Here’s what happened in the second session of the Urban Squalor game. We played on 04/25/04. The write-up of session one is here. The stuff I fretted about in that thread came to naught, and the game really spread its wings and soared!

I also morphed parts into a convention game, the write-up of which is here.

We pick up about 11pm in-game, right where the last session left off.

Salvador takes Jane and Gillian to the rectory, where he learns that Jane is interested only in satisfying the “insatiable” Gillian. She wants to make Gillian happy.

Darryl heads home. Latesha, a bit younger than Darryl, is sitting on the step, because her parents are fighting again. She and Darryl chat, while Dominus urges Darryl to make her submit.

Che & Rafeal are in Che’s mist form, neither can harm the other. Che takes him to the local police precinct, and lets him go in the drunk tank, and then re-mists himself. The guards come rushing in as Rafeal demands to be released. Che de-mists himself behind the cops and taunts Rafeal into charging the bars. The cops fire on Rafeal. He begins to bend the bars, they fire more and he finally drops. Che slips out.

Salvador asks Gillian to step outside. Salvador insists to Jane that she must have done the ritual wrong, that Gillian will never be satisfied and that she must banish Gillian and summon another “friend.” Jane decides she doesn’t need Solomon’s book after all, she just needs to summon another friend, one that will take care of Gillian!

Darryl sees an eviction notice on his door. Inside, a banishment circle has been cut into the living room carpet. In the kitchen, his mom is passed out on the spellbooks, an empty bottle of liquor next to her. He attempts to move her to her bed while Dominus urges him to let her suffer. She falls awkwardly in the hall and Darryl is unable to move her.

Che tags the theater (the saints’ former HQ) with Diablo colors and brags to Jose and Alex about what he’s done. They carouse into the night.

John, Jane’s dad, bursts into the rectory with a pistol in each hand.
John: “Both of you get on the floor, right now!”
Jane: “Daddy?” John winces.
As Salvador slowly, meekly gets to the floor and Jane gets out of the way, Gillian sees her chance. She Psychic Forces John and he trips over a footstool. Salvador hurries Jane out of the room while Gillian moves in to start kicking John and then smashes the coffee table over his head! Jane cries out for Gillian to come to her, and she does. John shoots Gillian in the shoulder on the way out. Jane and Gillian flee into the night.

Darryl asks Latesha to help him move his mom. She does so, and while getting her into bed, Latesha loses her balance and tumbles into the bed also. Dominus is virtually pleading with Darryl to “make her stay right there. It’ll be so much fun.” Darryl refuses.

Scene with Jane & Gillian in bathtub. Jane is scrubbing at the shoulder that was shot, but reprimanding Gillian for attacking her father.
Gillian: “He was pointing a gun at you.”
Jane: “He’s my dad. He wouldn’t shoot me.”
Gillian: “I didn’t know what your dad looked like. It was a mistake.” Jane forgives her.

Che’s mom gets him up and makes his favorite breakfast, urging him not to get involved with his friends that got him in trouble in the first place. Ernesto, the leader of the Diablos comes to congratulate him on his victory and offers to initiate him into the gang itself. Che agrees, but for later tonight.

Darryl tries to talk to his mom about the eviction, but she is single-minded about the need to banish Dominus. They argue.
Darryl: “Just because it didn’t work out for you doesn’t mean it won’t work out for me. I’m the one in control.”
Just then, the super shows up, giving Diana one last chance to pay up. She insists she’ll get it, and Darryl learns that the back-rent is $1500.

At school, Chad, the center on the football team mocks Jane for being a lesbian. Jane mocks him right back and flirts successfully with Brad, the Quarterback. Brad invites her to sit w/ him at lunch.

Darryl is attacked by Mark, a bully and older brother of the kid Darryl beat up last session. The fight is broken up by Mr. Smalls, the guidance counselor. Mr. Smalls gives Darryl an appointment. Darryl finds Jamal, a drug dealer, and asks what he could do to secure a $1500 loan. Jamal says that sales have been way down since Mr. Smalls showed up—he’s good at keeping kids from starting drugs. Darryl agrees to make the problem of Mr. Smalls “go away” in exchange for the money.

Che is visiting his sister in the hospital, and sees on the news that Rafeal is not dead, but is in the ICU in this hospital. He speaks with Brigida, his sister, and learns that summoning a demon into Rafeal was *her* idea, based on the letters Che was sending from Costa Rica. He then rushes up to the ICU, uses his Travel as Mist to get past the policeman outside the door, and begins to tamper with Rafeal’s IV. Samson, Rafeal’s demon, Boosts his Stamina, so he can rip off part of the bedrail and attack Che with it. Che’s demon Boosts Che’s Will for a Punish on Samson, which succeeds by only 1. Seeing his options limited, Rafeal Warps a hole in the floor and drops to the level below—although the fall knocks him out. The cop charges in and looks down the hole in the floor. Che tries to push him in, but fails. The cop rushes for the steps. Che leaps down and snaps Rafeal’s neck. He grabs the body and mists away.

Jane attempts to invite Gillian to lunch with the football team.
Gillian: “Why do you want him when you have me?”
Jane: “He’s on my list. Head of the prom committee—Check. Captain of the cheerleading squad—Check. Dating captain of the football team—Not Check. It’s one of the things you’re here to help me with.”
Gillian: “What does he have that I don’t have?”
Jane: “Nothing. I’d date whoever was captain of the football team—unless it was Chad. He’s gross.”
Gillian grins evilly: “Really? Well, have fun at lunch.”

Darryl meets with Mr. Smalls. Darryl’s vague and evasive in answering questions, but finally warms to his topic: “Yeah, I get beat up, but sometimes grown-ups get beat up, too. You must have made a lot of people angry by cutting into drug sales. You’d think someone would be coming after you.” Smalls is furious and kicks Darryl out of his office, claiming that he’s proud that sales are down.

Che takes Rafeal’s body to an unused supply room. He then cuts the skin with the tatoo from Rafeal’s chest. He studies the tatoo, and tries to Banish it. He fails.

Jane is at cheering practice, and Gillian is watching the nearby football practice. Brad gets tackled badly, and his neck is laying at a sickly angle. As the cheerleaders rush over to see what’s happened, Gillian asks “So who do you think will be the next Captain?” Jane leads her away and reprimands her. Gillian claims she had nothing to do with it. Jane reminds her that they’re going to summon her a friend. Gillian isn’t very fond of the idea until Jane promises that it will look like Jane.

Darryl urges Dom to pull the brake lines on Mr. Smalls’ car. When Smalls leaves school, he coasts right through a red light and his hit by a school bus. Darryl heads for his meeting with Jamal.

Jane researches a good spot for the summoning, and learns that her dad has not yet come home.

That’s where we ended session two. Some really good, meaty conflicts this time, I thought. The third session will be this Sunday, 6/6/04. Due to one of the player’s moving, this will be the final session. I think we’ll be able to tie up everyone’s Kickers, but I’ll be happy if we only get two of them to some kind of conclusion.

One other thing—when talking about Bangs, people often mention reshaping a pre-prepared Band into something else on a moment’s notice, but there aren’t many examples I’ve come across of that. This session had a great example. Since I didn’t know whether Che was going to win his fight with Rafeal, I prepped a few Bangs that might happen if he won, and some that might happen if he lost. One of the ones for him losing was for Ernesto, the head of his gang, to be furious with him for wrecking the cease-fire and demanding that he perform a service to the gang to make up for it. The service was going to be taking out Mr. Smalls for cutting into drug sales. Since Che won the fight, that never happened.

However, when Darryl asked Jamal what he could do to earn the $1500 loan, I just looked over my list of Bangs, and figured Jamal would also want Smalls gone. Presto change-o!

Sounds great. I also liked reading about the convention run and how the R-map was tightened.

-Lisa