Monsterhearts Part 3

The MGG played through our third, and for now final, Monsterhearts session last night.  I had fun, but I definitely think it is a good thing we are rotating games for a little bit because I really felt the momentum was winding down.  Of course I fully admit that could be completely just my perspective, because I was so close to achieving the overall character arc goal for Silas; and therefore didn't have much more to drive towards in general.

The session started out with some recap and a little "Well what are you guys up to now?"  Silas went off and tried to apologize to Rosa for his earlier behavior.  Caroline went and found the girl she hooked up with at the party and used her ability to get some healing via closeness and intimacy.  Dominique continued her weird three-way date with the other selkie Ann and Mr. Samwell (this caused a slight disconnect because it seemed both me and Emily said things that happened in the following day or two after our next session; but then Josh picked right back at the minute of leaving off.  I had a little bit of "Well this didn't actually happen yet but we're referring to it as if it had.....huh.") by going to Baskin Robbins.

Dominique apparently got it into her head to try and steal Ann's pelt for some reason.  She didn't know where it was though so she called Caroline, who Dominique knew was good at finding out secrets.  Dominique described the situation to Caroline and piqued her interest (though the whole time during that conversation I was thinking "Wait, I didn't think Caroline knew you were a selkie.....huh") and Caroline called Silas, so she could use him for his car.  :p

Silas and Caroline arrived at Baskin Robbins and joined the other three inside.  Caroline squeezed in to the actual table the rest of them were at, Silas just perched on a counter stool nearby and kind of hovered.  Silas also got an orange sherbet cone because orange sherbet is awesome.  There was some awkward and ineffectual conversation at the table, and Caroline tried to find out the secret location of the pelt by asking her demon the Poisoner, but she backed off of following through on asking because the price the Poisoner demanded didn't appeal to her.  Apparently Caroline cares whether or not Rosa ends up as a possible human sacrifice.  Silas just made comments from the peanut gallery.

After a bit Ann and Mr. Samwell decided to leave.  Dominique and Caroline decided to follow them, and Silas went along with it cause he was bored.  They got outside and looked around, not seeing their quarry until, in a classic camera shot style, they turned and found her RIGHT THERE.  She warned them to stay out of her business, using some sort of magical fear ability that Silas and Caroline resisted but Dominique failed her roll against and succumbed to.  Silas being a smart ass told her off and blew smoke in her face.  This caused her to lean in and whisper something in his ear, which resulted in an immediate unleashing of Silas' Darkest Self.  Then things go fun *evil grin*

Silas immediately punched Ann right in the gut, causing 2 harm with a good roll.  He then tried to hit her again but found that he couldn't do it, some sort of mental block was keeping him from swinging at her.  So he turned and backhanded Dominique.  Dominique turned and ran away from Silas, crying in terror.  Silas then jumped on Caroline, bodily pinning her against the wall and biting into her neck like a drunk, sloppy vampire.  He took a little bit of damage while attacking her (from my poor-ish roll) but held on and started lapping up her delicious hot blood.  She tried to retaliate and failed, but her fighting back broke Silas' concentration on her neck and blood and caused him to switch the focus of his hunger by forcibly kissing her with his blood covered mouth and getting way too handsy.  Silas was still a little pissed at being denied by her earlier.  Caroline was even more freaked out by the fact that she was getting turned on by all this (huzzah successful Turn On roll meaning you get turned on whether you think you would or not).

While all this was happening Dominique made it over to Mr. Samwell's car and fought down her fear of Ann long enough to seek refuge and escape with them.  Silas because aware of this peripherally and dropped Caroline in order to sprint over and leap on the hood of Mr. Samwell's car; punching his windshield and cause large spider-webbing cracks to spread across it.  Silas continued to pound on the windshield until Samwell managed to get the car going and threw him off.  Silas glanced over towards Caroline again; but was done with her for now as she fled into the Baskin Robbins.  He decided to steal a car and go find more chaos to cause.

Meanwhile Caroline got Steve, the guy working the Baskin Robbins, to help her staunch the blood flow and call 911.  While this was happening she used some of her blood to draw on a table and Gaze Into The Abyss to try and understand what was going on with Silas.  She saw visions that revealed a lot about him, and found out that this was like what happened with the witches and that Silas' family had stopped him and calmed him down that time.  So she quickly called Silas' house and talked to his grandfather, who was dismissive at first but then immediately took action when she told him Silas was out of control.  She then got patched up and taken to the hospital.

Dominique escaped with the other two and they let her off at her place, though Ann tormented her the whole way apparently.  Silas took his stolen car and crashed it into a liquor store; stealing some high proof bottles and making molotov cocktails out of them.  He then proceeded to fire bomb a few things and run off to cause a bit more random chaos before his family caught up to him and brought him to heel once again.

That brought things to a close for the most part.  Because of all the rolling and the craziness though I managed to get just enough out of the short session to get an advancement and chose a new Ghoul one that allowed me to choose a new Hunger.  So I added the Hunger for Flesh and completed my desired character arc for Silas.  At that point there was time for maybe one more scene; but no one really had a strong idea for what to do from there, except maybe fast forward to a climactic confrontation with Ann; which would have been more than one scene.  So we stopped and just discussed things for awhile.

We all could see more game play happening at some point, but a break needed to be taken.  The opinions on the game in general were quite varied.  Josh was a fan of the setting and such but didn't really like the system, mostly because skills were more generic instead of specifically designed.  Emily liked parts of the system a whole lot, but was slightly less taken with the theme.  John really liked the system overall, but also wasn't as taken with the theme.  Me I love them both.  The system works real well for being improv and narrative, and really letting you drive towards a goal.  The theme is just guilty pleasure fun.

Overall I had a TON of fun playing this game.  I enjoyed my character and loved being able to just see something I want and go for it with no regard for consequences or other's perceptions.  This is something I totally can not make myself do it real life; so the escapism was nice.  I enjoy the directed flow and drive of the Apocalypse World engine behind the game.  Also the fact that I got to tie in Lovecraftian mythos was a nice bonus.

Next week we'll be tackling Smallville character creation.  We are basically coming into it with the thought that we'll see whether or not we actually play a session or two, based on how character creation goes; but we are leaning towards playing.  I can't wait.

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? :)

Monsterhearts AP and Review

Last night the Magpie Gaming Group (MGG) tackled our first session of Monsterhearts.  Monsterhearts is a hack of the Apocalypse World system that was created by Vincent Baker.  Monsterhearts, Apoclypse World, and the fantasy game Dungeon World (currently being Kickstarter-ed, which is totally a word) all use the same basic core system; with a few or a lot of tweaks to make it fit the particular subject matter that the specific game deals with.  Which, btw for Monsterhearts is totally supernatural teen romance drama like Buffy, Teen Wolf, True Blood, and Twilight.  So fair warning that when I get to the AP portion it'll probably have some mature-ish content.  Nothing explicit though I promise, just referencing stuff.  And if you want to just read the juicy details; scroll down till you see the words actual play in big capitol letters and read from there.

To start I'd like to introduce you to the mechanical concepts behind the AW engine in general and Monsterhearts in particular.  First off lets look at the die mechanics.  It is a very simple system, roll 2d6 and add a modifier, which is usually going to be between -1 and 2.  Very simple addition, no algebra or calculus required.  The modifier is based on one of your four core stats:  Hot, Cold, Volatile, Dark.  The numbered value of the stat equals the modifier.  You then take the resulting number and see where it falls on the scale of success and failure.  There are three categories here.  On a 10+ result you achieve a total success and get what you want with little or usually no complications or consequences.  On a 7-9 you get a success, but its got some sort of twist or cost associated with it.  Roll a 6 or less and you fail to do what you want and the Master of Cermonies (the GM) gets to respond with some sort of action that is usually going to result in fun and bad things happening.

Now you are going to be making these rolls when you try do things called Moves.  As a side note, the MCs responses are also called moves, so in the wording of the game technically what happens when you fail is the MC "Makes as hard and fast a move as he wishes".  These Moves cover all the various mechanically significant things you will try to do during the game.  Everyone has access to a list of general player moves:  Turn Someone On, Manipulate An NPC, Shut Someone Down, Hold Steady, Lash Out Physically, Run Away, and Gaze Into The Abyss.  Each of these is tied to a specific stat, which is what you roll when you want to attempt the move.  I.E. to Turn Someone On you roll +Hot.  You also have a specific move or three from you character "class" or "type", what the game calls Skins.  These may also be tied to a stat roll or just specify a "if X then Y" type of thing  They are what make your particular Skin unique and thematic.  You also each have a Sex Move; that is basically a mechanical result that happens when you have sex with someone; like the Ghoul gets to add "have sex with X" as a new hunger when they have sex with someone.

Speaking of Skins, the games character sheets, I love the design behind them.  They basically come out to a single sheet of paper, printed on both sides, and folded in half to make a tiny little booklet (they are called playbooks in the other games btw, fitting) that gives you all the info you need to build and play your character.  You literally do not have to consult a rulebook or reference tome at all in order to make you character.  You just take the printout for the Skin you want, and work your way through it.  Admittedly you do need the MC or someone who knows the system to help guide you through it the first time; but the need is not very great; and all the information you need it right in front of you.  To make your character you make some choices from various lists, like one for names, origins, looks, etc.  Then you write the pre-assigned numbers for your stats into their respective boxes, adding one to one of them as you see fit, and pick any custom moves that you have to make choices on.  Lastly you introduce your character to the group and do what's called Backstory, which basically connects all the characters by giving them Strings on each other, and boom you have a character.

What are Strings you ask?  Well they are one of the two tools that you use to help you manipulate your interactions with other players and with NPCs, and serve as great sources of connection and drama between characters.  Strings are spent and gained as you play.  They are usually gained on others when you succeed and gained on you when you fail.  You can spend them to improve your rolls, hurt others rolls, bribe others to do what you want, increase the damage (Harm) you do when you do it, or place Conditions on others.  See all the fun you can have with pulling on and playing with Strings?  Conditions are the other tool.  They are basically descriptive phrases applied to a character, like Pissed Off or Dazed or Horny.  You can then use them to add to a roll against the character that has them as long as you can narratively justify it.

All of this feeds into the feel of the game that is very thematic, in that in order to get what you want, someone else has to lose out on what they want.  Sound like the world of teenage melodrama?  Sure does!  Another very thematic element is something called Darkest Self.  Basically if the narrative and/or some bad rolls dictate it; you can turn into a darker version of your already monstrous self; and start doing horrible things until a stop condition is met.  HUZZAH!

The structure of the game is very simple.  The MC basically frames a scene, describes what is going on, and then asks a PC "What do you do?"  The PC then takes an action, the MC responds as needed with moves or description, and back and forth.  The MC will cut between the PCs, keeping up with all their actions and hopefully keeping everyone entertained; and the group cooperatively just plays to see what happens.  The game is very much anti-GM comes in with a premade plot.  That is strictly forbidden.  It is very free form and improv; which is something I'm not the best at as a MC, but I absolutely LOVE as a player.  From the very start of the game I vowed to go straight for the throat full-throttle; and it was awesome!

The advancement system in the game is very simple and organic as well.  You have two of your stats highlighted, which means you get to mark XP once per scene per stat when you roll them (regardless of success or failure you still mark it).  Also some various Skin specific moves will provide XP.  Once you've marked 5 XP, you immediately get an advance (chosen from a convenient list on your Skin), erase your XP, and start accumulating again.  The advances are things like more moves from your Skin sheet, a move from another Skin, a gang of some sort, increase to stats, etc.

ACTUAL PLAY

Now for the fun stuff.  First, the cast was my ghoul Silas, Josh's selkie Dominique, and Emily's infernal Caroline.  The beginning of the first session has you creating a home room seating chart.  You make a grid of 3 rows of 5 desks, and then populate them with the PCs and various NPCs; all the time asking leading and provocative questions like "Okay, Dominique, Bethany sits besides you; why do you dislike her?"  or "Alright, Rosa is going to sit here, and she secretly likes one of the boys in the class; Caroline who is it?"

So we pretty quickly got that all figured out, and the questions added a good amount of conflict and content right off the bat.  Like that Dominique hates Bethany cause she wears furs, or that Rosa secretly likes Silas, or that I hate Carlos cause he embarrassed me in front of Caroline during lacrosse practice; stuff like that.

The various PC characters actually bear a little more introduction.  First, Silas, the ghoul I was playing.  He is a gaunt, hungry-eyes, teenage troublemaker.  His family is related to the whole Lovecraftian ghoul mythos; and when he read HPL at an early age he became obsessed with it and ended up getting Dominique's help to commit suicide via drowning in order to join his true family in the Dreamlands.  Didn't quite stick.  They rejected him and sent him back because he hadn't developed the mature ghoulish hunger for human flesh yet (he currently feeds off Chaos).  His parents are absentee; but his grandfather lives at home with them and makes futile attempts to control Silas' bad behaviour.

Caroline (apologies if you spelled it otherwise Emily) is an Infernal, in league with a dark, demon that is apparently a hereditary thing passed down from mother to daughter in her family line.  I believe its name was the Poisoner, or that was its type or something; and Emily described is as a dark, demonic mollusc type of creature; very Cthulhu-esque.  She seems to have a bit of an adversarial relationship with her mother; who is probably trying to protect her from the horrible inheritance she gave her in the first place.  She is the artsy type as well; and sure seems to need protection.

Dominique is a Selkie, a sort of sea nymph/siren type creature.  She was attracted by the humans art and technology while she was still in the sea and came to the shore, taking a humanoid form in order to experience our lives.  She lives in a foster home, and has the usual kids vs. adults drama associated with such situations.  Apologies to Josh, but I'm having trouble remembering much backstory beyond that; except for the fact that at the start of the game Silas posses her pelt; which gives him a modicum of control over her.

The first scene was in the home room that we had just created.  The teacher was late to arrive; so Silas was having a quick cigarette.  Dominique was admiring Keith(?)'s muscles and consulting via note passing with Caroline about Keith's tattoo art.  Carlos stood up and announced a party at his apartment that everyone was invited too that night, well everyone except Silas after he tossed a pencil and nailed Carlos right in the face in a very embarrassing fashion; which of course cemented Silas' intent to show up.  The teacher then showed up, and she told Silas to get rid of that cigarette.  He tossed it out the window with a wink and a flirtatious comment that actually managed to fluster the teacher a bit (hurrah for successful Turn On roll).  On the way out of class Dominique tried to Turn On a classmate, Ben I think his name was, and her failed roll resulted in him coming back very strongly and throwing her off; giving him a string on her.  I think one or two other things happened in the home room scene; but I don't remember them.

Next we went to a trio of scenes with the various PCs getting themselves to the party.  I simply yelled at my grandfather till we both stormed off angry (I got the condition Pissed Off) and then took the car and headed that way.  Dominique ended up having to bring along two of her younger foster siblings, and she managed to convince them is was a costume party; but only by wearing a pirate costume herself.  Caroline failed to convince her mother that the party was no big deal, and had to have her Aunt Becky (who was her mom's younger sister and still in her 20s) come along as a semi-chaperone for her.

Silas arrived at the party first and saw two groups, one at the pool and one at the apartpartment.  Heading straight for the pool he walked up and pushed Keith into the pool, not maliciously, just creating a little Chaos.  He gave Rosa a flirtatious wink (successful Turn On roll) that attracted her amorous attentions, and then after exchanging a couple of quick kisses with her; turned and helped Keith out of the pool; because really it was all just fun and games.  Dominique arrived in pirate costume; with two mini-pirates in tow; which caused Silas to stop making out with Rosa long enough to laugh his ass off at Dominique's outfit and the antics of the two little kids as they ran into the house crying out for "RUM!"

Caroline arrived around then and joined the crowd out by the pool while Becky went inside to find the booze.  Dominique turned her attentions on Keith, convincing him he needed to strip out of those wet clothes; which he was all too happy to do(Turn On success!); going down to his swimsuit and jumping back in the pool.  Caroline attempted to Shut Down Rosa; with a disapproving glare concerning her actions towards Silas.  This failed and led to a renewed make out; followed by Silas giving her an ass-grabbing piggy back ride into the apartment to search out the beer.  Caroline followed while Dominique continued her advances at Keith in the pool.

Inside were more of the home room NPCs as well as some other teens and the booze.  After grabbing a couple of drinks, and assisting the youngins in opening theirs, Silas quickly made his way to one of the bedrooms, Rosa in tow.  Things happened ;).  Caroline and Becky started getting wasted, ala beer funnels and the like.  This led to Caroline making a very clumsy move on the gay girl from the home room, Ashley(?), basically walking up and just starting to unbutton her shirt with no pretence.  Ashley went along with this, crazy drunken girl antics ensued, camera phones were employed, the show made its way back out to the pool, and things happened ;).

Back inside Silas and Rosa rejoined the party.  He went to get some beers and using one of his moves applied the Condition of Morbid to Becky while telling her about how he died, and also got to roll to Turn Her On.  This succeeded and he then used the act of flaunting this to manipulate Rosa into attacking Becky in a jealous rage.  (This cat fight is what got me the fulfillment of my Chaos hunger for the session btw).  CHAOS!!!

As this was going on Dominique decided to Gaze Into The Abyss in an attempt to find out what it would take to get her pelt back from Silas.  Well Silas was pissed off at another guy named Marty for beating him up, so I said that if she scared the crap out of him with an attempted drowning (more chaos btw) I'd give the pelt back.  So she turned on her Siren Song and basically lured the whole party; plus some folks from nearby apartments, to the pool area.  She managed to easily pull Marty down under into the water; causing a lot of Harm to him.  He escaped before he almost died; but just barely.  Just to make sure she had completed her end of the bargain she had Keith go beat Marty around a little more afterwards.  This must have gotten Keith all keyed up cause he and Dominique then left the party together.  And things happened ;)

The sudden loss of concious control for a brief period by all the party goers kinda threw a wet blanket on the mood of the party and it pretty quickly broke up from there.  Silas had one final bit of chaos to inflict, both palming Becky his number and then going and trying to manipulate Rosa by saying it was all Becky's fault; she had come on to him!  The roll actually failed; so in an interesting twist the MC ruled that Rosa had a string on Silas; and he actually had feeling for her; including some guilt over what he did.  Fun times for next session!

The whole thing ended with Caroline gazing into the abyss successfully, though I don't remember the result; and Silas failing at it and therefore being trapped in the Dreamlands for 24 hours; leading to him not being there to return Dominique's pelt at school the next day.  DRAMA!!!

Overall a whole lot of fun and I look forward to more of it next week.