Dramatis Personae
- Amos M. Humiston (Played by Chris D): The Linguist, Librarian, and Leader (Temporary). He is the brains to the rest of the group’s brawn. Recently Amos has completed a double Masters in Library & Information Science Archives and History and has also managed to get a rather special job lined up, if he can ever get around to it.. Tagline: “True alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”
- Dillon J. Lynch (Played by Calvin J): The Tough Guy and a master of knives and fists. He is in search of his brother that he never knew he had. He bears a strong sense of duty and strives to do the right thing. He is broke, new to town, and new to this. Whatever this is… Tagline: “Yeah, I brought a knife to a gun fight.”
- Henry H. Norris (played by Rory F.): The Detective and Shooter. Not the smartest, fastest, strongest, or toughest of the team, but perhaps the best rounded. He is a classic overachiever, always trying to make up for past failures and even limited successes by working harder and smarter. Life caught him unprepared once, and he does not want that to ever happen again. That attitude and certain knacks have earned him a good income and a respectable place in Boston society. Henry is new to the group, having met under less than auspicious circumstances and is the religious member of the group. Devoted follower of Horus before really understanding what that even means but it just felt right. Tagline: “If he can see it he can shoot it, and he sees really good!”
- Lorenzo J. de Modouco (played by Christian G.): A man with movie star looks and a voice that belongs on the radio. Slowly coming to grips with the fact that he isn’t exactly human, but a “Lupus Dei” – “Wolf of God” – otherwise known as a Benandanti. Lorenzo’s been a firefighter employed by the Boston Fire Department for a couple of years. This gives him access to places he normally shouldn’t be able to go as well as medical gear and information that might not be available to the public. He’s become a master of spear fighting and is a highly capable combatant. He’s been helping Amos collect cursed objects and Tagline: “You can take me to the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down and I won’t be turned around.”
Previously . . .
The last time we left off, the team was at Amos’s home looking for information that they could use.
A man knocks on the door to Berenger Orphanage and Myriam opens the door, appraising the young man who claims to be Timothy’s brother, Dillon, only having learned that recently, though he’s a bit late as he died somewhat over a year ago and is invited inside. A funny feeling comes and goes as he passes the threshold to see a young black girl looking down from the second story. A quick wave of acknowledgement between them before she leaves. He asks where Timothy was buried and it was suggested that he also visits one of Timothy’s foster brothers. Asking for directions, he’s handed a map and some basic directions.
Unfortunately, the map gets turned upside down and he gets lost. Pulling into a gas station, he asks what appears to be a local humming a tune only to get his palm read and a warning that his life line is ending and to be wary of the roses. Slightly shaken, he goes inside for better directions and manages to make it to the Mt. Hope Cemetery this time. Paying his respects at the Mitchell family plot where three lay dead with the same death date and Timothy with a later one. He can remember the younger brother, Stephen Jr. but the rest feels like a missing tooth, a missing memory. He moves to head towards Amos’s house.
Cookies Are Magic
Amos, Dillon, Henry, and Lorenzo
Childress Domicile
Monday, August 21st, 2001, 12:00 pm
106 Highland Ave, Hull, MA 02045
Back in Amos’s house, they’re searching for a bracelet that Amos mentioned with Henry and Lorenzo doing a large amount of the picking through stuff in boxes. Henry managing to get through a lot of them with his penetrating vision managing to find it and handing it off to Amos. Amos thanks him, explains that it’s a very expensive bracelet and should be treated with care before he opens a door at the back of the garage and throws the bracelet in carelessly and closes the door before moving boxes in front of it.
Planting the rose cutting in his backyard, Amos uses his Verdant Touch to make sure that it’s fine before heading back in, stopping only when he hears a motorcycle stop in front of the house. Dillon has arrived and knocks on the door. With only Lorenzo still in the house, he answers the door and they introduce themselves to each other before heading back towards Amos who looks at Dillon with a bit of suspicion before telling him that Timothy was gone. Trying to dance around what happened with Timothy a bit, excluding the supernatural elements where he can.
Henry speaks up, calling Lorenzo and Amos assholes while piecing together what he could about Timothy. Meanwhile Lorenzo smells Dillon as being the same as Timothy’s scent while Amos looks at Dillon with his third eye seeing the same sort of muddy red as Timothy. Amos makes a decision invites them inside to sit around the kitchen table and tells him the story, trying to be as gentle as he can when explaining about the supernatural world complete with large powerpoint presentation backed by Best of Queen. The Hidden Housekeeper refilling Dillon’s drink, revealing Lorenzo’s heritage as a werewolf, and that Timothy disappeared after a fire in a vampire nest. Amos insists that Timothy was a hero, and that he isn’t dead. When asked where to start looking, Amos couldn’t find a lead. . . but now he had the blood of a relative to possibly use.
Upon hearing that, Dillon immediately and neatly slices his palm which Lorenzo sops up with a bit of gauze. Preparing the circle, Amos casts a tracking spell using the blood, but no ping comes up. A quick thought to do a test ritual, he searches again for a wider circle, pinging on Dillon’s current location in Amos’s house and a single ping at the Mt. Hope Cemetery, representing Stephen Jr. but still no Timothy within 100 miles. He tries to explain it to Dillon who hasn’t got much of a clue about supernatural, but it’s still proof that Timothy isn’t around. When Dillon says that he needs to look further, Amos offers him a room to stay in for the night.
Henry asks about what they’re going to do with the evil doll and Amos starts to mutter to himself and then suggests they go check out the Grandmother’s house. Telling them to grab a still living clipping of the roses if they’re still there. Dillon asks to tag along after dropping his gear in a spare room as Henry and Lorenzo head out.
Roses and White Witches
Amos, Dillon, Henry, and Lorenzo
Childress Domicile
Monday, August 21st, 2001, 5:30 pm
59 Mount Vernon St, Boston, MA 02108
They arrive at what looks like a Brownstone building with a small rose garden of every colour out front. Henry, looking up at the windows spots a figure that he waves to and the door pops open. Lorenzo can smell roses and cookies and a faint old perfume.
Entering, Henry spots the specter at the top of the stairs and heads upwards speaking with her while Dillon spots a photo of a red-haired woman on the wall, reminding him of the encounter at the gas station. While the specter is silent, Henry is able to read her lips and speaks with her, convincing her that he’s there to help her daughter and granddaughter. The spirit, Sharon Norcross, leads him upwards into the furnished attic and points at the wall, exposing a panel and gesturing to take a specific book and taken to a white witch. Henry swears to help the granddaughter and feels a strange feeling going up his arm and into his chest.
They make their way home, with death wings and a rose clipping in tow and show Amos the book who immediately scans through it, a grimoire full of protection spells in Latin spells. It wasn’t until Lorenzo gets a phone call from Summer Childress screaming about something horrible happening and then a scream before it’s cut off.
Witch, Poltergeist, and Demon!
Amos, Henry, and Lorenzo
Childress Domicile
Monday, August 21st, 2001, 8:30 pm
150 Woodland Road, Brookline, MA 02467
They load up quickly and Amos directs them to take the fastest route while eating death wings in the car. They manage to get there in almost half time, finding Mindy out on the lawn sobbing and the door open. The entryway has Summer floating in midair, in cruciform, with Henry and Dillon bypassing her and up towards Megan who is whimpering. When Henry tries to grab her, she turns around with eyes rolled upwards and attempts to scratch him, but he manages to grapple her and starts running towards the entryway. Dillon throws a knife at the doll to pin it to the table, succeeding but also breaking it as a hellish light burns out of the doll’s broken porcelain face.
Dillon backflips away from a mysterious force that attacked him while knives emerge from the kitchen which Lorenzo blocks for him while Megan floats up towards the ceiling, dragging Henry with her. Amos, sees everything that is going on around him, trying to figure out the best tactics for the supernatural before him. He had the foresight to research other things that could be there, and he knows that there is a demon here as well as a poltergeist and he commands the demon to tell his name, Azza. A quick flick of his sling later and a spirit ward is set up, killing the poltergeist’s powers but the demon remains within.
Henry grabs hold of a railing, keeping her from being pulled away while praying to someone for help. A strange voice in an unknown language familiar to him tells him that he has the power to fight the demon if he believes. Amos tells Lorenzo to grab the doll from the room, to bring it closer and he manages to block a knife thrown by the poltergeist on the way to the room before grabbing the table and getting it close enough.
Amos, remembering Mindy standing outside, turns around in time to see her running at him, also possessed and quickly pulls two pepper balls from his pouch and flings them at her face, the first is telekinetically blocked but the second connects, blinding her, barely managing to keep from coughing. Henry keeps praying, feeling his eyes heat up, as he leaves Megan to Dillon who drags the child to the center while Lorenzo drags Mindy into the middle.
Amos, having enough of it, draws out a pentagram trap using the demon’s name to strengthen it and trap the four within. With a voice as one, they demand their freedom which Amos says that he doesn’t think so. He places down the rose clipping they took from the grandmother’s house, planning to use it for cleansing, but he doesn’t expect for it to create a connection and summoning her spirit to the house to hold the trap while the four separate to place bags in the corners of the house.
Henry gets attacked by a rogue ottoman empire that move towards him, getting banged in the knee while Dillon manages to get to his corner and kicks a large hole into it, stuffing the bag in. A white flash erupts and the scent of roses and cardamom spreads through the house. Lorenzo, getting to a corner, breaks a hole in the wall and more scent of cardamom and roses. Amos manages to dodge around furniture coming for him and bashes a hole with his staff-sling, shoving his sachet into the wall while Henry bashes through his corner using the butt of his gun and when the final pouch is put into the wall, a white flash happens and everyone can feel an almost tangible force wash through the rooms when screams start happening. Henry rushes back into the room, seeing the doll not yet burned completely and fires three rounds into the doll.
The three people emits smoke from their eyes that flows back into the doll, the broken porcelain face reforms and the three start wobbling out of the pentagram trap. The grandmother watches over her family, and knowing what is needed, Amos asks Lorenzo to take Mindy into the other room to treat her for shock, which is done wonderfully almost entrancing the maid with Lorenzo.
Aftermath
Amos, knowing that purifying the house, would also mean purifying the grandmother, did the only thing he could for the family. He lifted his amulet and used the flashlight of othersight for a good reason finally, to let the grandmother to say farewell to her family. The power of the amulet allows for one final reunion between the three and one tear filled farewell, despite knowing that the mists would eventually cloud over the events for Summer and Megan soon, but for lingering traces.
Summer thanks Henry, giving him and Megan a hug at the same time, asking if they need paid, but none of them want any money as Amos stuffs the doll into an old ammunition can turned curseproof box with a set of tongs. It’s time to leave, and Amos does one last thing by planting the final white rose clipping into a part of the Childress’ yard.
After Action Report (GM)
This session so a lot of action interspaced between character decompression and saw the arrival of a new player character (Dillon Lynch as played by Calvin J.). My first impression was it went well and after I sat down and thought about it I realized it went VERY well. The PCs didn’t have characters instantly form up with the others. There was suspicion and more than a little wild-eyed paranoia and craziness, but it WORKED and it seemed VERY realistic. It dragged the session out to abut five hours . . . but it had an impact.
As for the session plot it went about typical of what you might expect, but in a good way. The PCs had to undo the demonic possession that occured as well as cleansing the Childress residence. The demon Azza trapped in the doll still leaves it to be used at a later date should I need it. The poltergeist was kind of wimpy with the stats I used, but the players had really great rolls most of the night so maybe it was just that. Ah well. Looking forward to next week.
Other Notes
Bonus Report from Rory here.
Soundtrack
“He Was My Brother” by Simon and Garfunkel (Opening Song)
“The Devil Inside” by INXS
“Unchained Melody (Orchestral Version)” by Maurice Jarre (Closing Song)