Martial Controller
03-22-2005, 11:19 PM
This is the first time i've really tried to do something like this, but it's probably also the one long-term game I've felt the most proud of. I'm cross-posting this from the forums at www.worldofdarkness.com, so if you're at both fourms, it might look familiar...
Thus far, I've run three sessions of this chronicle and, in my opinion at least, they've been a hell of a success. I've got the urge to share it, so here goes...
A Long Strange Trip
CAST
Alfredo Merric spent the last few years of the 1960s as a student radical at the University of Wisconsin. He joined SDS and specialized in recruitment, mobilizing the passive anti-war youth into joining the activist group. His ardor for the cause was dulled somewhat after the Kent State massacre, and when the SDS was taken over by the Weathermen, who took credit for a bomb planted in a UWM classroom hall, Al tried to sever all his ties. He remained a fairly staunch opponent of the war, but he saw that the radical left was headed in a very dangerous direction by 1970.
Ike Karsten, a friend of Al's since childhood, has just returned from a tour in Vietnam. Ike didn't go to college after high school, unlike Al, so when his draft card came up, he had no chance at avoiding it. Secretly, though, ike was happy to go, since he didn't have many prospects or connections left in Appleton. He was lucky enough to be only a truck driver, and was spared the worst of the violence, but he saw quite a few young men affected by it by the time he returned. When he came back, Ike was struck by the negative reception he recieved from his peers; he found himself with even fewer friends and less direction than he had when he left for the war.
Susan Karsten is Ike's younger sister and Al's on-again, off-again girlfriend. The two of them had a fling during the last Summer break while Ike was away, but haven't talked much since school started back up. Susan only recently got out of high school and, like her brother, had no plans to go to college. Instead, she moved to a commune in Friendship, Wisconsin soon before Ike returned. She's searching for direction as well, and has started to tire of the commune lifestyle.
The fourth member of this group enters the story a bit later, so we'll hold off on him for a moment...
BACKGROUND
In the early months of 1971, Alfredo gets a disturbing revelation. A letter from Ike (who only recently came back stateside to find out what happened between Al and Susan) revealed that Susan has been living at the Friendship Commune for several months. Due to his contacts within what remains of the SDS, Al knows that Friendship is being heavily converted into a Weathermen front, and Susan is very likely in danger. Al leaves Madison at once, goes to Friendship and finds Susan. Trying to avoid panicking her or alerting his former friends in the radical group, Al suggests a surprise trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The two head immediately back to Appleton to pack and get ready. Once there, Ike gets wind of the trip and invites himself along. Everyone thinks he's doing this to keep an eye on his sister and best friend, but it's just as much because he's desperate for any excuse to get away. They pile into the car and head off for New Orleans. The timing of the trip is slightly ahead, though, because Al was so insistent on getting out of there so quickly.
Along the way, the three travellers book a room at the Moonlight Motel near Knoxville. Late at night, Susan steps out to get the bag she left in the car. As she walks past one of the exterior-facing motel rooms, she notices the door of one stands open, with a horrible smell emanating from within. Peeking inside, she sees streetlight glinting off four corpses piled on a bed, soaked through with blood. She screams, and the two men run out to see what's wrong.
Once they find Susan, Ike stays with her while Al goes to the front desk. He finds the desk phone disconnected, and turns to see the desk clerk staring him down, looking intent upon murder. The clerk bears down on Al, but gets shot in the back by Ike, who just made it back with the revolver he had stashed in the car "just in case." The clerk throws Al through the motel's front window, walks menacingly over to Ike, takes the gun and snaps the cylinder off before dragging Susan into the laundry room. Ike is paralyzed with terror and only has time to see Al, broken outside the window, swept up in a blur before he himself is taken into the laundry.
The three awaken in a closed-off, lightproof motel room, feeling a little bit colder than before and ravenously hungry. It's the middle of the night, and venturing outside, a deer or two turn up in the woods surrounding the place. You can imagine what happens next. Over the next couple nights, the three of them piece together a little bit about what's happened to them. They drink blood, stay out of the sun...and that's about all they really know.
Given that none of the group want to go home and have to break the news to their family and friends, they decide to continue on to New Orleans, hopefully to let off a little steam before deciding what to do next. But the party doesn't last long before it gets ugly. A gang of (presumably) local vampires (in full Mardi Gras masks and costume) accosts the group. They manage to escape and hole up in the cellar of an abandoned house outside of Houma.
The next night, a visitor appears at the cabin not long after sunset. The man calls himself Mr. Horne, and claims to have heard about the mess at Mardi Gras. He figures these three are somewhat new to the game, and being a charitable sort, imparts a bit of travelling wisdom on them. A brief vampire Q & A follows. He says nothing about the clans or covenants, because they didn't ask. They learn the less-basic basics: fire is bad, as are wooden stakes, garlic is okay, and the big one: vampiric blood is something like a super-drug when given to mortals. Horne recommends having someone like that around to look after things during the day. Their loyalty can be bought with the blood, so says him.
After introducing these foundlings to their new situation, Horne has less helpful information. He claims to recognize a specific taint on their souls, a taint he's only found before on a very specific group of vampires, and usually only those vampires intent on mayhem and murder. He can see that this doesn't apply to these three, but warns that most other vampires won't be as kind in their assessment next time. He advises them to stay out of cities, as the more established vampires will try to root out what they see as a dangerous evil should the group show up.
One avenue Horne mentions is that there may be a way to remove this demon from their souls, but he doesn't know how. If they were able to track the ones who did this down, they might find out how to get rid of it, which would afford them a normal unlife, even if a normal life is impossible. Horne says that the last time he heard of this particular group reaering its head was last year in Lawrence, Kansas, so that might be a place to start looking.
It's about here that the first, no-rules, no-storyteller plot session begins. I'll expound upon that in my next post.
Thus far, I've run three sessions of this chronicle and, in my opinion at least, they've been a hell of a success. I've got the urge to share it, so here goes...
A Long Strange Trip
CAST
Alfredo Merric spent the last few years of the 1960s as a student radical at the University of Wisconsin. He joined SDS and specialized in recruitment, mobilizing the passive anti-war youth into joining the activist group. His ardor for the cause was dulled somewhat after the Kent State massacre, and when the SDS was taken over by the Weathermen, who took credit for a bomb planted in a UWM classroom hall, Al tried to sever all his ties. He remained a fairly staunch opponent of the war, but he saw that the radical left was headed in a very dangerous direction by 1970.
Ike Karsten, a friend of Al's since childhood, has just returned from a tour in Vietnam. Ike didn't go to college after high school, unlike Al, so when his draft card came up, he had no chance at avoiding it. Secretly, though, ike was happy to go, since he didn't have many prospects or connections left in Appleton. He was lucky enough to be only a truck driver, and was spared the worst of the violence, but he saw quite a few young men affected by it by the time he returned. When he came back, Ike was struck by the negative reception he recieved from his peers; he found himself with even fewer friends and less direction than he had when he left for the war.
Susan Karsten is Ike's younger sister and Al's on-again, off-again girlfriend. The two of them had a fling during the last Summer break while Ike was away, but haven't talked much since school started back up. Susan only recently got out of high school and, like her brother, had no plans to go to college. Instead, she moved to a commune in Friendship, Wisconsin soon before Ike returned. She's searching for direction as well, and has started to tire of the commune lifestyle.
The fourth member of this group enters the story a bit later, so we'll hold off on him for a moment...
BACKGROUND
In the early months of 1971, Alfredo gets a disturbing revelation. A letter from Ike (who only recently came back stateside to find out what happened between Al and Susan) revealed that Susan has been living at the Friendship Commune for several months. Due to his contacts within what remains of the SDS, Al knows that Friendship is being heavily converted into a Weathermen front, and Susan is very likely in danger. Al leaves Madison at once, goes to Friendship and finds Susan. Trying to avoid panicking her or alerting his former friends in the radical group, Al suggests a surprise trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. The two head immediately back to Appleton to pack and get ready. Once there, Ike gets wind of the trip and invites himself along. Everyone thinks he's doing this to keep an eye on his sister and best friend, but it's just as much because he's desperate for any excuse to get away. They pile into the car and head off for New Orleans. The timing of the trip is slightly ahead, though, because Al was so insistent on getting out of there so quickly.
Along the way, the three travellers book a room at the Moonlight Motel near Knoxville. Late at night, Susan steps out to get the bag she left in the car. As she walks past one of the exterior-facing motel rooms, she notices the door of one stands open, with a horrible smell emanating from within. Peeking inside, she sees streetlight glinting off four corpses piled on a bed, soaked through with blood. She screams, and the two men run out to see what's wrong.
Once they find Susan, Ike stays with her while Al goes to the front desk. He finds the desk phone disconnected, and turns to see the desk clerk staring him down, looking intent upon murder. The clerk bears down on Al, but gets shot in the back by Ike, who just made it back with the revolver he had stashed in the car "just in case." The clerk throws Al through the motel's front window, walks menacingly over to Ike, takes the gun and snaps the cylinder off before dragging Susan into the laundry room. Ike is paralyzed with terror and only has time to see Al, broken outside the window, swept up in a blur before he himself is taken into the laundry.
The three awaken in a closed-off, lightproof motel room, feeling a little bit colder than before and ravenously hungry. It's the middle of the night, and venturing outside, a deer or two turn up in the woods surrounding the place. You can imagine what happens next. Over the next couple nights, the three of them piece together a little bit about what's happened to them. They drink blood, stay out of the sun...and that's about all they really know.
Given that none of the group want to go home and have to break the news to their family and friends, they decide to continue on to New Orleans, hopefully to let off a little steam before deciding what to do next. But the party doesn't last long before it gets ugly. A gang of (presumably) local vampires (in full Mardi Gras masks and costume) accosts the group. They manage to escape and hole up in the cellar of an abandoned house outside of Houma.
The next night, a visitor appears at the cabin not long after sunset. The man calls himself Mr. Horne, and claims to have heard about the mess at Mardi Gras. He figures these three are somewhat new to the game, and being a charitable sort, imparts a bit of travelling wisdom on them. A brief vampire Q & A follows. He says nothing about the clans or covenants, because they didn't ask. They learn the less-basic basics: fire is bad, as are wooden stakes, garlic is okay, and the big one: vampiric blood is something like a super-drug when given to mortals. Horne recommends having someone like that around to look after things during the day. Their loyalty can be bought with the blood, so says him.
After introducing these foundlings to their new situation, Horne has less helpful information. He claims to recognize a specific taint on their souls, a taint he's only found before on a very specific group of vampires, and usually only those vampires intent on mayhem and murder. He can see that this doesn't apply to these three, but warns that most other vampires won't be as kind in their assessment next time. He advises them to stay out of cities, as the more established vampires will try to root out what they see as a dangerous evil should the group show up.
One avenue Horne mentions is that there may be a way to remove this demon from their souls, but he doesn't know how. If they were able to track the ones who did this down, they might find out how to get rid of it, which would afford them a normal unlife, even if a normal life is impossible. Horne says that the last time he heard of this particular group reaering its head was last year in Lawrence, Kansas, so that might be a place to start looking.
It's about here that the first, no-rules, no-storyteller plot session begins. I'll expound upon that in my next post.