1. Violca is in the cemetery, scoping out some mourners near a rich person’s funeral. She looks over into the section dedicated to lost souls and sees some folks digging. She decides to go and check it out.
2. She comes to the grave (underneath the statue of the angel with the bat wings) around the end of the day and finds four men digging up a grave. They are attempting to rob it. One of them is Bob the Hammer, the local gangster enforcer. Along with him is another man that looks a bit like Ed Gein and two other thugs from the scummy side of town. Violca decides to scare them off by dressing up as a ghoul (or rather undressing) and running up to them. She manages to scare off the two underthugs, but Bob and Ed Gein fellow stay. Bob pulls out a pistol, proclaiming “Hey, it’s just a friggin’ ghoul.” Violca stops and puts a knife in Bob’s hand, effectively making him shoot in the wrong direction. Bob leaves. Ed Gein guy wanders away and sits down on a tombstone, because Violca, still disguised as a ghoul, is lurking around the grave. Violca leaves the grave and goes around behind EG guy and finds him reading out of some kind of book. She puts a knife to his throat and asks him to drop the book. EG asks her if she was the guardian, but realizes that she is not. EG stands up and faces off with her, and she puts a knife through his throat as he tries to smack her with the book. Violca robs the body of the man and takes his boots, some money, a peculiar ring, and the book. The book has pictures of rituals inside it. While attempting to dig up the grave the rest of the way, a ghostly figure threatens to throw her out of the grave if she does not desist.
3. She is interested in the book and its contents and wonders what these people are doing. She heard the name Tarjin the Mystic mentioned. She goes back to see if she can rob the fresh grave, but finds Frederick the Groundskeeper trying to figure out why the door of the crypt isn’t closing right. Violca has rigged it. Violca and Fred have a relationship in that Fred thinks that Violca is cute and if she’s willing to spend her time in the cemetery then maybe she’s willing to give him some attention. So, hanging out with him, she comes to find out a great deal about the lost souls part of the cemetery, particularly the grave of Tarjin the Mystic. She finds out that he, about ten years ago, started a cult and became an enemy of the church. The church had him arrested and killed, along with the rest of his cult.
4. Violca decides to investigate the matter further, thinking that she could get some money for her take. She goes into town and looks around for a buyer, and gets a little money for some of it, deciding to keep the book and the ring. It turns out that she finds out there are a few rumors about this “Cult of the Damned.” They were involved in bullying, extortion, robbery, and murders. Violca finds out, through an interesting interview with a fortune teller, that Tarjin the Mystic was involved in disappearances and evil rituals.
5. The next day, Violca goes to find out if someone will buy the book off of her, as she is becoming increasingly fearful, etc. She goes to a book seller in the market district named Janos. The old man attempts to use the book, twice, to cast spells on Violca (only managing to make her feel dizzy). Violca makes an offer to sell the book one last time, and the old man decides to finally buy it from her, thinking that she has been forgiving and so decides not to try his luck again. Violca gets the man’s boy (his assistant) to keep an eye on him for her.
6. When Violca returned to the slum district after selling the book for quite a bit, she comes to find out that there are several things going around by word of mouth in the slummy sides of town. First, Bob the Hammer and two other gangster thugs have committed suicide. Also, there are missing children, one of them (who was abducted four days ago) is Violca’s cousin (I know I said distant earlier, but I’m actually changing it here and now to cousin). I’m also going to add a little something about this relationship. This Aunt who lost the girl was never in favor of exiling Violca for her past crimes, and has repeatedly tried to mend the relationship bewteen Violca and her parents. Call it a relationship 1 on your character sheet please.
I don’t know if there was anything more that I missed here. I know I had some fun with it, and it seemed like Brennen had fun, too.
SESSION II
1. Violca (V) woke up in an alleyway, having drunk herself silly the previous night. She finds that what woke her was a performing group known only as the Flaming Key. They consist largely of jugglers, a few singers, etc. They are moving away from the slums and into the marketplace. V decides to question them and they don’t seem to be on the level. Nothing overtly suspicious though. V watches as they give out toys to young children. V sees them give a little doll to a little girl, an effigy that looks just like the little girl, which V thinks is strange.
2. Violca offers the girl some money to get a better look at the doll, to which the girl hesitantly agrees. Then, V gives her another bit of money to let her keep the doll, to which the girl does not agree, though she takes the money. There is screaming and fussing on the part of the little girl, but Violca gets away.
3. Violca begins to examine the doll and finds a metal key within it. While examining the doll, she hears slithering sounds. She decides to climb up onto a window ledge and look at the doll again. About that time a clown (C) comes around the corner of the alleyway and finds Violca. The clown offers to entertain V if she will help the clown find his way back to his troop. He seems strange, somehow, overly thin. He begins to juggle, and V decides that she will put three knives through the clown’s juggling balls when the juggling balls begin to hypnotize V.
4. V decides to try and help C get to where he needs to be, and suddenly discovers that she is horribly lost, even though she has lived in the city for a long time. She asks the clown what he wants, and he takes her to an old theater where children are watching an empty stage. As V approaches the stage, she hears talking from behind the curtain. Someone who looks like Rasputin is talking to some thugs, telling them that they should not fail him. He sends the thugs away, and V follows them.
5. The thugs go to the graveyard and Violca sneaks up on them. One of them is reading from a piece of paper in “Latin” or the “Holy Writ” or whatever. Once finished, they dig up the grave of Tarjen the Mystic. They get from the grave a ring, a necklace, a book, and a funky looking key/knife thingy. V watches. Then, V decides to attack. She kills one and knocks out another with her knives. She then intimidates the third, making him run away, leaving the book out on the ground.
6. V gets the book and takes it with her to Janos the Bookdealer. She offers it at 500 M (Money), to which the Bookdealer laughs and suggests that V is flattering her for thinking he has that much to offer for that book. The bookdealer then sicks Jacob on her, to get the book. V notices that his skin is cold and he doesn’t seem responsive to pain or threat. She pushes him off her and into a bookshelf, where he remained motionless. V leaves the bookshop and tries to find her way away from there. She decides that she will go and find her cousin now.
7. She goes back to the theater, retracing her steps from the cemetery. She finds her cousin sitting there. She decides to take her cousin out of there, despite the protests she offers. The clown returns and makes jokes to Violca, and he follows V out of the theater. Violca’s cousin (whose name is Florica) continues to struggle, apparently interested in watching some ghostly theater show involving blood and sawing people in half. She eventually pushes V off of her and runs back to the theater.
8. The clown appears again and offers V a chance to join him and serve him, but V refuses. The Clown also offers her stacks of money to get the book back from her. V decides to offer the book for her cousin, and they make a deal. V throws the book aside and the clown brings back Florica.
9. Florica is returned to her family, for which there is much rejoicing. The end of that night’s session.
Dear my friends, what is it about killing things and taking their stuff?
We never consider, extortion, blackmail, threat, knocking someone out, mugging, burlging — oh, no, it’s always the crossbow in the dark, the knife in some ugly’s eye.
Whence this casual murder, friends?
Is it that the lives of the NPCs mean nothing? Is it that we enjoy sociopathy so much that it is an unregarded core component of play, the bedrock and therefore concealed by soil, joist, floor, and rug?
Best,