Sunday night has come and gone, and with it, another night of gaming. Before I get into all that happened (and it was quite abit!), a few observations.
Okay, shameless ego stroking of GM's here but it's true. The DF New Orleans game was heavy, heavy, heavy on action. Which was a hell of alot of fun. Let's face it, with the characters I usually play, action is pretty much my religion. Michelle Duchesne is assertive, bold, impulsive, temperamental, and impatient. She'll be reasonable, to a point, and then reason morphs into violence. Fuck her or her friends over and she will find a way to destroy you. She will never back down. That's her personality, upbringing, and genetics. I love playing her. Much of that fun comes from the way Matt runs his game. It's set up so that Michelle and all can literally romp through the city with attitude and guns.
Now with DF Las Vegas, I went a total 180 on my character. Shade is quiet, reserved, thoughtful, even tempered, and fairly patient. Not to say she is a pushover, she isn't. She has a core of steel and can be determined as hell. She just goes about it...quietly. Shade is also much more vulnerable. She isn't very capable of hiding her emotions. She would make a lousy poker player. Violence would be her absolute last resort. She will take big risks but only when she is pushed beyond reason (like being hit with the very real possibility of beheading). I wasn't sure about playing her that way and I was thinking quite seriously of tweaking her more into my comfort level. After last night, not a chance. I am beginning to get a handle on the new character type. And most of that comes from how Lana is running the game. So far social combat is king and looks to remain so. I enjoyed the hell out of playing vulnerable, scared, and more then a bit desperate. It also helped that Lana was VERY forgiving of my frustration when I REALLY wanted to break out of Shade mode and go into Michelle mode to get something done.
With that, it's now time to get on with the night's game.
The day started with Brandon at his shop. When he went in, he heard a very faint scratching noise from the basement. Being a bit curious, he went down to check it out. He was surprised to see an ethereal coyote scratching at one of his walls. Before he could react, the coyote noticed him and loped across the room, disappearing as it moved through the wall.
Shade was up early, having to run a quick errand. She went back to where she was drawn to night before last. When she got there, she opened her Sight to check things out. To put it in movie terms, she was standing on the Sight's equivalent of the yellow brick road. She recognized it as the Vegas ley line and it was huge. It seemed to be a forced convergence of all the power coming into the city and it ran down the length of the Strip. After a bit, she was able to narrow her Sight to look for traces of the creature or Frankie. She didn't find any but that was a good thing. It meant that whatever had been summoned wasn't hugely powerful.
About this time, Neil, who had also gotten up early, showed up at the Mirage and noticed Shade there. Shade noticed him as well. Since her Sight was still up, she was able to see him as he truly was- a slick kid gunslinger, taking on all the best. They chatted a bit and Shade left him to his task. Neil headed into the Mirage and went straight to the 7th floor. Using what he learned from his first visit, he was able to narrow his room choices to two possibilities. Using his charm, he convinced the maid that he had been locked out of his room. Neil can be such a charming bastard. She let him in the first room which turned out to be unoccupied. Pushing his luck just a bit, he laughingly told the maid that he was confused and that his room was actually the second. Being the charming devil he is, he convinced her again to let him in the other room. When inside, he searched the occupants belongings and found that the room was Frankie Spuno's but the room and everything else had been paid for by Max Torelli. By calling down to desk he was able to learn that someone had received the message he had previously left. Needing to report this to Uri, he called and set up an appointment for later that afternoon.
Back at her shop, Shade was setting up to use her powers. She went to work on two temporary tattoos. The first would be fairly complex. It involved relationships, rapport, likability, and getting people to want to help her and she surrounded it all by the Serendipity/Synchronicity Rune to make everything come together just right in her favor. The second was a simple luck tattoo, just to give an added edge. She spent most of the day working on them.
Back at Brandon's shop, he had finally snapped out of his surprise at seeing the coyote and shifted his senses over to see the other world. He was able to see little paw prints heading towards the wall and, in the distance, a coyote loping away. Brandon spent the rest of his afternoon setting up a ward on his shop and dealing with the consequences when it went a bit awry.
The time had come for Neil to meet with Uri. He got to the office and the receptionist announced him. Neil proceeded to tell Mr White that Torelli had financed Frankie's trip; the room, the ticket, everything. He also let him know that someone had been in the room since Frankie's disappearance. Uri then asked Neil what his impression of Torelli was. He also asked about just how he (Neil) had been invited to the game. Brandon's name was brought up at that moment. Uri wondered how Brandon had found out and been invited to the game. The next suggestion was that Neil look into that and to let Brandon know that Mr. White would just love to have a chat about everything.
With her tattoos ready and in place, Shade headed back to the Mirage. She ended up speaking to a man at the front desk who realized that he would absolutely love to help this wonderful woman surprise her new crush Frankie. She got the room number and headed up. Before getting to the room, she found a house keeper and, while charming her to pieces, was able to steal the pass key card from her cart. She went into Frankie's room and looked around. Not finding what she needed in the bathroom (some hair from his brush), she rummaged through his suitcase and took a pair of socks. Just for fun, she opened her Sight and checked out the room that way. Just then, the door opened and in stepped Torelli. Startled, she looked up at him with the Sight still going. What she saw scared the hell out of her. She saw that, within the Sight, Max had a Third Eye on his forehead and that he seemed to be wearing a priest's outfit with the collar stained red with blood and blood coming off the cuffs. Scared as hell, she quickly shut the Sight down and asked him just what the hell was he. He came into the room and politely asked her to sit down and chat honestly for a bit. Now, intimidated as well as scared, she did...as far away from him as she could be. He asked her why she was in the room and she told him about Frankie, the tattoo, and such. He told her she shouldn't mess with things that didn't concern her and did she want to go out Tuesday night. Her answer was an incredulous no. With all that's going on, until she gets her equilibrium back (and confirms what she suspects about Max), the answer will stay no. She quickly left.
After his talk with Uri, Neil left and realized he needed a bit more information about some things. He headed over to Shade's shop, reaching there just as she got home from the Mirage. She invited him in and asked him what he wanted. He told her he had a question about why a person would have what looks like flames in their eyes. Before answering him, Shade offered him a drink. She certainly needed one and figured that, after he heard what she was going to tell him, he would need one too. Pouring Scotch, Shade started to fill him in to the real Vegas, not the Vegas presented to the tourists. Neil heard about Vampires, Fey, Wizards, and other things. Once again bringing up the flames, Shade told him it was probably a Demon of some sort. Neil drained his glass and Shade poured him another. Just then, Shade noticed Brandon gesturing through the front window. He came in and asked to use the phone to call another cab, since the one he had been in broke down (surprise!). While he made the call, Neil noticed that there was a coyote behind him. Considering all that he had heard just then, he didn't comment about it. Frankly, a coyote almost seemed normal. When everybody finally noticed the coyote, Shade opened the Sight again, got another shock, and promptly fell on her ass. The coyote was huge, looked like it was starving, and seemed to wanting something. The mental stress of Seeing it quickly caused Shade to end the Sight. Before doing so, she noticed that it had cherry blossoms around it's neck. The coyote, not getting what it needed, trotted away, fading out as it went through the wall.
With that excitement over, the boys left. Neil wanted to check the alley for the coyote after it had left. Not finding anything, Neil and Brandon started talking. Neil told Brandon about Uri wanting to talk to him, which just made Brandon oh so happy. Brandon decided that home would be a good place to hide, got into the now waiting cab, and left. Neil headed off to look up some of his contacts. When he found them, he started asking some questions about Uri. He wanted to know his reputation about town, when he got to Vegas, and who were his friends, if any. He was told that Uri had been in Vegas for a number of years and was considered the guy to go to if you had money problems. As for friends and commonly known associates, three names came up. They were Melinda Raith, Robert Mason, and Ezekiel Locke.
Brandon finally made it home, where he got another wonderful surprise. There was a phone message from Melinda Raith, wanting to know why he hadn't gotten in touch with her. The message went on to say that she expected a call from him as soon as possible. Between the coyote, Uri, and Melinda, Brandon decided to call it a bad day and headed for bed. Being a douche bag does bring it's own special brand of karma.
Shade's night wasn't over by a long shot. She headed out to the Luxor to get in touch with a Shaman there by the name of Jeremy Running Mouse...aka Running Mouth. She found him and asked him about the coyote, specifically how to banish it back to where it came from. It took some doing but she did manage to keep him fairly on topic. The conversation ended with him agreeing to help her in return for owing him a favor. She does have veto power over the favor though. Starting to feel a bit desperate about the whole mess, Shade headed back to her shop and casted a locating spell on Frankie. That's why she needed the socks. Eventually, she pinpointed his whereabouts in Boulder City. After asking around a bit, she got a lead to a local motel. After pleading with the desk clerk, she got Frankie's room number. However, the clerk had called the room first and it had spooked him, causing him to flee. Shade got to the car just as Frankie pulled away in his. A brief chase scene later, Shade was able to force him off the road. As she came up to the window, Frankie pulled a gun on her. Talking fast, Shade convinced him not to shoot and to listen. He seemed reassured a bit when she told him that no one else knew where he was. However, he wasn't about to let her leave knowing where he was. Frankly, that was fine with her. She had no intention of letting him out of her sight. Frankie did threaten her a bit but Shade shut that down pretty quick by telling him that she and his boss, Torelli, were dating. They both ended up back at his motel room, where Shade promptly fell asleep.
Neil started his morning by calling the Mirage and being transferred to Torelli's room. After the hello's, he told Max that there were people who were starting to questions the legitimacy of the game that he and the two boys had played. Max seemed interested in this information and told Neil that he would be interested in hearing any other information about that. Neil also let it be known to Max that he should keep him(Neil) in mind if something came up that he could help with. Is Neil playing both sides of the deck?
The game ended where it started. Brandon showed up to his shop that morning, relieved that the ward he had set hadn't been disturbed. As he entered his shop, he once again heard that same scratching noise. Heading back down to the basement, he once again saw the coyote pawing at the same place on the wall. After a bit of time and a communication spell, he was able to talk to the creature. The coyote informed him that there was something in the wall and it needed to come out. That was what it had come here to find. After a bit of digging, Brandon was able open the wall and looked into the space. Inside the small crawl space he saw an emaciated man.
On that cliffhanger, the game ended for the night. It will be a whole week before we find out what happens next. Can't wait!
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