Games on Demand: Dread: Gremlins

10 pm: Games on Demand: Dread: Gremlins

• GM: Dan Noland
• Neal Tanner: Butler Barnaby Kamp
• Me: The new maid, it being her first day on the job, Heather Farnsby
• Kelly Ohlert: Governess, Miss Violetta Granger
• David Collins: Groundskeeper: Bill Greene
• ???: Cook, Edward Goodfellow

This was a very silly game, and we all knew that going in. As the GM said, it was basically Gremlins invade Downton Abbey.

We made servant characters, a quick process, as no one expected in depth characterization or a long lifespan. The starting situation: Young Timothy and Griselda were trying to fine their Lost Pet, given to them by their father who had Acquired it from The Orient at Great Expense.

Governess: It is After Midnight.

In other words, time for the children to be asleep even if the servants had to find the pet. Also, remember the rules from Gremlins...

Someone: The Indo-Chinese jumping rat has a very delicate constitution...

Yep, definitely an Indo-Chinese jumping rat. That's what the pet was.

Someone, I think the Governess, I think to Heather: I know you _mean_ well.

Edward: I'll check the pantry. (run run run)

Violetta: Wait -- Wait a second -- is it raining?

GM: I'm glad you've made it worse.

Remember the rules from Gremlins...

Barnaby got the Groundskeeper.

Certainly someone got to the kitchen, probably Edward, who'd only left it half an hour ago. The pantry had been thoroughly raided. The Undercook Mrs. Potter being roasted in her own oven. And... yep, there were a lot of very strange creatures doing things in the kitchen.

Edward: My word -- I thought there was only one of them!

I think he disposed of at least one of the creatures with the meat grater, resulting in a lot of disgusting ichor.

GM: You will never get that clean!

Violetta to the children: Stay inside. Do not leave the room.

Barnaby met Edward.

Edward: Barnaby, thank G_D! Look at what they've done to my kitchen!

GM: I think that'll be the least of your worries in a second!

Heather was trying to clean a hallway where there just happened to be a suit of armor... with multiple gremlins in it...

Greene told the stable boys to get rat traps.

Someone: Well, Barnaby, good can you keep it? Can you trap it?

I think one might have gotten trapped in a hay bale.

Greene: I found the d____d thing -- got it!

And I have a note that may be intended to say "protect the horses".

Violetta: I wonder if roof of that barn is going to leak.

And the tower fell for the first time!

Greene: I believe I have just taken a horse hoof to the chest!

GM: Oh I'm not gonna kill you just yet!

Greene: Oh it'd take _days_ for me to die!

And the GM had to figure out spot player vs player rules for Jenga as the governess tried to chloroform the butler. I think she succeeded, but then went away for some reason, leaving him to be rescued by the cook.

Barnaby: Where _is_ that horrible woman?

• CLICK*

(That would be Violetta, with Barnaby's gun.)

Edward: My word, Barnaby, I think she means to kill you!

Violetta (I think): Edward, help me -- for the children! (tries to whack Barnaby with the gun) Do you see the kind of damage he does to a lady?

Barnaby: She's mad!

I think she was actually his jilted lover.

Then someone, possibly Heather, had a sword and was in the dining room, defending herself. The dining room. With lots of breakable china. And a chandelier.

Either the GM or the Governess: That chandelier's been in his lordship's family for over 400 years.

Ah well. Things were broken and the sword became the skewer of a gremlin kebab.

Someone was riding by, if not Heather, then a replacement PC with the same name.

A big hoard of sheep stampeded.

GM: There's no rain yet -- although it _is_ threatening rain.

There was a brief discussion about how stupid sheep are, and I don't recall whether it was in or out of character.

Someone: They wake up in the morning trying to die. Stupid as a brick.

• THUNDER*

Someone: Let them [the sheep] go. Master has many of them.

There was a noise -- the start of an engine. A gremlin was atop the thresher!

And the tower fell! Someone pulled the gremlin off the thresher to toss it in -- and both tumbled in, followed by one of the stable boys!

--BREAK--

Things got sillier, but no less bloody.

Edward: -) Well -- (sees Barnaby's Bag) we'll deal with this later.

He came across the suit of armor.

Edward: Is there a body in it?

GM: There _IS_ a body in it -- Steven, the footman.

Edward: STEVEN!

And he saw cocoons full of soon to be More Gremlins.

Edward: I shoot the cocoons!

GM: Do you have ammo left?

• TOWER FALLS!*

Edward: I don't have ammo left!

So, the Gremlins had Edward's gun. And I think that may have been the end of Edward.

Meanwhile, Barnaby was in the kitchen, whacking heads. The stable boy came to the house to try to get him to deal with the mess outside.

• THUNDER*

And I think the latest replacement character was Joe Wheeler, stable boy.

Someone: G_d run run!

And... there was a pot and a mortar and pestle.

Someone, possibly Joe Wheeler: Escaped the press gang and come home -- I thought it was a step up! Little did I know! Rum, sodomy, and the lash is a Step Up!

Someone: As you were.

Violetta was still looking for the Mogwai, which, after all, looked very little like the gremlins. And there was an infodump between her and Barnaby.

Barnaby: That doesn't explain why you're trying to kill me!

Violetta: Lecherous cheat.

Barnaby: That was you? You can't be here???

Someone, possibly Violetta, possibly Wheeler: I don't know what you're talking about but we'll deal with that later!

Someone, possibly the GM: No Edwards _is_ paste.

Then my notes get illegible, though I gather Tom was the next replacement character, and the next bit I can read says something about "they" running or turning _through_ the thresher. The creatures were running at the house!

Someone: Right man -- dog and gun.

There was a gremlin in the shredder. Tom climbed a tree. Joe jumped in the shredder and threw the gremlin up a tree. I have no idea why or how lethal that was or wasn't to either of them.

There was the sound of a speeding car.

Someone: Abandon me, will you?

Someone else: I didn't abandon you -- I assumed you'd follow me!

Then my notes say:

Oh I forgot to mention the ?Hira's answer? (- Whack him with cricket bat

I have no idea what that meant or who whacked whom with the cricket bat.

Someone asked "Will someone bring the [illegible, but I think it referred to a car] around?"

Barnaby went to the study, where he found the lord dead, impaled on the antlers of a mounted antelope head. The body rolled away from the antlers.

The wife's dresses were in disarray.

Me: Is a gremlin powdering its nose? Is a gremlin powdering its nose?

GM: Yes! In a camisole. Powdering its nose and drinking perfume.

Barnaby brained the gremlin. By now the house was on fire. Would anyone stop it, or would they just let the house burn?

I think whoever was driving the car, a Studebaker, pulled by Heather to get an idea of where the lady would hide. Meanwhile, the children -- and the mogwai -- got safely to the car.

There were two dead gremlins in the wine cellar. A third was in the barrel, and, for the final time, the tower fell!

The lady threw someone out of the house, possibly herself. The house then exploded.

GM: Let's have an epilogue. How does life turn out for your character?

Violetta founded a home for wayward children.

Barnaby never did find the safe after the explosion, and he himself was nowhere to be found. He'd gone to Scotland, where he lived with his sweetheart.

Heather went to Violetta's Home for Wayward Children and worked there as a cook.

Joe took the Studebaker and became a very early racecar driver.