The Crow Grail #1
Finally, our first proper Promethean game. This was an intro kind of session. So, with them knowing nothing about the setting beyond a couple of basic principles, I got them to give me some sort of general idea what they wanted to play.
Rob played Ardath Bey, an Osiran who woke up in a mummy case in the basement of the British Museum. He's convinced he's three thousand years old, but what awakened him is a mystery. He got out, wandered around a bit, still wearing a restorer's white coat.
At some point, he found himself in an art centre cinema, watching the old Boris Karloff version of The Mummy. He liked it so much, he took the name Ardath Bey, not having one of his own.
Becky, who always plays more interesting characters than Rob, played Rochelle, a Galateid and Paris Hilton in-joke with a human demiurge. She's basically a plastic surgery accident.
She sent me a long backstory, which we talked about and changed a bit:
"French-born Henri Le Voissier is one of Londons most in-demand plastic surgeons, with a long waiting-list of clients. Many of nations most famous faces owe not a little to his talents. He can offer a full range of services from lunch-hour botox sessions for busy business executives through to full facelifts, chinlifts and breast implants.
In an effort to enhance his reputation and gain some much-needed administrative support, Le Voissier comes up with a novel idea. Why not create his own, perfect specimen? A woman so perfect, so beautiful, she will be guaranteed to turn heads wherever she goes.
He runs ads in all the newspapers and magazines, staging a nationwide search for teenage models. Applications come quickly flooding in, and if a few girls mysteriously go missing here and there, well, London is a big place and the modelling industry is notoriously unreliable. Most of his models are 'abroad' or on 'long-term commissions'. Pretty soon, he has all he needs, and his new creation is born. He names her Rochelle, after La Rochelle, the city of his birth.
She lives with him in the studio flat above his surgery, and acts as his secretary. Everybody who knows him agrees she is the most beautiful woman in London.
However, sadly, like all things, beauty is transient, and it is not long before he is noticing little faults in his model: the slight upturn of the nose, an incline of a cheekbone, a trace of crowsfeet under the eyes, the browline perhaps a little too high... all must be repaired and amended. After a few weeks of such work, Rochelle starts to attract the wrong kind of attention.
Dejected and with few skills to enable her to cope with everyday life in London, Paris is thrown out onto the streets, where she stalks the alleyways of Soho, looking for somebody to tell her she is beautiful. Occasionally, she sees something she likes and takes it to improve herself. Shes not quite as skilled a surgeon as her master but she knows how to make little repairs when required. And perhaps, one day, if she can find the right parts, her master will love her again and tell her she is beautiful, and take her back Perhaps "
Both Ardath Bey and Rochelle don't know stuff about themselves. Ardath Bey is actually a recent creation. His creator is still out there. So is the widow of the man whose body he is using. Rochelle can never go back. she doesn't remember it, but she strangled her creator when he kicked her out. There's a murder hunt going on.
So we had to bring them together and assign Refinements. First, we talked about their lives and what they did. Rochelle's got a bank account (Resources 2) and a debit card. She got herself a furnished flat. Moving in, she found that all the pot plants died.
Still, she tried and tried to get on with her neighbours, even though it clearly was't working out.
She's Aurum, then.
Ardath Bey, meanwhile, retreated from people, finding himself a lair under a railway bridge, and spending his time in study and stuff. I decided that he was practising Cuprum.
Rochelle goes out walking in some of the seamy areas of London. She gets in trouble with a prostitute, and has to go somewhere else, when she sees a red-robed figure walking down an alley. her Azoth flares. When she follows, curious, she sees nothing, but runs into a handsome young man at the other end of the alleyway. His name's William. He invites her to a party.
Becky's suspicious, but Rochelle is curious, and ends up in a stretch limo with Wilson, and two other young people, both (although Rochelle doesn't know it) prostitutes. William takes them to his large house in Mayfair...
Ardath Bey is returning from the library, when he realises that someone is walking alongside him. He turns. A tall, faceless figure in red, tattered robes leans over and whispers "William Wilson!" into his ear. Then it's gone. Bey goes right back to the library.
After a bit of research, he discovers William Wilson's entry in the Who's Who. The library closes. Bey, his curiosity piqued, goes looking for Wilson.
William Wilson is the same one from Pandora's Book. With the party. And that figure in the robes? That's the Dancer in Tatters.
Rochelle realises that there's something very, very wrong at the party. She manages to get to a bathroom and hide. She's completely out of place. She's dressed in these cheap trashy clothes (it's why people keep thinking she's a prostitute), while most of the party guests are in really nice eveningwear. They try to come and find her. She inadvertently discovers she has the Mesmerism Transmutation.
Bey, meanwhile, manages to scare his way into the party (finding out he's got Mask of Medusa and Aura Sight in the process).
Rochelle and Bey run into each other (Rochelle on the way out, Bey on the way in), and witness the arrival at the party of the Dancer, who does his business. They don't leave, though, instead watching the being's judgement. Ardath Bey even tries to confront the figure. I decide that does it's "I serve the Principle" schtick before going, saying something cryptic about "that which was separate is now joined". They know it's true. They leave Wilson, sobbing in a ball, but have to deal with the house's guard dogs. Rochelle discovers she knows the Flight Instinct Transmutation.
And that was really it. They were brought together. Next time, I think I'm going to bring in the whole "quest for humanity" vibe, and get things moving properly.
Rob played Ardath Bey, an Osiran who woke up in a mummy case in the basement of the British Museum. He's convinced he's three thousand years old, but what awakened him is a mystery. He got out, wandered around a bit, still wearing a restorer's white coat.
At some point, he found himself in an art centre cinema, watching the old Boris Karloff version of The Mummy. He liked it so much, he took the name Ardath Bey, not having one of his own.
Becky, who always plays more interesting characters than Rob, played Rochelle, a Galateid and Paris Hilton in-joke with a human demiurge. She's basically a plastic surgery accident.
She sent me a long backstory, which we talked about and changed a bit:
"French-born Henri Le Voissier is one of Londons most in-demand plastic surgeons, with a long waiting-list of clients. Many of nations most famous faces owe not a little to his talents. He can offer a full range of services from lunch-hour botox sessions for busy business executives through to full facelifts, chinlifts and breast implants.
In an effort to enhance his reputation and gain some much-needed administrative support, Le Voissier comes up with a novel idea. Why not create his own, perfect specimen? A woman so perfect, so beautiful, she will be guaranteed to turn heads wherever she goes.
He runs ads in all the newspapers and magazines, staging a nationwide search for teenage models. Applications come quickly flooding in, and if a few girls mysteriously go missing here and there, well, London is a big place and the modelling industry is notoriously unreliable. Most of his models are 'abroad' or on 'long-term commissions'. Pretty soon, he has all he needs, and his new creation is born. He names her Rochelle, after La Rochelle, the city of his birth.
She lives with him in the studio flat above his surgery, and acts as his secretary. Everybody who knows him agrees she is the most beautiful woman in London.
However, sadly, like all things, beauty is transient, and it is not long before he is noticing little faults in his model: the slight upturn of the nose, an incline of a cheekbone, a trace of crowsfeet under the eyes, the browline perhaps a little too high... all must be repaired and amended. After a few weeks of such work, Rochelle starts to attract the wrong kind of attention.
Dejected and with few skills to enable her to cope with everyday life in London, Paris is thrown out onto the streets, where she stalks the alleyways of Soho, looking for somebody to tell her she is beautiful. Occasionally, she sees something she likes and takes it to improve herself. Shes not quite as skilled a surgeon as her master but she knows how to make little repairs when required. And perhaps, one day, if she can find the right parts, her master will love her again and tell her she is beautiful, and take her back Perhaps "
Both Ardath Bey and Rochelle don't know stuff about themselves. Ardath Bey is actually a recent creation. His creator is still out there. So is the widow of the man whose body he is using. Rochelle can never go back. she doesn't remember it, but she strangled her creator when he kicked her out. There's a murder hunt going on.
So we had to bring them together and assign Refinements. First, we talked about their lives and what they did. Rochelle's got a bank account (Resources 2) and a debit card. She got herself a furnished flat. Moving in, she found that all the pot plants died.
Still, she tried and tried to get on with her neighbours, even though it clearly was't working out.
She's Aurum, then.
Ardath Bey, meanwhile, retreated from people, finding himself a lair under a railway bridge, and spending his time in study and stuff. I decided that he was practising Cuprum.
Rochelle goes out walking in some of the seamy areas of London. She gets in trouble with a prostitute, and has to go somewhere else, when she sees a red-robed figure walking down an alley. her Azoth flares. When she follows, curious, she sees nothing, but runs into a handsome young man at the other end of the alleyway. His name's William. He invites her to a party.
Becky's suspicious, but Rochelle is curious, and ends up in a stretch limo with Wilson, and two other young people, both (although Rochelle doesn't know it) prostitutes. William takes them to his large house in Mayfair...
Ardath Bey is returning from the library, when he realises that someone is walking alongside him. He turns. A tall, faceless figure in red, tattered robes leans over and whispers "William Wilson!" into his ear. Then it's gone. Bey goes right back to the library.
After a bit of research, he discovers William Wilson's entry in the Who's Who. The library closes. Bey, his curiosity piqued, goes looking for Wilson.
William Wilson is the same one from Pandora's Book. With the party. And that figure in the robes? That's the Dancer in Tatters.
Rochelle realises that there's something very, very wrong at the party. She manages to get to a bathroom and hide. She's completely out of place. She's dressed in these cheap trashy clothes (it's why people keep thinking she's a prostitute), while most of the party guests are in really nice eveningwear. They try to come and find her. She inadvertently discovers she has the Mesmerism Transmutation.
Bey, meanwhile, manages to scare his way into the party (finding out he's got Mask of Medusa and Aura Sight in the process).
Rochelle and Bey run into each other (Rochelle on the way out, Bey on the way in), and witness the arrival at the party of the Dancer, who does his business. They don't leave, though, instead watching the being's judgement. Ardath Bey even tries to confront the figure. I decide that does it's "I serve the Principle" schtick before going, saying something cryptic about "that which was separate is now joined". They know it's true. They leave Wilson, sobbing in a ball, but have to deal with the house's guard dogs. Rochelle discovers she knows the Flight Instinct Transmutation.
And that was really it. They were brought together. Next time, I think I'm going to bring in the whole "quest for humanity" vibe, and get things moving properly.