[Actual Play]Buffy: Arkham Now (LONG!)

[Professor Phobos]

A little backstory: Steve D's Buffy threads were intriguing enough for me to check out the show, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the Second Coming. (Damn thing's gone and changed my perspective on the whole spectrum of existence. Gone and started a mid-life crisis. Damn you, Steve D, damn you.)

So, I figured I'd get the RPG. Which was so good it brought me out of my semi-retirement from gaming, and I just had to run a game. So, after getting two dozen applicants or so, I had a group of six players ready to start high school as Freshmen in Arkham, Massachusetts, where everyone has a Lovecraftian last name.

The cast is composed of...

Mr. Radford, our watcher, equipped with dry wit.

Mika, the slayer, whose got a twin sister, Toni.

Brian, who played Hamlet in the school play, and therefore is a bad-ass with a sword.

Ness, a nice but awkward kid who likes cartoons and stuff well out of his supposed age group. In addition, he seems to have strength, speed, and stamina far out of proportion to his size and age.

Sanz, a skateboarder just in from California. Wisecracking and women crazed.

and Chance, a kid with blessed with incredible good luck and cursed with incredible bad luck.

Our first episode, entitled "The Doom That Came to Arkham", just concluded, after three sessions of play.

We would have opened with a teaser scene, but I forgot to do it. Still, might as well et you folk see it.

We pan over an old, new england stone fence and onto a large estate, obviously both from an old and still quite wealthy family. Three figures are on the porch- a dishevelled women on a rocking chair, a well dressed middle aged man, and a much older, white haired gentlemen, also well dressed, smoking a cigar. The cigar smoker's eyes are fierce and piercing. The women is quietly muttering "a girl will be chosen, a chosen girl will come" again and again. The younger man nods and says, "Well, I'm sorry, but it looks like you'll be getting a slayer. I've got one back home- quite a pain in the neck sometimes. Then again, just a few months ago, she saved me from a bit of a headache."

The old man nods.

Opening credits, and then we see Arkham High School, bustling with students for the first day of a new year.

Our student heroes all have the same first period class, biology with Mr. Tillinghast, a very precise and organized teacher, but still pretty good. Cool enough to acknowledge that nothing gets done the first day and turns the classroom over to the students for chit-chat.

Our Watcher, whose gotten a job teaching history at the High School, is briefly met by Principal Shrewsbury, who inquires as to why Radford would come all the way from England to teach in an American high school.

There's awkward chit-chat as the antisocial types are surprised when the social types talk to them.

We move on to later class periods- Mr. Radford's history class has us calling out attendence, and I get to introduce many of the other students. Including Anthony Bishop, a typical zit-faced teenage punk, except that his eyes, like the eyes of all Bishops, have a fierce, inhuman quality to them.

After class, Radford asks Mika to stay after school for a meeting.

The characters eat lunch together, get to know one another, and break up a bully's (Billy Jenkin, and yes, he'll likely get turned into a rat) attack on a social outcast, Zeke Pickman. (Whiz in the art classes, though.)

We meet John Bishop, who moves stiffly, like he's bruised, and seemed to have had a problem with Anthony. We learn that while Anthony and his older brother (now graduated) Cedric Bishop were problem kids, made worse by the fact that the Bishop family owns Arkham and could therefore act without recourse to consequence, John Bishop isn't a bad kid.

After school, Brian, our thespian, is in the school auditorium getting to know the other theater kids. Ness, Chance and Sanz are out in the front skateboarding. Radford is giving Mika the "you're the slayer speech" in his office. She lacks
skepticism. Brian, at some point, manages to overhear this conversation.

Then, four tall, pale, dressed-like-its-the-80's men walk up to the kids skateboarding and ask if they know a Mika Morgan. First session ended there on a bit of a cliffhanger...

Our second session was one long brawl, with much terror and injury for everyone, except the slayer, oddly enough, who has remained unharmed throughout.

Sanz, Ness and Chance both resist the Four Pale Men's attempts at discerning Mika's location, so the Four Pale Men get violent. Ness fights back in defense of his new friends, and displays great strength. Sanz gets hurled through an (open) window into
Radford's office, so the slayer and the watcher take the fight outside. Two of the four vamps get dusted, and the other two run off. Now the Watcher's got to give four civilian children the "Vampires are real speech." After brief discussion, Brian freaks out a bit and stalks off. Sanz and Mika pursue, while Chance, Ness and Radford go back to Radford's office.

Now the group essentially splits into three. Brian gives Sanz and Mika the slip, and goes back to his house, which is convienently down the street from Mika's. There he sees that Mika's home is being attacked by more vampires who came with molotov
cocktails. Busting out a cross and some bravery, he manages to give Mika's family a chance to escape, but ends up captured himself.

Sanz and Mika fail to catch up with Brian, and start heading back to the school.

Those still in the school find that Radford's office has a visitor. Another Vampire, who introduces himself as Potter and speaks with a kind of mountain-hick drawl. Radford tries to use a cross, but Potter isn't frightened by it, claiming his "friends in high places" got rid of that little vulnerability for him. Potter's a talker, and mentions he and his vampires have been tasked to kill the slayer, again for "friends in high places."

Potter's backed up by a pair of giant, lumberjack sized Vampires. Potter says he's going to use Radford and co as hostages to lure the slayer into a trap, and that he'll let 'em go if they don't resist. Of course, they resist, and a fight breaks out. Ness takes one of the big vampires outside, going through another window (this one closed) and should probably have been badly injured by the head wound he took, but gets up and fights anyway. Radford and Chance are too busy dealing with the remaining lumbervamp to notice.

Mika and Sanz show up in mid-fight and manage to help them defeat the Lumbervamps. Outnumbered, Potter mentions he's got a group going after Mika's family (twin sister Toni, parents), and uses that as a means of getting away, as they all rush for
Radford's car.

They arrive to find that the Arkham FD stopped Mika's house from burning all the way down, and that her family is fine, if shaken up. The reality of being a slayer hits Mika and Toni, and there is emotion. They learn that Brian saved Mika's family, but
got captured in the process. Potter let slip that the trap for Mika was at the old boathouse by the resevoir, so they know where Brian's likely gone.

However, Mika feels like she's got to stay with her family, and Radford vetoes any attempt at rescue tonight, not wanting to walk into a trap. They'll try to rescue Brian tomorrow, if he's still alive.

The other three- Sanz, Ness, and Chance, don't take this well, and decide to, in secret, go on a nigh suicidal rescue mission anyway. Session 2 ends there.

Luck was with me in session 3, as both Mika and Radford couldn't make it. They refused to go on the midnight rescue mission, so I did not have to divide my attention between them, doing things like "finding a hotel for the night" and "sleeping", and the guys attempting the rescue.

Sanz, Ness and Chance break into Radford's office and load up on weapons, then head out to the boathouse.

Meanwhile, Brian's learned important plot information. Cedric Bishop shows up with a package from "granma" and mentions his father's greater skill with sorcery. Cedric pours a powder in a circle around Brian, whose been tied to a chair in the middle of a
creaky, rustic boathouse, talking with Potter. Potter offers to turn Brian into a vampire, which Brian declines.

Brian manages to free himself from his bonds when Potter and Cedric aren't looking, and despite their warning not to disturb the circle, disturbs the circle. Upon seeing this, they, and the other vampires, leave quickly.

Brian drags himself out of the boathouse- which is, like the ground around it, starting to shake with the roar of dirt moving, and bursts out of the door,s till tied to the chair, just as the others reach the boathouse. Brian starts yelling "run!" and
after getting freed from the chair, the four take off.

Sadly, things aren't that easy. Potter's got a roadblock- a pickup truck, with four vampires and Potter, are blocking the exit. Behind the four intrepid high schoolers, the boathouse explodes into rubble and standing there is a giant demon.

Rock and a hard place.

At some point, though I don't properly recollect how, Sanz spectacularly failed a fear test and fled into the woods, ending up behind the demon. There he spots a strange figure watching over the proceedings, but when he approaches it, it vanishes. Sanz
regains his wits and hits the demon with holy water from behind. The demon turns, and with an insanely good shot from Ness' crossbow, the demon's killed by a lucky hit to the back of the head. (I ruled a head shot would be just like a heart shot, in terms of vital organs and such. This might come back to haunt me.)

A lucky toss of Holy Water on Brian's part lands square in the face of the truck driving vampire, and a drama point (plus the weird luck power) from Chance causes that same vamp to panic and accelerate, running over another two vampires and smacking the
truck into a tree. This gives the kids a chance to make a run for it, and it's here where they learn that Potter can fly. Three of them make a dash for the woods, pursued by the one vampire left standing and Potter in the air. Brian bravely takes on that
one vampire, trying to buy time for the other three.Brian actually beats up on the vamp nicely, and proceeds to steal the truck from the now-blinded-by-holy-water driver.

The other three don't do as well, as Potter is exceedingly dangerous (and actually not as dangerous as he should be, given I misread the extra actions table). There's a brawl, and the three with many drama points, not to mention Ness' abilities, manage to hold Potter at bay- until he gets an advantage over Ness and successfully snaps his neck. Not enough to kill, but for a moment, both Chance and Sanz thing Ness is dead. Ness is up and about rather quickly, though. Sanz actually pantses Potter and burns a cross mark on his ass, which is about the point Potter loses patience and takes to the sky. It was either that or Brian driving the pickup truck into the woods straight at them.

They load the injured Ness into the truck, and Sanz looks him over- Ness is alive, he can walk, though he really should be dead or paralyzed or at least unconscious. Ness also looks...weird, as he's kind of jerking about in an unusual fasion, and his eyes are...off. They don't look particularly realistic for a while. They're all freaked out, Sanz more than the others because of the Ness weirdness, and Brian drives them home in the stolen truck.

The next day, Radford and Mika are surprised that they managed to rescue Brian, and are also quite pleased to have the Important Plot Information. Namely that the whole Bishop family, the most powerful and influential family in Arkham, is positively loaded with evil magics, and is planning on something they don't want a slayer around to interfere with. Potter, a vampire who can fly and ignore crosses, works for them. Radford does a little research and learns the Bishops were forced to flee England, came to Massachusetts, and founded Arkham.

Since Radford came to Arkham knowing that there were signs that Something Big and Very Bad was going to happen to the town in the future, this puts the Bishop family as the likely big bad of the season.

Radford gives them the "hellmouth, ancient demons, etc" speech and also a choice- if they want to help, they can help, but if they want out, there's no shame. All four, and Mika's twin sister (who really doesn't have a choice) absolutely refuse to bow out, and thus the gang is formed.

(Whew. Took me longer to write this than I thought, because I discovered that Actual Play reports are often more interesting to read than to write. Hopefully it wasn't too boring for y'all.)

[Peter LaCara]

Man... Radford's a bastard. And Mika... well, her situation is more understandable, but still, she's the Slayer... she should be the one charging off to save her friends.

If I were Brian, Ness, Sanz, or Chance, I would just go, "Uh huh. Tell you what... since we were the ones doing all the fighting and the neck risking, if you want to help, you can help, but if you want out, there's no shame."

White Hats rock.

[Professor Phobos]

Well, they really did intend on rescuing Brian. Eventually.

Still, if the trend continues, we'll have a nice resentment from the White Hats for the Heartless Watcher.

Some sub-plot notes:

Brian likes Toni, and part of the reason he so bravely defended their home was for her. Brian doesn't like Sanz, considering him a show-off and moving in on the twins. Ness is socially awkward in the extreme, blurting out embarassing comments at embarassing moments. Ness, of course, has a secret.

Sanz has begun experimenting with magic, as he has a book of magical symbols and wants to see what he can do.

Ness, Sanz and Chance have formed a pretty decent friendship, with Brian more aloof. Of course, all four of the boys pretty much owe one another their lives at this point, so there is that bond.

No word yet on which guy Mika or Toni likes, though.

Thus far, the best quote has been from Sanz, who exclaimed "Man, I wish I were back in California! No vampires there!"

Episode 1x02 "From The Dark" began and continues this week. It has yummy zombie goodness.

I know I recruited at least one person from RPG.net, so I have to avoid spoilers.

However, y'all can do me a favor. I need a better title for this campaign. "Buffy: Arkham Now" sucks. It was my working title, and I always intended to change it once I thought of something better.

Now, "HP Lovecraft's Sunnydale" would have been perfect for a game set in Sunnydale, nicely emulating the series of Chaosium books. But that's not really an option, sadly.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Well, so far the actual series (Buffy, Angel, Fray and the spinoff comics) have been lead-character-titled, so that's no real help in a group game.

Arkham in the style of Smallville sorta fits.

Arkham High stresses the youth-gone-wild in the hills-rise-wild crossover. (And Roswell was retitled Roswell High over here.)

Lovecraft puns may be the way to go though:

The Red Hook Gang maybe?

Maybe a reference to a specific important object...

Book Of The Dead if the Cast end up having to guard the Necronomicon from thieves. It's also an Evil Dead reference too!

--

Otherwise, good writeup for what sounds like a fun time. It could do with more funny line quotage though. That's the highlight of most Buffy writeups.

[urbwar]

Originally posted by Professor Phobos

However, y'all can do me a favor. I need a better title for this campaign. "Buffy: Arkham Now" sucks. It was my working title, and I always intended to change it once I thought of something better.

Now, "HP Lovecraft's Sunnydale" would have been perfect for a game set in Sunnydale, nicely emulating the series of Chaosium books. But that's not really an option, sadly.

Our short lived Arkham series was called "Sasha The Vampire Slayer: The Arkham Chronicles". Nothing fancy, but it worked for us

[Professor Phobos]

Not too many good quotes, I'm afraid.

<Sanz> "God, I want to go back home to California. No Vampires there!"

<Mika> "Yes. It's what I do now. Slay vampires."
<Chance> "Man, you are going to have fun on career day."

<Sanz> "Man, I feel like the day I found out the easter bunny wasn't real. Only in reverse."

<Brian>"Once again, I see timing is everything. And again I've got nothing."

<Radford> "I guess I have to explain a few things..."
<Sanz> "That you're a ninja girl, you're a creepy English guy, and you two can make people disintegrate?"

[Craig Oxbrow]

Originally posted by Professor Phobos
Not too many good quotes, I'm afraid.
They're good.

And due to the strangeness of HTML, are only attributed when I quote you since you used < these > brackets...

[Professor Phobos]

Book Of The Dead if the Cast end up having to guard the Necronomicon from thieves. It's also an Evil Dead reference too!

In my campaign notes, actually, I rather specifically identified the Necronomincon as "A relatively pretentious book of poems from medieval Arabia. Nothing special."

It's just too easy a plot device. I feel dirty using it.

[urbwar]

Originally posted by Professor Phobos
In my campaign notes, actually, I rather specifically identified the Necronomincon as "A relatively pretentious book of poems from medieval Arabia. Nothing special."

It's just too easy a plot device. I feel dirty using it.

ROFL!

That's funny. Maybe the Egyptian Book of the Dead is the real necronomicon, and the one every thinks of as the real deal is exactly what you say it is: A book of poetry. Sick, deluded poetry though :p

[Professor Phobos]

Our second episode, "From The Dark" just concluded. A much faster session, one that I had trouble writing up before the game and ended up improvising to less-than-ideal results, but the players seem to have had fun.

A player came up with our campaign title, and so I've settled on "Shadows Over Arkham."

I like it. Nice and simple.

Anyway, this was a quicker, monster of the week episode.

The basic premise is that Henry West, descendent of Herbert, starts raising the dead. I had a dozen or so variations on this theme- hoard of zombies, just a few zombies, West as sympathetic/unsympathetic.

I still hadn't settled come gametime, and so what I gave my players was a little...disorganized, and probably not as satisfying as it could have been. Still, I think they liked it, and there were some cool bits.

We opened with the Watcher, Mr. Radford (who seems to have become an NPC, as the player is MIA.)
discussing a recent spate of grave robbings.

The PC's all decide on staking out a graveyard with a freshly buried dead person, to see if they can catch the culprit.

Before the midnight stakeout, they gather at The Red Hook nightclub for a bit of dancing and chit chat.

Sanz dances with Toni, which just plain fills Brian with jealousy and he spends the early night a little depressed. Mika and Ness sit out, and notice chemistry geek Henry West arguing with my Cordelia analog (wealthy, self-confident, but not as cruel) Alexis Winthrop.

As they watch, West puts something in Winthrop's drink. Then he leaves.

A popular star football player and top student Dan Manning comes over, and has a brief discussion with Winthrop. They both look a little bemused, perhaps frightened. As Manning leaves the nightclub, he clutches his chest and falls to the ground.

Chaos ensues. Alexis looks truly frightened, and Mika tries to get the story out of her.

Within the next few minutes, Manning's body cools unnaturally fast, and then he gets up, a zombie. He's confused, and keeps muttering "I should be dead!"

He heads for the cemetary, knocking over anyone in his way. (My intention was for a scene where he tries to dig himself a grave, wanting to be dead. But they stopped him before he got to the cemetary.)

Alexis tells Mika that West poisoned her as well, and that if she doesn't give him a lot of money, she'll turn into a zombie.

As zombies go, Manning keeps a lot of his intelligence. He's able to relate that he was in heaven and he wanted to go back to being dead.

The scoobies follow Manning and resolve to help Alexis get the antidote from West.

(GM's note: The original plan was for there to be more legwork, where they had to find the source of a bunch of zombies who were more victims than monsters. But I just plain schucked it and had no real investigation.)

They're outside the cemetary entrance, trying to restrain the zombie, when West shows up. Manning spots him and goes into a blind rage and breaks free, charging West.

The scoobies manage to stop Manning from ripping him to shreds (thinking West can cure Alexis before she zombifies...)

Radford, the watcher, played as an NPC, ruthlessly kills Manning, who everyone else planned on trying to help. (Manning clearly retained a lot of his personality and memories, and they didn't know whether he was still reeling from resurrection madness or just permanently nuts.)

This pisses off Sanz, who can't understand why Radford did what he did.

Radford says that zombies are contagious, but West snorts and says "Not my kind of zombie."

West tries to draw a pistol while Manning was charging, but Sanz restrains him. They then force West to take the group to his house to get the antidote.

Well, actually they split up- Sanz and Brian help Radford with the body, asking him about what Manning's parents will know, and trying not to look at Manning's face, with its eyes still revealing intelligence and it's jaw clicking up and down. (Radford severed the spinal cord, so the body was motionless, but the head wasn't.)
Radford intends to destroy it completely with acid. The horror of the situation hits both boys hard, and they are more-than-a-little disturbed by the ruthlessness of Radford.

(Since he's my NPC while the player is MIA- third session in a row with no explanation given- I'm going to try to play up the Watcher/Scooby divide a bit. They all can't be Giles, after all.)

As for the others, they proceed to West's basement lab.

West says he needs his hands free to make up the antidote, and so they set him free amongst his chemicals.

Alexis asks him why, and West goes on about him having cancer, and not wanting to die, and needing to beat death and test his formulas.

This is, of course, BS. West is just too cowardly and self-absorbed to acknowledge his mortality. He uses the sympathy generated in Ness to splash his face with acid and set hte lab on fire, escaping to the next room in the smoke and confusion.

Toni (slayer's twin sister) and Alexis head outside, as does Sanz, who wants to cover the front door in case West makes a break for it. Alexis keels over and zombifies very quickly, getting up in moments and enraged, goes after West. Ness is busy trying to keep the fire under control.

Meanwhile, Mika pursues West into the next room, but in the smoke, doesn't see him waiting behind the door with a baseball bat. He smacks her through a trapdoor into a sub-basement- Full of his monstrous failures! The misshapen creatures crawl after Mika, groaning about their terrible hunger.

Sanz and West square off, and Sanz gets West to drop his baseball bat. Alexis, wielding a glass beaker, muscles past Sanz and smashes the glass into West's face, sending him into the pit with the zombies.

Ness moves in and pulls Mika out of the zombie pit, while West clutches his ruined face and screams.

The place is burning and West is moments from being shredded by his victims, but Sanz is intent on saving him. Alexis stands in front of him and stops him, though, saying "No."

She turns to West and says..."Listen to me. Tell me the real reason you did this. If I think you're telling the truth, I'll get you out of there."

West responds with a desperate pleading cry..."Dammit! I wasn't lying before! I just don't want to die! Ever!"

Alexis stares blankly into space for a moment. "I'm going to grant your wish, Henry. Your real wish. I think it's time you got over your fear of death." She kicks the trapdoor shut, sealing West off with the zombies.

So then I get busy describing the burning house and West screaming for mercy, etc, but Sanz isn't done. He makes another last ditch effort to save West, and with Ness' help, pulls his broken, shattered form out of the house, spending a drama point in the process.

Now, up until that, I planned on West dying, but Sanz made a heroic effort and had to be rewarded, so now they have a pseudovillainous recurring character to contend with. Though he may well be blind.

They escape the burning house, which collapses, crushing the zombies (presumably.)

They learn that West's parents were his first test subjects.

Earlier Brian had separated from the group as a whole and met up with some Men In Suits and a Black Van (with the name "Aeon Laboratories" on the side) very curious about happenings.

They show up and take West into custody. This was a whim decision on my part, and now I think it'd have been cooler if West had stuck around as a Amy Madison/Johnathan/Andrew style NPC. WHich is still possible, depending on what Aeon does with him.

As for what Aeon Laboratories is, and what they want with a brilliant, if mad, young chemist who raises the dead, is something that my players won't find out for a good long while.

After this, there's some discussion with Alexis, who is trying to cope w/ her newfound deadness. (and is too overwhelmed to accept the "Vampires are Real" speech, putting it off for later.)

Still, she'll be a recurring supporting cast member. Kind of an "unlockable PC" as discussed from a thread a long time ago. (Again, since we're down a player- if anyone wants to take the role of a wealthy, somewhat snooty undead heir to the richest family in Arkham...)

In fact, the real point of this episode was to get her into the campaign. And since Sanz seems to like her, it's generated a nice romantic subplot. Plus cleared up the Sanz/Brian/Toni potential love triangle.

Ness was sprayed with acid but surprisingly undamaged. He does his best to cover his face, but Brian and Sanz are persistant, getting him to admit that he has a secret and that he'll be good as new in no time.

They don't press, though, and his secret remains safe. (Any guesses?)

Probably not my best work in terms of scenario design, but I felt that as far as actual gameplay went, things were good. The PC's all said they had fun, so I'll count this one as a success.

Next week, though, I'm in kind of a tricky spot. I'd like to do a Halloween episode (which is two weeks), but I don't want to start it a week before Halloween. Problem is, I doubt any episode could be resolved in a single three hour session, given how little actually gets done in an IRC game.

I might try a subplot, treading water game, with mostly interplayer/intersupporting cast interaction. That'll work nicely, given there's some basic book keeping they should do (Meeting other students, discussing the Bishop problem, etc.)

And then hit 'em with one of about a half-dozen good Halloween scenarios I've got. Only real question is: Do I go for the more serious, or the more lighthearted?

Buffy tradition is lighthearted Halloween episodes, so I'll probably stick with that. Still, I've got a nasty idea inspired by "Hush" that'd do nicely...

[Professor Phobos]

Episode 1x03- "Jungle Gym Rumble"

Because they wanted a Halloween episode next week, I had to run something short and fast this week.

Started things up the day after the events of the previous session, at school.

Brian shows up late to the first period class and misses a lab. His lab partner is school Bully, Billy Jenkin. Jenkin had to do the lab by himself and naturally botched it badly, so he goes up to Brian and says "After school..." Chance threatens Jenkins as he leaves, so he also gets challenged.

Brian's not doing too well, and just kind of stands there, head to the floor.

We move to lunch, and the characters sit together. Chance missed the fun, so he's got to have what happened last night- including the secret behind Dan Manning's dissapearance (which is all over the school) explained to him. Alexis shows up and relates how she's doing. She's weirded out, and discovered that she's both stronger than she was and heals very very quickly.

To make her feel better, Ness finally lets his secret out- he's the product of a Government genetic engineering super-soldier program that was kidnapped by his father (a head researcher) and given a normal life. Brian is deeply upset and leaves early. Sanz pursues to console.

Move to Sanz and Brian talking outside, by a dumpster. Brian makes a few comments that allude to a more-than-friendship relationship with Dan. Sanz asks if Brian's gay. No response.

Walking through the halls between classes, Chance bumps into Anthony Bishop, who knowing that the whole scooby group will likely go to the Jenkins-Brian fight, challenges Chance to a separate fight elsewhere. He promises not to have any of his friends show up at the other fight if Chance comes. Chance agrees.

We proceed to the after school scooby meeting. Because all the PC's no longer trust Radford and fear he'd just up and kill Alexis, despite her being obviously not dangerous, they tell him they cured her in time, but they want her on the team. Radford sighs and gives her the "Vampires are real..." speech. Ness' secret is also concealed from Radford.

Chance cuts out early while the others are distracted. Brian leaves a little later, saying he'll avoid Jenkin and not fight. He's lying, and mentions he'll "avoid the bike racks, where Jenkin likes to have his fights." Of course, Jenkins really likes to fight at the Baseball diamond, so that's where Brian heads.

Alexis talks with Mika and Toni about her experiences. They console her. Radford talks with Sanz about his interest in magic. Brian spent a drama point as a plot twist to give him some time to have Jenkin to himself, so I had to come up with ways to keep everyone occupied. Ness realizes that Chance is also gone, and goes to look for him, but I have him look around at the part of the school grounds neither boy is fighting at for a while.

Chance meets Anthony and the two fight. Not wanting to get bogged down, I say that Chance wins with a drama point and ties if he doesn't spend one. Chance wins, and Anthony gets angry and starts mumbling in a strange language with a deeper voice than usual. His muscles bulge out and he moves a lot faster. Chance is in trouble.

Brian meets up with Jenkin, whose actually busy beating up Zeke Pickman, stoically refusing to defend himself. Brian goes after Jenkin, but only puts up a brief fight for show. Brian wants to get pummeled, and intentionally loses. Pickman tries to get Jenkin away from him, and fights pretty well for a scrawny kid, but still loses (Pickman apparently wouldn't fight in is own defense but did so for Brian's sake). Brian starts getting the living daylights punched and kicked out of him.

Meanwhile, Chance is busy trying to avoid Super-Anthony from annihilating him. A drama point lets him get in a few good hits, and Chances' strange luck means Anthony slips and falls twice, slamming into a wall, hitting the ground, etc. After this goes on for a bit, Anthony starts speaking in that language again- but he's stopped. Tizzy Whateley and Samantha Mason, two girls from school (Tizzy- very very friendly and smiley. Samantha- very very shy) have been watching the fight with a little bit of shock on 'em, rooting for Chance. Tizzy shouts "No fair!" and speaks in a strange tongue of her own, cancelling Anthony's spell. Chance had managed to kind of sidestep a Super-Anthony charge and he slammed into the wall, so now Chance has got him cornered. Having kicked his ass before and survived against that spell, Chance is going to lay the righteous smack-down on Anthony, and Anthony knows it. So he splits after an intimidating stare from ol' Chance.

After this, Tizzy and Samantha head over to Chance, and talk to him a bit. They were looking to keep Zeke company and Tizzy admits she's a little bit of a witch. Chance explains why he was fighting Anthony and the three decide to go look for Jenkins, just in case Brian decided to fight after all.

At some point Radford takes Mika aside and puzzles out Alexis' secret, stating that her situation is clearly different and that he won't hurt her. Mika doesn't go ahead and say "Alexis is an intelligent zombie", but it is pretty much implied.

Meanwhile, Ness finally spots Jenkins beating on Brian, and runs over, tossing Jenkins all over the baseball field. Since there's no contest in this fight, I just let Ness describe how badly Jenkins gets it. Jenkins runs off, obviously outclassed, and Ness moves to help Brian, who is a bloody mess, and Pickman, whose banged up but alright.

They get Brian, Pickman, and Chance to Radford's office for first aid. The girls leave with Pickman after a bit, taking the hint that the others want to talk about something without them there. Chance explains his fight with Anthony Bishop and Brian manages to gasp out that he wanted to get hurt.

Ness ducked out at some point and followed Jenkins home, nicely playing out the "Artists lose their temper" bit. He knocks on Jenkin's door, meets his mother and accepts a nice, cool glass of lemonade, all the while Jenkins is standing on the porch terrified and his mother thinks Ness is his nice lab partner friend. Once Jenkins' mother is gone, Ness picks up Jenkins with one hand and makes it clear to Jenkins that for his continued safety he'd better stay the hell away from Ness' friends.

Because Brian is clearly not taking Manning's death very well, Sanz decides it'd be a good idea to have a memorial in Radford's backyard, where the acid-destroyed remains of Manning were secretly buried. Brian breaks down while this goes on and Sanz consoles him.

Quote of the Game:

(After Jenkins' challenge)
Sanz: Doesn't this school have peer mediation?
Chance: It does, just very unofficial and involving socks with bricks in them.









GMs Notes (Shadows over Arkham Players, stay out):



This turned out to be a far more serious episode than I anticipated, given that I had No Idea Brian's player was going to start up this little "Is Brian gay?" subplot or take Manning's death that badly. By the time Manning was just a casualty in an episode, he had gone through some changes in my notes. Started as Alexis Winthrop's boyfriend, then later changed to just the most beloved kid in school. Initially he was going to be a recurring character, but on a foolish whim in episode 2 I killed him. Since I forgot to actually mention was going out with Alexis in that episode, I quietly crossed it out of my notes so as to aid in Brian's nascent subplot. I suppose its a good thing I'm a forgetful GM, as it gives the players room to fill in the gaps for their own purposes.

Is Brian gay? I dunno. Player hasn't given me a straight answer (no pun intended) so we'll have to see where this subplot goes, as he was also obviously infatuated with Toni earlier. The whole thing might be a Bait & Switch on the part of the player. He made statements that would lead to that conclusion, but then again, they were all pretty ambiguous.

As the watcher's player just missed his fifth session in a row with absolutely no explanation, he's been turned into a supporting cast member. I have enough trouble making sure five players have something to do in any event. I'm going to play up the Watcher/Scooby divide in that Radford is far more ruthless and cold blooded than they are.

Because this one was serious, I'm considering going light-hearted for the Halloween episode instead of the Hell I had otherwise prepared for them.

[Professor Phobos]

Aw, my poor thread gettin' no love. No love at all.

[Elemental]

Well, I'm reading it. These threads often end up sinking because people don't want to post just to say "That was great."

But I'm doing that anyway, because I'd like to see more. :)

[Craig Oxbrow]

A lighthearted Halloween episode might be a good call. Restore the balance of painful vs silly.

[Professor Phobos]

Episode 1x04- The Strange High School In the Mist

'tis a few weeks after our last episode, the day of Halloween. Arkham treats Halloween like Christmas, Thanksgiving and three or four Halloweens put together. The school has a massive dance and the whole town is decorated. (Subconscious recognition of the Hellmouth's decreased influence on Halloween? Just 'cause they like it? You be the judge.)

Anyway, we start off with a brief trailer scene- an alarm is going off in Arkham Asylum.

The gang is sitting at their lunch table discussing costume options. In the intervening weeks Tizzy Whateley, Samantha Mason and Zeke Pickman have made friends with them, though they have not been inducted into the scooby gang. Ness and Zeke find they have art in common, Sanz gets Tizzy to help him with studying magic, and otherwise, they find they've got stuff in common. Ness also makes an effort to keep Alexis company, who is still adjusting to being dead.

They decide on a group costume and Brian says that the school did the Wizard of Oz a few years back. They decide to raid the theater's closet for the costumes. They even convince a surly Mr. Radford to go as the wizard.

After school they costume up, Radford reminds everyone that Halloween is their night off and to have fun. Chance is skeptical- and, naturally, his skepticism proves on the mark. They help Shrewsbury set up decorations for a bit, and while Shrewsbury is talking with Zeke and Ness, mentions a Kingsport Arts Festival Zeke should enter, given the quality of his work. Zeke grudgingly agrees.

The dance begins- Sam and Zeke wallflower, but everyone else tries to have a good time. Brian manages to dance with Toni and Chance with Tizzy, and Sanz dances with Alexis once or twice with Ness looking on. Jealous?

Zeke and Sam walk out, and then, the weirdness begins.

The lights go out and they're plunged in darkness- and when the lights go back on, they find themselves in different places.

Chance find himself dressed in high class 1930's era garb on a boat, possibly off the coast of massachusetts. It's a party, and a slightly inebriated women is trying to pick him up. She says cryptic things about a King and how Chance is a big man in the King's organization. Chance notes the obsessively helpful servants all have a strange, indistinct mark on their hands- the same mark that adorns the flag on the boat. Later, someone taps their glass for a toast- an man with no eyes wants to speak. He makes loud proclamations about the King's victory over the "Dark Queen" in California, about the United States falling to the King and soon the entire world. The crowd, however, looks skeptical- there's an undercurrent of disbelief in them and desperation in the Eyeless man. Tizzy finds Chance at this point- confused, and wondering why she's treated like royalty. Chance wonders what they look like and checks his reflection, which is unchanged, and Tizzy's- who has none. This worries Chance. The Eyeless man is lead over to the two and politely addresses them. They make chit-chat for a bit, and the Eyeless man admits he met the Dark Queen years before she became what she was, when she was a mere child. He was visiting an 'old friend' and ran into her. This is before the Eyeless Man was enlisted into the King's service. The King doesn't like people to talk about the Queen, because he's embarassed a mere little girl could match him in power in a fraction of the time it took him to become what he was.
After this period of cryptic and freaky events, a giant horrible squid monster rises from the sea and smashes the boat, returning Chance and Tizzy to the dance floor. No time has passed for anyone else, but all the other cast members are looking might confused.

Meanwhile, Alexis, Ness and Sanz find themselves jumping out of a plane, in full military garb. They parachute down successfully and manage to follow along a group of soldiers on a recon mission to Arkham. There's talk of an 'otherspace rift' in the town, and the loss of Finn's team, and that something or someone called SANDMAN is going to destroy the town in ten hours with a 'reality quake charge'. They head into the town where they find eight other soldiers strung up, mostly dead, all eyeless. They manage to pull down two- one dies- but the last is Riley Finn, and he manages to gasp out stuff about the rise of a "King" and an army and begs them to destroy the town.

Quote:
Riley Finn: "The King......someone calling himself the King did something with the...Hellmouth, and now....he's got an army. Destroy the valley. Destroy it all before it's too late..."
Ness: "The King? And an army of what?"
Alexis: "Demons!!!!"
Ness: (looking up to see an army of demons): "Oh....crap."

They're rushed by a hoard of demons, and ripped to shreds, returning them to the dance floor. No time has passed, except that everyone else is looking mighty confused.

Finally, Brian, Toni and Mika find themselves in the woods, looking down two paths. One is grim, dark, dank and dead- it is actually a moonlit night down that path. The other is sunny, warm and full of life. It even has a cute little bunny rabbit hopping across the trail. They go down the 'good trail.' They come to a fairly open grove full of Willow trees. the Wind whistles through the trees and whispers to them that they're not welcome, that the should leave. Then, an Eyeless Girl appears and tells them to leave, that they shouldn't be in Dream and explaining that they should call to their friends, and that it is all up to the Slayer to prevent this from happening- the Eyeless Girl says "After you, I am humanity's last hope...but I am a betrayer." No appropriately worried, they call to their friends- and the Eyeless Girl cackles. 'tis a trick, and the cast's yelling awakens the "willow trees" which are, in fact, horrific monsters. Soon the forest itself- twisted and overgrown not with healthy life but with malignant cancerous growth, swallows them up. Before they do so the eyeless girl leaves, muttering "bored now..." Of course, dying sends them back to the dance floor.

Quotes:
(on arriving in the woods)
Brian: "I hate to say it, but we very well might be in Kansas."
(on coming to the fork in the woods)
Brian: "And I hate to quote Robert Frost...so I won't."

The group is now mighty confused and recognizes that Something Strange just happened to all of them. Zeke comes back inside at this point and beckons them to join him outside. Samantha's "felt something powerful", and she thinks someone cast a powerful spell. Just then, of course, a well-aged old women appears, madness in her eyes.

It is, as they learn, Keziah Mason, recently escaped from Arkham Asylum, and here for her daughter, who has great potential. Keziah worships Chaos and has some inkling of the future- she doesn't want her daughter upstaged by "that amateur from Sunnydale" and wants Samantha to take her rightful place as the Queen when the King rises. Keziah attempts to compel Samantha magically, which fails, and when she fails to convince Samantha, opens up a rift in time and space and leaves.

Quote:
Keziah Mason: "Such wonderful destinies you all had. Such a place for chaos! Oh, what fun it's been...."
Brian: "Hello- I'm sane. You?"
Sanz: "Brian!"
Brian: "Guillermo!"

They head back to Radford's office and compare notes, sharing their visions. Radford briefly resists letting Zeke in on things, but Zeke is rather forceful- apparently he loses his stutter when the adrenaline gets pumping.

Quote:
Radford: "Fine...I'll give him the speech...it isn't like the council frowns on recruiting a small army of children..."
Ness: "Maybe we should make membership cards and like an introduction letter explaining everything at this rate."
Chance: "Form letters are too impersonal."
Sanz: "I can design a flier."

Radford also explains a bit on Keziah's background. Presumed dead by the Watcher's Council, she was a human witch who worshipped chaos and was transformed in the process. Hopelessly insane, her very presence acts like a kind of mini-Hellmouth, making things more chaotic and drawing weirdness. Her being on a Hellmouth (and active- she was catatonic in asylum) will magnify this effect. Radford notes that things may "prove interesting."

GM's Notes (My players stay away):

Despite this being the best episode as far as quotes went thus far, I don't think it came off as well as I had hoped. There was no sense of danger, and I got the impression that as far as the visions went, they were more confused than anything else. However, a truly epic amount of foreshadowing happened, and I finished up the supporting cast recruitment drive. All five of my 'full time' supporting cast members (Radfrod, Alexis, Zeke, Samantha, and Tizzy) were built as plot generators, and are vital to the main plotline of the season, so it's nice to have that out of the way. I might have wanted to drag things out a bit- especially in Alexis' case, the cast didn't get to know her well before the zombification. I think that when all the various things foreshadowed occur, the episode might be looked back upon with a more favorable light, given the sheer density of the clues. I had intended to make each vision far weirder and more disturbing, using the "Hastur Mythos" section of Countdown as primary inspiration, but dividing my attention between three distinct groups of players and running out of session time forced me to accelerate things. The conclusion, also, felt so-so, arbitrary and abrupt.

For those wondering, the Eyeless Man on the boat was meant to be Ethan Rayne, the King's head prophet and spokesperson, and the Eyeless Girl in the forest was Dark Willow. The willow-tree monsters were Dark Young of Shub Niggurath. Riley Finn was explicitly named. This is the first time they've met anyone from the show, but probably not the last. After all, every Buffy game needs an obligatory Ethan Rayne episode, and I've got a use for Riley.

Mid-episode I realized how I could/should use more of the Cthulhu Mythos and reconcile it nicely with the Buffyverse, so I decided to go from just name-dropping to more explicit crossover. Things probably won't get truly Lovecraftian, though, given the emphasis on heroism and hope for humanity.

Next week will likely either be either an episode devoted to Ness or an attempt to get back to the main Bishop plotline, with much violence. It strikes me that if I decide the next episode early enough, I can do a "scenes from next week's..." and get 'em all psyched up.

[Professor Phobos]

Episode 1x05- The Rats In the Halls.

Nudity.

Violence.

Bad Puns.

Ah....glory, this episode went well.

Basic Plot: Tizzy and Sanz cast a spell that backfires, gradually turning everyone in school into a rat. Hilarity ensues.

Highlights:

Rat Mika and Rathony Bishop, demonically boosted, have a pencil duel. Brian and Sanz break the spell just as Rathony's going to win, turning everyone back into (naked) humans. Mika kicks Anthony Bishop, now armed with a pencil, in the family jewels, forcing him to put them...on mice.

Mika stakes a Vampire Rat with a pencil. Ness, who strangely never changed to a rat physically (but he got increasingly rat-like in mind), punts another Vampire Rat clear out of the school.

The rat they cast the initial spell on became hyperintelligent, and attempted to lead his newfound brethren by giving a speech in the lunchroom. He was nicknamed "Julius" by Sanz and is now a recurring character, as Sanz spent XP to buy Ratspeak after all was said and done. (He's essentially Sanz' familiar now). The content of his speech was designed such that he'd be characterized as a "ratstafarian." (It was funny at the time. I swear.)

RatSanz knows where the spell is, but leads Brian and Chance to the cafeteria instead, to get food. They get back on track and Sanz makes a flying leap from a lunch table to a bulletin board- and falls. RatBrian and RatChance barely manage to catch him in some mashed potatoes on a lunch tray.

Principal Shrewsbury actually turns into a giant rat, and fights Ness.

The whole school ends the ordeal naked and very confused. There's mass confusion. Ness is outside, at this point, and never transformed, remaining clothed. The cast manages to avoid a look at Radford, but many glances went both ways. Tizzy had been hurt in the fight, and Chance very kindly had the chance to help her up, find her clothes, etc. Brian and Sanz end up outside, freezing their asses off.

There's an unspoken agreement to Never Speak Of This amongst the whole school.

Quotes:

Chance: "This is like Nimh mixed with Lord of the Flies..."

Sanz: "Let's ... um... stock up on some provisions." (Leads Chance and Brian to the cafeteria, instead of the ritual circle.)
Brian: "Way to go, Sanz, always let your stomach make your decisions."
Chance: (Chomping on nacho cheese) "Totally irresponsible..."

Later...
Sanz: "Brian, it's this way, I'll show you!"
Brian: "Oh, sure you will- I'm sure the evil ritual circle is right next to the cheesy poofs..."
Sanz: "How do we get past our ratmates?"
Brian: "Climb. If you can do that without turning everyone into a swiss mountain brigade."

(Two vampires open the doors to the school and Ness tries to stare them down.)
Ness: "Bad timing. Scurry off now."
Vampire: "I don't think so. I think we're gonna enjoy this..."
(Both vampires enter the school and immediately turn into rats.)
Ness: (Smiling.) "Oh, I agree." (Punts one of the vampire rats.)

Ness (navigating a sea of his classmates, trying not to step on anyone): "Sheesh, I thought we weren't supposed to join the rat race until after high school..."

Julius (Beginning his speech): "Friends, Rodents, Countrymen..."

Director: Brian, Sanz, it's really cold outside. You'll freeze your asses off, but I guess for this, you'll give a rats ass?

(Ness kicks the crap out of a vampire outside of the school, and it runs away.)
Ness: "Oh sure, turn tail and run!"
Fleeing Vampire: "Good one!"

Brian and Sanz are outside when the spell's reversed, and it's cold.

Sanz: "Damn, shrinkage!
Brian: "Guillermo, You've got nothing to be ashamed of." beat pause- "Really! Ha ha ha... Whooo..."

Sanz: "You know. Do I want to freeze to death or see Radford naked?"

Brian (Re-entering the school): "Jenny Taylor? Looking Good!"
Sanz: "Choose a team, man! You're awfully fickle."
Brian: "Mind your business, Guillermo."
(Consider the double meaning of 'business' in this context.)

(Discussing the fact that Billy Jenkin doesn't seem to be changing back from rat form)
Tizzy: "Well...I guess I could try another spell to..."
Everyone: "NO!"

Tizzy: "Wow...I really screwed up. I don't know what to say."
Brian: "I'm sorry I turned you into a rat, Billy, would be a good start."
Ness: "It wasn't that bad. I didn't turn into a rat. "
Sanz: "Hey, we got to see some people naked, eat a lot of junk food, and we get a half day off from school. What's there to be sorry for?"
Chance: "When you put it like that . . . "

Subplot stuff:

Alexis is still reporting that she's more or less emotionless, distant and detatched from events. Ness wants Radford to try to find a spell to get her emotions back.

Zeke and Ness discuss the upcoming art fair in Kingsport.

Radford and Samantha determine the spell's powerful backfire was due to the influence of Keziah Mason's mini-hellmouth and her focus on the school.

The next episode is "Little Green Triangles" and is the planned Ness subplot explosion bit. Ness actually drew up a teaser...

Narrator: Next week, on the Shadows over Arkham...
The scene cuts to Brian, who screams angrily: "You LIED to
us!" to an unseen person. The scene shifts to a black helicopter,
whirring silently as it makes it's way through the skies of Arkham.

Narrator: A secret behind one of the group is revealed.
Cut to Radford walking up to the camera, saying: "No. He's
not human..."

Narrator: But when it's revealed...
Shift to a shot of Mika with a knife to her throat, looking
surprised for a moment.
Narrator: Will the group lose one of their own...
Screen blacks out completly
Narrator: ...forever?
Narrator: Next time, on Shadows over Arkham!

DVD Extras:

Interview w/ The Director, Professor Phobos: "Rats" swiftly became a fan favorite. As a light-hearted episode, it came exactly when it was needed- after a fair bit of severity and before 'stuff hit fans' later in the season. It also proved our writing staff and cast could be funny, even under the supervision of the Professor, a sad and humorless man even on a good day.

Deleted Scenes:
Zeke and Samantha were trapped in the art room when turned into rats, and woke up together, alone, and naked. They avert their eyes immediately and awkward dialogue follows, but there's plenty of tension in the air.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Cool. Like it, like it.

[Professor Phobos]

Episode 1x06- "Little Green Triangles."


Summary: Corporate goons from Aeon Laboratories: Dr. Seldon Graves (Stolen from: GURPS Cabal) and a Colonel Endicott, plus commandoes, try to retrieve what was government property- Ness.

Ness was lying about the mutant thing- he's actually a Robot, a robot made to look like Ness Coen and infused with the comatose boys' soul, built by his father before he was assassinated by Graves when they were both working for the Initiative.

This was our Thanksgiving episode, and we started things off in Radford's history class. Ness is summoned by a worried looking Shrewsbury and taken to the office, where he meets Dr. Graves and Col. Endicott, who try and coerce Principal Shrewsbury into allowing them to take Ness into custody.

Shrewsbury refuses, smelling a rat, and Ness is saved. For the time being. Graves is a Moriarty-esque figure, a decrepit, skeletal old man. Endicott is a straight backed ruthless military type, and as he passes Ness to leave, he whispers "Be seeing you."

Ness fairly freaked out at this point, and the others are worried- but again he lies to them.

'tis the day before Thanksgiving and the gang plans on assembling at Ness' house for a group dinner. Which they do, all bringing various portions of the meal.

Before dinner, Chance attempts to ask Tizzy out on a date, but is incessantly interrupted by various events- a trend I plan on continuing for comic purposes.

In any event, Radford and Ness' guardian get to talking, and he lets slip he served in the SAS. He also let slip that he'd been summoned to Arkham on short notice.

They get to eating, and there's mighty amounts of chit chat and the consumption of food when all of a sudden....

[Professor Phobos]

The lights go out.

Chances' trademark..."Oh...crap" and wham, tear gas grenades slam through the windows and commandoes burst into the place!

Commandoes wielding little stun-rods, and there's much kung fu fighting. Alexis gets it in the back of the head with a grenade, Zeke gets knocked out by stunrods, and Radford gets shot in the leg when a commando draws his pistol.

Chance evacuates Radford, Zeke, Tizzy, Toni and Samantha to the garage and hotwires the van, driving through the garage and blasting away.

Mika and Ness kick ass- Ness takes serious damage when bullet after bullet slams into his body, sending sparks everywhere and revealing that he's a robot. The attacks on his friends cause him to go into a Righteous Fury, and he becomes an unstoppable engine of destruction.

Until Endicott shows up- Ness has him by the throat, but Endicott's got men with rifles on his friends. Ness surrenders so that they may live, as Endicott only wants Ness, not his friends.

Ness is escorted into a black suburban, which drives off, leaving Mika and Sanz watching helplessly, with a badly wounded Alexis.

Things are looking grim...but unbeknownst to everyone, Brian's spent a plot twist to have snuck out the back and hidden in one of the suburbans...

[Professor Phobos]

Radford's checked into the hospital and the others talk with the Colonel about Ness.

Cellphones out, they get to talking. Ness has a lowjack-style tracker system (plot twist spent by Sanz), so they can find him, and Alexis head wound heals.

Radford's leg is sown up, and the cast coordinates. No one knows where Brian is, but a rescue attempt for Ness is organized.

Which Radford expressly orders them not to do. Radford refuses to allow Mika to risk her life for a machine.

Naturally, he's ignored, and left in the hospital.

This is another time where Radford's sheer ruthlessness distances him from the Justice League- Sanz in particularly doesn't trust him.

The others meet up elsewhere, and Ness' guardian explains the little bit about how he's got a soul. Zeke, quite worried about such, seems very, very relieved to learn that. (None of the PC's picked up on Zeke's strange behavior vis a vis the issue of Ness' soul. I foreshadow and I foreshadow....)

They arm up and track Ness down to the Aeon Laboratories corporate building, Arkham's largest employer.

Meanwhile, Brian....

[Professor Phobos]

Has knocked out a guard and taken his uniform, and manages to put his acting skills to great use as he bluffs his way all the way through the heavily guarded b uilding into the labs, where he finally spots Ness being worked on.

Ness was taken into the car and after a chat with Endicott, they deactivate him. He's got a pair of NPC's he ran, and I found it delightful to make Ness inactive for half of the Ness-focused episode. Put the spotlight on how Ness relates to everyone else rather than just Ness.

Anyway, Brian sneaks down, knocks out another guard, hides in a bathroom and *wham* bumps right into a one-eyed and mighty startled Henry West, recruited by Aeon.

Now, recall Brian *might* have been in love with Dan Manning, who West turned into a zombie and Radford killed. In any event Brian had some sort of close relationship w/ Manning, and good reason to hate West.

So West heads off to create a distraction, warning Brian that he's going to contaminate the whole place and that ten minutes after the distraction starts everything in the place needs to be gone or they'll be dead.

Brian puts his only gas mask on the unconscious guard, to give him a fighting chance, and waits in the bathroom.

Brian manages to Intimidate West, and just as he's got West about to beg for his life, forgives him!

West takes a few moments, then begins his road to redemption (maybe...) and offers to help Brian rescue Ness.

Five minutes later, alarm klaxons start blaring and all the labcoats start screaming and running for the elevator.

[Professor Phobos]

Brian heads into Ness' laboratory section and picks him up, only to find that Ness is pretty freaking heavy. Fireman's carry, heroic feat, and Brian's on his way down the corridor to the elevator.

Green gas is spilling out of a lab section at the far end of the place- a noxious looking green gas. The air gets foul.

The gas is heading towards Brian faster than Brian is heading toward the elevator, as he trudges along, Ness on his back.

Brian manages to collapse into the elevator sections before the gas reaches him, with only a few whisps making it inside the elevator- still causing Brian to choke and sputter for a while as the elevator heads up.

Meanwhile, the others have arrived at the Aeon building to see most of the employees on the outside. Looks like there's a fire drill or somesuch.

On the way, Sanz and Tizzy devised a spell they want to try- it'll make everyone their friend for a little while (they figure they just can't kick the ass out of a small army of guards and commandoes.)

So Tizzy and Sanz perform the ritual, and hoping it works, they head into the building. Just in time to see Brian crawl out of the elevator with Ness and a whole bunch of panicked guards and guys in Chemical Warfare suits.

Since everyone is friendly, they're all helping one another, except that the spell doesn't seem to work on people who have prior bias, so when Endicott shows up, he's a danger.

Alexis hurls a battle axe at him and neatly severs his arm. (and shocks the rest of the cast as to her murderous violence)

A soldier tries to shoot at them, but Mika gives him a kiss. Friendship spell prevails, and there's less violence than there would have been otherwise.

Eventually the elevator opens again, and out pours two dying chemsuit guys and a zombie from the lab section- the soldier Brian had left down there.

Chaos ensues, and the cast gets Ness and everyone else out of there.

[Professor Phobos]

Finally, wrapping things up.

Radford gets Ness' little "soul" explained, and recants his earlier position on things.

Brian talks with Sanz for a little while, and almost confesses his secret, but eventually backs out as the episode closes.

There's much friendship affirmation and bonding as Ness is reactivated. He's deeply sorry for lying, etc etc, they all forgive him. It's all good roleplaying. (I am thankful for my players.....best thing for a GM is good players, I say...)

The cast adds "Aeon Laboratories" onto their list of enemies, which has grown pretty darn long. (Keziah Mason, "the king", the Bishops, Potter...)

Hmm, lesse, that's about it. For those wondering, "Little Green Triangles" is a reference to Delta Green.

Next week, it's "The Field Trip of Unknown Kadath" and the cast is going to enjoy a visit to the Dreamlands.

[the village idiot again..]

Shadows over arkham just completed the first half of episode seven, the Field trip of Unknown Kadath. It's turned in to a two-part episode, as the group decided to spend the whole session tooling around Kingsport, and planning operation: whipped cream.

It's a unique situation in this game, where most of the players seems to enjoy just hanging out and doing stuff. no dice necessary. Until, of course, it's time to kill the vampires.

gamer known as Brian

[Mr. Analytical]

I think this thread didn't get anywhere near the love it deserved.

I thought that it was excellent.

Phobos, having looked around the various Buffy websites I think that your summaries are among the very best I've seen (basicaly yours and Steve D's with everyone else's way behind). We got a real idea of plot and character and emotion and fun. you also editorialised enough to give a real impression of how you as GM saw the game and what you thought was good and bad.

You write incredibly well and I think your campaign really kicks arse. Some of the set pieces were really excellent (particularly the Zombie-guy trapped in the burning lab... fucking groovy!) and your players seem to be very able and motivated, a couple of the Whitehats in particular do really great character development.

I got a real impression of being there and thought some of the adventures were really exciting. I think some of the summaries worked less well but as you said, they're less fun to write than they are to read so I suspect you kind of got sick of writing them when you weren't getting much feedback :( for example the whole king and queen thing was really odd and I suspect that I understood about as much of what was going on from your summary (with the spoilers) as your players did when you played it.

On the whole though your campaign sounds really really excellent and I'm amazed you had a drop-out. Keep up the good work and I'd really like to hear about what else is going on in your campaign even if you can't be bothered to write it up for us all to enjoy publically.

Kudos.

[Professor Phobos]

Well.

In that case, I'll keep it up.

Thanks! Your kind words have lifted my spirits.

[Mr. Analytical]

No problem :-)

I'd seen the thread a few times but last night I printed it off and read all of the summaries and just thought it was great. I definitely liked the elements of editorialising from you, I think that's the only fault of the Night Watch summaries, namely that they emerge fully formed... giving some insight into the creative process is definitely cool as an inspiration to other GMs and I think make you look better as a GM :-) Steve D's summaries are fully formed and add to his aura of invulnerability but you are public about the choices you make and they turn out to be right and they also show where the GM's work ends and the players take over so it makes a lot of them look really good as well.

[Professor Phobos]

Episode 1x07, "The Field Trip of Unknown Kadath", part 1.

A few episodes ago Shrewsbury mentioned the Miskatonic Valley High School Art Fair in Kingsport as something Ness and Zeke should enter into, and that day has finally arrived. AHS students who submitted something or are in an art class get to go on the overnight trip to Kingsport and see the show, not to mention enjoy scenic Kingsport's many attractions.

We begin our episode outside the bus to take these kids to Kingsport. Radford, sporting a neat Mad-Max style Leg Brace is there to see them off, along with Tizzy and Samantha, who are not going- they could have both gone, but declined for Potentially Sinister Reasons.

Ness and Radford avoid eye contact as best they can- they have not spoken since Thanksgiving, though Radford has changed his position on the whole "Does Ness deserve to live?" thing.

Onto the bus they go.

From the DVD Extras:Interview with the Director...
Interviewer: Rumor has it you were sick during the filming, care to shed any light on that?

Director: Oh yes. I was guzzling cheap safeway tea and those awful Starbucks "Double Shots" all through the shoot, barely able to function. My direction suffered as a result- the whole thing was a series of me shooting myself in the foot.

Interviewer: How so?

Director: Even the first scene, outside the busses. It didn't make sense for Tizzy or Samantha to not go- I cut them out to minimize the number of cast members I had to deal with at the same time. Of course, I've got a couple good Sinister Reasons now for them not to have come along, but at the time, it was a mistake to pass up the chance to further the Zeke/Samantha and Tizzy/Chance romantic subplots, not to mention the [spoilers redacted] plotline.

On the Bus:

They file in toward the front. Shrewsbury sits next to Zeke and converses with them for a little while. Chance and Sanz covertly discuss the necessity of playing a prank on Shrewsbury while at the hotel, and Shrewsbury groans about how Kingsport wins the art fair every year.

Quote:
-Brian:"Don't worry about it, Mr. Shrewsbury. The Gymnastic team will wipe the floor with Kingsport come spring. Creatively, too."
-Shrewsbury: "We're the only school in the area with a gymnastics team. Of course we win."
-Brian: "And win by a huge margin."

Ness is nervous and excited, but Zeke remains stoically calm. Brian reads the newspaper and is quiet and withdrawn, as usual.

Eventually, Dean Moore approaches Shrewsbury and speaks with him, and they both head to the back of the bus to sit near problem student Anthony Bishop. His brother, John, replaces Shrewsbury next to Zeke sporting a bloody nose.

This is the closest the cast has been to John- the "good Bishop", famously abused by his brother. (Anthony, as you'll note, has also tried twice now to kill various cast members.)

Brian is the only one to break the awkward silence, and leans over the seat to ask John a question about Bishop family history. A very detailed question, showing that Brian's been doing a lot of research. John doesn't know the answer- but he gets Brian's message.

On to Kingsport...

[Professor Phobos]

DVD Extras: Interview with the Director...(I'm going to drop the whole "it's a TV show" thing. 'tis silly)

Interviewer: Some have noted that nothing really happens during the first part of this episode. Care to explain the slow pace?

Director: Well, I was busy trying to keep my head from exploding and was unable to pace things very well. Since my players are quite happy to just interact naturally with the other characters, I never know when they want the roleplaying to stop and the blood spray to begin. Since I am so loathe to *make* them do anything, I end up allowing a lot of time being spent just letting them roleplay. In fact, I was barely able to reach the cliffhanger ending for this episode at all. But more on that later.

In Kingsport:

They all check into their rooms. It is four to a room so Toni and Mika are with two strangers. Directors Note: PERFECT spots for Tizzy and Samantha, compounding my mistake. Forced the creation of two additional bit SCM's...

Toni and Mika head off, with Brian tagging along, to a bookstore to meet up with Mika's out-of-town boyfriend, Chris. Brian declines to participate in the Chance/Sanz/Ness plot to raid Shrewsbury's room...

Quote:
-Brian: "Sorry, but guerilla warfare against Administrators isn't my bag."
-Chance: "Oh man. You gotta stand up. Fight. For your right. To party."
-Ness: Where's that in the student handbook?
-Chance: "The MAN took it out."
-Ness:Which man? *tilts his head*

Directors Note:Initially both Toni and Mika came into the game "taken", so to speak, but in light of Brian's infatuation w/ Toni Mika's player dropped her boyfriend so as to make for a more interesting time had by all.

The guys, however, have a problem. There are five of them- Chance volunteers to be the Odd Man Out and room with three strangers for a night. Given that Chance suffers from wildly inconsistant luck, this turns out to be a bad idea when he finds himself staying with no less than two Chess pieces...

Quote:
Chance (Walking into the room, spotting both Bishops- one of whom has tried to kill him): "Ah...hey there."
Anthony: "Un frickin' believable."
John: This is a little awkward...

Anthony barges out of the room, giving Chance the shoulder.

Chance stores his stuff in the other room for now, and heads off with the rest of the gang to pick up supplies for a prank they desire to play on Shrewsbury. Sanz also wants to hit up Kingsports local magic shop, which, while it is not nearly as good as Arkham's "The Broom Closet" (Thanks be to some #RPGNet person who came up with that name...), Sanz spends a drama point to have picked up an item that will "Come in handy later."

Chance reveals who his roommates are, and the four get into an argument. Ness immediately volunteers to take Chances' place, being both superhuman and not needing to sleep.

Chance says he'll pull an all-nighter and maintains that he can handle himself. Zeke in particular takes offense and adamantly maintains Chance should switch. In fact, at one point, it almost looks like Zeke's pissed off when Chance refuses to follow his advice. Maybe. Zeke seems especially opposed to the idea of an "all nighter." Zeke actually tries to *order* Ness and Chance to switch, but he's ignored.

Quote:
-Chance: "Yeah. I think I'll pull an all-nighter tonight."
-Ness: "You could switch with me if you wanted."
-Chance: "Hey, I can handle myself."
-Ness: "Well, yeah, but you need sleep. I don't."
-Chance: "With the help of Sir. Mountain Dew, I don't either!"

They get their silly string.

On to the art fair...

[Jimmy]

Nice read so far!

keep up the good work. ;)

[Professor Phobos]

Zeke's submissions dominate the art show. They're all your basic nature scenes, painted skillfully to be sure, but there isn't anything special about them...except they provoke a sense of calmness, serenity, in the viewer. The judges are unable to put their fingers on how Zeke's managed to capture the emotional essence of a scene so well, but it's clear he'll be the winner announced the next day.

Ness' submission is actually a group portrait- he's gone and put everyone up on canvas (even Julius, Sanz' new familiar.) It's well done, but a little cartoonish and not going to take home any prizes. Still, the connection it'll have to the rest of the gang ensures Ness' piece was far more popular amongst them than Zeke's.

After the fair, they gear up to play a prank on Shrewsbury. Namely, Ness uses his Terminator-like ability to mimic human voices to get him out of his room, they enter and begin to redecorate the place. Dean Moore catches 'em in the act, though.

Quote:
-Brian:"So, you fought the law- did the law win?"
-Ness: "The law gave us detention."
-Sanz: "Like we don't spend all our time at school anyway."
-Brian: "Ah- you fought the law, and the law won."

Director's Note: Sadly, while I enjoy frivolous merriment as much as the next guy, the session was drawing to a close and I really wanted to end on a cliffhanger, so I had to gloss over the prankage. . I've made a note to myself to ensure that they get many more opportunities for delightful practical jokes in the future. If I had done a little more railroading earlier in the session, they'd have had more time for this...

Anyway, they return to their rooms and prepare for sleep.

Chance returns to his room to find the others also preparing. Anthony's in the bathroom- using this time, John quickly heads to Chance and quietly tells him nothing will happen to him tonight. Then Anthony heads for his bed- and punches John in the stomach as he goes by. He then gives Chance a "What? Gonna do something about it?" look.

Chance is about ready to do something about it, but John intervenes. Chance is all up in arms, but Anthony says "I can wait" in a very sinister way, as if he knows something is coming. It was tense there, for a moment, and the other players (and I, frankly) were ready for some Kung Fu.

Director's Note: I had shot myself in the foot by even setting this up at all. I kind of wanted to make sure John Bishop was introduced before the next episode, which is the mid-season two parter that'll get 'em back onto the main plot, but the thing is: If Chance doesn't sleep, he misses out on all the fun. Likewise, Brian later tried to pull an all nighter just in case things went bad with Chance. Luckily both were amenable when I pointed out the episode had its title for a reason, and agreed that they'd eventually fall asleep. I managed to sidestep the Chance/Anthony rematch *and* foreshadow the excrement-hitting-fans stage of the season that's upcoming, so I gave myself a gold star for getting out of a hole I dug.

So after that, everyone goes to sleep in the last few minutes of the session. The whole point of this part of the Episode was to put them to sleep in Kingsport, so that...

They found themselves at the top of a long, dark stairway, looking at Zeke dressed like some kind of medieval, royal soldier. Zeke is also a different person...he has an aura of command and authority he lacks in the Waking World. The others are in their pajamas, except for Sanz, who apparently sleeps naked.

Quote:
Chance: "So that's what Sanz' penis looks like."

I was initially going to veto the nudity, but Chance slipped in the Family Guy reference and I was forced to let it slide. On the plus side, Sanz has the item he spent a Plot Twist on before.

Zeke sighs dramatically and says..."I'm sorry I had to do this to you...welcome to the Dreamlands.

At that, the session closed.

There was follow-up discussion for the next session. Namely, I wanted everyone to work up a "dream avatar" of their character, that would at times represent all their strengths in an exaggerated, archetypical manner, and at other times, represent their weaknesses. Weapons and items manifest as per their personality- Sanz skateboard is a flying carpet, Ness' pens became spears, the blood of his enemies his ink...and so forth. This episode is kind of based off of "Nightmares" or "Fear, Itself" only with more swordfighting in the midst of metaphorical revelation of character psychology. The idea is that injury and death in the Dreamlands will be dependent on mental, not physical factors. So at some point in the next episode they might have to face their fears or otherwise be hurt emotionally and shift into the weak dream avatar from the strong. (Brian's player intends to start as his weak self and manifest the strong version later in the episode, probably to Save The Day.)

Making up for what I thought was a slow, plodding session was the enthusiasm the various players had for this idea. With any luck, I'll be able to successfully off at least a moderate amount of awesomeness for the second part of the Episode later this week. It'll involve much stabbing of monsters.

Also contingent on their experiences in the Dreamlands will be the availability of the "Dreamer" quality afterwords. While Dreamlands scenarios might not be that common, there's an awful lot of weirdness that might ensue.

[martyrswounds]

Cool. Seems like you've got an incredible group. Is this an Internet game? If so, do you have room for another player? I've got the corebook and would be willing to play pretty much anything you need or desire. Feel free to tell me no; I wouldn't want to intrude.

Keep posting. This is very enjoyable to read.

[Professor Phobos]

Sorry, when we had the sixth player I found things a little overwhelming and so I'd prefer to keep things at five. However, I'll keep you in mind in case someone drops out.

[Mr. Analytical]

Aaah... more Lovecraftian goodness.

Seems like you've got the opposite problem to me, your players are so happy to interract with each other and NPCs that they don't necessarily drag the plot forward much but they do well as usual.

One thing I'm surprised you didn't pick up on (though you might have already/be planning to) is the school sport. you went for gymnastics rather than swimming which might allow you a slightly postmodern Buffy/Lovecraft Deep Ones cameo in the shape of something like the Kingsport swim team.

great stuff as usual though.

[Professor Phobos]

A player brought up gymnastics, actually. I haven't had the chance to work in the Innsmouth High swim team, yet.

Of course, it'll be the focus of the Innsmouth episode...

(I'm sure tempted to call it "All Fish Must Be Eaten")

[Professor Phobos]

As last session went slow, and allowed much time for roleplaying, the next went quickly and allowed much time for violence.

They continued to ask Zeke questions at the top of the Steps of Greater Slumber, but he says they have no time. Zeke tells them that they cannot die in the dreamlands but their minds can be destroyed, left hopelessly insane. He offers them a chance to back out- anyone who does not want to face unspeakable evil and terror can be cast out back into regular dreams.

The only one who hesitates is Brian, but in the end, they all go down the steps.

They are separated- each descent is a personal journey. It takes some days, others weeks, some centuries of tireless, hungerless, sleepless stepping.

Eventually, they emerge, their dream avatars having taken over their pajamas and night clothing. All are stronger, well armed except for Brian, who appears as a craven, cowardly rogue.

Mika and Toni are Arthurian knights, Sanz a sorcerer on a flying carpet, Chance a mace-wielding guy in armor, and Ness is a young boy in squires' clothing with a big spear.

To enter the Dreamlands, though, they must pass through the Gate, guarded by two Egyptians. The entry toll is a memory sacrificed to the Egyptians, who shout and mock the memory sacrificed. Zeke gives up some homework he did, Ness a time he wet the bed back when he was a human kid, Chance the memory of Tizzy naked (which he feels guilty about), Sanz something minor I don't properly recall, Mika and Toni some of their japanese experiences. Brian rather foolishly gives up a memory of mourning for Dan. Later on the deletion of the cathartis will cause him trouble. The most minor was Mika's, who gets a warning from the Egyptians that "The next time, the price will be higher."

They emerge on a field poisoned. The sun is sick and casts a pallid light, the land is parched and the forest surrounding the field is dark and dead. Corpses lay strewn around- Zeke curses, as these are his men, sent to escort them.

A twig snaps. Zeke shouts for them to be ready and wham, a hoard of nightmare monsters is on them.

I boosted everyone for Dreamlands-level combat. A drama point gave +100 to a roll. One roll determined a whole host of combat actions. Eventually, Toni fails and is badly injured by a monster- these monsters don't cause physical damage. Her wounds hemorraged personality traits like bravery and love. (Sanz took a minor wound and lost some of his sense of humor)

Sanz, the powerful sorcerer, calls down the heavens with thunder and lightning to destroy countless monsters. Most all eventually spent a drama point to go on a Sauron-style rampage against the 'nightmare figments' as Zeke later calls them. When they die, a black mist erupts that carries with it temporary personality traits. You kill one and inhale bravery or greed. Flying versions arrive and try to swamp the party, but Sanz drives them off.

When Toni is injured Mika spends a drama point and kills thousands of them, but she gets there too late. Toni is gravely hurt- her mind may not survive.

They drive off the monsters, and Zeke leads them into the forest, which obeys his commands. Eventually they reach a place untainted, full of life, and Zeke commandeers a group of giant frog-things as steeds to hop their way onwards, a wounded Toni in Mika's arms. Toni loses her bravery and love for her sister, and shouts horrible accusations and terrible things at Mika the entire trip.

[Professor Phobos]

They reach the City and enter, and are promptly swamped by people begging them for help and succor and medicines and food and money. Dirty, tired, scared looking people. They approach the central Citadel of the city- a tall, obsidian black, featureless spire.

To enter, they must think on their worst fear, and resolve to face it. All do so except Brian, who does not bother, and Toni, who is taken by Wise Women to be treated.

They end up in a Throne Room, and seated on the throne is an old, withered man who weeps blood. Blood seeps out of his hands and his side. He is introduced as Randolph Carter, King of the Dreamlands, and as the land is poisoned, so is he dying.

Carter and Zeke speak for a bit. Carter demands to know where the other five champions Zeke promised are.

Zeke explains that Toni was wounded and Brian is a coward. Carter asks about the rest.
Zeke explains that Radford's dreams are unsuitable and that some Thing very dangerous already dreams about Tizzy.
Carter asks about the last, and Zeke reluctantly admits he excluded Samantha because he has concern for her and did not want to force this on her.

Three subplots started in one conversation. :::Cracks his GMing knuckles, sits back.:::

It is explained that, essentially, the Dreamlands is mostly created by humanity but that certain Other Things also dream. One such thing, a Great Old One, is stirring in its sleep because some bad nasty is trying to wake it up. If it wakes, everyone in the Waking World that falls asleep will wake up completely, totally ,hopelessly insane.

An army of Nightmare has been destroying citadel after citadel. The citadels acted as sleep aids for the Old One. If they are all destroyed, it'll wake up. The Citadel they are tasked to defend is the last.

Carter had Zeke call the cast in as Champions, and defend that last tower.

Meanwhile, Toni's bravery is restored by the Wise Women but her Love is a far harder wound to heal. Brian offers the Wise Women his love- for parents, for Toni, etc. He sacrifices his own capacity to Love another, in any sense, to restore Toni's mind.

Then, the sky grows dark, and a rumble is heard, and Zeke, just as he mentions that before each battle the Champions all were paralyzed somehow, collapses to the floor, transforming into his weak, fearful self....

[Professor Phobos]

Now, a huge army has appeared outside of the city. Creatures of all kinds of horrible forms. Nightmare figments, giant red worms, flying things....it's not looking good. The sky is black with monsters and so is the ground for miles around.

Sanz goes on the offensive, launching miles-long fireballs at the hoard, immolating hundreds of thousands. Each one he kills is swiftly replaced- and the black mist coalesces into a giant, outstretched hand, which grabs the tower and begins to crush it.

About this time, everyone- except Brian and Toni- have horrible visions of their worst fears becoming true.

Paralyzed by fear, they sit trapped in horrible repeating visions as the army of Nightmare breaks into the city.

Around this time, Brian gets to save the day. (The idea was- as the player started out weak, the roles would later be reversed. At the most dire moment, when it was absolutely necessary, he'd redeem himself.)

He and Toni (now healed) head for the tower and break everyone out of their visions, except for Sanz, whose whereabouts are unknown. They gather their wits and pull themselves together.

Earlier, Brian had spotted the Thing Causing All The Trouble. It is a bat-winged, squid faced monstrosity riding on top of a horrific cross between an elephant, lobster and scorpion, carrying a massive sword, leading the hordes of nightmare and smashing whole city blocks.

They exit the citadel, and Sanz lands right in front of them. As he was airborne when his vision hit, he eventually fell from his flying carpet. The impact knocks the fear right out of him in a stroke of good fortune, and he too, is ready for action.

There they stand, the only thing in the way of an onrushing tide of nasties and the sanity of the entire planet.

[Professor Phobos]

Next session, I guess we'll resolve things with violence. Mmm...violence.

GMs Notes:

This was my second attempt at a "weird shit" episode. It worked better than "The Strange High School In the Mist", especially for the first half or so, but toward the end I made some mistakes.

At one point I thought I could wrap it all up quickly and so I compressed things unduly. I thought it necessary to complete the episode in this particular session, so after they reached The City I felt things got more arbitrary than I'd like. I did more railroading than I feel comfortable with, as well.

I didn't go in with a clear idea on how combat mechanics would work in the dreamlands. I mean, I had them as Exalted-level forces of destruction against thousands upon thousands of monsters...but no clear way of adjudicating this. So the Big Fight Scene was probably confusing.

On the other hand, Toni and Mika had a lot of good interaction after she was wounded, the players seemed to enjoy the sacrifice of memory scene, and Brian's sacrifice of his ability to Love was unexpected on my part and pretty neat. And I liked the fact that it was their minds that were injured by Dreamlands wounds, not anything else. I find it neat that you can be, say, gutted and spill your sense of comittment all over the floor.

I don't know for sure whether they enjoyed themselves or not.

In hindsight, I would have set this later in the season (the initial plan was, actually to start the whole dreamlands thing in the second season, not the first) and I would have allowed the episode to take as long as it needed to take. This will be my policy from now on. The faster I pace things, the worse it gets, except when it comes down to the oh-crap-combat/horror scenes, where fast is good.

A scene of "preparing for battle" in the Dreamlands would have been cool. Get to know the locals, gear up, that sort of thing. They just went from fight scene to travel scene to NPC pontification scene to fight scene, which isn't nearly as compelling.

Well, in any event, next week they'll start out in a big fight. I have some interesting ideas for after-the-battle stuff. The ongoing Dreamlands plotline will involve Zeke taking the throne after Randolph Carter and the influence of the Great Old One on things.

I think I'll avoid "weird shit acid trip" episodes for a good long while, though. Twice now they have resulted in what I feel are weaker GM performances than the games set in reality.

Subplot Notes:
-Brian's just got considerably more inhuman.
-Toni was restored to health by portions of Brian's personality and stored up bottled personality elements from the Dreamlands. She's not going to be the same person she was, and will always bear the scars of her wounds on her psychic.
-Zeke likes Samantha.
-Something dangerous dreams about Tizzy.
-Radford has unpleasant dreams. (Dark past, mmm?)
-All the cast members are now changed by exposure to the dreamlands. Weirdness may very well ensue.

[Professor Phobos]

Quotes:

-Zeke:...."Before you walk down these steps, you should know... what lies before you is...nightmare incarnate. Horrors beyond human reckoning. You cannot die in the dreamlands- not physically. But your minds....they might not survive. You could be left hopelessly insane. So if you want to back out, I will cast you out right now."
-Ness: *scratches his head, mumbling* That's not very...pep talky...

-Ness: "Well, facing possibly horrible death sounds more interesting than late night TV. "

-Chance: "You . . . you all right there, Brian? Your getting all, uh, Wormtongue . . ."

-Zeke: "Take the three thousand on the left."
-Chance: "Hey...no pressure."

(Zeke flips out, Mika slaps him.)
-Ness: "Darn it, I was gonna do that."
-Mika: "You can do it next time, I promise."

-Zeke: "Say, where did Sanz get to?"
(Sanz hits the ground right in front of them.)
-Zeke: "Nevermind."

[Shawn]

great stuff!

[Mr. Analytical]

Good Job!

I particularly like some of the mechanical work you've done on integrating the Dreamlands into the campaign like the Dreamer quality and the more powerful drama points.

I disagree that you've not really given a framework in which to run these new powers... you've made some inroads (as opposed to more easily going "yeah, you kill loads fo them") but will you give them all the dreamer quality or would being a dreamer give them additional powers?

I would have given them more of a textured power boost reflecting sdome of their supernatural qualities which you kind of seem to be doing with Brian. A bit like when Angel visited Lorn's home dimension and it liberated the demon part of him.

But excellent stuff :-)

[Professor Phobos]

I've got a clearer workup for the Dreamer quality than actual stuff in the Dreamlands. The more levels of it you buy, the more you're able to do. Go into other people's dreams, manipulate your own dreams, manipulate the dreams of others, enter the Dreamlands proper, take things into and out of the dreamlands...

Of course, not always intentionally...

[Professor Phobos]

The third session went very well, but I'll be delayed in transcribing it due to the sheer number of good quotes I must look for in the log.

Ended on a cliffhanger introduction for the next episode, had violence, character c hange, near death experiences, and most importantly, a horrible, horrible pun cascade.

[twistedbutsane]

This stuff is great, though I admit I was thrown by some of the Dreamworld stuff, largley due to my lack of knowledge when it comes to Cthulu stuff (I assume that is where The Dreamworld are from.) But the subplots that began because of it really fit the buffyverse. Especially the something strong already dreams of that npc line.

Anyway I will be looking forward to your future posts.

[Scorpio Rising]

Just another post to say that this is a great thread. I have fairly weak 'thulhu-fu, but even I can pick up on some of the Randy Carter, Kingsport, Innsmouth etc stuff. Tizzy Whateley is bothering me though. I know I've read that one but I can't recall it.

I like the caste you've got. Sounds like the players are all doing a good job. Brian is a particular favourite of mine, perhaps because he seems to be the one in the "powerless" Xander role. That means you get to be Batman, right?

One criticism (intended as constructive) is that I'd like to see a little more focus on the Slayer. I know, I know, it's a group game and you don't want too much favouritism, but I know when I GM I occasionally make a session, or even a whole story, focus on one character with the idea of really bringing them out, really putting their plot(s) in the limelight. You did it with Ness, kinda, in the Delta Green episode.

I guess that I'd really like to see more of that done with Mika. Something that I as a GM often do to make people focal is to find ways to call on them to make difficult choices. Nothing is more character defining than the choices you make, says I.

Also, there's probably a whole neat riff off of the Slayer and her twin. Are they, perchance, identical?

Anyhow. Great stuff. Keep the writeups coming. I hope the game's got a long ways yet to run.

Thanks.

- Scorpio riveted.

[Professor Phobos]

The slayer and twin are indeed identical. I have yet to exploit that. But I will.

Indeed Mika has suffered from a lack of focus- one problem is the player is perhaps our slowest typer and the character is very direct, more Kendra than Buffy, but without the "I'm Number 1" attitude. She also plays Toni at the same time, dividing her attention.

As such I've made a notch in the episode list for something focused on Mika.

[Professor Phobos]

No more procrastinating...

Episode 1x07 "The Field Trip of Unknown Kadath", conclusion.

Chance: "You think they'll break if we kill that thing?"
Brian: "No- but if we kill this, then we can certainly break them ourselves."

And lo, the seven intrepid youngsters, all that stood between a horrific monster from awakening a larger, more horrific, monster, charged.

Sanz parted the sea of nightmare with his mind and left a battlefield open to face down the Beast riding its terrible mount.

It charged.

They charged.

Brian dives to the side and plunges his sword into the joint on the Mount's front leg, twisted and snapping it clear off- the mount shudders to the stop and grounds itself.

Mika leaps up and brings her sword down on the monster's wing, slicing it clean off. It plucks her out of the air with its tentacles and begins to squeeze. Toni leaps up to help her and between the two they sever most of the tentacles

Ness, Brian and Chance dive out of the way of the massive, falling wing.

Sanz summons up a snare from the earth and wraps the beast in vines.

It swings at Zeke, but he dodges- he is stabbing the crap out of the face of the mount, digging into its eyes and brain. Chance joins him, and with his mace smashes open the skull so Zeke can get in and carve. The mount spasms in its death throws.

The beast swings its mighty sword again, at Chance and Zeke. Chance dives out of the way, barely, feeling the evil aura of the sword as it passes.

Zeke is cut neatly in half.

[Professor Phobos]

Sanz flies to his side, smashing him together with telekinesis and begins trying to help Zeke keep his mind together.

It tries to crush Mika and Toni with its mighty fist, but she manages to hold it back long enough for Toni to cut its hand off. As they are sprayed with its blood they find themselves gaining its personality traits- that of an inhuman, immortal, otherworldly horror. As Brian severs the Mounts stinger to coat his sword in poison and Chance carves his way through the Beasts chest, they all face the dissolution of their personalities. They survive, though they'll all have a little Lovecraft in them after this.

Ness hurls his spear and nails the Beat's head. Hey then leaps up, grabbing the spear, pulling himself up and it out, and plunges it into the thing's mind, being sprayed with its blood and brain fluid.

The brain fluid proved more dangerous than the blood, and Ness goes catatonic, his mind shattered.

[Professor Phobos]

Mika: "Now that you're disarmed...let me give you a hand!"

She picks up the severed hand and parries a blow from the Black Sword with it, sending her and the hand fl ying.

But she's back soon enough, pimp-slapping the monster with its own hand.

Meanwhile, Chance has dug through the beast's chest and come out the other side, to spot Brian stabbing it in the back with the poisoned blade. Brian says "Hey" and Chance gives him "the nod", all very nonchalant. Then Brian leaps away, and draws a strike from the sword. He waits, and waits, and using a great deal of courage and timing (cough...drama point...cough) severs the sword arm- the sword goes sailing.

The Beast, with a hole in its chest, no hands, no tentacles, one wing, legs crushed by the collapse of its mount, is swiftly poked, prodded, stabbed, sliced and beaten to death. (With its own hand, no less.)

It expires. As it dies, its essence washes over them, and for a moment- the barest of fractions of a second- they are as the Old Ones, timeless.

After that passes, they are left with that unpleasant memory and heartburn.

Sanz finally succeeds in talking Zeke's mind back together- he fails mentioning his duties to the dreamlands or fighting monsters, and succeeds when he reminds Zeke of Tizzy and more importantly, Samantha. Simple friendship and young love put Zeke back together.

(Well, that and a steady use of I Think I'm Okay until Zeke was all out of drama points.)

Meanwhile, Ness is battling (inside his head) his newfound alternate personality- a fraction of, well, Cthulhu's personality.
After some Fight Club style shenanigans, Ness kicks the living shit out of Nessthulhu and repairs his mind.

While he's doing that, though, they are gathered around his body, worried. They summon the King's doctor who says there is nothing he can do...

Zeke is troubled in particular, knowing it was he that brought Ness here. Brian is confident, however, certain Ness will survive.

Ness comes back, and still reeling from the effects of being, for a moment at least, part Cthulhu, asks...

Ness: "Has anyone ever wondered what sailors taste like?"

[Professor Phobos]

Finally, they return to the Citadel to find Randolph Carter restored to health. He thanks them, says he owes them one, etc etc.

They ask him some questions- he explains what he can about the vision Keziah Mason induced some three episodes back, Chance takes the opportunity to find out what else has been dreaming about Tizzy (something Big and Bad in the Waking World. )

Brian asks what Carter will do with the sword, which gives off an aura of purest destruction incarnate. Carter will have it cleaned and placed near his fireplace.

Zeke says he's taking a vacation. Carter accepts this over minimal protest.

They return to the waking world- the morning light streams through their rooms, it is soon time to get up and get ready for the art show.

Chance finds himself alone with John Bishop, whose been apparently waiting for him to wake up.

John, sporting a split lip and a black eye, looks Chance right in the face and says: "I need your help. I want to defect."

Boom, episode ends. My timing is impeccable.

The next one is the mid-season two parter, "The Student Who Came in From the Cold."

It'll cover John Bishop's attempts to get out of his family, and the Bishop retaliation that follows. Should be messy. I look forward to it eagerly. Plus, I get to re-write the Bishop family stats with stuff from Angel, and I'll be able to make John another unlockable supporting cast member.

[Professor Phobos]

I thought it went well, and the players agreed. A strong finish- and they liked the Dreamlands more than I thought, so my earlier GMing paranoia was perhaps unwarranted.

Of course, they could be lying, but I have a simple policy: If I ask my players what they think, I expect their honest answers. If they lie, they get what they deserve.

I was making stuff up as I went along- I was particularly desperate when Ness up and lost his mind. The corresponding symbolic battle to regain control was...lackluster in the extreme, I thought, but the player didn't mind because, in his words, "I made Cthulhu my bitch."

Plus it lead to the comment about sailors, which may well be the best quote of the game.

This was a pretty quotable episode, but that was mostly due to the out-of-character pun war than ensued after I told Ness he felt like he had been hit in the head with a schooner or something.

It got pretty bad. Many horrible puns. Still, there was much non-pun discussion after the game, I explained the "Dreamer" quality (which Brian purchased) and I managed to segue into the next episode at the last moment.

Long term consequences:

Everyone got exposed to the Mind of a Otherworldly Horror (In this case, for those keeping score at home, a Star Spawn).

Toni was less successful than the rest at overcoming that and Ness got hit with a much stronger dose. Likewise, Toni's dream wounds will take time to heal and she did have, effectively, an emotional transplant. So both of them will have to deal with having a little Cthulhu on the inside.

Brian lost his ability to Love anyone or anything, and picked up Dreamer.

Zeke managed to hold most of his personality together. Most.

They've been to the dreamlands, saved the day there. Now Randolph Carter, Earth's greatest dreamer, owes them a favor.

[Professor Phobos]

Oh, by the by, this was the first episode where I really ran into the "Glass Ninja" effect.

Zeke only missed his dodge roll by one but took the full brunt of the damage. Likewise with Ness.

It's not so much a flaw as it is something I'll have to look out for- damn near lost ol' Zeke. (Though I probably could have fudged things for him.)

I also made it official that I was keeping track of Life Points secretly. I describe injuries hopefully well enough so they know when to use I Think I'm Okay.

[DanB]

Originally posted by Professor Phobos
Indeed Mika has suffered from a lack of focus- one problem is the player is perhaps our slowest typer and the character is very direct, more Kendra than Buffy, but without the "I'm Number 1" attitude. She also plays Toni at the same time, dividing her attention.

As such I've made a notch in the episode list for something focused on Mika.

Indeed. He mentioned the antagonist of the Mika adventure. Since I'm not sure I should be blabbing about it, I'll just say that it made me laugh for a long time.

--Dan Byrne, also known as Chance

[Professor Phobos]

John: "I need your help. I want to defect."

Chance: "You want . . . to defect? Well, I'll, uh, I'll help you out anyway I can, but it isn't like we have an embassy to hide out in."

The very morning after they returned to the Waking World from the Dreamlands, John Bishop, abused black sheep of the Bishop family, asks for their help.

As the others get up and get ready for bed down the hall, in other rooms, John haltingly explains to Chance that he wants out of his family entirely.

If Chance refuses, John says he has no choice but to kill himself to avoid a fate worse than death.

Chance brings John down the hall to the other room, where the others are gathering.

Before Chance can open the door, John stops him.

John: "If you help me...well, you'll make enemies. I can't ask you to do that. This was a mistake..."

Chance: "Don't worry. We've got a lot of enemies all ready. We are good at picking them up."

John:"Not like these."

Chance: "Relax. We don't have any sense of self-preservation. Just ask Radford."

Brian sends John into the bathroom and tells him to turn the faucet on, full blast, so the others can talk in private. They then get to discussing whether or not to help him. Brian emphasizes the risks, and places a lot of Dramatic Severity on messing with the Bishops. He and Ness argue, sending Ness out of the room, feeling hurt. In the end, they do agree to help, but not trust, John. If only to hurt the Bishops. They contact Radford (who agrees they should help), eat breakfast, and go to the awards ceremony, which Zeke has dominated.

John explains what precipitated his decision to defect. On Christmas Day he and Anthony will be "initiated" into the family, a rite of passage. There will be a party, presents and money from distant relatives. Cedric got a new car when he was initiated- that, and four teenage girls and as much time as he wanted in the Wine Cellar. You see, in addition to the Initiation Day festivities, John and Anthony are going to have their human souls offered up to Shogo-Hogotha, the family demon.

After that, the newly soulless are given some sacrifices to play around with, test out the newfound utter lack of a conscience and delight in sadism.

John can't do it. He can't escape his powerful family alone, and...he wants the gang to help him save Anthony, as well.

That adds a complication, because Anthony sure as hell isn't going to want to be saved.

[Professor Phobos]

They head back to Arkham, Principal Shrewsbury fervantly congratulating Zeke.

Once there the whole gang gathers and meets together, with John, in Radford's office.

John begins to describe what the Bishops can do to them in retaliation, and Radford begins a rapid program of mystical warding. They ward the school, their homes, themselves, and research like mad.

There's a big montage scene, with them hitting the books, going to their final exams, getting coffee, donuts, and magic supplies from the Broom Closet.

Chance attempts to ask Tizzy out a couple times, and is interrupted at every turn.

They start whipping up spells- and Sanz hits on a idea to put in a "trick" soul into John, just in case he's captured or somesuch and offered to Shogo-Hogotha. A proxy, 'poisoned apple' soul, so to speak.

After a week of this madcap work, with no sign of Bishop counterattack, Radford pronounces them as safe as they can be and sends them home. This is Thursday night- next day, Friday, is the last day of finals.

[Professor Phobos]

They make it home without incident, and the next day, they return to school.

A huge snowstorm is headed to Arkham. I describe it as "apocalyptic", and Shrewsbury calls it "The biggest to hit in centuries."

Finals are rushed as a result, as no one wants to be trapped in Arkham High.

Nevertheless, the snowstorm hits just as school is getting out, and the sky rapidly darkens.

The group is gathered at the school's entrance, too paranoid to chance things at this stage, and notice that John is overdue.

Ness and Brian head toward the science wing, where John was last spotted, to look for him.

Ominous music plays, the sky darkens, and snow begins to obscure everything with white as the buses leave the premises.

Anthony approaches the main group, laughing and grinning. They parley for a bit, typical Villain-Hero, until Sanz loses patience and ups and tackles Anthony.

Now, I took the opportunity to take a Drama Point from Sanz, because sometimes Good Things Happen to Good People, and have Anthony knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile, Mika's vampire sense goes off the scale, and the sound of footfall can be heard all around the school in the snow, crunch crunch.

Shrewsbury, spotting Sanz tackling Anthony, heads over, shouting for them to break it up. But he's interrupted when two hands reach out of the darkness behind him and calmly snap his neck, dropping Shrewsbury like a rag doll. Potter appears out of the snow, floating and laughing.

[Professor Phobos]

They win, but at what price?

Chance flips out and charges Potter, who soars into the sky above him- and a vampire immediately behind Potter flies at Chance.

Chance, however, activates his "Strange Luck" and slips on some ice, and the Vampire goes sailing over him.

Right into Ness, who also charged Potter, enraged that he had seemingly murdered poor Principal Shrewsbury.

Ness picks up this vampire and throws him at the school doors. Toni defly stakes the stunned vampire.

Chance makes it to Shrewsbury's body and finds that he's still alive, if unconscious. Chance spends a drama point on a Doctor roll to help him.

More vampires appear out of the snow- one is jumped by Alexis, screaming, a wild animal.

Tizzy and Samantha scream and run into the school, finding Brian and telling him what has happened.

Brian has just come from Radford's office after he and Ness had failed to find John- he finds Radford who is seized by convulsions and knocked out, muttering "astral...parasite" before he slips off. Brian sends Tizzy and Sam to help Radford and grabs his Bag Full of Stakes, heading for the entrance.

Sanz eyes grow dark and he begins to cut himself, chanting.
He stabs himself and stabs Anthony, casting a spell he had looked at earlier but vowed not to use (well beyond his ability). However, in his pu re, blind rage, and given Sanz' reckless nature, he makes a pact with the darkness and rips Anthony's soul right out of his body. (I didn't make him roll. I just said that a spell of this nature, of this power, being cast by Sanz was going to have dire consequences even if he succeeded on a roll. The player agreed, happy to perhaps start a "Dark Sanz" storyline.)

Cedric appears, waving a knife, approaching Sanz.

Mika charges the incoming Vampires but Potter appears from above her, grabbing her and chucking her to the roof of the school. Potter wants a one on one match. (I gave Mika two drama points) The two begin a brutal, drag out fight, Potter winning most of the rounds.

Chance leaves Shrewsbury's side to help Sanz, who is being attacked by Cedric and barely surviving. Picking up his school bag he swings and hits Cedric on the side of his head, just in time to save Sanz' life, more or less.

Brian appears, tosses Mika's sword up onto the roof, and goes after Cedric with Potter's Knife (he'd stolen it in the first episode.)

Mika grabs her sword and evens the odds againts Potter, who is unarmed. The two keep fighting, Mika keeping him at bay with the sword.

Meanwhile, Alexis, Ness and Zeke are battling a group of vampires. Ness neck-breaks one (who is later staked by Toni, who went around taking out stunned vampires the whole fight), and slam tackles one about to kill Zeke, following it up with a deft staking. Alexis has lost herself to the violence, and is actually *eating* the vampire, who is, more or less, just trying to get away from the mad zombie chick.

Potter gets the better of Mika and disarms her of the sword, gets her in