mrs. Morris agrees to talk.
Over lunch, Accabish learns a lot about the supermarket and its troubles. She makes a particular effort to learn all she can about the employees who lost their jobs: their names, stories, and contact information. Christine doesn’t have a contact number for Daniel Montgomery but she does recall him. He had been with them for six months when the store closed. Both of his parents had died while he was in his teens. He was only 18 when the store closed and he lost his first job.
As she returns to the office, Priscilla gets a call from Sgt. Spencer. A colleague from the department recalled the young man from a few years back. The youth had the misfortune of being mugged and robbed in the same week. She confirms his name was Daniel Montgomery. Spencer suggest he might be among the local homeless and offers to send his photo to the city shelters.
Several days later, Spencer gives her a few more bits of information. Daniel has been staying at an Eastlake shelter. Apparently he managed to get off the streets briefly a few months ago but falling back into homelessness. He got a job with Windermere family, the Boltons.
Accabish decides to contact the Boltons to learn more about Daniel. The father claims he was lazy, a thief and sex offender, but Accabish reads between the lines. The Boltons have a college age daughter. She decides Daniel and the girl must have been too friendly.
Accabish rolls Wits + Subterfuge + her Lies speciality to sense the truth.
She contacts the shelter and arranges to volunteer there before the cops confront him.
That evening, she doles out soup to grateful people. One of them is a dark man with scaly skin. Daniel thanks her for the food and even takes her up on a second helping. Convinced she has the right man, she puts in a call to Joseph.
And now for the rest of the Ring.
First I deal with Joseph’s Surveilled Condition. I roll 10 dice - his Cover and get a success. My total is 2 now. If I get to 7 it will trigger some escalation.
Next up is some left over material from last session: the Cipher. Given all the investigation of the God-Machine’s plans last session (including a scene where I awarded a roleplaying Beat), the Ring has an opportunity to learn more about their next Key. Everyone rolls Intelligence + Wits and succeeds. All the demons learn the attribute used by the Key Embed. Weaver gets an exceptional success and so learns the category of the Embed as well.
Meanwhile the rest of the Ring coordinates a raid on the cult’s meeting location in the sewer. The Naturalist hunts for a disposable Cover for Joseph. After several days of careful observation, he locates several people who might give up part of their lives for the right deal. But only Jillian Day fits the profile he is looking for. The elderly African American woman lost her house and savings in an insurance scam. For the past few years she’s lived on the streets.
The Naturalist makes a Wits + Empathy roll to find some prospects. In addition to Jillian Day, he also discovers Gerald Reilly (an African American man once involved with the local gangs but now trying to leave it all behind for seminary school) and Roberta Chu (an older Asian American woman whose beauty has been marred by cancer treatments).
Under the guise of Dorian, the Naturalist gives Jillian a dollar while she panhandling. She soon notices the phone number and note claiming that the person on the other end can solve her problems. She calls and arranges to meet the Naturalist under the Ship Canal Bridge. The Naturalist dons a facade and cuts a deal with her. It offers her a job and shelter for her experience on the street. It also offers a more permanent solution but sensing suspicious about the well dressed man, she declines, taking only the lesser offer. She signs away part of her life for a month and the Naturalist secures the new paper thin cover.
The demon fails his Manipulation + Persuasion + 1 for his Closing a Deal Speciality. In the interest of moving the story forward, I give him the temporary Cover. The pact involves a trade of Resources 2 (Lesser Asset +1) in exchange the relationship of homelessness (Medial Cover +2) for a month. The willpower cost is relatively unimportant given the time table. The Naturalist creates a Facade (functionally a Cover with a rating of 1 that only lasts a short time). He gives it to Joseph.
In the life of Jenny Olson, the Naturalist discovers that John, her husband, has been flirting with a barista named Jackie. Using its supernatural powers, the demon continues to record John’s activities from the nascent adultery to how he plans to teach his kids to program. For now he is none the wiser.
The Naturalist succeeds on his Manipulation + Socialize to avoid raising suspicions. He continues to use Living Recorder him each day.
The Weaver meanwhile focuses its free time on unravelling the mysteries of the various gadgets it has. The demon learns the final secrets of the rod, how it works and its creator: the mythical first demon Lilith. Turning to the strange goggles with salt orbs in the place of lenses, it finds that they were forged from a demon’s eyes. The gadget confers the power to sense things without sight though the controls will require more work to decipher.
This was a series of Wits + Investigation +Primum (-2 for the form gadget). Each roll took an hour and each success revealed a new fact.
The Weaver also notices a man watching Jeanette’s home. When Jean tries to confront him, he speeds off. She notifies the homeowner association and trust them to handle it.
The Weaver’s Wits + Stealth (or really Wits-1 roll since she lacks Stealth) failed to beat the stalker’s Wits + Composure roll. The homeowners association will however be a thorn in his side.
Joseph’s week is quiet. A few times he notices some men in dark suits shadowing him but otherwise the only thing that surprises him is Bob Jenson new friendly demeanor. The janitor seems to be covering for him and even got him off bathroom duty for the week, passing it off on the new guy. Joseph concludes that Bob wants something.
Bob is using Social Maneuvering. He opened 1 Door this session. He has 1 more Door to open at which point he’ll either apply a condition or ask Joseph to do something for him.
As the day of the mission arrives, the Weaver seeks out someone who can provide it enough material for a quick Cover. It finds a skateboarder kid and makes him a deal. In exchange for some cash, it will cover for him at school. The kid agrees and takes off for the day.
The demon rolls Wits + Empathy to determine what the kid might want and Manipulation + Subterfuge to convince him to play hooky for cash without the deal scaring him off. The pact is 1 day duration (+0), Resources 1 and Barfly 2 (+2 for student), and the student relationship (+2 for the Weaver). It pays a willpower and makes a Facade.
A street kid meets up with a homeless woman and a well dressed construction worker just after 1 PM that afternoon. Joseph in the guise of the old African American woman tells them to call him Hunter for now. She leads them to the sewer entrance the cultist couple used last week.
Luckily they find the manhole cover pulled aside in the alley. Waiting until the street traffic thins, Hunter slides into the shaft. The Naturalist follows but trips over the metal cover. As the loud jangle attracts attention, Weaver the street kid quickly follows the others down.
As I approached this part of the story, I realized I had a bit of a plot hole. Opening a sewer cover is a loud endeavour, something the adventure I am adapting points out. But the cult has to be able to sneak in themselves. So I figure there is a chance the manhole cover is already open and thus requires that they only sneak quietly down (given that it is broad daylight). I roll a die and get a 10 so not only is it open but they can easily get down.
Even so I ask for a Dexterity + Stealth roll. Since only Joseph has that skill, this goes badly. The Weaver and the Naturalist both fail and the Naturalist decides to take a Dramatic Failure and a Beat. So the cops will be on them very soon.
The trio find themselves splashing through six foot tunnels half filled with gray water. Small dark objects float past them as they try to navigate the dark labyrinth.
Something bounces against the Weaver’s leg. It shines a flashlight down. A bundled pair of pants floats past. A sock and a lost shoe drift after them. The demon reaches into its pocket and pulls out a pair of latex gloves.
Donning them, the teenager grabs the pants. No blood stains or other violence mar the intact pants. The demon plucks a wallet from the soggy clothes. In addition to a twenty, a soggy free sub coupon, and a credit card, it find the driver’s license of Glen Jacob, an Eastlake local. Noting the details, it tosses the rest back into the sludge.
The Weaver succeeds on a Wits + Composure roll. The demon also uses the In My Pocket Embed to have latex gloves on hand. Eidetic Memory means it does not need to write anything down.
Back the way they came, the demons hear voices shouting down for them to come back. They push on and the Naturalist soon finds the tunnel that matches its memory of the path the cultists took to the meeting.
The Naturalist makes a Wits + Composure roll to find where its memories (from Eidetic Memory and the Clairvoyance demonic form ability) match reality. Since they are hurrying everyone rolls Dexterity + Athletics - 2 for slipperiness. The Naturalist fails but chooses not to make it a dramatic failure.
The passage slowly shifts as they push forward through the increasingly turgid and warm water. Along the tunnel walls, the ceramic tiles grow larger until heavy sandstone blocks replace them. Mold and later moss grow up the sides which expand outward and upward as they go. The now vertical walls appear covered in graffiti which on closer examination appears to be hieroglyphs.
They reach a large stone arch inscribed with solar discs and humanoid figures in profile. The Naturalist looks up, spotting a crocodile at the apex.
Then it slips.
Before the water can wash the demon away, the elderly seeming Hunter grabs the burly man and effortlessly sets him back on his feet.
Joseph reaches out and grabs the fallen Naturalist with an Exceptional Success on his Strength + Brawl roll. I give him the Steadfast Condition.
Just beyond the arch, the space opens out more, revealing dry paths along each side of the waterway. They pull themselves up and take a look at the symbols decorating the walls. The Weaver explains they are gibberish. However mapping their path to the sewer maps that Daemon retrieved for them, it says they must be standing within an extradimensional space. They should be in solid stone right now and passed through what should have been a subbasement fifty feet back.
The Weaver succeeds on an Intelligence + Academics roll to determine relative location.
Deciding they are close enough, Hunter lets some of its demonic form through. Instantly the old woman’s eyes glow green and she begins to fade from sight.
Joseph manifests Night Sight and Mirrored Skin by spending an Aether. On its Wits + Manipulation -2 for Cover + 6 for unmanifested traits, it gets an Exceptional Success and takes a Cover Beat.
They push on and soon see a red glow from around the next turn. The Naturalist informs them that the meeting location lies in a large chamber just around the corner. The demon extends its senses to detect any Aetheric resonances. Beyond a pool of Aether in the direction of the glow, they seem to be alone.
The Naturalist uses Aetheric Resonance.
The Weaver decides to test one of the gadgets and rings the rod on the stone wall beside the teenager. Extending its senses, the demon picks out traces of Aether racing along the walls and glyphs, percolating out through the streams of water, and concentrated in three log sized objects just below the surface a few yards away. It alerts the others.
The Weaver gets a clearer picture doing the same thing as the Naturalist thanks to the rod.
Cautiously they move on, staying as far as possible from the water. The chamber they find is empty with the glow coming from a rose colored bulb in the ceiling. The size and shape of an eggplant, it contains a snake biting tall which functions as a filament. The Weaver notices a clear liquid collecting in the bottom of the glass. It removes a small screw from the base and collects the Aether that pours out. Hunter asks if there is any more. The Weaver calculates it should regenerate in a day.
Weaver taps the small piece of Infrastructure for 1 Aether.
As they look around, the sound of someone splashing through the tunnels comes from the way they came. A man’s voice calls to them, asking them to turn themselves in. Realizing the police are still following them, the Naturalist heads back to buy the others time to explore more and keep the cops out of danger.
The Naturalist manages to catch the pair of officers before they reach the full strangeness of the God-Machine’s Infrastructure. The men seem to believe the demon’s story about coming down here to find its lost friend, or at least the part about investigating alone. As they head back to the surface, the demon subtly directs them to the quickest route out.
The Naturalist rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge to guide them quickly out of the Infrastructure.
The Weaver and Hunter push deeper into the tunnels, looking for the main Infrastructure.
I have them roll Intelligence + Occult to find something interesting. They fail and Joseph takes a Dramatic Failure for a Beat.
The Angel Sabek finds them and lurks nearby in Twilight.
Sabek summons alligators.
Weaver succeeds on a Wits + Science roll to realize they are acting weird. It also correctly guesses they are made of people.
As the beasts lunge for them, Hunter fires three times. As the scaly forms collapse in pools of blood, the two demons fend off the survivors. Hunter’s gunshots eventually drive them away with help from thrown rocks by Weaver.
In the aftermath, the soaking wet street kid helps the old woman, limping from a leg wound, out of the Infrastructure and quickly to an alternate exit.
Hunter uses the Merciless Gunman Embed but fails. It uses the Steadfast Condition to get one success. With the damage bonus from its heavy revolver, that causes 3 alligators to die. It also marks a Beat.
After that we roll Down and Dirty Combat. Hunter rolls Dexterity + Firearms and Weaver rolls Dexterity + Athletics from thrown rocks. I fudged the rules since if I totalled the alligators’ numbers they would be dead. So I had the alligators use teamwork (I probably should have had the PCs do the same but it was a spur of the moment decision). The result was a tie so the conflict was inconclusive. Joseph takes a Lethal and the remaining alligators fled.
The demons succeed on a Dexterity + Athletics roll to avoid slipping and the Weaver also succeeds on an Intelligence + Composure roll to navigate them out.
They remain unaware of the Angel trailing behind them. Sabek indulges in his Vice of Indirectness.
The echoes of the gunfire reach the Naturalist just as the cops begin hauling the demon up the ladder to the surface. As one of the officers considers heading back down, the Naturalist quickly stammers that they should call for backup. They take him up and head for their squad car.
One of them sticks him in the back of the car while the other radios for backup. The demon looks at both of them and uses its supernatural powers. The first remains a mystery to it but the demon sees a certain tension in him, a desire for companionship not approved by his comrades in the department.
The Naturalist succeeds on a Manipulation + Persuasion roll to keep them together. The demon also attempts the Heart’s Desire Embed (Wits + Empathy - Composure) on one cop but fails the roll. It succeeds against the other officer (both have Composure 2) and learns he is a closeted homosexual.
The Naturalist tries to convince the officer to let him go. He was just looking for his friend, the demon tells him. He just had an argument with his boyfriend and if he gets arrested, he’ll lose his job. The cop tells his partner to stay here and takes responsibility for bringing the Naturalist in.
The officer does drive the demon to the station but instead of bringing the Naturalist in, he gives the trespasser a stern lecture and warns him he’ll face a large fine if he tries that again. The Naturalist looks contrite and thanks him.
The demon succeeds on its Manipulation + Persuasion roll and gains a +1 bonus for using the officer’s Aspiration against him.
Elsewhere, Weaver hears someone trudging through the sewage near their exit. Hunter fades into the background, its mirrored skin blending into the brown tile.
An Asian american man in waders shines a light in the demon’s direction. Weaver shields its eyes and spots an animal control badge on his shirt.
“Kenny” warns the street kid that it is dangerous down here. The man waves a long control pole as he tells the soaking wet teenager there are alligators down here. They killed a friend of his, Kenny adds. The youth lies and says he hasn’t seen any gators. He wandered down here from an spillway.
Kenny leads him out, unaware of the mirror skinned woman trailing him or the silent presence hunting both the intruders.
Hunter easily makes the Dexterity + Stealth roll (+3 for Mirrored Skin) to remain hidden.
The Naturalist calls the others and they arrange to meet in front of a bar. Looking to change covers quickly, the demon first finds homeless man who might make a deal.
Specifically one who it can use Heart’s Desire on first.
The foul smelling individual it finds is scrawling symbols into the cement with a shard of green glass. The Naturalist considers backing away. Instead the demon looks into his desires. The man seeks redemption in the eyes of his master, Terentius of the 11th circle, for losing a scepter. Cautiously from the safety of a nearby alleyway, the Naturalist manifests the copper tendrils that allow it to detect Angels. The man is merely human.
The demon succeeds on a Wits + Manipulation roll to manifest Sense the Angelic. It should have gained a Condition or glitch though. Oops.
As Dorian, he approaches the beggar. He offers him the phone number of someone who can help redeem the beggar in exchange for his current state for a short time. Cautiously the madman agrees. A new Facade in hand, he finds the others.
The Naturalist makes the Manipulation + Persuasion + 1 for the Closing a Deal speciality. The pact is very one sided, just the contact information for another deal: Day Duration (0), cover Pact (+1). Normally this would cost 2 Willpower but since the Naturalist has the Efficient Dealer Merit, it costs 1.
The Ring regroups and discuss the recent events in front of the bar. The crowds give the two homeless people and the teenage hooligan, most of whom reek of raw sewage, a wide berth. Then Joseph gets a call from Accabish. She explains that she has eyes on the cult leader and directs them to the homeless shelter.
They hurry over as quickly as they can.
My notes indicate I awarded a Roleplaying Beat here for the various jokes made around this point.
The two demons with homeless facades enter a half hour’s walk later. Hunter’s old woman is immediately pointed to the showers. Still dripping with sewage she reluctantly heads in. The Naturalist meanwhile meanders towards Daniel and sits down in front of him. Rocking back and forth in a fetal position, he delivers a rambling message from Sobek and how Daniel must go to the women’s showers.
Sadly for Daniel, this is exactly the sort of sign he looks for from his god...
As the cult leader sneaks into the showers, the Naturalist creates distraction by screaming about fleas.
Which apparently happened to the player at work. Libraries are crazy.
Oh and the Angel continues to trail Joseph...
Daniel finds Hunter waiting for him. The freshly washed woman smiles at him. As he tries to excuse himself, she greets him and explains she has something to say. Displaying her inhuman strength, she mocks his god and tells Daniel to flee the city. Terrified by her display of power and the growing inhumanity of the old dark woman before him, Daniel flees. The demonic voice of Hunter chases him out of the shelter as well as causing everyone else to hurry from the building.
Hunter manifests Inhuman Strength and then later Glory and Terror. Both times it makes the Wits + Manipulation roll (-2 for Cover 1 +6 and 5 for unmanifested traits and -3 for the Angel right there). I forget to throw on some Conditions however.
The first Presence + Intimidation roll succeeds in breaking the cult leader’s faith (despite a -4 penalty) but a second roll (with no penalty due to Glory and Terror) gets him to flee for good. At least as long he has free will.
As the crowd spills out into the street, Accabish and the Naturalist notice a large Nordic man fall to his knees. Accabish manifests her angelic senses and spots the angel Sabek actively enrapturing the man, who clutches a large wooden cross. Realizing the threat, she causes the man to lose track of time. By the time the Angel realizes its new minion is befuddled the Ring has dispersed and doffed their facades.
Accabish and the Naturalist succeed on Wits + Composure roll to notice the large man. The Angel intended to send him after Hunter’s facade (since it is still not sure it’s a demon) but a timely use of Ellipses (Manipulation + Expression) gave everyone enough time to escape.
Technically I should have had Accabish roll for compromise but in the interest of time, I skipped it. I’ll have to decide at the end of the story if this counts for the purpose of Cover (where is makes a difference in the amount of Cover Experience she earns). But hopefully there will be another clear Compromise and it won’t matter.
In the aftermath, the demons make new plans. The cult has begun to destabilize but there is still the tunnels and Sabek’s mission to disrupt. The Naturalist decides to scout the house of the Stanley Company’s founder and learn what it can about them. The Weaver begins building a bomb to take out the Infrastructure under Eastlake or at least its core. Joseph will snoop around the new Anthropology building the Stanley Company constructed.
Privately the Naturalist visits the woman John has been seeing. As Dorian, it asks Jackie for a job application at the coffee shop while flirting with her and tagging her as a Living Recorder. The espionage on the nascent affair expands.
Experience! The demons earn 1 base Beat + 2 roleplaying Beats. Accabish and Joseph earn an additional Beat for fulfilling an Aspiration. Joseph receives 1 Beat from an exceptional success on a Cover roll and 1 more from resolving a Condition. Dramatic Failures earned an extra Beat for Joseph and the Naturalist. Everyone also receives 1 Cover Beat.
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