Victim's Ball: Larp, first run

This larp used the same scenario as the tabletop Call of Cthulhu game of the same name that I played last year. The write up is in A&E 396 or on my wiki at http://www.labcats.org/drcpunk/wiki/index.php/Victim%27s_Ball. It was a bit touch and go as to whether the larp would happen, but sufficient players were recruited, even if we did begin an hour late.

As before: A wealthy nobleman was holding a ball for those who had lost a relative to the guillotine. I played Aimee Apicello, the same character Dylan Addis played in the tabletop game last year, a fairly inexperienced sorceress who was twice a widow, and who sought for power, realizing that her host had it. The GM gave me free reign to decide whether Aimee had killed her husbands or not.

What Aimee did not know, though I did, was that the host had a terrible ritual that he performed at most of the balls he threw. He would select a male guest to be The Magician, and require that man to select a female guest to be beheaded by an actual guillotine on display at the center of the room. She would then be brought back to life as one of the host's many concubines, her head attached to her shoulders only by a green ribbon about the neck, as distinguished from the red ribbons that the party guests were required to wear.

Selecting the Magician took longer than intended, as the cast member playing the host decided to throw the choice to the ladies. This included 4 PCs, including myself, and about as many cast ladies, women in white who doted on the host.

Although Aimee pushed for a somewhat rakish gentleman (whom she hoped had actual magical power) to be named, the general consensus, among both the cast characters who knew what would happen and the PCs who thought that they were merely playing an amusing party game agreed that they should name a compassionate man. The PCs did discuss naming a woman, but, to their disappointment, the cast characters said that this was not permissible.

After some interviews, the ladies finally named the doctor, a truly gentle man. He was flattered at first, but then horrified when the host revealed what his job entailed -- to select a woman to be beheaded (I don't think he knew about the resurrection part). The women PCs gradually learned the situation and assured him that they had had no idea when they named him.

He decided to stall for time, refusing to name anyone, despite the intolerable pressure building up in his head and the growing insistence of the host that he make a choice. He wrote a note, then started dictating it, as his hand shook. Aimee was willing to write down what he said -- until he mentioned a woman who had meant a great deal to him. She refused to write that, fearing that, even though he never named this woman, the host would take it as a choice.

Finally, the host would wait no longer, and the doctor said that he had made his choice. He went back to the party, standing in front of the guillotine, making as long a speech as he could, still trying to stall. When the host started to get restless, he turned to Aimee and yanked at her ribbon.

She (and I) jumped, thinking this was a choice, but what the doctor was trying to do was to free the women, untying their ribbon. Meanwhile, the PC women tried to kill the host, with help from the Executioner. Some of the host's concubines tried to prevent this, and the doctor cried out, wanting to prevent anyone from dying.

I don't remember whether or not the host was killed before or after the Dark Man, aka Nyarlathotep, showed up. But, dead he was. As for the doctor, his victory was that he did not choose a victim. Alas, the good man paid the ultimate price for this. His head exploded from the pressure of the uncompleted magical ritual.

A couple of the host's concubines lay dead as well, from having their green ribbon, the one which held their heads on, removed. Aimee loaned her power to a woman who was a more powerful sorceress, and they attempted to fight the Dark Man, with no success.

Then, the Dark Man looked around and started asking people why they were still there. Some fled. One man said that he had lost everything.

Dark Man: Take it all back. (to Aimee) Why are you still here?

Aimee (kneeling): Teach me!

Dark Man: I will.

He took a fallen green ribbon, held it in front of the power hungry woman, then wrapped it around her neck and led her out by it.

The man who'd been told to take it all back went to a frightened woman, the one who had, I think, been the doctor's beloved, telling her to go with him. She did, having no idea what was going on. The Dark Man gathered the two of them and Aimee, and told them that they'd be an interesting trio.

I don't know if the other woman PC will stay with Aimee and the man, but the two of them intend to start up the same kinds of party that the host was throwing.

A couple of secrets came out. For example, one man who had struck us all as an obnoxious aristocrat was seeking desperately to find his wife. She was actually one of the host's concubines, having been a victim at an earlier ball. Alas, her husband went mad and was unable to save either her or himself.

We took pictures after the game, and I'd loaned my camera during it. I put all the pictures up on flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcpunk