Barf Forth Apocalyptica
powered by the apocalypse => Monsterhearts => Topic started by: Evan Torner on June 11, 2012, 09:18:48 AM
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Kat, Meg, Vincent, Julia and I are playing Monsterhearts now. It's a blast with everyone drawing on their angsty teenage years – much pathos to be had!
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The Setting: The Mirkshires, a range of woodsy mountains in New England, at Mirkshire Regional High School, an awful place.
Our cast of characters thus far:
• Olivia -- a brooding Ghost with piercing eyes who died when her drunk stepfather flipped the car off the road back in 1965. She's 15 forever. (played by Meg)
• Ping -- a mysterious Fae with piercing eyes who was born to a fae family out in the woods that is thoroughly amused by the prospect of Ping "trying out" human high school for a couple years. (played by Julia)
• Six -- a haunted Hollow with wide eyes, brought to this world as a product of a wish for a doll-like teenage daughter by a single mother (played by Kat)
• Gerard -- a brooding Witch with smirking eyes who dabbles in witchcraft. He's got a defiant streak in him, and resents his live-in uncle, who seems to be drawing red eyes on some of Gerard's drawings (played by Vincent)
What's Happened Thus Far:
Exploration of where everyone lives and what sucks about getting up and going to school, as well as part of the first day of class after some kind of break, including homeroom with Mr. Vanze (a snooty politics/econ. teacher) and chemistry with the ever-welcoming Ms. Suka. Other students in their homeroom thus far are Mike the clueless football jock, Ashton the charming class jokester, Asha the bossy honor student, and Rita the quite blonde girl with amazing eyes. In brief – Ping has turned Gerard on with a drawing, Gerard has shut down Mr. Vanze with his snarky comments, and Six has gazed into the abyss during chemistry class only to find a vision of a previous version of herself "Three" making out with Ms. Suka.
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Oh man, for some reason reading the name Three was like having someone kick my heart. I suddenly care a lot about Six' plight, and whether she'll finally be the one that's good enough for her mother.
This sounds fun. What was your favourite moment? Were there any snags?
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I think the best moment for me was just watching Six interact with the various characters – Kat plays a very good "blank slate," and everyone just projects their love/interests onto her.
Ping and Gerard very well could have started a tug-o-war over her after Ping passed Gerard the note.
No snags per se, though it's a bit odd not to do a Hx/Strings wrap-up at the end of the session like in AW. MC-ing Monsterhearts has made me realize that, while similar to AW, it really is its own game.
So hats off to you, Joe, for making that happen!
(And now we've played a second session, so...)
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 1.5: Wolves and Goats
[Author's Note: A heck of a lot transpired in this short session and, unlike when I'm a player, yours truly as an MC can't write down every move that the players make and whether or not it succeeds. So if I gloss over details and such, please help fill them in.]
[2nd Author's Note: Oh my God, this was such a blast!!]
Two new characters have joined the story:
• Seth Enkidu -- a sleek Serpentine with hypnotic eyes from a secretive and nomadic family. Dresses like a Eurotrash greaser. He just moved into town and has taken over the Mirkshire Mansion with his family. (Played by Emily)
• Levi -- an unkempt Werewolf with predatory eyes who was raised by wolves. He's muscular and kinda cute with his large sideburns. He lives in a trailer park west of town – Mirkshire Manors – along with the wolves who raised him and who constitute his family. Works a night job at 7-11 to pay for the trailer. (Played by Eppy)
What Happened: Seth and his pet bat live in a tower room in the decadent mansion overlooking the town with his parents. The one crappy thing about his home life is that he has to feed his sister Georgina every morning. Georgina is some scary-ass snake monster in the dark, vault-like basement, which currently only has a rickety wooden door between her and the rest of the family (someone's gotta work on that). Seth's mother reminds him that maybe he'll have to be in charge one day, so he should learn how to cope with his sister. Meanwhile, Levi has to get up early in the morning, push the dogs off him and run his way from the trailer park to school, a journey he makes on foot every day.
All the other characters get love letters describing some things. Here they are verbatim, along with the results:
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"Dear Ping,
You come home from school to discover the following note from your parents:
Dearest Ping,
We have been called away on “serious business.” It’s our wish that you stay put, stay low, and continue your “life” until our return. It should be nay more than a fortnight.
Your adoring parents,
Chriswind and Sheva
(and your sister Ballada)
P.S. There’s some food in the fridge, we suspect. Check.
P.P.S. A Wild Hunt is on this weekend. Stay indoors. :-)
Your doting MC - Evan"
Ping's empty house beyond the Veil now feels lonely without everybody. She's jealous that her sister got to go as well.
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"Dear Six,
You have a dream that you’re standing naked in a waist-high pool of water before five other indistinct shapes.
Your former selves, maybe?
Roll to manipulate an NPC.
On a 10+, you can ask them up to two questions with reasonable expectation of a coherent answer. Ask away!
On a 7-9, you can ask them a question, and they get to ask one of you. Mark an experience and they get two strings on you.
On a miss, they were just reasserting their control. You begin to drown, and they take as many strings on you as they feel like. Then you wake up.
Your doting MC - Evan"
Six gets a miss. Drowning is an unpleasant sensation!
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"Dear Olivia,
Every day, you have to visit the scene of your fatal crash. It’s just one more thing that keeps you from getting your homework done.
Today’s different... somehow.
As you stand forlornly at the side of the lonely road, roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you find a good reason to stop having to come here as a ritual. The next time you come here, it’ll be special.
On a 7-9, you see a flash of your stepfather’s ghost in the ditch. That’s new. And he gets 1 string on you.
On a miss, the day’s only going to get worse from here. Become your Darkest Self.
Your doting MC - Evan"
Olivia nails it, and realizes that her still-alive step-father finally died at some point that day. A huge weight lifts from her shoulders, and she feels like she can now maneuver in society with a little more freedom (as a dead person).
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"Dear Gerard,
Oh no! Mrs. Akin the English teacher handed back your Chaucer essay with an “F” grade on it. You realize someone cleverly switched their paper with yours.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, you know who did it and you know why, too.
On a 7-9, you have clues pointing to two suspects, but you can’t be sure which one is the culprit. Mark experience if you confront both of them.
On a miss, it was quite possible that you actually did turn in a shitty essay, and that you sabotaged yourself. WTF? This calls for some black magic...
Your doting MC - Evan"
Gerard gets a partial success, meaning that he suspects Levi and Asha of doing it.
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The students all make it to homeroom this drizzly morning. Mike the football player confronts Levi (who was sleeping in the back) and asks him to join the football team, since he's so brawny and committed to walking to school each morning. Mr. Vanze takes attendance in an asshole way and calls out Ping on his/her ambiguously gendered quality, more to regain his authority than anything else. Ping and Six skip class and smoke faerie dust in the tree on the west side of campus, but Six remains unaffected. Meanwhile, Levi's "marking his territory" outside the school near the two smokers when he recognizes the scent of some mysteriously large dogs/wolves in the wilderness.
In chemistry class, Gerard confronts Asha about the 'F' paper, a matter about which Asha appears to be somewhat embarassed (a successful 'shut her down' roll). She later passes Gerard a note to have him meet her after school. Later, at lunch, Seth and Six go out to a hollow tree out by the football field while the rest of the gang have a lively lunchtime conversation in which some of their supernatural backgrounds are subtly mentioned (but the secret's not out of the bag for any character by any stretch of the imagination). Seth kisses Six, and she faints like a rag doll. Seth winds up carrying her awkwardly back across the football field to the school. Levi finds Asha and tries to ask her out to the Harvest Dance and take the fall for him about Gerard's paper (turns out it WAS Levi who swapped the papers), but she doesn't communicate with him eye-to-eye really. Poor Levi.
In English class, Mrs. Akin assigns the class a passion play "Everyman" to be read aloud tomorrow. Six will play Everyman, Ping will play an Angel, Olivia will play God, Gerard will play Satan, Seth will play a butcher, and Levi will play Town Guardsman 2 in Act II. Then Six looks out the window to see a goat-headed cloud full of gathering faerie armies (the Wild Hunt), and she freaks the fuck out. In the ensuing mayhem, poor Sheldon's desk gets knocked over, severing his right pinky. He is taken howling to the nurse's office, and the rest of class is eventually dismissed. Ping skips the rest of the day's classes and goes home to scry with the Faerie King in a bowl of water. She is informed that her parents have left her "in charge" during the Wild Hunt as they're off taking care of important matters. Then the call is interrupted by the image a dark demon goat's head.
After school, Ping puts out the word that there's a party at her house tonight (since she's bored and lonely at home without her family). Six gets the "call" on her hand mirror before climbing on board Seth's motorcycle. Gerard, who had been invited earlier (as he's the object of Ping's affections), meets with Asha at the bus stop. She confesses that she set up the situation with Levi in order to show off her mad skills at altering her fellow students' grades after the fact in the school grading system... thus proving that she was on Gerard's level. She asks him to the Harvest Dance, and he says "yes," but he thinks her plan was stupid and tells her so. He then uses his bibliomancy to divine what on earth is going on: he gets a vision of Olivia's step-father being laid to rest in the coffin at a distant funeral. and almost gets a vicarious experience of being buried alive. Speaking of Olivia, she follows Levi back to the trailer park and they have a romantic moment in his trailer, watching his neighbor Wayne's bad game shows through the window and drinking soda (Levi offered Olivia a beer earlier, but given the role alcohol played in her involuntary death... was maybe not the best idea). Levi's non-functional phone rings and Ping invites them both over to her party tonight. Ping also imposes a condition on Gerard: he gets to mark experience if he publicly turns Asha down for the dance (in favor of Ping).
As Olivia and Levi are moving through the woods to go to the party, they are attacked by several stray faerie dog-wolves in town for the Wild Hunt. This triggers both Olivia and Levi's Darkest Selves: Olivia goes invisible and starts stabbing wolves with her umbrella, Levi goes into wolf form and starts biting into the fae attackers. This battle delays them in arriving at Ping's forest yurt behind the Veil, where the others have gathered. Ping asks everyone to remove all their metal objects, and they're in the middle of doing this when Levi shows up in a wolf rage smelling of dead faerie. Chaos ensues: Levi lunges at Ping, who has hir arrow knocked on her fae bow, only to rip into the face of Six (who somehow appeared between them). Six does not bleed and repels the attack, while Ping fumbles around for what to do next. As Levi gears up for a second assault, Gerard proceeds to knock Levi on the head. Olivia, still invisible, angrily grabs Levi by the mouth while Seth commands Levi to stand down. The Darkest Selves are then resolved by Levi throwing Olivia aside (hurting someone he cared about) and charging Gerard, while Olivia is acknowledged for her efforts to stop Levi and reappears. Ping finally manages to get an arrow off that sticks into Levi, and Levi runs off into the woods, eventually making it safely home to his trailer. Olivia and Gerard get into a huge fight over what was the proper strategy in that situation, never mind all the crazy supernatural shit that just went down, and Gerard (shoeless, 'cause he had to take off his steel-toed boots earlier) runs off into the woods. Dozens of meters from the road, he encounters a goat, runs, trips, and falls. The goat turns into a goat god with a flapping cape and a nasty grin. "Welcome to the Hunt," he says as he repels Gerard's ineffectual magic, and Gerard is captured.
The rest of the students make it to Ping's relatively awkward and uncomfortable "party." Some bits of confused conversation later, Ping just gives up and calls one of her brothers in the scrying bowl. Her brother Wyl divines the nature of Gerard's plight - he's been captured by the Goat God! - and that it's up to them to get him back, as the rest of the fae are preoccupied.
Night begins to fall, and everyone's parents are going to be pissed...
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I have nothing constructive to add other than adoration for what is happening at your table and a love of goat-headed demons.
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Ooooh, tell me you're going to Fastaval next year, Evan. I'd love to play Monsterhearts in the indie block, and if nobody else wants to run it it means I'll have to!
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I don't know, I'd like to go to Fastaval next year, Tore.
God willing, I'll get to go.
But regardless and above all: get the Danes hooked on Monsterhearts!
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Oh, I already have two steady groups running... You can read my VERY long and somewhat confused write-up (hard to focus when you have an 18 month old who wants her daddy all the time) over on storygames.
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 2: Doll Feast
[Seth and Levi couldn’t make it, so we ran a short session with our depleted numbers.]
What Happened: It’s 2 a.m. Seth presumably dropped off Six at her mother’s ranch house before driving off to get an earful from his parents. Six walks in, flesh still dangling from her cheek, and her mother doesn’t really know whether or not she’s angry or just thankful that her “daughter” is home and in one piece. After some awkward moments when her mother tries to wish away the wound on Six’s cheek or, better yet, fix it with needle and thread, she settles on slapping a bandage on it for now. Six’s mother also shows her the new doll-like gingham dress she made for her, and sends her to “bed.”
Meanwhile, Ping and Olivia are gazing at the sad remains of Ping’s party in the faerie yurt just beyond the veil. Olivia is so angry at Ping because of how awful the resultant situation is: Levi and Six are hurt, and Gerard’s been kidnapped by the Goat God. But Olivia’s blame turns back on herself: for irresponsibly pursuing Levi, for tagging along with the wrong crowd and getting burned for it, and so forth. She now feels even worse. Ping has Olivia promise her to “Shut ... up!” (with the ellipsis almost becoming an expletive).
Ping wants to save Gerard from the Goat God right now at 3 a.m. so she and Olivia walk straight out of the faerie yurt and run smack into three Unseelie fae: Bentham, Lug and Griswold. It turned out that they had heard about the party at Ping’s house too and were wondering if there was any beer left. Ping has them take Olivia and herself to the home of the Goat God, and they good-naturedly oblige. Sie also calls Six on her mirror to help out. Six just wishes herself beyond the Veil to the forest where the others tread. This act of wishing, however, has unwittingly created a mere duplicate of herself and sent it beyond the Veil; Six is also still in her bedroom, pretending to sleep.
They make their way to the Tree of Darkness, the Goat God’s home, which is a giant tree made of distorted animal and human visages and limbs. A huge Unseelie war camp roils at its base, preparing for the Wild Hunt tomorrow. Wandering around on the edge of the camp, in a half-dazed state, is Gerard (actually Terrifying Fake Gerard -- Vincent made him as a ghoul). Ping immediately does not think this is Gerard, but stares into his eyes and is taken aback by seeing that he has all of Gerard’s memories. Unfortunately, Terrifying Fake Gerard is also kind of hot, like Gerard (turn someone on rolls for everyone!). The situation intensifies when several Unseelie guards notice their presence, notably a phalanx of 10-foot stone walls on legs, and then try to collapse on them. Gerard and Olivia run to the woods, while Ping dons hir furry cloak and heads toward the Tree of Darkness incognito.
After Six goes running into the woods too, Terrifying Fake Gerard suddenly grabs her and bites her shoulder. Olivia hits him nearby with her tire-iron like cudgel, but the struggle forces her tumbling down a slope out of reach. Six, who tastes like marzipan, starts biting Terrifying Fake Gerard back, and then (having achieved the Hollow’s Darkest Self) proceeds to feed herself to him in an ecstasy of self-destruction. There is naught remaining of Six’s body save a handful of chewed doll parts on the forest floor. Six then awakens in her bed, shaking.
Ping reaches the Tree of Darkness and finds a wandering goat to lead her to the Goat God. The Goat God eventually appears and expresses a general disregard for the humans scattered among his camp, as evidenced by the goat: with a gesture, he whips off its skin revealing Tyrone, a Mirkshire Regional student who went missing around the Wild Hunt time last year. Stark naked, Tyrone constitutes an additional irritant to Ping as sie tries to bargain for Gerard. Eventually, sie makes a contract: sie will trade one of the six “wish dolls” (i.e. Six) in exchange for Gerard.
The Goat God then shows her over to Gerard: he has been recruited as an office of Unseelie and will be leading a force during the Wild Hunt! Gerard is consulting his men, Bentham, Lug and Griswold among them, about his plan of attack on the Mirkshires tomorrow night. Ping pleads for him to come with hir, but he is obliged to stay. Ping at least has Gerard promise not to kill any fae during the Wild Hunt and, after more negotiation, decides to accompany him on the Hunt, which will cause her parents no end of distress. They pitch their mutual tents on either side of the division between the Seelie forest and the Unseelie camp as the sun rises, but not before Ping gathers what little remains of Six in a bag to possibly trade for Gerard...
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That last scene was sad-making. Blew the role that would have made it happier (no turning Gerard on, but he got a Ping's eye view of what happened since he left Ping's yurt) and made the role that just made the sad super sad ("I know these are Six's remains. And I guess I didn't tell the goat god that I'd bring her alive, so this shouldn't void our agreement. But more to the point, is this all that's left of my BFF? WTF happened?")
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 3 (well, actually 4): La Ronde
[Author’s Note: Everybody was back and in good form for this session. Sex and violence and high school, all mixed with a hefty dose of dramatic irony that only Monsterhearts can really provide.]
[Author’s Sidenote: Something just struck me about our RPG lingo, namely: we frame units of time in terms of rounds, scenes, sessions, and campaigns, incorporating the respective discourses of boxing, film/drama, psycho-therapy, and war all at once. So the macro-scale level of an RPG story lets us perceive a field of conflict, the actual sitting with the players is just a form of group therapy, the scenes moments of acting, and the rounds as boundaried units of micro-conflicts. Hmmm...]
Love Letters: Because we have 6 players and 7 characters, the resolution of the love letters took enough time to merit its own section of the AP. Seth and Levi get to mark 2 experience as their consolation for not being able to make it last time. Here are the love letters verbatim, along with their results.
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“Dear Six,
The psychic shock of losing your other body rips through you, and suddenly voices tear through your head.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you cling to the fantasy about a character of your choice, and it calms you down.
On a 7-9, you fantasize about Terrifying Fake Gerard and it feels wrong, but you calm down anyway.
On a miss, your “haunted” condition becomes “terrified.”
Your doting MC - Evan”
Six gets a miss, and winds up utterly terrified. Fortunately, she’s a Hollow and can easily resolve that situation by acting it out. More on that later.
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“Dear Ping,
As you set up your yurt next to the Unseelie camp, you realize that your trusty bow is missing.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, wait – there it is! You grip it with renewed confidence and take 1 forward as you prepare for the Wild Hunt.
On a 7-9, an Unseelie imp ran off with it. You catch her, but the Goat God gets another string on you.
On a miss, an Unseelie imp ran off with it. You hunt her down and, in a fit of rage, strike her dead. Congratulations - you’re now your Darkest Self!
Your doting MC - Evan”
Ping gets a success and it’s no big deal.
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“Dear Gerard,
You are woken in the early morning by your men: the Boar-Headed Fiend (one of your sergeants) wagers he could command this bunch better than you. He calls for a challenge!
Roll to lash out physically.
On a 10+, you whip him soundly and he’ll actually support you from now on.
On a 7-9, you beat him, but take 1 harm and a hard-to-conceal wound to show for it.
On a miss, he whips you, you take 2 harm, and now the Goat God has to get involved...
Your doting MC - Evan”
Gerard gets a partial success, meaning he beat the Boar-Headed Fiend into submission, but not before it bit off his index and middle fingers on his right hand. He starts the game with an open wound.
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“Dear Terrifying Fake Gerard,
You ate recently, and that was good. But you’re still badly wounded from that fracas with the doll and the ghost.
At some point this morning, choose a character who, if they agree to help heal your harm, can mark 1 experience.
In exchange, you not only heal all 3 of your harm, but you also get to activate your Sex Move with this character.
Failure to do this in the morning will give everyone a string on you.
Your doting MC - Evan”
The time frame wasn’t all that generous, so he failed. Everyone got a string on Terrifying Fake Gerard, which pretty much represents the fact that by the end of the first 15 minutes of the session, word got around about his ‘condition.’
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“Dear Olivia,
After a terrible evening, you crash and begin another round of blaming yourself for all that transpired.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, you see an apparition that jolts you out of your self-hatred and blame.
On a 7-9, you see an apparition that jolts you out of your self-hatred and blame, but it takes advantage of your wounded state and takes 2 strings on you.
On a miss, you see only the world around you and it continues to suck. Everyone gets a string on you in your insecurity.
Your doting MC - Evan”
She gets a partial success. As she and Tyrone walk through the streets of the Mirkshires (more on that later), she spots the Hanging Tree where there once was a horrific mass hanging. Some of the more capricious ghosts spot her as she passes, and it’s obvious to them what just happened to Olivia.
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“Dear Seth,
You arrived home late last night after dropping off Six, only to find your father hopping mad about your consorting with the Unseelie - and at this late hour!
Roll to manipulate an NPC.
On a 10+, he lets up after you give him a bribe, threat or motive.
On a 7-9, he simmers down, but sends you to spend the rest of the night with your sister as penance.
On a miss, same as a 7-9, only your father gets 2 strings on you and will be mistrustful for the near future.
In all cases, mark 2 experience points for the stress.
Your doting MC - Evan”
Seth gets a partial success. He spends the rest of the night in the basement feeding his sister the dead mice she likes and reading her an endless array of bedtime stories. He won’t be in great shape come dawn.
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“Dear Levi,
Upon completion of your shift at 7/11, you come home to find your Uncle Snarls at Death’s Door thanks to that chill he picked up a few weeks ago.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you do what must be done.
On a 7-9, you do what must be done, but have to either openly express your grief during the process or take the condition “haunted.”
On a miss, it’s messy, emotionally painful, and disruptive to your sleep to boot. Take the “haunted” condition too.
Mark 2 experience points for the pain.
Your doting MC - Evan”
Levi gets a partial success. He takes Uncle Snarls to the nearby cliff where, after a long pause before the sun rises, the dying wolf throws himself off. Because Levi’s a teenage boy, he swallows the pain and takes the condition “haunted.”
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What Happened: The following events encompass the 21-hour period between 3 a.m. until midnight on the Friday on which supposedly the Wild Hunt is to take place. Having been discovered as a goat in the Unseelie camp, Tyrone is wandering naked around in the forest near the Veil back into the human world. Olivia meets up with him and chats about his disappearance. It turns out that he was running away from his abusive home situation and wound up goatnapped. His memories from his time of being in a goat skin at the Tree of Darkness are pretty hazy, but involve eating grass and bleating. They pass through the Veil and back into town. Olivia sees the horrific apparition of the Hanging Tree with all of its ghostly hanging bodies, but it at least jolts her out of her self-hatred and blame for the whole situation – especially Six getting devoured and all.
Homeroom. Terrifying Fake Gerard is there, as are Levi, Six, and Olivia (Seth wanders in a little later and sleepy). Terrifying Fake Gerard immediately locks eyes with Six and totally falls in love with her. Six is called to the principal’s office, but decides to just go to the bathroom instead and ignores the call. Terrifying Fake Gerard tries to get Olivia’s help in wooing Six, but she (after last night) outright refuses. Oh, and Levi’s heightened senses absolutely tell him that Six and Terrifying Fake Gerard had sex (they didn’t). The rumor spreads anyway and Seth gets really angry, because of his feelings for Six. Mr. Vanze says some boring things and doesn’t care enough to force Six to go to the Principal’s office. After class, Sheldon asks the group for 2 volunteers to help out on the Harvest Dance committee for this coming Friday: Terrifying Fake Gerard and Six volunteer. Asha doesn’t like the way that Terrifying Fake Gerard and Six now have a thing, so Six gives her the condition “bitch” she gives Six the condition “slut,” which has a profound effect on her as a Hollow. Later, in Ms. Akin’s English class, Six, Levi and Terrifying Fake Gerard read passages from the old English play Everyman. They read about Death giving Everyman a choice between Heaven and Hell, and he’s like “Can we wait a while before I have to decide?” They muddle their way through the text, unconcerned with its relations to their own existence.
Meanwhile, in the Unseelie camp, Ping wakes up and finds Gerard with his missing two fingers. Sie takes him over to a nearby healing pool. Sie undresses and expects Gerard to do the same. He is so turned on by the situation that it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that they’re having sex (Ping as a “girl” by request) on the bank within half-an-hour. While they’re having great sex on the beach, the Goat God has mounted a phallus-shaped branch on the Tree of Darkness and made some sort of grand speech to the assembled Unseelie camp. Gerard missed it entirely. As per their Sex Moves, Ping and Gerard extract promises from each other: Gerard has to trust Ping completely, and Gerard gets Ping’s blue glass bottle pendant with “girl” faerie essence in it. After donning their clothes, Ping and Gerard discover from Griswold that the Goat God has capriciously delayed the Wild Hunt to the next weekend. This means Gerard has to get his Unseelie band in shape by then, and Ping has to go back to school. Gerard doesn’t think it’s a bad thing that there’s another form of him wandering around, attending classes with him. Once Ping leaves, Gerard drills his troops and gazes into the abyss. He realizes that his rag-tag Unseelie band are no different from high-schoolers, and he must rise to the level of “role-model teacher,” rather than general, to get them to behave. That or some strong teenage discipline.
Lunchtime. Seth walks up to Terrifying Fake Gerard and punches him in the face. This compounds Terrifying Fake Gerard’s harm (Vincent chooses to lose all his strings) and give him a bloody nose to boot. Terrifying Fake Gerard responds by biting Seth in the face. Six realizes this is over her and (to work off her “Terrified” condition) runs off to the crafts trailer, while Seth just gives Terrifying Fake Gerard the condition “snake food” and walks away. Olivia and Levi meanwhile debrief about last night by the trees... and share an awkward make-out session. Seth and Terrifying Fake Gerard later wind up at the nurse’s office, separated with just a thin curtain. They are both served detentions by Assistant Principal Grumley, who’s too over-worked to be otherwise bothered with conflict resolution. Nurse Hilda bandages up Seth’s face and leaves for long enough to let Six slip in unnoticed. She and Terrifying Fake Gerard make plans for later (with Seth overhearing them) and then turns to talk to Seth. Seth makes a direct suggestion (via the Temptation move): “I think you should stay away from Terrifying Fake Gerard.” Six absorbs the power and will now be able to use it in the future. Ping calls Six via her mirror and is confused that she picks up. Sie then makes the mistake of holding up Six’s doll parts and Six hangs up out of horror.
After school. Olivia watches Levi at his first football practice where, despite being super-tired and haunted, he pummels the crap out of the tackling dummies. This intimidates the entire team, and he’s pretty much appointed a linebacker position on the spot. While Olivia watches him (and the nearby cheerleaders), the trio of girlfriends Jennifer, Wendy and Emma start talking about her and giggling. Jennifer condescendingly asks Olivia “What’s your name?” and Olivia immediately goes to her Darkest Self. She vanishes, and loses any significance. Embarassed, she leaves. Seth surprisingly walks out and takes Olivia’s spot. After practice, Seth and Levi converse: Seth tempts Levi to cross over into the Fae realm with him, and Levi considers it.
Ping is waiting for Six when she gets home on the bus. When they go into Six’s living room, Ping examines the pictures of Six’s mom and gets a flash of recurrent images of violence surrounding the previous versions of Six. Apparently, Six’s mom is a doll-maker who is very disturbed and does not quite understand the havoc she’s wrought and wreaking. Six uses Seth’s power to tempt Ping not to hurt Terrifying Fake Gerard. But that’s not why Ping came over: Ping wants Six to make another whole double of herself in order to trade that with the Goat God for a whole Gerard. Six requires that Ping find her a doll that Ping “really likes.” And then Six and Ping have sex, this time with Ping’s both sexes exposed at once. They afterward extract promises from each other: Ping won’t tell Seth they had sex, and Six won’t tell either Gerard about it. Ping gets out of the house before Six’s mother returns, but only to find that her Seelie parents are still not back from their travels.
Levi comes home to find an invisible Olivia waiting for him. Her dress flutters to the ground, and Levi gets the hint (her Darkest Self goes away). He bowls out his family, and then they have werewolf-ghost sex. Afterward, Levi has formed a spiritual bond with Olivia, while Olivia sorts out the fact that she’s a ghost with Levi. She tells him about how she died and checks to make sure it’s OK that she’s a ghost from the 1960s (it is). In fact, Levi remarks “I’m totally a wolf dating a cougar.”
Seth goes home and talks to his father, Petros, about possibly helping out in the family business in exchange for some tools and connections needed to go into the Fae realm. Petros likes the way Seth is talking and promises to let Seth in on the reason why they actually moved to Mirk Manor in the first place... if he captures 2 fae and put them into cages he provides. He also gives Seth a sharp dagger that can cut through the Veil, but it is “not to be used on anything else, as it dulls the edge.”
11 p.m. Terrifying Fake Gerard meets up with Six, who climbs out her bedroom window in order to be with him. They go on a walk in the nearby bland suburban streets. They both ruminate about being doubles of other folks. Six wants Terrifying Fake Gerard to eat Asha at the Harvest Dance, and Terrifying Fake Gerard considers doing it in public. A police officer drives by and, in typical small-town cop fashion, tells the kids to go home. Terrifying Fake Gerard is hungry, so he throws a rock at the cop car as it passes. The car screeches to a halt and the officer (who shall be named next session) gets out to teach Terrifying Fake Gerard a lesson, but the Ghoul is already on him. Terrifying Fake Gerard takes a savage bit out of the cop’s flesh as he draws a pistol and desperately shoots him in the leg. Then his teeth sink into the cop’s jugular vein, and the cop goes limp. Six watches Terrifying Fake Gerard feast and goes limp like a doll to gaze into the abyss. She gets flashes of Terrifying Fake Gerard’s origin story: he was created as an ugly grey doll with nasty teeth in an Unseelie doll shop at the whim of the Goat God and then sewn into a skin copied from the real Gerard, which then filled with Gerard’s organs and memories. Once Terrifying Fake Gerard eats his fill in a fashion reminiscent more of a wolf attack than that of a human teenager (foreshadowing future badness), they hobble across the suburbs back to Six’s ranch home, where her mother is up and waiting for them...
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NPC Roster: [I thought this play aid might be good for everyone, now that we’ve populated the world in sufficient numbers.]
Ms. Akin – The firm English teacher who assigns too much homework. Gerard passed in a crappy paper, which turned out to be switched with Levi’s paper.
Asha – Red-haired smarty-pants from homeroom. She’s supposed to go with Gerard to the Harvest Dance, though no one expects that will happen. She has a string on Levi over that crappy paper forgery debacle and has a condition “Bitch” inflicted on her by Six.
Ashton – Wise-cracking, charming jokester from homeroom.
Coach Baldwin – Coach of the Mirkshires football team.
Ballada – Ping’s mother; a pleasant sort. Currently off settling Seelie business
Bentham – One of Gerard’s Unseelie thugs. Has purple-ish skin. Led Ping and Olivia to the Unseelie camp
Boar-Headed Fiend – Gerard’s sergeant in his Unseelie regiment; beaten by Gerard in a square fight, but not before he devoured two of Gerard’s fingers
Chriswind – Ping’s father; a mirthful sort. Currently off settling Seelie business
Principal Daedala – the absentee principal supposedly in charge of the school; no one’s seen him before
Dolls One through Seven – All the previous versions of Six that aren’t Six. They have three strings on Six.
Emma – One of the football girlfriend trio. Todd L.’s girlfriend.
Ghosts at the Crossroads – Victims of an awful witchhunt centuries ago; one of them likes to cause car accidents at the intersection they haunt; They have a string on Olivia
The Goat God – Lord of the Unseelie, Rule of the Tree of Darkness, Head of the Wild Hunt; sometimes appears as a goat, but usually as an anthropomorphic goat being with a cape; took Gerard under his wing and allowed him to “fulfill his potential” as one of his generals, while having a ghoulish doll sewn into a Gerard-like skin to replace him... Terrifying Fake Gerard
Griswold – One of Gerard’s Unseelie thugs. Has four arms. Led Ping and Olivia to the Unseelie camp
Assistant Principal Grumley – bald assistant principal who actually runs the school’s operations
Nurse Hilda – part-time nurse at Mirkshire Regional; treats everyone like an elementary school kid
Jennifer – One of the football girlfriend trio. Mike’s girlfriend; made fun of Olivia
Lug – One of Gerard’s Unseelie thugs; Led Ping and Olivia to the Unseelie camp
Mike – The letter-jacket wearing football jock from homeroom. Jennifer’s boyfriend. Got Levi to join the football team.
Minerva – Seth’s mother; wants Seth to be prepared to take over the clan when he comes of age
Olivia’s Step-Father – Doesn’t yet have a name, but hugely important to Olivia’s back story; just recently died.
Petros – Seth’s father and head of the Serpentine clan; looks like Vincent Price, except in tacky leathers and with an albino snake
Rita – Blonde girl with amazing eyes from homeroom. She’s good at chemistry.
Sheba – Ping’s sister. Ballada and Chriswind took her with them when they left all of a sudden.
Sheldon – Nervous, smart and scrawny guy from homeroom. Six accidentally pushed him over in his desk and severed his finger, which the nurse reattached just in time (so he’s got a big bandage on that finger). He’s also on the Harvest Dance committee and recruited Six and Terrifying Fake Gerard to help him.
Ms. Suka – The beautiful-but-scatter-brained chemistry teacher.
Todd L. – A football jock. The quarterback. Emma’s boyfriend.
Todd W. – A football jock. Thick-headed and brutish. Wendy’s boyfriend.
Tyrone – The boy from Olivia’s history class who went missing last year when he was turned into a goat; Adopted Korean-American; single mother in complicated relationship; spent the night at Olivia’s place
Uncle Max – Gerard’s dad’s brother; kind of a live-in jerk
Uncle Snarls – Part of Levi’s wolfpack family; picked up a chill recently and did the honorable act of throwing himself off a cliff, much to Levi’s inner torment
Mr. Vanze – Their homeroom teacher. A tweed-wearing know-it-all stuck teaching political science and economics at Mirkshire Regional. Has strings on Six and Ping.
Wayne – Levi’s next door neighbor. He’s a couch potato who watches a lot of game shows and professional wrestling, but otherwise a generally good guy
Wendy – One of the football girlfriend trio. Todd W.’s girlfriend
Wyl – brother of Ping; serves administrative functions somewhere in the Seelie courts
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We're trying a telepresent MC (myself) for the next round of this.
God, I hope it works... for all involved!
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Here are the character sheets as of the end of July:
Seth
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-seth-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-seth-july-2012.pdf)
Six
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-six-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-six-july-2012.pdf)
Levi
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-levi-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-levi-july-2012.pdf)
Ping
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-ping-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-ping-july-2012.pdf)
Terrifying Fake Gerard
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-terrifying-fake-gerard-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-terrifying-fake-gerard-july-2012.pdf)
Gerard
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-gerard-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-gerard-july-2012.pdf)
Olivia
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-olivia-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-olivia-july-2012.pdf)
Map and Homeroom
http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-map-and-homeroom-july-2012.pdf (http://guyintheblackhat.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/mirkshires-map-and-homeroom-july-2012.pdf)
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 5: Love and Curses
[Author’s Note: This is the first game I’ve ever MC-ed via Skype, and boy did it go better than expected! Eppy and Emily bought a mic for the occasion, which they put in the center of the gaming table, and then broadcast my presence from Ithaca on their big flatscreen TV. I’ve never been so large. After a while and a few minor hiccups (like I couldn’t see 2 of the players), I really did forget that I was using Skype at all, and achieved a great state of flow with regard to the game. Unfortunately, Meg (Olivia) could not make it. We presumed she was exploring Levi’s trailer park and aspects of her new relationship. Not so much time elapsed, anyway. She could easily join the fray.]
Love Letters:
Dear Seth,
Your father gave you an awesome dagger, and you have only begun to figure out just how awesome it is.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, you stumble upon the dagger’s one additional power that makes it a formidable artifact.
On a 7-9, you stumble upon the additional power as above, but the encounter leaves you with 1 harm.
On a miss, the dagger has a mind of its own, an agenda of its own, and secret powers you barely fathom. It takes a String on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
Seth fails to gaze into the abyss and, hoo boy, the dagger is much more than it appears. It wants to be wanted, held, touched. It will become the focal point of Seth’s attention for most of the session.
Dear Six,
Oh my God – Terrifying Fake Gerard biting that police officer actually just triggered some kind of flashback.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, you somehow see human death in a continuum with human life and doll life. Remove your “Drained” condition.
On a 7-9, you flashback to witnessing a savage violent act in your past and see it in full detail. Mark 1 experience if this causes you to make a scene at home.
On a miss, your encounter with Terrifying Fake Gerard launches you into a debilitating nightmare from your past. Hint at it and then become your Darkest Self.
Your doting MC - Evan
Six gets a partial success, meaning that when she enters the house, she has a flashback of one of her previous doll incarnations, a 5 year-old with a serious biting problem, just biting and biting on her mother until fended off.
Dear Ping,
Your front door suddenly opens, and it’s your parents and sister!
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, the place is tidy, you’re in fine form and so are they. Take the Condition “Loved.”
On a 7-9, they walk in on you doing something embarassing. Describe what it is, and how you recover. Take the Condition “Suspect.”
On a miss, they walk in on a messy yurt, an out-of-sorts Ping, and they look like they’ve had a rough week.
Your doting MC - Evan
Ping gets a partial success, so she’s running around the house in faerie wings while blasting filk music. Ballada, Chriswind and Sheba are all shocked upon arrival.
Dear Gerard,
While in the Tree of Darkness to meet with one of the Goat God’s minions, you pass a creepy looking dollmaker’s workshop. The hulking gnome with the delicate hands looks up at you.
Roll to manipulate an NPC.
On a 10+, he gives you one of the ghoul dolls with a smile. Change your “Terrified” condition to “Curious”
On a 7-9, he comments on your fine skin. You can either accept the compliment graciously and get a String on him, or you can flee the scene and not have him get a String on you.
On a miss, you see the copied skin of someone you know (another PC), and he gets 2 Strings on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
Gerard is totally successful at charming the pants off this creepy gnome dollmaker. He is handed a creepy toothy doll as a reward.
Dear Terrifying Fake Gerard,
Mmmmmmm – you’ve got fresh cop on your tongue. You’re satiated... and also a little horny.
While hobbling away from the crime, roll to turn Six on.
On a 10+, you get to take 2 Strings on her, or impose an uncomfortable condition.
On a 7-9, you obey the usual turn someone on roll, but Six gets to call all the shots.
On a miss, no, this isn’t sexual. It’s that warm, “love” feeling you felt earlier. She gets 2 Strings on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
Terrifying Fake Gerard gets a partial success. On the way home, Six totally holds Terrifying Fake Gerard’s hand, and he’s now a ghoul in love (if he wasn’t earlier).
Dear Levi,
While working at the 7/11, some goth jerk accidentally scratches you with his silver-spiked bracelet as he buys his clove cigarettes.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you put a bandage on it and, well, that’s it. Remove a Condition.
On a 7-9, it hurts more than usual. Take 1 harm that won’t go away until the end of the session.
On a miss, FUCK IT’S NOT HEALING. Take 1 permanent harm, until you take a specific course of action to remedy it.
Your doting MC - Evan
So this was a litmus test to see if silver harms the werewolves in this story universe. A total failure on this roll determined that it does. He takes a nice long scratch on his arm and it won’t stop bleeding...
What Happened: It’s 2 a.m. Terrifying Fake Gerard (TFG), who’s covered in a police officer’s blood, and Six head back to Six’s mother’s house holding hands, only to find Six’s mother silhouetted in the doorway. Fortunately, she’s something of a terrible mother and so she accepts Six’s non-chalant offer to have TFG spend the night. Six’s mother has them clean up the bloody mess that they may have tracked into the house, and then points out the couch to TFG, making no effort to make him sleep in it. Six and TFG spend the night together as two dolls in love, lying side by side.
Mystical snake dagger hissing at his side, Seth walks into the 7/11 with a purpose, only to find Levi hopelessly mopping up the blood streaming from his wrist with napkins from the donut rack. Seth knows a guy who can help fix Levi’s injury, and Levi makes a bid to close the store, much to the chagrin of a sleazy trucker dude who was just stopping by for some cigarettes. They roar through town on Seth’s bike up near the Mirkshire Seminary, where one of the school’s psychologists – Dr. Rupert Hess – has his residence. Dr. Hess lets them in to his creepy snake cult living room, has Seth take his dagger outside (as it was acting up) and pours some painful black healing powder on Levi’s wound. Levi’s silver wound burns away, and Seth keeps his own problems in check by tying his ornery knife into its sheath with a rope.
Ping’s parents return and relate their harrowing events they just experienced in Seelie politics: an old feudal conflict had turned ugly, and they had to commit a fair number of heinous deeds to come out clean. Ping slowly begins to reveal all that’s been going on over the past several days, including hir having sex with a human (Sheba was jealous: “But I want to have sex with a human!”), and making deals with the Goat God. As soon as hir parents catch wind of her riding in the Wild Hunt next week, however, the yurt vanishes and Ping is left out in the cold fae forest, banished. Seth is on a mission to get beyond the Veil anyway, so he and Levi pull up conveniently around the time Ping loses her family. Seth unsheathes the snake dagger and its corrupting power instantly possesses him, turning him into his Darkest Self: a version of Seth with burning snake eyes. The blade tears inelegantly through the Veil and they find themselves standing before Ping. Levi gets between Dark Seth and promises to protect Ping against Seth’s dagger (in that faerie contract sorta way). Ping warns Seth that he cannot take that snake dagger into the Unseelie camp, for the Unseelie would tear him apart at the sight of it. “I could put it inside me,” Seth offers, and attempts to do so. Seth’s merging with the dagger transforms him into a giant snake, as Levi leaps at him in wolf form to keep Seth from starting an Unseelie war. The giant snake coils around the wolf and squeezes it until it goes limp. It is at this point that Gerard enters on patrol with his men, riding atop shaggy, tiger-sized carnivorous goats with fiendish looking horns...
7 a.m. It’s time for the early bird meeting to plan the Harvest Dance. TFG and Six managed to make it, sharing the committee work with the geek Sheldon, the art-geek girl Sam and Gavin the fashion-head. The theme for this Harvest Dance is pumpkins – Six is in charge of decoration, TFG will MC the event. A suggestion to have the theme be more like “space pumpkins” is not turned down. Gavin at some point compliments Six on her idiosyncratic outfits and Six, who hates those clothes, takes Gavin up on his offer to design her some new threads.
Seth and Levi show up, bruised and exhausted, at Levi’s trailer park only to find a police car and an animal control truck parked outside Levi’s trailer. A fairly well-liked cop named Officer Harris had been killed in the wee hours of the morning by what was apparently a wolf, and they wanted to investigate that high-school kid who kept all those wolves down in the trailer park. Steven the animal control guy is intent on searching the trailer until Seth bribes him not to. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that TFG’s ghoul attacks seem like wolf attacks to the authorities, and everyone is put on high alert regarding wolves.
Homeroom sees the arrival of Levi, Seth, TFG and Six, all in various states of sleep deprivation. TFG is clearly still all about Six, and so when Asha comes in and tries to flirt with him, she gets completely shut down. But her frustration pales when compared with that of Mr. Vanze, who comes in extremely distraught. Apparently, the murdered Officer Harris was also a fan of Machiavelli’s The Prince, and he and Vanze would talk about it over beers at the local bar. Six has a bone to pick with his mentioning of alcohol and his personal life, so she mouths off and Vanze makes an example of her: he has her stand up in class and describes how much of a loser she is to everyone. This prompts several others (TFG and Seth, especially) to try and shut Vanze down, with varying degrees of failure. It’s sort of a big mess, and detentions may have been handed out. After class, TFG finds in Gerard’s locker a nude photo of Asha.
Ping and Gerard discuss the morning’s events while standing on the outskirts of the Unseelie camp at the Tree of Darkness, only to be approached by some of Ping’s own jury of fae (all kind of seedy Seelie, who did not turn up while Ping’s “family” was around). The first one who approaches is Tigerlily, a kind of transparent floating creature with a lamprey mouth. Another is Rowan, a smoking hot and majestic Legolas-type fae. And that’s when the crap hits the fan – Rowan sees Ping, who had a fling with Rowan back in the day, and hir feelings come rushing to the surface, which Gerard sees. Gerard gets really jealous of Rowan, turns into his Darkest Self, and hexes Ping with a hair loss curse. In his rage, he hits himself too and they both begin to lose hair in sticky clumps. They head to the healing pond to remedy the curse, which means more nakedness between Ping and Gerard, but the hair still won’t grow back. Ping wants Gerard to promise to be hir boyfriend, but Gerard *gasp* outright refuses to make exactly that promise. Angry at Rowan and confused by Gerard, sie goes back to school for a bit.
In chemistry class, a slow humming noise from Seth’s dagger begins to slowly (and unintentionally) snake charm the class. Everyone undulates from side to side as they work on their problems, and Seth meanwhile gets access to a wealth of knowledge from his dagger. The snake heads on the dagger give his hand a few love nips, and he realizes its goal is to please him. Levi might have passed Seth a well-thumbed copy of Elric at some point. In the meantime, Six is struggling with her chemistry problems and deliberately accesses the dollhouse of her imagination. Utilizing the “Metamorphosis” move, she turns down her current Combat Six and a prospective Nerdy Six in exchange for a Sexy Six. She then turns to Seth and seduces him into doing her chemistry homework for her (Seth is, after all, still smitten). Later, Six and Ping meet up out by the hollow tree at lunch and make out. Ping brought Six a present: a box with a creepy doll in it, exactly to the specifications Six requires to make another version of herself to give to the Goat God in exchange for Gerard. She will have to spend some considerable time away from other people to complete the ritual, however, and is therefore fortunate that Seth is taking care of her homework for now.
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MORE!!!!!
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 6: Mise en abyme
[Author’s note: What a rush this game was! Not only were there a lot of balls in the air, but some of them flew right into the hoops that I wanted them to. Kat (Six) showed up via Skype only for the last hour, hence her truncated (but very important) entry. If this session seems jam-packed with various violent confrontations, just know that the storm is only beginning. Next session is the Harvest Dance, and the Wild Hunt...]
Love Letters:
Dear Seth,
At lunchtime, Mike’s girlfriend Jennifer accidentally spills some milk on your nice leather jacket. Then she remembers at that moment that you’re hot... and rich.
Roll to turn her on.
On a 10+, you get a String on her and get a glimpse of her snake tattoo.
On a 7-9, your dagger hums the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One.” WTF?
On a miss, in the clean-up, she figures out you have a dagger at school and takes a String on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
Seth gets a partial success – the dagger cryptically hums a tune, and moves on.
Dear Levi,
Football practice comes around. You’re tired and just want to go home to hang out with Olivia. But there are all these guys in your way...
Roll to lash out physically.
On a 10+, you legitimately tackle a good majority of the football team into submission. Take the Condition “Best Tackle in the State”
On a 7-9, as above, but someone gets hurt. Bad. Describe it, and they get a String on you.
On a miss, on your very first tackle, there’s a crunch. Take 1 harm and someone else gets hurt bad.
Your doting MC - Evan
Levi takes a partial success and finds himself landing on Mike’s collarbone during an unexpected collision. Fortunately, he’s now “Best Tackle in the State”
Dear Ping,
The hair you’ve lost doesn’t seem to be coming back any time soon. Ugh! But there’s this old cosmetic elixir given to you by a human wizard from back in the 17th Century.
If you quaff it, roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, it even tastes good. Your hair restores itself, and you take 1 forward on your next Hot roll.
On a 7-9, your hair comes back, but a different color.
On a miss, the elixir gives you a fixed gender! Pick one and stick with it until you remedy it with some concerted action.
Your doting MC - Evan
Ping also scores a partial: sie quaffs the elixir, and hir hair grows back all white-gray, even hir eyebrows. Sie has a kind of anime look to her.
Dear Gerard,
The Goat God has expressed displeasure at having so many Seelie prowling around his camp this close to the Wild Hunt. You have been tasked with evicting them however you see fit.
Mark 1 experience if you prompt a rout among Ping’s jury of fae.
Mark 1 more experience if you convince Ping not to join you during the Wild Hunt.
Mark 1 final experience if you use physical violence to accomplish any of these goals.
Your doting MC - Evan
This gets resolved within the session (read below): Gerard gets to mark 2 experience.
Dear Terrifying Fake Gerard,
When Ping finally showed up near school today, you caught a whiff of a familiar scent ... your own.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, yes, you know that Ping and Gerard have been romantically involved. Take a String on them both.
On a 7-9, that scent makes Ping also weirdly delicious. Give that description to her as a Condition.
On a miss, your hormones kick in and you are turned on. Ping gets a String on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
TFG fails this roll and is totally turned on by Ping.
Dear Olivia,
You’ve been hanging out at Levi’s place lately and – guess what? – he’s got some really interesting stuff in here with all the wolves. And not all of it has physical shape.
Roll against Dark.
On a 10+, you’ve found substantive memories of Levi’s childhood in this trailer. Take 2 Strings on him.
On a 7-9, take a String on Levi. Mark experience if you use it in your next interaction to bring up something embarassing or rep tarnishing from your searches.
On a miss, the wolves grow wary of you and you don’t know why.
In all cases, mark 2 experience.
Your doting MC - Evan
Olivia fails it, so one of Levi’s aunts gets very territorial and eventually evicts the ghost with her snarling.
What Happened: It’s after school. Terrifying Fake Gerard (TFG) catches up with Ping on her way home. Ping teases him about his status as a double of the “real” Gerard, and TFG gets mad. But when he takes a swing at hir, hir martial arts experience comes into play and she pulls him into a tight headlock. Levi is standing nearby, having watched the whole thing. He’s got an agenda: he needs to borrow Gerard’s uncle’s pickup in order to move his trailer full of wolves away from prying eyes and police suspicion until the whole mess with Officer Harris (who’s suspected to have died of a wolf attack) has calmed down. Ping lets TFG go (after the struggling turned hir on too), and TFG in turn agrees to meet Levi at the school with the pickup at 7 p.m. The mood moves from violent to sexual as TFG propositions that maybe they could have a threesome, or even a foursome, once Olivia suddenly shows up. Olivia will have none of it: she and Levi have a stable relationship, and she unleashes her big scary face on TFG to keep him away from them. Olivia and Levi then go off to conspire how to move trailer and get the police off the wolf angle. Olivia offers to talk to Officer Harris’ ghost down at the morgue, and they set off for the hospital. Meanwhile, Ping propositions that sie and TFG have sex (“I have a present fondness for humans”, sie says). TFG is confused about what that means, especially because sie’s also sleeping with the real Gerard. Ping eventually seizes control of the situation and has him take hir to Gerard’s actual apartment. There, they do the deed in Gerard’s bed (with Ping as a man), and TFG gets a new hunger for sex with Ping. He promises her after coitus to eat the real Gerard once the Wild Hunt is over (“I don’t know why he deserves anything I don’t deserve.”)
Seth goes home and meditates. His visions reveal that yes, his father Petros is playing a dangerous game by having him capture several fae on the eve of the Wild Hunt, and begins to doubt his old man’s sense of judgment. Once rested and fed, he heads back into town to find Mr. Vanze at his usual bar hangout, distraught over Officer Harris’ death. Seth deliberately tempts him to look for explanations beyond a mere wolf attack, which is exactly what Mr. Vanze already is doing.
Olivia and Levi show up at the morgue, and Olivia smooshes her way through the morgue wall to let them both in. She then calls up the ghost of Officer Harris from behind the drawer where he lies, and the ghost lunges out to punch her in the face. Apparently, she interrupted his descent into the happy place just before the afterlife. He relates the full story of his death, which gives them a clue as to TFG’s responsibility for it. Harris also reveals that he was something of a “prepper” in life, and that he had a shed full of “equipment” that they can use if they so desire. He wants them to at least tell Harris’ wife that he loved her. After Harris’ ghost climbs back into his frigid corpse, Olivia and Levi get kind of kinky and have sex right there and then on the nearby gurney. The Ghost sex move triggers: Olivia asks Levi “Do you wish you were just human?” Levi replies that he sometimes wishes he were just a wolf, actually. Levi asks (without speaking) “What are your intentions with this relationship?” and Olivia is content to tag along as a long-term ghost with whatever course Levi’s life might take, until he tires of her.
Gerard has been ordered by the Goat God to evict the Seelie from the premises, so he gathers together Griswold and the Boar-Headed Fiend to go throw out Ping’s jury of fae. This takes the form of him walking into their camp, smashing Rowan’s ambrosia glass into his pretty face, and ruining all their possessions. The Seelie flee to Ping’s healing pool to recuperate and stew about this unexpected loss. We learned that several of the fae are there due to human lovers being somehow involved in the hunt. Albert and Ashley are two half-fae who are being hazed by the Seelie by sending them near the Wild Hunt preparations. Rowan is there due to the fact that he’s a cursed Seelie. They’re all pissed about losing territory to Unseelie bullying. After Ping leaves Gerard’s apartment, she heads directly to the healing pool and finds them there. Ping and Rowan have a verbal stand-off over Gerard’s tormenting of them, and Ping’s Darkest Self is triggered. Hir eyes turn midnight blue. Sie finds Gerard, and they convene under a tree. “You’ve got to get me out of here,” Gerard says, desperation in his eyes. Ping looks at Gerard in relation to the Goat God’s plan and realizes that the Goat God is grooming him to be a powerful general in the Unseelie army. Ping will rescue him, but she “needs him to be nice to hir.” Remember that the Fae Skin’s Darkest Self is about every speech act turning into some kind of promise. Ping knows now that she desperately needs Six’s doll to trade to the Goat God for Gerard’s life, and hurries over to Six’s house.
Levi, Seth and Olivia all gather at the school to receive the pickup truck. Sure enough, TFG comes roaring into the parking lot at the wheel. Levi asks TFG point-blank if he killed Officer Harris. TFG confirms it. “This shit’s on my family,” Levi yells, and the situation intensifies. Seth goes into a trance and realizes that TFG really is bad news: a bundle of teeth and an insatiable hunger behind a Gerard mask. He flips out and goes in for another punch at TFG. TFG anticipates it and punches him in the side instead. It’s when Seth’s on the ground of the parking lot that Levi tackles TFG and throws him on the hood of the pickup. Levi demands that TFG confess to the crime, that he go to the police right now and do it. “They’re not equipped to deal with me,” TFG gurgles, and then tries to escape. Levi responds by throwing him through the truck’s windshield. He then demands TFG just “get the police off the wolves’ backs” somehow. TFG has to go do this right now and starts walking away, while Levi pees on the pickup to show dominance. Olivia comforts Seth in his overwhelmed state right now. Seth perks up and offers some of his family’s property as a new site for Levi’s wolfpack trailer, which everyone thinks is a great idea. All three of them pile into the pickup and head for the trailer park. Upon arrival, Levi gets his neighbor Wayne the last six-pack from his fridge, then corralls the wolves in his trailer to make the move easier. Seth is meanwhile tracing a circle around the trailer, ripping into the very fabric of time and space with his dagger. The dagger in turn believes that all the content it is encircling will soon belong to it. There’s a mental struggle that ends up granting Seth the dagger’s respect and a kind of marriage between the dagger and Seth. Seth’s Darkest Self is triggered, and his eyes glow green with flame again. The dagger cuts the final length of the circle and the pickup, the trailer and everything nearby fall through space to become relocated on the hill just outside Mirkshire Mansion. During that brief trip, Levi cracks and thinks he sees God (new Condition: Reluctant Deist). Upon their disorienting arrival, Petros eyes his son’s work with suspicion. Seth approaches him defiant with rage, ready to battle his father over his stupid decision-making and rules. But when Levi and Olivia stand by Seth’s side in this fight, it reconfigures social relations and he calms down a bit. His story is beginning to diverge from that of his family, and that’s OK. Levi sniffs the air and notices that near the basement, there’s something that smells like pits of snake venom. Seth hisses at him: “Levi, get away from there!” Olivia meanwhile gazes into the abyss to see Seth’s snake cult history, in which complicated plans are used to achieve simple means of wealth and control. She feels better prepared to defend Seth against his own family, should such a time come. The three of them establish new home territory up on this hillside.
Six enters the game at this point, and gets the following love letter:
Dear Six,
You go off to create the extra version of yourself. It’s a combination of concerted wishing and strenuous investment of your power.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you create an exact duplicate of yourself. Decide if you want to take another playbook or not.
On a 7-9, you create a flawed version of yourself, meaning it is unstable in some fundamental way. Put a Condition on it.
On a miss, you wish something terrible into existence, and it gets away from you.
In any case, Mark 2 experience.
Your doting MC - Evan
Six fails, meaning the new version of herself (Eight) is a terrifying double that does nothing less than feed on human memories. To start, she devours Six’s memory of the successful ritual and runs off, leaving Six searching for the doll which she thought she lost. Ping shows up through Six’s window and demands the doll, which Six no longer has. They discuss a variety of alternate options, including stealing a baby. They choose to steal from Six’s mother’s doll shop instead. Ping confesses to sleeping with TFG, and proposes a potential four-way orgy later on with TFG, Seth, Six and hirself, which sie also views as a promise (!) of some kind. In any case, they head to Six’s mother’s doll workshop. Six was not prepared for the horror of her site of origin, so she assumes the position of a doll on the rack for a little while. While doing so, she has a vision of the evil memory-eating doll she has wished into this world, and what to do to stop it (give it to the Goat God!) When Ping helps Six come to consciousness again, they know exactly what they must do now.
TFG is walking toward the police station when he spots Eight (whom he presumes is Six). They lovingly touch, embrace, and kiss each other, meaning that Eight just devours all of TFG’s memories in a satisfying slurp. In turn, TFG begins to bite on Eight’s tasty neck, and Eight responds by shoving him away – a confusing gesture coming from Six! TFG doesn’t know what to do, so he runs away. Eight heads over to Gerard’s apartment to wait for him. While TFG is making his getaway, he runs into a drunk Mr. Vanze, who’s in a vigilante mode and spots TFG with the blood fresh on his lips as the killer of his dear friend Officer Harris. He assaults TFG with a broken bottle, and TFG responds by taking a bite out of his arm. TFG is badly hurt in the encounter, but manages to bowl Vanze over drunk. A fresh amnesiac, he wanders off in search of his memories – which he can only get from Eight’s mind itself.
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 7: The Doubles
[Author’s Note: Yeah, we were going to start this session with a brief prolog before the Harvest Dance, but then that didn’t happen. It turns out that sometimes the best way to make story happen is to put all the monsters in one room and let them have it out.
In addition, I actually now know exactly what Fronts I’m actively pushing for next game...]
Love Letters:
Dear Six,
In preparation for the Harvest Dance, you have committed some time and energy to decorating the gym in addition to fighting Eight or whatever.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you come up with a brilliant decorating scheme. Take a String on everyone who attends.
On a 7-9, you threw it all together, but it still looks pretty good. Take a String on whoever compliments you on it.
On a miss, all this other crap meant that Sheldon had to do it for you. Sheldon takes 3 strings on you, and he’s angry.
Your doting MC - Evan
She blew this one entirely, so this is going to be one half-assed high school dance.
Not that it’s exceptional in that respect, or anything.
Dear Ping,
Terrifying Fake Gerard and Gerard – you’ve “been” with both of them, so you also know something about them both in comparison.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, ask both TFG and Gerard what their secret weakness is, and take 1 forward against both of them.
On a 7-9, ask either TFG or Gerard what their secret weakness is, but it’s only true if you spend 2 Strings on him.
On a miss, after all this time of trying to get to know humans, you realize that you’re still kinda stuck about what either of their deal is. Lose all Strings on either one or the other Gerard.
Your doting MC - Evan
Ping rolled a partial success, so she’s figured out that Gerard’s secret weakness is that he actually, genuinely wants somebody to believe in him.
Dear Terrifying Fake Gerard,
Eight has your memories. But you got some of hers as well.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, ask Eight (Six) any or all of the following questions:
• What happened to the previous incarnations of you?
• Who has been the best friend/lover you’ve ever had?
• What will you do in this life that they didn’t accomplish?
On a 7-9, ask only one of the above. In turn, Eight takes 1 string on you.
On a miss, your brain is both empty and flooded at the same time. Any time you want to remember anything important, give a String to the nearest person on you, until you remedy this.
Your doting MC - Evan
He nailed it, so he got a flood of info about Six’s past lives: Four, we recall, was beaten to death by her mother and buried in the backyard. Five actually ran away, so she may still be at large. Terrifying Fake Gerard turns out to have been the best lover that generational memory can remember, however, and the doll’s new major objective is to kill her mother...
Dear Gerard,
You have assembled your battalion and are ready to charge out across the Veil. The night before, you deliver a rousing speech.
Roll to manipulate an NPC.
On a 10+, the Unseelie are awestruck by your power. Remove Terrified and I Fucked Up as Conditions.
On a 7-9, your speech is good, but your display of power lacking. Remove the Terrified condition, but one of the Unseelie now openly conspires against you.
On a miss, you faint in the middle. Weird...
Your doting MC - Evan
He only gets a partial success, meaning that Benthem (a half-person, i.e., an Unseelie that looks like only one half of a human walking around) is conspiring against him.
Dear Olivia,
Thanks to Officer Harris’ ghost telling you about his secret shack, you take a peek and find a remarkable amount of weapons and supplies for a post-apocalyptic scenario.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, there could always be more supplies, but there’s definitely a concealed bunker underneath the shed which could house someone for months or even years.
On a 7-9, there’s at least enough weaponry here for you and your entire gang of ghosts to take the Condition “Well-Armed,” and you could give Levi that Condition too.
On a miss, as above, but Officer Harris’ wife sees you and calls in the parapsychologists.
Your doting MC - Evan
She totally fails this, so she has access to the bunker and all the guns (including a pearl-handled revolver named “Sally” which she gifts to Levi), so Officer Harris’ wife calls in the parapsychologists. [NOTE: The pace and content of this session didn’t let me deal with this at all, so it’ll be saved for next time, which’ll make it all the messier.]
Dear Seth,
Your family has been mostly OK with the new living arrangements, but your sister is very suspicious of your friends.
Roll to shut her down.
On a 10+, you calm her down with the promise that they are additional protection against the Wild Hunt when it arrives. Take 1 experience
On a 7-9, your sister is unconvinced, but you secretly drug her to sleep for the weekend.
On a miss, your sister somehow gets out and there are now BIG problems.
Your doting MC - Evan
She fails. Her sister’s loose – that’s going to suck!
Dear Levi,
You just saw God, and that was odd. It’s making you feel kind of humble now.
Roll to gaze into the abyss.
On a 10+, take the Howl at the Moon move, but change “moonlight” into “God’s light.”
On a 7-9, add the question “What does my heart tell me?” to the Heightened Senses roll.
On a miss, adopt a new quirky behavior that is an outward sign of your Reluctant Deist condition, and give the first person who sees it a String on you.
Your doting MC - Evan
D’oh! He’s now got a quirky behavior, and now it’s up to the other players to spot it.
What Happened: The session begins in the wee hours of the morning before the Harvest Dance.
The opening scene is of Eight’s journey around town: into Gerard’s family’s house to suck out their memories, a trail which then leads her to the bar (where she feasts and even retrieves a pistol from one of her victims). She finally returns to her mother’s (and Six’s) ranch home... with the gun. It’s creepy.
Seth slept like a log last night, and so didn’t catch the loud crashing sounds from the kitchen as his agitated sister broke out of her confinement. His mother is aghast and charges Seth with bringing her back. Seth runs outside, his dagger content at being drawn for the purpose of possibly dispatching the sister. Levi in the trailer outside awakes to his home being crushed by a gargantuan silver-scaled anaconda with little limbs like an Eastern Dragon. He switches to wolf form (Darkest Self) and gives the snake a bite, only to draw back a slightly dislocated jaw. Olivia phases through the wall of the shed on the Enkidu property and mobilizes an array of garden tools to fly poltergeist-style at the writhing snake. It works in pinning it to the ground. Seizing the moment, Levi mobilizes his full pack to worry the snake and it works: Seth’s sister is brought from destructive victory to crushing defeat. Seth’s mesmerizing command “Don’t touch my sister!” is the only force that keeps Levi and the wolves from ripping the snake apart. Levi calls off his pack, but then bowls over Seth with a headbutt to show he’s still in charge (resolves Darkest Self). Slowly, they carry Seth’s unconscious giant snake sister back indoors. They take Gerard’s uncle’s pickup to school, with Levi riding high in the back. Olivia and Seth have a heart-to-heart about keeping their options open as the three of them ride into their joint future on the Enkidu Estate.
Terrifying Fake Gerard is meanwhile at Gerard’s parents house. They’ve all had their memories leeched out of them, so TFG, Gerard’s uncle, mother, and father are now all sitting around the breakfast table, confused. They spend their morning trying to find out who they are and what kind of job they should go to. Gerard’s alcoholic uncle wants something to drink, so he and TRG head over to finish breakfast over at the Hot L truck stop. TFG is looking at Gerard’s uncle very hungrily during the meal (which is a non-meal for a ghoul). As soon as they get into the car, TFG devours the uncle. Then he sets out for school.
Before Eight arrives at her house, Six is sitting on her bedroom floor and gazes into the abyss. She learns exactly what Eight is doing and how to stop her. Ping, who wants both Gerard’s help in retrieving Eight and a threesome with Six and Gerard, takes Six with her beyond the Veil to the Tree of Darkness. There, Gerard is found suiting up for battle. When Six and Ping show up, his sergeant Griswold begins to posture with his sword, and Six shuts him down. Suddenly, Benthem shows up with the Goat God in tow. He shows the Goat God clearly how Gerard still consorts with the Seelie. The Goat God does not exhibit so much interest in Ping as he does in Six: after all, she was what was promised. Six responds by grabbing Griswold’s sword and running away through the Unseelie camp, beating away as many of the gathered Wild Hunt masses as she can. Based on the Goat God’s sense of betrayal, he relinquishes Gerard ... banishing him naked into homeroom! Ping and Six follow.
All of the characters appear in homeroom at around the same time, and all normal students quickly evacuate except for Tyrone. The melee begins. TFG obviously wants to eat Gerard, so he goes for it. But even though he’s naked, Real Gerard has been training with the Unseelie long enough to put his double in an armlock and hex him so he can’t fight. Levi then tackles TFG to the ground and they have a kind of lame high school struggle on the floor. Ping gazes at Levi and entrances him into stopping the beatdown on TFG. Olivia is still angry about TFG eating Six (well, Seven) all those days ago, so she triggers her Darkest Self and wrecks the classroom with her crazy poltergeist telekinesis, lashing out at TFG. Levi calms her down. Seth has meanwhile locked the door and is piling desks in front of it as Assistant Principal Grumley calls for them to let him in. A huge discussion follows the fight: accusations and jealousies and other assorted personal business gets tossed about. Students gather outside the classroom to figure out what’s going on. Olivia disperses the crowd by openly screaming through the wall and spooking everyone out in the hallway as the entire rest of the monsters climb out of the classroom and head for the hollow tree by the football field. There, they meet none other than The Principal himself: a smallish man in a red shirt with beard stubble and glasses that gleam in the sunlight. But those who gaze into the abyss quickly learn he certainly isn’t human. Without revealing too much about himself or his motives, he lets on that he knows about each and every one of their special powers, and highlights the fact that Eight stealing folks’ memories around town is actually a greater threat than the Wild Hunt to happen tonight. Together, they head down to confront Eight on her way to school. Ping runs off to get her Jury of Fae to help.
During the ruckus, Olivia and Levi actually sneak off to have sex in the 7/11 breakroom. It’s a kinky quickie. Olivia learns that Levi would be jealous if her recent interaction with Seth in the truck turned into anything more, and Levi was wondering why he (as teen werewolf hotness) isn’t enough for her. She’s been under a lot of stress and all the magic weird crap is making her confused.
Eight confronts the rest of the characters in the parking lot of the abandoned-Walmart-cum-evangelical-church. Eight sees Six and, without further ado, shoots at her. Seth lunges forward and takes the bullet in his left shoulder. Six talks to Eight and gets her to hesitate enough to wish that “all the good parts of TFG and Eight’s memories unite in Eight’s body, and all the bad parts of TFG and Eight combine into TFG’s body.” So now TFG’s consciousness is effectively in control of Eight’s body, and the hostile TFG’s body attacks Gerard again. Gerard and the evil doll are about ready to wrestle each other again when Seth mesmerizes the evil doll, and Ping opens up TFG’s skin and pulls out the doll inside it. It’s wicked-looking, with big teeth. Levi smashes it on the ground after telling it he’s coming for his master. He’s real defensive, especially of Olivia, and he and Six come to a heated argument about the nature of the new Gerard-Eight (Gerate?) she’s created.
Gerard has run away at this point, and he runs smack into Ping’s Jury of Fae – and the jealous Rowan. Rowan seizes the opportunity to try and cut off Gerard’s head, but again Gerard outmaneuvers his assailant. Ping walks in and stares down Rowan, who then abruptly leaves the Jury in favor of the Unseelie Wild Hunt. Gerard and Ping talk a long time and conclude, after some serious plot stuff and whatever, that a threesome would be a good time/idea.
Olivia, Levi, Seth, Six and Gerate all wind up at the hospital for Seth’s sake (the bullet wound). Gerate finds the psych ward and all the spontaneous amnesiacs Eight created. Blessed with the memories of a dozen people, Gerate begins to unburden herself of the memories back into their original owners. It’s also apparent that Gerate is no longer a doll, but a real human, one with a repository of memories and a destiny [Vincent retires TFG’s Ghoul Skin in favor of The Chosen Skin and renames Gerate “Jackie”]. Seth ends the episode by telling his father that he’s in charge of tonight’s defense against the Wild Hunt, and Petros acquiesces to his increasingly forward teenage son. It looks like Olivia, Levi and Seth are now a cohesive living and fighting unit in preparation for tonight’s chaos...
The couples for the Harvest Dance that will happen at next session are:
– Olivia and Levi
– Six and Seth
– Gerard and Ping
– Jackie and Tyrone
-
This game officially ended a week ago, but I'm dragging my feet on the AP because I've got a billion things to do by the end of September. Fear not – you shall see the end of the story yet!
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Monsterhearts – The Mirkshires – Session 8: The Harvest Dance Finale
[Author's Note: This is the much, much belated summary of our final game session in September 2012, now already warped by some time, distance and memory loss. But completism is as completism does, and I've dubbed 2013 the Year of the Tied-Up Loose Threads. Therefore, read on and enjoy!]
Readers should also note the transformation of Terrifying Fake Gerard into Jacky, a Chosen, by way of his merging consciousness with the body of Eight. They should also note that there were 4 custom moves in play during this session, specifically geared for the following situations:
* When a picture is taken of the couple
* When someone becomes the Harvest King / Queen
* When someone attacks the Goat God
* When the Wild Hunt catches up to you
Those moves are unfortunately on the laptop that's in the shop, so they will be posted for a later date...
Love Letters:
Dear Levi,
You're entering into the human party world for the first time and you're operating on sheer gut instinct.
Roll heightened senses.
On a 10+, you adapt well. Take 1 forward to dress up and look smokin' hot.
On a 7-9, you take one of the following Conditions: too much cologne, underdressed, or something wrong with tie.
On a miss, take all of the above conditions for the partial success.
Your doting MC – Evan
Levi failed, of course, and the "cologne" smells basically like animal musk... 'cause it is.
Dear Seth,
It's now your responsibility to take on the Wild Hunt. What do you do?
Describe your nasty preparations and choose one:
* You take 1 forward, but the Harvest Dance preparations make you vulnerable (Goat God gets 1 String on you)
* You take the Conditions "Natural Leader" and also "Paranoid."
* You get a String on the Goat God, but he becomes fully aware of your presence in the area.
Your doting MC - Evan
Seth chooses option 3, especially because he's laying metallic spirit traps for the fae all over the school.
Dear Olivia,
Your House of the Spooks (the Ghosts at the Crossroads) are themselves spooked, and want to hang out with you tonight. Is that cool?
Roll to manipulate an NPC.
On a 10+, they sincerely help you make this an awesome evening. At some point this session, use the ghosts to soften a hard move against you.
On a 7-9, as above, but they are confused by Levi. Their investigations haunt him for the rest of the evening, and he gets a String on you as a result.
On a miss, no good can come of this. The ghosts take 2 Strings on you and will find a way to cause appropriate mayhem without your consent.
Your doting MC - Evan
Olivia gets a partial success, and Levi becomes a werewolf haunted by an overeager pack of ghosts.
Dear Jacky,
Eight's body is super comfortable compared with the weird doll-in-Gerard fake body you had earlier. But one thing appears to be odd about this whole set-up.
Choose one:
* Your mind transfer has actually left a physical trace. Describe it and take that as a Condition.
* Perversely, your lust for Six has only grown stronger after merging with her sister, and she finds it kinky too. Six gets 2 Strings on you.
* You know that something dark still resides within you. Whenever you hit your Darkest Self, the MC gets to choose which one manifests between the Ghoul, Hollow and Chosen.
Your doting MC - Evan
Jacky chose the fact that she's still perversely and intensely attracted to Six, even though she now has an almost identical physical form.
Dear Gerard,
You were totally prepared to invade the town with the Wild Hunt. You're totally not ready to attend a dance with a fae.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you keep cool and take 1 forward to not look like an idiot.
On a 7-9, you have to come up with a clever, Gerard-style solution to an unforeseen problem.
On a miss, you cannot go through the evening as cool as a cucumber. In fact, you're shaking. Take the Condition "Shaking."
Your doting MC - Evan
Yeah, Gerard totally failed that one. He added the Condition "Shaking" to a litany of other Conditions (though admittedly not as many as last session).
Dear Ping,
To be fair, Gerard's the one to make or break this evening once and for all. It's up to him and him alone to determine how far you two are going to go.
He gets 2 Strings on you.
* If Gerard publicly compliments you on your appearance tonight, he marks experience and you get to take 1 String on him.
* If Gerard makes an ambitious promise to you about your relationship, both of you mark experience.
* If either of you rescue each other from mortal danger, both mark experience.
Your doting MC - Evan
Ping will wind up checking off the first two options over the course of the session...
Dear Six,
Though the Crafts Trailer folks did a bang-up job on the outfit, it may or may not be the kind of thing one would actually wear to a dance of this caliber.
Roll to hold steady.
On a 10+, you can seduce anybody in that get-up: 1 forward to turn someone on.
On a 7-9, your outfit crosses into new terrain for a high-school dance. You're innovative, but the first person who mocks you gets 1 String on you.
On a miss, your outfit is weird and you take the Condition "Overly Sensitive" regarding it.
Your doting MC - Evan
Six gets a partial success, so Six's dress has a dead leaves falling off trees motif that's more than a little strange-looking.
What Happened:
The ostensible outline of events for the evening looks something like this:
* Couples are announced to the Harvest Dance at the door of the gym
* Then the couples will get their picture taken
* Then there'll be some mingling and lame dancing to songs like Cotton-Eyed Joe.
* Then the Harvest King and Queen will be elected. They will slow dance.
* At 11 p.m., the lights will be turned on
* The after-party would then be held in a nearby mall.
Of course, the Goat God has been ramping up the Wild Hunt for the last 7 sessions, so that plan will get interrupted.
As established last session, Mirkshire Regional's gym has been decorated, but much more gaudily than Six would've allowed had she not been screwing around the last few days. Pumpkins are wrapped in aluminum foil to make them "sci-fi," with one giant silver papier-maché pumpkin dominating the part of the room where photos are taken.
Jacky and Tyrone are the first couple to show up. Jacky is in a stolen blue dress, Tyrone looking total Gangnam-style in large sunglasses and a pimpin' fur coat. Sheldon and Asha are the two committee members greeting the couples as they come in. Jacky turns everyone on as Eight in that dress, even getting Asha to give her an almost involuntary public kiss as she enters. When they get their picture taken, it reveals faint cuckold horns over Tyrone's head.
Seth and Six are the next couple to enter - Seth in his severe black euro garb, Six in her dress that looks like dead leaves. After an awkward moment with Sheldon (who had to carry the torch of the Harvest Dance), Six leads Seth to the picture area. The picture is blurry but contains souls. The dagger at Seth's side appears quite clear in contrast. Meanwhile, Six looks as if she is holding a doll.
Next couple is Olivia and Levi, the latter of whom is smelling mighty musky. Olivia is wearing a sort of Cheetos-colored dress, while Levi looks like, well, Meatloaf. Their picture is also blurry but containing souls. Specifically, all the ghosts haunting Levi crowd in on the photograph.
The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" comes on, and Ping and Gerard enter. They had showed up in an actual pumpkin coach, a pumpkin coach in which they had some satisfying sex before showing up (Gerard gets one of Ping's eyelashes out of the deal). Upon entry, one of the steel fae traps forces Ping to hold steady (which she fails -- but I don't have any notes about what happened with that *shrugs*). Ping is in a sleeveless pseudo-dress with coattails, playing the gender ambiguity to the hilt. Gerard is in a rumpled suit. Asha cannot bear the sight of Gerard coming in with Ping as his date, so she runs off to the bathroom to "collect herself." Later on, she openly kisses Six to try to get Gerard's attention. Gerard and Ping's photo is imbued immediately with magical potential.
After everyone has arrived, the dancing begins in earnest. Seth takes Six off to a corner to make out. The disco ball's slow rotation accentuates the ghosts flitting around in the air. The elections for Harvest King and Queen reveal the winners: Gerard and Ping! And once they are elected, the Wild Hunt that has been fomenting all around the school (but which the fae traps have kept bay) suddenly manifests itself.
All of the humans freeze in time within the room, and our monsters are left alone with the Goat God standing in the spotlight. He's come for what was promised him by Ping at the beginning of the game: Six or Eight. He's got one claw on Six, the other on Asha, such that Jacky reveals her true feelings by charging in and rescuing her. They share another kiss, but this one's creepy because Asha's still frozen in time. Six's dead leaf dress sparkles and envelops Jacky with additional power to confront the Goat God. Then Six tries to step on the Goat God's hoof, but can't quite manage to break his grip. The stress on Seth transforms him into his Darkest Self with his hissing snake voice, and he tries to cut the Goat God with his dagger. The attempt to touch the Goat God causes him to begin to rot on the inside, which is horrible. Then Gerard calls out the Goat God and brings his past sliminess to bear on him: he is a coward who collects dolls and has no business running off with these dolls. Some discussion reveals that the Goat God is also kind of an adolescent in this way, and he is made to sulk and wander back to the Wild Hunt.
[In my notes, it says "Rotting Pumpkins." Anyone remember what that was about?]
The aftermath: no one goes to the lame Mirkshire Regional after-party.
Jacky and Asha go off and have sex.
So do Olivia and Levi, back in Levi's trailer. They decide that they were really meant for each other in this way, and should probably leave this town to go on joint adventures together.
Later, everyone meets up at the Denny's (the "Gay Denny's" as they call it in town, since half the employees are of a certain sexual persuasion). They have a peaceful sort of dinner moment, like that scene at the end of The Avengers.
And so...
Seth continues to rot from the inside, meaning his relationship with Six cannot ultimately last. He journeys away, a doomed soul with an obligation to carry on his family's traditions. The cursed dagger makes him into the perfect Elric clone.
Levi and Olivia take their wolves, ghosts and trailer on with them to diverse adventures.
Six and Jacky apparently no longer have a mom (since Eight killed her), so they toy with the idea of creating a new mom of their own, so as to avoid foster care.
Gerard is offered a place in the fae court with Ping, but Gerard wants to grow up a little first. He wants to give it a few years to decide.
Tyrone, stood up by Jacky and generally rejected by the real world to which he returned from his goat-curse existence, becomes a Diabolical... and the next villain?
Thus ended one of the most cheery games of Monsterhearts likely ever run/played.
Thanks again to Kat, Meg, Vincent, Julia, Eppy, and Emily for enjoyable evenings full of food, high-school reminiscing and a whole lot of (fictional) debauchery.
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Yay! I just finished reading a bunch of AP threads on this forum, and it made me sad how this (and many other awesome AP threads) ended partway through the campaign.
Thank you for posting your final session, and thank you for giving me such an entertaining read.
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Thanks!
It really helps to know that there's an actual audience out there wanting to know what happened... I will do more summaries like this in the future!
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The rumors are true.
There will be a 10-year reunion of the Mirkshires crew this month, and it is going to tie up absolutely every loose plot thread you can recall from this game.
Heh, you wish.
Stay tuned!