Between The Lights, Session 3: Fire

[liquidcitrus]

This is an actual-play writeup of a game I am running on the Jenna Moran fanclub on Discord. 

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An almost-truth is far more dangerous than a blatant lie. A blatant lie can be disproven by anyone with a pair of eyes. Something that is terribly close to the truth can eat away at certainty for days or weeks or years without being discovered.

- reportedly said by Su-Cheol Kim, Dominus Whistleblowing

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Today: lots of setup and foreshadowing! And also a fight!

Also, you may have noticed in some of the previous writeups that Lionel's player has been rather quiet. In this session, I tried to help with this by making more scene prompts that directly involve Lionel in some way or other. Which I think has improved matters some.

Foreshadowing

Maddie is out looking for shooting stars. Sonja is taking a walk. Sasha is working. Lionel is people-watching.

Someone is behind Lionel. He turns. It's Rumor.

<HG> Rumor is behind you. There is a sheaf of broken straw in their hands. ("Dissension." Trouble in the ranks.)

Rumor hints at some sort of social trouble, but flees when the Dark Magister Kethredamen comes in. Keith asks Lionel if he saw any Nobles stick around after the party. Lionel decides not to cover for Rumor, and tells Keith that he's seen Rumor around. Keith leaves, presumably to go looking. Lionel looks at the straw Rumor left behind, and pockets it.

Magic Words

Lionel wanders around and finds Maddie, just outside the Chancel, still looking for shooting stars. (This particular Chancel doorway is in a mom-and-pop restaurant next to a national park.)

<HG> Because it was the middle of winter just a few days before, the place where Maddie is stargazing from is oddly devoid of insect noises.
<HG> A few birds are already screaming at the dawn that hasn't happened yet.
<HG> Other than that it's dark and good for stargazing and all that, I suppose.

Maddie gets sick of waiting for a shooting star to appear and just screams at the sky.

<Maddie> Maddie makes a frustrated noise. "Whatever, I don't have time to wait for this!" She balls her hands into fists and shouts at the sky: "I wish fire was a letter!"
<HG> What?

I ask for clarification on this one. Maddie's player's clarification is unhelpful, so I just take the wish literally.

<HG> There is a single birthday candle in Maddie's lap. It is in the shape of the letter K. It is in fact on fire.

Lionel asks Maddie what she was trying to accomplish. Maddie explains that she wants magic words, and fire being a letter would... presumably... enable the creation of magic words? Somehow?

<Maddie> "But like, that's not the point. The point is I want magic words and I can't find any so I thought I could make some!"
<Lionel> “Where have you looked?” He probably shouldn’t encourage this but he’d rather be able to keep an eye on it than not
<Maddie> "If fire was a letter then I could make words out of it, maybe, and I don't know, I'd figure it out from there."

Sasha is off shift now, and comes out the back door to find a frustrated Maddie and a confused Lionel. She manages to get a coherent statement from Maddie: Maddie wants more powers so she can be a proper superhero.

<Sasha> "Why do you want magic words so badly?"
<Maddie> "I want magic words because I don't have enough cool powers."
<Maddie> Maddie fog-shifts. "I mean, this is great and all, but it's not really enough for a super awesome superhero on its own."
<Maddie> "What do I use to hit people? I only barely have super strength!"

Sasha figures that a witch could teach Maddie some magic words, and - with Maddie's excited assent - asks the Raven about where she might find a witch. The Raven's response is rather vague.

<HG> ("...If you insist. There's one who lives at Devil's Lake. Unfortunately that's all I know and there are at least thirty different lakes called Devil's Lake.")

Sasha decides to save finding the witch for later. Maddie goes back inside the Chancel, and tells Sonja excitedly that she's going to go to a witch to learn words made of fire. Sonja is utterly confused.

Straw

<HG> so, Lionel. You want to talk about that straw you have in your pocket there?

Now that Sasha and Lionel are alone, Lionel brings up the vague warning Rumor gave earlier. Sasha is initially displeased, considering Rumor a "deceptive bastard" (her words), but decides to ask the Raven if it knows anything about this trouble in the ranks. Without being asked, the Raven comes out Sasha's ear and perches on her shoulder, the better to talk to Lionel.

<HG> "I figured this would be more expedient."

The Raven says that there is a subtle rot, and it thinks that the Unclean Kings are involved in this rot somehow. It wants this Familia's help with investigating and rooting things out, because the usual channels for doing so have been compromised.

<HG> "I'd tell you more, but the networks that would tell me more are part of the problem."
<HG> "I can't deal with this from my position. I can't act on myself. That was one of the provisions of my existence. I can act on you, and you can act on me, and so that is why I am asking for help."
<HG> It's not a question.

They ask exactly what sort of help the Raven wants. The Raven tells them to go find one of the Pure Ones, since they're the ones who can figure out if and how the Unclean Kings are involved.

<HG> "The Shepherds would be able to tell you more than I can. If you can get an audience with one of them."

A Boat

Later, the Familia gathers, and Sasha notes that Rhonda hasn't responded to her for some time, so they might need to check in on her to make sure Heat hasn't pounded her into the ground again.

<Maddie> "Hey Sasha, has your girlfriend made any headway hunting for Dominus Heat?"
<Sasha> "...Sounds like no, and also she's not my girlfriend."
<Maddie> ":P"
<Sasha> "I'm beginning to feel highly platonic concern for her, though."

Lionel goes to work. A maze of string and pushpins later, he figures out where Heat actually is. (Yeah, they knew he was in Canada, but saying he's in "Canada" is like saying he's in "the United States". It's not nearly specific enough.)

<HG> Heat is in the Arctic Ocean. You presumably have to come out of a Chancel exit in like Saskatchewan or something and take... idk. What kind of transport do you have north? Sasha's car isn't exactly amphibious

They do a brief survey of the nearby transport vehicles. Most of them are designed for ice and snow that no longer exists. They are stumped, until Sonja uses an aphorism.

<Maddie> "We could swim!"
<Sonja> "whatever floats your boat."

Since aphorisms are close enough to metaphors, Sonja's ability to make metaphors literally true applies here. And so an uninhabited shack nearby becomes a houseboat. A very rickety houseboat, but a houseboat nevertheless.

<Sonja> Sonja points at the houseboat. "This floats at least. Maddie could kick and push it?"
<Maddie> Maddie goes around to stand behind it. She smacks it with her fist.
<HG> It slides forward a foot or two.
<Maddie> "...um, actually I am just now realizing I'm a bit more tired than I thought."

Maddie doesn't have enough Aspect miracle points to actually push the boat around. They look around for other options.

<Sonja> "I could say the boat is fast as a speeding bullet."
<HG> You may want to get on the boat before saying that.

Sasha uses her Robber-and-Raven position to acquire a boat engine. Unfortunately, it isn't attached to a boat. They're staring down the possibility of having to attach it, without the miracle points to do so in a remotely efficient manner. This is when Sonja gets impatient.

No Boat

<Sonja> I'm gonna do a lesser creation of metaphors, such that "we're standing in front of the Power of Heat" is a metaphor for something
<Sonja> Now I'm gonna make it literal

Sonja decides unilaterally that they shouldn't bother with the boat, and dumps everyone into the Arctic Ocean directly in front of Heat. I mention that this is a stupid idea, but the players point out that no, it would be funnier this way. So I go along.

<HG> OK then. Sploosh!
<Sasha> Sasha is unhappy. This is her only clean uniform.

Everyone is now soaked. And, as Sonja specified that they are directly in front of the Power of Heat...

<HG> The Power of Heat is riding a jetski.
<HG> You are in front of him. He is ramming through you.
<HG> Save yourselves and such?

Maddie immediately covers the area in fog, and uses a Lesser Creation of Bad Weather (her secondary domain) to have a strong gust of wind crash Heat into a conveniently placed iceberg. Heat curses and struggles to right the jetski he was previously on.

<Maddie> "I've got you now, miscreant!"

Sonja suddenly realizes that she has a problem. She is metaphysically attached to the exact copy of the book that she was enNobled from. She is carrying this book. And a book that is soaking wet is liable to disintegrate if it moves around too much. Lionel helps by applying an enchantment of Ice Cream - ice cream provides respite. Sonja was going to take a Deadly Wound and start unraveling at the edges, but Lionel's help makes being soaked merely a major inconvenience rather than life-threatening. She's still soaked to the spine in ice cold water, though.

<Sonja> [Serious Wound, Affliction 1:] I'm freezing and moving is really hard

While the above negotiation about the exact shape of the Wound is taking place, Sasha uses her power as a Robber to eminent domain Heat's jetski.

<Sasha> "Raven, take that jetski."
<Sasha> Sasha flourishes and unleashes a Treasure 5 miracle.

On Fire

Heat is now in possession of one fewer jetski than previously. Which means his movement options in the water are suddenly very limited.

<HG> Heat is currently melting the iceberg he's been thrown against. The jetski has proven remarkably uncooperative, owing to it belonging to Sasha now. He finally gives up trying to wrestle the jetski back into his possession and is attempting to steer the iceberg itself by making steam come out the back.

Sasha sends the jetski in Maddie's general direction. Maddie climbs aboard and scoops a soaked Sonja out of the water. But Sasha isn't done using Treasure quite yet. She summons her car and drops it on top of Heat.

<HG> Heat struggles to get the car off himself, finally wrenching it free of himself and flinging it into the water nearby.

<HG> There are tire tracks on his face.

Heat attempts to set all the oil and gas in the car on fire to make it explode. Sasha Wounds herself to save her car, and instead takes the brunt of the miracle herself. Which means that she is on fire now.

<HG> Okay! Sasha is on fire.
<Sasha> It's probably fine.

Sonja briefly possesses her phylactery book. It is still inside her bookbag. Sinking deep beneath the ocean. And she's too paralyzed by being soaked in ice cold water to be able to retrieve it.

Meanwhile, Lionel climbs up onto Heat's iceberg, turns his Glorious on full blast, and startles Heat into listening to him for a few precious seconds.

<HG> See, the thing about pleasant feelings is that it's awfully tempting to not stop them.
<HG> And so Heat is just letting Glorious happen.

Rhonda (Again)

Rhonda, who has been pursuing Heat for all this time, finally shows up.

<HG> Rhonda swims into view. She's wearing a scuba suit and flippers. She does a backflip right up next to Lionel. "Wait," she says, rapidly getting a sense of the current situation, "how did you get him to listen to you??"
<Lionel> Lionel winks

Sasha is a little flustered. Rhonda waves.

<Sasha> "I think we'll let Lionel handle this," Sasha says. She's still very on fire.
<HG> Rhonda has been on fire a couple times in her life. She understands.

Lionel demands that Heat explain why he's doing this. He gets a few words out of Heat's mouth before Heat manages to shake off the Glorious. Apparently that deal he struck with Cars isn't happening fast enough. And then Heat regains control of himself.

<HG> "I got tired of waiting. Like I'm tired of -"
<HG> Heat bangs his head onto the iceberg underneath him. Something cracks. He looks back up at Lionel and snarls.
<HG> "What did you do to me!?"
<HG> The iceberg is rather rapidly losing its form underneath your feet. Distressingly warm water is sheeting off it.

At the urging of Sasha, Rhonda throws drinking-glasses at Heat; they shatter and melt together into a lump of glass encasing him.

<HG> Heat sinks.

Rhonda goes diving after Heat, but finds something rather more important in the water first.

<HG> A few moments later she surfaces with a familiar bookbag.
<HG> "You were looking for this?" She tosses it over the handles of the jetski and goes back under.
<Sonja> "My book!" Sonja grabs it and clings tightly to it.

Several minutes later, Rhonda returns from the seafloor with Heat. She creates a cup that just so happens to look a lot like a kayak. She heaves Heat, still encased in glass, inside.

<HG> You can probably guess what he's trying to yell through the glass, but it's pretty muffled.
<Sasha> "Maddie, don't repeat that."
<Maddie> "It's not like it's going to burn my tongue if I did."

Rhonda tries to push her boat, thinks better of it, and asks for a tow. They harness the jetski to the front of Rhonda's "cup" with Sonja's twine, and slowly ride off.

On The Next Episode...

The Familia goes off to try and find at least one of the people they were told to find. This might not help.