Winter Chill

Sunday, February 24: 10 am - 2 pm: Monster of the Week: Winter Chill

• GM: Michael Washer
• Me: The Spooky -- Suzy -- 12
• Daniel (Marmot): The Mundane -- A. A. George
• Melissa 2: The Chosen -- Mandy Christian -- 12
• Rachael Walton: The Monstrous -- Laith (half demon)
• Michael Miller: The Wronged -- Summerrain Czergy
• ??? Female: The Professional -- Alice Wesson

First, we created the backstory of the various PCs.

Summerrain had been raised in a Commune, iirc. The commune leader was a vampire. Summerrain couldn't convince his siblings to leave the commune.

Summerrain: They died because of me.

He was a woodcarver, so naturally, he carried a big axe. She had sworn to kill all vampires.

Mandy knew that she was The Chosen on her baptismal day. The gold cross of Father Rex shone and he told her that that was the sign, iirc. Mandy's family was dead. She smoked cigarettes behind the rectory, but she didn't swear, ever. Swearing was against the law of God. The Bible, however, said nothing about smoking.

As she swore at least once during the session, I suspect the Hardly Ever swears. To be fair, she was scandalized when she realized she had just sworn.

The Mundane: was an American born Indian man. He worked at a computer help desk and was strikingly unstriking.

The Professional worked for a black budget government department. She wore a nice suit and had a determined face. Her agency wanted to destroy monsters. It was bureaucratic and had funding issues, but she was well trained. My notes say something illegible about resources.

The Monstrous was obviously male, though of slight build. He had spiky blond hair and always wore dark eyeliner. He was a half-demon. His mother was a full demon. Initially, he had been living with her, but he'd had a conversion experience.

The Spooky was a girl with unblinking eyes and neat clothes. For her stats, I had a choice of five combinations and went for: Charm -1, Cool +1, Sharp=0, Tough +1, Weird +2. Her powers were:

The Sight: Seeing and communicating with invisible spirits and the like. Tune In: Get answers to specific questions (listed on the sheet) by attuning the mind to a monster or minion. Jinx: Cause coincidences to occur, not necessarily bad ones.

All of these required a roll to succeed, and failure could cause interesting and unfortunate backlash. The powers were accompanied by a Dark Side:

• Secrets
• Rage
• Dark Bargains

Each character sheet had a list of relationships to be assigned to the other PCs. To keep things manageable, the GM said that we would go around the table only twice, once in each direction, covering two relationships apiece, not the entire list.

First go around:

Suzy, the Spooky: Laith had taught her to control her powers, to the extent she could control them at all.

Laith, the Monstrous: Mandy had saved Laith from another hunter. Mandy was taking her constitutional, i.e., smoking behind the church. Her weapon, a garrote, glinted in the light, s she knew there was trouble. Laith was a cute guy, so obviously, she had to save him! Once she had, she offered him a cigarette. In other words, the 12-year-old Chosen was corrupting the demon.

This was Laith's conversion experience. He realized how mortal he was. So, he goes to church now, with Mandy. He doesn't like it, but he does it.

Alice, the Professional: George pulled her out of a fubar'd mission.

George: Well, did you need tech support?

George's player noted that George has to put on a fake Indian accent, because that's what people expect to hear.

George, the Mundane: George had a crush or a romantic involvement with Alice, and his player left it for her player to decide which.

Alice: We... may have gone on a date or two.

Mandy, the Chosen: Father Rex disappeared. She knew then that Summerrain was destined to be her mentor. She was told to seek the Axe One. We noted that there were lots of people with axes in Syracuse! Her cross led her to find him confronting a vampire.

Summerrain: You shouldn't smoke. It's bad for you.

Mandy: It's hard to quit.

Summerrain: I don't care what the Bible says.

GM: The Bible says it's hard to quit.

Summerrain, the Wronged: Laith saw him lose it completely. Laith had been raised with the rest of his mother's demon children. Summerrain took down a demon who had been too like the luring cult leader from his past. He caused a great deal of collateral damage caused with axe and shotgun.

[Spooky: I got a shotgun too.

Mundane: Wow. I do _not_ want to know how you got a license for it!

Others: Well, this _is_ Syracuse...]

The trigger for Summerrain losing it was that the demon was preying on a couple of teenagers, just like Summerrain's siblings had been. Summerrain killed the demon, but the demon's last act was to lash out at the teenagers and take their souls to hell with it.

Summerrain: So I won the battle and lost the war.

Second go around, in the opposite direction:

Summerrain: He respects Alice and often goes to her for advice. He's self taught.

Summerrain: And you have a handbook!

Alice: I do.

Summerrain: Any way I could get a copy of it?

Mandy: George could have been the Chosen One, but he failed. He got a call from Father Rex.

Mandy's player: He said, "You are the Chosen One", but you couldn't go off your script.

George: I was new. I would have been fired!

Mandy: You said they had to restart it...

George: He saved Mandy's life due to an unlikely chain of events. It just so happened that George was the coach of the cricket team for Mandy's school. Mandy often vanished to fight monsters during cricket practice. During one such practice, he jumped a monster in boys' bathroom. It was one of the older boys, actually a monster, and he was getting the better of Mandy.

Just outside, George showed another girl how to swing the bat. He hit the ball too hard, and it went through the window into the boys' bathrooms, where it hit monster, distracting it for long enough that Mandy could kill it. George never found out about this.

Alice: The Agency knows little girls can be problematic, so we have a list.

Daniel: I blame Father Rex.

Mandy was on the list, but didn't know it.

For Laith, Rachel had a question.

Rachel: How old is Summerrain?

Michael: 20s or 30s.

Rachel: Laith has a romantic obsession with Summerrain. His cruel streak is sexy. (reading from the questions) Does he know? Does he reciprocate?

Michael: Summerrain knows. He does not reciprocate -- not because of the same sex thing, but because anyone I love will get hurt.

Laith: That's perfect! It's true of me, too.

Summerrain: But two wrongs don't make a right!

Laith: Don't they cancel?

Suzy: I had decided to make her the same age as Mandy so they could be classmates. Suzy had used her powers on Mandy once, for selfish reasons, and Mandy found out. We decided that Mandy had been carving stakes in art class. I think Suzy made her mess up or cut her hand or something. Mandy considered Suzy's power to be cool once she found out about it, but there was definitely a frenemy vibe to that relationship.

Some types of characters have things their players must roll for at the beginning of a session. For example, Mandy's player rolled for the Chosen's visions of her Destiny, getting a total of 4 on a Weird roll. Mandy saw a pulsating light, blood splattered across one of the walls -- writing, but she couldn't read it.

Then, we considered where to start the characters. Suzy, Laith, and Mandy formed one trio, and they went to church together. Alice, George, and Summerrain formed a trio of people who knew about and chose to work with or for the Agency.

We decided that Summerrain regularly waited for Mandy after church. He did not attend himself. He met Mandy and Laith and took them to a diner. We later retconned, saying that he also took Suzy to the diner. This got four of the six PCs in one place. Mandy's player noted that Mandy's feet did not reach the ground.

It was two days after three feet of snow had fallen, and the snow was just starting to melt. The diner tv screen showed a news bulletin: Bloodless Man Found Dead in Snowbank.

Summerrain: Laith, you don't know anyone who could do that?

Laith (thinking, maybe mentally going through a list): No. No.

Summerrain: Eat your broccoli. It's good for you.

Meanwhile, Alice was doing paperwork at the office. Her boss came by.

Boss: We have a problem. (flips small tv set on to the same news broadcast that the diner group is watching)

Alice: Well, I guess I'm going to Syracuse.

Meanwhile, Summerrain looked on disapprovingly as Mandy lit a cigarette.

Summerrain (to Suzy): You don't smoke, do you?

Suzy: No.

Mandy (I think -- might've been Laith): Maybe you should start.

Voices in Suzy's Head: That would be good.

I think Suzy should probably have been at a disadvantage for not smoking at first opportunity, but if so, both the GM and I forgot. I blame the temperature in the room. It was flippin' cold!

We decided that Mr. George would come into the diner to get some orange juice or something like that. After all, he taught at Mandy and Suzy's school, so he was obviously living in Syracuse.

Mandy (hiding her cigarette): Hi, Mr. George.

George: You know you shouldn't be smoking, Mandy.

Mandy: I'm not smoking. (drops cigarette and puts it out)

George: How was that church thing?

Mandy: I am filled with holy spirit -- as usual. (holds her cross)

George: That's great! You should bring some of that spirit to cricket practice.

George watched the report on the television.

George: I'd never have thought extreme cold could _do_ that to a body.

Alice (I think -- I don't recall how she was in the scene. If my memory's off, it might have been Laith, rather than Alice): Excuse me, you teach?

We also established that one of Mandy and Suzy's classmates, Benjy, had gone missing.

Alice: I call Summerrain.

Suzy: Your cell phone is ringing. (cell phone rings for the first time)

Summerrain: Thank you, Suzy.

Alice and Summerrain arranged to meet at the morgue. Naturally, Summerrain brought along Mandy, Laith, and Suzy.

And, it just so happened that the computer was down at morgue. Naturally, Mr. George was headed there in his professional capacity.

George: The world needs straights, too -- that's all I'm saying.

So, everyone gathered at the morgue, and anyone who didn't already know quickly figured out that everyone knew about the supernatural and helped against general Bad Stuff from the supernatural world.

Suzy tried to use her power to get information about what the monster who had killed the dead man wanted.

Suzy: It wants to convert people. Is it Christian?

Summerrain (possibly in chorus with Mandy, Laith, Alice, or some combination thereof): No.

Alice used her investigative skills to find out the answer to some questions.

Q. How has body been drained? What could have done this?

A. This is a textbook vampire attack. The victim was bitten over a long time. There are _multiple_ bite marks. Not all are visible at first glance. The most _recent_ bite mark is on the neck.

Q. What is being concealed?

A. _When_ the body died. Cold masks that.

Only one vampire had caused the bite marks.

Summerrain tried to find something in the box of the victim's personal effects, but a bad roll meant that the driver's license went down a drain with a shredder attached. I think this was some piece of morgue equipment.

Mandy: Suzy, why don't you stick your hand down and get it? You have the smallest hands.

Suzy: I don't think I could get it. But, I bet you could get it. I'm sure nothing bad would happen to you.

Someone (OOC): I love this passive aggressiveness.

I don't recall whether this was before or after Suzy told Mandy that she thought Mr. George was sweet on Alice and Mandy said she couldn't believe Suzy was saying shit like that. Suzy pointed out that Mandy had just sworn, and Mandy looked horrified and held her cross close. If this happened earlier, it might have had something to do with Mandy's suggestion.

Laith tried to do magic to draw the license out. This worked, messily. Blood fountained up from the drain, splashing him. The driver's license flew up and got stuck to his forehead with blood. This meant that Laith had to take his shirt off, of course, and Summerrain had to loan Laith his own shirt.

The license had been issued to one Rubin Hautcooper, who was 36 at the time of issuance, five years ago. The expiration date had been passed by two years. The address was now George's address.

George (looking at the license): You mean re this guy? Why don't we just ask his mom? She's my landlady.

Everyone went to the house. We agreed that George had a roommate, Jimmy, who was perpetually stoned. George told people to wait outside, and hastily started cleaning.

GM: I am actually going to call for a roll Under Pressure for the house cleaning.

George: I am totally acting under pressure.

Someone: Wow, that's the first time I've seen a roll for house cleaning.

The player got a total of 9, which generally means success with a cost. The GM ruled that the housecleaning went okay, but the George had broken the television for this scene. He could fix it in a later scene. Jimmy didn't notice anything.

Outside the building, Summerrain started rooting through the trash, looking for clues. Laith tried to help, but a total of 2 on the helping role meant that Laith had exposed himself to danger. He toppled over into the garbage bin, which meant that Summerrain had to lift him out.

Michael, however, rolled well enough that Summerrain got to ask a question: What is being concealed or is out of the ordinary here?

This may sound like two questions, but he really only got enough information for one question.

GM: She's (the landlady) a vegetarian. Recently, a couple of things that Reuben would have worn have been tossed. This clothing was about 8 years old.

Summerrain: This is something that's been sitting around for 5 years, and just _now_ it's being thrown out?

Laith: Better late than never?

While one may think that this points to the landlady, it didn't. The house, the crime scene, and the morgue were all very close together. It was just a coincidence, and perhaps the GM wanting to give the player something.

Mandy's player: Mandy is investigating Mr. George.

She did this by going into his bedroom with Suzy. The player rolled a 10, good enough to ask two questions.

Q. What is concealed? What happened here?

A. You discover that this place normally _isn't_ this clean. Not much _happened_ here.

But, there was what looked like a mural of a rock band underneath the paint on the wall.

Mr. George investigated the FBI files, with Alice's permission. In the course of doing this via computer, he found and closed a security leak in the FBI's system.

Q. What does FBI know about Reuben?

A. He went completely off grid 5 years ago. His mother was _completely_ investigated. It's a cold case.

Q. What's in the FBI's sealed Vampire file?

A. The breakdown of the population of vampires and the expansion rate. The Agency teamed up with the previous Chosen. There had been too high a rate of expansion -- two new vampires per day.

George: Like herpes.

Meanwhile, Suzy used her power to uncover the mural. All the covering paint flew off. The wall flexed and then snapped back. Everyone felt it. The drummer in the mural played a few bars.

Mandy: Wow -- you're pretty powerful!

Landlady (to Mr. George): What on earth are you doing?

George: Did you hear that, too?

Landlady: I think _everyone_ heard it.

George: I think it's coming from the basement.

He made his roll to manipulate her into believing that. This succeeded, and they both went into the basement. He managed to convince her it was a problem with the boiler, but I think then proceeded to offend her by making a tactless reference to her deceased son. This had no consequence beyond her leaving the scene, as this was a one shot.

The band revealed in the mural was called Chozen. They were playing the following night at a club called The Haunt, about one and a half miles west of the building.

Meanwhile, George had a question for Alice, given her blithe acceptance of Mandy and Suzy.

George: Isn't a little odd to have 12 year olds fighting monsters?

Alice assured him that it was, and that the Agency did this only very rarely. I suggested that the camera then cut to a room in the Agency's offices where there was a file cabinet packed full of files on 12 year old girls who helped fight monsters.

The group next went to the scene of the crime. But, somewhere in there, Mandy made a detour to a vinyl record store, getting Laith to boost her up to the window. By the time Summerrain caught up with them, her little feet were slipping through the window.

Summerrain: _Why_ are you helping her get into the vinyl store?

Laith: Because she can't reach the window on her own?

Mandy let everyone else in. I forget what she did to trigger this line:

Summerrain: I hate to say it, but in this line of work, that actually might be easier. Just -- Don't Touch Anything.

Laith accidentally knocked over a music rack.

Summerrain: Laith, dude -- you do _not_ know your own strength.

Suzy, George, and Alice investigated the scene of the crime. Suzy's powers drew a blank. Actually, iirc, they backfired, leaving the GM free to do a certain amount of hosing, but I don't think a lot of that happened. We were starting to run out of time.

Alice's investigations were more fruitful, thanks to her player getting a 10.

Q: What happened here and where did it go?

A: A smaller truck plowed the snow to bulk up the amount before the regular truck came by and uncovered the body. You can follow those tracks.

Meanwhile, in the record story, the Monsterhearts / light comedy portion of this Monster of the Week session continued.

Summerrain: Did you drop this? (holds out a lather dog collar)

Laith: Uh... no.

Summerrain: It just looked like something you'd wear.

Laith: Triggers.

Summerrain: Sorry.

Mandy found a t-shirt for Chozen. It listed the band's tour dates and locations from previous years. The band had played at The Haunt before -- right about when Reuben Hautcooper vanished.

Summerrain was able to follow the truck's tracks easily, his player getting a 12. I think they led to The Haunt.

Partly because the characters wanted to put a stop to the vampire menace, and partly because time was running short, the group decided to go to the club that night, not the following one.

I forget what prompted the following exchange:

Alice: I _do_ have your file.

Summerrain: Alice, you have _everyone's_ file.

Alice: I can _tag_ it.

Something had annoyed her, and folks apologized for whatever it was.

Even though it was the night before the band was scheduled to play, the GM ruled that there was a private party with VIPs. Laith had occasionally been to The Haunt, and he knew the bouncer. So, he was able to intervene when the bouncer tried to turn Summerrain away.

Laith: He's with me.

Bouncer: He your boyfriend?

Laith: Uh -- yeah. Yeah.

Suzy and Mandy slipped in through a window. I forget whether George and Alice came in through the front door, or whether the girls let them in through the back door.

I forget the context of this: Tall ceilings, so I have to lift you up.

It may or may not have had anything to do with this exchange:

Summerrain: That is really crazy and really impressive, Laith.

Laith: I know.

If I remember correctly, there were a total of three vampires: 2 minions and the main vampire. Summerrain and Laith dealt with the minions, Summerrain killing one while Laith turned to confront another, a regular named Mel, who probably hadn't been a vampire a couple of nights earlier.

Summerrain (to Laith): You got this?

Laith (to Mel): Kneel before me! (Mel kneels)

Summerrain: You got this.

Alas, Laith had not. He moved in for the kill, but Mel had no intention of dying, and he attacked Laith, wounding Laith badly. Summerrain charged to the rescue, I think killing Mel en route. Certainly, someone took care of Mel in a very permanent fashion.

Summerrain: I need my camp bag! Laith! Laith! Hold on, kid! Hold on!

Meanwhile, Mandy, Suzy, Alice, and George found the master vampire. He hypnotized Mandy and told her to attack Suzy.

Mandy (attacking all too effectively): Sorry, Suzy!

Suzy: It's all right. I know you always hated me, Mandy.

Alice (as George gets taken hostage by the vampire): I'm sorry, George.

Mandy (attacking again, if I didn't accidentally write a line of dialogue twice): Sorry, Suzy.

George actually managed to kill the vampire, if I recall correctly, though I forget the details. The quartet headed upstairs, George carrying the head.

Meanwhile, Summerrain tended to Laith's wounds.

GM: With Vicks Vapor Rub?

Summerrain's player: Yeah, but I have to rip Laith's shirt.

Laith's player: Laith's going to go for kissing you now, cuz might as well.

Summerrain didn't exactly resist. He pulled Laith close, cradling the demons head against his chest and murmuring reassurances, though I think he was probably trying to reassure himself more than Laith.

Summerrain: You're gonna be all right, kid. You're gonna be all right.

Laith: That was intense.

Summerrain: Yeah.

Mandy, Suzy, Alice, and George joined them.

Laith: Mandy, you're not carrying the head. Does that mean you didn't kill it?

Mandy gave him a dirty look.

I think there was a small fire, and I know Suzy lit a cigarette and started to smoke, making the voices in her head happy.

Alice: You know I can't pay you.

Laith: Can you at least buy us (calculates time) breakfast?

Alice: I'll see what I can do.

Summerrain: The kids like pizza.

Laith: He likes broccoli.

Mandy: He doesn't. He just makes us eat it.