5/21/2011: The Aftermath
So, our battered heroes are nursing their wounds, Riley decided to go to the hospital to tell Agent Winters, who is recovering from his surgery, about the death of the Reaper aka "The Husband". He takes it in with his SOUL OF ICE, and she asked him to get in touch with her after he's out and about.
After the hospital, she decides to round up the gang and head over to Alex's, since she was worried about leaving him alone in his concussed state. She starts getting a sinking feeling that since she told her GAY VAMPIRE HUSBAND to take a flying leap, that her parents could be in trouble. She calls the house in North Carolina, but the housekeeper informs her that Mr. & Mrs. Moore have gone to the Hamptons for the weekend. Riley calls there, but no one answers. She gets worried and calls the local police up there, and asks them to do a welfare check at the house.
Meanwhile, while the gang is mostly loitering about the living room, there is a wrap on the door. Looking through the peephole, there stands Warden Captain Luccio, Warden Commander Ramirez, and three other Wardens, all dressed in their gray cloaks. Alex invites them in, and Luccio reads him the riot act about how he not only disobeyed orders, but how he's jeopardizes the White Council's relationship with the Unseelie Court, and Mab's going to revoke the Council's ability to travel through Unseelie territory in the NeverNever. After that, she softens a bit, letting him know that she understood why he did what he did, but that its created a political clusterf***. Riley tried to jump in and defend Alex, which irritates him to no end, while Ted lips off about how course their going to throw Alex under the bus for protecting innocent people like he was suppose to. Luccio informs him that there will be a meeting with the Merlin at 9am tomorrow morning at one of the smaller conference rooms at Moscone Center, and warns him not to make them "come get him".
Once Alex picked his jaw up off the floor, and explained that the Merlin wasn't that Merlin, but that the tile of Merlin came from that Merlin, and that he was the head of the White Council. They try to put their heads together and figure a way out. At which point Alex grabs his Favor pin, and say "Hey, I need to talk to you guys... pronto".
After some more discussion, the phone rings in the office, and Riley rushes in to get it (thinking it's the police in the Hamptons calling her), and there in the office sits a dashing figure, with his feet kicked up on the desk, reading a book off the shelf. Riley stops, hesitate, then warily answers the phone. It is indeed the police, and they feed her a line about going and checking, but since she inserted a lie about them having a party, and the police told her that they were out of the house, but the party planner told them that they would be back later tonight).
After hanging up the phone, Riley yells for everyone, and they pile in the room to encounter the stranger. Alex quips about having his feet on the desk, and offers him something to drink. Requesting tea, the guest is surprised to learn that there is something called iced tea, and orders it. Alystria goes off to make the tea, while everyone waits. Several minutes later, tea is served, and then introductions are made. Everyone goes round the table, and the guest introduces himself as none other than Puck. He was delighted to hear that "young master William" wrote about him, and he wanted to thank them all for assisting in releasing him from his imprisonment. He reveals that both him and King Oberon of the Spring Court were imprisoned after the "Midsummer's Night Dream" incident, though once Titania's anger wore off she realized that Mab had duped her into allowing her to be their jailors. The PC's ask Puck if they could spend their favors in exchange for allowing the White Council to traverse Summer territory, in case Mab decided to refuse the Council access. After some discussion, he suggests that he could probably trade a favor to allow one person the ability to access summer lands for 10 years and day, but not any Wizard at any time. Not being feasible, they thank him, and he proceeds to walk out the front door, through the Warden's fully operations warding spells.
Riley, worried about her parents, breaks down and goes to see Felix at his club. They talk briefly, where Felix informs her that her Father is probably enjoying the company of one of his many lady friends, and is safe. He also tells her that she was essentially a Ransom against her parents, since apparently her father knows something that the Raiths don't want anyone knowing about, and if he tells anyone, she's toast. She tries to coax out any info regarding the Spring and Autumn Courts from Felix, but he doesn't appear to know anything about them.
Ted calls in a favor with Nanna Martello in Italy, and she pulls some strings to get him to be able to attend the meeting in the morning, so he and Alex show up at Moscone. Guarded by wardens, the building is secured, and Alex changes into his formal council robes, and they enter into the conference room. Sitting at the head is Arthur Langtry, the Merlin of the White Council. To his right is Luccio, and his left is Ramirez. Langtry motions for Alex to sit at the foot, and he and Ted head down to the end of the table. After a couple of moments of uncomfortable silence, in walks in Lady Maeve of the Winter Court. Everyone rises politely when she arrives, as the temperature in the room falls noticeably.
Maeve has a message from her Queen, Mab, and demands that the White Council gives her three favors as recompense for Alex's actions. The Merlin agrees to her terms, and Maeve exits, stage left. Once she's gone, the Merlin turns his gaze upon Alex, and says, "Damn right you will" to Alex's hasty offering to fulfill the favors himself. He leaves the decision as to whether Alex should remain a Warden to Luccio, since the council has so few of them remaining. She vouches for him, saying that she doubts he'll ever have cause to violate orders like that again.
After the meeting is over, everyone retires to Vesuvio's for a drink, since Alex is still alive! Riley breaks down and starts crying as the gravity of all the stuff she's been dealing with finally come crashing down on her, and Venus is there all too quickly to console her. Venus uses her incite emotion ability to place the maneuver I'M SOOO "DRUNK" on Riley, and they start to do some heavy petting. Ted takes exception, and they have a social conflict about Venus' intentions towards Riley. Several rounds back and forth, and Ted is taken out, but not without forcing Venus to take the mild consequence SHAMED. Once SHAMED, she alters tactics and pivots off the conflict to lure Riley deeper into her web by showing her that she could have taken advantage of her but didn't....this time.
After things settle down, Shaun O'Shaunnessey informs them that a courier from Wells Fargo is here looking for Alex. He signs for a 100 year old package, that contains a folded piece of stationary with the words "Crestmoor Canyon Park, East Entrance, Earl & Glenview 6:00PM September 10, 2010. DO NOT BE LATE". Wierded out by that, everyone kinda disburses back to their various places of operations.
That next day, a little 14-year-old girl enters Vesuvio's looking for Alystria, saying that there is trouble at home. Venus calls her at Alex's, where she's been staying, and Alystria runs out to go see her "sister-cousin" Peregrine. The two of them discuss things privately, and then announce their headed back to Dixon. Venus makes travel arrangements for them. Meanwhile, Alex calls Ted and asks for a ride, and Riley and Samsura tag along. Riley alters her appearance to that of "Cousin Bob". She manages to fool Alex, and Alex launches into a tirade at Ted about bringing in another clueless newbie via a compel of his I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT aspect, and I compel Ted's SOMEONE HAS TO STAND UP aspect to tell Alex to go to hell and starts to leave. Samsura, a CHILD OF ABUSE, steps in and outs Riley in order to diffuse the situation. Awkward silence exists for several moments as everyone gets into Ted's truck and head for Crestmoor Canyon Park.
They get to the park, and at 6:00pm they see a brilliant and blinding flash of light up along the wooded path. The group proceeds to investigate, and after producing enough light they see a solitary figure kneeling in a still smoldering crater. The figure arises, and it's a dead ringer for perhaps Alystria's mother... but they quickly conclude it is in fact Alystria from the future! She acknowledges that it’s good they’re all here, and then she drops the bombshell. Future Alystria informs them that they cannot allow Harry Dresden to become the Winter Knight. Alex starts to protest, and she summons The Blackstaff to her hand, and he goes "oh".
Just then, another flash of light, the same as the one that heralded future Alystria's arrival emanates from out near where the car was parked. Future Alystria swears and takes up a defensive stance, while the ominous "ting, ting, ting" sound of a staff draws closer to them. Drawing into sight is a figure of pure white, clad in a black leather duster, wielding a staff made of pure ice. Future Dresden banters that he missed Alystria in 1910, to which she quips that she was always faster than him. He responds by saying that that is why she is the last of the white council, and when she is finally dead his revenge for their betrayal will finally be complete.* Magic of pure winter ice lances out from Dresden's staff, but Future Alystria lowers the Blackstaff and a bolt of coruscating black energy meets his. She screams for them to Run, and they take off in the other direction as fast as they can, with Samsura scooping up the injured Riley at a dead sprint. As they clear the other side of the park, they are all knocked flat out from the concussion wave of a titanic explosion that rips through the area where Dresden and Alystria had been.
Meanwhile, the television sets at Vesuvio's are interrupted to report of a massive gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, and that a number of homes have been engulfed, and countless number of people are missing and still unaccounted for.
*This statement by Dresden was missed during game, but it's important and it being added now the AAR.
What Rocked:
FREAKING TIME TRAVEL!!!
Ok, that was awesome. The best part was that I had originally planned for it to be a Future Alex that came back in time. But once Alex and Alystria started talking about Alex teaching her more magic and being his apprentice, the light bulb dinged on. Then I roped Alystria's player into the other room, briefed her on what needed to happen, then got her present day character out of the picture with the trouble with her family plot hook. That way I was able to merely play Future Dresden and didn't have to RP witty banter amongst myself again.
The brilliant part was that she has just started reading Death Rites, so when I gave her the description of the Blackstaff and told her to describe it to everyone when she pulled it out, she had no idea as a player what it meant, but everyone else’s meta-knowledge jaw hit the floor.
I managed to seed out quite a few plot hooks. The imbalance in the fae courts, favors owed to Mab, Trouble in hippy paradise, Demons in Sacramento. I've laid out quite a few hooks for season 2.
What Could Have Gone Better:
I felt the pacing was again off. I am having a somewhat hard time balancing the free-form "so, what do you do?" with "you must now go do x" railroading. I'm finding producing creative constraints that give guidance to the players without forcing them down a single path to be difficult to achieve.
I thought the Puck scene could have gone better. I wanted to give him a more archaic speech pattern to highlight the fact that he's been trapped in prison since the renaissance, but I didn't really succeed.
I missed an opportunity to ratchet up the tension in the final scene by having them roll sprinting to see if they could get clear of the blast radius. It was late, and since the explosion was mainly color, it turned out to be okay.
After the hospital, she decides to round up the gang and head over to Alex's, since she was worried about leaving him alone in his concussed state. She starts getting a sinking feeling that since she told her GAY VAMPIRE HUSBAND to take a flying leap, that her parents could be in trouble. She calls the house in North Carolina, but the housekeeper informs her that Mr. & Mrs. Moore have gone to the Hamptons for the weekend. Riley calls there, but no one answers. She gets worried and calls the local police up there, and asks them to do a welfare check at the house.
Meanwhile, while the gang is mostly loitering about the living room, there is a wrap on the door. Looking through the peephole, there stands Warden Captain Luccio, Warden Commander Ramirez, and three other Wardens, all dressed in their gray cloaks. Alex invites them in, and Luccio reads him the riot act about how he not only disobeyed orders, but how he's jeopardizes the White Council's relationship with the Unseelie Court, and Mab's going to revoke the Council's ability to travel through Unseelie territory in the NeverNever. After that, she softens a bit, letting him know that she understood why he did what he did, but that its created a political clusterf***. Riley tried to jump in and defend Alex, which irritates him to no end, while Ted lips off about how course their going to throw Alex under the bus for protecting innocent people like he was suppose to. Luccio informs him that there will be a meeting with the Merlin at 9am tomorrow morning at one of the smaller conference rooms at Moscone Center, and warns him not to make them "come get him".
Once Alex picked his jaw up off the floor, and explained that the Merlin wasn't that Merlin, but that the tile of Merlin came from that Merlin, and that he was the head of the White Council. They try to put their heads together and figure a way out. At which point Alex grabs his Favor pin, and say "Hey, I need to talk to you guys... pronto".
After some more discussion, the phone rings in the office, and Riley rushes in to get it (thinking it's the police in the Hamptons calling her), and there in the office sits a dashing figure, with his feet kicked up on the desk, reading a book off the shelf. Riley stops, hesitate, then warily answers the phone. It is indeed the police, and they feed her a line about going and checking, but since she inserted a lie about them having a party, and the police told her that they were out of the house, but the party planner told them that they would be back later tonight).
After hanging up the phone, Riley yells for everyone, and they pile in the room to encounter the stranger. Alex quips about having his feet on the desk, and offers him something to drink. Requesting tea, the guest is surprised to learn that there is something called iced tea, and orders it. Alystria goes off to make the tea, while everyone waits. Several minutes later, tea is served, and then introductions are made. Everyone goes round the table, and the guest introduces himself as none other than Puck. He was delighted to hear that "young master William" wrote about him, and he wanted to thank them all for assisting in releasing him from his imprisonment. He reveals that both him and King Oberon of the Spring Court were imprisoned after the "Midsummer's Night Dream" incident, though once Titania's anger wore off she realized that Mab had duped her into allowing her to be their jailors. The PC's ask Puck if they could spend their favors in exchange for allowing the White Council to traverse Summer territory, in case Mab decided to refuse the Council access. After some discussion, he suggests that he could probably trade a favor to allow one person the ability to access summer lands for 10 years and day, but not any Wizard at any time. Not being feasible, they thank him, and he proceeds to walk out the front door, through the Warden's fully operations warding spells.
Riley, worried about her parents, breaks down and goes to see Felix at his club. They talk briefly, where Felix informs her that her Father is probably enjoying the company of one of his many lady friends, and is safe. He also tells her that she was essentially a Ransom against her parents, since apparently her father knows something that the Raiths don't want anyone knowing about, and if he tells anyone, she's toast. She tries to coax out any info regarding the Spring and Autumn Courts from Felix, but he doesn't appear to know anything about them.
Ted calls in a favor with Nanna Martello in Italy, and she pulls some strings to get him to be able to attend the meeting in the morning, so he and Alex show up at Moscone. Guarded by wardens, the building is secured, and Alex changes into his formal council robes, and they enter into the conference room. Sitting at the head is Arthur Langtry, the Merlin of the White Council. To his right is Luccio, and his left is Ramirez. Langtry motions for Alex to sit at the foot, and he and Ted head down to the end of the table. After a couple of moments of uncomfortable silence, in walks in Lady Maeve of the Winter Court. Everyone rises politely when she arrives, as the temperature in the room falls noticeably.
Maeve has a message from her Queen, Mab, and demands that the White Council gives her three favors as recompense for Alex's actions. The Merlin agrees to her terms, and Maeve exits, stage left. Once she's gone, the Merlin turns his gaze upon Alex, and says, "Damn right you will" to Alex's hasty offering to fulfill the favors himself. He leaves the decision as to whether Alex should remain a Warden to Luccio, since the council has so few of them remaining. She vouches for him, saying that she doubts he'll ever have cause to violate orders like that again.
After the meeting is over, everyone retires to Vesuvio's for a drink, since Alex is still alive! Riley breaks down and starts crying as the gravity of all the stuff she's been dealing with finally come crashing down on her, and Venus is there all too quickly to console her. Venus uses her incite emotion ability to place the maneuver I'M SOOO "DRUNK" on Riley, and they start to do some heavy petting. Ted takes exception, and they have a social conflict about Venus' intentions towards Riley. Several rounds back and forth, and Ted is taken out, but not without forcing Venus to take the mild consequence SHAMED. Once SHAMED, she alters tactics and pivots off the conflict to lure Riley deeper into her web by showing her that she could have taken advantage of her but didn't....this time.
After things settle down, Shaun O'Shaunnessey informs them that a courier from Wells Fargo is here looking for Alex. He signs for a 100 year old package, that contains a folded piece of stationary with the words "Crestmoor Canyon Park, East Entrance, Earl & Glenview 6:00PM September 10, 2010. DO NOT BE LATE". Wierded out by that, everyone kinda disburses back to their various places of operations.
That next day, a little 14-year-old girl enters Vesuvio's looking for Alystria, saying that there is trouble at home. Venus calls her at Alex's, where she's been staying, and Alystria runs out to go see her "sister-cousin" Peregrine. The two of them discuss things privately, and then announce their headed back to Dixon. Venus makes travel arrangements for them. Meanwhile, Alex calls Ted and asks for a ride, and Riley and Samsura tag along. Riley alters her appearance to that of "Cousin Bob". She manages to fool Alex, and Alex launches into a tirade at Ted about bringing in another clueless newbie via a compel of his I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT aspect, and I compel Ted's SOMEONE HAS TO STAND UP aspect to tell Alex to go to hell and starts to leave. Samsura, a CHILD OF ABUSE, steps in and outs Riley in order to diffuse the situation. Awkward silence exists for several moments as everyone gets into Ted's truck and head for Crestmoor Canyon Park.
They get to the park, and at 6:00pm they see a brilliant and blinding flash of light up along the wooded path. The group proceeds to investigate, and after producing enough light they see a solitary figure kneeling in a still smoldering crater. The figure arises, and it's a dead ringer for perhaps Alystria's mother... but they quickly conclude it is in fact Alystria from the future! She acknowledges that it’s good they’re all here, and then she drops the bombshell. Future Alystria informs them that they cannot allow Harry Dresden to become the Winter Knight. Alex starts to protest, and she summons The Blackstaff to her hand, and he goes "oh".
Just then, another flash of light, the same as the one that heralded future Alystria's arrival emanates from out near where the car was parked. Future Alystria swears and takes up a defensive stance, while the ominous "ting, ting, ting" sound of a staff draws closer to them. Drawing into sight is a figure of pure white, clad in a black leather duster, wielding a staff made of pure ice. Future Dresden banters that he missed Alystria in 1910, to which she quips that she was always faster than him. He responds by saying that that is why she is the last of the white council, and when she is finally dead his revenge for their betrayal will finally be complete.* Magic of pure winter ice lances out from Dresden's staff, but Future Alystria lowers the Blackstaff and a bolt of coruscating black energy meets his. She screams for them to Run, and they take off in the other direction as fast as they can, with Samsura scooping up the injured Riley at a dead sprint. As they clear the other side of the park, they are all knocked flat out from the concussion wave of a titanic explosion that rips through the area where Dresden and Alystria had been.
Meanwhile, the television sets at Vesuvio's are interrupted to report of a massive gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, and that a number of homes have been engulfed, and countless number of people are missing and still unaccounted for.
*This statement by Dresden was missed during game, but it's important and it being added now the AAR.
What Rocked:
FREAKING TIME TRAVEL!!!
Ok, that was awesome. The best part was that I had originally planned for it to be a Future Alex that came back in time. But once Alex and Alystria started talking about Alex teaching her more magic and being his apprentice, the light bulb dinged on. Then I roped Alystria's player into the other room, briefed her on what needed to happen, then got her present day character out of the picture with the trouble with her family plot hook. That way I was able to merely play Future Dresden and didn't have to RP witty banter amongst myself again.
The brilliant part was that she has just started reading Death Rites, so when I gave her the description of the Blackstaff and told her to describe it to everyone when she pulled it out, she had no idea as a player what it meant, but everyone else’s meta-knowledge jaw hit the floor.
I managed to seed out quite a few plot hooks. The imbalance in the fae courts, favors owed to Mab, Trouble in hippy paradise, Demons in Sacramento. I've laid out quite a few hooks for season 2.
What Could Have Gone Better:
I felt the pacing was again off. I am having a somewhat hard time balancing the free-form "so, what do you do?" with "you must now go do x" railroading. I'm finding producing creative constraints that give guidance to the players without forcing them down a single path to be difficult to achieve.
I thought the Puck scene could have gone better. I wanted to give him a more archaic speech pattern to highlight the fact that he's been trapped in prison since the renaissance, but I didn't really succeed.
I missed an opportunity to ratchet up the tension in the final scene by having them roll sprinting to see if they could get clear of the blast radius. It was late, and since the explosion was mainly color, it turned out to be okay.