Vampire: The Fangening

The fight up in Harlem continues. Frankie and Val eventually manage to incapacitate the Shovelheads and stuff their staked bodies in a car, along with the ghoul that can be useful for interrogative purposes later.

Lottie, meanwhile, sneaks off after the Sabbat guy leaving the scene. While being obfuscated she clings onto the outside of the guy's car to see where that might lead. He seems to be heading north west.

Edgar decides to go up to a door, and after seeing Theo heading in the same direction across the rooftops Frankie follows at a distance. Which turns out to be just as well, as Ecaterina shows up and makes Edgar a head shorter. Julius shows up to face her.

 The two cousins still on the scene, being utterly unable to help and not wanting to be a potentially fatal distraction for Julius, decide to see if they can find Lottie, but she has already hopped to a different car, and they have no idea where she is.

 

Just prepare the loot list for next week

We go on adventures with a mare cat! There's a village in the forest. Will they sell us a chicken? Elindra ends up giving them one of her daggers in return. One of the villagers has a symbol for the Punisher god? But he's forbidden - on pain of death! - to worship? The village is a bit whack. Giant trees, giant bears outside the village ... and a sleeping lindworm?! We tactically retreat.

A Mother Marsh says someone needs to owe her a favour if she's to guide the part across the marsh, unless we want her grumpy. Elindra does this, thinking she can do some convince-a-roo with the help of Xanatha later. We manage to safely cross the swamp.

The 6-year-old boy we met earlier shows up, and wants Murmei to eat some sort of nut to show he's not evil. Murmei eventually eats the nut, because he's not evil, FFS.

We were attacked by things we should've run away from.

There's an axe. There's a grove. There's an old elf? We eventually go to a cultist building and kill cultists. My notes vary greatly in their, ahem, detail. *cough*

We go to a land down under

We descend into the big sink hole! Therein, we encounter really big creatures, and the cave floor has a lovely mosaic pattern, which is a bit unexpected of a cave system. Seems like the tiles are Symbaroum-related, so someone's clearly behind this. It's not just a coincidence.

We also come across what appears to be a mushroom plantation, guard lizards, and spirit people in the water where there's an island of crystals. It would be beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying and deadly at the same time.

Damnit, I have narrative blue balls!

This is a combination of two sessions, partly because they were both short so not a lot was said, and because they both covered Elysium. The first was short because the GM had internet troubles and instead of having no game, we desperately improvised by ending up doing a group call using actual telephones. #OldSchool

So, Elysium. We were at the Met, sitting in the auditorium watching Faust: Part 1. There was a young man with Jeanine, but we didn't recognise him, nor did she introduce him to anyone, and when she did spot Frankie she didn't appear to recognise him? Don Cerro, the Brujah Primogen, talked to Jeanine who introduced the young man as Steven Maslowe. Who?

Nor did it appear the Prince knew, when he invited Lottie and Julius to speak with him. The Prince had invited the Sabbat (!) to Elysium, for a hitherto unknown reason. The Prince asked the two Malks to keep an eye on them, which they did from the Malkavian Primogen box. Lottie wasn't pleased at the Sabbat referring to her as a "morsel".

Frankie told Theo about the knife Jeanine (allegedly) gave him, as she broke into a third party's house to deliver it. Theo later invited Frankie to the Brujah Primogen box and offered to take him under his wing. Don Cerro was, perhaps understandably, a little miffed about this.

So, in front of the entire Camarilla and the Sabbat, Jeanine finally introduced Maslowe to the perplexed Prince as ... her previous Childe from Atlanta, who is hoping to make his mark on New York City. The only people happy about this were the Toreadors, who thought it was hilarious - except for Charlotte (we don't know why) and Val, because his cousin was just very publicly disowned by his Sire. The Brujah were not happy being screwed over by one of their own, but at least Frankie wasn't declared Caitiff as a result. Phew?

The Prince wanted a private word with the two newbies. Did Frankie realise how fucked he was? Sort of? Not really? (Frankie doesn't get politics.) But yeah, he's pretty fucked, as is probably everyone he cares about. (This is just about the worst thing to tell a character who is fiercely protective of his mortal family and who also isn't adjusting well to being a vampire ...)

The Prince said he could potentially offer the Mangano clan a boon of protection, but they would need to ask him the question he had granted them - specifically without Julius being there. Lottie asked about the broken twin ghouls, which the Prince was unable to answer, but said he'd look into. He then granted everyone "of Frankie's blood" the boon of protection, so that's one crisis averted - and another one created. Frankie's uncle (a.k.a. Lottie's "dad") is of course being actively harmed by another vampire's ghoul, so Angela will quickly have to stash him in some care home so he's out of the way. At least his mind is so broken now that he'll never regain proper consciousness ...

(We shouldn't worry about Charlotte being mind-controlled. We'll find out soon enough.)

Val had left with Charlotte, so Lottie and Frankie rejoined Julius and went back to the couple's Manhattan home to discuss events. Frankie went to bed early while Lottie talked about blood bonding with Julius in private, offering. Julius succeeded a Willpower roll to not throw himself at her.

And that's where we left it.

I'm the Aston Martin of barbarians

We met with barbarians! Deadorna and Valgai offered to heal people attacked by blight elks, but the barbarians refused. Deadorna spoke to them, because barbarians are her people after all. They mentioned a Sovereign Oath and a Blood Daughter.

Murmei made his sister a set of snake armour. It's dark green, making her look like the Green Arrow, which is excellent news.

We met with Kathman, the chief witch of the Vajvod tribe and also Deadorna's mentor. He's very knowledgable. Apparently there have been visions of an icy cold creeping into the world from Korratix Domain - that place we were stuck inside which had an opening to some kind of ice troll world ...

Elindra offered to bestow Xanatha's blessing on Deadorna, who chose to think about it.

Snakes on a claim!

Loot the wizard! Get all his things! Then we stuck barbs in a Blackcloak's underwear to stop him (her?) from being influenced by the thing under the hill.

We also bought a bunch of other people's claims to stop them from digging up the hill, because y'know, don't do that maybe?

The party finds some big-ass snakes kill them and bring them to Murmei for identification – a double botch later and it’s obvs clearly one of those harmless snakes that only eat small prey (and totally not sisters) and drop blood on books …

We know it's corrupted

There was an icky axe-a-mole thing in the arcade. I mean, everything about this place is icky and creepy, but ... y'know. We found a guy. We went into the Enchanted Wood, where we went past a creepy picnic (which we ignored, yay us) to find a shed in the woods.

There was an animatronic werewolf attacking us, because for some reason we were the three little piggies and we got out of the shed just before it collapsed? Being in a deadland is not recommended, by the way. You easily get damaged - as Vince can confirm.

Who wants to give a recap?

Well, since this session and calling ourselves out on being ungrateful players, we've provided the GM with pages upon pages of backstory, which he can screw us over with later. We're very proud.

That did not come into play in this session, though. Something else did, but I can't remember exactly what because I forgot to note down helpful reminders that I could use when trying to remember it months later.

Although I do remember why we only had a handful of quotes from the 30th (which I've included here) because while Lottie was busy having it off with Julius, Val and Frankie were followed when heading back to Val's place. It was a rival gang, and they ended up getting shot at. Frankie got shot quite severely, actually, and we were worried there for a bit. Fucking Brenda Toner.

Killing with the cunning use of surprising the monster to death!

We came across a goblin stockade, which turned out to only be the door to an underground cave system, where a goblin called Arag was king. He didn't know the other goblin king we had befriended many sessions ago, but agreed we seemed nice and friendly and invited us (minus Elindra and spider, who were hiding at the time) inside.

The goblin turned out to have what we needed, and there was talk of Valgai poisoning the mead barrel and we could take some goblins with us to the lindworm, but Murmei thought it was somewhat barbaric to murder everyone, including children, when the goblin king was actually being really friendly and helpful.

While waiting, Elindra and the spider killed two of the guards outside and made it look like big spiders had attacked. Because that way we'd have snacks for the lindworm. It's just that inside, at the goblin party, the king was actually consenting to have a hunting party coming with us to slay said lindworm. Ho hum.

When the "spider attack" was discovered, the hunting party was sent out with us to try and find and kill the spider. Seeing as how the spider was obviously Hairy Dog, we were in a bit of a pickle ... And as the party divulged what had been learned in the cave, the WAY OUT appeared. The goblins were told to go "over there" and search and we'd search somewhere else and re-group later. Basically, we walked down the path to freedom and didn't look back.

Walking all night, on the edge of the forest, Valgai noticed something strange ... it was a big worm-creature of corruption rising up to stop us getting out of the creepy bubble thing. It failed, and again it was Murmei who got to land the killing blow, much to his surprise. But we got out, FINALLY.

And lastly, we came across an injured old elf in a burned down hut, with bodies of ice trolls around. The ... the ice trolls can actually leave Korratix' Domain?! Like the creepy wolf said they could?!

Maybe the next place we go is peaceful

So, having survived eight creatures last time, we were now face with three big ones and a boss - all thanks to the number of things we had slain in total. The forest is apparently keeping score.

After a brave fight, where none of us died, Murmei (!) managed to land the final blow on the Death Prince, much to his own surprise.

We decided to head back to Rafe the gardening wraith to stay the night, as it seemed relatively safe, and gave him one of the satnav flowers. The next day we used one of said flowers to find some more things: the colour of an elk, and an old wizard playing a convoluted boardgame with a raven.

While Elindra chatted away to the raven, Valgai had a chat with the wizard and traded questions and answers. As it happened, the wizard had cast a time stop spell and was waiting for the raven to die of old age (so he wouldn't have to part with his fancy wand artefact), but it was of course a magical raven, and the game had lasted for 300 years already. The wizard got the last bit of info he needed and disappeared.

Later on, we came across a number of realistic-looking stone statues and a basilisk that wanted us to go kill a lindworm and cut out its eyes as a trophy. It gave us a dragonslaying sword as help. Diplomatic as ever we gave the sword to the lindworm and tried to trade info, but it went so-so. It wants to snack on some tasty goblins, but we're friends with goblins these days, and besides, we've not actually found any so far, so how that'll work out is anyone's guess.

Oh, what's a noble ball?

So Mother Dearest has arrived, and there's a ball to celebrate and everything. Two thirds of the party used said ball to scout from the rafters or from the floor, trying to find clues about the owl mask guy.

The remaining third was introduced to the two options of potential spouses. One was a merchant's daughter and thought adventuring was beneath a noble, plus she was terribly boring. The other was an alchemist and right up Murmei's alley, because she also didn't mind nobles adventuring.

Soooo ... end result: owl mask guy wasn't found, and Murmei's now head over heels in love with what is obviously Miss Trappy McTrapface. Fortunately the other two party members decided to be suspicious of Miss Too Glaringly Perfect, 21 and still unwed.

You can't have Hugh Jackman as a familiar

We decided to go all SWAT team on the cultists. There was a mage abomination and a vindictive demon. Those things are no more, because we're pretty good fighters, actually.

It had to be maggots

In this thrilling instalment, Elindra was ambushed. It turned into Valgai also being ambushed and them killing a bunch of people before they had a chance to kill them. Maggot bomb spells were thrown, and it was gross and painful.

They caught a survivor and decided to interrogate him, while another of the survivors had legged it through the south gate. Murmei eventually was helpful in getting to some messages that were found, and another link to Ravenia was discovered.

Plot, thickening, and so on.

There's one such thing as coincidence

We're still in Thistle Hold. Elindra has a great plan to avoid getting mind-controlled by the Symbaroum king again, which probably won't work and she might end up wiping the rest of the party. As she came to discover the cellar where we found the flayer in a previous session was part of some ancient Symbaroum ruins. Maybe the whole town was built upon ancient Symbaroum ruins?

Valgai decided to play politics and have the domestic servant clean the house in order for Murmei's mum and her entourage to have somewhere to live when they arrive, while he and Elindra stay in an inn somewhere. He probably has some kind of blood-based tracking spell on him, but doesn't currently want to remove it for strategic reasons.

Murmei stayed in his tower learning to summon a fire elemental into the armour - and succeeded! He now has a pet, and proudly told everyone what he's calling it. Whether or not it can speak is yet to be determined.

Oh, and the place where Elindra had seen the cultists go in and out? It burned down, and she didn't do it. Plus some dude in a tree house inn was curious to know more about when Murmei's mum was arriving. Curiouser and curiouser for sure, and we're no closer to actually starting our Davokar expedition either.

We clearly don't have enough enemies

In this gripping episode, Valgai started to train the city guards (they clearly need improvement) and Elindra went undercover to try and find out more about the cultists lurking around Toad's Square. They are up to something, planning an attack. Nefarious creatures.

Murmei, locked up in a tower like Rapunzel, had a mysterious visitor - a man in noble clothes, wearing an owl mask, promising glory and whatnot ... but the problem is that he was trying to recruit Murmei of all people ...

The session ended when Valgai had a knock on the door. A dwarf woman came to the door, said some words in foreign, stabbed herself in the guts and died ... and turned into smoke. Her words were a warning from the old king of Symbaroum: "I'm coming for you."

We built this weapon for rock 'n' roll!

After playing with a plant, growing it to gignatic proportions and hatching one of Auriga's protectors from it, we took Denethor's Floating Wagon to a hole in the ground. A big, big hole in the ground full of necrophages, eww. Down there we found a thoon hulk, some spider type creatures and a throne.

Battle ensued.

We were looking rather out-gunned, then Auriga's moth creature crawled under the throne platform, and it eventually cracked, and there was a big ass Rotten Court general hiding there. Which we, by the skin of our teeth, managed to somehow down.

And then we got pelted by dropping dead necrophages and got the hell out of there.

Mutually beneficial non-extinction

Denethor made himself "Denethor's Floating Wagon" and came to join us. In the underground vault place, Elani (mistakenly called "Elindra" in last week's post, which has now been fixed - but which I realised during this session and pointed out - and then we kept calling her by the wrong name!) made a garden of plants that could feed people and other ones that could sort of concentrate levels of dust. Gunda went a bit Sermon on the Mound about Auriga, who may or may not also want to bless cheesemakers.

Yeenogh and Umberlee had a party, complete with a beer dragon - that's a dragon which has a beer breath. A must-have at all parties!

In the end we gathered us all on Denethor's Floating Wagon, extended to fit six people, and headed south to speak to the dragon people. Elani impressed them by transforming into a silvery dragon, because these dragons don't have metallic colours. They have been working on a teleport spell to get all of the dragon people in their city safely to a suitable planet nearby, however, they're now willing to help us as well.

I only have a small retcon this week

We continue toward civilisation. Murmei got a papercut from the old map - the meaning of this has yet to be revealed, but might become important later - when we do the sidequest the troll gave us instead of the main quest.

As we were making our way through the forest, we saw a big snake-type creature coiled around a tree branch, but it completely failed to spot us - somehow - so we decided to leave it alone. It's the type of creature that will pick off people one by one so it can eat in peace, and we didn't much like the thought of being eaten, frankly. Besides, if it hasn't noticed us ... let's just move along.

Moving along, we came across some elves. Elindra talked to them, making sure to name-drop some winter elves we had befriended previously. This made them decide among themselves that we weren't worth the bother killing, so we didn't have to fight them either.

The guide proved so observant we didn't notice we were nearing a cairn until we were almost on top of it. It rumbled and a hole opened up, with a couple of undead coming out of it - the type that would indicate a necromage might be in the vicinity - so we decided to give it a wide berth.

In fact, we made it all the way back to Thistlehold without murdering anything. So, true to form, Elindra decided to change that, by murderising some people that had "our" house under surveillance ...

It's fun to heal at the OMHQ!

Valgai got the minimum amount of healing possible from someone at the Ordo Magica because dice are evil. We also delivered the book back to Master Eufrynda, who was so delighted with us she gave us another task we could do. Someone had gone missing in the Davokar forest and would we mind awfully going after them?

Yes, yes we would, but here we are, putting together an expedition and planning to escape the town unnoticed ...

Speaking of unnoticed, Elindra was trying her hardest to spread misinformation around the beggars and cutpurses ... but was so terrible at Persuasion she ended up murdering a whole bunch instead. C'est la vie?

We beat the plot

We took a different route back to civilisation, Murmei's "great aunt Sandra" a.k.a. the Night Lady in tow. Elindra, out scouting, came across a patrol of Templars, so led them on a wild goose chase while Valgai, Murmei and "great aunt Sandra" sneaked past.

Night Lady delivered to her fanclub, and we proceeded further to Yndaros. Crossing a big river we were subjected to very thorough immigration controls (that's where the latex comment comes in), but managed to get through and boarded the rope ferry.

The Templars caught up with us, but by that time we had already made it to the other side. We managed to burn the rope, halting their progress for what might be a few days, and met up with more of the fanclub. Full payment received, we went shopping, as we were still a bit away from our final destination - Thistle Hold.