The Chronicles of Ceteri B-Team: Season 3, Session 2 – Guys and Dolls

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.”
  • 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 . . .

When last left off, Henry had a dream about a doll and a girl and he’s fairly certain that he knows who the girl is. Lorenzo has split his time between his apartment and one above Mr. Friendly’s old shop making sure no one walks away with the cursed items in collection and is just on the start of his off time as a firefighter.

Henry, after seeing the dream, wants to check up on the two clients, Mr. Kudrow, and the one with the daughter. Wanting to know more about what’s been happening. When speaking with Mr. Kudrow, he can hear that him and his wife are taking a vacation to Maui as well as put a cheque in the mail to pay off the rest he owes. He also thanks Henry for breaking down his door and then getting it replaced. The client with the daughter is Theodore Childress, a very expensive lawyer that Henry did some bodyguard work for when he was working as an adjunct to another during a trial involving organized crime. He’s fairly rich and influential and has both a daughter and a son and is regarded as a good lawyer that hasn’t lost a case once.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, sleeps in since he’s got some time off. He wakes up starving, almost like his stomach is trying to eat itself. His food craving is near horrible and he’s suffering. Amos, downstairs in the basement, can hear the stomach rumbling through several stories before Lorenzo bursts into the basement and drags him out demanding food. Used to his foster brother’s demands, there’s little he can do other than accompany him to a restaurant. Though upon leaving, they run into Henry knocking on the door to the store so they drag him along as well.

Huuuuunngrrrrry

Amos, Henry, and Lorenzo
La Fabrica Central Restaurant
Monday, August 21st, 2001, 8:00 am
450 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

It’s the best meal that Lorenzo and Henry probably ever had.

Henry tries to tell them about the doll he saw in his dreams while Amos ask him to narrow it down a bit since there’s at least 20 or 30 cursed dolls running around at any given time. Henry does a quick sketch of a 19th century porcelain doll that Amos could recall being in a circle of salt in Mr. Friendly’s basement. It seemed in good condition, though he didn’t get close enough to actually inspect it due to being busy with the translation, just remembering that there was a brown splotch on the lower leg. It was one of many dolls down in the basement.

While the others eat, Amos tries explaining to Henry about cursed items, but it’s hard to narrow things down since there’s so many different types of curses, so many cultures, and what works for one won’t work for another. Fire sometimes releases, sometimes purifies. Salt generally works while Holy Water occasionally makes things mad if it’s not vulnerable to it. The conversation eventually turns to the fact that to identify it, Amos needs to actually see the physical doll so they need to go see his old client.

Witch, Poltergeist, or Demon?

Amos, Henry, and Lorenzo
Childress Domicile
Monday, August 21st, 2001, 10:30 am
150 Woodland Road, Brookline, MA 02467

They leave and pull up upon a large three-story house with detached garage and lots of topiaries with staff doing gardening among other issues. After being forced to clean the sharpies off, they suggest coming in with Amos posing as a research assistant. Walking past the rest, Amos stops by a gardener and chats with them about how they’re taking care of the estate, in Spanish. Apparently rose bushes are dying by the droves and quickly, and it doesn’t look like some obvious reason, but supernatural is something else. It’s definitely something powerful, maybe a spirit, maybe a witch. He’d have to check to see if the milk is curdled as he puts a clipping of the plant in his bag.

As Amos investigates the grounds, Henry goes inside and speaks with the servants who tell him that they’ll bring the lady of the house around while they wait in the lounge. Amos, meanwhile, notices a ten-foot circle of dead plants emanating from a corner of the house, there’s no mushrooms or flowers so a faerie circle is out of the question. Looking up, he sees a small girl with blonde hair looking out an upper window, who he gives a small wave and smile to and receives one back.

From his location in the car, Lorenzo is able to smell rot.

Inside, Henry speaks with Summer, Theodore’s wife, and she looks horrible. A quick glance shows that she’s smoking again and she looks bad. Theodore is out to a conference and things aren’t going well so well. As they speak, he sees a knickknack on the fireplace just pops off of the mantle and falls to the floor causing Summer to jump and calls for their maid to clean things up while chastising her for putting things too close to the edge. It’s just a really weird coincidence. Henry tells her that he has an assistant with her and that he wants to make sure that they’re all safe.

Amos and Lorenzo enter the room, Lorenzo speaks with Summer, speaking about the rotting smell which doesn’t make Summer happy while Amos expresses his condolences over the roses, which Summer says that they transplanted from her mother’s house, and had been fine for the past 5 years. Henry asks how the kids are doing, Leon is fine and starting high school, and Megan is alright before they go out and discuss what they’ve seen. Before leaving, Amos asks if he could have some tea with milk or cream.

Standing outside, Henry explains everything that he’s seen, and a poltergeist possibility. Amos explains that it could come with the house, it could come with the doll, and until he’s seen the doll then Amos cannot make any direct assumptions about the connections. Amos is also curious about the knickknack that broken, but Henry says that it’s probably not important to her. Henry, looking up at the window, sees through the wall as the doll slowly turns its face towards him and in his head, he can hear a voice cry out that it’s their meat and to leave her before he passes out.

Lorenzo shoves two smelling salts up his nose and then breaks them, waking him up. Looking around, the maid brings out Amos’s cup of tea, apologizing that they’d run out of milk and so she had to use powdered dairy creamer instead when a rock falls from the sky and beans Lorenzo in the head to no damage. Another sign, this time of lithobolia or “rain of stones” from nowhere. Amos drains the rest of his tea before going into the kitchen to put the tea cup away to find Mindy pouring out sour milk.

Against Amos’s recommendation, Henry goes upstairs to speak with Megan who happily greets her. Telling him about the knocking she hears in the walls and introducing her new doll, Patricia and that she says that Patricia calls him funny looking. Henry stares at the doll a bit, barely winning the staring contest.

While Henry is upstairs, Amos chats with Mindy about the going ons, a few months ago is when the first item being a cross that would fall from the wall. Small knickknacks would fall, rats scratch on the walls at night. The basement flooded a few weeks ago and the crucifix on the wall of Mindy’s room would keep falling down no matter how many nails were put in. Even more curious, the house was only built custom 10 years ago.

Lorenzo explores the house, doing a fire safety check while following the mildew smell he detected earlier. Calling out so the other two know where he’s going, he goes downstairs to see all the water damage below. It looks like a pipe burst and things were still damp with a fan running to help dry out everything. Summer comes up and Lorenzo can smell the scent of cigarette smoke from her. Lorenzo starts empathizing with her, and explaining what he was doing downstairs. She recognizes him from a newspaper from last year where he discovered an arsonist. She confides with him about her daughter’s doll, that’s it’s taking over her daughter’s life and there’s just something wrong with it. Almost like it could see into someone’s soul.

Amos notices that there’s a spirit inhabiting the doll, but manages to keep a poker face while he greets the young girl. Returning her curtsey and speaking with Megan who introduces Patricia and says that since the doll didn’t have a last name, she gave Patricia her last name so she’s Patricia Childress. Amos cannot just leave her alone with the doll, so he introduces her to Hobbes while he searches in his bag for something. Hobbes accepts pets for a few before slinking out of Megan’s arms and bats at the doll. After calling Hobbes off, Amos commiserates with the young lady about the roses and offers her a flower, which is a Medicine Bag charm to try to help protect her before leaving. On the way out, Amos does one more thing, cannot help himself in fact as he plants an herbal of Verdant Fecundity on the property causing the rose bushes to come back to life.

Aftermath

On the way to Amos’s house to do research, he gives Henry a quick rundown and shows Lorenzo to be a werewolf along with some basic information on the world he’s found itself in.

Back at his place, he warns Henry not to touch anything in the basement, and not to look too hard at anything unless Amos tells him it’s safe. Instead Henry asks for use of a computer to research the grandmother which Amos directs upwards to his living room. They do their respective research, Amos knowing it’s either a poltergeist or a demon, one is easier than the other and neither are pretty. They need to pin down the four corners of the house and the moment that happens the spirit could go crazy and who knows what could happen from there? Amos has one plan, but it could be disastrous for Henry.

After Action Report (GM)

Today’s game started off a bit slow – the PCs all in different directions – but they formed up pretty quick and are really starting to gel. Amos is Amos, but Lorenzo is finally get more centerstage and Henry is fitting in pretty well with the group. The players are taking the time to help Henry understand the supernatural world he has found himself in and that’s just really cool. Lot of the time this sort of stuff gets covered or glossed over and I appreciate the time the players (Christian and Chris) are taking with the new player (Rory) to get his character up to speed.

Next week my new player (Calvin J.) should have his character finished. I got lucky with Rory joining up (he’s a good player so far) and I think I’ll get lucky again with Calvin (just a feeling). Calvin’s character is related to Timothy Mitchell (he’s his half-brother) and that is going to prove very interesting as I know something about Timothy that the players don’t. (Other than if he’s actually dead or not – that’s still in the air.)

Other Notes

We got a bit of a late start (15 past the hour) and turned in about 3 hours afterward. Still working my way up to the full 4 hour mark.

Bonus report from Rory here.

Soundtrack

“Intro & Eggs and Sausage” by Tom Waits (Opening Song)
“Kiss from a Rose” by Seal
“Paint It Black” by Hidden Citizens (Closing Song)

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