So Bryson Springs...
I ran this with one of my regular Skype players and players from one of his other groups that I had never ran with before.
So...this had a lot more horror, brutality and pc-on-pc violence than Red Tower. My take on the scenario only worked because I had a player I could trust with game break power. And for that, I thank him.
We had a Acanthus Fate mage, a Mastigo Mind mage, a mortal FBI agent, a mortal LA Times Reporter and a mortal county Public Works Employee (his idea..he refused to play a convict)
The two mages were from Santa Barbara looking into the disappearance of Liang Wang, a well known member of the Mysterium order. FBI was called into solve a murder at the WPA wash house quickly and quietly. The Reporter was sent to follow up on rumors of murderous Okies. PublicWorks is in the area doing rounds. (I know..we had to reach)
The big twist I made with the scenario is that the Fisher King is an Exarch (for those who don't play Mage, they are big fucking bads in a reality above us who manipulate everything. The scroll was major artifact that lets Acanthus Seers (minions of Exarchs) to see the strands of Fate and manipulate them...paradox free. This only worked because I trusted the player I gave this too.
So...
PublicWorks & Reporter arrive together to the Hooverville after meeting at and hearing about a murder from the Gas station guy. PublicWorks enters the wash room after being told it was 'broken' and critically failed a composure roll at the sight and ran screaming out of the Hooverville. FBI drives up to see PublicWorks puking and hysterical outside the camp. FBI looks at the wash room and then dragoons the Reporter into helping him interview the Okies. The Okies are pretty tight lipped, with the exception of the revelation of what happened to Annabelle. Meanwhile PublicWorks climbs into FBI's car and refuses to get out cause there's a psycho killer on the loose.
The Mages show up and get questioned by a suspicious FBI. They convince Ye Wang they can help as they are in the same line of work as her dad. She gives them the scroll and notes.
FBI/Reporter/PublicWorks head back to Kraft's. FBI had stopped in at the beginning, found Kraft had a beat up Okie named Kelly who had confessed to murder. FBI hadn't bought the confession believing Kraft had beat it into the boy to close a case quickly.
The trio arrive at the Trooper station to find it a mess. Like the wash house someone had dragged a body along the ceiling and then out a side door. The inside of the place is shot up like Kraft put up a stiff fight before getting..well something bad. Reporter and FBI theorize that Kelly must have escaped during whatever happened and they set about searching the area. The trio end up finding Liang's body in the shed, several buried bodies and finally Kraft's body that looks like it got thrown off a 40 story building. Checking Kraft's records they find out the 'Kelly' in the cell was Jessup Kelly, who has family in the Hooverville and never mentioned their son's arrest...no one did. They arm themselves...because well..gamer logic and head back for the Hooverville.
Meanwhile the two mages go over Wang's papers and what not. Of course when the two mages see “Do not read aloud” they read, because their mages and pcs. They feel like they're hit with a magic hammer and then see strings running up into the sky. A little use of magic on their part reveals that its Fate magic, they are looking at the literal strings of Fate. Acanthus begins experimenting cause its his field of magic and finds he can influence people, like make them change directions walking without them seeming to notice. This freaks them both out because it appears to be paradox free and doesn't require mana. Mastigo can't seem to manipulate the strings and his character gets jealous because it's Fate magic creeping into the realm of Mind magic.
Acanthus keeps 'testing' the ability with the Okies, talking about how much he can't wait to get back to UC Santa Barbara and explore it more. Not to mention how useful it will be against Seers and their agents. Mastigo is not happy with the continued 'testing', telling Acanthus to stop toying with the Okies.
Reporter/PublickWorks/FBI show back up. FBI begins to aggressively questioning Okies about the Kellys, Kraft and the murders. Reporter tries to question Ye Wang but Acanthus uses his 'ability' to 'walk' Reporter away.
PublicWorks wanders out of the Hooverville cause he's still freaked by the wash room. He goes over to the orchard when...the marionette swoops in! (By this point I got the feeling the player just wasn't feeling the game and was temping the had of the GM, so I obliged.)
The mages see the red string appear and slip away to investigate and hear screams coming from the orchard. They book it over and find a magical construct chasing down PublicWorks. Acanthus tries to use his 'ability' but can't, telling Mastigo that it feels like someone else is 'holding it's string.' They resort to slinging magic at it. It appears to be fairly magic resistant, but they draw its attention away from the hapless mortal. Acanthus then threw out the tree solution (he told me later he had heard about it from the Rag podcast like I had) and used his 'ability' to make PublicWorks run by the marionette to get its attention. He controls PublicWorks perfectly and executes the tree solution perfectly. (a couple of fences bit the dust because of paradox)
(I will add Acanthus is now starting to make Wisdom checks and failing them, he's using the power to directly endanger mortals.)
Mastigo is horrified to say the least and two Mages start exchanging heated words. Mastigo threatens Acanthus, saying he's going to report him to Concillum for abusing magic and needlessly endangering civilians. Acanthus goes off on him for being paranoid and jealous and that the scroll is affecting his mind. Then they both see another red thread, off to the west beyond the Hooverville. They grab a now blubbering PublicWorks and fetch their car and head west.
While shit is going down in the orchard, FBI gets Annabelle's father to tell him where the Kellys are with the promise of personally going after Ryan Spelling. FBI and Reporter hop in the car and head west to the ghost town.
FBI and Reporter arrive and are confronted by several Kellys. FBI tries to be reasonable with questioning the Kellys, saying he knows its physically impossible for Jessep to have committed all the murders and all he needs is to speak to the boy about who murdered Kraft. The Kellys tell him to go pound sand. FBI gets pissed and threatens the family that if they don't turn over Jessup, he'll bring them all in for aiding a cop killer and a mass murderer. Pa comes out this point and calls down a marionette. FBI and Reporter make it back to the car in time. FBI pulls out his tommygun and Reporter a pistol and shred the creature. (We're talking like 14 success in two rounds combined). A couple of more Kellys come out and its a firefight. FBI and Reporter are pinned behind their car as the Kellys open up.
Mages & PublicWorks show up. Acanthus uses his 'ability' to force a Kelly to run suicide style at FBI, who guns her down. Mastigo turns on Acanthus and they start slinging spells. Paradox happens because PublicWorks/FBI/Reporter are mortal sleepers. Glass blows out on the Mages' car and cuts them up. Mastigo yells to FBI & Reporter that Acanthus and he are both mages like Pa and that Acanthus will use his powers to kill them if it means saving his own skin.
PA brings down another marionette and sends it at the mages because he knows their mages. Acanthus uses his 'ability' make PublicWorks run suicide style at it. Mastigo uses the chance to double tap Acanthus in the head. PublicWorks gets carried off into the sky, FBI now believes Mastigo because he saw enough of PublicWorks to know he was too much of a coward to be that self sacrificing and it looked exactly the same as what the Kelly girl did. Reporter and FBI drop Pa and Mastigo drives the rest of the Kellys running. FBI decides after everything he has witnessed, that he'd rather be safe than sorry and turns the Tommy gun on Mastigo. Mastigo blows a paradox on a Mind spell and stuns himself. FBI walks up to the now drunkenly stumbling mage and guns him down.
Reporter is rather horrified but agrees to back up whatever story FBI comes up with because no one will believe the truth. FBI gathers up all of Wang's possessions and torches them with the rest of the ghost town. The end.
Yeah.
The mortals were freaked out non-stop after the first glimpse of the wash house. FBI blew several humanity checks along the way. I treated Humanity a little like Sanity.
The Mages descended into paranoia once they read the scroll.
This only really worked because Acanthus's player was on board. He used the 'ability' just the right way. They loved it. I loved running it.
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