Sophomore, Halloween

Natter

Comment to Lee Gold

Sarah didn't know as much as she pretended to re:baby situation, but she wasn't about to admit that. As I recall, when Justin was trying to find out if it would be better if Sarah had an abortion, he said, "Please don't hurt me, but is hitting game reset an option."

Write Up

Altclair is Naomi's campaign, set at the college of Altclair, which is somewhere in Minnesota. Think Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, GURPS Illuminati IOU, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other source material (that Naomi's not familiar with) might include Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon and most of Charles de Lint. Players are me (Justin Thorne) and Josh (Michael Conoway). Manny (Jim Gaffney) dropped out, and Beth (Diometra) lives in Chicago, and is only an occasional player.

Naomi moved to Chicago, but I'm a year behind in my write ups, and she hopes to run a few more adventures via phone, email, and visits before I have exhausted my supply of material.

From the Desk of Justin Thorne:

To the Honorable Order of Postal Mages:

Halloween was enough of a disaster that I had to ask Michael to remind me why we decided to arrange it the way we did, but enough of a qualified success that Michael is around to answer such questions. And, as Daniel promised, it was even stranger than Yule. I think it deserves its own cast list. (1)

• Mr. Death
• Vampire
• Ghost
• Mummy
• Gargoyle
• Witch
• Beggar
• Ape Man
• The King
• The Train
• Anactoria

We all met an hour before sundown (except for Anactoria, of course) at the forge. (2) Except for Daniel, we drank from the waterbottle that I had enchanted to keep refilling itself. The water came from Michael's land, so it was both delicious and ritually appropriate. Even Annmarie could drink it, although she couldn't touch the cup. (3)

Then, we all got into costume. Michael's was particularly elaborate, being, as we were to discover, a double costume. The outer layer was a stag, the inner, a wolf. As a stag, he went to meet Anactoria, who told him to follow her. He did, and because of the nature of the game, I think he -was- a stag at this point.

The rest of us went to the Amphitheater in costume, expecting to meet Daniel. He wasn't there, but we found a standing stone that hadn't been there earlier in the day and was certainly gone by the following day. There was a note attached to the stone, instructing us to go trick-or-treating, and to meet Death at the Ravine. The Ravine's fairly dangerous, so it was the perfect place to meet Death.

We had no trouble convincing people to give us candy, and we worked our way around campus to the Ravine. As we headed down into it, Caliban, my sword, decided to join us. When we reached the bottom, I let the others know, suggesting that someone should inform the King. I presume this was done. (4)

The Ravine had a couple of new features. First, there was a pumpkin tree. (5) Second, there was a spooky house covered with circus posters. Third, there was the train. We went up to the house to ask for treats and were informed that there were only tricks this night. Then the house spun around so that we were on the other side, the side facing the train, where Mr. Death, carrying a scythe met us. He gave us all pumpkins from the tree, each carved to resemble its bearer, and each a decent source of light. Then, he led us onto the train, which was dark and cold. We couldn't figure out what the problem was, and Mr. Death could only hint, of course. Then, the Witch asked what could keep someone from going out on Halloween. With an utter lack of imagination, I suggested being sick. She suggested a lack of costume.

Mr. Death helped us rectify this by using the posters from the house to turn the train into a life-sized, ultra-spooky version of the circus train I'd made for her last winter. This woke her up, and I asked how we would know where and when to find the train and how we would return. For the second question, the train turned the lights up, making it clear that the return trip would be at dawn. In answer to the first question, there was a rustle of paper behind us. We turned and discovered a number of schedules for the evening's journey. Nine stops were listed, only the last of which was named, Burnham County. The rest were simply First Stop, Second Stop, Third Stop, and so on, accompanied by arrival and departure times.

The first stop took the longest amount of time to reach, nearly two hours. We left the train and noticed that the Ape Man was missing. We were in a forest, and we headed towards a glow of light that proved to be a bonfire. As we approached it, several things happened.

First, the people around the fire heard us, grabbed their weapons, and headed into the woods. Then, one of them stumbled. I reached out to help him up and discovered that we'd found our missing Ape Man. I'm not sure how to explain this, but, somehow, actor and archetype had merged here. He was confused, and he asked if something like this would happen at every stop. It did seem to be the start of a pattern.

During all of this, Michael, in stag form, ran away from the hunters and found, or was found by, Anactoria again. We realized that we couldn't catch up with Michael and, not sure what else to do, got back on the train.

This time, it took us inside an Egyptian burial mound, and the Mummy was missing when we disembarked. The compass pointed the way, but it was hard to navigate in a maze. (6) The Beggar had studied African mythology, so she tried to navigate the passageways for us. (7) She also contacted the King, who was trapped inside a sarcophagus. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten there, but he wanted to leave it.

As we tried to find the King and the Mummy, I tripped, dropping my pumpkin and setting the place on fire. Fortunately, the Mummy located the King and freed him from the sarcophagus. The King stopped the fire with magic, burning his hands badly. (8) The train signaled for us to return, which we hastened to do. Unfortunately, Anctoria stopped the King from boarding, and the train left without him. She healed his hands, placing him in her debt.

Our next stop was China, a land we had thoroughly neglected in our studies. Fortunately, being the scholarly sort of gargoyle, I'd packed a book of comparative mythology. (9) Even more fortunately, it had a functional index. We discovered that people celebrate their ancestors' deaths by picnicking where the ancestors are buried and sharing a meal with them, which strikes me as an eminently civilized way of doing things. (10) We also discovered that the Vampire was missing.

We quickly found him, as he rose from one of the graves, and the frightened picnickers fled from him and the rest of us monsters. The Vampire was hungry, and he chased them. I caught up with him and said the first thing I could think of, which was, "Not our prey!" This had the desired effect of turning him away from the picnickers. It had the even more desired effect of locating the King. My compass was useless, for he was in a coffin, six feet underground, but the Vampire found the correct grave. The King had convinced the grass on the grave to grow in a mare-shaped pattern, confirming the Vampire's instincts.

As we dug, however, we all caught the Vampire's hunger for blood, specifically the King's blood. The King had anticipated this, and he called his dog, Sligo. I'm not entirely sure how Sligo managed to follow the King, but he attacked as we reached as coffin, distracting us long enough for the King to escape, again in stag form. I killed Sligo, and a great wind blew all of us to our next stop.

By now, the pattern was emerging: one stop for each of the hunters, each, as it turned out, moving forward in time. There were nine stops, one of which was Altclair. There were seven hunters. This left one un-accounted stop. That stop proved to be next.

We landed beside a wheatfield. Mr. Death was not with us, but my compass quickly located the King, still in stag form. He was across the field from us. We started to cross it, then discovered that Death had not left us after all.

His scythe swept through the wheatfield, and we barely jumped back in time to escape the blade. I knew that the King was at a disadvantage, for he felt the death of every stalk of grain. We split up and moved around the field to corner him.

As we closed in, the Beggar tripped, landing in the field. The King jumped between her and the scythe, vanishing when the blade hit. The train arrived then, and we went to the next stop. (11)

This proved to be the roof of the cathedral of Notre Dame, from which we had a beautiful view of the Paris of a couple of centuries before. However, only three of the many gargoyles of the cathedral were on the roof, and those three were not what they seemed. Two of them were the nightmares I had carried with me, now grown into full sized gargoyles. The third was the King.

As we closed in on him, he took to the air and grabbed my compass. I grabbed onto his foot and he carried me into the air with him.

As we rose higher, he suggested that I let go. Since, unlike the King, -I- had not sprouted a pair of wings, I counter-proposed that we declare a truce until he put me down somewhere, since he could probably get out of my reach quickly enough. Understandably, he decided to come up with another alternative.

The King flew into the bell tower of the cathedral and landed on the ground. Suddenly, we had a fortuitous configuration: I had located the King. I was in his presence with a hand on his shoulder. The Good Folk were not present. And, best of all, I no longer had the slightest desire to rip him apart and eat his heart.

I also had a broken rib, courtesy of the King's extremely bumpy flight through the bell tower window. Still, the configuration was good, and I asked if we could maintain it until dawn. The King approved, and I asked if he could do something about my rib. He healed me, but this also brought the blood lust back. Or maybe that was because we were working magic in a church, although I understand that there is a patron saint of mages. (12)

I warned the King of my condition, and he got out of range, knelt before the altar, and prayed. Since he is a devout Catholic in his own way, his prayers were efficacious. I found myself backing towards the doors, and told the King that I could not stay. This confused him until I explained the dilemma: If he prayed, he was safe from me, but I couldn't stay in the church. If he didn't pray, I wanted to rip him apart. He went back to his prayers, and I found myself outside the cathedral. (13)

I couldn't get back in, so I climbed up the outside of the building to get to the roof. This wasn't as insane as it sounds--without the gargoyles, there were plenty of handholds.

At the top, I explained the situation and suggested that the Beggar might lure the King out. My two nightmare gargoyles flew around, making it clear that they missed the company of other gargoyles. I couldn't get any information about what to do from them, and, since I didn't have wings, I couldn't fly around looking for the rest of the gargoyles. Mr. Death said that we were high enough in the air that I could probably call them home. This I did, and they all came back, including the ones from Altclair. (14) They carried us down to the ground, where the Beggar called for help from the King.

The King had been praying to the Virgin Mary, asking if he could remain in the Cathedral. She answered him, explaining that he could stay as long as he wished, but time would not pass until he left. The Cathedral was only a temporary sanctuary; it was not a means of winning the game. He would probably have left soon even without our ruse.

As it was, when the Beggar called for help, he immediately ran up to the roof to rescue her, as that was where he thought she was. Anactoria met him there, explaining, truthfully, that we'd set a trap. He didn't believe her, and he ran back into the Cathedral and out to where we were waiting.

Once he realized that Anactoria spoke truly, he shed his stag form, allowing us to devour it, whie he fled in wolf form. This slowed us down, but we quickly realized that we had been tricked, as the stag did not satisfy our hunger. (15)

As the King ran in wolf form, Anactoria grabbed on to him, riding on his back. We chased them, running until we found ourselves not in Paris, but in a small town that looked like it was part of New England. The Witch was missing, and it didn't take us long to guess that she was probably being held for a witch trial.

The Beggar tried to negotiate a truce with the King, who was, understandably, skeptical. (16) Anactoria tried to convince him to leave us and come with her. The Vampire disguised us as strangers, but ordinary, human strangers, and this allowed us to get close enough to see where the Witch was being held.

Realizing that there was no way that the King could trust us, I told the Beggar to ask him to create a simple diversion so that we could rescue the Witch, and abandoned any thought of any kind of truce. The King was willing to help us, so he bade Anactoria farewell for the present. (17)

In wolf form, he howled around the building where the trial was taking place, moving quickly enough that the howls seemed to be coming from all directions. Then, I ran in and yelled that I'd seen a monstrous creature, no doubt a hellspawn and the familiar of a witch. This tale was confirmed by the other hunters, and we got most of the able-bodied people out of the building. The King led them away, while the Vampire dropped the illusion that had been disguising us, and we carried the Witch away while everyone was too frightened to move. (18)

By now, we knew that we wouldn't catch up with the King. I asked the Ape Man if he could make a net from string, having a vague plan to use it to immobilize the King. The Ape Man started working with the string, but, to his surprise, it turned into an electrified barbed wire fence.

I stared at that like an idiot until someone hit me with a truncheon and ordered us to get undressed. The Beggar and Ape Man complied with great alacrity, and I followed their lead. Gradually, I realized where and when we were.

Last winter, I shot a roll of film of the Econ building when I was in a particularly foul mood. The resulting photographs were not pleasant, and one in particular drew the Beggar's attention. She showed me an identical picture in one of her history books. I was now confronted with the original: Auschwitz during World War II.

The King was there as well, I later learned, still in wolf form. He too recognized the place, and, understandably, used transportation magic to leave. He thought about what he should do next and made the ruthless, but logical, decision to find his way home. First, he reasoned, we had the means to escape on our own. Second, if he returned, we would have less desire to escape, since we wanted to find him. If he were not in Auschwitz, we would have one more reason to leave.

It was, as I said, a logical decision, but not one that sat well with the Beggar, who knew, through the link she shared with the King, that he had left us. Since she is Jewish, essentially, she had been dropped in one of her worst nightmares, as had the Ape Man.

This is not to imply that any of us were comfortable with our surroundings, although, in one sense, we were, perhaps too comfortable with them. It was all too easy to forget that we didn't belong where we were. This meant that our top priority had to be keeping possession of our minds. If we lost that, we lost everything. I reminded myself firmly that I was the hunter, not the prey. I admit that the effect of such reminders on my mind was probably less than ideal, but it was the best that could be hoped for in this situation. Our second priority, obviously, was escape, and our third was to find the wolf.

We all stripped, and, except for the Ape Man, none of the male hunters were circumcised. (19) This confused the camp guards, who questioned us. The Vampire was able to slip away, and the Mummy and I explained that we'd been told to get on a train in Paris, and that we didn't argue with people who pointed guns at us. We were given several forms to fill out. As far as I could tell, we here speaking, reading, and writing German, despite a total lack of familiarity with the language.

While we filled out the forms, the Vampire, dressed as one of the guards, returned with the Ape Man and with three other men. I wondered who they were, and how we were going to get the women out. Then, the Vampire's plan finally penetrated my thick skull. I buried myself in paperwork while he explained that he'd caught the four men--all uncircumcised--trying to sneak into the women's line. The guards were not pleased, and vented their ire physically, but the upshot was that all of us were released. I asked after our possessions, figuring that it would look strange if I did not, and the Vampire was ordered to help us locate our things. We reclaimed everything and got back on the train, where we were re-joined by Mr. Death. He had been one of the guards at Auschwitz, something I chose not to think too much about. We got back into costume and headed for the next stop. (20)

During this time, the King took on human form, called his horse, and rode for his home, following ash trees, since Ash had created a magical beacon at the King's farmhouse. Anactoria rode beside him.

The train arrived in Mexico, in the present time, on the Day of the Dead. The Mummy explained that this was celebrated in much the same fashion as the Chinese equivalent. It was a noisier, more rambunctious celebration, however.

The Ghost was missing, and the Beggar said that the King did not seem to be present. The night was drawing to a close, so we quickly located the Ghost, who was dancing, and returned to the train, requesting that she bring us to where the King was. (21)

The train did so, stopping so that the King's path was blocked. We surrounded him and Anactoria. The King dismounted and called for single combat.

The Beggar stepped forward, pointing out that it was both inevitable and appropriate that the night should end with a death duel. The King promised that there would be a death. At that point, I believe that the rest of the hunters, myself most definitely included, would have been equally content with eating the Beggar's heart as with eating the King's; however, we were still focused on the King, and I asked the Beggar if she were sure that she was our best candidate. She pointed out that there was no one for whom the King was more likely to hold his hand. I then asked if she were armed, as the King had a sword. She requested the loan of Caliban, and he indicated that he was quite willing to serve her, as she wanted the same thing I did. I assented, expressing the hope that he would serve her well.

The Beggar wounded the King and broke his blade. He used his magic to summon another blade into his other hand, using his left arm to trap Caliban while he broke the Beggar's wrist. Caliban cut deeply into his side, but the Beggar lost hold of the blade and collapsed, the King's sword at her throat. She conceded defeat, while we waited for a death.

The King gave his horse a fatal wound and told us to take her death in place of his or the Beggar's. I cut the heart out and all of the Hunters ate some, including the Beggar. The King collapsed from blood loss, and by the time our hunger was sated, Anactoria had healed him, placing him twice in her debt. She left then, having no need to wait for the dawn to establish a claim.

The Good Folk returned us all to the King's farm, having previously agreed to do so. However, they said nothing about our clothing or the rest of our possessions. Caliban returned, but he is a part of me. I am told that most of my violent side is in him, so the Good Folk couldn't keep him while adhering to the letter of their promise.

I went to the King's house to get clothing and Ash, and we began to deal with the consequences of the evening.

The Beggar's wrist had already set, and set badly, so it was broken again and re-set correctly.

While Anactoria had saved the King's life, he lost a great deal of blood. He rested until a blood transfusion was possible, and he is still recovering. (22) He is also in debt to Anactoria, both for his life and for his hands. She can probably take a full seven years for the former, and probably half as much for the latter.

Not only did we not succeed in keeping the King from owing the Good Folk time, one of the points of the evening's excursion; we also came close to killing him, to prevent which we had set up the terms of the excursion in the first place. However, as the King pointed out, his odds fighting us were far better than they would have been if the Good Folk had been hunting him for his life. Moreover, since the evening no doubt provided them with a great deal of amusement, the King's stay in their realm is more likely to be pleasant than it would have been had he simply allowed them to take him.

Some items which I made have fallen into the hands of the Good Folk. These include a monocle I made to see what enchantments lie on objects, a refilling waterbottle, a knife, and a box and arm ring of cold iron, the last three of which carry no particular enchantment other than good craftsmanship. The Good Folk also have the handcuffs and one of the keys--I still have the spare. Since you enchanted, but did not make them, I do not think that you are at risk.

As for myself, Daniel said that while the Good Folk claim the items by right of salvage, out of courtesy, they have agreed not to copy them. This means that I am in their debt, and that, until this debt is collected, I will have to trust them not to copy what they have. So long as there is no major political shake up, this should be all right. If there is such a shake up, all bets are off. This situation is, obviously, not ideal, but it's the best I could get, and it is better than the alternative. (23)

We arrived at the farm about a half hour before dawn, and I found Jennifer in the living room, holding Michelle in her arms. I left quickly, expecting that Michelle would vanish at dawn. (25)

When I brought Michael dinner, Michelle was still in our world, although she was not precisely alive.(26) Jennifer and Michael, two fairly powerful mages, had both wished very hard to keep her. Michael recognized that what they currently had was a child without a soul, and he prayed to the Virgin Mary and to Saint Caratha, the patron Saint of Mages. His prayers have been answered, and Michelle is most definitely among the living. She is the age she would have been had she not died in the first place. Jennifer intends to led David know. Jennifer and Ash will be married on Twelfth Night, so Michelle, Ashley, and Jido will be in good hands. (27)

The gargoyles are gone from Altclair, so I do not plan to travel to the nineteenth century. I do plan to keep my GPA high, to give Daniel a performance he need not be ashamed of, to explain to Jido why his pet gargoyles left, and to try to stay out of too much trouble.

Sincerely,

Justin

Personal Addendum for Journal--

Annmarie and I are both a little jealous of Michael's good fortune. After all, if Michelle, why not Annmarie? Or my stepfather or the victims of the Jerusalem bombing?

But then, the thing about a miracle is that it generally isn't something one earns. And I can't begrudge Michelle her life, or Jennfer and Michael--and David--their daughter. Besides, who am I to argue with a saint or with the Blessed Virgin Mary?

As for Annmarie, a saint would be more likely to send her on, which she does not want. Still, she has at least one night a year now. And I'll see if I can make her ghost cloth. (28)

Footnote

(1) Expanded list:

Mr. Death--Daniel Case, at least partly fay, over a century old, acting as Guide. Theater major.

Vampire--Matt Denkla, mage who specializes in illusion magic, over a century old, Daniel's lover, has a far better understanding of death than the other hunters. Theater major.

Ghost--Annmarie Browning, who died in the early 20th century. Since she primarily haunts the tunnels under the Theater, she's sort of an honorary Theater major. She recently learned that she can be solid and travel freely on Halloween.

Mummy--Ken Maravitch, Justin's lover, Math major, closest to normal in this group.

Gargoyle--Justin Thorne, maker, Theater/Journalism double major. Routinely takes on more than he can handle.

Witch--Jennifer Blake, mage, mother of Michelle, a child she and her ex-husband David accidentally killed when her magic became active. Not a student.

Beggar--Delilah Morgan, created by Michael's magic, has a mental link to him. Still in love with him despitk being engaged to somone else. English major.

Ape Man--Craig Claire, talented with strings, whether you're talking fiddle or cat's cradle, indulges in mild hallucinogens. Music major.

The King--Michael Conoway, Michelle's father, mage specializing in transportation, takes on even more than Justin does, devout Catholic, despite frequent lapses. On May Day, Justin accidentally drew the attention of the Wild Hunt, surviving the experience with a great deal of help from his friends, including Michael who took the role of leader of the Hunt. As a result, Michael became the Summer King, and the Halloween Hunt was orchestrated by Daniel to give Michael a chance to survive. Michael has to go to the Good Folk voluntarily. They can take him to any place on Earth, any year on Halloween (or the local culture's equivalent). If he manages to return to Burnham County by dawn, either under his own power, or with his friends' help, he's free. Otherwise, he has to stay with the God Folk for seven years of subjective time (one week of actual time). History major.

The Train--The Train Called the City of New Orleans, capable of time and dimensional travel. Likes Michael. Not a student.

Anactoria--one of the Good Folk, Sappho's lover, claims to be Daniel's aunt. Capable of making herself irresistible. Not a student.

Ash Wednesday-- mage, pacifist, Michael's teacher, courting Jennifer. Not a student.

(2) Justin's forge is in a room under the Theater where Annmarie can manifest.

(3) Since Daniel had to maintain neutrality in his role as guide, it would not have been appropriate for him to drink.

(4) Caliban is sentient and capable of deciding that it knows best. The players wanted it to come along for Halloween, but Justin didn't want to bring it. We figured that this wouldn't stop Caliban who foreshadowed its intent by materializing in Daniel's room when Justin was going through what he planned to bring. Daniel made Justin put half the stuff back, of course. Delilah informed Michael about Caliban via the link they share.

(5) Naomi said that she used Ray Bradbury's Halloween Tree for inspiration throughout.

(6) Justin magically modified the compass so that it would point to Michael. This is the same compass he used in twelfth century Mongolia.

(7) Each of the hunters, except Craig, spent the summer studying one or more areas of world mythology. Craig spent the summer composing appropriate music. When I asked Naomi about the music, she said that we were to understand that it was being played in the background of most scenes. Justin had hoped the music would have a tangible effect in the hunters' favor, rather than being background music. So did I, but Naomi made the sane GMing decision to give herself one less factor to juggle. I would probably have done the same. Besides, one presumes that the music had a real, if subtle, effect on the Hunt. This is akin to the CoC conceit that if the PCs drop the ball in a scenario set before the Crash of 1929, their failure is to blame, and if they succeed, their actions prevented the Crash from being even worse.

(8) He made the fire shrink, then extinguished it by clapping his hands around it.

(9) In a knapsack that doubled as part of the costume, as Justin was being a hunchbacked gargoyle, as well as a scholarly one.

(10) Justin regularly visits his stepfather's grave to chat with him. It's a one-way conversation, as his stepfather is not a ghost.

(11) From here on, everything was run twice. Josh hadn't been happy with how the session had gone. Michael seemed essentially restricted to a passive roll as he woke up in one confinement after another, unable to move.

This had not been Naomi's intent. She meant for Michael and the hunters to start out with little freedom from the script but to gain more as the night went on. This was not, however, clear to either me or Josh.

"Always listen for what I -don't- say," explained Naomi. She had told us several times during the first part of the hunt that Michael couldn't move or that the hunters couldn't catch him, and she expected us to notice that she had stopped doing that and to try having the characters do things that had consistently not worked before.

Much though I like subtlety in theory, in practice, I have been forced, over the years, to conclude that this is not workable. As I told Naomi, the repetition did not signal to us, "You can't do that yet." We heard it as, "No, I told you that you can't do that." We assumed that repeating actions that the GM had already established did not work would be a waste of time and would annoy the GM. I think, in general, it is unreasonable to expect players to pick up on such subtleties. As player and GM, at cons and friends' houses, in larps and table-top games, I've been repeatedly confronted with evidence of this.

Naomi was off-balanced by the reaction to the session, and raced us through the rest of Fall Quarter, which had me, at least, off balance. Then she activated a major plot thread far earlier than she'd planned and realized that she'd GM'd herself into a corner.

She asked us if we could re-run the hunt, or if we would come up with plots, since she was at a loss for what to do. I didn't love either option, but figured that if the hunt were re-run that evening, before events had a chance to "set" in my mind, I'd be okay with it. Josh and Naomi preferred the re-run option and agreed that this was the point in the adventure where things had gone wrong.

Justin's letter contains the second version of events, as that's the official one, while the footnotes contain the earlier version where they differ. At a few points in the second run, we all agreed that events were following the original track and skipped to the next point of divergence.

(12) Saint Caratha. I think this is PC from an old Ars Magica game Naomi had been in. Caratha had attemted to protest her sainthood, but shut up when informed that "God had ratified the deal," as Naomi put it. She's one of Michael's ancestors, I think.

(13) Relevant game quotes:

Michael (confused about why Justin can't stay when he was the one suggesting it): This is the house of God.

Justin (backing toward the door): Your god, not mine.

Michael: I don't know what -you- worship! (and all but screaming "And please don't tell me!")

Michael is well aware that Justin worships Apollo and Hephaestus, and does his best to ignore this fact. When Justin worked for Michael over the summer, they had a very brief discussion on the subject.

Justin: About the religion thing. Is it "Don't ask, don't tell" or "Not in my house, not on my land"?

Michael: I would not be pleased to know that pagan rituals were taking place on my land.

Justin correctly translated this to option number one.

(14) This marked the completion of Justin's quest to free the Altclair gargoyles. Josh and I analyzed this months later, wondering why I'd found it a satisfactory ending to the quest. After all, it was a mere footnote to the hunt, and Justin succeeded by accident, having had the answer handed to him. Neither character nor player had actually -done- anything.

Except, of course, that isn't quite true. The player kept Justin's focus on gargoyles. They were rarely a major part of the plot, but they were always present in the background. Justin spent months researching the gargoyles, taking photos and making sketches. He befriended them in the form of his nightmares, making paper airplanes small enough for them to play with. If he had not become close enough to the gargoyles to become one on Halloween, he could not have called them home.

Josh: Justin became one with his inner gargoyle.

Naomi: Justin -would- have an inner gargoyle.

(15) In the first run, Josh had no idea that Michael could move rather than remain rooted to the roof in gargoyle form. I think what happened next was Justin calling the gargoyles home. I think the nightmare gargoyles and the Michael gargoyle flew with the returning gargoyles. Then, Michael practically fell on the hunters in stag form. He escaped in wolf form as the stag was destroyed. All the gargoyles settled in their places on the roof. Justin joined them, thinking, mistakenly, that this was what he was supposed to do, and that he was now immobile. This was because I, like Josh, kept misunderstanding what Naomi was saying. However, for me, this was a momentary comic scene, whereas Josh found himself continually unable to act. After all of that, the hunters got back on the train which took them to the next stop.

(16) Via the mental link:

Delilah: The Gargoyle thinks we can arrange a truce.

Michael: Tell the Gargoyle to call me back when he's worked out the details.

(17) At this point, Michael and Justin were thinking along the same lines, greatly aided by the fact that the players could here all of the dialogue.

Anactoria: You can't trust them. They've already betrayed you once.

Justin: Tell him to forget about a truce. Ask him to howl outside the builing and stay out of range.

Delilah: Why can't I tell him we have a truce and then when he gets close-

Justin: No, he can't trust us, not after last time.

(18) Anactoria was not present in the first run. Since there had been no trickery at Notre Dame, working out a truce was easier, and the hunters got back on the train after the rescue.

(19) This was not something I'd considered before the session. When Naomi asked if Justin were circumcised, I thought about it, and we agreed that his mother had probably laughed at he idea that circumcision was necessary for health reasons, while his father's position would probably have been, "You're not doing that to my son!"

(20) We kept most of what happened in the first run. The two main differences:

a. Michael was more passive, escaping, but staying close in case he could help the others. Since we didn't know we were supposed to break the script, Michael did not try to get home on his own, arriving at the next stop on schedule.

b. The story Ken and Justin told the guards about getting on a train in Paris was almost true.

I was surprised, though quite pleased, that Naomi let Justin pass the problem of escaping to Matt. After all, it's asking the NPC to do all the work. But she figured that Justin had made an accurate assessment of the situation: It was too much for him to handle, and Matt had the skills. Justin was acting by having the brains to delegate correctly. (Of course, the PCs' habit of delegating and asking friends for help has given Naomi more than one GMing headache, particularly when she has to play more than half a dozen NPCs at once.)

(21) In the first run, Michael was in a cave in Mexico, and the others found the general area with the compass. It was nearly sunrise and Delilah tried to use her link with Michael to lead him out. Anactoria was in the cave as a skeleton, somehow still managing to be irresistible. Naomi wanted Michael to make a split second decision about whether or not to trust Delilah and took Josh's hesitancy as Michael's, ruling that Michael had lost his chance and was trapped with the Good Folk for seven years.

Josh protested this ruling, and Naomi agreed to revise it, but said that Michael's fate would be in the hands of the hunters. Josh agreed. In practice, what this meant was that I decided what happened. This, in a nutshell, was, I think, his basic problem with the session. The second run was better.

In any case, somehow, Michael wound up on the train in some kind of limbo, and Daniel/Death asked the hunters if they wanted to save him, eat him, or do a little bit of both. I decided that Justin would go with "a little bit of both," reasoning that he probably had enough of his personality left to remember the original goal of the evening. But by that same token, he would also be doubtful that the hunters could pull off trying to save Michael, and, of course, part of him very much wanted to eat Michael's heart.

Daniel took a candied skull with Michael's name on it and broke it into seven pieces, each one having one letter of the name. He gave one piece to each of the hunters to eat, and Justin realized that this was why Daniel had specified that there should be precisely seven hunters.

If Justin had tried to keep Michael safe, the hunters would have been given the candy and told to keep it safe. If they could keep themselves from eating it--naturally, the candy would have been quite tempting--or the Good Folk from stealing it, Michael would stay safe. The odds would have been lousy.

Daniel warned the hunters that eating the candy would mean giving up a year of their life, essentially, spending a year dead, albeit not for tax purposes. Everyone agreed to this, including Craig, who didn't know Michael that well, although he did think about it first. A logical consequence that hadn't occurred to me was that Annmarie wound up completely and totally dead in this run, since, as a ghost, she had no more years to give up.

(22) Delilah and Michael have the same blood type. Ash uscd his magic to guide Michael in magically teleporting some of Delilah's blood directly into his own veins.

(24) If the Good Folk copy something Justin makes, it drains part of his creativity. They have to have legitimate ownership of whatever they are copying.

(25) She did in the first run. In the second run, Justin spent the remaining time until dawn showing Annmarie around the farm. She vanished at sunrise and re-appeared at the forge the following evening.

(26) This really freaked Justin out. He dropped Michael's dinner, ran to the bathroom and lost his own, then failed to be convinced by Michael that a half-alive Michelle (sort of a comatose shell) was a good thing.

Michael: God didn't mean for her to die.

Justin: You're telling me that God meant for the victims of the Jerusalem Bombing [for which he and Michael were partly responsible] to die?

Michael: Well, no.

Justin: Then don't give me that shit.

Ash also didn't think it was a good thing, but he recognized that Michael and Jennifer wouldn't forgive themselves if they didn't try to restore Michelle to full mortal life. Justin helped Michael write a letter in poetry to the man who'd helped Michael get a soul for Delilah, but Michael was able to negotiate with Saint Caratha instead.

(27) Michelle and Ashleigh are Jennifer;s kids by Michael. Jido was rescued from twelfth century Mongolia and adopted by Jennifer.

(28) Justin figures that he might be able to weave moonlight into something Annmarie can wear.

In the original run, I asked Naomi what would happen with Daniel's play, as Annmarie had been cast as one of the leads and the Theater Department doesn't do understudies. Daniel cast the stagemanager in the role.

Over intersession, Justin and Ken went to San Francisco while Michael and Beth went to England with Michael's infant daughter Ashleigh. En route back from England, the plane was routed through Canada as New York City got hit by a backpack nuke.

This introduced the Middle Eastern war Naomi had been planning for the Spug of Michael and Justin's junior year. Amusing moments included:

--Justin tossing money on the table of the friend in whose house he and Ken were staying, making call after call, absentmindedly keeping an arm around Ken (who was freaking out more conventionally) while talking to the immediate world. Justin tends to call everyone he knows during a crisis.

--Michael deciding not to comment on Justin's habit of losing his roommates. His two roommates freshman year were Arab terrorists and were presumably killed. His current roommate was in the army reserves and was shipped out as soon as war was formally declared. Annmarie could be considered Justin's roommate as well, since she shared the forge room with him. Justin really would not have appreciated hearing all of that.

I'm glad we re-did it, though. I had fun playing Justin freaking out, but it worked better when Naomi ran it on something closer to her original schedule with a more likely, if less extreme, catalyst.

Natter Redux

Comment in following issue on the above

Naomi's corrections: 1) It's St. Coratha (not Caratha), and in thc old Ars Magica game, she was played by Beth Bartley, who plays Diometra in the Altclair game. 2) The tree with pumpkins was not a pumpkin tree, but a Halloween Tree (though Justin didn't know that). As Naomi says, she was not merely influenced by Bradbury's novel, The Halloween Tree; she stole flagrantly and shamelessly from it. My corrections: 1) Annmarie materialized at the forge, not the farm, the evening after the hunt. 2) Michael's 2nd blade does not precisely exist. This is the imaginary blade he used to practice his fencing in Israel. It did not exactly turn into a real blade, but on Halloween, it could be used. (Justin didn't know most of this at the time.)