January 20, 2016
Seventh Meeting: 20 January 2016
Agenda: 1894 Session #5
Roxana's player had returned and was now playing Gabriel Arthur Godolphin Osborne, a fictional younger son of the Duke of Leeds. He was a friend of the Parton family, particularly Juliette Parton and her brother Quentin. Juliette had been engaged to Sebastian, but broke it off with him when he had Quentin arrested for embezzlement to cover gambling debts. Gabriel is engaged to he now, worried about her failing health, furious at Sebastian, and worried about Quentin, back from serving his prison sentence, but erratic enough he's been institutionalized at the St. Ignatius Institution for the Mentally Weary, located across the street from Carfax Abbey.
On top of that, his fiance was mysteriously ill. He'd found a piece of paper in her room naming Quantock Lodge and a date. Gabriel went out to Quantock Lodge and spied from outside, seeing his fiance, accompanied by another man! She moved as if entranced, and several others, who did not seem entranced were there as well, including her father. This, we agreed, was when Beatrice was there, but Gabriel wasn't paying a lot of attention to her or even seeing a lot of what went on inside. No, he learned just enough to make him determined to find out more -- and without asking Sebastian for help!
Gabriel paid Quentin a visit on the same day that Liesl and Herman visited St. Ignatius and Sebastian and Beatrice snuck into Carfax Abbey. I had to remind myself that Trail's Lockpick is NBA's Infiltrate. With an 8, Sebastian easily got into Carfax, where he and Beatrice found 26 of Dracula's 50 boxes of earth. They did nothing to them, as they weren't sure what needed to be done, although Sebastian did take a soil sample.
Looking across to St. Ignatius, Sebastian Noticed Quentin and Gabriel, and decided to Disguise himself and Beatrice as a visiting minister and his assistant. Beatrice, who'd taught Sebastian much about make up spent 1 point, while Sebastian spent 4 for a total of 10.
Herman talked to George Stoker, played by Liesl's player, as that was her character when we playtested Stoker: First Blood.
WHAT DID GEORGE SAY TO HERMAN AND VICE VERSA?
Liesl talked to Carl Bradshaw, the man who attacked Herman in the public baths. He'd attacked Herman because the Master had told him to do so, and because the Blood was the Life, and drinking Herman's blood would surely add to his life!
Liesl hypnotized him, using her MOS. I decided that Dracula should talk briefly to her through Carl when she told Carl not to let his master know about her hypnosis.
Carl-in-Dracula-Voice: Oh, I don't mind.
Somewhat shaken, Lisel told Carl to let Dracula know that she would be willing to meet him on neutral ground. She then told Carl to count and keep counting. When he asked about either food or sleep, I forget which, she said he could stop for that, but must then pick up counting afterwards. As of the end of the 9 March 2016 session, Carl is still counting. It's been at least ten days since her visit to the asylum, possibly a bit over two weeks.
I'm not exactly sure what happened with disguised Sebastian and Beatrice, but by the time I cut back to them, they were with Gabriel and Quentin, and Sebastian had revealed himself.
WHAT DID I MISS?
Gabriel was not amused, and I think tried to hit Sebastian. He kept doing this, and at one point, managed to land a blow, I think.
Sebastian: You're in an asylum. If you go mad, everyone will catch it.
Gabriel: That's not how madness works!
Liesl: Ehhh...
Quentin (to Gabriel about Sebastian): If I hit him, they'll put me in a straightjacket, right?
Gabriel (hits Sebastian)
Gabriel was brought more or less up to date. Vampires were real. Someone named De Ville had attacked his fiance, and Quentin had witnessed this. De Ville held some kind of Satanic rite or party or something at Quantock Lodge, and Beatrice reached it from London by coach faster than should have been possible. Oh, and there were other vampires as well -- Carmilla and her "Mama". I don't recall if the PCs yet knew that De Ville wasn't Dracula.
Gabriel: Do you need a chapel?
Liesl: Is it consecrated?
Herman: I don't know if I trust this shouting man.
Sebastian: If we don't tell him what's going on, he'll just get in the way.
Gabriel: And I'm very large, so I'm very _good_ at getting in the way.
Sebastian: He's Juliette's fiance.
Liesl: So, you're like enemies.
Sebastian: Yes, exactly!
Liesl (to Gabriel): Pardon me, are you still angry about this?
Sebastian: Yes.
Herman (to Gabriel): But didn't you hit him? Doesn't that settle it?
Folks went to Gabriel's London home with its chapel.
Gabriel (to Herman and Liesl): So, now that you are in this country, who are you and why are you working with Lord Wimsey?
Folks talked about the people who had gone insane or were considered insane.
Beatrice: The question is are we _all_ insane?
Liesl: For the purposes of billing, yes.
Sebastian started to explain about his encounter with Carmilla's "mama".
Sebastian: Her [Carmilla's] mother --
Gabriel: Wasn't she the one who was shtupping Winaretta Singer?
Sebastian: Almost certainly.
There followed a very brief digression as I asked how Gabriel picked up the Yiddish term.
Liesl: I believe our <illegible -- something to do with vampires?> is magic.
Gabriel: That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Sebastian: I prefer to think of it as a disease.
Liesl mentioned how she'd offered to meet Dracula on neutral ground, and Herman noted that this was dangerous. After all, the vampire might --
Liesl: Attempt to eat me or destroy my immortal soul -- that's a thing you have, right?
Herman: So do you. You just deny it.
Sebastian explained how Beatrice fit into the whole Satanic ritual at Quantock Lodge.
Sebastian: My friend here was offered to Juliette.
Liesl: That's bad. That's very bad.
Gabriel: Oh... f*ck.
As for Carmilla herself:
Liesl: Carmilla wasn't running around Europe for 400 years. (pause) Please tell me she wasn't running around for 400 years, because I'm having trouble dealing with it.
Presuming Sheridan Le Fanu's account was relatively accurate, it's more like 300 years.
Sebastian: What evidence do they have that she is dead?
Herman: Historical record.
Liesl: Even regular dead people show up in mirrors.
And they told Gabriel about how Dracula came to England with nothing more than 50 boxes of dirt, 26 of which were in Carfax Abbey.
Liesl: And have you looked at the shipping costs on that?
At this point, rats started swarming into the chapel. My notes, if I am reading them correctly, indicate that Herman killed or scattered 2 and Sebastian killed or scattered 6, leaving 4 -- at the moment. Liesl cowered behind Gabriel.
Gabriel: Stop flailing -- my God -- I only have one good leg -- do you understand?
Fortunately, this was his home, and he had a plan. After all, he is the closest PC to Arthur Godalming.
Gabriel (blowing dog whistle): Come Dasher! Come Dancer!
Sebastian: You named your dogs after that hideous poem?
Gabriel: I _like_ that poem!
Yep, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", aka "The Night Before Christmas", was written in 1823.
The dogs drove off or killed the rats.
Liesl: Great! I am surrounded by rat corpses -- and dogs!
Herman thought perhaps a priest might be useful. Did Gabriel have one?
Herman: A house priest? A resident of a house chapel?
I forget the answer. Folks caught their breath and decided on their next step.
- Liesl would go to the British Museum to do research on topics including, but not limited to, cobras and vampires. I'm not sure what the cobras had to do with it.
- Beatrice would talk to the street kids about the invisible giggling entity that had attacked Liesl.
- Sebastian and Gabriel would break into the Chicksand place that Dracula had acquired.
- Herman would study the dirt that Sebastian had brought from Carfax Abbey
I think Liesl's studies included trying to confirm Carmilla's identity. After some out of character confusion (the player thought she might be Elizabeth Bathory, having not read the novel, I think), Liesl was able to find an art catalog showing a picture of the Countess Karnstein, clearly the same person as Carmilla Sterenic, down the the mole on her neck. The art catalog was the player's idea, which I loved because I wanted her having the clue and couldn't figure out how she'd get it without days passing writing and getting confirmation.
Liesl also had an idea about who might know more, but recoiled from it in dread.
Liesl: Oh no. Not the Dutchman!
Why yes, that did indeed refer to Van Helsing, whom I'd never intended to show up in game. But, I had opened the door to that possibility when I introduced John Seward and his asylum.
Meanwhile, Beatrice got the kids to talk to her. They explained that there was this guy, Mr. Hardcannon. He supplied freaks to a Mr. Barker, and Mr. Barker had a lot of street kids who worked for him. Any who disobeyed him were given to Mr. Hardcannon to mutilate. And you never saw Mr. Hardcannon, only heard him. And they said that his laugh was the last thing you ever heard.
Beatrice went to the Ten Bells, where Mr. Barker could be found, drinking and doing business. She didn't learn a lot, but she found herself outside Ten Bells, and it was a couple of hours later. She had a vague memory of De Ville asking questions and getting disquieted, perhaps even very afraid, upon learning about the attack of rats.
Sebastian and Gabriel found half a dozen boxes of dirt in the Chicksand place, along with much fine porcelain, various business papers, and a lot of money. I think Gabriel took the money and burned the papers.
Gabriel: My desire to wreck half this man's porcelain --
Sebastian convinced him not to do so.
Gabriel: Well, I hope you're right -- otherwise, I'm going to regret not breaking his porcelain.
Sebastian: Oh, you will anyway.
Sebastian recognized that the dirt here was not the dirt at Carfax Abbey, which had been Transylvannian dirt. No, this was someone else's dirt. Sebastian took a sample, and I think Gabriel took a piece or two of the porcelain.
The PCs reconvened. By now, Liesl had sent a telegram to Van Helsing, hoping he would sent answers to her questions on vampires. To her horror (and by the player's decision), instead, he sent a brief telegram.
ARRIVE TOMORROW VH
I have a vague idea that this was the player's idea, not mine, and it gave me a good idea of where to end the evening's session.
Herman looked at both samples of dirt Sebastian had given him. The one from Carfax was Transylvanian dirt, almost certainly what Count Dracula took with him. The one from Chicksand was from Germany. More precisely, it was from the part of Germany that his hero and author of his Symbol, Johann Jakob Ringler hailed.
Johann Jakob Ringler had sold the secret of porcelain in the early 1700s to fund his vampire hunting, and the Symbol was his journal chronicling his hunting. This put Ringler at the right time to have known of Countess Karnstein, and indeed, his journal told of how he had joined forces with Baron Vordenberg to destroy her.
NOTE: POSSIBLE CORRECTION TO WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING: IF IT WASN'T THIS: YES, LE FANU'S BOOK EXISTS, BUT IT CHRONICLES EVENTS THAT SUPPOSEDLY TOOK PLACE AFTER RINGLER AND VORDENBERG FAILED TO DESTROY CARMILLA. THIS DOESN'T ACTUALLY CHANGE ANYTHING IN THE CAMPAIGN BUT DOES MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THERE WAS NO REASON FOR HERMAN TO THINK MIRCALLA SURVIVED AND BECAME CARMILLA BACK WHEN HE WAS AT MISSELTHWAITE MANOR.
But, Countess Mircalla Karnstein clearly had not been destroyed. She had taken on the identity of Carmilla, and whatever the truth of Le Fanu's book, the one he died shortly after it was published, Carmilla clearly did not die a permanent death.
And Count De Ville had a fondness for porcelain and had filled the Chicksand house with it. What Gabriel brought from it had clearly been made by Ringler -- same technique, maker's mark, and so on. Herman looked at his prized journal in growing horror.
Herman: Ringler! Oh no! Oh -- Wimsey -- you're playing a joke! Good one!
Sadly, Herman could not lie to himself that well about this. We discussed how to handle the matter of losing his Symbol and concluded that, while Herman could choose something else to be a Symbol in the journal's place, it was more interesting to say that he'd lost his Symbol until the following conditions were met:
- Ringler / De Ville was dead (preferably, but not necessarily, at Herman's hand)
- Herman corrected the journal so that truth replaced any lies in it
And the journal wasn't utterly filled with lies. Ringler had begun it in good faith. Unfortunately, he was turned by Countess Karnstein, and his entries from that point on were at best half truths. He might have destroyed or re-written the journal at some point, but he obviously lost possession of it. Then again, he might have kept it as it was. My take on Ringler / De Ville is that "Count De Ville" is a dumb name and Ringler is far from the smartest vampire around.
Liesl now hypnotized Beatrice, either spending or rolling a 3, and getting a total of 9. This let her confirm that Count De Ville had mental dominance over Beatrice and had summoned her from Ten Bells, and that he was indeed afraid of Dracula.
NOTE THIS MINOR RETCON -- OR PERHAPS NOT EVEN A RETCON BUT AN EXPLAINING OF THE FACTS:
Of course, De Ville was living in one of the places that Dracula had purchased. I hadn't thought of the hows and whys of that, but I think one of the following explanations works:
- De Ville approached Dracula, pretending to be on his own, and Dracula arranged for him to have the Chicksand place. Dracula later learned that De Ville was part of Carmilla's entourage and was less than pleased.
- Dracula did not arrange for the Chicksand place. Edom did, and the traitor within Edom saw that it went to De Ville.
Gabriel was still putting the pieces together about Dracula, as he'd had a lot of information dumped on him.
Gabriel: Why would he pick England?
Herman: England invited him.
Gabriel: Wait, what?
Liesl: To quite literally give the devil his due, they did betray him.
Meanwhile, Herman figured out that the soil is important because of telluric fields. In mechanical terms, the Director's Handbook for the Dracula Dossier introduces a new type of NBA vampire, the telluric vampire. That's the one I'm using.
But, confusing the issue, Christian holy paraphernalia seem to work on the vampires the PCs have met. One reason for this is, as Liesl suggested, psychosomatic. There is another reason as well, but this only applies sometimes.
Regardless, Liesl was unimpressed by Herman's and Sebastian's talk about telluric currents. Sebastian thought her talk of vampires and magic absurd? And now he was bringing up this -- whatever this was?
And, of course, the inevitable quote: "Maybe we can reverse the polarity of the _Telluric Currents_!"
But, could this be leveraged to destroy the properties of the soil allowing a vampire to be refreshed?
Herman: Perhaps high temperature over a long period of time?
Sebastian: So, we need a kiln.
Gabriel: We will defeat the vampire with pottery!
Liesl: It worked so well with Ringer...
Gabriel: Lord Wimsey, one more thing.
Sebastian: Yes, Lord Godolphin?
Gabriel: Will you help me get Juliette away from her father?
Beatrice: I'll help you whisk her away!
Herman continued to brood.
Herman: I'm beginning to see what [George] Stoker meant about conquering death.
Liesl: Think of this porcelain as soaked in blood. Maybe that will help.
(pause)
Herman: No, it's not helping.
Gabriel suggested a retreat from London.
Gabriel: These people have made this city theirs. I want to go somewhere I can make mine.
And then, later, they could rescue Juliette.
Beatrice: Why is the rescuing happening later?
Folks agreed that Beatrice was right and that the sooner the rescuing happened, the later. Liesl decided to go to St. Ignatius to talk to Quentin, and called ahead to let Dr. Seward know this.
Seward: But... Quentin Parton is no longer here. His father brought him home an hour ago.
Liesl thanked him for the update, and folks made plans.
Beatrice, Gabriel, and Liesl would go to rescue Juliette and Quentin from their father. Gabriel was going for personal reasons, Beatrice for the thrill of adventure, and Liesl because Juliette was going to need a doctor.
Herman and Sebastian would go to the Picadilly house.
Someone: So, we have the Rescue Party and the Break-In party.
Me: And it's night time.
My notes mention an Explosives roll of 9. I'm not sure what it was for, but I'm guessing breaking into the Picadilly place, probably from the rear entrance. I've got notes about a Stealth roll, which probably means Infiltration, because this is NBA, not Trail, and I think that has to do with Gabriel and the rest of the Break-In party, but I'm not sure.
Regardless, Sebastian and Herman managed to get inside the Picadilly place without alerting neighbors or police. They were attacked by a tiny man, maybe a foot or two high, and I think there was a Sense Trouble roll involved. Then there was something of a standoff between Sebastian and Herman on one side, and the little man and a woman with a pistol on the other side.
It quickly became clear to the two men that the woman was from Edom, and, unlike previously met people working for Edom, she seemed both loyal and competent. She told them that everything was under control and that the earth boxes in the house would be dealt with. She didn't tell them how, but she did tell them how many boxes there were in the house.
ANYONE REMEMBER THE NUMBER? IF NOT, LET'S MAKE IT 10.
Sebastian and Herman retreated, somewhat disgruntled.
Sebastian: F*cking Edom.
Meanwhile, Gabriel decided to get some men from his club to help in the rescue mission, and the players agreed that, awkwardly, Sebastian and Gabriel were in the same gentleman's club, The Viceroy Club.
Naturally, the men weren't told, "We're trying to rescue my fiance and her brother from her father who's in league with Satanists and vampires." No, they were told that this was an elopement. These were not the sharpest of men, but they were up for a bit of raucous, harmless fun. I told folks they could play Gabriel's twit minions, er, I mean, respectable gentlemen friends from the Viceroy Club.
This helped with the Infiltration. It wasn't a subtle burglary, of course, more a social ambush. The Partons suddenly found their house overrun by Gabriel's friends. Gabriel found Quentin and got him out of there, and I think Beatrice arranged to get Juliette lowered down from a window to Liesl. The dice were on the side of young love, or at least of rescuing the younger Partons.
That left getting the distraction to retreat, which was a little tricky as, by now, one of the men was at the pianoforte, playing Chopin.
Piano player: But this is the best part -- this is the part I always mess up!
One of his friends: Well, you messed it up again!
Gabriel, Beatrice, and Liesl got Quentin and Juliette to a place of safety, where they were joined by Herman and Sebastian. This was probably the hotel suite where Liesl or Herman was staying, although the Partons were moved later. Herman was starting to have some doubts about Sebastian Wimsey. After all, this man was a very odd blend of aristocrat and detective. Very suspicious, no?
Herman: Maybe Wimsey's just his cover!
But, what to do about Juliette, who was sinking fast from blood loss?
Someone, possibly Sebastian: We may have to do a blood transfusion.
Liesl: That's completely experimental!
Unlike Van Helsing in the novel, Liesl was well aware just how dangerous blood transfusions were in the 1890s. On the other hand, if she did nothing, Juliette would die.
Liesl (steeling herself for the inevitable): Well, we have her brother. We'll use his blood. At least that way, there's a better chance she won't die from the transfusion.
And this was reasonable logic from someone who knew nothing about blood types or Rh factors. I forget what I did to figure the odds, but luck was with Liesl, and Juliette did not die.
And, while we had a little bit of play after it, if this were a television show, the final shot would be the door to the suite opening and a wild-eyed man announcing himself.
Newcomer: It is I -- Van Helsing!
