The 'Rescuers'
Oct. 9th, 2004 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothLast night we had a session of the 1890s/Neverwhere GURPS campaign at Lazar's. Stacey showed up, eventually -- she'd sent mail to Lazar, but it didn't arrive until after the game'd already started, which meant he'd never replied before the game, so she wasn't sure she was supposed to come, but she gave me her number so we were able to call her and summon her. It longer for her to get to us than expected, though, so there was some delay. I think she finally finished her character around 10 or 11, which is why 'Dodger' doesn't come in until near the end.
So there Charlie and Don were, with a horribly wounded and diseased teenager that they'd just rescued from a Satanist's basement dungeon. Don knew of a kiln lab at the university where no one would disturb them until morning, which would give Charlie enough time to meditate on the Buffalo spirit and pray for the power of healing. Specifically, 'Cure Disease'.
So that was done, and the spirit answered, and the visible effects of the disease, at least, were cured. However, the still-unconscious victim was steadily growing more muscular and bulky, and those effects hadn't reversed. Charlie told Don that he thought he was still a werewolf, and that curing the disease basically hadn't worked, although it had made him healthier. If he was a healtheir werewolf, though, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Don, not believing in werewolves despite just being attacked by one, cheerfully pulled out the moon and shone its light on the wounded man, who began shifting and changing under their eyes -- Charlie quickly threw his coat to block the light, before things started getting hairy.
At this point, Agamemnon volunteered that the baby-eating demon waiting back in the Satanist's lobby would probably accept the wounded man as 'one of the three you owe'. Owe? The demonic hawk promised Charlie that the person would 'probably be better off this way', and wouldn't be able to harm him or Don if they handed him over, so Charlie decided that that was better than killing him outright, or running away and hoping that he killed other people instead of them.
Selling the idea to Don was a bit tougher, especially after Charlie (who was rather exhausted from staying up all day and night, and casting lots of spells and crap) blurted out that he wanted to sacrifice him to an evil spirit. He quickly clarified that the spirit wasn't *evil*, exactly, and that it wasn't exactly a sacrifice, and eventually Don's resistance to the idea was worn down.
"I let you release all the prisoners from their cages. Letting me do this is the least you can do in return!"
"Fine, I'll let you hand him over to your friend, but this is under protest!"
"He's not my friend. He's just... an associate."
When the 'friend' manifested to receive his partial payment, Don panicked and went for his weapons. Charlie, not wanting blodshed, stepped in between them, planning to use a spell he knew to deflect bullets if Don should try to fire. Unfortunately, Don reached for the flamethrowing shotgun, which didn't fire bullets. Fortunately, he realised it still didn't have a barrel, and didn't fire.
"You say he's not your friend, but you're protecting him."
"I didn't want you to piss him off and get killed. Did you see those scythes he has for hands?"
"I'm really feeling a lot better about this whole deal. I just thought you might want to know."
After that... well, they were still really tired. But it was getting on near morning, and JR still needed rescuing, so they drove over to Mr. Albion's mansion, and started sneaking around trying to find a way in. Unfortunately, the place was warded against spirits, so Charlie couldn't scout the inside in spirit-form, and all the back doors were locked. Worse, Don's car wasn't exactly a stealth-mobile, and its loud engine noises woke up everyone in the house.
Luckily, JR wasn't actually being held prisoner. He woke up, looked out the window, saw the car and the skulkers, and noticed that his bedmate, 'Anastasia', who'd met him at the party and brought him over into the spirit world to help her flee her pursuers, was missing. He got up and started looking for her, chatted with the friendly hallway ghost, followed it upstairs, and then tried to barge into Mr. Albion's bedroom, triggering a geas which compelled him to leave the house.
While he was doing that, Don and Charlie had finally found the secret entrance -- the front door, which had a special weird-world-only latch on the outside, like most buildings in the city. Still thinking that JR was a prisoner, they headed to the basement, where they figured prisoners were most likely to be kept. There, they found Mr. Albion's ritual space, located exactly on the crossing of the two ley-lines which ran through the estate, and a bunch of bedrolls and such in weird-world-only side-rooms were, presumably, weird people slept sometimes. They stayed down there long enough to miss JR entirely, coming back up only after he'd left the house through the front door.
Out front, JR ran into 'Dodger' (he wouldn't tell his real name), the investigator he'd hired to look into the strange killings, who'd been trying to track down him and Charlie and Don all night, as they were his only real suspects -- and in the process had managed to get himself shifted into weirdness with the rest of them. JR tried to explain things to Dodger, who was having none of it, and they stood there arguing for a while.
Meanwhile, Don and Charlie searched the rest of the mansion for JR, without any success. The friendly hallway ghost was not at all friendly to them, and demanded they leave.
"Not until you tell us where John is! We came here to rescue him."
"He doesn't need rescuing, and he's no longer in the house."
"Where is he, then?"
"Outside."
Interpreting that as obstructionism, they scowled and continued to search. They were at the last room, suspiciously warded and locked, and were just about to trigger Mr. Albion's geas, when John heard them (from outside) loudly arguing about whether to kick in the door or blow up the wall, and shouted to them that he was out front.
Out front, they exchanged information with Dodger, trying to explain what had happened and that Dodger should stick with them, because was now equally screwed. Also, would he like to come examine a crime scene? A few blocks away was where the werewolf attack had occurred... they might still be clues. Dodger insisted that they were all suspects, and that he didn't believe in all this hocus pocus -- there had to be a logical explanation for the strange murders, and the way all the electric lights had suddenly turned to gas lamps, and the extra story on this mansion he'd seen just the day before.
He decided to start by examining this house right here -- he'd wake up Mr. Albion and get him to explain the change in ownership and floor plan. The others waited outside, discussing where they were going to sleep, while Dodger skulked about, failed to get the servants to recognize his existence, and eventually (after resisting the geas) found Mr. Albion's locked safe, with its secret documents -- they showed that he'd owned the estate for years and years, that it only had two stories instead of three, and that he had two sets of books, one for the IRS and one (presumably) reflecting the truth. Aha! That evidence needed to be taken to the cops!
When he got back outside and told the others that, they tried to dissuade him -- the police probably wouldn't be able to see him either, and wouldn't he rather come with them and get some rest? Or he could take them back to his place, so that they could show him that it had vanished just like everything mundane *they* owned. Dodger scoffed at that idea, and told them that he'd find them when he needed them again, and right now, he was heading for the constable. They shruged, and headed to an unused storage room on campus to rest the night. Or, well, the day.
last session | next session
So there Charlie and Don were, with a horribly wounded and diseased teenager that they'd just rescued from a Satanist's basement dungeon. Don knew of a kiln lab at the university where no one would disturb them until morning, which would give Charlie enough time to meditate on the Buffalo spirit and pray for the power of healing. Specifically, 'Cure Disease'.
So that was done, and the spirit answered, and the visible effects of the disease, at least, were cured. However, the still-unconscious victim was steadily growing more muscular and bulky, and those effects hadn't reversed. Charlie told Don that he thought he was still a werewolf, and that curing the disease basically hadn't worked, although it had made him healthier. If he was a healtheir werewolf, though, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Don, not believing in werewolves despite just being attacked by one, cheerfully pulled out the moon and shone its light on the wounded man, who began shifting and changing under their eyes -- Charlie quickly threw his coat to block the light, before things started getting hairy.
At this point, Agamemnon volunteered that the baby-eating demon waiting back in the Satanist's lobby would probably accept the wounded man as 'one of the three you owe'. Owe? The demonic hawk promised Charlie that the person would 'probably be better off this way', and wouldn't be able to harm him or Don if they handed him over, so Charlie decided that that was better than killing him outright, or running away and hoping that he killed other people instead of them.
Selling the idea to Don was a bit tougher, especially after Charlie (who was rather exhausted from staying up all day and night, and casting lots of spells and crap) blurted out that he wanted to sacrifice him to an evil spirit. He quickly clarified that the spirit wasn't *evil*, exactly, and that it wasn't exactly a sacrifice, and eventually Don's resistance to the idea was worn down.
"I let you release all the prisoners from their cages. Letting me do this is the least you can do in return!"
"Fine, I'll let you hand him over to your friend, but this is under protest!"
"He's not my friend. He's just... an associate."
When the 'friend' manifested to receive his partial payment, Don panicked and went for his weapons. Charlie, not wanting blodshed, stepped in between them, planning to use a spell he knew to deflect bullets if Don should try to fire. Unfortunately, Don reached for the flamethrowing shotgun, which didn't fire bullets. Fortunately, he realised it still didn't have a barrel, and didn't fire.
"You say he's not your friend, but you're protecting him."
"I didn't want you to piss him off and get killed. Did you see those scythes he has for hands?"
"I'm really feeling a lot better about this whole deal. I just thought you might want to know."
After that... well, they were still really tired. But it was getting on near morning, and JR still needed rescuing, so they drove over to Mr. Albion's mansion, and started sneaking around trying to find a way in. Unfortunately, the place was warded against spirits, so Charlie couldn't scout the inside in spirit-form, and all the back doors were locked. Worse, Don's car wasn't exactly a stealth-mobile, and its loud engine noises woke up everyone in the house.
Luckily, JR wasn't actually being held prisoner. He woke up, looked out the window, saw the car and the skulkers, and noticed that his bedmate, 'Anastasia', who'd met him at the party and brought him over into the spirit world to help her flee her pursuers, was missing. He got up and started looking for her, chatted with the friendly hallway ghost, followed it upstairs, and then tried to barge into Mr. Albion's bedroom, triggering a geas which compelled him to leave the house.
While he was doing that, Don and Charlie had finally found the secret entrance -- the front door, which had a special weird-world-only latch on the outside, like most buildings in the city. Still thinking that JR was a prisoner, they headed to the basement, where they figured prisoners were most likely to be kept. There, they found Mr. Albion's ritual space, located exactly on the crossing of the two ley-lines which ran through the estate, and a bunch of bedrolls and such in weird-world-only side-rooms were, presumably, weird people slept sometimes. They stayed down there long enough to miss JR entirely, coming back up only after he'd left the house through the front door.
Out front, JR ran into 'Dodger' (he wouldn't tell his real name), the investigator he'd hired to look into the strange killings, who'd been trying to track down him and Charlie and Don all night, as they were his only real suspects -- and in the process had managed to get himself shifted into weirdness with the rest of them. JR tried to explain things to Dodger, who was having none of it, and they stood there arguing for a while.
Meanwhile, Don and Charlie searched the rest of the mansion for JR, without any success. The friendly hallway ghost was not at all friendly to them, and demanded they leave.
"Not until you tell us where John is! We came here to rescue him."
"He doesn't need rescuing, and he's no longer in the house."
"Where is he, then?"
"Outside."
Interpreting that as obstructionism, they scowled and continued to search. They were at the last room, suspiciously warded and locked, and were just about to trigger Mr. Albion's geas, when John heard them (from outside) loudly arguing about whether to kick in the door or blow up the wall, and shouted to them that he was out front.
Out front, they exchanged information with Dodger, trying to explain what had happened and that Dodger should stick with them, because was now equally screwed. Also, would he like to come examine a crime scene? A few blocks away was where the werewolf attack had occurred... they might still be clues. Dodger insisted that they were all suspects, and that he didn't believe in all this hocus pocus -- there had to be a logical explanation for the strange murders, and the way all the electric lights had suddenly turned to gas lamps, and the extra story on this mansion he'd seen just the day before.
He decided to start by examining this house right here -- he'd wake up Mr. Albion and get him to explain the change in ownership and floor plan. The others waited outside, discussing where they were going to sleep, while Dodger skulked about, failed to get the servants to recognize his existence, and eventually (after resisting the geas) found Mr. Albion's locked safe, with its secret documents -- they showed that he'd owned the estate for years and years, that it only had two stories instead of three, and that he had two sets of books, one for the IRS and one (presumably) reflecting the truth. Aha! That evidence needed to be taken to the cops!
When he got back outside and told the others that, they tried to dissuade him -- the police probably wouldn't be able to see him either, and wouldn't he rather come with them and get some rest? Or he could take them back to his place, so that they could show him that it had vanished just like everything mundane *they* owned. Dodger scoffed at that idea, and told them that he'd find them when he needed them again, and right now, he was heading for the constable. They shruged, and headed to an unused storage room on campus to rest the night. Or, well, the day.
last session | next session
