March 9, 2016

Ninth Meeting: March 9, 2016

Agenda: 1894 Session #7

I told folks that a week of time passed between sessions, both to allow things to breath and so that I could justify stuff happening like Drtacula keeping his promise about bringing Hildescheim safely to London. Naturally, this meant that the PCs could take advantage of this, either at the beginning of the session or with Preparedness or even "Given a week, it would be reasonable for me to have done X."

As the session started, I asked Gabriel's player where Gabriel had stashed Quentin and Juliette. We agreed that this would be in Gabriel's place of Safety, his country estate.

Gabriel's player: Can we say it's conveniently located between London and Quantock Lodge?

Me: Sure!

NOTE ACTUAL REAL WORLD DETAILS ABOUT LOCATION -- I THINK WE CAN RETCON THESE IN WITHOUT CHANGING ANYTHING.

I'd forgotten to note down where Quantock Lodge was in Somerset, and cited Bridgewater, but it's actually "near the hamlet of Aley, near the village of Over Stowey in the English county of Somerset" according to wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantock_Lodge). Over Stowey is 8 miles northwest of Bridgewater (and the entry for Aley redirects to the entry for Over Stowey).

Gabriel had taken a house near Over Stowey, and he and Herman went ahead to prepare for figuring out how to take on Johann Jakob Ringler, aka Count De Ville, a man who'd fought against Carmilla, aka Countess Mircalla Karnstein, but been turned into a vampire by her.

Before they left, there was some plan or other under discussion. I forget what it was (ANYONE REMEMBER?), but it elicited the following reaction:

Liesl: As a physician, I have to object to this.

Herman: But why?

Liesl: I'm not a mass murderer!

Liesl was staying in a spare room in Sebastian's London home. I'm not sure what the housekeeper thought of that, but Liesl was far from the only odd guest Sebastian entertained this session. Beatrice was also in London, staying in her own home, with her husband, of course. Folks were keeping information from Beatrice lest she leak it, even inadvertently, to Ringler / De Ville. To cover this up, they told her it was important to learn more about Carmilla, and Beatrice dutifully went to do research about her.

Late one night, two men came to Sebastian's home. One was a very traumatized Immanuel Hildescheim, while the other was a 16-year-old German named Frank Braun who knew more than perhaps he ought about vampires and secret agents, but less than he thought he did.

He explained that he'd been tasked with seeing Hildescheim safely to Liesl, and that he'd been told it was worth his life to do so.

Sebastian: And how much is your life worth?

Frank: Well, _I_ think it's worth a lot. Doesn't everyone think that about themselves?

He flirted with Liesl, having absolutely no chance of success. I have no idea whether or not Liesl is interested in marriage or men, but she is not interested in men who are not Jewish.

Me: He doesn't mind that you're Jewish.

Liesl: How very liberal-minded. Still no.

She tried to get Frank to leave. Sebastian pretended that he was doing likewise, but was curious about him, so was hoping to intrigue him.

Liesl: How many guest rooms do you have?

Hildescheim had been settled into one, and Liesl drugged him with laudanum to keep him from screaming in his sleep. Lots of laudanum.

Frank: It's all right. I'm used to sleeping rough.

Liesl: Good use of idiom.

She wasn't thrilled that Sebastian wasn't going to chase him away.

Liesl: Look -- if you keep him, you've got to feed him. I'm not cleaning up after him!

And, at some point, there was this exchange:

Sebastian: I hope they're not kosher.

Liesl: No! I'm not kosher!

ANYONE RECALL THE CONTEXT?

Sebastian had been using Tradecraft to give subtle signs from his home, which he was sure Edom had been watching, to signal that he wanted a meeting. So, in the morning, Gertrude, the woman from Edom who had been in the Picadilly house, arrived.

Sebastian suggested that he and Liesl and Gertrude should talk at some nice establishment that served breakfast. I think Gertrude left separately. Along the way, Sebastian noticed that Frank was following him and Liesl. They split up, and, as Sebastian had expected, Frank continued to follow him, not Liesl. Sebastian decided to make this easy for a time, then slowly make it harder, then ditch Frank, to see how good he was and perhaps train him a little. His player spent and rolled enough to do exactly that, although Frank proved impressively tenacious for a while. (This was a single roll, not an extended contest of any kind.)

Liesl boarded an omnibus. Dracula boarded the same omnibus and suggested they meet for the first therapy session at the British Museum. Liesl thought about this, and he offered to meet her at the Great Synagogue, or any other synagogue, if she'd feel more comfortable with her people around. He was neither surprised nor offended when she said that she would prefer to keep him away from her people.

He was also willing to meet her in Hyde Park, another public place.

Liesl (thinking, not speaking): Where is someone more likely to come to my aid if I scream?

Me: ...Probably the museum?

Liesl's player agreed, so the British Museum it was. The two spoke French, though Dracula was quite capable of speaking Yiddish or German.

Once that was settled, Liesl asked a couple of questions, which I'll cover later, as I'm not entirely sure what was said there and what at the therapy session.

Liesl joined Sebastian and Gertrude. Sebastian and Gertrude were exchanging some information, but Gertrude was getting a lot more than she was giving. She did tell Sebastian her full name, Gertrude Bell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell). And I think she gave him at least one useful piece of information, but I'm still trying to remember what it was.

Sebastian told her about Count De Ville's Satanic ceremonies, listing the important people who attended, including Colonel Sir Edward Ridley Colborne Bradford, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London. When he mentioned this, Gertrude turned pale and hastily excused herself. Sebastian and Liesl realized that the Commissioner was supposed to be working for Edom, but betrayed Edom to work for De Ville. Liesl repeated her conviction that Edom could not find its ass with both its hands.

I made a mental note that the PCs had now avoided the too-stupid-to-live mistake of not telling Edom which powerful people had been suborned by vampires. It's possible that in future legs of the campaign, the PCs may not want to tell Edom something like this, but for this leg, given the PCs are hoping for Edom help where their interests coincide, it's rather necessary. Otherwise, the attempt to take out the Satanists at Quantock Lodge would turn into the PCs walking into a trap they didn't suspect and could have easily avoided. Go Project Trident!

Gabriel made inquiries about Quantock Lodge. The owners, Mary Labouchere and her husband Edward Stanley, let him know that Count De Ville had already paid to use it for a particular date. Gabriel got them to tell him which date, so that he could reserve it for a different date, and to show him the place. He also used his Filch cherry to steal a key to the lodge and a set of blueprints.

Gabriel returned to his house nearby. He soon had a visitor, a Count De Ville, shown in by the butler, of course. Meanwhile, Beatrice was invited to tea by Lady Carradine, one of De Ville's Satanists, and Liesl met Dracula at the British museum.

Liesl established some few facts.

• Dracula had been born in the late fifteenth century, in Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt).
• He had been a priest, not a warlord.
• His first name was Nicolaus.
• He was not Vlad Tepes, although they were related.
• Between this and what Sebastian had figured out last time, once Liesl has a day or two to do some research, she'll figure out that Dracula was Nicolau Olahus, formerly the Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary. If my understanding of wikipedia is correct, he was active in the Counter-Reformation, focusing on outreach, reform, and good public relations.
• Dracula had started reading Sigmund Freud's works. I forget which one, but it was either The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence, Obsessions and phobias, or On the Grounds for Detaching a Particular Syndrome from Neurasthenia under the Description "Anxiety Neurosis", probably one of the first two.
• It's extremely likely that his Catholic beliefs are the reason for the efficacy of crosses and the like. For some reason, while she hasn't told Dracula this, Liesl has no intention of curing him of this affliction.
• As he told her the last time they met, he created himself as a vampire through alchemy and various natural phenomenon. This frightened her a lot.
• He has not been awake for all of his undead existence. As Liesl put it, he enters periods of torpor.
• He doesn't necessarily have to kill someone he feeds on. I'm guessing that this is far more true in the 19th century than it was in the 16th.
• He doesn't know all of the vampires in the world or whether there are any older than he is. However, he assumes there are vampires in all cultures, and that there must be ancient vampires in places like China and India and Egypt, among others. Vampires have probably been around as long as humans have.
• He does not believe in the Christian God or Satan.
• He has studied at the Scholomance, which is real, and is indeed located under a lake.
• There are creatures older than vampires.

Liesl cut him off on that last point, saying that obviously, more trust would need to be built before he would want to tell her more.

Someone, I think Sebastian's Player: Translation: I don't want to lose all of my Stability today.

Liesl's player: Exactly.

They talked about morality and life goals. Liesl said she had no wish to be immortal or become a god. She merely wanted to live a good life and leave her mark on scholarship, if I recall correctly. She's trying to figure out how much of a psychopath Dracula is.

Gabriel talked to Count De Ville / Ringler who offered him a cure for his limp. Gabriel pointed out that Ringler was feeding on his fiance without her permission and had driven his friend, her brother mad.

Ringler pointed out that, legally, all he needed was her father's permission, not Gabriel's, and that Gabriel didn't know whether or not she minded, and that, anyway, it was hardly his fault if her father was an idiot. That was really what had driven Quentin mad anyway. After all, Quentin saw what was actually going on, and his father decided to deny it, convince him he was going mad, and institutionalize him. No one had asked Ringler his opinion on any of that.

As near as Ringler understood things, Edom wanted a proper British vampire. He didn't pretend this made any sense, but he was willing to work with Gabriel. After all, one can do a lot when one has eternity to work with.

Herman was not in the room, but was in the perfect spot in the basement underneath to listen to the conversation. He found himself getting tempted, and he realized that there was only one possible thing to do: He must destroy Ringler with an Explosion!

This was not something I had expected, but it made sense. Liesl's player looked up the rules for explosions, and Sebastian's player noted that Herman could use his MOS not just to make sure the explosion went off in the perfect spot but perhaps also to make sure Gabriel didn't die. Liesl's player noted that I was within my rights to say that Ringler's vampiric senses picked up on something right before the explosion, allowing the vampire to save his unlife. I noted that, while Herman had correctly remembered Van Helsing saying that the vampire can't change shape except at certain times (I need to look up the rules, but for this session, it was approaching, but not quite, sunset, so Herman's timing was fine), the explosion wasn't actually using any of the methods that kill vampires. I've since thought of a couple of ways to set up an explosion so that it will kill a vampire, at least, if the vampire can't move fast enough out of ground zero, and I figure that this means the players have thought of a few more ways.

In any case, the explosion went off at the dramatically appropriate time, doing considerable damage to both Herman and Gabriel, though less than it might have. Given how well Herman's player rolled, I figure Herman found exactly the right nook of the basement to stand in to shelter himself. The explosion took out the living room, but the 7 or servants were all in other rooms, so were fine.

As for Gabriel, he had flashbacks to his wartime experiences. And someone forced some liquid down his throat, brandy, he assumed, incorrectly. He was a lot less damaged than he had expected, and found that his limp wasn't bothering him, no doubt because of the rush of adrenaline. He was quite sure that when the adrenaline wore off, the pain would hit hard, and he called for the appropriate servant (butler? someone else?) to get him to his room so he could collapse onto the bed.

Meanwhile, Lady Carradine congratulated Beatrice on having ensured that she would keep her looks and have a very, very long acting career. Obviously, she had stumbled into the Satanic circle by accident, but clearly, Count De Ville found her worthy, as he had killed Jenkins, who brought her without asking permission, but bestowed his gift of eternal life on her. Lady Carradine assured Beatrice that she wasn't jealous, no, not at all. At her age, it wouldn't work as well, but there were still methods she could use to stay young, like drinking blood from the count.

Lady Carradine bought the whole Satanic power story, hook, line, and sinker. And, she thought that Beatrice might be useful to her. As the women discussed matters, or, more accurately, as Lady Carradine talked and Beatrice listened and asked questions, they suddenly felt as if they had been hit by falling masonry, even though they were still sitting in a high class tea parlor. And they had a vision of Gabriel, lying on the floor of some room that had clearly been destroyed. It was as if they had cut their arm and forced him to drink the blood from it.

Lady Carradine was very shaken. Had something happened to Count De Ville? No, surely nothing could! But, perhaps, they should part and consider their options for a day or two before the gathering at Quantock Lodge, which was the first Beatrice had heard of such a gathering. And, Lady Carradine said, beginning to regain her equilibrium, if Count De Ville could indeed be destroyed, then... why, then, perhaps someone else could lead the group of Satanists.

Herman staggered out of the basement and to where Gabriel was, startling the other man.

Gabriel: I have a marked dislike of explosives. Warfare will do that to you!

Herman apologized. He had been somewhat deafened, temporarily, by the explosion, but Gabriel had no trouble hearing. Herman was convinced that De Ville was dead, and he telegramed to Liesl and Sebastian about this.

Liesl and Sebastian had gone to talk to Beatrice, and there was a flurry of telegrams between Liesl and Herman as Liesl tried to confirm that De Ville was definitely dead. Herman started off certain, but became gradually less so. Liesl talked to Van Helsing, who commended Herman's dedication and quick thinking, but said that a mere explosion wouldn't have done it.

Van Helsing: Did he use any holy water? Any Host?

Liesl: You're saying we need to have our explosives blessed before we use them?

I forget whether Herman learned about Gabriel drinking De Ville's blood, but I think the two of them figured it out. Herman spent some time searching for some proof that De Ville was dead, but finally concluded that he was not, and sent Liesl a telegram to this effect.

Herman (I forget whether this was the telegram or what he said to Gabriel): The Devil reached up from Hell and saved De Ville. I think it's time to go to church.

Gabriel didn't particularly want to go, but Herman insisted. Gabriel didn't have any problem going inside the local church.

Meanwhile, Liesl ran back to Sebastian and Beatrice and gestured frantically behind Beatrice's back to indicate that Sebastian should not reveal to her anything he didn't want De Ville to know. The pantomime was hilarious. Of course, Sebastian had no intention of telling Beatrice anything De Ville shouldn't know; he'd already assumed De Ville had survived. To be fair, so had Liesl.

Liesl, however, had thought Sebastian believed De Ville dead. After all, that's what he'd said in front of Beatrice.

Sebastian: But if she thinks _we_ think he's dead --

Liesl: Is this an English thing?

Gabriel returned home after the evening service, leaving Herman to talk with the priest. On his return, he found the bodies of all of his servants, drained of blood. As he swore, he heard Ringler / De Ville's voice in his head.

Yes, Ringler had done this. He'd had to restore his strength after the attempt on his life. And Gabriel could always get more servants, or let these rise from the dead. And, in any case, if Gabriel tried to cross him, Ringler would make him regret it.

Gabriel, who, since the reality of his cured limp sunk in, had been planning to work with Ringler of his own free will, was neither pleased nor amused. He declined to tell Ringler where Quentin and Juliette were, not trusting the vampire to help either in any useful fashion.

After Ringler left, Gabriel did what was necessary so that his servants would not rise as vampires. He may have gotten some dust in his eyes, as he would certainly not have been weeping. Certainly not.

Herman returned after a nice talk with the pleasant, but clueless about the occult, priest and seeing a doctor for his injuries, no doubt explained as some kind of, er, porcelain accident, yes. He was appalled and sorry that Ringler / De Ville had killed Gabriel's servants, but saw the tarnished silver lining: Clearly, even though an explosion couldn't simply kill the vampire, it did weaken him, as he had to kill so many people.

Gabriel pretended to be unaware that Herman was still in the room as he placed the key and blueprints to Quantock Lodge in full sight of the man, expecting him to take them once Gabriel left the room, but wanting to be sure he didn't actually know whether Herman did.

On the one hand, having the servants massacred kills the temptation angle for Gabriel. On the other, it drives home that vampirism is not a condition to which one should aspire, and vampires are good guys. Also, we were overdue for some callous carnage on the part of the bad guys. And De Ville / Ringler made an interesting contrast with Dracula, who was more polite and subtle, but who is likely not so different under the veneer, and it may be a very thin veneer.

Liesl hypnotized Beatrice so that Sebastian could leak false information to Ringler.

Liesl: Go ahead -- she's a telegraph.

Liesl also put in some kind of posthypnotic command triggered by some word she told Sebastian.

WHAT WAS THE WORD? WHAT DOES IT DO? ALSO, WE NEED TO BE SURE NOT TO STOMP ON PLAYER AGENCY HERE.

I don't know what Sebastian told Beatrice, but I gather the idea was to make Ringler think that the PCs and their allies were going to split up into multiple groups that would be very hard to stop -- except at one particular point. Obviously, Ringler would have to plan an ambush there, and obviously, the PCs would be expecting that.