July 6, 2016

Agenda: 1940 Dracula Dossier Session #3

Pre-session email:

From me:

Okay. Joyce wants Dracula to go away and wants to 
make an exit plan.
Quimby and Hedy want Dracula fighting Nazis.
Isabella may be a bit conflicted.
Dexter may be retired or semi-retired as a PC.
Vito needs to be caught up.

There's a hyperspace beacon at hyperspace Castle Dracula.
The Roma are not happy because some of their own have 
been disappearing.
Dee is still an assh*le.

From Quimby's Player:

Quimby wants to make sure that Dracula has reason to hate 
the Nazis, even if he has to frame them for Romani 
disappearances, or drop Nazi aggro on D.

Come to think of it, Quimby might try and suss out Camilla 
to see if she, like Dracula, might also want to fight Nazis...
Or help fake Dracula aggression against Nazis....

Also, any Nazi that shows recruiting interest in D must die.

Hedy's Player: Hedy is willing to aid in all plots that involve assuring that there are vampires fighting Nazis.

Quimby's Player: Well Hedy, did I ever tell you that you are fabulous?

Hedy's Player: Darlin, you didn't have to.

From Joyce's Player: [ slow clap gif ]

As it turned out, Dexter's player missed this session, but Vito's player was able to make it.

This, of course, slowed things down, but that seemed to work well, as we were adding a new member to the group. The only thing that really boggled me was folks talking over me when I was trying to put the core clues out there. I decided that the best way to deal with that was to make two cheat sheets before the next session, one for Vito's player to bring him up to date (which everyone else could also use, of course), and one for everyone with whatever wasn't in it.

We went with my suggestion from last session: Vito had been in a different plane than Joyce, Quimby, and Hedy. He'd been in the one with the person who was supposed to brief everyone. Unfortunately, Vito was the only survivor from that plane, and the briefing never happened.

Vito himself had been injured in the crash and found by the Ruvari Szgany. They helped him recover, and now approached Dracula and the others coming from the interdimensional space where Castle Dracula was.

Vito knew Joyce, as they'd worked together in the late 1930s. He also knew Dexter, but Vito's player decided that it would be best to assume that Dexter was trying to avoid Vito, which fit what Dexter's player had indicated, so that the reunion could take place when both players were present. It wasn't that there was any ill will between the two men, just... well, Dexter was somewhat wary of the mobster, as he and his mother had gone to a lot of trouble to live within the law, something Vito and his fellow made men found adorable.

Vito tried to absorb the concept of Dracula as a real being.

Joyce: He is more powerful than anyone you've ever known.

Vito: ...

Joyce: I forgot who I was talking to.

After all, she and Vito had taken on mythos beings who were worshipped as deities, and they'd won, or at least, they'd walked away more or less physically intact, if mentally battered. Well, more or less. Vito had lost a hand and part of his arm, and had a hook in its place.

He had trouble focusing on Dracula, as that's one of the effects Dracula apparently can't really turn off. But, he have a conversation with the vampire, explaining how he'd lost his faith, and how he figured he owed Dracula and the Ruvari Szygany for the rescue after the plane crash.

Dracula: Are you making a confession? I am no longer a priest.

Vito: That's all right. I'm no longer a Catholic.

It felt as if -- and this, you understand, is a fine thing -- Dracula was mostly listening and watching, possibly slightly bemused, as everyone projected onto him what they thought he was.

Joyce did get annoyed with Vito. This was not unusual.

Vito / Vito's Player: Are you actually pulling a weapon?

Joyce / Joyce's Player: Let's just say I'm weapon adjacent.

Quimby felt that it would be a good thing to help the Roma out, as, after all, he was hoping Dracula would help Edom out by killing Nazis. Meanwhile, Joyce and Vito fell comfortably into old patterns.

Joyce: I'm more man than you!

Vito: Flirting will get you nowhere.

Joyce: You still have fucks left to give.

Somewhere in there, I think Isabella made an incredulous comment about how Joyce and Vito seemed to be comparing the size of their d*cks, metaphorical or otherwise.

Some time had passed since folks were in Castle Dracula, a bit more than had passed inside the castle. As people made their way to Bucharest, they learned that Romania had signed the Tripartite Pact.

Joyce (addressing both Quimby (who is British) and Isabella (who isn't)): Hey, Brits! You are now belligerents!

Quimby: What, you've shouted at me so much I'm belligerent now?

Dracula and the Roma left the agents, as Dracula could find them again and they'd be able to move more freely than the Roma and probably didn't want to invite a vampire into every place they'd be staying. Dexter returned to his castle.

Isabella took the others to her safehouse in Bucharest (as opposed to Joyce's safehouse in Bucharest -- it's a fine thing to have more than one safehouse available in a city). There she learned that it wasn't only Roma who were vanishing; Jews were also vanishing, as were transients and other folks who might be considered Undesirable or not missed by anyone important.

In addition, there was going to be a formal ceremonial reburial of a martyred Romanian hero, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who had led the Iron Guard, and 13 of his followers. These men had been, er, shot while trying to escape. Never mind that the shooting looked more like strangulation from behind. They had subsequently been tossed into an acid filled pit under about 7 tons of concrete.

The bodies had been exhumed a couple of days before the scheduled reburial, leading to a frenzy by the Iron Guard. Several members went into Fort Jilava prison, killing first those they'd blamed for the deaths of the martyrs, and then everyone they could. Witnesses said it was as if they'd been consumed by bloodlust and couldn't stop killing until it had gotten out of their system.

Folks pondered whether or not to go to the funeral, and Joyce planned an exit strategy with Isabella. I believe it involved a plane in the Carpathians, and possible Christopher Lee, as I'd said it's extra points for him.

Joyce: I have a terrible idea. We'll be Germans.

Vito: Mein Fraulein!

Joyce: Oh my god.

Joyce: So, if I shot him [ Vito ], no one would mind, right?

Isabella: (tempted)

Folks set up Covers for Joyce's and Isabella's exit plan.

Vito: Professor Wilhelm Wunst, Austrian specialist in "Orientalism", especially Rumi, determined not to let that Crowley fellow crow about his mountaineering (4 points).

Vito: I have a f*cking monocle!

Joyce: Of course he does.

GM: So, you have a monocle and a hook.

Joyce: Joshua Lincoln, American prospector and guide (5 points).

Hedy: Ada, arm candy (2 points).

Hedy: All right, who am I the arm candy of?

Vito: (offers arm)

Hedy decided to be Joshua's arm candy, however. Once Joyce realized this, she decided that Joshua needed to be just a bit more posh. Just a tiny bit.

Quimby: Franz Mueller, German engineer, planning to extract and discover oil and minerals by the train tracks and in the Carpathians (5 points).

Isabella: Elsa von Hildenbrandt, German woman keeping an eye on this "ill-fated expedition of my uncle's, as he is unable to do so" (5 points).

Vito: Sieg Heil! (gives the salute)

Joyce: Okay, that happened way too easily.

And we closed with Dexter arriving, talking about a priest who'd showed up with kids, Roma and Jewish, rescued from Fort Jilava.