Nova 6: Dweomer by Gaslight: Corpse Lights

7 August 2016: 10 am: Nova 6: Dweomer by Gaslight: Corpse Lights

• GM: Dale Barnes
• Michael Pfeiffer: Hugh Wilkinson, Scotland Yard detective whose third eye has opened(I'd played with him earlier in the convention; he was Alek in the Victoriana game "An Unpleasant Diversion", which I wrote up in A&E #510)
• Me: Franklin Morris, werewolf reporter

I don't remember a lot of details about this game, but it was a lot of fun. I think this was a game full on paper, but in practice, lucky to get two people. Still, two made it viable, and Michael and I clicked into the buddy movie mode.

The system is Nova 6, a cross between Champions/Hero and Fate. Cf: http://www.legendsmiths.com/nova6

The background was basically Victorian Dresdenesque. Hugh and Franklin were part of an order, Ventori Umbrorum, that dealt with supernatural occurrences, and they'd been requested to go to the Lyceum Theater. The coachman who drove them was also from the order, and Bram Stoker, who'd requested their presence, had at least some inkling it existed.

Me: Oh, is Henry Irving, performing?

GM: He is.

Me: Ooh!

It's possible that Franklin got there before Hugh because Michael arrived a bit later than I did. Regardless, when the coach arrived, people were coming out of the theater, hurriedly.

Me (I think): We haven't missed play _yet_?

GM: You don't think so.

Johnson (I forget whether he's from the theater, the order, or what): Mr. Stoker would like to see you.

Hugh: Where is he?

Johnson: This way.

Bram: Amazing, terrible event -- water from ceiling -- torrents -- crushing patrons into their seats...

I'm not sure it was as dire as that, or rather, I don't recall whether any patrons were actually killed or even injured. Several cast members were missing. My notes say:

Missing cast members
Director -- Christopher Fields
Author -- Herman Mervielle
James MacIntosh
Searching for several of the women
Miss Terry
2 younger ones --
Marie Latheag(?)
Joy Murmex(?)

One of the stagehands was found, though my notes don't say in what condition. I think Franklin was trying to calm normal folks down by saying that, yes, he was investigating possible poltergeist activity, but often, this turned out to be a matter of defective plumbing.

Someone: Plumbing or Poltergeist? You decide!

And, they spoke with Henry Irving, who told them that a ship came through the stage, with sailors on it. My notes say that there was a huge long item on the ship.

Miss Terry was found in the backstage dressing room, and the other two missing women were found backstage. As for everyone else, my notes say: "Everyone else -- Lull, so ?"

Hugh: Do you want to go _see_ this mess?

Franklin: Oh why not?

I think they found ectoplasm. And Hugh opened his third eye, getting a failure and doubles, which meant, as my notes say, "GM gets to mess with him". It really hurt to open his third eye. He felt a wash of energy that seemed to have come from the Thames.

Franklin (checking on Miss Terry or one of the other women): Miss? Are you all right?

I think whoever this was was indeed all right. But, there was at least one missing girl at this point. There were also energy knots and some indication of the Nevernever in the theater.

Franklin had an Aspect: Burdened by the Stories of Victims. I self-compelled this.

GM: So, you're saying, "I don't want to talk to these people -- I just want to go off on my own and find the missing girl!"

Me (I think): Yes. It's all well and good Miss Terry is safe, but there is another missing woman -- and I'm sorry she doesn't have as high a billing!

My notes say that something or someone was "shifty". Hugh learned that the play's author, Mervielle, had a nervous breakdown a few years ago. And the author was twitchy. He kept glancing _up_.

Franklin was trying to figure something out.

GM: Hugh probably could tell you.

Franklin: Or Hugh could probably tell me -- oh ghod I'm Watson to your Holmes.

Still, being a werewolf was useful.

Franklin: I've got her scent (14).

I think he learned that two largish gentlemen (well, men, anyway) had mishandled the unconscious and missing actress out the door. My notes say "Marie Lethier", which might have been her name.

I think they found a focus of some time, like a lens. My notes mention bones and feathers, a large piece of parchment ala a map rubbing, and hieroglyphs.

Franklin: Hugh, are you pondering what I am pondering?

Hugh: I don't think that sandwich shop is open this time of night.

GM: You can break in anywhere.

I don't know if anyone broke in, but there were traces of some weird effect _from_ Thames toward the west of the northeast, and three sailors solidified around the two investigators.

I'm not sure what happened then, but they realized that it was significant that Cleopatra's Needle came to London c. 10 years ago, as the energy was coming from there.

They went to the play author's office and found more rubbings. Hugh found a slender volume hidden under the desk, a mystical treatise by one Erasmus Wilson.

(Me: How very British.)

I think it was about Necromancy and Necromantic Energy, and something about a proxy. My notes say that this was a big no-no, that Wilson covered up a killing for this, without a trial.

They then say something about Burlington House, history, art, and genealogy.

There was a genealogy clerk named Colleen O'Neal who apparently drew almost all pixies to her, and either she checked on her ancestry or she remembered somoene else checking on their ancestry.

There as a practice circle of some kind in the basement, made in chalk, although the outline was scuffed out.

Either Hugh or Franklin: Secretary of Antiquaries. That's a word I've never used.

GM: Except in Scrabble

Either Hugh or Franklin: You give me too much credit for my Scrabble playing.

And they found someone to ask questions of.

Hugh: Hey! We have some questions for you, Lassiter!

Franklin: Might be a shilling in it for you!

Hugh: _If_ you play nicely

At this point, I think the GM explained that he shouldn't be rolling and that he'd intended to keep things player facing.

Franklin tossed Lassiter a shilling.

Hugh: Hey! Shillings _after_ answers

Franklin: Is there a law against me giving this man a shilling?

Hugh: Franklin! You know there isn't.

Franklin: Well then.

I have no idea what I learned, but at some point, they were either told or read somewhere "and this is all the copies of the information".

Franklin: You know, if you kill your informant, you don't _get_ any new informants.

Someone: Arthur, deal with this.

Evenutally, they figured out where they needed to be to stop whatever evil was going on. And I think I said Franklin stripped so he could turn into a wolf.

GM: So your whole action? is to get out of your clothes.

Someone: Justice has been served!

That may have been Hugh's player, as we'd been scoring banter points off each other.

A noble's carriage was in the vicinity, but the horses took off, possibly because Franklin deliberately panicked them in wolf form.

The geneology clerk, Colleen, was descended from William Burn -- the Irish Giant, a real person who was about 7 feet tall. He had wanted his remains utterly destroyed. However, his bones were disinterred against his wishes, and were in the Royal Academy of Surgeons or a museum attached to it.

At this point, my notes mention John Simons, no inheritance, and Simon's accounting office. And there was a confrontation in the basement, and someone said something about bones.

My notes say that there was a brief break, and then we resumed with Franklin and Hugh in a city square in the fog somewhere near the museum, and I think we had to make an Ego + Will roll to continue.

Someone: We're going in the right direction.

Someone Else: That's how you know you aren't supposed to be there at all.

Franklin rushed into the museum. There were bones and drumming. I think this was following the Dresdenverse rules about animating skeletons with drumming.

There was a bust of Erasmus and a skeleton, either or him or of William Burn, I'm not sure which. I think Hugh stayed hidden. Franklin charged in and killed a ghoul -- and then looked up to see a stegasaurus skelteon moving.

Hugh got a fate point for abandoning clear line of sight on the villain to save a civillian, which my notes seem to indicate was Franklin, not the missing girl. I'm not clear on whether she was rescued or had already been killed. I really want to start unpacking my notes earlier.

Someone was doing free running / parkour. The drummer was clapping at this point. There was a flunky with fire. And there was the Master.

I think Franklin just managed to dodge a jet of fire. Hugh shot the drummer. The Master was not happy with Franklin, but the flunky, Tody, couldn't fire without risking hitting the Master. I think Hugh took Tody down while Franklin killed the master.

GM: And that is how M. Kemmler dies for the _first_ time. Death is but a gateway!

I know that's a Dresden reference, but I didn't know the details. That didn't bother me in the slightest, as the game was delightful, even if I don't remember enough for a coherent write up.

My notes say also something about the works of Erasmus, but I can't decipher them.