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labcats2006-03-26 02:09 am
drcpunk.livejournal.com) wrote in labcats2006-03-26 02:09 am
Sorcerer Campaign: Sixth Session Write Up
I've been running a Sorcerer campaign for about six months, and I expect it to wrap soon. The write up of the latest session, plus links to the previous write ups on the Forge Actual Play forum, are behind the cut tag. I am hoping that we'll have another session next week.
Sixth Sorcerer Session -- March 8, 2006
Links to earlier sessions:
The description of the characters and the write up of the first session
The write up of the second session
The write up of the third session
The write up of the fourth session
The write up of the fifth session
Demons are limited to Passers (in animal form) and Possessors (without Hop).
GM: Lisa Padol
Joshua Kronengold: Herr Doktor Professor Sebastian Black, disqualified from being Graf von Black due to his limp. Teaches Philosophy.
His demons: 'Elena, a Passer Raven, and Minerva, a Possessed Mouse. 'Elena is jealous of Minerva, but has not yet tried to eat the new demon.
Dave Demast: Herr Doktor Professor Andreas von Ouranenburg, not himself a noble, but cousin and friend of Graf Rupert von Ouranenburg. Teaches Natural Philosophy, with dissections and vivisections. Potential serial killer, falling in love with Sebastian's niece Ysabel.
His demons: Orion, a Passer Dog, and Leonardo, a nobleman possessed by a rabbit spirit.
Beth Bartley: Ingrid von Pfender, plague-scarred heiress and university student. Wears a veil to hide her scars. Like Andreas and Sebastian, she discovered the existence of Possessor demons a day ago. Unlike them, she has not tried to summon a Possessor.
Her demon: Aquila, a Passer Eagle.
Julian Lighton: Niccolo di Tarci, talented artist who would want to be Leonardo da Vinci if he'd ever heard of him. Horrified at having summoned a Possessor demon into the daughter of his patron, and less than thrilled to learn that he'd given her brother, Marcello, the idea of summoning a Possessor into his brother Leonardo. Before that, Niccolo was blissfully ignorant of sorcery, and Marcello had only summoned demons into his children, not realizing that one could summon them into adults. Niccolo has only recently become aware of the existence of Passer demons and plans to summon one to deal with the demons in Marcello's children.
His demon: Teresa Mantuo, a noblewoman possessed by a fox spirit. Leonardo's sister. Teresa is starting to lose patience with Niccolo. Her Need is physical intimacy; her Desire is Love. Last session, Niccolo gave her plenty of the former, as they had sex as part of an attempt at banishing the latest demon summoned by Marcello.
Pamela Gutman: Sophia von Winterhagen, scandalously unmarried, but hardly celibate. Sophia is a swordswoman, a sort of society-approved assassin-for-hire who takes money to kill people in duels. She does not know about Possessor Demons.
Her demon: Nariya, a Passer Cat.
We gathered at Lerner, in the cafeteria off the lobby, then headed up to the GC open area, which had space. Whee!
Lingering Humanity Gain / Loss rolls from last session were made. I recapped where everyone was.
In the house of Graf Rupert von Ouranenburg, in a room with Niccolo and Rupert's lover, Ludwig, now revealed as a sorcerer (to Sebastian and Niccolo), Sebastian struggled to assimilate two visions rapidly. The first, seen via his link with 'Elena, revealed that his brother, Edmund, and his niece, Ysabel, had been kidnapped by Horst von Pfender, Ingrid's uncle. The second, seen via his link with Minerva, showed Einhardt Schilderote, the head of the university where Sebastian is a professor, having men plant the dead body of Sebastian's chair, Volkert Horsenfeldt, in Sebastian's apartments.
Josh was a bit confused, at first thinking Volkert, who hated Sebastian, was planting a corpse. We unconfused him, and Julian noted that this was Sebastian's Price, Arrogance to Social Superiors, in action.
Sebastian referred semi-obliquely to his problems. Well, not all that obliquely. He didn't tell LUdwig that it was Ludwig's uncle, Einhardt, who'd planted Volkhardt's corpse, but he did tell him and Niccolo that it had happened. He also mentioned the kidnapping. Ludwig asked if he could help, and Sebastian asked for help on the corpse. Ludwig agreed.
Meanwhile, Graf Rupert talked with his cousin, Andreas, and mentioned Horst's period of visiting the von Ouranenburg home, years ago, and speculated on whether Horst and Rupert's mother, Gudrun, had been lovers just before Frederiche von Winterhagen and Gudrun had been lovers. Andreas listened, fascinated, until Rupert suggested that they visit Ludwig, Niccolo, and Sebastian.
Ingrid, meanwhile, knew about her uncle kidnapping the Graf von Black and his daughter via her link with Aquila, but didn't want anyone knowing that she knew, as she couldn't account mundanely for this information. She took Horst's son, Arvid, to their great-grandfather, THE von Pfender, Siegfried. She told Siegfried's majordomo, Burkhardt, about Horst's second attempt to kidnap Frederiche's bastard daughter, Sigrid. Burkhardt passed this on to Siegfried, whose assessment was the same as Ingrid's. He told her to bring Arvid to Avrid's sister Anje's house, and to get Arvid, Anje, and Anje's kids out of the city to the von Pfender country estates.
Sophia had just received the severed hand of her brother, Frederiche von Winterhagen, along with a note from Horst, which demanded the Book of the Heart of the Beast in return for her brother's release. Furious, she strode out of the opera house to look for Horst. Her other brother, Fritz, started to caution her, then just told her to nail Horst to the wall.
Rupert and Andreas entered the room where Niccolo, Sebastian, and Ludwig were sitting, as a couple of Ludwig's cats exited through the window, leaving folks to wonder OOC how Minerva would fare.
Josh: She'll use Cover.
Julian: Oh, great. She'll look just like a mouse.
Josh (as Rupert and Andreas arrive): One. Activate the link with 'Elena. Two. -He- has just come in.
"He" was Andreas, whose name Ysabel von Black had been screaming when she was kidnapped.
Andreas recognized the cats as demons, but not Ludwig as a sorcerer. I -think- Ludwig recognized Andreas as a sorcerer, but not Orion as a demon.
Oh yes, as I noted, Ludwig's cats are Polydactyl Puddy Tats, and Ludwig, who started off as Liesel in my notes, was very loosely inspired by Leslie Fish.
Sebastian brought everyone up to date about the von Black kidnappings, adding that the news about Ysabel would, no doubt, interest Andreas. Rupert and Andreas were quite willing to help Sebastian. Niccolo privately offered to do so as well, in return for help with a matter in Italy involving summoning a demon.
Sophia reached Horst's house. The servants said that he was at Dieter von Hirsch's house. Graf von Hirsch is a descendant of the last Furst's sister-in-law, and the closest thing Vindabona has to a First Among Equals. Horst was trying to get backing for some of his actions. Sophia stalked off to Graf von Hirsch's home, doubly angry that Horst was making her -look- for him!
Ingrid and Arvid arrived at Anje's house, waking her and delivering Siegfried's message. Anje gave orders to her servants to get ready to leave town, fuming that her father, Horst, was a fool, that Gudrun had -not- killed his eldest child back when she'd just been born and the boy was two. Babies just die sometimes. But, no, clearly Horst still blamed Gudrun von Ouranenburg. Ingrid decided to warn Rupert von Ouranenburg to take care lest Horst attack his house.
Sophia was approached by Rainer Schwanhausser's demon, Trismegistus, the weasel with the human face, who offered to teach her. (This is the demon's Need.) She turned him down, explaining that she needed to kill Horst.
Trismegistus (misunderstanding): You want to kill my master?
Sophia: No, I want to kill Horst.
Trismegistus decided that was fine, even though Horst was Rainer's patron.
Julian (on reading the above): Demons are such loyal critters.
Rupert, Sophia, and Siegfried's men searched for Horst. Well, Rupert's dogs and Orion were actually looking for the missing von Blacks, and Dave briefly considered the idea of having Andreas surreptitiously pull out a handkerchief of Ysabel's for the dogs to get her scent. He decided against this. We rolled for the 3 groups of searchers. Unsurprisingly, Sophia, who knew where to go, arrived first.
Dieter's men wouldn't let her in, though she sent them with messages a couple of times. The first time they returned, they said that Horst said that she could give the book to them. She was not amused. She showed the guards her brother's severed hand, scolding one of them when he poked at it. Nariya slipped in during one of the guard's trips back and forth. Sophia tried to push past the guards, but Pamela blew her roll.
Rather than decide that Sophia had failed to get inside, though it theoretically made sense for a lot of competent guards to block her, I decided that she'd gotten in fine, and then gotten lost. In other words, I decided to use conflict resolution, not task resolution. The conflict was over whether or not she found Horst. She had no idea where in Dieter's house the man might be.
Nariya had found a way, but it was cat-sized, not Sophia-sized. Nariya worked on finding a way that Sophia could go.
Julian noted that the above was actually more GM fiat than true conflict resolution due to the lack of firm stakes. As he said, I probably should have said yes rather than requiring a die roll, as the servants were unnamed mooks, and Sophia was a kickass swordswoman. I was fumbling around a bit, trying to match people's pacing, which was a mistake, and it wasn't until I figured out where to use a particular bang that things finally started to click.
The fumbling around was a flaw, and I knew it at the time, though I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Josh explained that, by breaking up what Sophia was doing with obstacles and intercutting, I was putting more spotlight on her. But, at the same time, she wasn't getting to do anything interesting with spotlight, until things clicked. This is a bad combination, and I'm still surprised that the overall session went as well as it did.
Ingrid arrived at the von Ouranenburg manor and actually recognized that Rolph the Butler was a demon. So far, only she and Niccolo, both of whom have low Lore, have noticed this. Andreas and Sebastian, the high Lore PCs have not, while Sophia hasn't yet seen Rolph in the campaign.
Ingrid delivered her warning. Rolph said that the master had gone out with the dogs, for Horst had kidnapped Graf von Black and his heir. Rolph invited Ingrid in. Ingrid turned him down and urged him to prepare for an attack. After all, if Horst had already kidnapped nobles and attacked Frederiche's bastard daughter, he might well attack Rupert's "man-whore", as someone put it, which would have been really interesting, but probably shouldn't happen without a PC present to interfere or choose not to interfere.
Ingrid returned triumphantly to Siegfried, for now, she had a source she -could- use to tell great-grandfather about the von Black kidnappings. Her link with Aquila showed her what we dubbed The Tower, where dangerous prisoners were kept by the authorities. Horst, you see, had gone to Dieter, the closest thing to a first among equals the nobility had.
Rupert, Andreas, Orion, Niccolo, Sebastian, and the dogs arrived at the Tower. Andreas used Ysabel's name in a context that made Niccolo and Rupert aware of his probably attachment to Ysabel. Julian noted that Niccolo now suspected the source of Ysabel's bruises. Sebastian, of course, already knew that Andreas was probably Ysabel's lover, although he doesn't yet know about the bruises.
The group went inside to ask about Edmund and Ysabel. People were separated. Meanwhile, Siegfried sent Ingrid with Burkhardt and a letter bearing his own seal and authority for her to act in his name. Siegfried is at least as powerful as Dieter in his own way.
Sebastian's academic rival, Rainer Schwanhauser, talked to Andreas, saying that Ysabel had claimed that she was tutoring Andreas in magic. No, he hadn't used force on Ysabel -- what did Andreas take him for? No, she hadn't actually admitted this right away; it was just that Rainer made it clear that he could tell when she was lying.
At this point, Einhardt, the head of the university, and, thus, the top of both Rainer's and Andreas' food chain, as both taught at his university, walked in and interrupted Rainer, trying to get Andreas to leave with him. Andreas refused to go without his cousin. Rupert arrived, bemused at the absurd allegations of sorcery. Everyone knew that there was no such thing!
(Rupert genuinely believed this, unaware that he himself was half demon.)
Rainer next spoke with Niccolo, asking if he knew of the Book of the Heart of the Beast.
Niccolo (truthfully): I've never heard of it.
Rupert sighed with relief. He still thinks of Niccolo as a fellow outsider and still doesn't know a) Niccolo is a sorcerer and b) Niccolo knows that Rainer is a sorcerer. At one point in the conversation, Rainer sighed and said, "I should never have returned." Many would agree.
Rainer: Although, had I returned earlier, I might have saved a life.
Beth and Josh picked up on this possible reference to the murder of Sebastian's father, Garamond.
Rainer left. The guards spoke with Sebastian about a book that Ysabel had on her when they took her into custody, The Book of the Heart of the Beast. She'd been screaming that she was a sorcerer and that she could do magic. Sebastian said that Ysabel was a student, and naturally, she had books. He asked to see this book. The guards refused, as Sebastian was an interested party. They brought the book to Niccolo privately. Niccolo was an outsider, and, while not a philosopher, he is an educated man.
Side note: We agreed that either Niccolo or Andreas is the main character. Ingrid is not, though she might be the narrator, and she's certainly the one who sets things in motion at critical points.
The guards asked Niccolo to look at Ysabel's Book of the Heart of the Beast, asking if he, as a disinterested outsider, knew if it were a book of sorcery. It turned out to be the book from which Niccolo's fragment came, but he calmly flipped through it and pronounced it no more than a book of superstitions. Well, he understood that the people of this city actually believed in such things. The guards asked about identifying a sorcerer. Niccolo said that he had heard that sorcerers had the mark of the beast on them, perhaps on their chest. He hinted that they might find such a mark on Rainer.
The guards said that Ysabel had claws. Might a sorcerer place the mark of the beast on someone else? Niccolo said that he didn't know, but, presuming that sorcerers existed, it was certainly possible. Privately, Niccolo thought to himself that Sebastian owed him a large favor.
Niccolo joined the others. Andreas still intended to wait for Sebastian. Einhardt, trying to frame Sebastian for murder, fumed.
Sebastian was taken to see a baffled and furious Edmond who didn't understand much, except that his daughter was apparently a witch and a whore, and Sebastian hadn't noticed -- it was clearly All Sebastian's Fault.
Sebastian countered that it was Rainer's fault, and that von Pfender had accused Rainer -- Ysabel's accuser -- of being a sorcerer.
Edmund: It was von Pfender who brought us here!
Sebastian: Not Horst von Pfender. I'm talking about THE von Pfender!
Edmund: Then, THE von Pfender can get his ass on his horse and come down here and tell the guards that!
That, we agreed, was Ingrid's cue to wave her letter around the Tower.
Sophia, meanwhile, worked her way towards Horst, going through the kitchens. The cook was furious at the invasion of her territory. Sophia slapped the cook. Delighted, a small kitchen urchin gave Sophia a sweet.
Finally, Nariya guided SOphia to the door to the room she sought. Beyond were Horst, Dieter, some swordsman guards -- and Sophia's parents.
Sophia burst in. She was told that Horst was there about the von Blacks being sorcerers. She explained that she was there because Horst had cut off her brother's sword hand -- as in her parents' oldest son and heir, y'know?
Her parents grudgingly admitted that they were wrong, and that she had been right 6 years ago to deny Edmund von Black's suit. Clearly, the von Blacks were tainted.
As for Frederiche, her mother said that he had been a fool, what with his dealings with Gudrun von Ouranenburg -- clearly a foul sorceress who had tainted the von Blacks, who were closely related to the von Ouranenburgs by marriage. Unspoken was that Callisto von Winterhagen thought that her son Frederiche had been a fool to anger Horst by becoming Gudrun's lover, and, in any case, deserved what he had gotten.
Sophia had had enough. Out came the steel.
Lisa: Okay, can someone else play Nariya, someone who knows how to game the system?
Julian: That would be Josh.
Round 1: Sophia tries to skewer Horst so that he dies -slowly- and can tell her where Frederiche is. The guards try to block her and succeed, but she disposes of them. Horst tries to defend himself. Dieter is shocked. Her parents scream at her. Nariya cloaks and prepares an ambush.
Julian noted when reading the above that I was straying from the system.
Julian: The systemic way for the guards to do what they wanted to do is to attack Sophia, hoping to make her abort for defense or defend iwth one die and take hits that leave her unable to do anything. Most likely, they will fail to do so, because they're punks.
This simply didn't occur to me. Josh talks here about how one internalizes the system and knows the correct options to use at any given time. I haven't done that with Sorcerer combat. I have little patience for systems of any complexity, which is a weakness when gming one.
Round 2: Sophia tries to get to Horst and wounds Dieter. Nariya kills Sophia's mother, Callisto von Winterhagen.
Round 3: Sophia wounds Dieter some more. Nariya kills Sophia's father, Graf Luthor von Winterhagen.
Round 4: Dieter finished off by Sophia and Nariya.
Round 5: Sophia skewers Horst.
I forgot that full defensive gets you 2 extra dice, but this only applied to Sophia's parents, and it was dramatically appropriate that they die quickly. And, as Julian reminded me, Sophia's parents weren't actively defending so much as freaking out.
As Nariya cleaned up by killing anyone still alive in the room (the guards, probably), Sophia demanded to know where her brother was. Horst said that he was in the room where Horst used to lock the children, a room Arvid had referred to last session. Horst died, and Sophia dipped his sword in blood as part of the cover up.
Julian (reading the above): Such a delicate way to phrase "Sophia killed the wounded, helpless man".
A messenger was sent from the Tower to Dieter. Sophia was discovered, claiming that Horst had summoned a horrible demon. She'd killed Horst, and he'd killed or had the demon kill, everyone else in the room. Sophia was brought to the Tower.
There, for, I think, the second time in the campaign, all of the PCs were together.
Sebastian got occasional glimpses from his link with Minera. Ludwig's cats came in, grew to large size, ate Volkhardt's body, and licked up the blood. Minerva hid till they shrank back down and departed.
The man Einhardt had sent to "discover" the body came into the Tower after visiting Sebastian's apartments. Einhardt looked triumphantly at Sebastian until the man whispered in his ear. Curse, foiled! Einhardt left, saying that he had business to attend to.
Glimpses through the link with Minerva showed, at someone's suggestion, Minerva coming out and beginning to sweep up after the cats. She hid as Einhardt came in. Einhardt searched, checked the floor, lifted a dark cat hair, made a sound suggesting that he had an Idea, and strode purposefully out. Minerva went back to cleaning up.
Edmund von Black was released, quite convinced that he should seal his betrothal with Ingrid at once.
Sebastian got permission to visit Ysabel. Niccolo decided to wait for him.
Andreas was asked to look at the bloody scene in Dieter's house. He agreed, and travelled in a coach with Sophia and Ingrid. Rupert followed in another coach, after sending a messenger to his home, at Ingrid's urging.
Sophia learned from Ingrid where Horst locked his children when he wanted to punish them. Sophia departed to find Frederiche. Ingrid sent Burkhardt with her, and also wrote a letter authorizing Sophia, accompanied by Burkhardt, to search any von Pfender homes for Frederiche, who was now Graf von Winterhagen. Ingrid signed the note and sealed it with her personal seal. She also wrote a note authorizing all of this in Siegfried's name, and sealed that with his seal. Some of the deceased Dieter's men accompanied Sophia and Burkhardt, both to keep an eye on Sophia and to bear witness to whether and where Frederiche was being held, as this would corroborate what Sophia had said. Probably a few von Pfender men came along as well, for good measure.
Beth: Ingrid figured that however implicated the Horst retainers who saw the letter were, they wouldn't argue with the combination of the von Pfender's seal, Burkhardt's presence, and the armed force that Sophia + Dieter's guards presented. And if anyone did, well, the remainder of the family could do without their services.
Frederiche was rescued, and he and Sophia were lodged at THE von Pfender's home. Neither Frederiche nor Fritz yet know that their parents are dead. Siegfried, aka THE von Pfender, absolutely believed Sophia's demon story. It was clearly All Rainer's Fault. Sophia is possibly feeling a bit bad for Rainer, as he doesn't seem like such a bad person at this point. Killing him after his academic debate with Sebastian will be just business for Sophia, as she was hired by Siegfried to do just that.
From what Anje had said earlier, Rupert's comments to Andreas, Siegfried's comments about how Horst was wrong about anyone having killed Horst's oldest son, and Nonna, the old von Pfender nurse, saying that there -had- been something uncanny about the boy before he died, the players and some of the PCs have figured out that Horst had angered Gudrun, probably by trying to steal the Book of the Heart of the Beast from her, and she punished him by summoning a possessor demon into his 2-year-old son, and then banished it, killing the boy. Horst was sufficiently cowed that he did not act against Gudrun while she was alive.
Andreas studied the dead bodies at Dieter's house. The little kitchen wench remembered Sophia fondly.
Kitchen Urchin: She hit cook!
Both Ingrid and Rupert attended Andreas' investigation with interest. Ingrid, like Andreas, was well aware there had been a demon, I think. Rupert was not. Still, what else could have caused the claw wounds on Luthor, Callisto, Dieter, and the guards? Perhaps a large bear, but none had been seen coming in, let alone out.
Andreas' outward calm masked his growing concern: He had to return to his lab, where demon Leonardo and demon Axel and dead Marcello were.
Sebastian talked to Ysabel. At first, he couldn't get all the guards to leave, but later, he got the one remaining guard to wait where he'd hear a shout, but not ordinary conversation.
Sebastian scolded Ysabel for not comporting herself with dignity or acting like a sorcerer. She was surprised to learn that Sebastian was a sorcerer and that there was sorcery which didn't involve possessor demons. Sebastian was nonplussed to see Ysabel's claws, but confident that he could help her.
Sebastian bid his niece adieu and returned to his apartments, with Niccolo. Niccolo sent for Teresa to boost his Lore, forestalling her demand for greater physical intimacy than a kiss until they might be private. He helped Sebastian contact and summon a snake passer who could help Ysabel hide her claws and whose Desire was to improve the survival of the von Black family. The demon, whose name is 'Ekate, was placed into a contain for Ysabel to bind -- baby's first demon, a gift from her learned uncle. She'll love it. What could possibly go wrong?
(For one thing, it's +1 to 'Ekate for the binding roll, given the summoning roll.)
Sixth Sorcerer Session -- March 8, 2006
Links to earlier sessions:
The description of the characters and the write up of the first session
The write up of the second session
The write up of the third session
The write up of the fourth session
The write up of the fifth session
Demons are limited to Passers (in animal form) and Possessors (without Hop).
GM: Lisa Padol
Joshua Kronengold: Herr Doktor Professor Sebastian Black, disqualified from being Graf von Black due to his limp. Teaches Philosophy.
His demons: 'Elena, a Passer Raven, and Minerva, a Possessed Mouse. 'Elena is jealous of Minerva, but has not yet tried to eat the new demon.
Dave Demast: Herr Doktor Professor Andreas von Ouranenburg, not himself a noble, but cousin and friend of Graf Rupert von Ouranenburg. Teaches Natural Philosophy, with dissections and vivisections. Potential serial killer, falling in love with Sebastian's niece Ysabel.
His demons: Orion, a Passer Dog, and Leonardo, a nobleman possessed by a rabbit spirit.
Beth Bartley: Ingrid von Pfender, plague-scarred heiress and university student. Wears a veil to hide her scars. Like Andreas and Sebastian, she discovered the existence of Possessor demons a day ago. Unlike them, she has not tried to summon a Possessor.
Her demon: Aquila, a Passer Eagle.
Julian Lighton: Niccolo di Tarci, talented artist who would want to be Leonardo da Vinci if he'd ever heard of him. Horrified at having summoned a Possessor demon into the daughter of his patron, and less than thrilled to learn that he'd given her brother, Marcello, the idea of summoning a Possessor into his brother Leonardo. Before that, Niccolo was blissfully ignorant of sorcery, and Marcello had only summoned demons into his children, not realizing that one could summon them into adults. Niccolo has only recently become aware of the existence of Passer demons and plans to summon one to deal with the demons in Marcello's children.
His demon: Teresa Mantuo, a noblewoman possessed by a fox spirit. Leonardo's sister. Teresa is starting to lose patience with Niccolo. Her Need is physical intimacy; her Desire is Love. Last session, Niccolo gave her plenty of the former, as they had sex as part of an attempt at banishing the latest demon summoned by Marcello.
Pamela Gutman: Sophia von Winterhagen, scandalously unmarried, but hardly celibate. Sophia is a swordswoman, a sort of society-approved assassin-for-hire who takes money to kill people in duels. She does not know about Possessor Demons.
Her demon: Nariya, a Passer Cat.
We gathered at Lerner, in the cafeteria off the lobby, then headed up to the GC open area, which had space. Whee!
Lingering Humanity Gain / Loss rolls from last session were made. I recapped where everyone was.
In the house of Graf Rupert von Ouranenburg, in a room with Niccolo and Rupert's lover, Ludwig, now revealed as a sorcerer (to Sebastian and Niccolo), Sebastian struggled to assimilate two visions rapidly. The first, seen via his link with 'Elena, revealed that his brother, Edmund, and his niece, Ysabel, had been kidnapped by Horst von Pfender, Ingrid's uncle. The second, seen via his link with Minerva, showed Einhardt Schilderote, the head of the university where Sebastian is a professor, having men plant the dead body of Sebastian's chair, Volkert Horsenfeldt, in Sebastian's apartments.
Josh was a bit confused, at first thinking Volkert, who hated Sebastian, was planting a corpse. We unconfused him, and Julian noted that this was Sebastian's Price, Arrogance to Social Superiors, in action.
Sebastian referred semi-obliquely to his problems. Well, not all that obliquely. He didn't tell LUdwig that it was Ludwig's uncle, Einhardt, who'd planted Volkhardt's corpse, but he did tell him and Niccolo that it had happened. He also mentioned the kidnapping. Ludwig asked if he could help, and Sebastian asked for help on the corpse. Ludwig agreed.
Meanwhile, Graf Rupert talked with his cousin, Andreas, and mentioned Horst's period of visiting the von Ouranenburg home, years ago, and speculated on whether Horst and Rupert's mother, Gudrun, had been lovers just before Frederiche von Winterhagen and Gudrun had been lovers. Andreas listened, fascinated, until Rupert suggested that they visit Ludwig, Niccolo, and Sebastian.
Ingrid, meanwhile, knew about her uncle kidnapping the Graf von Black and his daughter via her link with Aquila, but didn't want anyone knowing that she knew, as she couldn't account mundanely for this information. She took Horst's son, Arvid, to their great-grandfather, THE von Pfender, Siegfried. She told Siegfried's majordomo, Burkhardt, about Horst's second attempt to kidnap Frederiche's bastard daughter, Sigrid. Burkhardt passed this on to Siegfried, whose assessment was the same as Ingrid's. He told her to bring Arvid to Avrid's sister Anje's house, and to get Arvid, Anje, and Anje's kids out of the city to the von Pfender country estates.
Sophia had just received the severed hand of her brother, Frederiche von Winterhagen, along with a note from Horst, which demanded the Book of the Heart of the Beast in return for her brother's release. Furious, she strode out of the opera house to look for Horst. Her other brother, Fritz, started to caution her, then just told her to nail Horst to the wall.
Rupert and Andreas entered the room where Niccolo, Sebastian, and Ludwig were sitting, as a couple of Ludwig's cats exited through the window, leaving folks to wonder OOC how Minerva would fare.
Josh: She'll use Cover.
Julian: Oh, great. She'll look just like a mouse.
Josh (as Rupert and Andreas arrive): One. Activate the link with 'Elena. Two. -He- has just come in.
"He" was Andreas, whose name Ysabel von Black had been screaming when she was kidnapped.
Andreas recognized the cats as demons, but not Ludwig as a sorcerer. I -think- Ludwig recognized Andreas as a sorcerer, but not Orion as a demon.
Oh yes, as I noted, Ludwig's cats are Polydactyl Puddy Tats, and Ludwig, who started off as Liesel in my notes, was very loosely inspired by Leslie Fish.
Sebastian brought everyone up to date about the von Black kidnappings, adding that the news about Ysabel would, no doubt, interest Andreas. Rupert and Andreas were quite willing to help Sebastian. Niccolo privately offered to do so as well, in return for help with a matter in Italy involving summoning a demon.
Sophia reached Horst's house. The servants said that he was at Dieter von Hirsch's house. Graf von Hirsch is a descendant of the last Furst's sister-in-law, and the closest thing Vindabona has to a First Among Equals. Horst was trying to get backing for some of his actions. Sophia stalked off to Graf von Hirsch's home, doubly angry that Horst was making her -look- for him!
Ingrid and Arvid arrived at Anje's house, waking her and delivering Siegfried's message. Anje gave orders to her servants to get ready to leave town, fuming that her father, Horst, was a fool, that Gudrun had -not- killed his eldest child back when she'd just been born and the boy was two. Babies just die sometimes. But, no, clearly Horst still blamed Gudrun von Ouranenburg. Ingrid decided to warn Rupert von Ouranenburg to take care lest Horst attack his house.
Sophia was approached by Rainer Schwanhausser's demon, Trismegistus, the weasel with the human face, who offered to teach her. (This is the demon's Need.) She turned him down, explaining that she needed to kill Horst.
Trismegistus (misunderstanding): You want to kill my master?
Sophia: No, I want to kill Horst.
Trismegistus decided that was fine, even though Horst was Rainer's patron.
Julian (on reading the above): Demons are such loyal critters.
Rupert, Sophia, and Siegfried's men searched for Horst. Well, Rupert's dogs and Orion were actually looking for the missing von Blacks, and Dave briefly considered the idea of having Andreas surreptitiously pull out a handkerchief of Ysabel's for the dogs to get her scent. He decided against this. We rolled for the 3 groups of searchers. Unsurprisingly, Sophia, who knew where to go, arrived first.
Dieter's men wouldn't let her in, though she sent them with messages a couple of times. The first time they returned, they said that Horst said that she could give the book to them. She was not amused. She showed the guards her brother's severed hand, scolding one of them when he poked at it. Nariya slipped in during one of the guard's trips back and forth. Sophia tried to push past the guards, but Pamela blew her roll.
Rather than decide that Sophia had failed to get inside, though it theoretically made sense for a lot of competent guards to block her, I decided that she'd gotten in fine, and then gotten lost. In other words, I decided to use conflict resolution, not task resolution. The conflict was over whether or not she found Horst. She had no idea where in Dieter's house the man might be.
Nariya had found a way, but it was cat-sized, not Sophia-sized. Nariya worked on finding a way that Sophia could go.
Julian noted that the above was actually more GM fiat than true conflict resolution due to the lack of firm stakes. As he said, I probably should have said yes rather than requiring a die roll, as the servants were unnamed mooks, and Sophia was a kickass swordswoman. I was fumbling around a bit, trying to match people's pacing, which was a mistake, and it wasn't until I figured out where to use a particular bang that things finally started to click.
The fumbling around was a flaw, and I knew it at the time, though I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Josh explained that, by breaking up what Sophia was doing with obstacles and intercutting, I was putting more spotlight on her. But, at the same time, she wasn't getting to do anything interesting with spotlight, until things clicked. This is a bad combination, and I'm still surprised that the overall session went as well as it did.
Ingrid arrived at the von Ouranenburg manor and actually recognized that Rolph the Butler was a demon. So far, only she and Niccolo, both of whom have low Lore, have noticed this. Andreas and Sebastian, the high Lore PCs have not, while Sophia hasn't yet seen Rolph in the campaign.
Ingrid delivered her warning. Rolph said that the master had gone out with the dogs, for Horst had kidnapped Graf von Black and his heir. Rolph invited Ingrid in. Ingrid turned him down and urged him to prepare for an attack. After all, if Horst had already kidnapped nobles and attacked Frederiche's bastard daughter, he might well attack Rupert's "man-whore", as someone put it, which would have been really interesting, but probably shouldn't happen without a PC present to interfere or choose not to interfere.
Ingrid returned triumphantly to Siegfried, for now, she had a source she -could- use to tell great-grandfather about the von Black kidnappings. Her link with Aquila showed her what we dubbed The Tower, where dangerous prisoners were kept by the authorities. Horst, you see, had gone to Dieter, the closest thing to a first among equals the nobility had.
Rupert, Andreas, Orion, Niccolo, Sebastian, and the dogs arrived at the Tower. Andreas used Ysabel's name in a context that made Niccolo and Rupert aware of his probably attachment to Ysabel. Julian noted that Niccolo now suspected the source of Ysabel's bruises. Sebastian, of course, already knew that Andreas was probably Ysabel's lover, although he doesn't yet know about the bruises.
The group went inside to ask about Edmund and Ysabel. People were separated. Meanwhile, Siegfried sent Ingrid with Burkhardt and a letter bearing his own seal and authority for her to act in his name. Siegfried is at least as powerful as Dieter in his own way.
Sebastian's academic rival, Rainer Schwanhauser, talked to Andreas, saying that Ysabel had claimed that she was tutoring Andreas in magic. No, he hadn't used force on Ysabel -- what did Andreas take him for? No, she hadn't actually admitted this right away; it was just that Rainer made it clear that he could tell when she was lying.
At this point, Einhardt, the head of the university, and, thus, the top of both Rainer's and Andreas' food chain, as both taught at his university, walked in and interrupted Rainer, trying to get Andreas to leave with him. Andreas refused to go without his cousin. Rupert arrived, bemused at the absurd allegations of sorcery. Everyone knew that there was no such thing!
(Rupert genuinely believed this, unaware that he himself was half demon.)
Rainer next spoke with Niccolo, asking if he knew of the Book of the Heart of the Beast.
Niccolo (truthfully): I've never heard of it.
Rupert sighed with relief. He still thinks of Niccolo as a fellow outsider and still doesn't know a) Niccolo is a sorcerer and b) Niccolo knows that Rainer is a sorcerer. At one point in the conversation, Rainer sighed and said, "I should never have returned." Many would agree.
Rainer: Although, had I returned earlier, I might have saved a life.
Beth and Josh picked up on this possible reference to the murder of Sebastian's father, Garamond.
Rainer left. The guards spoke with Sebastian about a book that Ysabel had on her when they took her into custody, The Book of the Heart of the Beast. She'd been screaming that she was a sorcerer and that she could do magic. Sebastian said that Ysabel was a student, and naturally, she had books. He asked to see this book. The guards refused, as Sebastian was an interested party. They brought the book to Niccolo privately. Niccolo was an outsider, and, while not a philosopher, he is an educated man.
Side note: We agreed that either Niccolo or Andreas is the main character. Ingrid is not, though she might be the narrator, and she's certainly the one who sets things in motion at critical points.
The guards asked Niccolo to look at Ysabel's Book of the Heart of the Beast, asking if he, as a disinterested outsider, knew if it were a book of sorcery. It turned out to be the book from which Niccolo's fragment came, but he calmly flipped through it and pronounced it no more than a book of superstitions. Well, he understood that the people of this city actually believed in such things. The guards asked about identifying a sorcerer. Niccolo said that he had heard that sorcerers had the mark of the beast on them, perhaps on their chest. He hinted that they might find such a mark on Rainer.
The guards said that Ysabel had claws. Might a sorcerer place the mark of the beast on someone else? Niccolo said that he didn't know, but, presuming that sorcerers existed, it was certainly possible. Privately, Niccolo thought to himself that Sebastian owed him a large favor.
Niccolo joined the others. Andreas still intended to wait for Sebastian. Einhardt, trying to frame Sebastian for murder, fumed.
Sebastian was taken to see a baffled and furious Edmond who didn't understand much, except that his daughter was apparently a witch and a whore, and Sebastian hadn't noticed -- it was clearly All Sebastian's Fault.
Sebastian countered that it was Rainer's fault, and that von Pfender had accused Rainer -- Ysabel's accuser -- of being a sorcerer.
Edmund: It was von Pfender who brought us here!
Sebastian: Not Horst von Pfender. I'm talking about THE von Pfender!
Edmund: Then, THE von Pfender can get his ass on his horse and come down here and tell the guards that!
That, we agreed, was Ingrid's cue to wave her letter around the Tower.
Sophia, meanwhile, worked her way towards Horst, going through the kitchens. The cook was furious at the invasion of her territory. Sophia slapped the cook. Delighted, a small kitchen urchin gave Sophia a sweet.
Finally, Nariya guided SOphia to the door to the room she sought. Beyond were Horst, Dieter, some swordsman guards -- and Sophia's parents.
Sophia burst in. She was told that Horst was there about the von Blacks being sorcerers. She explained that she was there because Horst had cut off her brother's sword hand -- as in her parents' oldest son and heir, y'know?
Her parents grudgingly admitted that they were wrong, and that she had been right 6 years ago to deny Edmund von Black's suit. Clearly, the von Blacks were tainted.
As for Frederiche, her mother said that he had been a fool, what with his dealings with Gudrun von Ouranenburg -- clearly a foul sorceress who had tainted the von Blacks, who were closely related to the von Ouranenburgs by marriage. Unspoken was that Callisto von Winterhagen thought that her son Frederiche had been a fool to anger Horst by becoming Gudrun's lover, and, in any case, deserved what he had gotten.
Sophia had had enough. Out came the steel.
Lisa: Okay, can someone else play Nariya, someone who knows how to game the system?
Julian: That would be Josh.
Round 1: Sophia tries to skewer Horst so that he dies -slowly- and can tell her where Frederiche is. The guards try to block her and succeed, but she disposes of them. Horst tries to defend himself. Dieter is shocked. Her parents scream at her. Nariya cloaks and prepares an ambush.
Julian noted when reading the above that I was straying from the system.
Julian: The systemic way for the guards to do what they wanted to do is to attack Sophia, hoping to make her abort for defense or defend iwth one die and take hits that leave her unable to do anything. Most likely, they will fail to do so, because they're punks.
This simply didn't occur to me. Josh talks here about how one internalizes the system and knows the correct options to use at any given time. I haven't done that with Sorcerer combat. I have little patience for systems of any complexity, which is a weakness when gming one.
Round 2: Sophia tries to get to Horst and wounds Dieter. Nariya kills Sophia's mother, Callisto von Winterhagen.
Round 3: Sophia wounds Dieter some more. Nariya kills Sophia's father, Graf Luthor von Winterhagen.
Round 4: Dieter finished off by Sophia and Nariya.
Round 5: Sophia skewers Horst.
I forgot that full defensive gets you 2 extra dice, but this only applied to Sophia's parents, and it was dramatically appropriate that they die quickly. And, as Julian reminded me, Sophia's parents weren't actively defending so much as freaking out.
As Nariya cleaned up by killing anyone still alive in the room (the guards, probably), Sophia demanded to know where her brother was. Horst said that he was in the room where Horst used to lock the children, a room Arvid had referred to last session. Horst died, and Sophia dipped his sword in blood as part of the cover up.
Julian (reading the above): Such a delicate way to phrase "Sophia killed the wounded, helpless man".
A messenger was sent from the Tower to Dieter. Sophia was discovered, claiming that Horst had summoned a horrible demon. She'd killed Horst, and he'd killed or had the demon kill, everyone else in the room. Sophia was brought to the Tower.
There, for, I think, the second time in the campaign, all of the PCs were together.
Sebastian got occasional glimpses from his link with Minera. Ludwig's cats came in, grew to large size, ate Volkhardt's body, and licked up the blood. Minerva hid till they shrank back down and departed.
The man Einhardt had sent to "discover" the body came into the Tower after visiting Sebastian's apartments. Einhardt looked triumphantly at Sebastian until the man whispered in his ear. Curse, foiled! Einhardt left, saying that he had business to attend to.
Glimpses through the link with Minerva showed, at someone's suggestion, Minerva coming out and beginning to sweep up after the cats. She hid as Einhardt came in. Einhardt searched, checked the floor, lifted a dark cat hair, made a sound suggesting that he had an Idea, and strode purposefully out. Minerva went back to cleaning up.
Edmund von Black was released, quite convinced that he should seal his betrothal with Ingrid at once.
Sebastian got permission to visit Ysabel. Niccolo decided to wait for him.
Andreas was asked to look at the bloody scene in Dieter's house. He agreed, and travelled in a coach with Sophia and Ingrid. Rupert followed in another coach, after sending a messenger to his home, at Ingrid's urging.
Sophia learned from Ingrid where Horst locked his children when he wanted to punish them. Sophia departed to find Frederiche. Ingrid sent Burkhardt with her, and also wrote a letter authorizing Sophia, accompanied by Burkhardt, to search any von Pfender homes for Frederiche, who was now Graf von Winterhagen. Ingrid signed the note and sealed it with her personal seal. She also wrote a note authorizing all of this in Siegfried's name, and sealed that with his seal. Some of the deceased Dieter's men accompanied Sophia and Burkhardt, both to keep an eye on Sophia and to bear witness to whether and where Frederiche was being held, as this would corroborate what Sophia had said. Probably a few von Pfender men came along as well, for good measure.
Beth: Ingrid figured that however implicated the Horst retainers who saw the letter were, they wouldn't argue with the combination of the von Pfender's seal, Burkhardt's presence, and the armed force that Sophia + Dieter's guards presented. And if anyone did, well, the remainder of the family could do without their services.
Frederiche was rescued, and he and Sophia were lodged at THE von Pfender's home. Neither Frederiche nor Fritz yet know that their parents are dead. Siegfried, aka THE von Pfender, absolutely believed Sophia's demon story. It was clearly All Rainer's Fault. Sophia is possibly feeling a bit bad for Rainer, as he doesn't seem like such a bad person at this point. Killing him after his academic debate with Sebastian will be just business for Sophia, as she was hired by Siegfried to do just that.
From what Anje had said earlier, Rupert's comments to Andreas, Siegfried's comments about how Horst was wrong about anyone having killed Horst's oldest son, and Nonna, the old von Pfender nurse, saying that there -had- been something uncanny about the boy before he died, the players and some of the PCs have figured out that Horst had angered Gudrun, probably by trying to steal the Book of the Heart of the Beast from her, and she punished him by summoning a possessor demon into his 2-year-old son, and then banished it, killing the boy. Horst was sufficiently cowed that he did not act against Gudrun while she was alive.
Andreas studied the dead bodies at Dieter's house. The little kitchen wench remembered Sophia fondly.
Kitchen Urchin: She hit cook!
Both Ingrid and Rupert attended Andreas' investigation with interest. Ingrid, like Andreas, was well aware there had been a demon, I think. Rupert was not. Still, what else could have caused the claw wounds on Luthor, Callisto, Dieter, and the guards? Perhaps a large bear, but none had been seen coming in, let alone out.
Andreas' outward calm masked his growing concern: He had to return to his lab, where demon Leonardo and demon Axel and dead Marcello were.
Sebastian talked to Ysabel. At first, he couldn't get all the guards to leave, but later, he got the one remaining guard to wait where he'd hear a shout, but not ordinary conversation.
Sebastian scolded Ysabel for not comporting herself with dignity or acting like a sorcerer. She was surprised to learn that Sebastian was a sorcerer and that there was sorcery which didn't involve possessor demons. Sebastian was nonplussed to see Ysabel's claws, but confident that he could help her.
Sebastian bid his niece adieu and returned to his apartments, with Niccolo. Niccolo sent for Teresa to boost his Lore, forestalling her demand for greater physical intimacy than a kiss until they might be private. He helped Sebastian contact and summon a snake passer who could help Ysabel hide her claws and whose Desire was to improve the survival of the von Black family. The demon, whose name is 'Ekate, was placed into a contain for Ysabel to bind -- baby's first demon, a gift from her learned uncle. She'll love it. What could possibly go wrong?
(For one thing, it's +1 to 'Ekate for the binding roll, given the summoning roll.)
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Don't forget to mention this writeup on the list. AFAIK, Beth, Dave, and Pamela don't read here.
And we still need to get around to running that combat session.
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(admitedly, it's a dead question, since ideally they're -all- main characters).
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Or maybe both Niccolo and Andreas are main characters, and they're heading for some kind of significant confrontation at the end.