So, I’m a bit late to the party with this post. I was planning to finish it last night and get it posted, but stuff came up ((The Reapers invaded and took Earth. Maybe you heard about that?)). Anyway, I’ve got to get it posted this morning, because this evening is the next Feints & Gambits session.
Last session was a small group ((Four people. In most games, that’s the size I like. In this game, that’s just over half the players.)) and I’d been having a rough couple of weeks with work deadlines. I managed almost ten whole minutes worth of prep for the game, and warned the players about that. In fact, I gave them the option of playing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying instead ((I hadn’t had any more time to prep that, but I was familiar with the Launch Party adventure from playing it. And, as a one-shot, less pressure on me to do something worthy of previous adventures.)). They decided to push ahead with F&G, though, so that’s what we did.
I filled in a little more background on what things were like now that Aengous was gone and the True Guinness was no longer being made and added to the regular Guinness. They did some poking around about that, but he’s gone, and I tried to make that very clear. After all, he warned them there would be a price.
Their main goal this session was trying to figure out who the guy in the track suit, ski mask, and sunglasses was that tried to cut their heads off in the Guinness Brewery. They had his sword, which turned out to be a reproduction. Kate cast a tracking spell and, once they crossed the Liffey, they were able to trace the sword to a pawn shop. The shop had it’s windows boarded up, obviously covering broken glass. Rogan decided to go in and ask the pawnbroker about any missing swords, but her lack of a cover story, her upper-class attitude, and her direct questions made him suspicious, and he didn’t want to tell her anything ((I should have paid her a plot point for that, in retrospect, compelling her Bloodline of Power aspect. Oh, well.)). Kate came in and rescued her, with a line about medication, and off they went, but not before Rogan managed to spot a whole shelf of replica weapons, including some swords very similar to the one the group had.
The gang regrouped at the Silver Arm, and seemed pretty blocked. Nate broke down and went to Macha and tried to get information out of her by buying her drinks. She wasn’t all that forthcoming, but did ask why the gang weren’t doing anything about what had gone on at St. Michan’s ((This was a bit heavy-handed of me, but there had been a couple of clues earlier that hadn’t been obvious enough, and I didn’t want the whole night mired down in flailing about for a lead.)). The group grabbed hold of that and scampered off.
I gave them a bit of a run-down on St. Michan’s and the mummies ((With some fictional bits thrown in to fit what I’m doing in the game.)), and then told them that the crypt tours were not currently running. They investigated to find out why, and were told that they were closed for renovation – some masonry had dropped on a visitor, and they wanted to get the vaults properly shored up before resuming the tours.
Sort of kitty-corner to the church is Bridewell Garda Station and Jail. Kate wanted to look for ghosts and, the churchyard being consecrated, I decided that there were ghosts of hanged prisoners around Bridewell ((I seem to remember being told on my Dublin tour that they hanged people in Bridewell. I don’t know for sure if it’s true, but it’s true as far as the game goes.)). She found a chatty one that spoke of the ghost of Padraig Pearse going into the church with bottles of beer, and coming out with four solid figures.
At that point, it became obvious that the gang was going to burgle the church crypts to find out if the mummies were still there. When they did, I shot some arrows at them from outside the churchyard, and we had a bit of a fight with fey archers. They also spotted some sort of colourful figure up in a tree near the church, but couldn’t get a good look at it. With the gardai from Bridewell now heading over to see what the noise was ((Nate has a flashbang rote that is very effective. Also, loud.)), our heroes embraced the better part of valour and scarpered. Next night, they went back and broke into the crypts and determined that the mummies were, indeed, missing ((Kate also opened all the other crypts and rooms. I asked her several times if she wanted to do this, and she said “Yes.” Then she looked a little hurt when I told her to add the aspect Violated the Graves to her character sheet. We’ll see what she does with it, being an ectomancer and all.)).
And that’s about where we left things. Tonight, an adventure pulled from the headlines and twisted into shape to fit the ongoing story of Feints & Gambits.