Changeling Meet Kult

There's a really good post on Kult RPG forums about how Changeling and Kult share a lot of essential principles.  As a big fan of Silent Hill, this was a bit of a *click* moment for me.  Any chance to inject more horror into my dark fantasy really gets my inspirational juices moving.  It also works out because my players all have a lot of experience with the World of Darkness and can generally guess what they're facing and what powers are being used against them.  This is sometimes fine.

After all, horror works best when it contrasts against familiarity and my players generally play monster races (vampires, changelings, demons) so creating a new level of the familiar world of monsters and men and then contrasting it with a far more alien sense of place and creature is quite cool.  Especially when you're running Mage.  Anything that makes them scratch their heads and re-contemplate their place in the world works out.

In truth, I think that's one of the reasons why I liked the old World of Darkness because each monster type had it's own world - a jigsaw puzzle, as it were - and the pieces of their puzzle rarely matched up with anyone else's.  This led to a world of confusion for the players and meant that no one could be quite sure how reality worked.  Sure, you might be a Mage ... but I might be borrowing more heavily from the Demon variant of the world or the Werewolf one.  By choosing a different paradigm from within the same setting, I could even change what made a Mage a Mage.  Since all of the creatures were said to share a world, there was a lot of acceptance for a more fluid and nebulous existence where some of the angles didn't quite align.

New World of Darkness still incorporates a little of this but has largely incorporated all of the worlds into one big jigsaw puzzle.  The only species which really sits apart from that are the Changelings as the Hedge and Arcadia don't truly fit into the other paradigms as neatly as, say, the astral plain and the hisil.  Other than the accepted histories of the world as believed by werewolves versus mages, mostly it all matches up.

The fact that Changeling plays with the existing paradigms means you have greater flexibility with how you incorporate it into the rest of the world.  What are the Fae?  They could be anything.  What is the Hedge?  Generally naturalistic due to the influence of Celtic mythology but it doesn't *need* to be.  The Hedge for a city really could be Metropolis.  In fact, as it's a game of beautiful madness you could shift the paradigm many times to ensure your changelings stay on uncertain terms.

I guess what has always bothered me about running changelings is that the game feels like it should resist the full comprehension of players.  It should resist the ability for players to go: "Oh, that is this and this is something else.  I've read about it."

Now, of course, the writers *have* built that into the books but every time they describe it they need an element of consistency or readers will complain and on the many points that they do introduce setting inconsistency or alternate levels, the players can read it too and therefore be prepared for it.

In other words, the *click* moment was that by borrowing some of the mythos of other settings I feel I can actually do a better job at evoking that mysterious feeling that I believe should be at the core of Changeling.  Does the mythos have to be Kult?  No.  Kult is just a mythos that I can certainly play quite well.

In truth, it could be anything.

And that's sorta the point.

Dystopic Special Equipment

At the start of the campaign I gave my players the opportunity to decide on three concepts for special equipment for their characters.  I then put together the rules to make their hopes and dreams a reality.  I thought you might be interested.  These rules are for the new World of Darkness.

Leningrad

Sheathed Blades

+2 Lethal Damage.

These spring-mounted blades are hidden in sub-dermal sheaths at the wrist, elbow, and below the knee that are specially designed to protect the wearers.  Their bio-mechanical design ensures that they will function even in an EMP field as they do not require electronics and respond instead to tendon action against the augmentation.

Mechanical Cloak

This augmentation provides a +5 bonus to Stealth against non-video mechanical surveillance (metal detectors, infra red or ultra-violet detection).  This field has been specially calculated to defend the target against identification and will not extend to cover anything beyond four inches from the body.

The Mask

This mask provides 30x binocular vision and can be connected to various open grids to allow information to be downloaded and overlaid across the visual field by those who know the correct IP.  It also includes an encoded verbal transmitter and receiver with a maximum range of 500 feet in a short-wave radio format or anywhere within mobile phone range in the satellite format.

Tokyo

Neural-Wireless Interface Prototype Mark I

This is the basic design which allows the user to access computers over Wi-Fi or other networks using the mind alone.  It also allows information access but this requires a penalty to other senses that are currently in use by the interface (visual and/or audio).  This penalty can range from -1 to absolute.  Trained Observer does mitigate this penalty.

Neural-Wireless Wave Design Prototype

This upgrade allows the user to access hard-linked devices such as Intranets that are not normally accessible without a keyboard at an appropriate access point.  This might involve hand scanners, video cameras, or other security devices that lack a keyboard.  The user places their hand against the device and seeker wires erupt to locate and interface with the device to operate it manually using the Neural-Wireless Interface.

Bee Tip Augmentation

These sharp devices extrude from specially designed finger pads inserted in the finger tips.  One set of the devices are electrodes that allow the individual to administer a tazer on a touch attack.  The other set of devices can absorb poisons or sedatives that can be administered through shallow skin punctures (poisons that require a vein will not work with this design).  These devices are not metal and therefore not subject to metal detection.  These devices are administered with a successful Brawl roll.

  

London

Dragon Armour

1/3

This body suit uses a fluid design held between two layers of ballistic material that will harden upon impact from a high velocity object and then ripple away much of the force.  While this has a much reduced value against sharp objects and a slightly lower armour value versus subsonic ammunition (2), it isn’t detectable from metal detectors, protects the body except for the face and often the hands from toxins (+2 bonus unless face is specifically target), protects against fire (-1 to damage for first three rounds) and provides slight protection against radiation (+1 bonus).

‘Whisperfox’ SMG

+4L damage

30 foot range

40 bullet clip

Rate: 4

This smart weapon emits a sound that counters the noise that comes from this compact SMG to ensure that it is utterly and eerily silent.  However, there is still a significant muzzle flash that can be spotted by those who are looking in its direction.  It uses 4.6x30mm rounds and is otherwise identical to the H&K MP7 Gas Operated Submachine Gun.

Spirit Ammunition

These specially designed bullets are etched with mystical symbols and use an alchemical gunpowder derivative which allows the bullets to strike spirits and other immaterial beings that are capable of being injured in the astral plane.  These bullets don't injure material creatures and therefore can be sprayed with abandon or shot at a victim of possession.

Nomad 6

HK (HunterKiller) Bow

L damage

foot range

With its targeting scope, this bow can be aimed like a sniper rifle and allows for the use of the sniping skill at reasonably close range (100ft).  It’s also made of sturdier stuff and is fireproof.  The cord itself has Durability 5 while the bow has Durability 6 which makes it sturdy enough to be used as a melee weapon.  The sharp point on the top end can also be used as a +1 blade.  The HK company are keeping their lips sealed about the materials used in the item’s construction.

Chessner Dropship (Iraqi)

+3 Handling	Acceleration 19	Safe Speed: 257km/hour	Top Speed: 1200km/hour
2+8 People	Durability 6	Size 22	Structure 28

Power tanks are partially regenerating which is due to the use of applied phlebtonium (pseudo-science) which ensures that the fuel is actually radioactive and produces a cold heat that nevertheless causes the drop ship to have all of the manoeuvrability of a helicopter.  The energy pads are beneath the wings which can be rotated and uses as a weapon at very short range (5 feet).  The engines can travel 2500km at normal speed before requiring a 24 hour recharge.  If jet speeds are employed it can travel 700km before requiring a 24 hour recharge.  After 200,000km the fuel cells must be replaced.  

HK (HunterKiller) Ammunition

The HK bow is capable of firing a number of ammunition fair and true although some of them have limited range due to their weight and size.  He can have 12 arrows of odd shapes or up to 20 regularly shaped arrows (screamers and regular arrows).  Current choices of ammunition include:

·         Grappling Hook (+1B damage, 120ft range)

·         Flares (As Flare Gun, 30ft range)

·         Screamer (as regular ammunition but intimidating)

·         Sonic Blast (6 dice to deafen versus their Stamina + Composure)

·         Smoke (As Smoke Grenade, 30ft range, half radius)

·         Tear Gas (As Tear Gas Grenade, 30ft range, half radius)

·         Grenade (As Grenade, 30ft range, half radius and damage)

Miami

Investigator Glasses

These fashionable glasses can switch between Ultra Violet mode (all the better to notice blood sprayed with luminal), Infra Red mode, x3 zoom function, and can take snapshot recordings if a button beside the right spectacle.  These snapshots can be played back over the goggles or downloaded to a computer.  It can also make three short high quality video recordings of up to 1 minute OR three low quality video recordings of up to 10 minutes OR about an hour worth of audio recordings.  They can double as sunglasses in bright light although they aren’t capable of coping with a flashbang or any violent sudden or bright light.

MFK-206

This Mobile Forensics Kit is a stunning piece of electronic technology which is capable of detecting all sorts of compounds.  If you put a piece of carpet in there, it can analyse it for fibre matches or tell you if there were any accelerants found in there.  It can analyse blood types, run DNA or fingerprint matches if given two samples, and detect toxins in meat.  It can also be used to analyse fluids or crumbled solids and give a read out on all of the terrestrial material compounds found within.  It basically acts as a fully functional CSI lab and, though it still requires all the necessary rolls, it gets results in a cinematic amount of time (rounds or minutes) rather than a realistic amount of time (hours, days, or weeks).

Ghost Glass

This device is an old magnifying glass that is about four inches wide and set in an etched brass frame.  The magnifying glass has turned opaque over the years and sometimes it refracts the light into rainbows and other streaks of colour when in the presence of spirits, ghosts, and other unearthly or transient entities within the astral plane.  It is also said to be of use in detecting subtle possessions, elf gates, and whether someone is currently being plagued by a dream entity.  While it won't always give definitive answers, even with a successful occult roll, it always provides hints and tips that can help the players move forward.

Game Translation: Left 4 Dead

To be honest I've only played the sequel but as the gameplay is pretty solid and similar from what I've seen and read I think I can be confident in capturing the basic elements of this type of game.  In the videogame you play one of four random misfits who are caught in the middle of the outbreak and must shoot their way out of it through four levels of zombies.  Luckily, this is pretty easy to translate but it's still important to check a few things about your game system and make adjustments if necessary.

For starters, this wouldn't make for a great campaign unless your players are happy to swap out characters willy nilly because if you did more than four adventures (or levels), it's unlikely that any of the beginning characters will survive to the end.  Heck, even with four adventures this is unlikely.  Ensure that they can bring in new characters at the safe house that marks the end of each adventure.

The easiest way to think of this game design is an urban dungeon crawl with lots of zombies where certain traps (car alarms and other noisy occurrences) will cause a horde of zombies to rush forth.  Create a street map with a few building maps to keep on hand and have a think about which doorways to board up, which cars to alarm, and where to place ammunition, health packs and safe houses.

Car alarms will be a tricky one.  Some games have the option to hit the person or object behind the target if you miss the target by a certain amount.  In other games you'd only hit the car if the zombie were accidentally using it as cover and were partially concealed behind it and you either missed them or tried to shoot through the car.  If you're using a miniature map (which may prove problematic due to the size of streets as opposed to the size of your average dungeon room for which they are intended) you can at least reveal there's a car behind them that *might* be alarmed.  Otherwise you'll have to describe it as being there and give the players a choice.

If you want a desperate scrabble for ammunition, sprinkle it around and develop ammunition item cards where the players can erase bullets as they go - either by adding them to their revolvers or once the clip itself is spent.  This isn't too much minutiae *if* you create an easy system with erasers.  Otherwise, it probably will be and might also damage the character sheet if you're using that sheet to rub things off.

I'd recommend introducing health packs although very few roleplaying games use them (unless you count healing potions in D&D and Pathfinder).  The player characters will be taking a lot of damage and it's important to give them something that will allow for quick and easy healing.  Simply dropping Cure Light Wounds potions that look like first aid kits into your game would work a treat.  Make it take a round to use on yourself or someone who has been downed.  If you want to be true to the game, allow player characters who have been dropped to the floor a few rounds to be saved by a health pack before dying.

For those who don't know, a Cure Light Wounds potion heals 1D8 hit points.  You could have something similar to heal World of Darkness health levels, Call of Cthulhu hit points, or any other game's health meter.

Oh, and it's probably also a good idea to let your player characters get more hit points than usual as they'll be in a lot of combats.  If you tried this game with regular World of Darkness you'll get frustrated by players that become obsessed with stealth and hiding.  When you try to flush them out with hordes they would then get frustrated as well since they have no hope of surviving.  You want a nice balance where they should be able to take on several zombies and a special zombie in a single encounter without dying for good.  If this means giving them more health levels, perhaps double or triple, then that's fine.

Some people have dogs.  I have Special Infected.

In truth, you could probably get away with the basic zombies dealing a set amount of damage in each successful hit.  This allows you to control the scene a bit better and reduces your amount of math.  You'd then only need to roll to hit.  If this amount of damage is about the average of what the players expect and you're up front about doing it and your reasons why you shouldn't have much of a problem.  Considering the sheer amount of combat your players will be facing, they'll probably be quite happy to reduce the amount of zombie dice rolls or the need for you to sit and count up the dice.

These are also not your usual shamblers.  They're faster than most and some of them are *really* fast.  They can run, jump, climb, and break in through windows.  The only place they won't break into (or surround) are specially designed safe houses that were meant to protect people from the zombie plague.  Some of these zombies have special powers - they puke on you which attracts zombies, they have long tongues that can entangle you and drag you towards them, or they can charge like bulls and knock you down.

Oh, and one other thing.  The player characters need to be immune to this disease.  If not, they will likely be infected within the first encounter.  Yeah, this game has that much combat in it and any roleplaying game that tried to use the same framework needs to have the same.

A campaign based around Left For Dead, or including elements of it, should appeal to Tacticians due to a need to stay on top of changing situations and ensure that all of the characters are fully employed in staying together and helping each other out.  Action Heroes will enjoy all the zombie killing, running away, and the need to cope with such changing circumstances.

Explorers will enjoy the opportunities to take a sneak peek into a number of real world locations so try to be a bit imaginative and perhaps do a bit of research into the sort of settings you use - such as IKEA.  Try to get your hands on a map, at the very least.  These players might not be so keen on the restrictions placed on Exploration, though.  After all, the risk of another zombie horde attacking discourages poking about in drawers or spare rooms.

Investigators won't have much to do here.  If they're a big fan of zombies they might be okay for the short-term but will likely get frustrated since all of the running and hiding in safe houses doesn't really give them the opportunity to hunt for clues and exercise their mind getting to the bottom of something.  If they tilt towards being one of the Tacticians or Action Heroes on a secondary level than they might be all right.  Otherwise I'd recommend more of a Dead Island game.

Communicators will need to get their kicks from safe houses so try to introduce the odd NPC - perhaps over radio - so that they don't feel stifled by a complete lack of social interaction.  You could even introduce the politics of safe houses if you were willing to throw in some elements of Dead Island as the various survivors compete for resources - namely your assistance.  Certainly give them a breather in the safe houses to talk amongst themselves which will be popular amongst all of the roleplayers and dramatists anyway.

If you want to check out the trailer, you can find it here. There's also some TV Tropes that you can take a look at over here.

For the next Game Translation, you have a choice of these: Left for Dead, Project Zero, Gears of War, Dracula: Origins, Realms of the Haunting, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Dishonored, The Dig, Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life, or Cold Fear. If no one picks anything by next week, it'll be either Dishonored or Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life.

If you want to see the list of games I've done thus far, you can find the Game Translation series starter over here.

Insylum Summary

In Insylum, you play an amnesiac in a psychiatric institution.  I'm using the Brookhaven Hospital map from Silent Hill (see here and over here) which has two copies of the 2F - one for men and one for women.  It's the 2F which is where James spends all of his time.  Anyway, in Insylum you have three coloured tokens that you play with rather than dice.  As this is also a vampire game, I added a fourth colour and adapted the rules a little.  I used poker chips for all of these.

• Blue - Fatigue.  You bet these against the Storyteller's bet to accomplish physical or social tasks by betting them.  I also sometimes allow them to be spent to accomplish mental tasks - such as dredge up an old fact dimly remembered about biology.  You earn these through fulfilling your Vice / Virtue, completing a goal, having an enjoyable time, or otherwise getting to know yourself.
• White - Lucidity.  You can spend these to disbelieve an illusion.  If it's real, you don't lose the chip.  It costs 5 Fatigue chips to earn a Lucidity chip.
• Black - Memory.  You can spend these to check if you have a Memory related to your current circumstances.  If so, you can lock in a skill and have access to using dice rather than relying on Fatigue bets to get these done.  This allows you to save up more Fatigue and quicker.
• Red - Blood.  One of these can be spent with a Fatigue point to represent the fortitude of the Beast - such as in the typical blood buff of physical tasks.  This refreshes whenever he's fed but goes down by one whenever he awakens.

Now for the Dramatic Personae.  It's always tricky trying to create characters with schizophrenia in a manner that doesn't downplay the difficulties of their experiences nor which paints them all in the same brush and ignores their personality.  These characters are mostly high functioning with positive rather than negative symptoms.  As these are summaries they focus on their schizophrenic symptoms but during the roleplay I make a point to ensure that a number of them can, and do, have regular conversations that don't revolve around their symptoms.

The male patients:

• James P.  Amnesiac Daeva who is told that he is hallucinating his blurred reflection and fangs (when they descend) and is deluded by thoughts of vampirism since he has no hunger for real food and therefore is fed a warm meat slushy every night that he reinterprets into blood.  He has had his moments of violence and has assaulted Hester (who locked herself into the bathroom), the chief orderly Sunderland, and tried to bite Dr. K.  He remembers none of this.  He has allegedly only been here two weeks.
• Ron.  This man has a low IQ of 65 which makes it difficult for him to understand exactly what's going on sometimes, especially as he has two voices constantly arguing with each other in his head and undermining his confidence.  He can be a bit vulgar because he doesn't have the same boundaries that most people have.  He really loves birds and makes a lot of clay birds.
• Cliff.  An American tank soldier whose suffered severe PTSD ever since a plane crashed into the side of his tank.  Luck led to the side popping and him escaping unharmed while the rest of his crew burned to death or were crushed by the initial impact.  His flashbacks are severe enough to be considered temporary delusions (as he feels he's there) and hallucinations due to what he sees.  In short, he's been misdiagnosed.  He's great at clay work, keeping other people calm, and is a generally stand up guy with a whole lot of patience.
• Paul.  Italian.  He doesn't understand English very well but tries to get on with the others.  He's normally treated as window dressing.
• Edgar.  Paranoid schizophrenic but the meds seem to be working pretty well with him as, while he maintains his delusions of the robot sentries and false neighbours reporting back to the Nazi-run American government, he manages to cope in social situations pretty well even though he's pretty suspicious of other people's motives.  Able to find the humor in every situation - including his own - he sometimes plays up his delusions just to make the orderlies worry before getting bored and going back to his usual behaviours.  He's a good painter.
• Harley.  Schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur who believes that he's the chosen of God and that the apocalypse is happening in the outside world but this institution is safe because he's here.  He's very religious and the other patients tend to simply nod and smile and then get back to whatever they were doing.  He spends the most time with Edgar (who puts up with him the most).

The female patients:

• Hester.  She takes pride in being considered a 'violent schizophrenic' and bears some of the hallmarks of being a hunter as she dealt with weird 'shadow things' that would come over things by attacking them.  She stopped and put herself into the hospital when she almost killed her mother and has since decided that the 'shadow things' can ride people but can't puppet them.  She believes that every night the 'shadow things' come for her because she did an urban legend in the mirror.  Strong, calm, capable but thought to be suicidally depressed due to attempted suicides that she says were actually attacks by the 'people in the mirror' which left a knife by her side.
• Nora.  Catatonic schizophrenic.  She's quite pliable and will walk where led and sit if pressure is applied gently to her shoulders.  She's in her mid-sixties.
• Molly.  Thinks she's a Mafia Moll to Al Capone and has a telephone to him in her bedroom.  Otherwise a bit of a wild and flirty young woman who indulges her passions whenever she gets the chance.  She was committed because she retreated into her fantasies to the extent that she didn't notice the hovel she lived in or the fact that her mother had died.
• Annette.  A really good pianist who doesn't respond much and has been therefore treated as the good listener of the group though she lacks the desire to form relationships and so others have to constantly take the first steps.  She does enjoy listening to people, though, and has sort of been adopted by Hester.
• Elizabeth.  She hasn't been interacted with yet.
• Rita.  She hasn't been interacted with yet.

The staff:

• Sunderland.  Orderly.  Often has to deal with James' boredom and frustrated playfulness.  Is generally not impressed but tries to be nice to the patients.
• Dr. Kelly.  Psychiatrist.  A calm, gentle yet still quite business-like woman who gives each patient an hour of her time and leads group therapy.
• Nurse Rachel.  She gives the patients their drugs each morning but isn't really noticed until James has a 'dream' about her.  She became a nurse to make a difference.

The visitors:

• Sister Michael.  A nun who comes to visit James on occasion.

The Sessions

• Day One.
• Levels of Craziness Summaries.

Dystopic: Capturing Meissan

Leningrad's player wasn't there but I couldn't think of a good reason for him not to be there (but also couldn't be bothered running him) and so we kind of just pretended he didn't exist for that session.  You know how it is sometimes.  I've got a few weeks (probably around a month) until the next game so we've got time to come up with an excuse later.

The team regrouped at Bio-Connects HQ and Nomad 6 and Tokyo were both briefed on the situation.  Their plan was for London to approach Meissan as someone who'd partially cleaned up her mess and who wanted to be paid a lot for it.  He was to lure Meissan up onto the roof.

There was also an argument about whether London's phone should be destroyed to get rid of CASEI.  In the end, London used it to find out if Meissan were a British agent and if she'd been given a mission to kill off a Cheiron agent who'd been making partnership arrangements with Bio-Connects.  He found out that she'd been declared a rogue agent and redlisted (kill or capture call out) for the past seven months.  No such mission had been declared by British Intelligence either.

They decided to head to the breakfast bar (which was part of a Super-Mall with apartments up top, businesses in the lower middle, shops and eateries in the lower floors and a subway station in the lowest floor) and Nomad 6 got permission to land on the ceiling airship-park.  Reaching the location, Nomad 6 paid for the spot with a chit-card (like a Woolworths card with a certain amount of cash on it only it is recognised everywhere yet totally anonymous unlike a credit card).  He paid at the start rather than the end so he had to pay a larger amount to cover a day and a night in case they stayed that long.  The security guard could keep the unnecessary extra so it was also a bit of a bribe.

They found a spot surrounded on two sides by the rooftop walls and on one and a half sides by a tall set of air conditioning duct / machines and a cooling tower.  Nomad 6 climbed onto the cooling tower and got into position with his bow.  Tokyo was handcuffed and had a sack over her head and had to kneel with Miami pointing a gun at the side of her head.

London went down sixty eight floors in a great big elevator which had mirrored walls and couches ringing it.  Once he was on the right floor, he came out and found a very blue cafe worked by attractive women in pleated skirts.  He spotted the only white woman in the cafe who had a packet of e-cigarettes by one hand as she held a PDA with the other.  She had curly dark hair and wire-framed glasses.

London approached and she made him right away, asking him to sit, which he did.  They had a short conversation where London outlined the plan and offered her Tokyo.  When she demanded to know if anyone else were with him he boldly explained that there were two others AND Nancy Kurosawa (Tokyo).  She was both an arrogant and suspicious person and the two elements of her personality warred for a minute.  London rolled low on his Persuasion (one dice) and she rolled low on her Subterfuge (two dice) but she won by enough to tell that there was more to this than met the eye.   She finally accepted his offer but had no intention of going to the roof with him.

As she headed into the elevator behind him, he sensed that something was about to go down and accurately read in her body language that she wasn't planning on going with him to the roof.  So he backed up to the end of the elevator, giving her a moment to hit the button.  There was also a couple kissing in the elevator but there wasn't anything to do with them at this stage.

Meissan placed an e-cigarette in her mouth and London shot her instinctively with his silenced SMG (gun has a noise emitter that makes a sound that cancels out the gunshot) before she managed to shoot him.  He winged her and her shot buried itself in his special dragon skin armour (jelly-like substance between two layers of fabric that hardens on ballistic impact like a kevlar plate).  It wasn't a regular shot but a high-velocity thick dart intended to pump poison into him.  Since the one point of damage downgraded to bashing I figured that the dart hadn't penetrated the armor and so he didn't have to worry about that.  She then stepped out past the elevator doors so that he couldn't see her.

Nomad 6 got a call from CASEI (the program on London's phone) and when he responded he could hear gunshots.  The call then disconnected and GPS turned on to show London's location.  He hopped down from the water tower and Miami took the hood off Tokyo's head.  As they raced for the elevator, Tokyo hacked the systems and turned on the fire alarm (but not the sprinklers as they only go off if a certain amount of smoke is detected due to the risk of damaging merchandise).

London ran out of the elevator and fired another burst into her and this did a hefty amount of damage.  At that, Meissan turned tail and ran for the subway stairs, moving with surprising speed in an almost halting and supernatural manner.  She was soon lost in the crowd called by the fire alarms.  Still Tokyo managed to spot her through the cameras and London, who followed her onto the subway platform, also spotted her.  Miami used Patterns and could tell that Meissan wouldn't get onto the currently parked subway train in the next few days.

When Tokyo, Miami and Nomad 6 were in the elevator, Nomad 6 spent some Faith to quickly cause the elevator to descend faster than normal by stringing Point A and Point B together so that they were almost touching.  Ahh, the joys of bending reality.  They got down to the ground floor in time for London to have snuck around behind Meissan (who was gazing around with segmented golden eyes looking for him) and press his gun against her back.  She stiffened and he led her into the elevators.  They were silent on the way up.

Seeing the guns, the security guard who'd come out of his box to help usher people to their vessels simply stepped back into his box and locked the door.  The team hurried out to their dropship and got in.  Nomad 6 flew away.

London used Voice of Heaven and said: "Tell me who you were working for and why you did this."

Despite some difficulty getting the lore to work (he had to subtract her Resolve from his roll), his power won and she responded: "Cheiron Group wanted to take out Bio-Connects infiltrator asset to undermine Kurosawa and leave the company vulnerable to further attack due to the military contracts they recently won with the Japanese Military."  The lore wore off and she fell silent.

Nomad 6 put the dropship on autopilot and checked Meissan's wounds and saw that they'd healed to merely deep scabs.  She also looked a fair bit more gaunt than when London had first met her.  They flew the dropship to Bio-Connects and part of the way there Meissan started drooling a thick drool that indicated dehydration and she was all the more gaunt.  She passed out and Nomad 6 put the call out for a hydration team to be waiting up there.

When they landed, Kurosawa and a team of medical experts were waiting.  The experts rushed off with her and most of the team (who wanted to keep an eye on her).  Kurosawa and his daughter returned to his office.  Tokyo told him everything (leaving out the demonic details) and Kurosawa determined to keep Meissan with her bizzare augmentations for further study rather than relinquishing her over to British intelligence.  He didn't mind so much what happened to Muoi Kai so long as they learned from her what they could.

London, Miami and Nomad 6 went to speak to Muoi Kai as Tokyo went to get showered and dressed for her party but the doctor wouldn't let them in without Nancy or her father's presence.  So they called down Tokyo and were finally let in.

Muoi Kai had had her limbs disconnected and put on a table to one side.  Her forehead and torso were strapped to the metal table.  The team instantly felt sorry for her as all evidence suggested that she thought she were simply in the fight against Cheiron and had been hoodwinked.

London led with a very official revelation that Muoi's boss was working for Cheiron Group, had been redlisted by the British government, that a team were coming for her and that she'd better tell what she knew.  Muoi became anxious about that and didn't say anything which led London to apply a bit more verbal pressure.

Tokyo swept in as the good cop and defended Muoi Kai as a hoodwinked poor woman.  Muoi quickly responded to Tokyo's good cop routine so Tokyo convinced London to go 'get a coffee' and leave them for five minutes.  It was amazing how well the Good Cop / Stern Cop routine worked out.  I was roleplaying Muoi and despite the fact that it was a bit transparent I could 'feel' the NPC warming up to the possibility of having someone on her side - especially as it was the woman she had almost helped kill for no good reason.  Tokyo even got Muoi's word that she wouldn't attack them and had her limb augmentations put back onto her.  A process that took five minutes per limb.

Muoi then explained that:

• She'd met many of Meissan's friends tangentially but Meissan tried to keep her various assets apart.
• Muoi had been considered Meissan's military asset.
• Muoi is irritated by the whole secret agency business as she had no way of knowing that her old handler had gone rogue and would prefer to get out.
• Muoi met a man with an accent nearly identical to Miami's (hispanic American from Florida) but while she'd seen his face she'd never gotten his name.
• Meissan was interested in footage of blurred individuals (thought to be ghosts in Japan) and had Muoi watched CCTV footage for them.
• Meissan was allied with a team of four individuals who also had a paramilitary feel who would be alerted when such footage was found.
• Meissan and Muoi knew several politicians who were influenced by Cheiron but allegedly the British government refused to allow them to touch such individuals.  Muoi can give their names.
• Meissan had told Muoi that the Le Reve woman was a Cheiron agent visiting Tokyo as this was the only place she could receive new orders.

Tokyo promised Muoi that she could go home but that she needed to hide out.

Tokyo then went to see Koji Yukichi and demanded the service of him and his mother to make up for the death of her pilot and the near death of herself.  He was to go out amongst the underclasses and sow hope within them.  He was happy to swear his life to her - doubly so when she revealed her true angelic form. Tokyo gave Koji extra Presence, a little extra Persuasion, and the Inspiring merit with two of his own Faith, keeping one for herself.  At that stage he became worshipful of her and opened doors for her and even tried to convince his mother of her true splendor but his mother remained suspicious (even after seeing Tokyo's true form) so Tokyo said she'd give her time and asked Koji to keep working on his mother.

London was told by British Intelligence that Kurosawa wasn't cooperating and so he went to see him personally.  Kurosawa explained that he wasn't going to release Meissan as he had no reason to believe that British Intelligence would tell him anything they learned and it was his company that Meissan had been attacking.  He needed to learn what he could and he could only rely on his people to do it.  He gave a time frame of six months before releasing Meissan.  London did manage to get Muoi from him, however, and she was given to the four British Intelligence agents who took her away with them.

Where's this week's posts go?

I imagine that the above question has run through my regular reader's minds.  Well, in short: I'm knackered after finishing a couple projects at work and therefore haven't put all my usual brilliant (ahem!) words to paper ... err, keyboard.  Don't worry.  We'll be back to your regular programming soon enough.

While we await the return of my gumption, drive and ability to blather on about whichever topic I'm passionate about at the time, how about we think about the next year?

What sort of elements of this blog have you been enjoying?  What would you prefer to see more of?

For example, say you like the Actual Plays but would enjoy them more if they had more quotes in them.  Or perhaps you'd like it more geared toward being able to run it yourself?

How about the Game Translations?  Which ones are your fave and why?  Are you enjoying them?  Would you like them better if....?

We all have different opinions, of course, but I can't know which sorts of articles you like unless you tell me. I might even cease or cut back on certain articles that may even be your favourite because I don't know any better.  So head on down to the Comments section and let me know your thoughts even if it's just: "Usual business is fine.  More please."

Dystopic: Muoi's Apartment

Nomad 6 and Tokyo headed back to the Bio-Connects HQ so that Tokyo can go over various entries on their security systems to ensure they haven't been hacked. In short, those two players weren't present. The other three progressed to Muoi Kai's apartment after knocking out their captive with another tazed blast. Muoi was on the third floor of a skyscaper, much of the first floor taken up with shops, and they checked out the laneway first to see if there was a back entrance. They found a garage roller door on the ground floor and a rappelling clamp embedded in the wall beside one of the third floor windows.

Tokyo projected a series of frequencies through Leningrad's phone and the garage door eventually responded and rumbled up, revealing a typical garage with a calender and a coaster from a collector's set from the Honeyluxe Club, a Mini Morris with an Away bag in the back seat containing clothing, two motorcycles, some garage tools, and a drawer in the table which has a Union Jack painted roughly on the underside. They didn't discover the Union Jack or the coaster at this time and found it later on when they did a full search. Leningrad removed the clamp and clung to the brickwork by the darkened window - he couldn't see through it.  Unbeknownst to him, however, it allowed the occupant to see out though he couldn't see in.

Miami and London went to buzz on the door, with Miami using Japanese to claim to be checking the airconditioning in all of the apartments. Muoi's voice asked them to wait a minute while she got dressed as she was fresh from the shower. They gave it a minute before London tried to kick down the door, and failed, and Miami popped it open with Lore of Portals.

Muoi stood at the other end of the apartment in front of the window with her gear attached to an internal clamp and a submachinegun in her augmented hands, two large revolvers on her hips, wearing loose slacks and a singlet. London got off a shot first, and took partial cover behind the doorframe. Miami did the same. Leningrad noticed the window could swing on a central pivot and slammed it open, smacking on Muoi's arm and throwing her aim off a bit. She fired her SMG across both Miami and London but most of it was sucked up by the walls with one bullet barely winging Miami. Then she stepped back and dropped to the laneway floor.

Leningrad dove down onto her back using Fundament and tried to stab through her kevlar vest with his blades. The two ended up in a grapple. London ran forth and grabbed hold of her rappeling line, the dragon armor gloves he now wore in preparation for an assault protected him from friction burns (each character had three Special Items, his was a form of armor that was like a body suit filled with a type of custard-like substance that hardened when high velocity force was applied). Miami followed more cautiously.

A grapple between Leningrad and Muoi, and Leningrad found himself powerless to resist Muoi's better Brawl and higher Strength, but after London managed to wing her head on a called shot she started positioning Leningrad in the way of London's bullet. Leningrad drew forth his revelatory angelic form and she stilled for a moment, eyes wide, not in revelations but also astounded and confused.

He murmured, "Relax, it'll all be over soon" and against her better judgement she did. He then stabbed her with his wrist blades.

The grapple recommenced, only to end when Leningrad used a revelatory form ability in high-Torment to put her in a nightmare-inducing comatose state. Miami cast Eyes of Fate and saw that Muoi, as a person, was conduit between two important people - illicit law and criminality. Since Leningrad's power technically killed Muoi, albeit temporarily, the apartment above exploded from a dead man's switch inserted into Muoi, which showered them with shrapnel and knocked them to the floor.

They finished searching the garage and took Muoi Lam down to Bio-Connects in the Mini Morris. Miami, Leningrad, and London dropped off Muoi Kai went out to buy cheap suits from the all-night clothing shops and headed to the Honeyluxe Club. They left their weapons at Bio-Connects, except for Leningrad, whose weapons were attached. The Club had creamy walls, golden carpets, and a mixture of oriental and art deco decor with dark wood furnishing, the occasional indoor garden and silk screen, and a Shinto gate like design as the archways into the other room.

There was a gambling hall to their right with a regular bar and restaurant in the main room with two archways at the back, one of which led to a performance club where a comedian stood on a platform addressing the few people there at 5AM. They tried to get some information on the coaster sets at the counter and found out about the hotel and gift shop on the higher floors.

 They went to the bar and ordered from the chocolate side of it and also asked about Muoi Kai at the bar and the bartender offered to give them a chance to meet Muoi's friend if they'd give her a moment. She went to the telephone and London tried to eavesdrop using Lore of Vibrations but used the Torment side of it which caused an explosion of sound to bust through three meters and knock glasses off the cupboards. The bartender raced out, wailing, and hid behind an apparently incognito security guard in a suit.

Everyone looked over towards the area, a few reaching for hidden guns, Leningrad dropped into a crouch, Miami backed away, neither of whom realised what had caused the sound explosion. London tried to play along with the confusion. One of the security guards came over and 'moved them along' with a free poker chip apiece that they could use in the gambling hall. Miami overhead one of the customers mutter something about 'yurei' or angry ghosts causing trouble again. He mentions this to Leningrad who casts Speak with Dead and can suddenly see a number of ghosts in the building.

 A woman with a slash across the face in the comedian's audience. Another woman in a kimono knelt by the exit, fiddling with prayer beads. A man in loose slacks with a tattooed torso and arms trailing a katana. A woman crawling across the ceiling behind Leningrad. Another man simply sitting, head shaking occasionally. Leningrad heads to the toilets, hoping the crawling woman would follow. Miami goes with him. London stands by the door. There's a toilet attendant but Miami and Leningrad bribe him to leave with the poker chips - the attendant assumes they want to do some naughty business together and leaves. There's a ghost sobbing in the rearmost toilet stall. When Leningrad knocks three times, the ghost knocks back, clearly audible to both. They leave.

Leningrad summons all the ghosts in a 90 yard radius to himself and soon finds himself surrounded by around twenty ghosts. A pale little girl with a lollypop stares up at him with a scowl, firmly suckling on her lollypop. Leningrad spoke to her and she told him she was a 'yurei'. 

"And a very scary one, aren't you?" he asked.

She dipped her lollypop into some air she held and it came away covered in lolly dust that crackled and popped into her mouth, creating a sound that would've been quite creepy if you didn't know what it was. She said that her big sister, the Oyabun, was also here. Leningrad asked to meet her. After a bit of coaxing, she took them to an elevator that had a card reader but which merely opened at her approach. They got in and the elevator rose, though the doors didn't close, almost as though some force were merely pulling on the counterweight to raise them several dozen storeys.

"Are you Hirfathra Hissu?" the girl asked curiously, taking them for werewolves.

London had Supernatural Lore: Werewolves and Miami had the Spirit Tongue language and could therefore interpret it. London explained that Bone Shadows were a type of werewolf.

The doors opened to reveal a walled rooftop garden above thirty feet wide with plants on either side, tiled floor, and a round pool, behind which stood a love swing. Five uniformed men stood nearer to them, katanas on their hips as well as guns in a shoulder holster. A sixth man without apparent weaponry gave them a smile which suggested he'd like to kill them as he wound and unwound a bandage around one hand. A woman in her early forties stepped out to the love swing. They started to approach her, after checking if it were okay with her, but noticed that some of the tiled patterns were a devil's trap (Occult roll). They paused just outside of it.

Leningrad started to pace and made a few comments to the guy who obviously wanted to cut him - which just made the guy grin further. Leningrad tried to find out what Muoi had to do with the helicopter crashing and the Oyaban told him only that Muoi was a sub-agent for British Intelligence and that Kurosawa from Bio-Connects had been drawing closer to Cheiron Group (due to the new military contracts he'd won) and that the mediator had been due on that helicopter. The woman then demanded they return Muoi to her. 

London realised that she spoke of Muoi in a way that implied she was her lover. London refused to do so, promising only to offer Muoi a choice about whether to return or not as she were a British agent and so was he. The Yakuza woman offered more information on the British agent who'd controlled her but London rejected that as he had his own contacts in the area.

The Yakuza woman knew then that she could never be sure if they would ask Muoi or simply execute her - she had them pegged for demons, after all, and their reaction to the devil's trap and a few of her words proved it. So she pointed out that she might as well take Muoi for dead and get her vengeance now. London used Lore of Radiance to command her to "Stop and Talk."

They all took their revelatory forms to show that they were fallen angels rather than monstrous demons. The man with the bandage changed form as well as a dark smoke filled his veins, seeping out in wafts from around his eyes and lips. The woman was unconvinced by the demon's sincerity until Miami fell to his knees crying tears of blood bemoaning the violence that so often happened. Each Fallen then added something to that general line which got the Yakuza woman thinking.

"Don't be taken in by their lies!" demanded the smoking man, leaping forward as the smoke shot forth to coalesce as a sword in his hand.

A wolf leaped off a nearby wall and charged him, slamming into his chest and rolling them both into the garden. The wolf pinned him in a very Nala versus Simba moment. "Why must you humiliate me?" growled the man. The fallen were all very curious about what he was but their Awareness couldn't pierce through the clashing senses of werewolf, Fallen and ghostly energies. His was subtle and seemed almost akin to thaumaturgy but somehow 'built in'.  The Yakuza refused to enlighten them any further about him.

She gave them more information, however, about how the British agent was a German / Japanese woman called Meissan who has some very unusual augmentations and might actually be with Cheiron herself. Her eyes appear normal but there are rumors that they sometimes appear to be golden and segmented like insect eyes. She could normally be found at breakfast time in a particular restaurant (and gave the name and the address). The Fallen thanked her and took their leave.

On the ground floor, Leningrad used his Lore of Ghosts to return sentience to one of the ghosts (he had been given a major Celestials buff by London earlier). The ceiling ghost simply stared after him, confused, as they left to return to Kurosawa Bio-Connects to rejoin with their other team members. They're pretty close to the answer of their quest as to who killed Tokyo and why.