Ghosts of Avalon: Lesser Shades of Evil

8 pm: Ghosts of Avalon: Lesser Shades of Evil

This used the same system, Unisystem, as the previous game, although with some variation, as the world was that of Ghosts of Avalon, created by Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy. I've not yet read my pdf of the game, but it's basically set in Edwardian England, where there are Protectors, instead of Slayers. There can indeed be more than one, and they can be of either gender. I gather that there are two online BBC animated stories, two short stories, and two novels set in the world of Ghosts of Albion.

GM: Timothy Brennan

Austin: Tamarra Swift, Protector, 25 years old. Athletic.

Me: William Swift, Protector, 27 years old. Bookish.

Kurt Weil (sp?): Nigel, Vampire, about a thousand years old. He likes Tamarra, but not William.

Chip Tade (sp?): Ferris, human manservant to the Swifts, I think.

Mica: Lord Nelson, Ghost

James: Lord Byron, Ghost.

This may be a bit scattered, as this was the game I played while zipping out of the room multiple times to take calls from my brother or the hospital about my mother. As it turned out, she had about another month to live, and under at least somewhat better conditions than in the hospital, but at the time, my brother and I weren't sure what decisions we were going to have to make. Fortunately, folks were both understanding and very good at giving me the brief version of what I'd missed, e.g., "We're in the actress's dressing room, interviewing her."

Miriam (aka Mim) White, an actress of some small fame, had been found dead. The problem, such as it was, was that she was most manifestly not dead, but still acting at the Plover Street Theater Obviously, this merited Investigation.

We reminded ourselves about the state of forensics or lack of same:

Someone: There's no such thing as CSI.

Someone else: There's barely evidence.

Someone else: There's barely "I".

Meanwhile, back in character:

Nigel (worldweary): What is the crisis?

GM: Young women are in peril.

Nigel: I'm in!

Alas, the theater featured a number of acts that were less than sparkling.

William: It seems... lackluster.

Nigel: It _seems_ lackluster because it _is_ lackluster, William. You've seen better before. You've _done_ better before, with puppets.

GM: The magician leaves the stage.

William: Yay! He's gone! (applauds)

Then, a young man came out and sang beautifully enough to move the audience to tears. He then revealed himself to be none other than Mim White herself.

GM: That's why this is the final act. None of those other acts could have come after it.

William: None of them should have come before it.

Nigel: Well, that is true.

Someone wondered if glamour might be involved.

Nigel: This isn't a faerie glamour. This is (expression of distaste) _theater_.

After the show, they spoke with the janitor, who seemed a bit odd, and with Mim's serving girl, Sarah, who seemed nervous. Sarah explained that Mim had recently been in Finland, entertaining the Finnish Royal family. The janitor explained that Mim's agent, Mr. Thomas, didn't like Sarah, thinking that she was not The Right Sort for Miriam. Mr. Thomas may not have been sure what the Right Sort was, but he was quite sure that it wasn't Sarah. Sarah had been with Miriam for little more than a month.

Interviewing Miriam, the group learned that actress had wanted to come home, and that she was happy there. She had been in a different theater in London, just before this one, although that had ended after some kind of argument between Mr. Thomas and the theater's manager.

Someone asked whether either theater were haunted.

Someone else: Every single theater in London is haunted.

As the group went outside the theater, one of the fae approached, wanting to give them information on the sly.

Fae: Give me a groat. (Either William or Nigel does) People will be less suspicious.

William: I blush bright red.

Nigel: I don't.

GM: She's notorious.

Nigel: For what?

GM: Being notorious.

Nigel's player: Oh, God, she's the Paris Hilton of the fey world!

Apparently, there had been a problem affecting some of the weaker fae, although I forget exactly what -- I think there may have been some disappearances. This had started about a month ago.

Dialogue whose context I forget:

Someone: It's a bit more --

Someone else: Evil?

Someone else: Stringent?

Someone: The word you're looking for is 'evil'.

I do remember the fae woman getting annoyed with Nigel.

Fae woman: What are you gonna help me with, bloodsucker?

Nigel: Etiquette lessons?

But, eventually, Nigel decided that everyone was a bit conspicuous.

Nigel: Ladies and Gentlemen, living and dead, might I suggest we retire to our coach and discuss matters?

Byron did a bit of scouting around and found some small, vicious demons. These, iirc, had been created from stolen fae.

Byron: Fantastic! Come, little children! (as they attack) That is _quite_ _impressive_!

The others joined him and attacked the demons until only one was left.

Tamarra: Take it alive. I want to examine it!

William: This is not a pet!

The GM said that it was a blood goblin. I believe it got taken alive, as Tamarra wished, and to William's chagrin.

But, while the blood goblins were clearly related to what was going on, they weren't the power behind the scene. Tamarra and William used their mystical link to try to find the mastermind. And, for an instant, they touched this being.

Then, backlash hit, knocking William out. This was amusing because it was a case of the dice rolling what seemed absolutely appropriate for the story.

Byron, meanwhile, went to the flat where Sarah and Miriam White were staying. Sarah was reading music, which was unusual, as normal people didn't read, let alone read music. Byron reported back, briefly.

Ferris: You should see if you can find Thomas

Byron: Oh, I'm not going to leave those girls alone!

William: How... chivalrous.

Nigel: I like the unspoken question mark.

The group did notice that Sarah had been with Mim for about a month, and that the first murder of women fitting a certain profile had occurred about a month ago. The group took a trip to see the body of the woman who looked like Miriam White.

Nigel checked out some man, possible a policeman, possibly Miriam's agent.

GM: He is absolutely Grade A Human.

Nigel: And O-Negative.

As for the body of the woman who looked like Miriam White:

GM: It doesn't _look_ like Miriam White. It _is_ Miriam White.

The Protectors looked for signs of magic. The body glowed, lighting up like a Christmas tree. It was surrounded by magic. There was a fae glamour. The clothes were also glowing.

For whatever reason, Nigel had an altercation with a constable who found the group poking into police affairs.

William: Nigel? Could you put the constable down? Gently?

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Miriam's act was kicked out of the London theater because Thomas started fight with the manager over Miriam. The manager decided not to press charges. Thomas was known to yell at Miriam, but not to get physically violent with her.

A picture of Miriam White with the Royal Family of Finland was in her apartment. It was inscribed:

To Miriam
All my love
E_________

Could "E" be Edward, the Prince of Finland?

Out of Context quotes:

Someone: We were _not_ freaking out. We were gathering information.

Someone (about Nigel and Tamarra): What he did to constable she did to the demon.

Someone else: Well, that was _called_ for.

William: Am I making any sense, Sister?

Tamara: No.

Nigel: When do you ever?

Tamarra: Byron!

GM: You hear their call.

Byron's player: Can I text them?

GM: No.

Byron reviewed what had been learned about the series of murdered victims, who were blond, and of a certain height.

Byron (looking at Tamarra): Blond. About the right height.

William: Out of the question!

Tamara: I'll do it.

GM: Take a fate point. This is the first time anyone at this con made that connection.

Nigel: Oh, William. Please remove the stick from your ass.

The group went back to the theater, where Thomas was wounded, and the janitor -- Paul -- had just grabbed Sarah!

Nelson tried to catch up with janitor and hostage, only to find himself falling through the floor.

Nelson: That hasn't happened in quite some time.

GM: And not without a lot of rum.

Ferris's player (handing the GM a fate point): I slipped on my brass knuckles as I ran down.

GM: I can dig.

If I recall correctly, the janitor had a secret room in the theater. He had been taking prostitutes there, enchanting them to look like Miriam White, telling them to say they loved him -- and killing them when they seemed obviously phony to him. I think he had some sort of demonic talisman, and this was slowly corrupting him and doing bad things to the local fae. He grabbed Sarah because he was tired of imitation Miriam Whites.

The PCs were able to overcome both janitor and his internal demon, rescuing Sarah. I don't know whether she and Miriam were lovers, but the inscribed picture to Sarah was from Ekaterina, Princess of Finland.