Dresden Files: Fallen Might

My Saturday morning game was Dresden Files: Fallen Might. It was theoretically full, but we wound up with five players in a very chilly room.

• GM: Kevin Meares

• Christian Spione (sp?): Wizard leader, in theory. In practice, she decided she wasn't up for this, but did loan us a couple of blankets.
• Me: Angelo, former mafia hitman, Knight of the Cross. He had the saber named Hope. I had no idea I'd be playing another mobster in a Dresden Files game when I asked for him.
• Jennifer Wong: Damien, burned out wizard (mentally, not magically).
• Dennis Badurina: Father Giles, priest and Knight of the Cross.
• Jason Godesky: Jeff Charner, hothead wizard.
• Michael Godesky: Luke Huron, Criminal outsider, wizard under the Doom of Damocles. Much about how the player portrayed him was explained when he revealed that one of Luke's Aspects was, "Hey, I'm alive, right?"

The GM said that the wizards were in town because of reports of black magic and demon summoning.

Jason: Pretty typical for Philly.

GM: Someone was burned nearly to ash in 10 seconds during a rave.

Someone: In the _daytime, West Philly looks like Afghanistan.

Damien: I dunno. Even if I was there, I probably couldn't save him.

Yep, Damien had Issues. People died around him, and he couldn't save them.

Jeff: I just wanna know how to turn people into fire -- well, not humans.

The knights fortuitously stumbled into the wizards, as knights do. Angelo just had a sudden urge to visit Philly and stop by Father Giles's church. So, Knights and Wizards united to do research. Basically, low magical folks were spontaneously combusting at raves.

Father Giles went to the hospital to look at one of the bodies, but an orderly wouldn't let him in, or at least, not without a suitable, ah, bribe. Now, Father Giles didn't have any money, but he put his hand in his pocket, confident that God Will Provide.

GM: For anyone but a Knight of the Cross, that wouldn't work. But... you are a Knight of the Cross.

And the good father found a baseball card. Oh, it was only worth about ten cents, but it just so happened to be one this particular orderly very much wanted for his collection. The father looked at the body and got whatever relevant information was there.

Meanwhile, the others first met a sidhe woman, I think Queen Mab, who was willing to give the group information she said they needed in return for, oh, something small, like maybe Damien's full name. The group refused, and then met Nicodemus. Purveyor of Tainted Pleasures, and head of the Denarians, in an alley. The Denarians are people who accepted a denarius -- silver coin, one of the original thirty given to Judas, and with it, a demon to possess them.

Nicodemus: Hello, Angelo. I always like to meet the new knights, see who I'll be working with.

He told everyone to come over to him.

Angelo: Say "please".

Nicodemus: Do. You. Really. Want. To Go. There?

The GM had exactly the right note of menace in his voice there. Angelo decided that God was trying to warn him about pride, and that Nicodemus wasn't ready to give up one iota of his own, so he joined the others.

Nicodemus was willing to give the group information if only someone would accept a silver denarius from him. Despite Angelo's warnings, Luke and Jeff each accepted a coin. Angelo sighed. Obviously, it was to the sidhe and demon lord's advantage for the group to do the dirty work, so the bargain was particularly bad. Nicodemus revealed that at least one Denarian was around and responsible for the mess. He didn't know if there were more than one. Nicodemus himself objected to the mess because it was so... messy.

Father Giles rejoined the others at a bar, and Angelo filled him in. The father actually managed to talk Jeff into renouncing his coin, as Jeff genuinely hadn't realized what he was getting into. (Neither did the player -- oddly, most of the group hadn't read any of the source material.) Luke decided to keep his. After all, he was still alive, right?

Still, one out of two redeemed isn't a bad day's work. Of course, Damien went off with the sidhe woman, having made a different bargain, I think to have sex with her. By now, the GM was laughing and saying that he didn't have to push to get us into trouble as we were doing a fine job of grabbing rope with which to hang ourselves.

When the knights protested about Damien's foolhardy action, Damien pointed out that the sidhe woman had told him where the group needed to be.

Luke: This is what we call detective work.

Folks went back to Father Giles's church, where he pointedly went into the confessional and waited. I forget who did and did not make confessions, but I suspect Angelo did and Luke did not.

The group headed to their destination: A large rave hosted by White Court Vampires. White Court Vampires feed off emotion, not blood, and tend to focus on emotions such as lust, fear, or despair. Lust is useful for controlling the sex trade and for blackmailing important people.

The rave took place on two floors of a building, the Heaven Floor and the Hell Floor. The group decided to start on the Hell floor. Angelo found a White Court Vampire to talk to in the midst of the Hell-themed decadence.

WCV (looking Angelo over): You're not really my type, but if you try --

Angelo: No, I need to speak to the person in charge.

WCV: That's Domenick. He's in Heaven.

The Heaven floor had the really Important people, like the mayor, the chief of police -- exactly the sort one would want to please / blackmail.

Angelo used to work for the mob, so he knew that there were times one needed to compromise. He approached Domenick directly, explaining who he was and that he was there because a demon was going to attack and make trouble. Angelo made it very clear that he was not trying to make any trouble for the White Court that evening.

Domenick looked the group over, and said that the word of a knight was good as far as the knights were concerned, but he also wanted oaths from the wizards. They gave them, and Domenick formally agreed that they could do what they needed to do.

There was no sign of a problem in Heaven, and Angelo got the urge to go down a floor and visit Hell.

Someone: It's never good when knights say, "So, I'm going to visit Hell."

Everyone else followed.

Someone: What's new in Hell since we left?

Someone: Anyone who looks like they don't belong?

Someone: Aside from us?

Then, the explosions and screaming started. The group went into action, managing to overcome a Denarian. Damien was actually able to save people! Father Giles was only slightly singed.

GM: You're missing a bit of hair on top.

Father Giles: God is trying to tell me about the sin of vanity.

And there, the game wrapped. The GM said that he had a couple of extra Denarians statted up, but the pacing was such that the first fight really needed to be the last. Michael said that Luke would now renounce his denarius. After all, it had done its job. I asked if he could actually just do that. The GM said that there would be a long shadow, and I'm not familiar enough with the books to know what that means (I've read 2-5). I gather it does mean that there are consequences. And, Luke started out under the Doom of Damocles to begin with, which meant that he'd broken a Law of the White Council, something that would have gotten him killed if someone on the Council hadn't agreed to be responsible for Luke. This means that if Luke screws up again, Luke and his mentor get killed. I feel sorry for the mentor.