Dramatis Personae
- Devin Broadhurst (played by Rob D.): There was a blurb here the entire time. But it disappears every time you look away from the screen. Tagline: “You saw it, but forgot it.”
- Gabriel MacAlister (played by Douglas Cole): Built like the natural athlete he is, he is tall, strong, and solidly good-looking, but deeply scarred from much combat. He’s missing his lower leg, which he lost fighting zombies. It is capped by a carbon fiber prosthetic that doesn’t seem to interfere much with his activities. A quiet and hard-working man, always ready to lend a hand with any work, which he will do without complaint or obligating the other person to respond. He is an expert martial arts teacher, and has been following in the footsteps of a carpenter for some time now. Emphatically not a pushover or weak personality, but also not one to purposefully show off. Has been in many horrible places and seen many horrible things; he’s a bit of a compulsive planner as a result, as well as always feeling that most folks don’t really know how lucky they are. He was cursed to carry a magical sword for a while, and gave into its Wrath before it was parted from him magically. He’s since given it up, in exchange for unknown burdens. Tagline: “To serve others is the highest calling; to protect the meek the noblest endeavor, and our works are judged by the effort that went into them”
- Kamali Blackshear (played by Merlin A.): Kamali is a young man in his late teens. He is healthy and is of mixed ethnicity of Caucasian South African and native South African. He is a determined youth who believes in a justice of his own, likening himself to the knight of the round table whom he has read deeply into. Just as they stood against the darkness of their age so too does Kamali seek to do the same. For his sister, for his friends, and for the world. Tagline: “A knight without a sword carrying a faith nobody believes.”
- Lorenzo DeModouco (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. He’s still cheery and always trying to make others happy, but has become a shrewd student of human behavior, which he uses for the benefit of the rest of his team. Lorenzo’s recently joined the Boston Fire Department as a volunteer as a means to get 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 like the rest of his brothers is a highly capable combatant. Tagline: “You can take me to the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down and I won’t be turned around.”
- Markus Walker (played by Christopher D.): Only recently awakened to the world of Ceteri, Markus is a couple things. A survivor of Lorna Rd, an officer of the law, a physical mage. It’s hard to tell where each one leaves off and where the other comes into play. He tries his best to follow the law, but it’s hard when there’s no Massachusetts State laws on monster hunting. Tagline: “Honesta quam magna.”
Previously . . .
When we last left off, the group had dragged an unconscious police officer back to the firehouse. He’s mostly healed from the worst hickey in the world. Most everyone is getting back on their feet with Markus and his sanity suffering the most. Waking up, he’s fairly certain that it’s not a nightmare when he’s surrounded by strangers, some of which are see-through. Markus is all questions, where’s his gun, are his magazines still there, why do I have this horrible hickey on my neck, and, just, why?
Only a couple of them are answered, namely that the dog is harmless. Kamali starts asking Markus how he’s feeling, repeatedly and then explains why things were happening. Trying to convince the cop that everything was fine and this is the way that the world was supposed to be despite the cop’s best attempting to speak it to the contrary. The dog is merely a bit ill. They suggest that he takes a look in the mirror at the bite wound inflicted by the drug addicts, as Markus calls them. The remaining time can merely be described as ineffectual questioning.
Time and time again, the boys try to convince them that he’s now dragged into their world while Markus keeps thinking that they’re all just on drugs while Gabe tries to convince him to come join them for monster hunting. Markus declines it, holsters his firearm, wipes dog drool (ectoplasm) off his pants and leaves the firehouse while the boys trail him. Nearly a week has gone by without anything major happening.
NOT MY ORIGINAL WOOD!!!
Gabe, Kamali, Lorenzo, and Markus
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Friday, October 22nd, 2000, 4:00 pm
465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115
Lorenzo happens to overhear that there’s something weird going on at the museum, the officer on scene is reporting that there’s something going on, namely things flying around. Lorenzo grabs the other boys while Markus is called in on his day off to go check things out. Apparently things are busier than normal. The docent meets Markus at the door, explaining that they were about to close for the day when a school group was looking at an Egyptian exhibit. The officer doesn’t want to write the report which means that he called in Markus to force him to deal with it.
The other boys arrive shortly afterwards, trying to convince the docent that they should be the ones to deal with the situation when an unearthly scream comes from beyond the doorway causing the docent and fellow officer to run screaming from the building, cries of “Original Wood” echoing throughout the old building. Markus tries to tell the rest to step back as he deals with the door, but the door opens revealing a nearly untouched room and a small girl crying into her hands. She approaches Markus telling him that she’s scared and that everyone else is scaring her, pointing at an empty room. Despite Markus’s commands, she continues towards him and tries to grab him, but Markus dodges out of her grasp right before she leans over and starts coughing up feathers and vomits up a crow. He immediately calls for a Medic.
The other boys come in and start investigating the situation, noticing other kids around and they immediately evacuate the ones cowering in a corner while others seem to be floating in the air unconscious. A teacher is found stuck in a nearby bathroom that screams upon seeing the children in the air while Markus comments that you can barely see the wires. Hurrying her out, the other boys set up for exorcism. Successful, it seems like a large crow emerges from the small girl, Gabe immediately smashes at it with his saber while Kamali uses his katana to poke at it.
The crow explodes into corvidfetti.
Kamali uses his psionic powers to check the girl to figure out what exactly happened. The Egyptian exhibit had nothing to do with what was going on, instead the previous Saturday the group was picking pumpkins in a field and began to hear voices in the field. Kamali hears a name whispered, Raum, and the rest of the children immediately turn to look at him with black, soulless sockets. Gabe tries to remember what he can about the name and recalls that Raum is an Earl of Hell, one of the minor ones with Raumlets that look like crows for servants. They manage to get the remaining kids into a circle while they act like they’re crows which Kamali promptly mocks while trying to help with the exorcism. Gabe prays to god to help him with the exorcism and God answers with a powerful light banishing all the tiny demon crows, one of the children coughing up a mouse.
Scarecrows, Pumpkins, and Slaughter Amidst The Murdercorn
Gabe, Kamali, Lorenzo, and Markus
Smolak Farms Pumpkin Patch
Friday, October 22nd, 2000, 6:00 pm
315 S Bradford St., North Andover, MA 01845
Kamali gives them the good news that they’re all going to be alright, Markus gives them the bad news that they may need to be arrested for smuggling wildlife as crows aren’t allowed to be kept as pets in Boston, but decides to just let them off with a warning instead. After getting the address from the teacher, the boys (and Markus) head towards the pumpkin field.
They arrive and Kamali checks the surrounding area with his inner sight an feels it is charred black and terrifying. It doesn’t help that there’s a nice fine mist around the ground and a large amount of scarecrows scattered around the field. The group plans to attack one of the scarecrows and spreads out as Kamali barks orders. With a single blast, Kamali blows the head off of a scarecrow with rock salt. . . nothing happens.
Kamali barges in and tries to take one down when they hear rustling from the north. Undeterred, he continues to drop the scarecrow only to see ambulatory ones rushing towards them through the tall plants while the one Kamali tried to take down jumps from its pole and grabs its head, leering at Kamali that backs off and swings at it with his katana. Lorenzo charges in for his friend and stabs at it with his spear. Markus fires off a barrage, dealing very little damage while the scarecrows rampage, dealing no major damage to the party while they defend themselves.
Gabe starts out with a shield bash against the scarecrow that tried to hit him in the back, the shield blow is dodged but the jack lantern has been severed from the rest of the body. Kamali barely damages it with his katana, same with Lorenzo and his spear while Markus moves back and fires a shot at the head but still manages to dodge it and miss the opponent completely. Having learned his lesson previously, Markus keeps on the move which irritates his opponent to no end.
Gabriel calls upon his Smite upon the wilderness and burns the bejeebus out of the majority of the scarecrows except for the one that has Kamali grappled. A short, but energetic, exchange later and Lorenzo joins the grapple. Markus, on the other hand, backs off and fires once more, the bullet striking the ground and setting off sparks in every direction setting the scarecrow ablaze and turning it into fine powder while the last scarecrow is smote into ruin on the hillside by Gabriel’s power.
Aftermath
Battle is over and the tree has runes carved into it with a fluid flowing from the rough scars in the bark. Markus is convinced that it’s a maple tree leaking sap. Kamali manages to understand that it’s a summoning circle carved into the tree and gets visions of the schoolkids dancing around it. Gabriel gets the idea that he should pour some holy water upon it. The tree sprouts fruit that grows and festers and hundreds of demon crows that fly skywards and instead from the sky comes a large crow, likely the mortal form of Raum, Earl of Hell. Markus comments to the others that animatronics get better every year since they released Jurassic Park.
After Action Report (GM)
Today’s session went by pretty fast with the PCs jumping from point to point. The battle with the evil scarecrows was fun, but as soon as Gabe pulled off a Smite it was pretty done. I didn’t even get to strangle any of the PCs. Sigh. I ask so few things from my players. XD
I did decide to muck around with Smite (using this as a guide) to make something more palatable to the campaign setting. Finally settled on adding FP, requiring a Will vs. Will roll, and maybe adding Variable. More on that later.
Other Notes
Today’s combat was partially inspired by Seanan McGuire, because she is the Murdercorn Queen after all.
Doug chatted a bit about Smite and Danger Sense on his blog.
Soundtrack
“The Crow on the Cradle” by Lady Maisery (Opening song)
“The Scarecrow” by Pink Floyd
“Whole Lotta Trouble” by Stevie Nicks (closing song)