This little homebrew was supposed to bring the Crew together before a proper start of our grand campaign.
Instead it nearly tore them apart.
Performing as MC: Pavel
You know, nothing too complex. Just a quick adventure to give our cast some tangible taste of what it’s like to work together, comfortably playable in one night.
Rupert played by Tom
We finished at 2 a.m.
Nathan played by Pida
You remember Rupert and Nathan, right? Rupert, the friendly part-time journalist, part-time soccer coah, full-time exterminator from the Puppet Show Case? And Nathan, the golden boy of the City who got probation in Cryfield Echo after burning down a warehouse in V is For Going Viral?
Well, for the rest of this season, they’re going to be joined by two more characters. Let me introduce you!
Eddie played by Kapik
Eddie, the mayor of Cryfield with nothing but his City’s best interests at heart and a very hands-on approach when it comes to problem solving…
Freeda played by Terka
…and Freeda, a young street artist working with those communities of Cryfield others don’t even care to think about. While Eddie and Rupert look after Cryfield's autochtons, she spends her free time with the kids born to the absolute bottom of society.
Now to make things easier, these guys already know each other at the beginning of this story. All of them have been circling around Cryfield Echo one way or the other so it was just a matter of time before they formed a Crew. But the Pavel the MC decided it would be nice to have a little introductory case – well, not even a case, just an adventure, just to ease the players into it.
Their characters literally needed a group therapy session afterwards to get over it.
[Pavel the MC: We’re going to start this story with all of you… asleep. As we’ve discussed beforehand, all of you know what your dreams are about, but now, as it often happens with dreams, the scenery fluidly changes into something very different…]
From the perspective of the characters, this was an open so cold you could skate on it.
Suddenly they’re sitting on a train straight from an Agatha Christie novel, with kashmir seats, alleys illuminated by oil lamps, tables made of expensive woodwork and dozens of faceless passengers in other booths silently pushing unlit cigars against their blank faces. The only other free table in the entire wagon is covered with bottles, flasks and jars of all shapes and sizes as if waiting to be chosen in some kind of cryptic riddle and…
[Pavel the MC: And wouldn’t you know it, those mountains you glimpse in the night landscape behind the windows? After closer inspection, they are not mountains: they’re enormous silhouettes of more bottles fringing the horizon like some forgotten artifacts of some very messy giants' picnic.]
Oh. Right. And as Freeda discovers a few minutes later, there’s some Asian guy interrogating an older man in the freezer wagon.
It’s exactly at that moment she peeks through the wagon doors when the entire train tremors with a deep, distorted – yet somehow still female – voice saying: “SOMETHING’S WRONG, AYUMA. SOMEONE’S ELSE IS HERE.”
The players are a bit confused, and rightly so. At this point they still have no idea what’s going on, but there’s no reason to keep you in the dark my friend.
The man in the chair is Declan L’Estrange.
The Asian man interrogating him is Lin Ayuma. He wants something Declan has. but isn't willing to give him, not even for a very considerable sum of money. And that voice, that horrendous presence the players will learn to call Nightmare, is here to make Declan seriously reconsider Ayuma’s offer.
However, as you might know if you've heard of Declan before, dreams are a bit of his specialty. Nightmare is a formidable oppononet (safe to say he hugely underestimated her to begin with), but he managed to drag a few Rifts to his – or rather Nightmare’s – dream with him, hoping their curiosity will lead to his rescue.
Nightmare didn’t plan on that. But now, since they’re here, what other choice does she have than taking them for a spin as well?
[Pavel the MC: The nightmarish voice screaks and the dream deconstructs in front of your very eyes. It seems that Presence is trying to get rid of you but something else is holding you too tight to let go. Once you open your eyes again, you’re in an ancient library with walls made of marble and bookcases twirling hundreds of feet to a ceiling out of your sight. Through bookshelves filled with ancient scrolls and – once again – more bottles and jars you can see the man they call Declan tied to a chair, sitting on top of a pile made of books. The Asian man is standing in front of it, matchbook in his hands.]
“This place holds all the knowledge you possess, Declan,” Nightmare's voice echos through the library. “All your precious wisdom – and your most intimate memories. We originally wanted to threaten you with a loss a close one, but… Well… You don’t have any, do you?” Ayuma, as if commanded to by the Presence, nods and ignites his match. “Now tell us,” Nightmare hisses, “WHERE – IS IT?!”
Players agree on a sneaky, careful approach. After all, they’re still not sure what they’ve just stuck their heads into.
[Pida: *rolls 1&1 on Sneaking Around*]
Okay, so that plan's out of the window.
In the chaos that ensues, Ayuma sets the book-pile (and the entire library) on fire, takes out a gun and obviously starts panicking. Eddie tries to talk him down, but it proves difficult: there is a clear conflict inside this man, for every ounce of intense determination there’s a pound of genuine fear.
Nightmare on the other hand doesn’t seem to be so torn. She promises the Crew to have their worst fears materialized and indeed, soon enough Nathaniel, trying to get the fire under control with his powers, notices the first shadow in the blaze. Desperate and hurt animal roars, silhouettes of beasts engorged in the fire, trashing the bookcases left and right in their crazed stampede…
And Nightmare is only just beginning.
In the end, Nathan a Eddie manage to wake up while Rupert and Freeda remain stuck in a dreamscape more and more engulfed in flames, threatening the entire building down on them…
Until Freeda decides that two can play this game.
[Terka: “It might be dumb but it’s still worth a try. Freeda closes her eyes, clenches her fists and wishes with all her willpower to return to the dream she had before.]
[Pavel: That’s going to be a difficult roll…]
[Terka: *makes that difficult roll*]
[Pavel: Oh! Okay, so… Wait, did you say to the dream Freeda had had before?]
[Terka: Yup.]
[Pavel: The one we talked about before the game?]
[Terka: Yup.]
[Pavel: Well… Right, so, you and Rupert are suddenly flying on a purple winged giraffe soaring through a cotton candy sky with a mighty six-finned turtle in front of you, carrying Ayuma and Declan on the back of its shelf.]
[Terka: That’s the stuff.]
So this is getting weird.
But Nightmare is still not done.
The lucid shenanigans go on for some time – until players realize that there is in one way they can defeat Nightmare in her own game: tire her out. The more horrors she throws at them, the more exhausted she gets. Until finally, with one final push, the scenery disappears one last time and they appear…
[Pavel: …on a hill surrounded by an infinite grassy plain. All the sounds are gone, except for the wind stroking the grass blades. Occasionally a solid piece of rock can be seen among the green, as if a reminiscence of an older, now almost forgotten time. A single, dead tree protrudes from the ground and disappears in the dark clouds above, perhaps keeping them from crashing down on this solemn place.]
[Terka: Wait… So… Who’s dream is that?]
[Tom: *says nothing*]
Nor Nightmare nor Ayuma are anywhere to be found. Just Declan, hands still tied behind his back and faces covered in bruises and burns, but with gratitude in his eyes. But he still has one more favor to ask them: to find him in the real world, in his antique shop in Old Quarter, and stopped Ayuma before it’s too late.
And in a truly dramatic fashion MC decides that the dream dissolves before he can spare any details.
Rupert wakes up alone at his home on the left side of his double bed. Freeda, contrariwise, wakes up sharing a single bed with that grad student from last night, though, wait, it’s still night and it’s still not over.
Nathan and Eddie are already waiting for them at the Echo Newsroom, ready to go.
They find L’Estrange Antiques tucked away in a dead end alley in the middle of the Old Quarter’s labyrinth. They can see it from the street that some goons are searching the place with flashlights, apparently hoarding all the items even remotely reminiscent of a bottle of any kind. The Crew watches through the windows as a red-haired woman descends from upstairs and checks their findings only to widen her eyes in disbelief at an empty bottle of gin. Then she shouts (in a voice now much more human when it's not distorted): “Ayuma! I think this is the one…!
[Kapik: And that’s when Eddie steps inside. “In that case we’d like to take a look at it.”]
Mind controlling the goons barely counts as challenge for this Rift. Seconds later, the red-haired woman, now powerless when out of the dreamscape, is in their clutches and the bottle of gin rests in the Crew’s hands.
That’s when Ayuma jumps down the stairs: the Asian guy from the dream. But he looks nowhere near as cocky as he did there. Now there’s dread in his eyes when he sees them fighting over the gin bottle.
“Please!” he cries out, “wait! I beg you just… Please. Please be careful with that…!” Whatever certainty there was to him in the dream it’s gone. Now there’s nothing left other than sheer dread as he watches Rupert violently jerking the bottle out of woman’s hands.
“Care to explain what this is about?” Nathan steps closer to him, warning him with sparking fire in his hands.
“I will! I’ll just reach in to my pocket…”
“Do it for him, Nathan,” Eddie commands the kid. “Better safe than sorry.”
Nathan swallows his hurt pride – does Eddie seriously think he can boss him around like that? – but obliges never the less. There’s a wallet in the pocket. And in it a young girl’s picture. “Your daughter I presume? I’m sure you’d like to come home alive to her, wouldn’t you?” he looks at Ayuma.
“I can’t,” he whispers. “She’s dead.”
[Pida: Shit…]
You see, my friend, as the Crew is about to find out, what they’re holding isn’t just an ordinary bottle. Quite the contrary. It’s a Relic of Genie in a bottle. Still containing one last wish.
Upstairs they find Declan in his plundered office, every nook and cranny sacked and almost a dozen hidden wall safes around the room opened and emptied. But the only thing Ayuma really wants is what the Crew possesses: a chance to wish for his daughter’s life back.
“Thank you,” Declan L’Estrange says when they take the gag out of his mouth. “It’s good to see you again, back in the real world.”
“What the hell is going on in here?” Freeda wants to know.
“Mr. Ayuma here isn’t wrong,” Declan admits. “There indeed is a genie in that bottle, or at the very least, the bottle seems to be convinced of it. And I should tell you… there aren’t many items more dangerous in this shop than this one.”
“And these two are here to steal it from you?”
“Obviously. … After I refused to sell it to them,” Declan responds, staring daggers at Ayuma.
“Why would you refuse?” Eddie asks.
“Because some items are too powerful to waste, even for a good cause. And some are too volatile to be given to irresponsible strangers with whose intentions one cannot be certain,” Declan responds calmly. “Mr. Ayuma checks both of these boxes.”
Said Mr. Ayuma looks to be on the edge. “You selfish, arrogant asshole…!”
L’Estrange doesn’t pay him too much attention. “Would you please untie me now?” he asks the Crew. “My best years are behind me and this position is definitely not good for my back…”
The Crew looks at his gun belt holding two long revolvers, hanging from a nearby shelf. “Maybe you should keep sitting for a little more.”
Now my friend, I expected this to be a dilemma for them.
I didn’t expect it to almost break the Crew up on their first case.
A fiery discussion got ignited about the fate of the Genie until Rupert – in a very uncharacteristic fit of rage – decided to smash it against the ground. Freeda managed to stop him in the nick of time.
“What the hell are you doing?!” she screams at him, trying to get the bottle out of his hands.
“Nothing good can come out of this! Messing with these powers and digging up the past…” Rupert’s eyes, usually so calm and friendly, are now full of honest terror. “We have to destroy it. There’s no other way.”
“Don’t be crazy!” Declan protests. “Look, I understand you’re new to this. And I’m still grateful for your rescue, but you need to understand, there are forces at play in this City far beyond your scope of recognition. And that very bottle might one day be all that stands between them and your souls. Now stop bickering and untie me for god’s sake!
“Not happening,” Eddie silences him, “but also, Rupert, calm the hell down! We need to talk this through!”
“There’s nothing to talk about! This is wrong Eddie, we can’t alow this…!”
“Well what if L’Estrange is right? What if he’s the only one actually capable of protecting this thing?”
“Yeah? And what would make him better than anyone else? How could you know that he’s not gonna go rogue with this power in his grasp?”
“Alright, that’s it!” Eddie shouts. “Nathan, get that bottle from him!”
And Nathan does, but definitely not because Eddie tells him. He might be in Echo on probation, but he’s sick and tired of Eddie treating him like a hired help. As if these late night shifts counted towards his sentence anyway. As if he couldn’t care about this stupid sinkhole of a District on his own.
He lunges at Eddie to wrestle the bottle from his hands.
And we have our first PC vs. PC roll.
[Tom: I’ll call the rats. Let them bite him where Rupert knows he’s got the brun marks from V is For Going Viral.]
[Pida: Oh that’s how we’re playing? Fine. Nathan’s gonna take out his dragon claws.]
The roll goes to Pida by 1.
Nathan unleashes his claws. Rupert gets the stitches.
“Good,” Eddie extends his hand, “give it to me…”
“SHUT UP!” Nathan lashes out. “STOP ORDERING ME AROUND LIKE YOUR LACKEY!”
“For God’s sake, give it here then!” Freeda exclaims. “I’ll just wish for this to never happen and us to forget this whole thing…”
“And sentence my daughter to death by it?” Ayuma sighs in disbelief.
“She’d be sentencing the whole City to something much worse,” Declan mutters.
The whole arguments takes almost two hours of playtime.
And the more you think of it, the more sense it makes.
Eddie wants to do what’s right but of course he’ll be thinking of the back door.
Nathan is tempted just the same. But unlike Eddie, he’ll later remark that they should have given it to Ayuma. That he was the only one who actually deserved it.
Of course, Freeda will just try to erase and forget this whole thing altogether. Just like she does with all of her problems as they come.
And of course, Rupert has to destroy it. Because as long as this thing exists he’ll be tempted to do the same with it as what Ayuma intends to.
And around 2 A.M. of real time it’s apparent that compromise is not an option.
[Terka: Okay. This is it. Freeda’s gonna stop. holding. back.]
Oh. Our first stop. holding. back. In the first episode.
[Tom: Then Rupert too.]
Our first competetive stop. holding. back. EVER. In the first – bloody – episode.
[Tom: *rolls*]
[Terka: *rolls*]
[Pavel: *sighs*]
In a split second all the water pipes in the building burst. Water sprays the room and immediately turns into a thick mist. Nightmare and Ayuma make a run for the door. L’Estrange swings back, breaks the chair and gets up to get his guns. But Freeda is the fastest of all of them. She grabs the bottle from surprised Nathan’s hands and runs downstairs and into a street, ready to open the bottle and make this horrible night go away at once.
But then Rupert whistles.
And Freeda sees a tidal wave of rats rushing towards her down the cobbled street. They sweep her to the ground, biting and clawing ferociously, and she screams in agony, gaining thousands of tiny cuts all over her limbs, torso and face in mere seconds.
The bottle slips out of her hands and shatters.
When the mist finally clears and rats disappear back into the sewers, the first one to stumble out of the shop is Ayuma. He falls to his knees next to Freeda and the broken bottle shards and a long, hurt howl escapes his lungs. Nightmare runs past him, apparently not sharing his sentiment, but as the Crew maybe already suspects, it’s not the last they’ve seen of her.
Perhaps in another dream.
And when L’Estrange shows up, Ayuma finally gets up too and disappears in the dark.
The old antique dealer watches the pile of broken glass for a second. Then he adjusts his gun holsters and looks over his shoulder to the Crew.
“Do you even realize what stupidity you have just committed?” he scolds them, raising his voice for the first time. “Leave. Now. Before I lose my calm.”
The Crew is wise enough to follow Ayuma’s example.
Nobody says a word to anyone.
Back in real world, it’s already half past two in the morning. Players are exhausted. It might be best to go the bed and pick it up tomorrow. Maybe start with a little conversation scene to let the characters talk these events over before they can go on as a cohesive unit. After that talk, their Crew Theme is thoroughly reworked. Their new Identity reads: “We must never ever fight against each other again.”
How tragically telling for a prelude to Nights of Payne Town’s Personal vein.
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