The Laundry: Case Goblin Willow
8 pm Thursday, 4 August 2011: Case Goblin Willow, The Laundry
- GM: ???
- Me: Julia Gallows, Verification
- Joe: Mohammed Kasab, Analyst
- Matt: Kiera Palmer, Finance
- Ben: Declan Knowles
- AJ ???: Jasmine Smith
- Victor: Tim Venter
I managed to generic into this one. The GM only took one ticket, expecting, correctly, that the game would only run about two hours.
My character, Julia Gallows, was in Verification. "Verification" was a bureaucratic way of saying "Assassination". I think Mohammed had screwed up some kind of field command, possibly involving Jasmine, and had been trying not to be in a position to give orders ever since. Kiera was generally not liked, as she was the one insisting on sticking to minimalist budgets. Despite all of this and some note passing, the members of the group actually worked well together.
They were sent to examine a Laundry office in some town or other. My notes mention 2 devices to communicate with the dead, and something about falsified emails.
I think there were two people more or less in charge, Wainwright and Brown. Other personnel included Dr. Tabitha Laws. And my notes say something about Karl Fritzeh, an Old Dead Nazi.
Someone: We should call a dead Nazi.
Someone else: Should we? Is it in the budget?
Kiera: We have the budget for one call. One call, three questions.
This involved a trip to the local graveyard, and Barry, the ghoul, who had been there a long time.
I don't recall a lot of details. I remember the GM explaining that anyone trying to enter somewhere without proper authorization would have his brain burned to a crisp by magical fields.
GM: But, with a warrant card, you don't have that issue.
Someone: Lucky us.
There was a fire destroying at least part of the facility the PCs were supposed to be investigating.
PC: I assume your records are kept in a fireproof and waterproof facility?
NPC: Not in the budget.
My notes say that Jasmine had issues with summoning grids. I think she was a sorcerer who'd had things go very wrong in the past.
Someone (about Kiera): I punch you.
Kiera: That will be noted.
Julia: I have always wanted to do that.
Someone (I think explaining): Budget cuts.
Someone (to Mohammed): You let your team die.
Someone else: Can we do the soul searching some other time?
A third someone: That's for the train ride home!
The PCs were somewhat short of leads and clues, and still had a missing grave dust unit to account for. Mohammed thought that Dr. Laws was responsible for whatever it was that was going on, so he tried to be a heavy and interrogate her.
Mohammed: I'm Arabic, and I have Fast Talk.
Kiera: I think that's good use of our resources. (It won't cost _me_ a nickel.)
Mohammed: Why don't you frog march her dripping into the chair?
Kiera: Your methods are intriguing.
Dr. Laws seemed more amused than intimidated, and Mohammed realized to his horrified embarrassment that she had nothing to do with -- with -- well, with whatever it was that was going on.
Someone: Let's go botch up the farmhouse.
Someone else: Shouldn't we botch up Brown first?
The farmhouse? Well, there seemed to be a series of disasters, like the fire, calculated to draw the PCs away from any lead that seemed to be going anywhere. So, the PCs went to talk to Brown, only to hit a snag.
Someone: Brown's dead.
Someone else: We'll talk to him.
Wainwright immediately tried to get the PCs to believe that Brown was behind everything, and most of the group, while not exactly believing him, were ready to head for home. Julia protested that there was still an unaccounted for grave dust unit, and Kiera found herself in agreement.
Reviewing the information they had, the group determined that Wainwright was involved, and that, at Brown's funeral, the dead Nazi would come out of a local grave. The group attended the funeral, watched for this, and Julia shot him fatally, Verifying the man.
This was fun, and less incoherent than it sounds. The trouble with expanding the write ups after months is that a lot of the details fade. OTOH, I suppose it does make for shorter write ups.
