Changeling, Episode 1
As explained before, my wife (codename: ex-girlfriend) mnight asked me to run a small game. I told her I'd run anything on my shelf. She asked for the new Changeling. I also told her to invite who she wanted to play with. As it turns out, she invited a small cadre of ladies to play with her. So, my every-other-Wednesday-night is occupied with entertaining a group of women.
As it turns out, there is a god. And her name is Discordia.
Set-Up
I put my mind to some themes. I listened to my players through the character choices they made.
Ro (mnight) wants to play a protector. She also wants to invoke some of the playfulness of the old game without betraying the themes of the new one. This means she wants me to put her in dangerous situations to protect other Changelings.
Jessica (paintscribe)'s character is in full denial of her identity having split it into two: the one who knows she's a Changeling and the one who doesn't. This means she wants me to put her character into situations where that division becomes dangerous.
Emily made her character at the game. She's playing a Fairest. She made a Fairest who plays fiddle like nobody's business. But that doesn't tell me much about what the player wants. I wasn't exactly sure what she wanted until we actually started playing.
The Locale
All of my WoD games take place in the Twin Cities. I use St. Paul/Minneapolis because I know it and my players don't. I can call on memories for details. Also, it invokes reality (there really is a St. P/Mn) while at the same time having that "Far Away Land" sense to it. It's really there, but it's also strange and foreign.
In this case, I set up Dinkytown as the place where Changelings congregate. Vampires own the two cities (two Princes) but the Changelings have set up a contract making Dinkytown their own.
And it isn't the true Dinkytown; it isn't the place that's actually there. Instead, it is the Dinkytown of my memory. The lay of the land is different. It fulfills my needs as a storyteller. The Dinkytown of my memory has a bridge that cuts over the Mississippi River, connecting the two cities. It is here that vampires cannot cross. It also has the small basement version of The Source of Comics and Games that I remember when I was there. It also has a White Castle, the Goodwill (on the second story above a pizza place) and a coffee shop owned by an Ogre and a pub owned by... well, he's something. Not exactly sure what he is. But he's Irish, that's for sure. The pub is called "O'Bannon's" and the people who know him call him "Jack."
The coffee shop Ogre is Barnabas. He loves coffee. Watching Barnabas drink coffee is like watching a priest preside over a mass. It's a ritual. Sacred and holy. He's huge: standing over seven feet tall. He used to be a professional wrestler back when Verne Gagne was still doing AWA stuff. But since then, Barnabas has retired. He's also the de-facto leader of Dinkytown. Everyone assumes it was he who set up the contract with the vampires, although nobody's asked him yet.
Two of the girls work in O'Bannon's pub and the other works in the coffee shop.
Looking through the themes of Changeling, I decided the thing I liked most was the sense of loneliness and abandonment. It is a game about orphans. Also, with a group of women, I'd enjoy playing on female archetypes. Nobody ever talks about the Faerie King. There are no stories about him. It's always the Queen. Powerful. Terrible. Beautiful. We'd be dealing with that. Arcadia, in my mind, is a very feminine place. Green and moist. Cities are masculine with their geometry and cold concrete. Playing off those two would be fun. Also, I wanted to give the orphan girls (Lost Girls) father figures. Barnabas and O'Bannon fit perfectly. One of them is slow, methodical and practical. The Safety Parent. The other is loud, boisterous and fun. The Play Parent. And so, I provided the ladies two very strong father figures. I left it to them to determine which one they wanted to call their own.
I also wanted to keep any maternal NPCs as far away from them as possible. That's for later.
That's the setup. A small group of Changelings living in the Twin Cities protected by a contract that keeps them within the confines of Dinkytown. Now, what to do...
Get them to leave Dinkytown, of course!
The Plot Falls from a Window
Our musician (Emily) has her eye on fliers talking about an open mic night at Prince's First Avenue club in Minneapolis. She wants to go but knows the protection provided Changelings ends on the other side of the bridge. So, she politely invites her friends (Ro and Jessica) to talk her into going. The girls agree (and also agree not to tell the Ogre or O'Bannon) that they're headed out beyond Dinkytown.
They don't own a car, so they took the bus down to the club. They had to transfer once and walk four blocks. I tried to make that ride and those four blocks as slow and threatening as I could.
They got to the club and got in using a little bit of Glamour. Emily's performance was the highlight of the night (with six successes) drawing a lot of attention to the Glamour Girls (as I have chosen to call them). They all made Composure checks to keep from getting too many drinks in their bellies and then headed home at a reasonable hour.
A long, slow, dark ride home.
The bus dropped them off two blocks from the bridge. They started walking. As they passed an alley, they heard the sound of breaking glass. Not like a bottle; more like a car window or a
SMASH!
The body fell from high above, slamming into a dumpster. They hear the thick sound of a bone breaking. Ro, our protector and Bird Beastie, rushes over to see what happened. She finds a young man, the bottom of his leg twisted and bone protruding from the skin. He's whispering, "help me." And, of course, he's a Changeling.
Ro grabs the young man and drags him out of the dumpster. Jessica looks up and sees someone looking down from a window on the 14th floor. That someone then starts scaling down the brick wall toward them.
The girls grab the boy and run for the bridge.
The dark shape behind them gains ground, but the girls are quick and have a head start. They reach the bridge and turn around. A black man with long dreads looks at them from the other side. He does not cross.
"Give it back," he tells them.
They decline. Then, after a bit of threatening, they head back to O'Bannon's to ask for help.
Complication
He's barely conscious. He can't walk. He's light, though. Emaciated. As if he hasn't eaten in a week. And, after O'Bannon resets the boy's leg ("I haven't had to do this since 1892..."), they watch the broken flesh mend. O'Bannon curses and cuts the boy's hand. The laceration heals within moments.
When he wakes, he insists on returning to "the prince." They have to restrain him to keep him from leaving. Fast healing, surviving a 14 story fall, obedient. Jessica (with her Occult Skill, speciality "Vampires") comes to the conclusion the young man is a ghoul. That's confirmed when a phone call demands a meeting at the bridge.
The limo there waiting for them contains a woman who wants her property back. The Glamour Girls decline the offer. The woman insists. They decline again. The woman makes them offers. Everything has a price.
Jessica says, "Destroy Arcadia and you can have him back."
The woman looks at each of them, memorizing their faces. "None of you are safe in my city," she says. Then, she leaves.
The Glamour Girls have a charge now. A responsibility. And they have consequences.
The game ends. Everyone had a great time. I'm exhausted but happy. So is Ro.
Oh. I nearly forgot. The boy's name?
William Tamerlane.
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PS: Ro's addendum to the evening.