Monsterhearts AP Session 2

The MGG tackled another round of Monsterhearts tonight. Large amounts of craziness ensued, lots of fun was had, and my ghoul Silas accomplished the session goal I had.

We started out with a little recap of what happened last time, talking through a few details, and then a tiny bit of description of what a couple of us did over the weekend between the party (which was on a Thursday) and the first scene of this session on the following Monday.

Monday found all of the PCs back in home room, finding out that Marty had been found dead over the weekend. He apparently drowned in his pool at home. This was quite an interesting turn of events considering the fact that Dominique (the Selkie PC) had mostly drowned him in the apartment's pool at the party. The class was told that grief counseling from Mr. Samwell was available for anyone that needed it. Caroline and Dominique both went to seek counseling; though neither seemed to be taking it all that seriously; they just wanted an excuse to do something different than be in homeroom. Silas used the opportunity to convince Rosa to sneak away to some hidden place in the school and help him pursue his new hunger of “have sex with Rosa”. Things happened ;).

Back at the counselor's office Dominique was getting an opportunity to talk to Mr. Samwell. She basically threw herself upon him, saying she was so distraught over Marty's death, that she had had sex with him at the party, that she was afraid that anyone she got close to might die, and that she really needed to be comforted. In a surprising display of self control Mr. Samwell did not take advantage of the situation; but instead rushed away on some sort of urgent business that he was alerted to via a text message. And there really did seem to be urgent business; not just a pretext here.

Caroline reacted violently to being denied the opportunity for counseling and being told to go back to her normal scheduled classes. She flung the contents of the secretary's desk on the ground and Lashed Out Physically at the poor woman. She did not roll to well on the attempt and ended up suffering Harm as well; fictionally because campus security showed up and she got knocked around a bit in being restrained. This basically takes up the rest of her school day, while she spends time in ISS.

Silas skipped his next class, stupid old Math, and went to the roof of the school to smoke and Gaze Into the Abyss. He was looking for inspiration of some sort concerning a way to satiate the new hunger for delicious, hot, sticky blood that he had felt awaken in himself during the 24 hours he had been stuck in the Dreamlands last Friday. The Abyss gave him an answer, the Happy Sunshine Club, a totally ironic bar and club that was not really all that happy or sunshiny and was a favorite hangout of the goth/emo crowd. Where better to find some cutters? Getting this answered took a good amount out of him though; so he gained the Drained condition.

The police decided to take some time and talk to Dominique after school that day; since she had been connected by eyewitnesses to an “altercation” with Marty at the party last week. Dominique was a bit too flirty and forward with her responses to the officers, and this made the suspicious. Marty's death moved from a probable accident to a possible homicide. OOPS! Fortunately for her Dominique managed to Hold Steady under further interrogation and she was allowed to leave without any charges or anything being brought up. Not that she actually killed him or anything.

Caroline apparently felt good and morbid; so she went to the scene of Marty's death; the pool in his backyard. She used the waters of the pool to Gaze Into the Abyss, and because her roll was not great again (a common theme for the night for both Caroline and Silas btw, bad rolls) her visions were vague and confusing. She saw the scene from the party with Dominique pulling Marty under, then she saw the pool in his yard, and the exact same pulling under scene happening there. Since Silas had expressed a possible suspicion of Dominique earlier, Caroline texted him, asking if he really did think that she might have killed Marty. Silas was like, “Not sure, but what could we do about it even if she did?”

Oh and somewhere in there Silas returned Dominique selkie pelt to her; like he'd promised he would but had been unable to do last Friday.

Later that week, close enough to the weekend that there might actually be people at the HS Club, Silas got a hold of Rosa and Caroline and convinced them both to go out to the club with him. Dominique was out at the ocean at this time; questioning the local sea life and discovering that another selkie was operating in her area. Gazing Into the Abyss she discovered that the other one was at, surprise surprise, the HS Club.

Silas, Rosa, and Caroline managed to get in fairly easily with fake Ids, though in a fun twist on a consequence for a bad roll they were allowed to do what they wanted but were noticed and noted by Mr. Samwell when they came in. Dominique managed to sneak her way in somehow. The trio headed out on the dance floor, Silas and Rosa getting hot and heavy, Silas and Caroline not so much. (I failed a Turn On roll with Emily's character and she failed a Shut Someone Down roll with mine here; it was a bit of a weird wash mechanically. We were all a bit confused as to how best to handle it; so we kinda just hand waved it.)

Dominique is fairly quickly confronted by her fellow Selkie. The two share some verbal sparring filled with subtext, the other Selkie (Ann I think) was a bit more feral than Dominique, and Dominique was trying to convince her that there were good and interesting things in the human's world. Mr. Samwell joins the two, seeming to be somehow connected to Ann (at least that is how it looked to me), and Dominique tries to turn the two of them on to each other (I'm not really certain as to why).

Meanwhile Silas and gang are trying to get some booze. Another terrible roll on my part led to being denied there; though the bartender did hint in a completely non-subtle manner that he would trade other things besides money for booze if Rosa and Caroline came to the back with him. Caroline was not really interested in doing anything with the bartender; but she was more than willing to put on a show with Rosa for his benefit. Sadly this roll was horrible as well and she didn't turn Rosa on. Nor did Silas succeed at manipulating Rosa into it, and in fact after both these botched rolls Rosa was done with this BS for the night and left. This pissed Silas off; so enraged he turned and used his only string on Caroline to convince her to help him seduce and manipulate some kinky goth girl and get her out of there for booze and fun times somewhere else. You can spend a string on a PC to offer them a reward of one experience if they do what you want. Pretty cool mechanic. Caroline agreed and they managed to hook not one, but four emo kids in their little plan. The group left the club and headed to good old Aunt Becky's house.

Ann apparently agreed to go out and show Mr. Samwell a good time; but only if Dominique would come along with them. I apologize to Josh for not really remembering what else happened with his character after that; I was planning desperately how to accomplish my goal and was selfishly focused on my own story. I remember something about them going out for some food or something like that. Sadly that is about all I remember. I sent Josh a link to this blog; so if he reads this and feels like telling me about what else happens, maybe he'll comment.

Back with the story I was paying attention to. (Negative side of splitting the party in this game I guess). Silas, Caroline, 3 emo chicks, and one emo dude are all at Aunt Becky's empty house. Silas cranks up some tunes, Caroline breaks into the liquor cabinet, and folks start having a good old time. Each of the PCs narrows in on a target individual to pursue, Silas finds the one that comes off as the kinky and crazy one (tell tale cuts on the arms there) and Caroline picks out the one innocent one in the bunch. They each hone in on their target and began working towards their respective goals with each. Once again horrible rolls abound!

Caroline is trying to get the innocent girl to separate and go be alone with her. This fails, and the girl they initially approached back at the club comes over and yells at her, insisting that little miss innocent was “one of them”. She then does some sort of hand motion with some sort of mystical mumbo jumbo and Caroline is wracked with pain, crying out. Silas hears this, looks up from his target (who he had used the tell them about your death, give them the morbid condition, and then roll to turn them on special ghoul move on; gaining him a soon to be useful string) and sees this happening. He moves to Lash Out Physically at the girl; but is stopped by his girl and magically wracked with pain as well. This infuriates him and causes him to turn back on her. Mr. Emo Boy also steps up and starts hexing Caroline as well.

Meanwhile Caroline has taken quite a bit of Harm and is freaking out. Desperately she calls upon her demon, the Poisoner, and begs him to save her. The Poisoner agrees to get rid of the three threats, but she must give him the innocent in sacrifice as a payment for his help. Caroline agrees.

Silas lashes out at the girl hexing him, and manages to get a partial success, so I chose to have him harm her but lose control to his Darkest Self (which was a win in my book anyway!) He flies into a rage and begins to pursue his closest Hunger (fresh, hot blood at the moment) with total abandon. He rips into the girl hexing him, knifing her in the side and tearing into her throat with his teeth; spending his string to cause 3 harm total (I rolled a friggin 12 finally) killing her and feasting on her blood.

The Poisoner makes his move and saves Caroline by turning the hexes of the two enemies back on themselves. This leaves emo girl and boy wracked with pain and unable to defend themselves when an enraged ghoul turns on them. Caroline grabs the remaining innocent girl and flees the scene with her. Silas moves up behind the guy, breaks his arm, yanks him backwards, sticks the knife in is gut, and bites deep into his throat as well; continuing to feast.

Then he moves on to the last girl, calmly lifting her face up to his; smiling ghoulishly and telling her “Don't worry, it will all be over soon.” before her slaughters and feasts upon her. A short while later, Silas' parents track him down, having through some mystical familial connection known that he was in need of their help, and restrain him from feeding until he can get back under control (they are ghouls too btw). Back from the brink he heads off in pursuit of Caroline, for one more thing must be done in order to fulfill his plans.

He catches up to her on the beach, where she has just sacrificed the poor young girl to the demon in payment for his help. Staring at her with a calm but hungry purpose he stalks forward, and she retreats. Moving quickly he catches her before she can flee and grabs her by the throat. Staring deep into her eyes, back behind them in fact he addresses her demon and yells “Whatever the f*#* is in there, I want that power!” Caroline's eyes begin to glow and the world around them fades away; revealing a deep, empty black void, and the demonic mollusk like body of the Poisoner, it's evil tendrils fused deeply into Caroline. With a voice that speaks directly into his head Silas hears it accept his Soul Pact, and feels himself flood with new power.

Wonder what wonderfully horrible things will happen next time? :)