2017 New Year's Resolutions

A new year is upon us. Hopefully 2017 will be better than 2016 for the world at large (and more productive for myself). But for now I’m going to look at my 2017 resolutions and how well I did on last year’s resolutions.

2016 Resolution Review

Wow, I did badly on last year’s resolutions, at least as examined for the year as a whole. Let’s see if I can tease some lessons from this.

• Diet: I backslid a lot here. While I’m not quite back to the bad old days as far as weight, I am way heavier than I want to be. This year was stressful for me (due to troubles at work, stressing about the house and 2016 in general) and I let myself eat more than I should. I’ll have to work harder on this next year because things are not getting easier (though my hopes are higher for 2018).
• Write Every Day: I achieved mixed results here. I had some bad weeks and good months. I was fairly steady for the first third of the year, slowly scaling up my goals from 100 words a day to 400. Then I think pushed my goals too high and the whole project became too daunting to me. At the same time while it was working, it didn’t help me (much) work on projects outside of the blog.
• Tumblr Posts: I kept at this for a couple of months but splitting my attention on social media just didn’t work for me. I need to look at automating this somehow.
• New Gaming Group: The big success of this year. I have two new local players and we are well into our second campaign.

New (or Renewed) 2017 Resolutions

• Diet & Exercise: Failure is not a reason to give up on a goal. I follow a lot of what John Green does and he and friend are doing a new Youtube channel focusing on the both of them working to improve their health. I plan to follow along as best I can and see if I can’t slim back down to a healthy weight.
• Write Every Day: Again, failure is not the end. But no more word goals this time (well okay maybe 250 words a day but I’m not forcing myself to go higher). Also I want to write some personal (non-gaming) fiction/non-fiction each week.
• Watch More Movies: Not in the theater unfortunately, that’s hard to do with two small children. But after they go to sleep, I want to catch up on all the great films coming out around the world. And watch fewer CW shows.

Final Note

I’m reducing my blog schedule to once a week (Wednesdays) for the foreseeable future. My daughter is arriving a few weeks and I expect that to absorb all my time for a month or more. Perhaps once my kids become more independent, I’ll be able to devote more energy to this project. Combined with the goals above however I hope I’ll have some larger writing projects to show off in the future.

Heartland Orphans: The Inverted Lord

While all of the Strix in my Vampire; the Requiem chronicle had an agenda, there was only one who could move them to act as one. The Inverted Lord sought to become the apex monster of the region by slaying the head of the Invictus. Luckily he was thwarted.

But not destroyed.

The Inverted Lord

Within his lair, the Inverted Lord chooses to appear as a tall dark figure composed of shadow. His voice is resonant and deep as he commands or compels those around him. Outside of this nightmare realm, he is a shadowy bird but is no less domineering.

Called the Inverted Lord due to his resemblance to the Ventrue clan, he possesses a weakness with animals who are repelled and angered by his presence. Also frustratingly he can be exorcised from a body using an abjuration.

This Strix seeks the destruction of the most powerful supernatural creature in any region it lives in, usually a vampire. To this end it rallies its siblings, both to deal with any minions of its target and for their particular skills. Unusually it often gets its own way.

In play it offered a blank check to Ethan Redhawke if he would create vampiric vessels for him. Not a trusting soul, he made plans to get his vessels another way: by defeating his target’s grandchild and possessing his torpored form. Unfortunately through information from treacherous siblings and cunning plans by the local coterie, he was defeated.

However he did escape with a new body, one which may have suffered a successful Embrace.

Vice: Dominance
Aspirations:

• Possess a vampire and create revenants for its siblings
• Murder the Alpha and assume its place

Shadow Potency: 5
Attributes: Power 6, Finesse 3, Resistance 6
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Expression 2, Intimidation 3, Persuasion 1, Occult 1, Stealth 1

Corpus: 9
Willpower: 9
Size: 2
Speed: 12
Defense: 6 (5 in host)

Initiative: 9

Embodiments: Shadow Form, Possess Corpse, Possess Revenant, Possess Vampire, Possess Living
Dread Powers: Command the Lost, Indomitable, Kindred Disciplines 1 (Dominate 4, Resilience 1), Labyrinth, Screech
Vitae: 15, 5/turn
Banes: fire, sunlight, hated by beast, vulnerable to abjuration

The Inverted Lord’s lair is a fortress carved inside a glacier. Razor sharp blades of ice cover all surfaces, include the frozen forms of defeated souls. A dim red light emanates from the frozen blood overhead.

When one or more its traits are present (or one of his siblings), he can impose the others: Dim light, Sealed Exits, Razored, Extreme Cold.

The Unusual Suspect: The Weak Link

Session 5 and we have completed the first story! The demons have dismantled cults, dared the sewers and resolved old business. Now they know Sabek’s weakness. They just need to learn where the sarcophagus of his first victim lies and they can cripple him. The leader of the Sophia Society may be the weak link they need. But other threats loom. Someone alerted Sabek to Joseph’s Cover. Someone else hacked Accabish’s secret server. Side business threatens to derail things. And the name Lilith continues to surface around them.

All in all this was a good session, a welcome change from the previous time. Some bits worked better than others but all in all I think the story as a whole functioned great.

Our cast:

• Accabish (a.k.a. Priscilla Webb): Saboteur, Inquisitor, and editor of the Slog news blog. Someone hacked her secret server.
• Daemon (a.k.a. Nick Mathers, Daemon (on the web and to its followers)): cult leader, Tempter, and hacker extraordinaire. A janitor named Bob has been investigating him.
• The Hunter (a.k.a. Joseph Mutsinzi): Saboteur, janitor, former child soldier, and all around blunt instrument. Bob Jenson is a thorn in his side as well. He is trying to destroy a God-Machine influenced gang in exchange for a Gadget. Someone tipped an Angel to his mortal Cover.
• The Naturalist (a.k.a. Dorian, Jenny Olson, ‘Nat’): a master of covers, this Tempter discovered its husband, John Olson, was not entirely faithful. It is using this free itself of obligations. It has made a deal with Hunter for a Gadget in exchange for a soul pact.
• The Weaver (a.k.a. Jeanette Teller): Inquisitor and chemist, it has acquired several mysterious gadgets recently. It continues to worry about the fall out from its last Angelic mission.

Alligators in the Sewers, Part V: The Weak Link

We start with some downtime material for the Naturalist.

I award the demon a Beat for progress toward gaining an unimpeded cover.

Nat considers its plan as it approaches the coffee shop. Through Dorian, the demon had learned of Jackie’s good intentions. Of course there was also the troubling fact that she wasn’t human.

Daemon looked through Jackie’s paper thin background: minimal identification, some of it faked, an accident report from 6 months ago, and a few odd credentials like a doctorate in chemistry. It sounded like another demon. But the rod revealed fewer connection to the Naturalist’s old employer than most of the mortals on the street.

I just gave the Naturalist her background since Daemon can easily find that stuff. The Rod they found in the first session allows them to find connections to the God-Machine or its servants (or “former” servants).

Nat glances into the shop’s window, admiring the blond hair and rugged good looks of its current facade. They seemed to work for Jackie as well. That and his charm let the demon get close to her. Hopefully close enough to make John jealous.

Nat enters and orders his drink. As he flirts with Jackie, he tries not to glance at John seated a table away.

The widening of the barista's eyes behind her wide rimmed glasses alerts him however. Nat spins around before John can clear his throat.

He quickly makes some innocuous comment to Jenny’s husband before drawing him aside. Out of earshot, he quietly notes a married man shouldn’t be romantically involved with the staff.

John rubs his ring and looks down.

Nat softens his expression. He apologizes for being so direct. Quietly he adds, "Man if you are ready to cheat then you are ready to leave. If the relationship is that bad then you owe it to yourself to end it. Things don't get better just because someone tries a little bit. It just drags it out. You are better off ending it and moving on. Let her move on. Then be that guy."

We boil this whole interaction down to two rolls. First the demon creates a plan to force John into a corner to break it off with Jenny. For the cover work and spying I granted an initial +2 equipment bonus. Then Nat rolls Wits + Composure (with a +2 equipment bonus) -2 for the equipment bonus of the plan. That succeeds.

Then we apply Forcing the Doors on John while using the Facade. The demon rolls Manipulation + Persuasion - 2 (Doors) + 2 for the plan bonus. Again it succeeds.

John sits down and fiddles with his glasses for a moment before nodding absently. Nat moves on, grabs his drink and slides a card to Jackie. “In case you are looking for better work."

The next day John confronts Jenny about her drinking problem and explains that he is leaving her. As he walks away, Jenny cries and sobs. Behind its cover the demon is surprised to feel real sadness and loss.

A few days later, there is a knock at the door. Jenny answers and finds Jackie waiting for her. The barista explains she wanted to check in on her.

As the pair talk, Jenny admits, "I am not the same person he married. I changed after the kids were born. I struggled with thoughts of suicide and I started drinking. I love them and him, but I am not sure if I am in love with him. Even though it hurts, this is for the best."

In the following weeks, the Naturalist allows John to take the kids. It stipulates that Jenny gets them for a minimum number of days per year. She refuses to set any specific days but agrees to schedule them in advance first.

"First... I might go away for a while, to a private clinic,” she explains. “Second, I plan on getting a sales job where the hours won't be set. This way I can do some daytime events with them, and maybe pick them up from school in case they are sick or something."

During this process, the demon finds time to pull her young son aside. "Our life is going to change a bit,” it explains, “but that is ok. I don't love you or your sister any less. Everything I am doing, I am doing for you. Take care of your sister."

Next up for in between material is Accabish. My wife is fairly pregnant right now and very busy with work. I think that might be contributing to the low energy in these sessions. We’ll see next time when I throw a fight at her.

Meanwhile Accabish looks over the week’s gossip stories and leads at the Slog. Kenny Nguyen seems to be missing. He never got back to her reporter.

She ignores it and focuses on a juicy item from the gossip hotline. Donna Angstrom was seen stealing a fish from a local koi pond. She quickly verifies the source and lets her staff run with it.

On the drive home, she listens to the tapes of Shaun Wykes’s sessions. In his dreams, others have joined him in the waters. He describes one, a man who resembles Daniel Montgomery. He dived deep into the river where the ticking continues to grow louder. Curious the demon heads to the bus depot.

A bit of persuasion allows her access to the security tapes and reveals that the cult leader returned to Seattle the day before. He looks worse than ever, with a waddling gait and thick scaly skin. He took a bus headed for Eastlake before disappearing.

Accabish rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to convince them to let her look at the tapes.

The next day the demon heads downtown to visit the Eye. Passing inside the glass and steel structure, she notes the numerous security cameras. At the front desk, she asks to meet the head of security.

She is led to a small clean room. Electronic eyes watch every corner of the space. In the center, a handsome woman sits behind a steel desk. Priscilla Webb introduces herself and explains she wants to talk to her about a cybersecurity issue. “Jane Eyre” feigns ignorance until the demon pulls out the device Rhodes had been handling.

The Eye leads Priscilla to the relatively unsecured roof. The demon explains that it is being blackmailed. An infected thumb drive was used to hack the building’s computers. Since the Eye spends much of its time possessing the structure that code also affected its systems. Now the hacker is forcing it to work for him or else he will shut it down.

The demon explains the hacker communicates via letters and packages. It was able to trace the material to a nonexistent printing firm called Kobyashi Publishing. The address is fake, just a door bolted onto a wall. It knows of real a P.O. Box however and gives it to her as well as the details on other devices it has helped spread over Seattle in the past few months.

Later in the week, Accabish stakes out the P.O. Box, watching an older white man pick up the mail. She sends his license plate number to her investigators and then follows him to a storage depot. While he goes inside, she learns his name is Liles Barber, an unemployed paralegal. She receives information on Kobyashi Publishing from her team. The firm is a shell company with ownership ultimately being in Liles’s name.

After a few hours Liles leaves. The demon talks to the retail office and get a spot next to his.

Later that week, she rents some tools and cuts through the wall in the night.

Inside she finds stacks of packing material, a printer and typewriter, and a burn basket. Within the charred papers she discovers fragments of missives from Barber’s employer as well as to do lists where he refers to them as “The Concern”. The Concern’s correspondence consists of orders to send packages, write letters, and otherwise handle their communications.

I feel like I should have given more information here but I wasn’t ready to give up my master manipulator just yet.

Time for the main session.

Daemon was late which worked out well as we resolved lingering problems from last session first.

But first I did some administrative work. I forgot to give out Cover experience last session. Everyone earns a Cover Beat. Also I realized that PCs are supposed to roll Cover to gain that Beat. But I’d rather reduce the number of rolls in general so I’ll ignore that rule. I also rolled for Joseph’s Surveilled Condition and got no successes.

We then updated Aspirations. The Naturalist is looking to “Flip Madison Woodard” while the Weaver wants to “Distribute her cure”.

Early in the week, the Ring meets to discuss their current work. Joseph still needs to eliminate the Prismatics for his contract while the Weaver hopes to forestall the cancer caused by the dye in their T-shirts. The Naturalist for its part wants the weapon Joseph has been promised in payment. So the demon decides to wrap this operation up itself.

That evening, in the guise of an elderly Hispanic woman, the Naturalist approaches a member of the gang. The woman rubs her cross as she remarks that his shirt looks like ones from ”that recall.”

“What recall?” he asks.

“The one for all those cancer cases,” she explains.

The Naturalist rolls Presence + Streetwise to befriend a gang member as a church grandma.

The man hurriedly doffs his shirt. “Shit! I’ll have to tell Seth. We need some new colors.”

The Naturalist refers him to a local print shop that will make them some Tees cheap. She also learns that the sister of their last leader bought the shirts from some guy called Jerry.

The demon rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to convince the gang of the threat.

A few days later (and many shirts dumped in the trash), an Amazon box is dropped off at an empty apartment in Joseph’s building. He grabs the small but hefty package and opens it in the safety of his living room.

Inside he finds a weapon that looks like a marriage between a hedge trimmer and an arc welder. According to the crumpled instructions, the device emits a blast of blue energy that eats through organic and inorganic material with equal ferocity.

The Gadget deals Aggravated damage (no weapon bonus) to targets within 30 yards (range 10/20/30). It has a -5 Initiative penalty but also is Armor Piercing 2.

Joseph earns a Beat for the Aspiration “acquire a gadget.”

That night he heads for Dorian’s bar, evading the men in dark cars and that pesky sorority girl with the blond hair.

Once inside he quietly nudges the package to Dorian without anyone being the wiser.

He rolls Composure + Stealth + 3 due to noise to deliver the weapon unnoticed.

Later that night, the Naturalist advises the Weaver to use a disguise as a government official to distribute its cure. With some effort the demon’s plan works, further limiting the potential damage of the T-shirts.

We wrap this up with a Manipulation + Persuasion + 3 for spent willpower. The Weaver also earns a Beat for its Aspiration.

I stall for Daemon’s arrival by getting a few answers to background questions from the Weaver. We establish the Gadgets are kept in its Bolthole when not in use and that its Suborned Infrastructure is an old clock tower.

Midweek, the ring meets to plan their next step. The Naturalist suggests they convince Madison that Sabek is giving the cult a raw deal. Then they can offer her a better deal: more occult knowledge with less sacrifice.

As they wait for Daemon, the Naturalist and Joseph argue about whether they can trust trading the cult off to someone else should Madison make a pact with them.

“I do this regularly,” Nat says. It goes on to explain that it doesn’t want a cult for itself, feeling it is too much work.

The Weaver meanwhile makes a logic leap. The agent turning people into alligators is most likely waterborne. The demon makes plans to obtain a sample from sewer.

The Weaver uses Prepared for Anything to get a clue. I personally love the Agenda Conditions for this reason.

Daemon arrives and hears the plan. He is fine absorbing the cult. The two Tempters fall into shop talk as Joseph slips off. Nat asks if it is wrong to promise intangibles (like video game benefits) in exchange for real sacrifices by the mortal. Daemon points out that MMOs are as real as anywhere else, darkly pondering the potential to exile people to the Tenemos realm of WoW.

The Naturalist suggests a message to Madison and Daemon relays it to her phone.

“I can offer more with less sacrifice,” it ends.

Then they wait.

I forgo any roll here. Madison’s disillusionment began after the cult made human sacrifices to bring Sabek to this world. This is literally the perfect pitch to her.

The next night, the Weaver convinces a local drunk to lend it some of his life. Donning some overalls and its new facade, the demon ventures out into the rain.

We skip the facade scene. Cover 1 with no benefits is enough of a risk.

As the Weaver reaches a manhole cover, he spots a suspicious webcam nearby. The demon heads for different sewer entrance but finds it observed by another cheap camera.

The Weaver rolls Wits + Composure to spot the surveillance.

Not willing to wait another night, the demon retreats to a safe distance and hacks the camera, causing it send an endless loop to whoever is watching.

An Intelligence + Computers with a -1 penalty hacks the simple device.

The Weaver enters the alleyway and pulling a crowbar from its bag, wrenches the manhole cover open with an awful clang. An old woman passing by stops and glares at him. She mutters something and peers closer at the rough-looking man’s ill fitting suit. She starts to call 911.

The demon fails a Strength + Stamina roll and takes a Dramatic Failure for a Beat.

At the same time, the Weaver feels Jean’s Cover shudder as someone somewhere uncovers evidence she isn’t human.

This was the result of an NPC investigation and seemed rather appropriate to drop in here. The demon rolls for Compromise: Wits +Manipulation +1 from its main cover. The Weaver succeeds and gains the Spooked Condition.

“I slipped,” the Weaver says, fishing an official badge from his pocket.

The shiny new identification mollifies the woman who tells him to be quieter next time before walking off.

The demon uses In My Pocket to snag a City Maintenance worker badge and Right Tools Right Job to increase the bonus to its Disguise roll, getting 2 success on the Wits + Crafts roll.

Then the Weaver rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge +3 (for equipment) and succeeds.

The Weaver quickly descends into the sewers and gets its water sample. Once back at the lab, Jean checks her email and phone but no signs of what risked her cover are apparent. Focusing on the sample, the demon quickly determines that it was right. With knowledge of the chemical and supernatural composition, it devises a counter agent should it be necessary.

An Intelligence + Science + Chemistry Speciality with a -4 penalty gives the demon a cure and a few initial doses. These will halt or reverse the early stages of the transformation.

The next day Madison agrees to meet the ring.

Daemon uses the rod to check that the park they’ve chosen is clear of angelic interference. As he watches from the edge of the greenery, the dark-haired woman heads for the bench at the center. Her aura is a thick purple but clear. He senses a mind free of magical manipulation but also containing a furtive greediness.

Daemon uses his Aura Sight and gets 2 successes on his Wits + Investigation roll. He learns her vice is Theft.

A few minutes later a bland looking coed sits down beside her. Nat turns to Madison and offers her occult knowledge, independent wealth and the continued leadership of her cult in exchange for information.

The cult leader tries to learn who she is making a deal with and what they want but the demon carefully sidesteps her questions. Reluctantly she agrees and signs the pact.

The Naturalist rolls Manipulation + Persuasion + 3 for willpower + 1 for its Sealing Deals Speciality and gets 4 successes.

Nat asks her where Thomas is buried.

Her eyes widen. After a moment she starts talking, her voice heavy and low. After the sacrifice, Thomas’s remains were taken away. But when she and Alexandra helped move the Groetnich into the tunnels the Stanley Company built, she saw his sarcophagus.

The demon has her draw a map for them. As they conclude their meeting, the student gets a message on her phone from Daemon.

“Welcome, you are now level 1.”

Daemon gets a Beat for “Recruiting an influential cultist.”

With a target located, the ring readies their plan to infiltrate the sewers and desecrate Thomas’s body. Daemon, alerted to the cameras, attempts to hack them and traces them to their source. Unfortunately he springs a trap that cuts off the connection, leaving them in the dark about who placed them there and the full breadth of their network.

Daemon rolls Intelligence + Computers + Hacking Speciality but fails.

Given that he rolled 9 dice, I decide that the demon behind this must be a computers expert.

Joseph secures a facade and Daemon rigs his phone to maintain an open connection. Daemon assures him that he will teleport in if he needs help. He also makes sure the phone will vibrate to alert Joseph if he is losing signal.

Meanwhile the Naturalist visits the Black Iron Coffee to seed rumors to distract Ping Wu or anyone else who might expect the attack. While there, it runs into Mr. Nostalgia. While the “hipster” hints at his encounter with Accabish, Nat tells Nostalgia that it is worried about an associate called Hunter.

The Naturalist explains that it has concerns about Hunter’s mental health. It normally works with the Saboteur via facades and has heard he and a demon called Lilith are planning on killing Sylvia Woodard.

Mr. Nostalgia recognizes the name of the University board member and reveals he has also heard rumors about Lilith. She’s considered something of a dangerous upstart taking on a famous name. He promises to let others know to keep their heads down in case of any repercussions.

The plan now in motion, Hunter heads for the sewers. As he descends he pushes his demonic form through his thin cover. His eyes glow, turning the gloom into day. His skin turns to mirrored shards hiding him from sight and his limbs move with incredible strength and speed.

Hunter spends 2 Aether to manifest Mirrorskin, Night Vision, Inhuman Strength and Inhuman Reflexes. He rolls Wits + Manipulation +1 and gets 4 successes!

Map firmly in his head, the demon slips through the waters and tunnels, passing slumbering alligators and venturing into the deepest portions of the facility. Along the way he passes a bloody shirt in the water. The name Kenny Nguyen is visible on the tag.

He rolls Dexterity +Stealth + 3 for Mirrored Skin and slips into the inner sanctum.

Elsewhere I roll Dexterity + Stealth for Ping Wu and get 3 successes.

Hunter skirts a long gallery filled with massive columns, half-submerged in briny water. At one end the demon spots an elaborate pillar covered in alien hieroglyphs. As he rounds the massive stone, he thinks he sees a shadow moving around the opposite side. Cautiously he sneaks to the large stone sarcophagus nearby.

Hunter rolls Wits + Composure but fails to beat Ping Wu. Sabek also rolls Perception (using Finesse at a -4 penalty due to distraction and distance) and fails to spot either of them.

Hunter looks at Thomas’s burial spot, his phone vibrating weakly in his pocket. Glancing around he notices a figure by the pillar. Wires and cables emerges from the stone and the silhouette, connecting the two together.

Hunter and Ping both make a second set of Stealth and Perception rolls. This time Hunter spots Ping (while remaining unseen). Sabek fails his Perception roll again (this time with only a -2 penalty, he is nearby but it is dark).

The demon sneaks up behind the figure, dropping the phone on the sarcophagus as he goes. Shedding its flimsy disguise, the gold lion that is Hunter bites down hard on the neck of the “woman” in front of him.

As blood pours from her throat, Ping Wu screams. Instantly the tunnels echo with the movements of hungry reptiles.

Hunter makes a full demonic transformation. He rolls for Compromise: Wits + Manipulation -2 for Cover -2 for the distracted Angel +3 for willpower. Somehow he succeeds. He gains an Aether.

Next he rolls Strength + Brawl. She is surprised (and attempting to hack infrastructure) so has no Defense. He gets 4 successes with together with the Claws and Fangs Modification deals a total of 6 Lethal (or most of her health)!

Back at campus, Daemon and the Naturalist listen in growing horror. “What does he think he’s doing?”

Initiative time! The order is Sabek, Daemon, Hunter, Ping.

The alligators slosh out of the waters towards the demons. Unseen by all, Daemon phases in next to the sarcophagus, already transformed into his avatar.

Hunter body checks Ping, sending her stumbling toward the creatures’ waiting jaws. At the last moment she transforms, spreading her ebony wings and taking to the air.

Glaring down at him she commands him to freeze. He feels his muscles tightening in place but shakes it off with sheer will.

Round 1:

Sabek summons alligators (I probably should have let Hunter get Aether from that).

Daemon takes demonic form and rolls Wits + Manipulation +1 for Cover to avoid Compromise (he is not in the sewers yet). That is a Reflexive action. He gains an Aether and spends it to Teleport to the phone (which is also Reflexive apparently).

Hunter slams Ping and they roll an opposed Strength + Stamina contest (Hunter gains a +2 bonus from his Inhuman Strength). He gets 5 successes to her 1, not quite enough to knock her prone but enough to put her between him and the gators.

Ping then makes a full transformation of her own. As an NPC, I ignore her Compromise roll for now. She has enough problems. Flying up is not an action so she also uses her Exploit: the Word. She rolls Presence + Intimidation + Primum - Hunter’s Resolve. He spends Willpower to inflict a further -2 penalty. She fails and he doesn’t end up a sitting duck.

Daemon hides and watches as something yanks Ping out of the sky. She struggles, flying just over the snapping jaws of the alligators before disappearing down a tunnel. Meanwhile the rest of the beasts pull themselves onto the damp concrete and waddle towards the remaining demons.

Hunter runs over and with a mighty heave knocks the stone lid off the sarcophagus. Instantly Daemon springs into action, slicing off the mummified head with his bladed arm and grabbing it.

Round 2:

Daemon rolls Dexterity +Stealth to avoid Sabek’s notice. Thus Sabek uses telekinesis to pull Ping Wu down. He gets 2 successes but Ping beats that on a Strength + Stamina roll.

Daemon delays.

Hunter makes a Strength + Stamina roll to open the sarcophagus.

Daemon acts and beheads the corpse. The demon also activates his Electric Field.

As the alligators close in, Hunter’s body glows with increased heat and power. One lucky beast gets a bite in but his wounds begin to instantly repair.

A sneaky gator slips up behind Daemon and chomps on his arm. As sparks shower the creature, it recoils in pain. The demon shouts “Pawned” before disappearing in a cloud of 1s and 0s.

Alone, Hunter flees.

Round 3:

Now unable to regain Essence and thus doomed to fail his mission, Sabek does nothing. The alligators however are in position. One rolls Strength +Brawl -4 for Daemon’s Defense. It gets two successes and deals 3 Lethal, 2 of which is absorbed by his armor. The gator also takes 6 Bashing or over half its health. It retreats.

Three others attacks Hunter. The first one hits dealing 2 Lethal and the rest miss.

Daemon then spends an Aether to teleport out.

Hunter chooses to flee into a new area. Ping continues to fly away and I decide she will escape to harry him another day.

Hunter races down an unfamiliar tunnel, moments ahead of the hungry alligators.

He finds a dead-end.

The beasts close in.

The demon turns his assault rifle on them, murdering all four in an instant.

I finally use the Chase rules!. The Edge belongs to the alligators who chose to roll Stamina + Athletics . Their goal is 3 (base 5 -3 since they know the area well +1 since they are slower) while Hunter’s is 4 (base 5 - 1 since he is faster). The gators get 3 successes on their first roll and force a conflict.

Down and Dirty Fight time (since it favors Hunter)! He uses Merciless Gunman and gets a success on his Dexterity + Firearms roll. Adding the weapon bonus, this kills all the alligators.

Elsewhere Daemon reappears in front of the Naturalist and tosses it the mummified head. Nat complains this will give it nightmares. The pair of demons discuss whether Hunter will survive.

Back in the sewers, Hunter creeps back to the gallery and the familiar lines of his map. The alligators focus their eyes on him and growl hungrily.

They pounce.

Minutes later, Hunter crashes through the sewer tunnels, batting away snapping jaws and keeping one step ahead of the press of scaly bodies. Clambering up a rusty ladder, the demon burst into the damp night, sending the metal cover flying. He disappears into the gloom.

Hunter rolls Dexterity + Stealth +3 to sneak out but fails to beat the alligators’ Wits + Composure.

Second Chase scene! The edge goes to Hunter who chooses Strength + Brawl as he fends them off in his escape. The goals are the same. Both make their required successes at the same time so it becomes a final scramble to the surface.

Both groups roll Strength + Athletics (with a -3 penalty for the gators) to climb out. Hunter beats the alligators and escapes.

Hunter finds a pay phone and calls the others. Nat directs everyone to a new bar and they debrief him. After a couple of weeks of lying low, it becomes clear Sabek has left, probably to report his failure to the God-Machine.

Accabish earns 2 Beats for her Aspirations to take out the Lizard Brain and Sabek.

As I wrap up I remember to do Cipher rolls. Daemon rolls one and realizes he doesn’t know the Embed yet. Accabish rolls twice and learns her next Key uses Wits.

Experience time. I award 1 Experience and Beat to everyone. Joseph, Daemon, and Weaver got 1 Aspiration Beat while Accabish and Nat got 2. The Weaver also got a Beat for taking a Dramatic Failure.

Joseph earns 1 Cover Beat while the others earn 2 Cover Beats (a bonus Cover beat for living under the radar and not failing any Compromise rolls). Accabish never rolled for Compromise and earns a 1 Cover Experience and Cover Beat.

Heartland Orphans: The Beast

Every family has a troublemaker, a divergent soul that attracts trouble for the rest. For the Strix in my Vampire the Requiem Chronicle, Heartland Orphans, that was the Beast. This monster played at being a seductive demon, a ravening monster and corrupting force. It did so imperfectly leading local Kindred to destroy it and others.

The Beast

An owl of smoke and shadows, the Beast looks down on Kindred who cling to their mortal limits. With power over shadows and illusion, it seeks to undermine the humanity of others.

The Beast sees itself as a literal devil, tempting Kindred to their true natures. To that end, it lies and misleads its hosts, trying to lead them to murder and worse crimes.

Vice: Temptation

Aspirations:

• Tempt a vampire into losing Humanity
• Despoil the territory of a rival

Shadow Potency: 4

Attributes: Power 3, Finesse 7, Resistance 4
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Occult 1, Persuasion 4, Stealth 3

Corpus: 6
Willpower: 10
Size: 2
Speed: 12
Defense: 7
Initiative: 11

Embodiments: Shadow Form, Possess Corpse, Possess Revenant, Posses Kindred
Dread Powers: Ambition’s Source, Beast’s Rebuke, Breath Eater, Mother’s Kiss, Voice in Your Head (cohabitating possession), Smoke and Mirrors
Vitae: 14, 4/turn
Banes: fire, sunlight, bells

Voice in Your Head: this power allows the Beast to possess any Kindred either willing or unable to resist (for example in daysleep). Roll as if possessing a torpored vampire. If successful, both the Strix and the host remain conscious. Both can use their powers independently or direct the actions of their common body. If they disagree, roll Power + Finesse + Shadow Potency vs. the host’s Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency. The winner directs the host body for a scene.

The Beast can call upon the traits of its lair if one of them (or one of its Siblings) is already present: Dim light, Engulfing, Razored.

Gaming with Babies: Gaming Table Edition

Time for an end of the year report on my gaming situation. It’s been a busy year and things are about to get a whole lot more complicated soon. But first I get to enjoy my new gaming table from Geek Chic.

The Children Report

Sebastian continues to get stronger, faster, and smarter. Most excitingly, he has begun to engage in imaginative play, constructing little stories for himself as he plays with his cars and figurines. I’m really looking forward to introducing him to roleplaying in a few years.

Also encouragingly, he has become somewhat more independent. While this slows down getting him dressed or ready to go out, it does give my wife and I more free time for our activities. Reading is becoming a possibility again and even some video games.

Talking about video games, Sebastian has become fascinated with playing Minecraft with me. He mostly likes to watch me kill monsters (cows not so much) and explore. He directs me, sometimes forcefully, where to go and we have a nice back and forth going. It is nice to have something we both enjoy outside of our daily walks and story time.

His new independence however is still not enough to keep him from sidelining my wife in our online game. For now she’s stuck with our one-on-ones.

Which brings us to our second child. My upcoming daughter seems healthy and active but is not helping her mother’s sleep schedule, wrecked by the stress of this election season, prepping for a semester off work, and house troubles. Baby 2.0 has a name picked out, something properly Shakespearean, but we are keeping it a secret for now.

House

Our house is both a source of joy and frustration for me. Right now frustration is leading.

The last couple months have seen various appliances in the kitchen breakdown. The oven gave a horrible whirring noise for a week. The dishwasher backed up a few times and the floor near it has warped. The fence is rotting. Something got under the house again.

Adding to this stress, we are looking to do a major expansion on the second floor. The plan is to raise the back roof and add a master bathroom and a new bedroom so both of our kids have their own space. The plans are done and paid off.

Now I’m in planning hell. The house lies in the historical district which makes permits complicated. The clock is ticking. Ideally we’d like to have everything locked in before our daughter arrives and construction finished well before the end of summer. Everyone says it can be done. But time keeps slipping by.

But enough venting.

My new gaming table has arrived!

By the time this posts it will have hosted several games and puzzles and hopefullt a welcoming party. Let the long board games commence (safely out of reach of the little ones)!

Gaming

By most measures my gaming has been pretty good. Not as frequent as the good old days but better than it has.

Boardgames

Our local boardgaming group has only met infrequently since they had their child. Still we’ve managed about one game a month, mostly due to their efforts. Our normal Thursday evenings no longer work as they butt up against their son’s bedtime.

I’m hoping we can find a time, perhaps Saturday afternoons, once my wife finishes this semester.

Of course I also intend to have a party to celebrate the arrival of the gaming table.

The Local RPG Group

Late Friday nights seem to be working, though my wife is often tired. After cycling through four players, I have two reliable regulars.

We recently finished my Vampire: the Requiem game and are now onto an Urban Shadows game until my daughter comes along. After that I’m not sure but I definitely want to continue.

The Online RPG Group

October turned out to be long dry spell but otherwise the Demon: the Descent game is unfolding wonderfully. The plot is turning out to be deeper and more convoluted than expected with lots of subplots for all the PCs.

Now I just need to keep recurring NPC list small as possible.

The NOOP

We here at the NOOPhave done a lot of gaming together: boardgaming, roleplaying, and video games. Right now I’m satisfying my inner crafter and explorer in our personal Minecraft realm. We had a private server earlier this year but that got glitchy. I have a better feeling about this time around. We’ve been building up a storm and I’m hoping that we eventually reach “the End”.

Heartland Orphans: The Bird of Ill Omen

One Strix remained above it all in my short Vampire the Requiem Chronicle, Heartland Orphans. The Bird of Ill-Omen hints at dark futures but remains uninvolved in the affairs of Kindred and mortals alike. To it, they are both too transient.

The Bird of Ill-Omen

Resembling a large crow more than an owl, this shadowy creature refuses to take hosts and prefers to feast from the dead and dying directly. In its remote lair, it soars above the fields of battle, snatching victims like a dark valkyrie.

This Strix rarely shows personal interest in individuals however whether they are mortal or Kindred. Thanks to its powers, the hidden secrets of the world are open to it. Once they intrigued it but now after so many centuries, they only bore it. In modern days, it only rouses itself for the grandest of tragedies: acts of nature that destroy whole communities. Its greatest joy is to watch these horrible acts of God happen.

Vice: Curiosity
Aspirations:

• See a town destroyed by a force of nature
• Make bad luck lead to murder and slaughter

Shadow Potency: 6

Attributes: Power 5, Finesse 5, Resistance 5
Skills: Academics 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Occult 3, Science 2, Stealth 2, Survival 2

Corpus: 7
Willpower: 10
Size: 2
Speed: 12
Defense: 5
Initiative: 10

Embodiments: Shadow Form, Possess Corpse, Possess Revenant, Posses Kindred, Possess Living, Synthesis
Dread Powers: Ambition’s Source, Web of Destiny, Screech, Kindred Disciplines (Auspex 5, Celerity 2, Obfuscate 5), Shadow Infection
Vitae: 20, 6/turn
Banes: fire, sunlight, bells, hated by beasts

The Bird can call upon the traits of its lair if one of them (or one of its Siblings) is already present: Dim Light, Rotting, Exposed, Stench.

Unusual Suspects: Diversions

Four sessions into my Demon: the Descent game and approaching the end of the first story. In Alligators in the Sewers, Part IV: Diversions, I had my most disorganized session to date. Partly it was due to the many subplots needing attention and partly because I had two players instead of the customary one that could not attend the entire session. Adding to these issues, I had a lot more material happening outside the game, as I worked with players on their Aspirations and side projects.

Our cast:

• Accabish (a.k.a. Priscilla Webb): Saboteur, Inquisitor, and editor of the Slog news blog. Someone hacked her secret server.
• Daemon (a.k.a. Nick Mathers, Daemon (on the web and to its followers)): cult leader, Tempter, and hacker extraordinaire. A janitor named Bob has been investigating him.
• The Hunter (a.k.a. Joseph Mutsinzi): Saboteur, janitor, former child soldier, and all around blunt instrument. Bob Jenson is a thorn in his side as well.
• 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 IV: Diversions

Last time the group identified a secret God-Machine cult within a sorority at the University of Washington. Meanwhile an alligator attacked Joseph at work and the Naturalist determined that its husband was cheating on it. Accabish published an article exposing the sewer cult, painting Donna Angstrom as a hero and Kenny Nguyen as crazy. Finally her secret server was hacked.

We pick up with the Naturalist between sessions.

The Naturalist spends a week spying on Jackie Gold. As Dorian, he visits the barista every day using his powers to follow her day and learn her inner most desires. Strangely she unconsciously blocks the demon a few times. What the Naturalist does determine is complicated. John and Jacolyn flirt when he visits in the morning and the pair have been spending their lunches together. Jackie wants to make John happy but she also wants to help him repair his relationship with Jenny, the demon’s other cover. She also wants to help people, though she needs more time and money before she can make that dream a reality.

The demon continues to watch her but scans her for God-Machine influence. No obvious signs appear. It makes a note to talk to Daemon about her.

Aetheric resonance turns up nothing.

John for his part, is attracted to Jackie but also wants to hurt Jenny for being so distant. He has been working on taking Jackie on a secret date, hiring a babysitter for later in the week when Jenny will be out.

The Naturalist uses Living Recorder and Heart’s Desire. A follow-up Wits + Empathy roll detects some nuances.

The Naturalist considers the situation. On one hand, Jackie seems like a decent individual, one it might entrust its children with. But she still might be a threat. The demon still has feelings for John, not love but a form of affection.

It decides to manipulate John into hiring a full-time nanny. As Jenny, the demon brings up wanting to go back to work and pursue some additional education. She suggests he can hire a former student or something. After a few days he relents.

Guilting John is Social Maneuvering. The Naturalist’s Impression with John is good (they are married but they've been drifting apart). The demon rolls Manipulation + Persuasion twice and gets a regular success and an exceptional success. John needs 2 Doors opened so he agrees to Jenny’s request for a babysitter. The demon earns two Beats for “getting a nanny for the kids” and making progress toward “get an unimpeded cover.” We also impose the Leveraged Condition on John.

Next up is Accabish. I was fairly pressed for time for this part. My wife is in full teacher mode right now and most of this had to be done on a walk to Starbucks.

Elsewhere Priscilla Webb finishes another productive day at the Slog. On the way out, she runs into Kenny Nguyen, the city’s animal control expert. The older man accosts her, complaining about how he was depicted in the news after her interview.

“And there really are alligators down there,” he says. “They need to be removed. I’m not crazy.”

Priscilla tries to calm him down. Kenny seems determined to do something decisive if nonviolent. She gives him the “author’s” contact information to do a follow-up and then heads out.

As she drives home, she warns that reporter to be on the lookout. She then calls the police and reports the altercation.

If we could have done a roll, I would have asked for a Wits + Empathy roll to learn Kenny’s emotional state. Instead I just decided she succeeded.

Later she listens to the latest recordings from Shaun Wykes’s therapy session. He continues to relate dreams of floating down a river, surrounded by many half hidden people. Or perhaps alligators. He isn’t sure. Two pyramids on one side of the river have collapsed, leaving two on the other side intact. Worryingly, he isn’t concerned.

I quiz Accabish on her relations. Priscilla only has a few living relatives which she keeps at arm’s length. Her mother lives in Florida at a retirement home. She visits her for Christmas every other year. Her father has passed away and she has no siblings. The demon chose her Cover well.

Outside of work, Priscilla has few connections that could trouble her. She has no current romantic relationships and the few she’s had in the past were all short lived. She tends to be the one who gets dumped due to obsession with work.

I ask these things because her old therapist is doing some unethical digging.

The next day Vince informs her that the malware he seeded into the server reported back to him from a coffee shop in Fremont. Somehow the code found its way from the stand alone machine to a computer connected to the wi-fi at Black Iron Coffee. Priscilla says she’ll look into it.

Privately, she partly relieved. The cafe has a reputation for being shielded from the God-Machine and its servants. The demons and mortals there do a brisk trade in pacts.

Accabish rolls Intelligence + Occult to know about the coffee shop.

That afternoon she steps inside. The stigmatic behind the counter offers her the special but she buys a latte instead. Surveilling the patrons, she spots a young man in tweed doing business in a nook. Her senses tell her that this unassuming hipster can best help her.

Accabish uses Find the Leak and gets 3 successes on her Wits + Empathy roll.

After watching him makes some deals, she approaches him. After some innocuous seeming small talk, the demon called Mr. Nostalgia realizes she is looking for one of his regular clients. With some cajoling, the Tempter gives her a detailed description of a man known as Rhodes.

Accabish rolls Manipulation + Socialize + 3 from Find the Leak. She gets an Exceptional Success.

The demon points out the mortal near the entrance. He appears to be a shabbily dressed African-American man. But through numerous deals with demons and stranger things the mortal has unnaturally extended his life and gained access to many minor supernatural abilities. He lurks at the edge of supernatural societies, trading what he can for a bit more: a magical gift, some luck, or another year of life. Mr. Nostalgia confides that for the past few weeks Rhodes has brought a strange electronic device to the shop. He warns that the mortal might run if approached forcefully.

Accabish thanks him and quietly approaches her quarry.

She sits down next to Rhodes. After a moment she asks what the bulky device he has plugged into the wall is. Rhodes lies and says it is a battery charger.

Gradually, she gets the old man to open up about the device. Rhodes indicates he might spill the beans if given a better deal. It seems he is getting free room and board for carting this thing around.

The demon rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to convince Rhodes.

Accabish scrawls a pact on a napkin: a month at a luxury hotel in exchange for information.

We didn’t stat this pact up in play but it would be: Asset 2 (for Rhodes), Month Duration 1. In any case it costs 1 Willpower point.

Rhodes signs and tells her about it. A demon haunting a building downtown told him to carry it around. The demon is called the Eye. He gives her an address and asks that she not reveal where she got the information. She agrees and takes the device as well.

Her next stop is the library of the University of Washington. Looking around she soon detects who she needs. The demon approaches an Asian woman in her late 20s. She is looking over a pile of papers from various Egyptology journals.

Accabish uses Find the Leak again, this time getting two successes to finding someone who can tell her about the tablet Joseph found in the Anthropology building last session (and hopefully learn about Sabek’s ban).

Priscilla introduces herself to Yuri as a journalist interested in Ancient Egypt. Yuri it turns out is a graduate student working under Dr. Brooks. With some mild encouragement, she tells Priscilla about the tablet, the difficulties of pronouncing ancient Egyptian, and the Dendra Reliefs they resemble. The tablet includes some material on the god Sobek. She has only begun to decipher that part but it indicates that four servants once called him to this realm to bring an aspect of divinity to to this world.

The demon convinces the student to make a deal with her for an advanced copy of her research. As she signs the release form, Yuri find the writing easier to decipher.

This pact trades Academics Skill +1 for a Week in exchange for information.

A few days later Accabish receives the translation. Sabek needs four servants to be sacrificed to bring him to this world. One of those must receive the proper funerary rituals to hold Sabek’s ka. If this vessel was disturbed or desecrated, Sabek would starve and eventually be forced to leave this world. As for his mission, Yuri indicates it need to bring a sort of divine soul to the world: something called the Lizard Mind.

I may have gushed a bit on this bit. I studied ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs quite a bit as a child.

Then we had the Cipher rolls. Accabish got three chances but made it in one. Her next Embed Key is Everybody Knows. Joseph rolled twice and knows the next one uses Wits. Daemon also rolled twice and uncovered that his next one is Deep Cover. Naturalist rolls once and learns that he doesn’t already know it.

Earlier in the week, Daemon takes a second crack at Phi Sigma Rho. Cloaked as member of the sorority, he reaches the secret chamber. He punches in the code to the electronic lock like it was the most obvious combination ever.

Daemon uses Identity Theft again (this time using the connections of one of the inner circle) and uses Password Entropy to bypass the electronic lock.

Inside he discovers an electronics workshop and a well stocked occult library. On a work table, another of those eggplant bulbs spills a red glow across the room.

Closing the door behind him, he scans the table, glancing at different papers and memorizing them for later. Several concern Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Dendra reliefs.

Then he hears the sounds of someone approaching. A powerful desktop dominates one wall and he heads towards it. He activates one of his demonic abilities and disappears into the internet in a stream of 1’s and 0’s.

Daemon uses Dataform. He also earns a Beat for the Aspiration “Find out what is in the Sororities secret room.”

Daemon calls the ring together. He reveals his findings: a secret society within Phi Sigma Rho called the Sophia Society is building these bulbs. As they consider the new information, he hacks into their computers. From their records, it appears the group dates back to about 9 years ago and is funded via a private account by Sylvia Woodard, a member of the University’s board of trustees. From their financial records, four of these highly expensive devices have been built. Three of them were sent to a PO Box. There are no plans for a fifth.

Daemon sends the Weaver a roster to research as he digs deeper. Together they find that the membership of this cult consists of the bright, the rich and the occult minded. The current leader is Madison Woodard, Sylvia’s granddaughter. The demons note a distinct lack of color among the members. Their literature seems to promote the advancement of the “right” sort of people.

Weaver rolls Academics + Intelligence helped by Daemon to fill in the blanks.

They quickly hatch a plan. Daemon will run surveillance on Madison while the Naturalist will use its clairvoyance to spy on Sylvia. The Weaver lends Nat some Aether to power this plan.

The Weaver uses 5 Aether to give Nat 4 Aether. Luckily it has some Suborned Infrastructure.

A couple of days later Daemon contacts Joseph with some bad news. Madison called one of her friends, Alexandra Braun, and instructed her to spy on Joseph. Apparently the Sophia Society knows he poked around in the sewers over a month ago.

Joseph realizes this was before the angel incident. The only person he told about that escapade was Ping Wu, leader of the Seattle Linchpins.

He’s been sold out.

Daemon recommends that he lay low for now and avoid direct contact with the ring. Joseph hopes the Naturalist finds a new cover for him soon.

He also gains the Blackballed Condition.

For now however, the Naturalist focuses on Sylvia Woodard’s schedule. Spying on her outside of public events, the demon watches her berate her staff and make racist at the people on the TV.

Eventually Nat catches her at a meeting of the Sophia Society as they summon Sabek.

The crocodile headed angel asks what they’ve learned about Joseph. Sylvia reluctantly reveals that not much has been learned thus far. They’ve noticed that others are also watching him. They appears to be private investigators but she doesn’t know who hired them. Sabek mentions that the informant may have been lying about this janitor.

As the demon watches, it senses each of their desires. Many, including Sylvia, seek to gain real occult power. Madison merely wishes to escape her grandmother’s influence. Another wants to create something impossible. Alexandra’s desires are simple, stupid and destructive. As for Sabek, his mission is to bring the Lizard Brain into existence.

Nat uses Heart’s Desire liberally on all.

Nat sends a facade to Joseph and arranges for the ring to meet again. Even with this new information, the demons cannot agree on the next step. Joseph decides to continue to lie low until the Naturalist can secure a backup cover for him.

I missed most of this conversation due to needing to make dinner.

Left to its own devices, the Weaver spends its time living its cover Jean. She enjoys some coffee with Kelly, discussing work, students and crafting. As they talk, the demon notices some hispanic youths passing by wearing brightly painted T-shirts, the same shirts she designed before she Fell.

Much later on the demon returns to the scene to search for those kids and more importantly the shirts. The clothing was still fresh, in better shape than the originals should be. Someone is making more.

After a few hours of hunting, she finds them in a neighborhood near the University District. A gang called the Prismatics are donning the shirts. She locates an apartment building they like to hang out at and decides to investigate further.

The Weaver rolls Wits + Streetwise (which it lacks so -1) + 3 for willpower spent.

She makes a quick deal with an awkward kid watching a local basketball game. He gets to be a star athlete for a day while she borrows his “reputation”.

The demon rolls Wits + Empathy to guess his desires and then a Manipulation + Persuasion to convince him to sign over part of his identity. She spends a Willpower to seal the deal and crafts a Facade.

As a klutzy teenager, the demon sneaks into apartment building without issue. It sneaks down to the laundry room, waits until an older woman leaves and grabs a T-shirt from the wash.

A Wits + Stealth roll gets the Weaver what it wants.

Jarhead begins his week lying low. He spends his days at his spartan apartment. He sleeps on his couch, feeds his cats, and watches his small old television. Only a large National Geographic poster adorns his wall. The African savannah looks down on him every night. A chair and wobbly table complete his collection of furniture.

As he heads to work, he stops by a specific street lamp. He notes a missing cat poster hanging there. Floyd the poster reads. Pink Floyd’s the Wall, his mind translates. The Wallbreakers have a job for him.

On the bus, he calls the number on the poster. The voice on the other side tells him they need a gang moved. It seems the Prismatics, so-called because of their brightly colored shirts, have become more aggressive lately. Also the T-shirts they wear have some sort of connection to the God-Machine. The Wallbreakers have assets in the area and would rather avoid Angelic entanglements. They don’t need the Prismatics or their leader Jack Regalado killed, just out of the area.

As payment they can offer him a gadget. Joseph gets the address of the gang leader. The Wallbreaker says that his cover for the mission will be at the usual place. It is a homeless vet.

Joseph gets a new Facade.

That night after work, Hunter dons the new facade. The homeless man slips past the hoodlums loitering in front of the apartment building and up to the 4th floor. He picks the lock and swings the door open.

Joseph rolls Dexterity + Stealth + 3 for Willpower against the thugs Notice pool of 2 (it is dark and they are sleepy). Then he rolls Dexterity + Larceny to pick the lock. I roll chance die for the two sleeping people inside and one succeeds.

As he walks in, he hears the click of a gun being cocked. In the yellow light filtering through the curtains, he makes out figure with a shotgun near one of the two other doors into the room.

He pushes his demonic form through his paper-thin cover. As a green glow encompasses his eyes, he makes out that an older woman has the drop on him. Hunter tenses his now inhumanly limber joints.

Hunter does a partial demonic transformation and spend 1 Aether. Since he has the Versatile Transformation Merit, he gets two traits so gets Night Vision and Inhuman Reflexes. He rolls Wits + Manipulation + 5 for unused traits -2 for a witness -2 for his cover. The demon succeeds and takes circuitry tattoos as a minor glitch.

He rushes the woman, swivelling out of the way of the roar of the gun and grabbing her from behind.

She gets to shoot him but due to his Defense and proximity, she is reduced to a chance die. She fails. Hunter rolls Strength + Brawl -3 for her Defense to grapple her and succeeds. The Strength + Brawl contest ends in a tie.

As the pair struggle over the gun, a young man emerges from the other room pistol out. Hunter grabs the woman with one arm and pulls her between him and the leader of the Prismatics.

On the second Strength + Brawl contest, Hunter wins and turns her into a human shield.

“Put down the gun!” he commands.

As Jack hesitates, the woman calls out, “Take the shot.”

“Hold on sis,” the nervous youth says. Then he fires.

Hunter fails the Presence + Intimidate roll.

Hunter doesn’t let the pain show on his face as the bullet smashes through his shoulder cutting flesh and cracking bone. Instead he wrenches the shotgun from Jack’s sister’s hands and calmly tells the gang leader to put his gun down.

Jack takes a net -6 penalty to his Dexterity + Firearms roll, spends a point of Willpower and manages to miss his sister and hit the demon. Joseph takes 2 Lethal. Then he wins the next grapple contest and takes the woman’s weapon away.

Jack lowers his gun in disbelief. “Just let my sister go.”

Joseph gains a +2 bonus due to his lack of reaction to his follow up Presence + Intimidation roll. This time he succeeds.

“You are going to leave this area. You, your sister, and your goons.”

As the men out front reach the apartment, Jack waves them off. “Okay, just let her go.”

Hunter backs himself and the sister out of the room. “Remember I know where you live.”

With that he tosses her aside and disappears into the darkness.

Or spends 1 Aether to manifest Wound Healing and Mirrored Skin.

A few minutes later, Hunter drops his facade and rubs his newly regenerated shoulder.

The next day, he verifies that the Prismatics are gone and then calls the Wallbreakers. They give him a choice of payment: a custom weapon forged by the Mutilationists or something from a gadget clearing house known as Second Lives. Thinking about the Naturalist’s needs, he asks for a long-range weapon from the Mutilationists. They say it will be ready in a few days.

Working on his side of the bargain the Naturalist approaches his target through the usual channels. David Schmidt may want to live a life outside of the closet but he also wants to advance within the police force. The demon subtly promises him that he can balance his personal and professional life.

The Naturalist rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to bait the hook.

Eventually the cop responds to his messages and agrees to meet Nat at a local park. The demon appears with the same facade he used in the sewers. Gently he sounds him out and convinces the officer that through mundane means or not, he can improve his life. He hints that even his old injuries could be repaired with his help.

The demon rolls Manipulation + Empathy to win David’s trust. He also uses Heart’s Desire to learn his other Aspiration: “fix his knee injury from High School.”

I decide convincing David to sign a Soul Pact is a Social Maneuvering roll. David has 3 Doors base (he has high Resolve and Composure). Since this works directly to his Aspirations, 1 Door is opened immediately.

The demon roll Manipulation + Persuasion + Closing Deals Speciality + 3 for willpower spent and succeeds.

David considers the offer. He explains he will need to think about it. The demon doesn’t press him, simply offering to help him however he can. The cop walks away deep in thought.

I decide the demon currently has a Good Impression. Nat rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to improve that to Excellent. That means he can make another roll in an hour.

Later that night, Nat calls David and tells him he has met an amazing man at a high-end bar that he thinks might be a good fit for him. Though initially reluctant, he agrees to meet him. After a wonderful night, David signs a release for the demon’s “program” to help him improve his life. Nat assures him that the blood test is purely to screen for any health related issues.

Nat resolve its I Know Someone condition to gain a +3 bonus to a Manipulation + Persuasion + Closing Deals Speciality. After the success, the demon has its soul pact.

While the Naturalist works to know the new client/cover better, the Weaver takes the T-shirt to Jean’s lab for some late night work. It discovers that chemicals alter the brain chemistry of the wearer, making them more aggressive while draining positive emotions. Worse the imbalances cause genetic damage leading to cancer.

The Weaver rolls Intelligence + Science + its Chemistry Speciality +3 for top-notch equipment.

It decides to finish its angelic work and create a cure. Over the course of several nights, the demon develops a treatment that will reverse the genetic damage.

This is an Extended Roll with each roll of Intelligence + Science + 1 for Chemistry Speciality +3 for equipment representing a night’s work. 5 success are required. Three rolls later the demon has a cure and earns a Beat for satisfying its Aspiration for creating a life saving invention.

Later in the week Joseph sees another missing cat poster. Floyd is still missing. He calls the Wallbreakers again. It seems that the Prismatics have reformed with new a leader.

Joseph arranges a meeting at the Baudelaire to get help, attending as his impoverished vet facade. The Weaver and Naturalist arrive to aid him. Accabish also joins, curious about what progress has been made on stopping the Lizard Brain.

Instead she find her ring focused on personal missions and not forthcoming at that. Eventually she teases out that Hunter needs to remove the Prismatics as part of a contract with a local agency. He needs some help however.

This bit like the session in general was a bit of a muddled mess. Joseph was not very open and the others continued to forget that my wife isn’t present for the first half of the game.

Sigh.

The Weaver notes it is also investigating the gang and has devised a cure to the toxins contained in the T-shirts they wear. Nat informs Hunter that the cover he requested is ready but that the demon is still gathering a full biography of the mortal. The pact has already been sent to his dead drop along with the major life details.

Joseph gains a Beat for his Aspiration to gain a new cover.

Frustrated with this turn, Accabish tells them that she knows Sabek’s ban. After revealing it, the Naturalist says Madison might be a weak link within the cult, someone they can manipulate to learn where Thomas, the fourth victim is located. The demon also speculates that they might be able to tip Sabek into falling.

Accabish is dubious.

In the meantime she asks the Weaver to look into a different problem. Producing the device that has been hacking her server, she ask the demon what it can tell her about it. The Weaver picks it open and examines the complex circuitry inside. It is like nothing the demon has seen since its Fall. The device creates connections between machines through hidden dimensions. This sort of technology is usually found in the brains of angels. Interestingly the creator of this device did not follow the usual schematics. This was not done by a servant of the God-Machine.

The Weaver rolls Intelligence + Science to examine the device.

Accabish asks if it can turn the device off.

The demon looks over the tiny golden lines and breaks a connection.

The Weaver rolls Intelligence + Crafts to disable the device. It gets an Exceptional Success, so I give the demon the Informed Condition with regards to device made by the same individual. It will recognize it if it sees more.

Then Accabish asks the Naturalist what it knows about the Eye. The Tempter knows a little about the Inquisitor, having helped it construct its patchwork cover. The Eye has possessed a mixed use building downtown. Its mortal identity is the head of security there.

The Naturalist rolls Intelligence + Occult + 2 to know about the Eye.

Daemon arrives late and the ring informs them about their rough plans. The Naturalist will investigate Madison and try to turn her against her grandmother. She can hopefully tell them where Thomas’s mummified body lies. Once they destroy it, Sabek will starve and be forced to retreat from this realm.

Experience time. Everyone gets 3 Beats (1 base and 2 roleplaying beats) and a Cover beat. Accabish earns 2 more Beats for making progress on “Tracking down Hacker” and “Learning Sabek’s Ban”. Joseph gets 1 more as well for his Aspiration: “Acquiring a new cover.” The Naturalist earns two Beats for Aspirations and Daemon earns 1 for Aspirations as well. The Weaver earns 1 for “creating a life saving device.”

Heartland Orphans: The Witch

Today I feature another member of the flock of Strix from my short Vampire the Requiem Chronicle, Heartland Orphans: the Witch. This monster is both a greater and lesser danger than most. On one hand she doesn’t care about Vampires or Mortals. On the other hand, she leaves a troublesome trail of gruesome murders in her wake.

In my game, the Witch was ultimately burned alive when she was trapped by her bane.

The Witch

Appearing as an owl composed of shadow and smoke, the Witch often seeks vampiric hosts to power her magics. When such are in short supply, she begrudgingly befriends ambitious Kindred, trading occult secrets for samples of their vitae to power her rituals.

Skilled in blood magic, the Witch seeks to find her mother, the ancient vampire known as the Antediluvian. She doesn’t believe she died and has developed a ritual that will point her toward the Kindred’s location.

Believing that she can rejoin the godhead, in this case the Antediluvian, the Witch seeks to master blood magic, uncover the location of her goddess and then merge her “soul” with what she sees as her origin.

Vice: Ritual
Aspirations:

• Find the Antediluvian
• Sacrifice a willing vampire to power the most powerful form of her magic

Shadow Potency: 3
Attributes: Power 4, Finesse 3, Resistance 3
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Intimidation 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3

Corpus: 5
Willpower: 6
Size: 2
Speed: 12
Defense: 4 (typically 4 in a host)
Initiative: 6

Embodiments: Shadow Form, Possess Corpse, Possess Revenant
Dread Powers: Breath Eater, Smoke and Mirrors, Kindred Disciplines 2 (Auspex 2, Cruac 4, Nightmare 2)
Vitae: 12, 3/turn
Banes: fire, sunlight, unable to cross a line of salt

Though she rarely does so the Witch can also invoke the traits of her lair when one or more of these Tilts (or those of her siblings) is already present: Dim light, Undergrowth, Decayed.

Heartland Orphans: Retrospective

Another campaign, another retrospective. With my Vampire: the Requiem Chronicle complete, it is time to look back and see what worked, what didn’t, what was my fault and what I felt the system could do better.

Retrospective: Vampire the Requiem

The System

Overall I liked the system but It felt like it was written for a younger version of me, one more interested in crunchy mechanics and less interested in streamlining the overall experience. As I get older, I increasingly feel the desire to simplify and condense rules. While the second edition of Vampire the Requiem does remove some unused parts of first edition, overall it is a step away from that. The addition of Tilts, Conditions, and new options to replace the old just makes the game feel more cluttered to me.

On the plus side, I really loved the interplay between Frenzy, Humanity and Touchstones. Avoiding Frenzy imposes of penalties to future resistance rolls to avoid it as the Beast gains strength each time it is denied. Interacting with your Touchstone can eliminate that penalty (as can giving in). Holding onto Humanity requires these mortal connections, both to avoid Frenzy and as a bulkwork when you distance yourself from normal humans (whether that be murder or simply living too long). My earlier reservations about the Humanity system were less pressing in play. I wish I could’ve done more with this system.

I found the vampiric Disciplines much stronger than first edition and that was a good thing. Even starting vampires could mesmerize mortals, shapeshift to a limited extent and otherwise exceed mortal capabilities. It made them seem powerful, even if they only had a few more dots on their sheets.

Advancement also worked out better than I expected. I gave out almost an Experience a session so by the end of the game my players were maxing out their in clan disciplines and becoming movers and shakers. And again, I feel that is a good thing.

On the negative side, Conditions feel too unnatural for me. Similar to how I felt about Fate, handing out a Condition with its carrot and stick mechanics takes me out of the game in a way that saying “you have a -2 penalty to combat rolls due to fear” doesn’t. It looks like a great system on paper but in play I find it jarring.

I also dislike the lack of player facing rolls for things like perception and stealth. The less rolling I do the better. In particular I hate rolling for NPC vs. NPC actions. I keep wanting things to work like in Apocalypse World and GUMSHOE, with the players doing most of the rolling except perhaps in cases of direct conflict (like a grapple).

The Group

The true purpose of this game however was not to evaluate Vampire: the Requiem but to recruit a new gaming group.

On that score it worked great. I have two new regulars with the flakes sifted out.

I also worked out their strengths and weaknesses which should make future games work better. They are great roleplayers and good at creating backstory. They probably need help when dealing with complicated mysteries but seem interested in them. I think tighter involvement/collaboration might fix that. For now I plan to keep the mysteries simple in terms of the numbers of clues and actors.

Personal Lessons

For me as a gamemaster, I again discovered that I need to make a tighter cast. I barely used half of my NPCs. It’s something I need to work harder on. At least I kept the characters distinctive enough this time that people remembered who was who.

My next Chronicle of Darkness game will also see some hacks to the rules. There will be more player facing rolls. Skills might be altered to follow the GUMSHOE format. Unused mechanics will be dropped (like Lashing Out which I used twice both with an NPC).