[aWoD] Ghost Season

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Here's the party

* Wren (Ventrue, Carthian): Bounty hunter
* Mac (Mi-Go, Carthian): Century old mechanic, forgotten rival of Edison (couple of his descendants remember)
* Kid (Troglodyte, Carthian): Teenage hacker, archive specialist for local Tremere cult
* Doc (Reborn, Carthian): Mob doctor

Prologue: We have just finished a three session story arc where the party got to meet Citizen Delbin, a 1600 year old android crafted from one of the statues in Delphi just before it was closed by emperor Theodosius I, who was visiting Prague for undisclosed matters (presumed personal). She was a known and respected oracle, and gave the party a spoken prophecy in private that spoke of the coming of the four horsemen (she quickly had to leave town, later revealed because she was late for her train).

The next week involved the party finding mirror goblins in the area most likely to be the spot prophesied, and the area had a history of four human orphans being claimed by an ifrit about ten years ago. They fought some goblins, then decided that the foretold fire and its arriving horsemen could be averted if they set the location on fire a day early; which apparently got the attention of an obfuscated supernatural who seemed to think the party was trying to make the prophecy happen (what with the fire).

That fight was short-lived. While the building burned, Kid was atop a nearby building using TK to interfere with the firefighters, while everyone else was on the sidewalk elsewhere to watch. The ambush went off with flying colors, as the iron bullet gave Kid a Terminal wound. The ambusher tried to climb down the ladder out of sight, Mack ran over & pulled it out to make him fall the three stories. The antagonist rolls awesome and soaks all of the falling damage, then shifts into a rat, but Wren by this point has her heavy pistol out and starts shooting. The rat completely soaks all five damage for the first bullet (!), but the second one sends it to Terminal.

Meanwhile, Doc is running over to the police/firefighters to distract them with Awe ("I'm a doctor, anybody injured?"). Mack grabs the bleeding out rat and flees the scene, but notices its wounds visibly close up and it climbs out of his jacket, successfully vanishing when Mack is the only one around (very skilled at obfuscation, apparently). Doc delays an officer to go check on the wounded on the rooftop, and first aids Kid down to only eight aggravated boxes, and lets Kid slowly climb down the side of the building out of sight as Doc runs the hell away. It takes about 12 hours before Kid is able to fully recover from all of the damage, going through an entire mirror goblin corpse out of the cellar (they had fought three before, and they've been storing them for later consumption).

The next day, they go check out the smoldering ruins of the building, some embers still present. Kid uses Aura Perception into Limbo, and sees a Hell Mouth form from the Deep to the Shallow (as part of the prophecy) where mirror goblins dressed as old-style firefighters come out and fill the area with fire, which opens up the Hell Mouth onto the Material. They come out, followed by four robed figures on horseback. The goblins are swiftly shot before they can do anything by the collective gunfire, and it turns out that the riders are the orphans from ten years ago who escaped slavery from Fulad-zereh (won a game of chance with the goblins to lead them to the nearest portal to the Material).

As it turns out, Citizen Delbin gave a purely verbal prophecy, and these four young men have a lot of damage to their larynges from smoke inhalation in Limbo; which makes them four hoarse men.

These four fallen spawn (a decade in Limbo does that to you) were taken to the Carthian HQ in Prague for them to decide what to do with them, which at the very least would be long term info gathering as to the nature of Fulad-zereh's estate in Limbo. I've decided that Fulad-zereh is one of the greater Ifrit generals for the King with Three Shadows, who also likens himself to be the fifth horseman of the apocalypse.

[Josh_Kablack]

As it turns out, Citizen Delbin gave a purely verbal prophecy, and these four young men have a lot of damage to their larynges from smoke inhalation in Limbo; which makes them four hoarse men.

Groan.

I hope your players hurt you for that one.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Wow. Indeed.

[Jilocasin]

As it turns out, Citizen Delbin gave a purely verbal prophecy, and these four young men have a lot of damage to their larynges from smoke inhalation in Limbo; which makes them four hoarse men.

Good job on that one.

[Gelare]

As it turns out, Citizen Delbin gave a purely verbal prophecy, and these four young men have a lot of damage to their larynges from smoke inhalation in Limbo; which makes them four hoarse men.

...and then your players all punched you.

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Post Story Advancement
Group consensus decided on using Minimum Awards. Because it was a short arc, it was worth one Major Arcana, and so we got three cards total. The group decided to debate who deserved which card before bidding, so that there would be extra karma tokens for next time. Mack got the +1 Perception card, Doc got the +2 Background card, and Kid got the +1 Discipline used this story card and used it to learn Fire Starter. Nobody thought anyone else did exceptionally well, so that third token disappeared for all of them.

Session I
Over the past week, they relax a little bit, hearing about the Carthian Movement and the Sabbat getting into debates as to who gets ownership of the newly formed Hell Mouth.

Meanwhile, Doc gets a call from the Tolkach (Don for local Russian Mob) and heads over. The Tolkach wants Doc to examine and, if necessary, provide long-term care for a vor v zakone. OOC, Doc's player is a little reticent of this because he feels that his character isn't beholden to any criminal organization and that he has the right to very quickly demand payment for services rendered; and he chose a Rating 3 Duty (Mob Doctor), so I'm at a little loss as to how to properly explain what this means to him.

Either way, the vor told Doc that he was doing an inquiry with some of the homeless in the search for a woman that matched Wren's description, and one of the hobos sprayed when he spoke. By morning, the vor was feeling very sick in a peculiar manner, hence Doc's presence. As it turns out, the vor currently has the Z-Virus. Doc gave some symptom-alleviating prescriptions, and stuck around for observation while he sent a message to Kid about the news (someone spreading the Z-Virus); noticing a rat in the Mictlan shallows watching him as well. Kid came over while hiding, looked for the rat, and immediately started trying to set the rat on fire. With the burn, the rat responds with an Edge-fueled Poison Heart to send Kid into a Fear Frenzy (1 net hit, so Kid isn't gone for long) while it escapes.

Doc excuses himself and leaves after getting a message from Wren that the Carthian Movement wanted to speak with them. Marionette awaits them at HQ, and offers them first dibs on a chance to earn rank within the covenant.

Specifically, they are to head into the Deep Gloom to find a poltergeist known as Lidice (formed from the WWII massacre at that location). They are then to enact a killing blow with its bane weapon, specifically a bayonet currently on display at a museum in Lidice. Importantly, the bayonet and gun are to remain connected, and any parts of the poltergeist not already absorbed need to be pushed into the barrel of the gun and delivered back to Marionette; they want the essence of this poltergeist for an undisclosed reason.

[CatharzGodfoot]

OOC, Doc's player is a little reticent of this because he feels that his character isn't beholden to any criminal organization and that he has the right to very quickly demand payment for services rendered; and he chose a Rating 3 Duty (Mob Doctor), so I'm at a little loss as to how to properly explain what this means to him.

OOC I'd just tell him that he took a rating 3 Duty (Mob Doctor), which means that he has the IC duty to be a doctor for a mob. IC, I'd play it straight: if he doesn't keep up the end up the bargain, he should start getting mob-style 'hints'. If it turns into a full-up hit/feud situation, that should be fun for everyone

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Session II
The party heads over to Lidice to check out the museum and figure out a way to steal it. It doesn't take much of a search to get a detailed map of the museum, a picture of the gun, and an idea of its security systems (threshold 2). Mac whips out some Int+Rigging (thresh 3) and money to make a replica of their target.

The display case locked with a simple key affair and the bayonet is attached with string to the Nazi uniform, but there are two fixed mounted cameras covering the room. They bring up the idea of knocking out power, so I decide that the backup generator only really covers the lighting and locks, but doesn't power the cameras. Doc is concerned when he walks around the place and sees a trio of wraiths in Nazi uniforms sitting around the estate, looking bored. But, they were in the shallow, so they were safe as long as Kid didn't try to extend himself and cause trouble.

So, they wait for nightfall, where Kid sits in the car and Wren gets ready to shoot the transformer from a distance. Mac will bring Wren with him for backup while he uses his rigging powers on the locks, and Doc sits in the car doing nothing because he can't think of anything he can do.

There are two guards on duty (thug PnG), and the power going out sends one of them to the back to get to the backup generator. With a bit of stealth vs the one guard's perception, the pair sneak by and lockpick everything and use a clear twist-tie for the replica gun. The power's turned on just as they reach the front door, and the guard notices Mac, but gets the poop scared out of him by Wren's heavy pistol. Hence, they run for the car in relative safety.

Doc does notice that the Nazi wraiths are following; and twisting roads at night vs someone who can't tire (30kph sprint nonstop) and takes the straight line through trees, walls, or other obstacles is a tough thing to match. After the first bit opposed chase scene where they weren't lost (5 hits for the Nazis, 1 for Kid's driving), they decide not to care since they can't be touched and the gun is likely their fetter rather than any kind of sinister agenda.

They return to Prague and enter the Shadow Gate to take them to the Sabbat's castle on the Gloom.

Tune in Next Time (tomorrow night, likely) where I will figure out how travel into the Deep Mictlan works, where I will determine what travel through the Deep is like, and I shall finally stat up a poltergeist formed from the infamous Lidice Massacre that is somewhere in the Deep Gloom!

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Session III
They enter the eternal night of the Mictlan and begin walking in the general direction of where the Lidice analogue resides. After a couple days of travel where they ignore the wraiths who try to talk to them or the obelisks with a peculiar topography on the land, they get a detection of the poltergeist on the weapon, towards a set of stone/steel warehouses.

Due to the high perception roll of Kid, he sees several Nazi wraiths patrolling the rooftops of the warehouses, and hears reverberating wailing within one of them. From about a kilometer, he sets fire to a couple gas canisters (not highly pressurized, so no large explosions) and misses one of the Nazis with a flame bolt.

The Nazis duck out of sight from this attack, yelling out for them to leave. Mac calls out that they want to talk, and one of the Nazi's respond with "One of us, one of you, by the post, everyone else stays back."

Kid is elected, because their likely die pool to be used has him as the highest (by one). As an aside, Doc is near the equal of everyone of the party, but everything he does is beaten by someone else by one die and his specialty (First Aid) only beats Wren by three dice; as a result, he feels redundant at all times, wondering why he's even around.

Once Kid reaches the post, he sees a lone Nazi break cover to begin walking towards him, gun holstered. The moment the Nazi was visible is when Kid sets him on fire (6 net damage). Everyone explodes in violence with the screams of a dying wraith, ultimately leaving the party as the victor and with minimal damage (First Aid covers the couple boxes dealt).

They eventually bust down the door of one of the warehouses and find the poltergeist Lidice, who ends up not doing any real damage because it attacked Wren (Combat 6, not flat-footed vs Devastation) and the Bane weapon pretty much takes it out. They store the essence in the barrel and return home.

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Quick summaries from here on for this campaign, with details on hiccups in the rules, though without much though as to whether it's our mistreatment or the fault of the rules themselves.

Session IV
They return the essence of Lidice to the Carthians, and are collectively given Contacts 5. A month of downtime occurs, the stress turning out to be too much for Mac and fear frenzies by going swarm form and spreading out as far as possible. A number of his bugs end up inside a basement a block or two away from his apartment, where inside is a stern looking German ghost working with a lab with TK (almost all of the tools have wood handles), the ghost looks upset as some of the water beakers turn soot-filled because of Mac's magic; so he throws some sand and dispels Swarm Form while turning on Light of Ennui. Most of his body is near the basement, so he forms there.

The ghost's upset at being disturbed and having some of his equipment tainted by infernal energy, so he uses Command and tells Mac to shoot himself with the gun next to him, which he promptly does. Mac's escorted out, and one of his bug spies is sent out later, only to be discovered and squished.

Kid tries to research the ghost, asking at the Tremere order, discovering that he was a cultist and a casualty early in the Great War in Germany, but went on to be the man behind the science for his son Karl Genzken.

The next night one of his outdoor bug spies spies the ghost rising into an alley next to his house just as a rat walks up and shifts into human form, the same person that had originally shot Kid. This instantly and without question causes the group to rush out the door, baseball bat and guns in hand and shooting at the rat as soon as possible. Before any real damage is done, the rat obfuscates away, and the ghost angrily Commands Mac to shoot himself twice. Wren misses with her bad and Kid's trying to stealthily walk along the wall without getting noticed (basic obfuscate). The second round results in the bat being disintegrated by the ghost. Wren spends a round searching and grabbing a pallet to later throw at the ghost, while Kid discovers that the ghost is immune to flame ("My experiments have been with hotter thing than that welp!"). The pallet is decayed mid-flight, followed by the ghost commanding Kid to set Wren on fire.

With that, the ghost floats down and towards home.

[virgil]

Very short session here. We got a new player (character's name Anne), but she was late getting to the game and hadn't finished her character yet. This got everyone in the mood to be distracted, so dinnertime finished off whatever interest could be held that day. There's been some minor debate some time after this session mentioning that interest for this campaign just isn't as strong as the others; especially with Doc (who was Cast in my prior campaign).

Session V
Kid uses his status within the Carthian Movement to arrange an official meeting with the Genzken ghost, who turns out to be Sabbat, in an attempt to prevent a blood feud between Genzken and Kid's coterie. After several days, the meeting is made with a golem acting as mediator and executioner (in case either party's grievances violate Masquerade law).

Kid starts it off with a sincere apology on behalf of his coterie, as well as full details of their side of the misunderstanding. Genzken accepts on the condition that none of them interfere with the Nezumi Moo-Shu (the rat guy the party hates) whenever he's within 100m of his house and to never attempt espionage on his lab; under penalty of feud. Genzken gives a subtle invitation that if Kid ever wants to speak with him again, to ask the tenant Hans about his uncle.

The vampire Wren manages a bar in Prague, catering to the more civilized working class. Several wisps were seen in the bathroom, and attacked patrons with broom handles. After sectioning off and isolation under threat of violence by Wren if they showed themselves to the living again, she managed to get the wisps under control and convinced them to hide themselves until after closing hours. This seemed to work, yet strangely more wisps came to the bar, until a week later about a dozen of them are floating out of the floor when the last patron leaves; attempting to mingle and talk to each other out on the tables. Disturbingly, every single wisp not only claims a draw to the bar on the same 'hunch' (only one or two claim fetters here, the rest take a break from their fetters), but they all have the power vigor.

Our new player is a bagheera military agent for the American government, having been mauled by a lycanthrope while in Brazil a mere 18 months ago. In order to get a better handle on her new status, she told a friend in the force who managed to pull some strings and found someone that could help, a Vietnamese man living in Prague by the name of Moo-Shu.

Moo-Shu introduces himself and shows her a little bit of Prague, as well a chance to see other supernaturals "in their natural habitat", taking them to Wren's bar while shifting himself into the form familiar to the party; he's Vietnamese when doing official Sabbat work, Armenian for most of the rest of the time. Moo-Shu is fairly smug while he talks to Anne, whispering to her the tells for each of the party members and how each one is more inhuman than lycanthropes, prompting Wren to write a note on a napkin telling him that Kid and Mack can hear him just fine.

It's near closing time, and Moo-Shu asks Anne to borrow the strange orb she acquired from the area she got attacked by a bagheera for a little while, and has a short conversation with Wren as she puts the chairs up. There's some insults thrown at each other, and Moo-Shu is called a fool and an asshole for thinking the party wanted the apocalypse to happen (causing the fire a day early didn't sound innocent to him), followed by a demand for him to leave the bar.

Moo-Shu says that the bar should be open to him for a bit tonight, especially since he's wanted, at that fifteen wisps rise at their appointed time and gather in front of him. He tells Anne that he'll be done in about an hour, and needed to speak with the wisps, walking to a booth in the corner then just staring at them for half an hour. This entire time since he asked for Anne's orb, he's been rolling it around in his hand, both hands gripping it while he stares at the wisps.

Anne attempts small talk for a half-hour and heads over to Moo-Shu to ask him what he's doing, who barks at her like one would a troublesome child to wait until it's been an hour. This makes her back off, and she has a bit more conversation with Wren about what vampires are.

Near the hour mark, just before Moo-Shu obviously breaks concentration, Kid sees him pocket the orb and sleights out a duplicate just as he starts walking back to Anne to return her orb and apologizes for being short (he'll explain on the walk to the hotel). Kid points out that Moo-Shu gave her a fake orb, and Moo-Shu denies this; which makes the player for Anne ask for the equivalent of a Sense Motive check (Moo-Shu wins, using her Int+Perception vs his Cha+Expression). I forgot that the Empathy skill existed, since Anne kept mentioning that her Perception skill was at 6 when other stuff was happening (just doesn't compare to someone with Supernatural Senses). Wren then forces the issue and tells Moo-Shu to empty his pockets and show that he doesn't have the orb, who proceeds to do so while holding the real orb in plain view the whole time.

I'm unsure if someone can use Obfuscate on stuff they're carrying without blanketing their entire body, so made a judgement call and decided you can be selective with Hide From Notice; though only Kid ever rolled high enough to be able to penetrate the effect, he had trouble forcing the issue because he was the only one who could see the orb. Anne's character asked for another 'sense motive' check when Wren tries to lie again, and make another judgement call here by saying she can't force identical retries within the same conversation, the single check representing the entire series of exchanges along those lines. Otherwise, you'd just have a Question of Interrogation always be repeated five times in rapid succession ("how many lights are there? how many lights are there? etc"), which makes the purpose of the check pointless.

As the two walk home, Moo-Shu explains that using the orb requires a lot of concentration and breaking it causes rather intense migraines, and its purpose is that the orb creates a connection with ghosts that allows for communication; and he needed to deliver a message to them, without Wren's super-spy coterie breeching what is a private matter.

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There's another session to put in these logs, but there's not much point because the campaign is hitting the reset button. Everyone chose characters and concepts that did not want to be a part of politics (even as political as the earlier Tome game was) and had zero ambition; like Doc running into a woman that causes him to remember a past life where he and a bunch of other raiders fighting each other to the death for the approval of a woman that looked uncannily like her (a known Reborn trick), and taking that in complete apathy and walked away because she wasn't stalking him. Literally the only reason they would do anything would be by being 'shadowrunners', and two-fifths of them were totally uninterested in that.

Altogether, they spent their character creation trying to understand the system and nothing on actual personalities.