| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Alternity - DM - Struck Out  What Lies Below

Page history last edited by Jon Goranson 9 years, 3 months ago

Struck Out

 

December 5, 2014

 

As the door slams, Cameron glares at Bobby.  The group discusses options as they want to get in there and see who would set up a death curse on someone.  After a few minutes they attempt to start a dialog again and Cameron is glad that the people inside are willing to do so.  However, again, they are told they can enter but it will be without invitation.  Wanting to get inside and meet and talk to them, the group finally agrees.  The rest, though, feel a part of themselves and their power staying at the door.  The threshold is strong enough that they don't know how much they could pull to them.  

 

Stephen looks to be in his mid thirties, with dark hair and stands just over five and a half feet.  He's wearing comfortable, casual clothes and walks the group into a living room.  The apartment is quite posh.  One wall is just glass, with sliding doors onto a balcony.  Cameron and Mike look thoughtfully toward the balcony.  Another wall is the kitchen, where another man, Dominik, is working at making cucumber sandwiches.  Dominik is over six feet tall, blond haired and blue eyed.  He's also dressed in casual clothes.  

 

Abraham is downstairs in the parking garage with the car, wondering how things are going.  The lights start flickering and he's wondering what is up with that.  

 

Cameron talks to the group and tells them they don't like their methods of how they teach or that they have a death curse.  Stephen, who does all of the talking for the two of them, says that they do use harsh methods but it is for all of their protection.  The werewolves, for example, are racists and don't like he and Dominik, so they must make sure their apprentices don't say something or do something they would give them away.  The sandwiches Domink makes are delicious.  

 

When the garage went completely dark, Abraham grabbed the NVGs and looked around.  Shadows were flitting about the shield, testing it.  Every once in a while, one shadow would flit close the shields, and it would give off sparks.  Abraham looks at the runes on the car and the gem, wondering why the stealth side isn't working.  He's just wondering if he needs to do something when the lights come back and the shadows are gone.  

 

Stephen asks if the refreshments are ready for their guests.  All of the perk up at that, wondering if that means they are invited.  They can sense their power still at the threshold but it's not back to them.  They can tell that if they are attacked, though, their power would come to them.  Cameron again leads the conversation, trying to find out what they are doing.  Stephen says they are merely teaching as they see fit.  Cameron still isn't happy about that but changes topics to items.  Cameron announces that they want any and all magical implements they have.  Stephen looks at him, head slightly tilted.  Finally he asks how it is that they think they are better prepared to hold things.  Cameron and Mike just say they are.  

 

Abraham is happy the lights came back and the garage is back to normal.  He then chastises himself for thinking that as he sees the figure looking at him from across the garage.  Abraham thinks he recognizes Thomas but then Thomas changes into a very large, bipedal wolf and charges!  Abraham slams the car into gear and pushes the pedal down.  The van leaps forward, accelerating quickly across the garage.  Abraham almost feels sorry for the werewolf.  Even as the engine seems to sputter for a second, Abraham knows he is going fast enough to splatter the wolf.  

 

After a lot of talking, Stephen finally has Dominik bring in a box with runes of protection and holding on it.  Stephen says that's the most powerful item they have and the group can take it.  He tells them it's a Hand of Glory, made from Dr. Holmes himself.  Darryl can feel the corruption contained within the box and nods to Cameron and Mike.  Mike gets up and looks out the large windows.  He finally steps outside on the balcony and feels the rush of his power come back to him, confirming his theory.  When he steps back inside, Cameron indicates he should keep looking out.  Mike does exactly that, turning his back on Stephen.  Cameron gets up, slowly pulls out his tranq gun, and then shoots Mike!  

 

The werewolf catches the van on its shield.  Literally catches it and then starts to shred the shield with his claws!  The cigarette hangs out of Abraham's mouth, same as it did to Dr. Raymond Stanz when he saw his first ghost.  Abraham pushes down on the pedal more, willing more and more force from the engine to crush the wolf.  It isn't working.  Finally, Abraham drops it into reverse and goes back as far as he can without crashing.  The wolf form starts loping toward him, almost a casual but fast gait.  

 

Cameron explains that it's merely to calm them down as he slowly loads another dart and is walking toward Bobby.  However, at the last minute, he twists and shoots Stephen with the dart!  Bobby's reflexes are good and he double taps Dominik in the head with his .45 but his judgement was bad as Cameron isn't happy about it.  However, Cameron says they will table it until later as they need to search the place.  Mike finds and holds down an apprentice, a college student by the look of him, and gets the rest of the apprentices rounded up as the group searches the apartment.  They find some items to help casters focus and grab them as well as some spell books.  Mike feels like talking to a brick wall would be more productive than talking to the apprentices.  They willingly accepted the death curse for the chance to learn magic.  They didn't see anything wrong with it, no matter how much Mike told them it was wrong.  Finally, Mike tells them they will take them home and the group gets ready to leave.  

 

Thomas changes back to a human as he runs toward Abraham, who is still in the car.  Thomas stops about ten paces away looking at Abraham.  Thomas says they will talk later and then turns and runs into the shadows, disappearing.  Abraham is happy he's gone and recovers his cigarette to calm himself down.  

 

As the group is leading the apprentices out, Bobby is cleaning up after them.  And that's when he notices their was no blood.  He calls the rest of the group back and eventually Stephen and Dominik reveal that they aren't dead.  They were hoping to be done with it.  The apprentices are happy their mentors aren't gone.  The group is confused and talks to them again.  Again, Cameron isn't happy with Stephen's methods as he thinks they are cruel but the apprentices agreed.  They come to an agreement with Stephen and Dominik of maybe helping each other out before leaving again.  

 

Abraham is glad to see them and tells them what happens.  He had heard everything via the walkie talkie but missed a few things here and there and was glad to be filled in on what happened.  They are quiet on the way back to their base, where they talk options.  Stephen told the group about a black market auction for items, run by Cordelia, the nosferatu Prince of the city and the group is thinking they need to crash that and get one of the items that will be there.  They discuss how to do that.    

 

Cameron decides to try a spell to make it so it's tough to notice him or remember.  He ends up walking around the shop merely in his underwear, to see if the others notice.  To Cameron's consternation, Abraham always seems to notice, and once Abraham does, Bobby does.  Darryl and Mike don't notice as often unless it's pointed out to them.  They are still considering ideas.  

 

What Lies Below

 

After the talk with Stephen, the group knows they need a secure place to hold things.  They think about putting in a floor safe in the basement.  As they consider it, Bobby senses there are tunnels under the floor.  Research reveals old subway tunnels and they want to investigate them.  After spending several hours getting to the tunnels, and Cameron again practicing his everyman spell, they find that a section of the tunnels have been blocked off with runes in Enochian and other spells.  As with the box that contains the hand of glory, the wall's runes are about containment.  Thinking that they might have a ready made safe room, they go back and cut into the room from their base.  It does connect.

 

What they find inside is a lot of dust, two chests covered in Enochian, and a sarcophagus.  However, the sarcophagus is made of brass and glass, so they can see the body in it.  It has been pierced in the chakra points with bars of metal but they aren't sure if the bars are attached at the top or not.  

 

Abraham goes over to one of the boxes and looks at the runs, more out of curiosity.  As he touches the box, the runes drain away and the group hears a clink of one of the metal bars dropping out of the body!  They are not happy about this development.  

 

Cameron tells Abraham to back away from the boxes but Abraham is fascinated by the tinkerbell like figure on the other one.  She speaks to him and says her name.  Abraham tries to repeat it but tinkerbell corrects him, which causes him to try again.  She laughs, a light, airy laugh, and says her name again.  This time as Abraham goes to say it again, Cameron is ready, and so are Mike and Darryl.  Bobby can only watch in confusion as Cameron pushes magic onto Abraham to get him to stop and the other two rush forward.  Whether he said enough of the name or not, the rest of the bars in the sarcophagus drop, freeing the chakras from their piercings.  

 

8 sp

 

GM Notes

  • I really need to remember the game mechanics and rules better and what I want to do.  There are a LOT of places in this session where I should have had things play out as they did, such as the group not noticing the lack of blood sooner, by giving them drama points instead of description.  With only words and no pictures, it's too easy for me to see it one way but not explain it fully to the players.    
  • Along with that, I also have to be careful about spot calls.  As I explained, I have to be more careful when I give the group a power or item that can be used often.  Unlike TNG, where tech is created to solve a problem and then never used again, that's not what happens with gaming!  
  • There was more discussion about a safe and where to store the gem and hand.  The players don't like how creating magical items drains them of an FX point but they can do it, so I explained they could do a temporary one, similar to the runes on the car that they have to power, to at least test the theory before committing to the FX point loss.  
  • I likened Stephen's teaching techniques to be like Harry Dresden's uncle, Justin.  Tough, bordering on cruel to an outside perspective, but effective.  Several of the guys caught on and just weren't sure how to react to that.  
  • The other things I keep forgetting about a system that doesn't define everything is the pluses and minuses of having everything defined.  I like not defining all of Bobby's mental abilities, for example.  The problem, though, is that when they aren't well defined, then the player tries to do something that doesn't fit with what I see, and then it's tough to explain why it doesn't work when the player thinks it should.  In contrast, though, I like it when there is give and take with magic, compared to DND/PF where things are so well defined, it's tough to add in extra descriptions or have spells do more because they are already specific.  More to figure out but I'm enjoying it! 

 

BACK

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.