What a fun and oftentimes funny gaming session. We finally managed to get through the prologue and into the first main story. It took a bit longer then Lana thought, but, as she puts it, no GM plan ever survives contact with the players. In the first part you won't see much of Shade. She was indisposed for a day and half. However, what mischief the boys got into was very entertaining. Here we go!
The game started where it left off, with Brandon. After getting over the surprise of a corpse in his wall, Brandon spent a bit of time studying it. The figure seemed to be tall; the skin looked dried out; and the clothes were ratty looking. Deciding to go through the pockets, Brandon reached out towards the figure only to be stopped by a ward. With a bit of study, he realized he would need help to break it. He first tried Shade's number but had to leave a message when she didn't answer.
Blissfully unaware of how his day was going to end, Neil got up, made his usual stop at the gym, and headed home to dress. He then called and made an appointment with Uri for 5pm that night. He spent the rest of the day making his usual rounds.
Meanwhile, in a Boulder City hotel room, Shade woke up around noon. She was relieved to see Frankie still there. After a bit, she told him she wanted to go get coffee and asked if he wanted anything. Surprisingly, he agreed to let her go and put in an order for coffee and breakfast. He even paid for it. While out, Shade made a phone call to Tawney and asked to speak to Locke. Locke was not available, so Shade let Tawney know that she had found Frankie...alive. She hoped that finding him would be enough to say done to the whole mess but, alas, no. She had to get him to the Luxor and get him on camera. With that good news, Shade headed back to the room. With nothing else to do, Frankie and Shade started talking about Vegas, bosses, and such. The conversation went fairly well. Shade only had to pull the "be nice to me because I am dating your boss" card once.
Growing impatient, Brandon called Shade again. When he still couldn't reach her, he went to her shop and found it closed up. Disappointed, he returned to his place and called Neil.
With it being time for his meeting, Neil headed to Uri's office. After being ushered in, Neil told Mr. White everything about the earlier card game; who and how he was hired. The next topic brought up was Frankie. Uri wanted to know if Neil had any leads. When Neil answered in the negative, Uri called Locke. After a brief conversation, he hung up and invited Neil out for drink. They ended up at the Mirage. After some idle chitchat (and dinner), Uri asked Neil to keep his ear to the ground, listen for gossip, things like that.
With dinner being over, Neil got Brandon's message and called him back. Brandon asked him to come over. After he showed up, the two of them went downstairs, where Neil first saw the hole and then the body. After a bit of back and forth, Neil (reluctantly) poked a stick through the entrance and started to pull out items. In the coat pocket there was a old style whiskey flask. They both noticed the initials WH on it. There was also a rolled up wad of money. It appeared to be US currency but from the turn of the century. A closer examination of the body revealed that before he had been entombed, somebody had beat the hell of him. There were discolored patches on the skin and it felt to Neil that some of the ribs had been broken. The one thing not found on the body was an ID. That left the gun and the holster. They needed to get it out of there but how? After a bit of back and forth, Brandon came up with a stellar plan. It involved both of them going upstairs and having a couple of drinks. Neil thought that a damn fine idea; so they did.
After the liquid courage, they headed back down and back to the body. With a bit of maneuvering, Neil was able to get the gun and holster out. While Brandon took the gun, Neil started to drag the corpse out. To aid in this and to try and keep the body together, he first handcuffed the bodies hands together and slowly dragged him out. There was some resistance at first but with some gentle pulling, they were able to get the job done. With corpse out of the room and settled on the floor, Neil went back into the room to get a good look around. He noticed what looked like painted symbols on the walls but they were too faded by time to really make out. There was also some chairs, bottles, and newspapers dated 1898 in the room. The last item found was a hat. Tucked inside was a folded up piece of parchment. Neil pocketed that and turned to see what was going on in Brandon's basement.
"The motherfucker's moving!" Neil yelped. And sure enough, it was. The face/skin on the body had filled out a bit, becoming more life-like and it was trying to sit up. Staring wide-eyed, the boys watched as the man slowly came to life. After some time, he was able to talk and introduced himself as Wyatt. Since Wyatt didn't act hostile, the boys introduced themselves right back. Seemingly confused (and who the hell WOULDN'T be?), Wyatt said that the last thing he remembered was the Billy Gang beating the hell out of him. Realizing that they needed help with this, Brandon went upstairs and called the Historical Society. Luck was with him. He was able to get in touch with Patience Mayweather, the lady in the know about the Supernatural in Vegas. After hearing the story, she told Brandon to bring Wyatt down. Not knowing how to explain to Wyatt the changed world, Brandon and Neil simply said things were different and handed him a bottle of whiskey. By the time they called a cab and got to the Historical Society, Wyatt was pretty well toasted.
As they walked up the pathway, Brandon and Neil saw that Patience was waiting for them. Frankly, Wyatt wasn't in the condition to see anything, unless it was in duplicate. The four of them headed into the building. When they got to her office, Patience offered them tea and then started to work. She pulled a map and a couple of overlays out. After asking Brandon where his shop was and using the overlays, she was able to confirm that there had been a convergence of ley lines at his building. Patience's next task was to take the boys to task for not getting Wyatt some clothes. This was a valid point since Wyatt's 100 year old clothes were literally falling off of him in a rather fragrant cascade. Neil went to buy some. While he was gone, Wyatt finally came around. After a bit of questioning by Patience, Wyatt told her and Brandon more of what he could remember. It was mainly that he had been inked by a Shaman, there was a coyote, and that the Shaman wanted something from him. Wyatt wasn't sure what. Patience said that she would look into it for them. With a final admonishment to Brandon and Neil about keeping an eye on Wyatt, Patience ushered the three of them out of the building. After all that, they thought that food would be a good idea.
Back in the motel, the call that Frankie (and Shade!) was waiting for came. Having a really good idea just who (Torelli) would be on the other end, Shade didn't say anything. Frankie answered the phone, and after a few "yeses" and "rights", told Torelli that a girl by the name of Shade was there and claimed to be dating him. Looking peeved at being a message boy, Frankie relayed to Shade from Max that, if they were in fact dating, he would pick her up Saturday night for a date. Shade agreed. With that done, the two of them gathered their things and drove back to Vegas. On the way there, they both realized they were being followed by a car that was coming up too fast. As it tried to run them off the road, Frankie and Shade switched places in the car. Frankie pulled a gun and managed to shoot out one of the tires. The car flipped and exploded into flames. They made it into Vegas without further incident. Finally at the Luxor, Shade breathed a sigh of relief when they made it in and she confirmed that they were in view of a security camera. She turned to go. After a few steps, she heard a sound from behind her. She turned in time to see Frankie fall to the ground, choking as if he was being strangled. Shade turned back around and got the hell out of there.
Epilogue:
The boys spent the next few days getting Wyatt acclimated to his new life. By pawning his gun, Wyatt was able to get set up in a motel. After a bit of time, he managed to get a job in construction. Thinking that the hole in Brandon's basement would be a good place to hide out, Neil brought in carpenters and had a door built in the wall.
A couple of days after the whole Frankie mess, Shade received a call from Tawney with a message from Warden Locke. He wanted to see her. Not liking it much, she reluctantly agreed to a meeting the next evening. Arriving at the Luxor for the meeting, she was ushered into a penthouse suite. The Warden was not what she expected. He appeared to be in his mid 50's and was wearing a nice, but flashy, suit. He also talked...a lot. The end shot of the meeting was that Shade would be considered his "apprentice" for a time. She was not very happy about any of it. Time will tell on just how well this will work out.
A few weeks had passed for the three. It was the night before Halloween and everybody had been invited to a Haunted House event at Circus Circus. It was being staged by a local girl known as Penny Dreadful. Shade knew her from work; she had done some tattoo work for Penny. Getting there early, Shade stopped by and chatted with Penny about the event and some of the guests. A couple of snide remarks were made about Uri and his choice of costume (devil horns...really?). Shade was dressed as Elizabeth Bathory. Brandon was next to arrive dressed in a deep purple zoot suit, complete with feathered fedora. Neil was last to show and wore a simple lab coat. After a bit of mingling, everybody lined up to head into the haunted house.
Inside there were five doors to choose from. Each one led to a different maze. Shade and her best friend Tess decided to brave Nightmareland. The boys chose Sorority Slaughterhouse.
*since it went back and forth between the two groups, I am just going to sum up each experience*
The girls: As they went through the door, Shade and Tess found themselves in the foyer of an old mansion. Groans came from the dark. Up ahead they saw what seemed to be ghost go through an archway. They followed and found themselves in a dark hallway. They soon entered a playroom where they found a creepy child giggling about playing bad with the baby. A crib against the wall held a bloodied, mangled infant. Shade wasn't too affected by anything yet. However, Tess started to get really creeped out. Back in the hallway, they came to another door which led to a macabre version of a circus. With a high-pitched giggle, a child's voice told them to "go to the big top". There seemed to be subtle shadows everywhere in the room, hidden by the fog. The last scare really freaked Tess out. It was the clown Mr. Boomunches. They reached the other side of the room and exited into a hallway.
The boys: Going through the door, the boys looked upon a front porch with Greek letters over the door. Entering the house, they saw a front room covered in blood splatters. A dead cheerleader was lying on the floor, her innards gushing out from the wounds on her chest and stomach. Heading up the stairs and down a hallway, Neil and Brandon heard screams in the distance. Neil felt a fleeting unease. Brandon started to get more then a bit scared. At the end of the hallway, stairs led up to the attic. Inside there was an Iron Maiden dripping blood and rusty manacles hanging from the wall. As they stood there, another group met up with them, including a totally freaked out girl in a sexy Freddy Kruger outfit. Reaching the door to exit the attic, there was the usual last loud sound/scare. The girl and Brandon (now totally scared) clutched each other and let out high-pitched screams. They made it out to the exiting hallway, where they ran into Shade and Tess.
The group headed to the last door. However, the door would not open completely when they tried it. Neil pushed it open and they all got a look at what had been blocking it. It was Mr.Boomunches. Tess let out a scream. Shade knelt down and, when she touched the body, realized that it was not one of the props. The body was real. Shade told Tess to go get Penny. Happy to get out of there, she left. Neil, not wanting to be anywhere near a dead body, left as well. He was not interested in any possible notice from the police. After a bit, Penny showed up. After a bit of swearing, she left to get someone. When she came back, she had a sharp-faced, gaunt, severe looking woman with her. She turned out to be Penny's mother. After making certain that Brandon, Neil, and Shade could be found if needed, she politely asked (told) Brandon and Shade to leave. Before they left, Shade and Brandon did find out the name of the guy killed- David.
The rest of the night was uneventful. Brandon and Neil made the rounds and did a bunch of small-talk. Tess, feeling drained, went home early. Shade went in search of more fun.
Thus ended the gaming session. It was totally fun. I am sure the dead body will come back to haunt (hehe) us next week. Can't wait for it!
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