Fate: Fading Light
Friday, 9 am: FATE: Fading Light
This was a game of Lovecraftian horror using the Fate engine. PCs were mostly generated, leaving room for a little customization, and for people to come up with names for their PC.
- GM: John Farish
- ???: Banker? Sir Arthur Chatworth
- Amber Viescas: Det. Helena Jones
- Me: Dr. Morgan, male, coroner who enjoyed the macabre perhaps a bit too much
- Adam: Professor. Dr Reed Whateley. Yes, _those_ Whateleys. He was more than a little strange.
- Jonathan Bagelman: Engineer, Hank Johnson
- George: Crime Reporter, Randall Wolthem, crime reporter
This was set in the classical Lovecraft period, i.e., the 1920s-1930s. The PCs all knew Professor Henry Ashford. He had asked them to come to Rockford, Oregon, where he had gone to do some genealogical research into his family tree. His father originally came from there, and there had been some kind of fire that had killed at least a dozen people in town right before his father left, if I recall correctly.
The town had some logging industry, and there was a local Indian tribe which had been mostly wiped out. It was a tribe of outcasts from other tribes.
The PCs arrived in town, but Professor Ashford did not meet them. They checked into the local hotel, where they soon discovered a secret passage behind all of the rooms and more than a few hints that the locals were into cannibalism. This made everyone very, very jumpy.
Some quotes from this part of the game:
(Probably said as the detective pointedly turned so as not to notice an illegal breaking and entering) We're investigators. We're the good guys. We can break the rules.
GM: Gonna be hard to relock the door from the inside.
Engineer: I can do it.
Dr. Whateley: I'm not sleeping in the inn.
Dr. Morgan: Would you rather sleep in the forest?
GM: Someone give her a fate point!
I gather that I had just inadvertently hit on one of Dr. Whateley's fears.
Eventually, the PCs wound up in the hospital, where there were cadavers with Interesting Things growing in their intestinal tracks, as well as some live people with such things, including the doctor they spoke to. Dr. Morgan tried to convince this doctor that he was on their side, but the doctor insisted on hard proof, like, oh, Dr. Morgan killing the other PCs. Morgan may have been a little tempted, but I wasn't comfortable with that. There seemed to be a sort of unspoken group consensus that we could player our PCs as dark and weird as we liked so long as we didn't cross the line into being a jerk, and turning on the other PCs at that time felt too much like jerk behavior. Also, pragmatically, Morgan had no reason to trust the doctor.
So, the PCs killed the doctor before he had a chance to kill them.
GM: His intestinal track had been modified. Who knew?
Someone (asking about possible experiments): Dog people?
GM: Not dog people – That'd be insane!
Dr Whateley paid a visit to a friend in town, Rudy, who was absolutely paranoid.
Dr. Whateley (as things got tense): Rudy! We gotta keep our heads cool! Ashberry's out there!
"Ashberry" was, of course, Professor Ashford. Dr. Whateley wasn't very good with names.
And, we made the threat to the PCs even worse as we discussed the nature of the monstrous people.
Player: They can detect the living!
Another player: Can they?
First player (paying a fate point): Yes, they can!
GM: Thank you for making my villains better!
Someone: Hell with the books!
Tomb Raider: I knew there were mummies.
Someone: Hey, I believe in fairy tales, so even if it isn't real, it's real to me.
Someone: We should collect those – no, no, let's just run.
Eventually, the PCs found a hidden lab, possibly in a burial mound, possibly in a building -- I am forgetting details at this remove. And, we learned the Horrible Truth. So, Sophia married Julian Ashford. They had two kids, the mayor of the town and Professor Ashford. The mayor was probably not entirely human. Sophia, if she had ever been human, certainly wasn't human now.
There were tentacles lining the walls, I think attacking the PCs, and there was Professor Ashford, tied up, and there was Sophia, clearly some kind of monster. Randall was fascinated by the horror.
GM: The multitude of tentacles is rerolling.
About the detective, based on her player's die rolls: She only shoots heads.
Dr. Whateley (losing most, if not all, of his SAN, to Sophia): We should unite the Ashford and Whateley families!
Someone planning to make a getaway: Keep her busy!
Dr. Whateley: Oh, I'll keep her real busy!
But, Randall the reporter decided that he wanted Sophia. The two gentlemen faced off.
Randall: No, you Lothario – she's mine!
Dr. Whateley: She's mine, Randall!
Most of the other PCs decided to run for it. As Sophia chose Dr. Whateley over Randall, Randall, too, decided to run. The fleeing PCs took Professor Ashford with them.
GM: Well, doc, does that seem reasonable?
Dr. Morgan: That -they- leave? Absolutely. (looking at Sophia and Whateley): They're going to need a midwife.
Someone: Yes! Yes! Bring me the Inhumans!
So, everyone except for Whateley and Morgan escaped, with Ashford. The GM was impressed by the plot twist we'd thrown him, and said that he'd just have to write a sequel.
