The Chicago Oracles (aWoD Session Reports)

[Orion]

The Setting: Chicago, 2010. Assumptions:

The Sabbat runs the loop, the irish/polish neighborhoods, and the big businesses. The Camarilla control the southside, especially the hispanic neighborhoods. The least appealing south suburbs are recruiting grounds for Order of Marduk, who organize them into territorial ethnic purity gangs whose fear of outsiders makes them dedicated monster hunters. The King of Three Shadows runs Gary, Indiana.

The PCs.

Mercedes, Bagheera Financial Detective/Stellar Oracles Agent.

She was a beat cop, whose work ethic attracted the attention of the FBI, who signed her up for a number of seminars on corruption and financial crime and enlisted her help in local white-collar investigations. One fateful night though, walking a south-side beat, she was mauled by a frenzied Bagheera. She came to terms with her nature while hunting down her attacker with the help of the mysterious "Frank," whose gang ultimately killed her assailant and tried to kill her. Having learned from Frank that she wasn't the only monster in the world, she looked for help finding meaning and was contacted by the Oracles. They offered her a chance to make sure monsters couldn't harm any more innocents, and she jumped at it.

Bonus Disciplines: Restoration, Binding the Name, Learn the Heart's Pain, Blood Binding.

Resources: FBI Data, Oracle Quartermaster, SWAT backup, car. Obligation: Stalked by FBI

"Frank" AKA Maltese, Fallen Drug Boss/Marduk Assassin

A suburban black child kidnapped in infancy by goblins, he worked as a machinist until, at the age of 17, he saw his chance. A Troglodyte broke into his master's complex to steal a magic map, and he escaped. He eventually found his way back to Chicago. Unsure what place he had, he stumbled onto the Order. They set him up as "Frank" the boss of a skinhead meth gang who fed tips to the order bullyboys. Besides managing his gang, he also took on several jobs himself, including killing Mercedes and her attacker. His last job was to assassinate a Ghoul who turned out to be the very woman who had made his escape possible. Unwilling to go through with it, he joined the Camarilla and took his info on the Order to Mercedes in exchange for protection.

Bonus Disciplines: Eyes of the Night, Solid Darkness, Suggestion, Facade of Nonchalance

Resources: Stash of drugs and weapons, Infernal Book (Obtenebration, Fire, Entropy), skinhead thugs, Hellmouth. Obligations: Hunted by "Mr. Xin," a Marduk Leviathan with Lightning Strike, Quickness, and Possession.


Amarantha, Troglodyte Adventuring Archeologist/Glass Walker Accountant.

Amaranta is the daughter of a Genevan ghoul who founded the glass walkers, and her centuries-younger Italian ghoul consort, born and raised in Hell. She's paid vast sums of money to work in the basement of her mother's office park IN HELL. She uses this to finance her Indiana Jonesing about hell. She stile her most treasured possession, a magic map, from one of the King of Three Shadows Asura's, earning his undying enmity. She has thus found it prudent to buddy up with the Oracles. She likes nothing better in life than to sneak up on people, crush them with a mallet from hammerspace, and feast on their corpses. She is far more callous than the cop, and more reckless than the fallen, but they need her money and her senses.

Bonus Powers: Quickness, Echoes of the Muse, Distant Reflection, Hammerspace Mirror Pocket.

Resources: Fat Stacks of Cash, Amerigo's Atlas, Library of Glass Walker History, Gravedigger, Latin. Obligations: Her Mom.

There are Three Sessions to report on so far.

[Orion]

First Session: Mirror, Mirror

So, the Bagheera checks the P.O. Box where the ORacles leave her cryptic clues. this one lists an address in a poor hispanic suburb, 11 Pm. So they go there an hour early and stake the place out. They that infernal magic has been used nearby, that there are three humans sleeping there, and checking their police sources, that a ton of kids have picked up loitering in the neighborhood, suspected to be watchers for thieves or drugrunners. Also, this is Marduk territory.

So they wait around for a while under obfuscate and eventually 2 mirror goblins show up, disguised as kids. The Ghoul decloaks and chases them, catching one and finding out that he was sent to steal a mirror form the house by an Asura named Xerxes. The other one gets away, and calls the local Marduk chapter to report a ghoul on the loose. So the Order rolls in and goes to interrogate the Fallen, who isn't invisible. He scares them off with Majesty, but one of them dowses his obfuscate. The Order comes back, this time led by a dude possessed by Mr. Shen. He starts throwing lightning bolts around, knocking out the Bagheera (who stayed in human form in order to tank the attacks), while the fallen and the ghoul take him out with shotguns full of salt.

The Ghoul steals the mirror from the house and realizes that Xerxes could use it to enter Earth. To avoid that, she stashes it in her library, in Hell. They go home, as the Fallen is real beat up and the Bagheera needs sleep. The Ghoul stands watch over the house.

Cards: Temperance, +1 Perception, +2 to a Background, and... Strength. Nobody I know can remember to give out the bonus XP, so I just award 3 per player per session instead. Strength went to the Bagheera for 2; Only the Fallen wanted the Sorcery. We decided that he had gotten the rudiments of Veil of Morpheus form the Order, and he learned Enchanted Slumber. Interestingly, people started off by bidding 2 on the cards they really wanted.

Rules Question: Does a Human possessed by a Leviathan take aggravated damage from Iron? Does an Akuma possessed by a Leviathan take aggravated damage from Iron, Silver, or both? For simplicity, should we assume that bypassing disciplines and dealing aggravated damage happen together, or separate them. (Disciplines are bypassed if the metal is good against the possessor, aggravated is dealt if the weapon is good against the host?)

[Orion]

Second Session: Witty Title

So the next day they see on the news that a kid form that neighborhood went missing. First his parents didn't pick him up from school, then he vanished while his caretakers Weren't looking. When questioned, the parents denied ever having had a son. Sure enough, it was the same house.

The culprit, though they didn't learn this until later, was Xerxes' disciple, a young Baali from the neighborhood who planned to use his powers to get rich in Vegas once he'd served his time as an apprentice. He had Banishment and Poison Heart, and of course was able to modify the parents' memories.

Well, they pulled some records and found out that major construction was underway on the town's library, adding some subterranean archives. Well, even thought it was funded by the ARRA, they still found it pretty silly a way to spend money, so they looked into it. The Bagheera flashed her badge and they went down to have a look. They found a room in which the Baali and several goblins were holed up with a Mirror Nexus, their base of operations. A (very) brief firefight ensued, with the PCs winning handily, but not before the bad guys were able to destroy the mirror and send the Bagheera to hell. The Fallen knew a Hellmouth in the Stockyards of Bridgeport, but it turned out that in the Dark Reflection, the building was full of nazis with chained akumas. Well, the ghoul stuck the wizard in the ground and doused him with water, then Astral Perceptioned so she and the Bagheera could fight a few nazis on the way out. Meanwhile, the Fallen had to deal with the librarian coming down to see what was going on. He failed to Nonchalate her, but was able to Awe her into running off to call 911. They all managed to sneak out, and steal a hell-car from the nazis, only to be chased by Xerxes in a helicopter. They took down his copter with a stolen rocket launcher, and fought him on the streets, but were unable to prevent his escape.

Cards: TBAdded

Rules Questions: is there any way to Obfuscate a car?
Rules Questions: Why let Astral Perception move people? I had to disallow picking people up from moving them between worlds, or sending PCs to hell would have been useless.

[Username17]

Rules Questions: is there any way to Obfuscate a car?

Yes. You generally need Devastation and Touch of Shadow. If you can lift the car, you can count it as a held object even if it is still on the ground, and then you can envelop it in Obfuscate and have that persist after you let go with Touch of Shadow. As a Golem, you can just do that.

Rules Questions: Why let Astral Perception move people? I had to disallow picking people up from moving them between worlds, or sending PCs to hell would have been useless.

I regard that as a lesser evil than having people use Astral Perception to proxy fight with.

-Username17

[Orion]

Proxy Fight? I get that you could attack, then escape by turning off perception, but

--the damage you take is real
--you're bringing a knife to a gunfight, literally
--you *won't* get away if you get knocked out, stunned, or mindslaved

All in all, it doesn't seem like much of an exploit.

[Username17]

Proxy Fight? I get that you could attack, then escape by turning off perception, but

--the damage you take is real
--you're bringing a knife to a gunfight, literally
--you *won't* get away if you get knocked out, stunned, or mindslaved

All in all, it doesn't seem like much of an exploit.

I'm more concerned with:

• Invoke Planar Duality.
• Carry 200 kilograms of grenades.
• Pull the pins.
• Drop Perception.
• Grenades stay behind in room full of enemies.

I tell you, I am sorely tempted to have Aura Perception be something that lets you "detect" creatures in the shallow other worlds rather than actually letting you interact with them. It's so much harrier when there are three magic worlds instead of 1 and they are full of stuff instead of being empty.

-Username17

[Orion]

Why not just make creatures not movable?

[Username17]

Why not just make creatures not movable?

Because the game does not make a D&D style distinction between "creatures" and "objects." Some stuff is alive, some stuff isn't, but it's all stuff.

-Username17

[Orion]

Bullshit of the highest order! This is a game with *Luminaries* who have special *souls* that interact with various magic abilities--even if they are robots.

Every substance in the universe is either an Extra, a Luminary, or none of the above. And you'd better damn well preserve that distinction, otherwise Resurrection wouldn't work on an Android. And that would suck.