So I'm giving the Dresden Files RPG another try. I have to say that almost every time I try out a FATE based game I'm both reminded of how I hate the swinginess of FATE dice, and how I love all the other parts of the system. Plus I love the Dresden Files setting, and we have a great group of folks participating.
The setting we decided to build for this campaign was Seattle. A few of the players are from that area, and in general it is a very interesting city that has a ton of possibility for magic and mayhem. We're dealing with a new power from the East gathering in the old Chinatown, with all the big players in town having left to fight the Vampire War, and with some sort of Old Power stirring underneath everything.
We have some amazingly cool locations. The Blue Jazz Nightclub is both the Accorded Neutral Grounds, and the den of a White Court vampire named Sven who holds items of great import to people and allows them to visit and see them in order to feed on their lust for the item. Pike's Place Market is a hub of all sorts of crazy powers and important shops. My character's stomping grounds are at the Woodland Park Zoo, a Summer Court bastion that houses a menagerie of mystical beasts. Lakeview Cemetery is watched over by Bruce Lee's ghost and Denny Park is watched over by the denizens of the mysterious and dangerous Denny family. There are Were-Rats in the Underground, Triads in Chinatown, a Biomancer at the hospital, and something mysterious going on at the Space Needle.
Our cast of character includes:
Cyphus(me) - the Summer Court Changeling who is a Keeper of the Menagerie for the Sidhe
Ellethwen (Elle) McFadden - a Summer Changeling Hairdresser
Akina - the Pack less Werewolf with the occult bookstore
Chong Xi - the Emerging Kung Fu Master with a vigilantism habit
Molly Brennan - the mortal Detective in the Know with a loose vision on ethics
Steven Williams - the "not-Zombie" Social Manipulator with a penchant for instigating trouble
Jacob Morkraven - the Wizard of Redemption with haunting family issues
As you can see quite a collection of big personalities and interesting folks. So far we've had a very good time in our two sessions.
In our first session all of us experienced a similar dream/vision which turned out to be the final magical act of a dying wizard named Jenny Denny. Yes she is connected to the mysterious Denny family and yes her name is really Jenny Denny. All the players were able to identify where the vision was set (Denny Park) and headed there quickly for various reasons. Cyphus was just annoyed that someone got into his head uninvited and wanted to find out what was going on. He traveled through the Nevernever (magical, Fae realm) and after exiting back into the real world outside the park he hid himself with a Veil and went to find the body.
Some of the others were already there and were inspecting the fallen girl, so Cyphus quickly snuck over to her purse and palmed the $4000 it contained. After that he moved over by the body and when he discovered traces of ectoplasm he dropped the Veil, appearing in the middle of everyone, and pointed this fact out. After folks recovered from the surprise much discussion about what had happened began. No real conclusions were reached, but a clue pointing to the Blue Jazz Nightclub showed up, and when it was discovered there was some sort of event happening there that weekend, we decided to check it out.
It ended up being some sort of formal party, so nice clothes and dates were required. Cyphus had the clothes covered (he's Fae after all!) but needed a date. Luckily a Sidhe lady was visiting town after donating a new beastie to the menagerie, and the Lady Selise was more than willing to accompany him to the event. So with a gorgeous Fae woman on his arm and his own personal charisma (Cyphus' glamour appearance looks like Eric Northmen from True Blood BTW for those that know the show) Cyphus made one hell of an entrance at the party.
The normal niceties and chit chat happened for a bit, with everyone dancing around the two non-PC pairs; a couple of Triad folks and the local Red Court vamp with arm candy. After a bit the owner, Sven, came out and invited everyone back into the inner sanctum to view his collection. There were quite a few interesting items there, but Cyphus had eyes for only one thing, an actual DRAGON EGG!
Lots of talking, coveting, and skulduggery were going on all over the room, but Cyphus did not pay much attention to anything but the egg. When his attention finally got pulled back to the world around him his date Lady Selise was having a bit of a verbal cat fight with the Red Court vamp Scarlet and things were about to escalate. And boy did it ever escalate! By the end of the proceeding fight Akina had torn the vampire's throat out!
Cyphus would have left it all well enough alone if Selise had not been on one side of it. He ended up palming a liquor bottle off Akina and glamouring it to seem like holy water in order to distract and scare the vampire; which worked. In the end every PC survived and walked away mostly free. Oh and some of the final wheeling and dealing managed to get me the Dragon Egg! As well as Jacob getting some special magical sword; which led to an invitation to a meeting with the Triad folks (which was a good thing since the big Triad bruiser at the party was the main suspect for the killing of Jenny Denny).
The second session primarily featured the aforementioned meeting and a some follow up action. Cyphus did not do much this time around (mostly because his player was exhausted). He facilitated a meeting between Jacob, Chong Xi, and Selise, in which Selise got them to promise to bring along a spy butterfly creature to the meeting in exchange for some information. Then the group met up at Akina's bookstore before proceeding to a meeting with the Triad representative. Cyphus basically just trailed along because he was curious, but not actively interested, until they reached the Triad stronghold at the Egg Long restaurant and saw a full fledged dragon skull. Once again lots of talking and such happened in the background, but Cyphus did not pay much attention because, dragon skull! Something was decided about going to seek out a warlock in the Underground.
So on the way to the Underground the group decided to take out Selise's butterfly. Cyphus' attention was drawn by this, but he decided to see what would happen. If the initial assault on it had somehow failed to do anything I would have probably had Cyphus speak up and play like he was destroying it, but instead take the power into himself so he would continue to serve as Selise's spy. But lo and behold, when you attack a butterfly belonging to a Sidhe, it turns into an ogre. A group of purple monkey demons and Triad looking enforcers also decided to join the party in the alleyway and crazy times happened. Cyphus did not want to attack the ogre in case Selise was still able to see through its eyes, so he focused his actions on the demons; using his power to manipulate a targets mind to make it feel the effects of extreme drunkenness.
The battle was big and epic, but this post is getting really long and I don't want to type it all out. Besides Cyphus doesn't really care about the violence, just the results. He was pissed by the flaming poop attacks of the crazy monkey demons though! Fortunately due to his inhuman toughness and recovery abilities, as well as some good dodging he walked away from the whole thing totally unscathed. Everyone else came off much the worse for wear with lots of consequences. Oh well, not his problem. The toughs were killed or driven off, the ogre slaughtered, and the demon beat down to size and captured. The party decided to head to a nearby cheap hotel in order to interrogate the demon and decide on what to do next.
On the way Cyphus decided to be nice with some of his recently acquired money and buy some replacement clothes for Akina, since she keeps destroying hers when she "wolfs out". Unfortunately the only clothes quickly available were some touristy type sweat pants/shirts. Cyphus apologized for the crude garb, but still felt bad and promised Akina that he owed her one for such a terrible fashion insult.
Cyphus left the group still talking (because I had to leave to get ready for work) and headed back to have an interesting conversation with Selise, where much flirtation and plotting happened. It looks like I'll be having to try and get a hold of that magic sword for my own ends. There will also be some down time between session so I'm going to hang around Akina's bookstore to do some more research on my dragon egg.
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