Monsterhearts: DexCon 2013 LongCon: Part 1

6 July 2013: 2pm-6pm Monsterhearts: Part 1 of 3

GM: Melissa Spannenbert

The game was set in 1947, two years after WWII, in the beat town of Columbiana, New Jersey. The GM had a map and drew our attention to various features, particularly Main Street and the Boardwalk, a big summer draw. She also had a lot of photographs showing individuals and groups and illustrating mechanics.

My notes on the various cliques of students:

• Oilers: Rough and tumble, from the wrong side of tracks. "Their parents live and breathe the Refinery. So the Lockout has been hard on them." NB: The Lockout did not come up in game.
• Pinners: Girls with college boyfriends. I.e., they'd been pinned.

Bobby Soxers: "Highly excitable teenage girls. Into Sinatra and swing music. Always a comb in their rolled down socks."

• Try Hards: "They try-hard, but just don't seem to ever fit in." My notes actually call them the "Try Harders".
• High Cees: Columbiana is not only a real town, but also one that integrated its schools before the law mandated that. The High Cees were "from Hiram Corning Consolidated in HiCee Township. The two schools merged in 1947, with mixed success." NB: This did not come up in game.

While the PCs were all high school students, one option (which no one chose) was to play a war veteran returning to school.

The summer carnival had come to town. Also, a woman had been found murdered, the first murder in a very long time. This was Margie Grubbs, who had graduated high school just the year before, in 1946. She married right out of high school, and her marriage and pregnancy was still the buzz. Her husband was ten years older than she was and worked in the oil refinery.

Our characters were:

Adrian Steinn: Cassidy Greene, The Ghost. Male, son of a local farmer. One of the Try Hards. He looked like a more rugged James Dean, with piercing eyes. He was aloof and kept to himself. He had been involved with James Howard, but found out that James was seeing Maggie Grubs and lashed out at James in public. He was chased by two of the Oilers, Joe Ashley and Charles Wall, because they knew he was homosexual, and impaled on some farming equipment. His parents knew that Cassidy was a ghost. They buried him privately. His mother cried out for him and he came back. His father wasn't dealing with this well. His mother was delusional, which I think means she was convincing herself that her son was really still alive.

Joann-Clark Steinn: Meredith Pierce, The Witch. Male. His mother was American; his father was British. He lived in England during the war. His father had been seriously wounded in the war, so his mother decided that the family should move to her home town. The move was a year ago. Meredith was broody and restless, not aware what he was searching for. He was from a long standing wicca family on his father's side. His father's first name was Daniel.

Joshua Kronengold: Quietude, The Ghoul. Female, golem formed out of the sands of the beach. My notes seem to say "locked into a shell", but I don't know what I meant. Ghouls hunger, some for flesh, some for chaos. Josh decided that Quietude hungered for words.

Quietude: Life is words, yet I use so few myself -- don't use too many at once.

She became cognizant of herself as person a couple of weeks ago.

GM: Where have you been living?

Quietude: Places with words. The school. I've been staying in the school library.

Me: Russell Place, The Serpentine. Male. His family, the Places, ran the city, unofficially. Russell hadn't yet decided whether or not to do the teen rebellion thing. The current head of the family was his grandmother, Camilla Edison Place, the first cousin of the last governor.

Lena Marven: Ophelia Reed, the Infernal. Female. Ophelia had drowned in the ocean because someone had "helped" her drown. She'd gone swimming with Virginia. Both had been smoking reefer "which was totally okay in 1947", so Virginia had a convenient excuse for her behavior. Their friendship was "strained, but still okay". Virginia wanted people to feel sorry for her because her poor friend Ophelia had died, but then, of course, Ophelia didn't die, at least as far as Virginia could tell. Ophelia didn't explain to her that Poseidon, or at least, some being claiming to be Poseidon, said he'd help her live again, if she'd work for him. She agreed. Ophelia had moved to town recently. She was a Try Hard, and she liked Math a lot.

No one chose the Hollow or the Werewolf. My notes say that the Mortal was off the table for now, but would be fine to play later. I'm not sure whether the Vampire was on or off the table for this session. As it happened, no one played either a Mortal or a Vampire in any of the sessions.

Strings / Backstory:

• Quietude thought she could save Ophelia, so Quietude had 1 string o her.
• My notes say: Poseidon 1=3. I think that means he had three strings on her. I think 5 had some kind of mechanical effect, probably Ophelia becoming her Darkest Self.
• Ophelia taught Quietude love, so Ophelia had 2 strings o her.
• Quietude and Cassidy have 2 strings on each other because Cassidy saw Quietude created.
• Meredith had two sympathetic tokens. These were the equivalent of strings, but could also be used to cast hexes on their owners.
  • One was a bandana or handkerchief that belonged to Cassidy.
  • One was a necklace that Meredith gave to Pearly Jones. He had been in a relationship with her when he first arrived in town. My notes say something about Pearly, her father (I think), and perhaps something about him being more bloody than Meredith. I have no idea what that means, apart from that Meredith was no longer with Pearly, but they might still be friends.
• Russell saw Meredith rummaging for sympathetic tokens, but he said nothing.
• Ophelia knew that Cassidy was dead, and she also knew how he died.
• Cassidy had been inside the bedroom of Captain Beatty, the Chief of Police, I think as a ghost (though perhaps not), I think watching him sleep.

Two of each PC's stats were highlighted, one by the GM and one by the player of whoever's PC had the most strings on that PC. In my case, the GM made both choices, highlighting Hot and Cold, because Camilla was the person with the most strings on Russell. This is an extremely likely situation for the Serpentine. Monsterhearts PCs have four stats, and whenever they use the highlighted ones, they mark Experience. New stats are highlighted each session. Well, they can be the same ones (there are, after all, only four total), but they don't need to be.

It was June of 1947, and the PCs were all seniors. They were sitting in class, listening to Glydis Hazel present a group report on the wreck of the Powhatan, a ship which was discovered by Lorelei Wittmer when she went swimming. Lorelei's family owned Libby's "Original" Clam Shack, on the beach. Dr. Green from the local college was trying to get funding to check the ship out. It was a fascinating tale, surely, yet Glydis made it sound like the most boring thing ever.

The teacher, Mr. Oscar Newell, smelled of pipe tobacco and the same blazer. He was called out of the classroom by a woman who was crying. The class shifted, uncertain of what to do next. Glydis started reading her report again.

Meredith: Glydis, give it a break.

This was a Shut Someone Down move. Meredith got a partial success, which meant that both of them got a Condition.

Meredith got the condition Grumpy. As for Glydis, our consensus: She's -already- given herself -boring-.

Anna Sams Beatty, the sheriff's daughter, had crush on Meredith, possibly as of that very moment.

Quietude tried to Turn Glydis On. (I don't recall whether she succeeded.)

Quietude: She gave me -words-!

The news eventually filtered into the classroom: There had been a second murder. The victim was Broy Sheely, one of their classmates. He had a part time job. His father walked out on the family, and his mother was on the bottle.

The GM now asked each of us how our PC had interacted with Broy.

Ophelia hung out at the five and dime where Broy worked part time. She liked to shop, but she was very cheap. Broy dreaded her coming into the store.

Cassidy spurned him (before Cassidy's ghostdom).

Meredith tutored him in history.

He knew that Quietude lived in the library, having discovered that a couple of days ago.

Camilla told Russell's mother to give Russell a five dollar bill to slip into Broy's pocket. Russell did.

Broy had been found dead this morning.

Mr. Newell returned to tell the class that there would be a short Assembly. Cassidy shoved his chair and stalked out of the room.

Verna Owens, who had been sweet on Broy, started to cry. Russell handed her a handkerchief (with his initials on it). He was actually bored, if I understand my notes. Quietude got folks to the auditorium. Even though she'd only been in school a couple of weeks, she was very responsible. She paid attention in class.

Mr. Newell went after Cassidy and told Cassidy that he was there if the student needed him.

Cassidy: Got a cigarette?

Mr. Newell: Well, I'm not supposed to, but yes. (hands him one) Just don't let the principal catch you.

Cassidy: Yeah, I should probably step outside.

Cassidy was definitely involved in a lot of complicated relationships. He'd spurned one murder victim and been involved with someone who'd been involved with another.

Meanwhile, Quietude Shut Down Russell (I forget why) and got a String on him. By now, the Chief of Police and Principal were there.

My notes say that Margie Grubbs, the earlier murder victim, had bee found in a trailer in the woods near town. She had a big gash, probably a knife wound, but there wasn't a lot of blood. The body had probably been moved, and I think folks thought it was a crime of passion.

Meredith agreed to take Anna to the Carnival on Friday. This was manipulation to get her to find out and tell him more about the murders.

Russell tried to find out more from the secretary at the police station, but had no luck. Still, he stayed.

Russell: Pauline, what can I and my family do to help?

Pauline: Tell the mayor to hire another person.

There were 2 deputies and 1 chief of police, but only Pauline in the police station doing secretarial jobs. Russell made himself helpful, fielding calls and telling everyone that the police had everything under control. As he was a Place, this did have an effect. I think it was this session where Pauline made a direct pass at Russell, and the GM offered me an experience point if he'd let her seduce him. I was fine with that. The Sex Move for the Serpentine is that his partner becomes part of his family. The Serpentine is all about family obligations.

Quietude spied on the Chief of Police who was talking to Cassidy. If I remember correctly, Broy, the chief explained, had been found on, well, not Main Street, but a main street, Dean Road. He'd left his house and was traveling on his bike. I think the chief said that Broy had been run over by a car, probably a hit and run accident. Cassidy was furious.

Ophelia went into the water on the beach, because she wanted to talk to Poseidon. There had been a couple of murders, but Ophelia was interested in practicalities.

Ophelia: How do _I_ stay safe?

Poseidon: Ophelia, you're already dead. You don't have to worry about it.

Ophelia: So, I can't be dead again?

Poseidon told her that the two victims' deaths were related, and that she would be fine. All she had to do was stick with Poseidon. (Josh and I thought that this was shades of the Meg/Hades relationship in the Disney Hercules film.)

Poseidon let her hear what the kids in the water were saying. She heard that the British kid (Meredith) had asked Anna out to the Carnival. My notes also say that Virginia, who'd "helped" Ophelia to drown, had transferred to a different school. The two girls ran into each other since then, but Virginia had acted oddly, as if she didn't see Ophelia.

Someone, probably Meredith's player, asked if the Chief of Police smoked.

GM: _Everyone_ smokes.

Meredith (I think): So... he's leaving butts behind.

In other words, I think, Meredith took one as a sympathetic token. He went back home to cast spells. His focus was a rock that his father gave to him when Meredith was 12, and some relaxing chamomile tea.

Me: He's British witch -- of _course_ he uses tea!

I think the GM noted that his mother probably stocked up on chamomile and had a garden out back. Yep, Meredith's mother, Amanda Pierce, was the envy of the gardening society.

GM (I think): Meredith, your Mom and Dad both have cars. That's good and bad.

The roll for Meredith's magic was in the 7-9 range, which meant that there would be an unexpected side effect as he got visions.

I think he was looking first at the Chief of Police, who was very watchful himself. The vision fuzzed, and the Chief of Police was driving to site (where Broy's body was found, perhaps?) and saw an explosion.

Then, Meredith had a different vision, as if he were looking into someone's trashy back yard. There were broken cars, trash, a pit bull or German shepherd. and people on lawn chairs smoking. These were big, dirty guys, passing a bottle around. I don't think Meredith recognized any of them.

Then a girl walked over to the men. Meredith had not seen her before. She was about 16. She had bleached blond hair with curls, and she wore a ton of lipstick and a sheer dress. She walked seductively towards one of the men who the guys called Bill.

Girl: Oh Billie.

She moved to kiss him, and he hit her.

Girl (her face smeared with blood and lipstick): You don't have to be so mean!

He told her to get a life and _do_ something.

A Different Guy: Turzy's back.

An enormous guy, with slicked back hair walked over, carrying another guy. He threw that guy down.

One of the Guys in the Yard: What did you bring?

Turzy: Dinner.

Meredith lost the image and was jolted back to regular consciousness at that point.

Quietude decided to follow Ophelia, so she got into a car with a few other girls. Her hair was beach blond because she was made out of sand.

GM: Do they get quiet when you're feeding on them? Do they just run out of words?

Josh agreed that was what happened.

GM: 'Cuz it's super awkward when teenage girls run out of words.

Girl's thought balloon: And who's this girl and how did she get in my car?

Indeed, no one was quite sure just how they decided to let the weird silent girl come with them. And, the unnatural silence stretched on. Josh wanted to make sure to keep Quietude creepy, not fluffy.

Cassidy went to the scene of the crime -- the crime of Broy's death, that is. No one else was there. The crime scene was not marked off. There was no blood to be seen.

Cassidy: Broy? Broy? Come _on_ man, where are you?

He used the move Gaze Into the Abyss and rolled a 7, that lovely, dangerous partial success.

In his vision, Broy was hit and bleeding. He sat up as if someone had hit him. Everything faded to black. Then, Cassidy saw Broy walking towards him, looking totally fine.

Broy: Cassidy? I've bee looking for you everywhere.

Cassidy came to himself. Broy was nowhere to be seen. If he had indeed turned into a ghost, as Cassidy expected, there was no sign of it.

Ophelia went to the clam shack to buy fries from Lorelei. Lorelei didn't blink enough. Guys were drawn to her, but there was something Not Quite Right about her. There was a flyer up on the shack asking if anyone had seen a college boy named Clarence Gates. His picture, address, and phone number were on the flyer.

So, three people were dead or missing:

• Clarence Gates (missing)
• Margie Grubbs (dead)
• Broy Sheely (dead, but possibly still around)

Lorelei totally took a shine to Ophelia, although this did not turn out to prove significant.

Quietude caught up with Ophelia and spoke for the first time in the game.

Quietude: There are bad things going on.

Ophelia: Have some fries? I'm all right.

Quietude: We can stop this.

She tried to turn Ophelia on. This is usually done with the Hot stat, but the ghoul was able to use her Cold stat, and Josh rolled a 9 for a partial success. Ophelia cheerfully promised to help.

Ophelia: Sure! I'm okay.

Quietude smiled sadly because Quietude was thinking that she herself was the one who was safe, not Ophelia. She took a fry. It was not as tasty as _words_.

I've got a note about Pearly Jones, whose father might have been doing bad things, probably to her, and who was overprotective. Meredith had dated her, but they were no longer involved. Russell was dating her because it was expected that someone like Russell would date someone like Pearly.

Meredith talked to his father about Broy's death and trying to get information from the sheriff's daughter.

Meredith: So I offered to take her to the carnival Saturday night.

Meredith's Father: Do you need to borrow the car?

At which point, we made "Do you need to borrow the broom?" jokes.

Meredith told his father about his visions.

Meredith (getting to the part about the men in the yard): One of them hit a girl -- and she didn't look as if she'd bee getting an Appropriate Upbringing.

My notes say "Seemed to be Right in That Moment", but I don't know what that meant. Meredith suggested that they drive around and try to identify the neighborhood of his vision.

GM: Your Dad's more than happy to get in the car with you, but you have to drive.

Ophelia ad Quietude went to wherever the sheriff and Cassidy were, probably the crime scene. He was surprised to see Ophelia, who had been on the other side of town, as far as he knew. Cassidy tried to find out what was going on, Cassidy being definitely more invested than Ophelia, who, after all, was just fine. Cassidy wanted to know why the cops weren't doing more.

Cassidy: Where is everyone?

Sheriff Beatty: Son, there's only three of us. We have been over the crime scene.

Cassidy: Did you find these?

I no longer remember what "these" refers to.

Cassidy: It's like all my friends are getting killed and no one is doing anything about it.

Sheriff: Son -- I can assure you we're doing something about it.

Cassidy: Why don't I believe you?

Sheriff: Look, I'll do my job. Your job is to stay out of my way.

Then, we learned something about the sheriff, aka Captain Robert Beatty, as Cassidy spoke quietly to him about how he now understood why the sheriff had visited so often and played with him. Apparently, the chief of police was a pederast and had had sex with Cassidy.

Cassidy took an earring, I think from the scene of Broy's death. It was shaped like a coiled snake.

We now moved to talking about the Carnival. This was, or perhaps included, The Bodis' Traveling Circus. We discussed what our characters knew about it and how they'd interacted with it in the past.

There was a sideshow. Russell probably didn't _know_ it was a sideshow at first.

There was Goliath Bodi, a 7 foot tall strong man. Ophelia was crushing on him. The first year was overwhelming for her. She'd only been in town for two years, so the second year was just last year. Goliath lifted a car with her in it. She wanted to talk to him, but she had been too nervous. All year, she had been trying to think of something clever.

Ophelia (rehearsing): You're really strong. And I like you.

Cassidy went to the Carnival very year. He was fascinated by one of the roustabouts, Sabin Bodi. He didn't understand why. Last year, there had bee a horrible accident. Sabin was killed. He was crushed underneath a cart. It had been in the news.

Cassidy: Someone I was involved with got killed -- again.

Quietude wandered and watched folks setting up for the Carnival. She saw someone in deadly danger and stopped it, and they never knew.

What she had seen were drunk big guys picking on one of the Bodis, Fiance, pronounced FIE-ance. They couldn't tell that she was a girl. They said she was crazy, because of her weird, different accent. Quietude shut them down by sucking out their words.

Quietude / Josh: And they can see me destroy all their words --

GM: Fiance doesn't know why they backed off.

My notes say "Thought she'd have to call Poseidon", but I'm not sure that I wrote down the correct thing, as Ophelia wasn't involved with this, and I don't think Fiance was involved with Poseidon.

Meredith remembered a Carnival from years earlier, before the war, a huge fair on the green in the town where he lived. He'd been fascinated with a woman claiming to be a gypsy fortune teller. He asked his father if he could see her. At first, his father hesitated. Then, he said, "Yes, let's go in."

His father greeted the woman. It was weird, and she seemed to know him. She could have been in her late 40s. She asked them to sit down and talked with Meredith's father.

Fortune teller: Ordinarily, I don't bring messages to children, but I have a message for yours -- it's up to you whether you want me to deliver it.

Meredith's father said yes. She said that there would be many changes in Meredith's life, but eventually, he would find what he wanted to find.

Russell remembered that Sabin's wife, Magdalena, was in charge of the Carnival. No one could get a permit to be on Black Pier except by going through the Places. So, Magdalena came in during one of Camilla's family dinners. Magdalena was very beautiful, in her mid to late 40s, with graying black hair, though shaken by death of her husband.

Magdalena and Camilla looked at each other, two proud, strong women. Camilla loved the power of having someone come in to petition her. But, she did give Magdalena the permit.

Fiance and Goliath were the children of Magdalena and Sabin, I think. There may have been another child. The ferris wheel was highlight of the show.

Russell didn't like the house of mirrors.

And, with the characters' memories of carnivals past and present, we ended this session.