December 16, 2015
Sixth Meeting: 16 December 2015
Agenda: 1894 Session #5
This session went pretty well. Liesl's player gave me calibration advice which boiled down to:
You're fine as long as you don't hit with ridiculously overwhelming for or don't allow for retreat. Ridiculously overwhelming force = does more than +7 damage / attack
So, as the psychaiatrist, Liesl was returning from her researches into properties owned by Count Dracula (and likely De Ville as well?), she got lost in the confusing tangle of streets that is London. As she walked down an alley, she heard a tittering laugh behind her. She wheeled around, seeing no one, but the tittering never stopped.
Something tentacular seized her and began to squeeze, but despite the damage, a burst of adrenaline (and a really good roll) got her free. The player then made a Preparedness spend. The original idea was that the underground train would be running precisely on time. I wasn't sure what the state of the London underground was in 1894 (though it was, indeed, existent), but we agreed that it would be even cooler if it were an omnibus showing up at precisely the right time, preferably a double decker one, pulled by horses, if such things happened.
Down about 6 Health and 4 Stability, Liesl climbed aboard and paid her fare. She Noticed that the laughter still sounded, and a street kid who'd heard it immediately ran away, almost as if the child were all too familiar with whatever was making the sound.
Meanwhile, Herman, our German potter and explosives expert, kindly (from my point of view) went off on his own to a public bathhouse. And, there he was, enjoying a nice soak, when he realized that he was bleeding!
In fact, he had been stabbed by a fellow bather. Herman tried to withdraw, but the man followed him, under the guise of trying to help him. I thought Herman might try to get help from fellow bathers, but instead, he tried to evade the man, who wanted to get Herman alone. The man picked Herman up, clearly far stronger than he looked.
This is where I learned again the lesson that all GMs learn repeatedly, that what is obvious to you is not obvious to the player. Players do not see our notes or the pictures in our head. What the player was hearing was, "This guy is way too strong for you to do anything." Once I clarified that I was only saying, "He is stronger than he looks," the player realized that Herman could fight back.
Herman managed to break away, and the player used Preparedness to say that Herman had secreted a pistol under a towel by, er, that pillar the man just threw him against, yes. Herman also had the good sense to fire the pistol into the air and made a Reassurance spend which, combined with a full on "the blood is the life!" performance by his attacker meant that the authorities believed his (true) story. Herman was down a bit of Stability and a lot of Health.
Notes that are probably from Herman's struggle with the man in the bathhouse:
6 vs 7 6 -) pistol
Our aristocratic detective Sebastian Wimsey returned home to find Carmilla's "mother" waiting for him. His housekeeper, Mrs. Anderson, had let her in, believing she was a client. Sebastian managed to overcome "Mama"'s Mesmerism. He didn't believe in this supernatural claptrap, but Preparedness and common sense (sort of) meant he was wearing a metal gorget under his shirt. He got thrown across the room, but between his swordcane and a burning brand from the fireplace, managed to drive her off. Sure, she wasn't bleeding from the wound, but he'd broken her Mesmerism, thwarted her attempt to drink from him, and ruined her dress!
Notes that are probably from Sebastian's struggle with Carmilla's "mother":
10 Iron Cravat -) 6 -) 9 -) stab -) 3 + 2 = 5 5 -) 4
Liesl's Player (as Sebastian goes for the fire poker): You want to set your house on fire? Excellent plan!
Carmilla's "mother" got into a coach, and I suggested a chase scene. The PC didn't have those skills, so the player countersuggested Disguise and Surveillance, and tailed her to a) the police station, where she made a complaint against him and b) the home of one Francis Douglas, aka Viscount Drumlanrig, aka Baron Kelhead, aka heir of the Marquess of Queensbury, aka personal secretary to Prime Minister Rosebery.
The cost of learning this information was that the PC was down a bunch of Health (though still positive) and down to -3 Stability. (Currently, mere vampirism does not count as a Mythos Shock, but the psychiatrist's run in with the invisible creature does.) Yep, our skeptic has now learned that vampires really and truly do exist.
Sebastian went to the hotel where Liesl and Herman were staying. The two foreigners had been reunited after their respective adventures, and were treating each other with their usual peculiar blend of professional courtesy.
Liesl: Sager, never use Yiddish again in my presence.
Apparently, he'd mangled the language, or at least the accent, badly.
With Sebastian's arrival, the three bought each other up to date.
Liesl: As I was fleeing the alley -- I should point out the efficient and prompt omnibus!
Sebastian: I should hope so!
He told his tale as well.
Liesl: Could you _see_ your attacker?
Sebastian: Yes.
Liesl: Then, you're one up on me.
Sebatian: She knocked me across the room.
Liesl: That, too, is a result. Note that down, Sager.
She then gave Sebastian her professional services.
Liesl: I want you to look at me as a modern confessor, but what I give you will be actually healing. Wimsey, we'll work through this, but first, sit down, and why don't you tell me about your mother?
At this point, we hit something in the rules that confused us.
According to the core rulebook, "for every Shrink point spent, the recipient gains 2 Stability points" (85).
The Talking Cure cherry offered in Double Tap gives 3 points of Stability for a spend of 2 points of Shrink (47).
Why would I want to spend 3 points to give someone 2 points when I could spend 2 points and give someone 4 points? We decided to houserule this as "Spend 5 points of Shrink to give the recipient 3 points of Stability" while I asked about this.
Sebastian's player: That gets me to 6 and then I can fondle my stick for the remainder.
The "stick" is his swordcane, with a compass in the handle. It's his Symbol.
The actress, Beatrice, aka Mrs. Pat -- so, I need to remember that the player will charge directly toward the plot, with neither subtlety nor nuance, and generally without worrying about an exit strategy. She asked a lot of questions about Certain Topics, talking to Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde, among others. Bram mentioned his brother, George Stoker, currently resting in an asylum run by one Dr. Seward. Beatrice then got invited to a party where she was told there would be answers. I fully expected her to say yes, and she did.
This was the scene from the Unredacted Dracula with the satanic cult, with some changes. For Lucy, read Juliette Parton. Count De Ville -- so, I reserve the right for him to be Dracula, but my current plan is that he's not Dracula, but the man who wrote the journal about vampire hunting that's the potter's Symbol. He wrote all about Countess Karnstein, so I figure she turned him at some point. This meant I used lesser numbers for the Aberrance and so on, and also a bit less subtlety, and I made sure to emphasize the porcelain and the man's interest in same.
I'd sort of expected Beatrice would either pretend to want to be a Satanist or start running quickly, but got neither. Also, the dice did not love the player.
Notes that are probably from Beatrice's struggle with Count De Ville:
7 3 -) 8 Mrs Pat: Athletics vs 4 -) 6+1 = 7
Count De Ville overcame Beatrice. My take was, given what De Ville learned, he was furious at the man who brought the actress without asking for permission, but Beatrice was something of a problem. She knew too much, but was too well known to kill with impunity. The count bit her, and she woke up down a bit of Stability, a fair amount of Health, next to the corpse of the man who brought her, and near a red scarf, a black brooch, and flowers -- lilies, we figured, given that it wouldn't be roses. She took the scarf and brooch, as I recall.
The dead man, I decided after the session, would be Archibald Craven's studio mate. Since Archibald is my substitution for Francis Aytown, I'm using Francis's roommate, Jenkins. He's in league with De Ville, or at least, he was, until De Ville killed him. (Apparently, at least according to The Director's Handbook, Jenkins was supposed to be Aytown's lover. I saw absolutely no indication of this in the Unredacted Dracula. Heck, it doesn't even give the man any other name!)
Beatrice also discovered that she was not in London any more, a decision I made on the fly.
See, given I'm using Baron Kelhead, and given his mysterious shooting in real life, I decided to swap out the house in Coldfell for Quantock Lodge -- in Bridgewater, Somerset, rather far from London. The carriage ride had not taken long enough for such a trip...
Beatrice did not at once return to town. Puzzled by a few things, such as Count De Ville's care not to break the lodge's porcelain, she stopped into a shop selling porcelain. The woman who ran the shop confirmed that the count had a great interest in porcelain and had purchased a few items.
Beatrice then sent a telegram to let the others:
HELLO STOP WENT TO AN INT PARTY OF MR DE VILLE STOP WAS IN QUANTOCK LODGE STOP RETURNING HOME STOP IF I'M NOT ON 11:30 MORNING TRAIN FIND ME STOP
Meanwhile, I looked at the Heat rules, and we calculated that Sebastian had accumulated +1 Heat, which meant that the group as a whole had 2 Heat, if I understood the rules correctly.
Sebastian dealt with this by using his Disguise MOS to disguise himself as Carmilla's "mother", running up to someone in the street and trying to bite that unfortunate, then running off.
Beatrice joined them, and revealed the marks on her neck, iirc. Liesl has an MOS in hypnosis, so uncovered descriptions of some of the important people at the party from Beatrice's oddly hazy memory.
Liesl started writing an "extensive note" to Freud, her Source of Stability.
I'm not sure who said what in the conversation below, so I'm going with my best guess. It seems to be about Liesl's encounter in the alley.
Sebastian: Invisible tentacled thing.
Liesl: Yes.
Sebastian: And you complain about me talking about magic even though it isn't magic.
Liesl: This is real.
Sebastian: Rope, trunk.
Liels: Or a boa constrictor -- an invisible boa constrictor.
I forget the context of this one:
Either Liesl's or Herman's Player: Is there anyone extra sweaty or suspiciously unsweaty or suspiciously pale? Oh wait -- we're in England.
As it was now getting late, I pushed for folks to come up with some idea of what would happen at the beginning of next session.
Liesl and Herman decided that they'd go to Seward's asylum, where George Stoker, Quentin Parton, and the man who'd attacked Herman were being held.
Herman: I have a gun and a bomb.
Liesl: Don't bring your bomb to the asylum. Probably don't bring your bomb either. It'll probably be a madman with a gun.
Herman: I won't let a madman take away my gun.
Beatrice and Sebastian would look at the properties that Liesl had discovered belonged to Count Dracula.
This left the matter of the street child who'd seemed to know something about the invisible tentacled thing.
Liesl: The children are afraid -- we should talk to the children. I believe the children are the future.
Liesl's player thinks that Liesl and Sebastian doing the best approximation of flirting that they know. I think Sebastian's player hasn't yet decided whether or not that's actually the case. I could see it either way.
Herman wrote to ask about the porcelain of Quantock Lodge and the shop in Bridgewater, Somerset. His Symbol, after all, was the diary of vampire hunter and porcelain expert Johann Jakob Ringler, an actual historical figure who probably did sell the secret of porcelain. Apparently, if you trace his route on his journeys, shortly after he visited a place, the secret of making porcelain was discovered. Now, whether in our world this really was to fund vampire hunting, I do not know.
I got somewhat confused as folks looked for portraits of Elizabeth Bathory.
Liesl: We suspect she may be Carmilla's mother.
Sebastian: Carmilla's Supposed Mother.
Apparently, though, this was a misunderstanding. The players meant to say that they were looking for a picture of Countess Karnstein. This I had no problem with, although I wasn't sure there'd logically be one available.
Liesl's player found me an out, noting that Liesl could do research and look at various catalogs. This worked for me, so she was able to confirm that Countess Mircalla Karnstein looks not like Carmilla's "mother", but like Carmilla herself.
Also, while it hasn't yet come up in play in any big way, Herman's player spent 3 points to create a network contact to send him maps of the Hermanstadt area, where the Scholomance is reputed to be.
Session Chronology:
- Day 1: Split Party
- Day 2: Clear Heat, Mrs. P travels
- Day 3: Mrs P Returns
