[Sorcerer]Sorcerers in Casablanca - AP
Paiku:
4th session was awe - some. It was three separate storylines almost the entire night, but at the end everybody gave the session two thumbs up. I guess the don't-split-the-party rule only applies to dungeon crawls. :) The drama was palpable, the scenes were realistic in terms of human interaction (the arguments between Dr. von Braun and his wife were almost too real). I did a bit of crossing, as the names of NPCs from one arc show up on a hit list in another arc, for example, and it inspired the players to do some twisting together of the plotlines.
There was no open conflict the whole night! Just a few telltale check rolls, and a couple of half-assed 1-die Banish attempts against a Contained demon. So I didn't get to use Ron's suggestion about separate simultaneous conflicts, but I'm still keeping it in mind. Open combat was about to break out towards the end of the night, so we decided to end it there on a cliffhanger note. Then we sat around for another half-hour and talked about how awesome that session was. :)
So, in short, the preceding advice is working a charm! Thanks Ron, Andrew and others.
Oh, and some serious religious issues have come up for Serge! Ry is currently writing up synopses and AP for our 3rd and 4th sessions, and we'll post them soon.
Paul, Land of Nodd sounds really interesting, looking forward to meeting you and let's remember to chat about that!
Cheers all,
-John
Paiku:
In the interest of getting the AP published before heck freezes over, most of the fiction synopsis will be in point form. It's the game-play analysis that we're all here for anyway, right? Read on to discover some seriously good Sorcerer moments (and thanks again to Ry for his added commentary):
Session 3: Casablanca, Friday AM
Ry: We gathered in John’s basement for Sorcerer. I was feeling pretty beat going into the session, so I tried to focus on Serge’s need for control and made sure I had an idea of what I wanted to do. My notes here are pretty well focused on my character Serge because that’s what I remember best.
John: So at this point we weren't sure whether to treat Serge's kicker as resolved or not. I promised Ry that I still had some interesting stuff in my bandolier. We decided to stick with the status quo until I could bring another bang or two into play, before deciding whether to re-write Serge.
It's the wee hours, right after the big fight at the warehouse in which the group killed 2 NGF sorcerer/officers, a couple of mooks and 2 demons, including the rope demon Anaconda which Serge had bound just hours before. We decide that Serge forgot his two severed fingers and left them behind at the warehouse.
Nazis have deployed around the city. Wanted posters are up all over the place, with a poor sketch of Jacques.
Jacques apartment is being searched. Jacques is recognized, beats down a couple of Nazi soldiers and escapes. Leaves his papers behind. He heads over to von Braun's house, breaks in and falls asleep on the couch.
Ry: "Beats down" is code here for “sics Scar on” – Scar’s need for blood and Desire for mayhem is disturbingly easy for Jacques to satisfy.
Elsa wakes early, discovers Jacques on the couch and screams. Von Braun comes downstairs to make introductions. "He's a mental patient" whispers v.B to Elsa
Von Braun gives Jacques key to medical office, and closes it for the day.
Serge explains to Anna-Michelle about his fingers, lying that he was drinking too much and working on one of the fire engines. Anna-Michelle is worried that this will end my career as a firefighter – Serge reassures her that things will be fine and she heads off to work.
Ry: So as we’re about to cut away from Serge, Ry say to John something like “I want to go to the grocer’s.” John looks quizzically at Ry and says … “OK…” so as Serge heads back to the flat with sixteen pickle jars, Mike and Peter start cluing in that my demon is in for some serious punishment.
John: [background] Serge's demon manifests as a swarm of 16 rats. This next scene was really intense!
Ry: First, Serge unloads all the pickles into the sink. Serge was yelling and haranguing Tack, the rats-demon, for having lead me to the rope. Serge’s good hand darts out and he grabs one of the 16 rats, then puts it into the pickle jar, half-filled with pickling juice. Tack is pleading that he didn’t mean to, that it was all a mistake, and tells Serge to stop. Serge punishes Tack, grabs another rat. Tack retreats, and Serge punishes Tack again. John does a good job of describing the little rat rubbing its face and looking ill inside the sealed jar. Tack slinks back, Serge yelling at him and grabbing another rat, and another, and putting them in the pickle jars. Tack can’t stand it anymore and as Serge grabs the fourth rat, Tack uses his warp power to weaken the first jar and it cracks.
Ry: This was fun, because I had everybody hooked on what I was doing.
Serge banishes Tack, and is now demon-free.
Ry: Banishing Tachyorychtes was the first Jaws-hit-floor incident of the session. John didn’t expect it, and I managed to pull it off with a 1 die instant banish.
John: Truly, it was a stunner, a real turning-point in Serge's story. We all had a lot more respect for the 1-die act of desperation after that!
vB & Elsa go to Breuer & Schultz, shipping agents. Elsa wants to know what really happened to her father, and what the mysterious letter means. Higgs (Company secretary) drops dead at mention of "The Seven Blessings."
they arrange to meet Schultz for dinner @ L'Hotel La Ville de Cloche, 7pm.
Marc le Géant (fireman) fetches Serge to the bookstore. Father-in-law has fallen through the basement floor; vaulted chamber beneath house. No body in sight.
Serge clears the house, cordons off neighbourhood, slaps young brother-in-law Denis to get him to obey.
Jacques finds Michele (resistance fighter from the Marrakesh cell) at The Turk's Head. They team up. J. pushes M. against the board by his balls: "I'm the leader of this cell, not you." M., sweating, agrees.
Ry: Nice to see Jacques throw his badass around.
Mike takes author's stance, and has Jacques run into von Braun and Elsa strolling on the waterfront. Jacques asks von Braun to call Martin @ La Ville de Cloche for him, to find out where NGF hiding now.
Serge is lowered into the vaulted chamber under the in-laws' bookstore. 50' high, 30' wide, 50' to the West, 100+' to East. Bookshelf, box of grenades (modern) fallen through. It seems the in-laws were storing contraband weapons for the Resistance. Drag marks and blood trail lead off to the East.
At the Eastern end of the chamber, father-in-law is unconscious within a Contain circle. Inconspicuous demon, huge, 4 arms, holding him hostage. Speaking a language Serge doesn't know. Wants Contain broken in exchange for f-in-law.
Ry: Here I had Serge approaching, axe in hand. I knew what I wanted to do but I knew that if I gave it away it would be ruined, so I made sure to not look John or the guys in the eyes when I had Serge point at his father-in-law’s body.
Serge asks to see father-in-law. Demon brings body to edge of Contain. Father-in-law is unconscious but alive. Serge kills him with his axe! He was unwilling to repeat situation with Anaconda and unleash another demon on the city. Fails Humanity roll.
Ry: This went off like a bomb; the guys didn’t see it coming and I won the roll against the demon (I had a pretty solid advantage from surprise). The Humanity roll is a fair cop; I’m a little stymied on what it would take to boost Humanity without demons, though.
John: This was awesome: totally unexpected, but totally in character for Serge, who has had just about enough of demons at this point!
Ending: Jacques and Michele are going to investigate NGF's last hideout. von Braun is heading to La Ville de Cloche. Serge has just declared Pierre dead. City chief engineer needs to inspect the underground area. Stay tuned for the next session, in which Serge airs his religious angst. Do practicing Catholics make good Sorcerers? Not if your definition of Humanity includes "sanity"!
-John
Paiku:
We've now figured out (thanks to The Forge) that Serge has NOT resolved his kicker, which entailed a lot more than just one demon on the loose. We prepare to crack open a whole mess of family and religious tension. We've also agreed not to sweat the fact that we effectively have three separate storylines going here, and see how it goes.
Session 4: Casablanca, Friday PM
Did belated advancement rolls for everyone, for the warehouse conflict (Sess 2)
von Braun & Elsa ran into Timo Meyer at La Ville de Cloche (Elsa's note mentioned "Meyer will help"). 50s, pale man, looking at Elsa like he's seen a ghost. "You look so much like your mother." Old friend of her father's (Victor Breuer), didn't know he'd died recently. Wants to see them later that afternoon at his house, but needs a couple hours to clear up some personal business first. He gives address. vB spots telltale.
Jacques and Michele ransack NGF's abandoned hideout. Find list of names: "Casablanca: Jacques Gaillard, Timo Meyer, Victor Breuer, Margaritte Pfeifer." and a telegraph to Oberst Baer explaining peculiarities of navigation in the islamic golden age and suggests they're digging in the wrong place.
Serge offers his place to the in-laws. Tries to make up with Denis for slapping him. Takes Anna-Michelle with him to see his priest. "I need to confess."
von Braun tries to explain about sorcery to Elsa. Forces Bacillus to reveal himself (Punishes him, and contest of Wills), but the demon refuses absolutely. Jacques, who is hiding out there at the office, gets Skar to perform some feats. Elsa and Bacillus are both extremely pissed.
Ry: PLEASE NOTE – this was the most “wow” piece of roleplaying I’ve seen Peter do, and John’s play of Elsa and Bacillus were like an assist from Iginla. This was totally, totally great – the doctor squirming, trying to say-without-saying, be convincing, and do something his demon DID NOT WANT. Peter seemed a little surprised that Bacillus was reacting so badly to “let’s tell the wife about demons” – but I thought it made sense since Elsa is the most natural target for the escalation of von Braun’s malpractise (Bacillus' Need).
Serge gives confession re: demons. And "oh yeah, and I killed my father-in-law today." Gets Father André to come to do an exorcism for him. Priest thinks he needs a head doctor.
Ry: Yeah, I messed up the confession a bit. The thing still went OK though.
John: I had no idea if I was playing a Catholic priest right!
Jacques deciphers the captured map: whatever clues the NGF were following would actually indicate a spot in Casablanca itself, in the Mellah, maybe under the bookstore... Michele returns from post office with address for Meyer.
Jacques&Michele go to see Meyer (swanky part of town). First house: he doesn't live there anymore. Bribes helpful manservant. Meyer moved because he doesn't want to be found. Nazis looking for him recently too. Gives new address.
Meyer is an old sorcerer. Warns Jacques of the dangers. Gets paranoid, thinks he's after "the ruby." They agree to meet that night at the bookstore.
von braun & Elsa visit Meyer. Screaming upstairs. v.B tries to get Bacillus to convey Cloak, but the demon is rebellious. It wants to seriously harm the landlord's daughter, or Elsa. They agree on "a feast of medical malpractice" soon. But it's too late, Meyer is eviscerated, his assailant escaped out the window. Dying, he gives them the remains of his journal: only the first and last pages, the rest was ripped out and stolen by the attacker. "You have a powerful enemy, she'll think I've given you the ruby..." and many apologies to Elsa for something, and he dies. Search the room: Meyer has been selling off a rare book collection piece by piece. Not much left except 1 fat tome on sorcery. Funny-smelling pipe, waxed paper with 7 stars on it.
Ry: Pete mentioned this first, but: John really, really outdid himself with the props – a note here, a couple of pages there, and so on. Completely fit, and were fun to see and handle.
John: Thanks, glad you liked 'em! I'll post the text of Meyer's journal (the few pages that von Braun and Elsa found) on my gaming blog right after I post this.
vB and Elsa go to get a room at La Ville de Cloche - don't feel safe returning home.
Serge and the priest head down into the vault under the bookstore. The priest is starting to doubt that Serge is crazy.
Serge tries to get the demon to appear - tries 1-die Banish and Punish, tries threatening w. grenades, but no luck (GM's note: this demon has been Contained down here for a thousand years, how should it know what a grenade is??). Enjoins the priest to begin exorcism anyway. *Point of order: can the priest Banish? We decide yes, with 1 die, and if he succeeds he will become a 1-Lore sorcerer. Serge is helping (group sorcery).
John: Ry really played up Serge's religious anguish over all this demon business.
Michele is off recruiting for the Résistance when Jacques gets wind of goings-on in the Mellah. He sneaks past the cordon to the bookstore and downstairs and down into the vaulted chamber to join Serge and the priest.
Jacques arrives, and after catching up on events he selects a concussion grenade and throws it into the Contain (Serge shields priest). Boom. Demon appears, enraged. Priest runs for his life. The back wall has fallen in a bit, there is a chamber beyond. Perhaps the demon was Contained here to guard something...
John: As I said in a previous previous post, it was an excellent and engrossing session despite the three nearly-separate storylines. We left it on a cliffhanger note, with Jacques and Serge having just taken the decision to attack the four-armed demon and attempt to destroy it before the Nazi occult research team arrives. Next scene will be von Braun and his dinner with Schultz, Elsa's father's ex business partner and the only person they know who might possibly be able to shed any light on what's really going on...
-John
Ron Edwards:
Fan-tastic. I really appreciate the reflective nature of the posts as at the same time I'm able to enjoy the story for its own sake. A few semi-unconstructed points:
1. I totally saw the axe-murder of the father-in-law coming. I would have been surprised if he didn't do it.
2. That one-die desperation roll is serious! I mean, you do have a chance ... and in practice it pays off just enough to matter.
3. John, I have advice: sit down with the priest character, when you prep, and work him up as a distinct personality, especially someone you care about, and who has both strengths and weaknesses you sympathize with. Also, it's probably time to beef up the wife too, and think of her as someone with a powerful commitment to her decisions in life so far. If someone really devalued or showed contempt for those decisions, what might she do?
4. One thing I'm noticing: the group of you, as people, are becoming enthusiastic fans of one another's role-playing. Isn't that cool?
Best, Ron
Ry:
Hey Ron, does Big help a demon absorb damage during combat? That was one stumbling block for us. Some of the APs I've checked out seem to suggest it helps the demon take punishment, but we can't figure out where in the procedure the extra dice from big would go (since attack & damage are 1 roll and Big doesn't help defense).
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