All The Ex's Live in Chicago

January 8, 2015

Bobby tries to catch up with Cameron but misses him at the dojo.  He's feeling ambushed as Janice and the other ex's gang up on him about his actions and lack of telling them what has been happening and what he knows.  He gets really defensive, not helped by them asking if the group is going to protect them or not.  Bobby refuses to answer and leaves as soon as he can.  

Over the next few weeks, the group is trying to get some projects done.  They fortify the base better.  They get some more medical supplies.  Abraham gets a call from his junkyard friend with some junkers he might like.  

Cynthia Adams comes to visit Cameron.  She says that someone contacted her about Cameron, said that he was dangerous, and that she should be careful.  They also left a package for Cameron.  The group is not happy about the package and Abraham takes it out the shop but the others tell him not to open it.  Cynthia stays a bit but then has to get back to the hospital.  They check out the package with mundane and other means but don't find anything about it.  Opening it reveals an old fashioned medical bag, from the 1850s or so.  Cameron is really confused by this and puts it in his shop, not thinking any more about it.  

Abraham, during this downtime, receives an offer from Frank Gordon.  Frank offers to let them be the Task Force Valkyrie in Chicago.  The group is not happy about this, especially Mike, thinking that he will be in trouble.  Mike makes the call to Frank and sets up a meeting.  As that is happening, someone tries to serve Bobby with papers.  Turns out that Janice is now suing him for full rights to the dojo, including his name.  Bobby is not happy about this and wants to go talk to Janice about it.  

The group heads over to the dojo.  They drop Abe off and he heads around back as they go to the front.  The place is open but they only see one woman in the back and Bobby doesn't recognize her.  Abraham finds two guys hanging out back near the door.  They get violent with him and try to keep him out and Abraham is thinking they are werewolves.  He manages to slip past them and get inside.  The rest of the group also went inside via the front door and confronted the woman.  She said she was hired by Janice to torch the place and is throwing gasoline onto the floor!  They aren't happy and attack.  

She turns into a large, eight foot werewolf and attacks Cameron, slashing him up pretty good.  Abe manages to tie a chain around a pillar to the back door, securing it shut.  As he turns toward the group, the two werewolves jump in the front windows and attack.  Abe sighs and lights up a cigarette.  Mike is able to cut down one with his sword.  For a moment, the alpha of the pack smiles and takes the sword with him to the Gauntlet but it returns to Mike.  Meanwhile, Bobby and Darryl are able to take out the other.  Cameron, shocked at his wounds, pulls on magic and breaks the third wolf's mind, leaving her near catatonic and then easily dispatched.  The group is concerned about Cameron.  They get patched up and then go to the meeting.  

Frank seems indifferent to Mike when Frank arrives at the meeting.  

"You left me to take the blame for my families death," yells Mike.  

"You aren't the only thing I have to deal with and you sure as heck aren't the only one to lose loved ones.  You seem to be over it and fighting the fight.  Keep doing that and you win.  I can help you with that."  

Frank goes on to say that he is offering them the local Task Force Valkyrie position to them.  They are a secret organization, so no overt help, but can help as long as they keep their mouth shut and don't make anything too big happen.  They will get money, supplies, vehicles, and weapons to keep doing what they are doing.  Mike is reluctant but the rest are in and they accept.  Cameron wants a dispatcher, someone who can man the phones, as it were, and take care of paperwork.  Frank doesn't care what they do with their budget and will send them some resumes of people who have clearance and can do the logistical stuff.  Cameron is fine with that.  Frank also doesn't care if there is collateral damage, so long as the job gets done and it's not too much.  He says this after Mike says that Mike's ex may end up dead.  

Frank hands over some codes and other paperwork and leaves.  They check on a few things and then leave.  As Abe is driving home, Bobby gets a vision that as they take their exit, they are ambushed by military people who shoot up the car.  He gets Abe to stop and explains what happens, so they go another way.  Cameron senses incoming magic and tries to dispel it but fails and ends up with the tracking magic on him instead!  Abe is able to drain it away with time but they have to drive around for a half hour while that happens.  Bobby still sees things on the drive home but nothing he can react to.  

When they get back to the Chop Shop, Darcy shows up, again beaten up pretty bad.  She says some vamps, probably Mekhet, had a go at her since she knew the group.  They wanted the group for some reason and she again had to teleport to get away.  Cameron shoes everyone out to do his exam and he finds out she messed up and has internal damage.  Without thinking, Cameron used some of the tools from the medical bag and now he's realizing that they want blood.  He's able to push that back for the moment but knows he will have to deal with it at some point.  Cameron offers surgery or Darryl could heal her, and she asks for the healing.  Cameron asks for only Darryl to come to the medical area and has him heal Darcy.  Darcy then asks if she can stay with them and help.  She hasn't been able to find a safe place and keeps coming back anyway.  This way, she might be more helpful.  They agree, although wonder about the privacy issues.  Cameron scoffs at the group that spent two weeks setting up defenses for their base but can't hang privacy curtains or build a separate bathroom area for her.  

5 points

GM Notes

• Apparently, the ex club is already old to the players.  Patrick is not happy about the lawsuit and doesn't want to deal with it.  However, as I told the group in critiques, those who embraced the ideas of the ex's and parted amicably are now allies, or at least not working against them, like the group that basically hate their ex's.  Yes, it does mean there is drama with the ex's either way but I maintain that it gave depth to the characters for them to have to think about having an ex.  Further, at the moment, they are connected to the world and the lawsuit has to be dealt with.  I'm not going to run a court room drama session but we will have to figure out what it means and what is happening.  
• I also wasn't as sneaky as I hoped as the guys said that with the date in question, they figured out where I was going.  Kudos to them for working to find out in character, though!
• I spiced up the actual dialog that Mike and Frank said to each other.  Drew had made it that he was wanted, specifically by Frank and I tried to subvert that by not having that happen.  
• They are caught a bit off guard by the TFV offer and keep looking for the angle but didn't find one.  
• The werewolf fight was very interesting.  A fight that only a few months ago, not having armor would have probably killed one or more of them, and they walk away with bad scratches.  Bob took this opportunity to have Cameron go over to the dark side for survival and so it will be interesting to see how far Bob is willing to have Cameron go.   Between the silver knives which are standard equipment for them, and Mike's sword, though, they cut the wolves down pretty quickly.  
• I messed up with magic as I didn't have a clear enough picture in my head of how I see some things working.  I need to figure that out.  We got it figured out and I think it worked out better.   
• This session went a lot better than I thought it would from the standpoint of us having missed two weeks.  We usually don't get much done when that happens but we did with this.  We are also going to miss a session or two later in January when two guys are gone out of town.  I'm not sure if we will play or not during this time.  
• Further, we found a game called Microscope that is a great way to have the players help with the timeline and create elements that they know about in the campaign world!  I thought about using it in this game but I don't think I can do it easily without basically starting over, and I don't want to do that.  We did use Microscope to come up with a future history and I'm sure we will be playing that next, when this is done.   We will probably keep going with this on off nights, such as when the two guys are gone.  

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