[Sorcerer] Session Five (Bibliophage): The Big Chill

[Doyce]

We had our sixth session of the Bibliophage Sorcerer story Friday night.  The whole thing is detailed here, along with previous session logs.

This was an interesting session, mostly because everyone was getting hammered with some relatively urgent priorities and were basically trapped in a small(ish) area with one another.  That they don't really get along just made it more interesting.

Right, on with the show.

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At the end of last session, everyone (which is to say the three PCs, Yvonne, and Ken's rescued girlfriend (Susan) were risking the increasingly strong blizzard to get away from Jerry Rubinek's warehouse studio and get to someplace where they could all rest up a bit -- they opted for Ken's home. (Map here.)  Upon arrival, they discovered Ken's sister Hanae passed out in the living room, mumbling something about her father (recently dead) and with abraded and bleeding wounds on her arms.

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In a sense this was a fairly easy session to prep:

(1) I dug up a map for Ken's house that was visually interesting -- I knew that barring the unforeseen everyone was going to end up staying in the house most of the session -- what I wanted was someplace that would keep most of the action in central areas but provide lots of nooks and crannies for anyone motivated to go looking for one.

(2) Bangs -- the situation immediately presented at least one Bang for each character at the bare minimum -- following the nasty, knock-down, drag-out fight from last session, everyone's demons are in serious Need (and several are somewhat hurt).  This may seem a little vanilla, but the situation itself provided a number of twists.

a) Everyone is stuck in one place with the (small) group -- those Needs that required 'victims' would be particularly interesting to meet.

b) Almost everyone is hurt, leaving a bunch of Sorcerers with Need-y Demons and a reduced effectiveness on the sorcerers' parts to supply it.  This lead to a bit of desperation.

The cast of characters at this point consisted of:
* Shannon, carrying 3 lasting penalties, even after some rest.
* Ken, carrying 3 lasting penalties.
* Val, carrying 1 lasting penalty.
* Bister, Shade, and Doji, all in serious Need (plus Doji also harmed from a Spawn attempt, and Shade itching for a little poetic justice on Ken, due to Ken punishing him last session).
* A once-bound Object demon (amulet) in Ken's pocket, in need.
* Ken's father (now a ghost), whose Need has just been sated with the blood of Ken's sister.
* Ken's sister Hanae, who is waking up and remembers what happened. (A second Bang for Ken.)
* Ken's girlfriend Susan, who is conscious and in some shock over her ordeal.
* Yvonne, with a nasty bump on the head.

Just toss the ingredients in a large house and allow to simmer for one game session, stirring occasionally.  I didn't really have to do anything.

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Okay, here's the quick and dirty summation:

Ken get's Susan squared away on a couch in the living room and urges/steers everyone else towards the family room (where he takes Hanae).  Shannon sees all the computer equipment (nearly every room in the house is wired with a thinclient terminal at the very least), and starts asking Ken which terminal Bister should use (his need is regular internet access) and if he has any burn ointment (she picked up a few nasty burns while rescuing Yvonne in the last session).  Ken's response ("Make yourself at home, just don't touch anything.") is less than helpful.

Once everyone is basically seated or laying down (Yvonne's still unconscious, as is Hanae), Ken goes to check on Susan, and Val goes along and introduces himself.  Susan is relatively intact -- a little dehydrated and certainly hungry, but functional.  Ken starts a pot of tea and offers Susan one of the upstairs bedrooms (for privacy, and to keep her further away from any odd conversations).  Val (un?)helpfully offers her a joint to help her calm her nerves, ignoring any social niceties in which he asks Ken if it's all right first.  Susan accepts both offers and heads upstairs.

Ken: Can Doji feed on the suffering of my guests?
GM: Definitely.  If you're only marginally helpful in seeing to their comfort, a day or so around them will have him quite satiated.
Ken: Good...  I think.

Val is looking over the sorry state of his compatriots and calls his mentor, Candace Lynn Voight.  She doesn't answer her home phone, but does pick up her mobile.  It sounds like she's outside and breathing hard -- she tells Val that she's shoveling at least one layer of snow off her front steps to 'keep things under control'.  

Val brings her up to date on the proceedings up to this point (including the fact that Yvonne is still alive) and asks if she has any demons with healing abilities.  CLV says she does not, and (after Val tells her where they are) furthermore doesn't really have any means of reaching him in this weather.  He asks about any such spirits or demons that might be helpful in a healing regard, and she gives him several good leads and rituals to try, generally pointing to some sort of celtic-flavored misty foxfire type of thing.  Ken thanks her for the tip and hangs up.

Ken distributes tea and speaks briefly with the awakened Hanae in the hallway next to the kitchen.  She's a little dizzy and sore, but otherwise okay.  She'd already half-suspected Ken and Father had had some sort of Occult Thing going on, but didn't know (or didn't believe) it was real and is still in a bit of disbelief over the thing.  She gives Ken a note pad with about seventeen messages on it from the Board of Directors in Japan, who have been calling his house all day -- she'd been taking messages, and there are more on the machine.  (Stress.)

Everyone is clamoring for more... stuff. Shannon wants some burn ointment and Ken finally allows Bister onto one of his machines (but not the one in the study, and out of the view of Hanae).  Val arranges for Bister (armed with one of Val's credit cards) to help Shade find a camwhore site on the internet just to tied him over until Val can think of something more substantial.  Ken tries very hard not to hear any of this and asks Hanae to go check on Susan, mostly to get her out of the way (or away from Val?).

[The order of events here is a little shaky.]

Somewhere in here, Yvonne drops a bombshell.  Upon waking up and getting the up-to-date info from Val (and perhaps prompted by Shannon actions to save her) Yvonne has him call everyone pertinent into the room and explains some Very Key Facts.

* BANG: Yvonne and Jerry were hired/retained to kidnap both Susan and Val's girlfriend (specifically), apparently to keep Ken and Val occupied with other things while her employer set about their true goal (unknown).
* Yvonne did it as ordered because she was quite desperate at this point in her life, but bailed when Jerry started getting ideas of his own about using one of the captured girls as a summoning sacrifice.
* She went to Alonzo to seek asylum and warn him (she'd gleaned from her interviews with her employer that he was a target), but he was already dead and she became trapped in his demon-house (see Session One).
* Her employer was, apparently, Candace Lynn Voight (Val's mentor).
* She didn't know CLV was also Alonzo's former apprentice until CLV showed up with one of the invites Yvonne has sent out to lure people to the house (using Alonzo's addressbook) -- the book listed her has "Candace", not "Lynn", which is the name Yvonne knew her as.

During this conversation, Val (now referring to CLV as his former mentor), reveals that he told CLV exactly where they are right now.  There is no smiling going on.

Shannon and Yvonne, somewhat reconciled by their shared life-risking (and Yvonne's desire to reveal all even though Jerry was no longer able to incriminate her), set about double checking CLV's information on the new demon Val wants to Summon and Pact with to heal the group, to make sure it's not some kind of trap.

Once everyone is basically self-maintaining, Ken heads up to the quiet room behind his master bedroom where a summoning circle is etched in the marble underneath a subtle area rug.

Ken orders his father to appear and, with a drop in room temperature and many odd echoes, he does so.  Ken questions Osato-san about the attack on Hanae and wonders if he will be the next victim of the ghost's hunger... the ghost does not reply in a reassuring fashion.  Their conversation ranges about a bit, but the upshot is that ghost is still taking care of family business because he doesn't think Ken can handle it, and that he wants the Amulet back, even though it's 'a harmless trinket'.  Ken demures and exits the room.

Meanwhile, Val runs into Hanae again and (Shade's need clearly in the forefront of his mind), lures the (not at all unwilling) girl into a guest room on the first floor to give Shade his voyeur-charge.  (I don't remember particulars, but Hanae's Will roll was terrible: Val rolled a total-success-Cover into something like an eleven-dice total-success-Will.)

Yes, while Doji soaks in the winces and pain of Ken's guests, Val is in another room nailing Ken's sister to feed Shade's needs.  (I would have had Val make a humanity check for using the girl in this way, but Hanae's personality and her obvious interest stayed my hand in this event:  also, Val let her completely take charge once they were alone so she could "work the Kinks out".)

Notably, no one made any "who's your Daddy?" jokes.

Ken arrives downstairs with his father's admonition that "the gaijin is defiling your sister" still ringing in his ears, but opts to do nothing about it for now.

"I've got important matters to consider."

(Can I just point out that Ken's player is far too facile in channeling Ken? *shudder*)

In some rooms, there is research and Lore checks, and eventually Hanae and Val emerge, both looking quite refreshed.

Unable to go anywhere at the moment and unsure what CLV is planning or has already done, the group decides that they need to get back on their feet as soon as possible... that means treating their injuries -- demonic assistance is worth the risk.  Yvonne, Ken, Shannon, and Val head upstairs and lock themselves in Ken's summoning chamber to Contact and Pact the mist-thing.

Let me just say that their desperation in this act came out in the die rolls.

Val took the lead in this (using the theory that his high Humanity would help), but he got lots of help on the Contact and Summoning rolls from the others (his Humanity of Six made this almost necessary, actually).  The group was aiming for a relatively low-power (compared to their primary demons) demon with Vitality (any target), Special Damage (defined as 'reverse healing'), and Confuse (to tie into the foxfire/will-o'-wisp vibe that their research had lead them to).  Ken had loaded five or six hours of illegally-downloaded celtic music into the sound system to help everyone get focused and they set to work.

The inital Contact roll went well: the three support-sorcerers rolled 4 dice worth of bonuses over to Val and he got enough Successes to get a demon in the Contact that accurately met their specifications (and actually got a bonus point of Power out of the deal).  Nice.

Once the contact was established, I called for Val's Humanity (six) vs. Power (four) check for 'reaching beyond Creation to contact something that is... Not.'  the Humanity Check was Six dice to four... but Val lost and his Humanity dropped to five.

Next, the Summoning roll.  Long story short, despite getting some bonus dice, Val failed the Will check necessary to pull this Thing Of Unnaturalness into Creation.  The group opted to try again -- Shannon and Ken both had to dose up on stimulants (in this case, a small refrigerator jammed with a case of Red Bulls that Ken's player authorially inserted into his bedroom) to keep from going unconscious after the first bout of Summoning.

The second series was much more successful and Val easily won the will check and pulled the thing into this Time and Space.  (It didn't test the Contain Shannon had set up.)

Humanity Check: Five vs Four.  Val blew it again and dropped to Humanity Four.  Wow.

The player's design stage for the demon had included a Need for "pretty geegaws of personal value" -- basically that it was a collector of shiny things, but more importantly things with a connection to person -- it wasn't possible to just go down to a jewelry shop and by a bunch of little things to keep it happy.  Val presented it with a small pile of pretty items (collected from each of the participants -- a rolex, a kind of high-tech lava lamp thing from Ken's bedroom and some diamond stud earrings) and went for the Binding roll, which he had a good advantage over the Demon on (he'd originally planned on Pacting, but after the blows to his Humanity, he decided he wanted a more long-term commitment out of the demon).

... and the demon won the binding roll anyway ...

... then Val blew the 4 vs. 4 Humanity Check and dropped... AGAIN... to 3.  Yikes.

Maybe the advice from CLV really was a trap.

Still, the demon had been well-bribed and set to work on the crew, conferring Vitality to each of the injured in turn (I don't know if that's really the Ability to use for a 'healing demon', but it seemed the best option).  Shannon, shaky from the Red Bull, collapsed on her way to a couch.  Ken (a long-time veteran of many an all-night programming marathon) shook the effects off and kept moving -- too much to do.

Val stared into the middle distance and (perhaps) wondered about the sort of person that would bring such alien things into the world.

End.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Doyce,

Just toss the ingredients in a large house and allow to simmer for one game session, stirring occasionally. I didn't really have to do anything.

That's classic mid-story Sorcerer prep, my friend. You know it's working when it becomes that easy. And hooray! A bunch of rituals, too!

One thing to consider at this point, however, is your stable of NPCs who aren't present in this session, and what they might be up to. The [PCs + demons] in-isolation session is always fun, but external adversity and opportunities are your real job as GM. I tried to articulate an important principle in chapter 4 of the core book, that relationships with "ordinary people" are actually the most important features of play throughout the process, but I'm not sure how well it got across in that text.

Best,
Ron

[Doyce]

Hi Doyce,

Just toss the ingredients in a large house and allow to simmer for one game session, stirring occasionally. I didn't really have to do anything.

One thing to consider at this point, however, is your stable of NPCs who aren't present in this session, and what they might be up to.

I (and certainly my much-more paranoid players) are giving a lot of thought to what Candace Lynn Voight is up to right now, and what allies she might still have (the Osato-san ghost said the woman 'was a tool', so they're pondering a possible other involvement).  I'm also trying to keep the 'mundane' OsataSoft board of directors in the forefront of Ken's mind, but I think you reminded me to mentally check up on other normal people in the character's lives: what is cute little Hiroe doing? what about Delia? She was actually involved in this investigation earlier, and what about the cops?  They're looking for Susan.

All good questions that I hasn't asked yet.