Amris Posted November 1, 2010 Report Share Posted November 1, 2010 CHAMPIONS session saturday feb. 6th 2010: - Background: The player characters are trying to help a friend (Francesca D'Este) to survive a meeting of her secret lodge. Setting is near the village of Marcillac in southern France on a mountain near the upper Loire river valley. - Player characters: Chiyo Iwazumi aka Natalie Winter Yuiitsu Ichigu aka James Luck - Non-player characters: Contessa Francesca D'Este (Italian lodge member) Yannis Amenakis (her lover, Greek lodge member) Comte Maurice de Mont d' Aubrac and various followers (French lodge member) Paul Vandervelden with mobster bodyguard "bulldozer" (Dutch lodge member) Viktoria Krylova with maid Enny (Russian lodge member) Goran Scepec (Hungarian lodge member) Prof. Sven Sunderström (Swedish lodge member) various other lodge members (unimportant at this point) Jean-Claude Fouchet with Tarot and bodyguard (guest of Comte Maurice) Laura Harrison with lover Bob Miller (fantasy author and guest of the Comte) various other guests (unimportant at this point) Justine (maid at the castle) Annabelle (her 12-year old daughter) various police officers - Gameplay: Chiyo and Yuiitsu - travelling under the false name of James Luck at this time - have accompanied the Contessa Francesca D'Este and the Contessa's greek lover Jannis Amenakis to the renaissance chateau of the Comte Maurice de Mont de Braque. The chateau is located in the woods on a mountain next to the village of Marcillac near the upper Loire river in southern France. It's early spring. There is supposed to be a party this evening. Everyone has been arriving the evening before. There are basically two rivaling factions in the secret lodge: One is led by Comte Maurice, the other by Contessa Francesca. Francesca has pretty much humiliated the Comte during the last lodge meeting at her estate in Italy, so one can assume he's out for revenge now. The actual name and the aims of the lodge aren't known to the player characters, i.e. Chiyo and James yet. There has been an informal breakfast this morning at which everybody got to know each other and exchanged 'niceties', sparring for position and prestige. During the breakfast Vandervelden's bodyguard "bulldozer" and the Hungarian Goran Scepec got into a quarrel over Chiyo (both former lovers of her's) that got pretty embarrassing for her, especially since bulldozer has a rather direct way of expressing himself. The Comte pissed off James with his standoffishness. James flirted with Tarot (the charming follower of Jean-Claude) and made a veiled offer to help her get rid of her employer. James leaves the breakfast pretty fast and quietly looks around the castle, memorizing the layout of the rooms and looking for hidden security systems and cameras (one of his skills is security systems, another is spotting). He spots various cameras in the candelabra of the entrance hall which have the locked cellar entrance in clear view. He also spots various other cameras, one of them even in Chiyo's and his bedroom (with a clear view on the bed) and a microphone too. He leaves all these devices untouched, pretending not to have seen them. The bathroom seems to be free of bugs as is the balcony. He tells Chiyo, Francesca and Jannis about the bugs. Chiyo gets asked by Francesca to make nice to Goran Scepec in order to try to influence him away from the Comte's camp to Francesca's. She's just walking in the park with Goran, flirting, when Jannis (Francesca's lover) approaches her and wants to talk to her. She excuses herself from Goran and Jannis leads her to a girl who turns out to be working as a maid at the Comte's castle. She introduces herself as Justine and tells that her 12-year old daughter has been missing for two days. The police have - so far unsuccessfully - been searching for her. Chiyo who is pretty adept at discerning if people lie (she has a skill in that direction) can't really read her and isn't sure whether the story is true. She suspects it might also be some sort of trap laid by the Comte though to what end is unclear. Then the Comte appears before Justine has finished the story and Justine flees, looking terrified. The Comte talks to Chiyo, trying to persuade her to leave Francesca and join his faction though keeping rather vague as to what sort of role he envisions her to play in his service. Even when she asks he pretty much dodges the specifics. He keeps touching her butt which would point to him wanting her as lover - something she assumes anyway - but Chiyo pretty much suspects what he really is after is breaking her away from Francesca's faction. She stays noncommital, trying to leave him in the belief he might succeed eventually. She finally excuses herself from the Comte and walks in the direction, she's seen Justine and Jannis leave. She finds Jannis outside the park and he tells her that he has followed the fleeing Justine and managed to ask her some more questions. Turns out Justine lives in a house near the village of Marcillac (about an hour on foot from the castle) and the daughter Annabelle was on her way back from school, walking from the bus stop through the forest to the house where she never arrived. Jannis who is a VERY adept psychologist couldn't tell either whether Justine was telling the truth. Meanwhile James finds Tarot again and takes a walk through the woods with her, flirting but staying carefully distant. She doesn't offer any information about her employer Jean-Claude and he doesn't really ask either. Chiyo and James meet with Francesca and Jannis on the - supposedly bug-free balcony - and talk about Justine's story. Although there is the risk that it is all a trap laide by the Comte It gets agreed upon to make some inquiries - mainly because Chiyo can't help being Chiyo (she has "protect innocents" as a psychological disadvantage on her character sheet and thus insists they have to try to help the girl). Chiyo asks Francesca about the lodge and it's aims and while Francesca is pretty evasive she does tell that she inherited her lodge membership from her parents who got blown up with their car some years ago (the perpetrator was never found). Also she claims that the Comte is much older than he looks. Her father supposedly told her the Comte looked pretty much the same several decades ago. The Comte's faction includes Vandervelden, Krylova and Czepec (and various others), Francesca's faction includes Jannis Amenakis and Sven Sunderström (and also various others). The four of them walk through a forest trail to the bridge leading from the castle to Marcillac. They find their rented car on the parking lot at the bridge. James checks it for bugs and finds someone was nice enough to install a hidden camera, a microphone and a homing device during the night. He removes all. The stuff is french secret service quality. They remember the Comte has connections to the highest level of government. They drive to the gas station to buy a local map and find Justine's house on it, as well as the bus stop and the forest trail Annabelle must have used. They stop by the local restaurant and order some drinks, talking to the owner. He pretends to know nothing about a missing girl and Chiyo gets the pretty clear impression he's lying. They find an old man sitting by the road and ask him also and he starts telling stories about missing girls, obviously making fun of them so they leave him be. They drive to the bus stop Annabelle must have used and walk up the forest trail towards Justine's home, spotting for tracks and other signs of an abduction. Halfway along the about 1 km long trail they find signs of a struggle. They also find a police officer stationed there to make sure no one disturbs the evidence. The officer orders them away but Chiyo uses her presence and persuasion to start a flirty chat with him which leads to him offering drinking a glass of wine with her (he actually has a bottle of wine with his motorcycle ... talk about being prepared!) They drink and she gets out of him that he's heard that another girl vanished in the area 12 years ago and there are rumours that girls have kept vanishing on the exact same day every 12 years for a long long time. None of them has ever been found. She catches that he seems to be not lying. Meanwhile James (with his spotting skill and a very good roll) and the others have the opportunity to search around the place while the officer is distracted and find tracks leading back to the road in a semi-circle. The tracks stop on the road. The four drive back to the parking lot at the bridge and walk back to the chateau, thinking about how to proceed and agreeing, that the chateau's cellar should be searched for the girl. Now the problem is that the cellar door is not only locked but also in clear view of the camera hidden in the candelabra of the entrance hall. They can't wait until everyone is asleep either because the lodge party will start this evening - in a couple of hours - and if the Comte does have the girl and plan a "special event" for her it can't be ruled out that it would happen this very night. So they have to be fast. They look for cellar windows but those are real small and heavily barred. Impossible to get through without a major effort and tools. They think pretty long and hard about how to circumvent the camera and reject several ideas until Chiyo comes up with the suggestion she undresses in front of the hidden camera in their room in order to hopefully fixate any theoretical security guys' attention on that cam stream. Francesca helpfully offers to join her in that undertaking and the two of them end up making love in Chiyo's and James room in front of the hidden camera. They can only hope there isn't a gay or a straight girl in the security room. Meanwhile Jannis gets equiped with a hidden headset and radio from James' stock of security stuff and stationed in the dining hall with view of the cellar door while James, wearing the other radio headset walks up to the cellar door, picks the lock (he has lockpicking skill) and disappears inside quickly, closing the door behind him. James finds himself inside a huge wine cellar and after a while (using his spotting skill) discovers a secret door leading to another big room, complete with all kinds of middle age torture equipment and cages. No Annabelle there though. He finds yet another secret door leading to a private study and library. He decides he's taken enough of a risk, goes back to the torture chamber, installs a hidden camera under one of the tables and leaves the cellar, locking it again. The whole thing has taken an hour and the girls meanwhile had to keep going and still don't know they can stop now. Jannis - being jealous - suggests he and James might just join the other guests and "forget" to tell the girls they can stop now but they think better of it and go up to the bedroom. They find Chiyo and Francesca busy making love and end up joining them. Any supposed security guys watching the cam intakes are having a field day. Afterwards it's near dark outside and they still haven't found Annabelle. They discuss if there may be other buildings nearby and somehow (probably Francesca remembered it?) get the info that the Comte has a hunting lodge a couple of kilometers away in the forest. Now that they know that they even spot it on the map. Problem is there isn't much daylight left to explore it. The party will start soon and it's important that Francesca as faction leader is there so she and Jannis stay behind while Chiyo and James pretend to take a walk in the park and quietly disappear into the forest, then run to the hunting lodge. They reach it just as darkness falls and spot two guards outside the front toor, smoking. The lodge sits on a pretty big clearing. James, using his stealth skill sneaks up around the edge of the forest to come at the lodge from the side. Chiyo, possessing no stealth skills whatsoever then walks up the trail openly. She gets challenged, pretends not to understand anything which is pretty easy since she doesn't speak any french and walks up to 6 meter distance, then stops. They point guns in her direction. James moves up from behind and grabs the one guy around the throat. Chiyo, being much faster than the guards jumps the other and downs him with a nerve strike (nerve strike doesn't injure someone but incapacitates them). She then nerve strikes the other one who James is still struggling with and rolls high damage both times. They find the curtains and shutters closed on the windows and can't look inside but listen at the door (making another spot roll), hearing male voices. They quietly open the door and jump the two guys they see inside. Chiyo disables her's with another nerve strike while James, frustrated kicks the other one full-out, smashing him against the wall and nearly killing him. They turn to the bed and find Annabelle unharmed but totally frightened. Chiyo tries to do first aid on the injured thug and misses her roll, not managing to patch him up. They can only hope he survives. She then manages to calm down the girl whom James frightened even more (James has a 'strange voice' as a disadvantage). Chiyo picks up the girl and carries her as they move back to the castle through the darkness. They decide not to bring the girl to the police because they are afraid of the Comte's connections and that the girl may somehow end up with him again if the police gets her. So instead they arrive in the dining hall as the party is in full swing. Everyone looks up, astonished. James and Chiyo tell that they suddenly got attacked by some thugs when they were on a evening walk near some hunting lodge and found a girl with them. The Comte pretends to not know a thing and informs the police who come, ask some questions and go again. Meanwhile Chiyo and James ask for and find Justine in the servant's room and bring her and Annabelle together into their own room, where James then stays to watch over them. Francesca thinks they should take them along to Italy the next day to protect them. The other three (Francesca, Jannis and Chiyo) return to the party where the Comte meanwhile announces his 'special event' to which he invites only a handful of guests, namely Francesca, Jannis, Chiyo, Sunderström, Vandevelden, Krylova with Enny and some others, 15 persons total. Since Francesca would lose too much prestige in the eternal lodge-intern power-struggle if she refused, she and her faction have to agree to take part, not knowing what kind of event the nice Comte has prepared. They all enter another room and have to sit around a huge table. Krylova (with the seemingly shy Enny at her side) then takes out a huge ancient asian dagger and places it in the middle of the table. She explains she'll summon a spirit known to a person and that the dagger will select which person that is by pointing at them. She then utters some strange magical formulas. The dagger starts to turn and circle around the table, pointing at one guest after the other, one full circle .. two full circles ... slowing down ... Chiyo watches it carefully and prepares to push it further along in case it decides to stop in front of Francesca, Jannis or herself. Since she doesn't really want to touch the thing she quietly gets her lipstick in hand. The dagger passes Francesca, Chiyo and Jannis yet again ... slows down further ... and stops ... in front of Sunderström. The next moment it suddenly lunges forward (for no visible reason), angling upward for Sunderström's heart. Chiyo jumps at it, trying to catch it ... she's the only one who's been waiting for something like this to happen and thus isn't surprised and can move ... But she misses her "grab attack" roll and doesn't manage to get hold of the thing. The dagger pierces Sunderström's heart who is dead immediatly and falls down with his chair. Chiyo in a rush of panic is afraid the dagger might start to lunge at someone else suddenly and quickly looks around for somethng - anything - she might use to grab it with without touching it, finds Sunderström's bloody handkerchief, wraps it around the dagger, pulls the dagger out and then rams it into the wooden floor with all her superhuman strength. The thing gets stuck in the floor up to it's hilt. No one can even think of removing it without tools. Now she has bloody hands and finds the Comte calmly calling the police. She now wishes she'd left the dagger alone and disappears to the bathroom to wash her hands. Everyone waits for the police who appears after a while. The officers question everybody. The story they get from most of the participants of the little dagger ceremony doesn't really satisfy them. Everyone does agree upon one point though: Chiyo was the only one who moved when the dagger lunged and also the one who pulled it out. Now five of the Comte's followers - starting with Krylova - when questioned again change their story and start to tell that they remember Chiyo suddenly jumping at the dagger and pushing it into Sunderström's heart. The police find this much more believable than some "magical" movement, arrest Chiyo and take her along to Le Puy (the next town) where she gets imprisoned, pending a hearing. Meanwhile James thinks about ways to get his lover out of prison and decides it might be a good idea to remove the Comte - permanently so Francesca may hopefully then be able to influence the Comte's faction and have the witnesses change their statements. James starts to make plans. End of session (3 am) Copyright: Bruno Behrends Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amris Posted November 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2010 The Story of Chiyo and Yuitsu continued CHAMPIONS session saturday feb. 20th 2010: - Background: Chiyo is under arrest, in pre-trial custody in Le Puy, southern France, having been falsely indicted of murder by 4 witnesses, influenced by the Comte Maurice de Mont D'Aubrac. James is in Le Puy also, albeit free, planning how to assassinate the good Comte in order to pave the way for Francesca D'Este, the Comte's rival, to make the witnesses withdraw their false testimony. NPCs: Contessa Francesca D'Este (Italian lodge member) Yannis Amenakis (her lover, Greek lodge member) Comte Maurice de Mont d' Aubrac and various followers (French lodge member) Jean-Claude Fouchet with Tarot and bodyguard (guest of Comte Maurice) various prison guards in Le Puy three female prisoners in Le Puy - Gameplay: James, Francesca and Jannis arrive in Le Puy, coming from Marsillac, during the night of the unfortunate events that led to Chiyo's arrest. The next morning Francesca contracts an expensive lawyer for Chiyo, one Giovanni Di Contrella. They try to contact Chiyo in prison but don't manage. The group then splits up: Francesca leaves Le Puy for Rome, taking along Isabel (the girl whom James and Chiyo had saved from the Comte's thugs last playing session) and Isabel's mother Justine. Francesca wants to make sure they are safely out of the Comte's reach. From Rome she then indends to fly to Paris to meet Jannis there for the election meeting of the Lodge which is supposed to take place in three more days. The Lodge has to elect a replacement for Prof. Sunderström (who had been stabbed during the last playing session). The lodge elections traditionally are being held in an exclusive club in Paris. Jannis travels directly to Paris because he wants to do research about the family D'Aubrac in the library of the Sorbonne. James decides to try to get at the Comte in his château. Since the chateau is located in the mountains in a forest, he prepares by stealing a heavy cross-country motorcycle (using his lockpicking skill), then exchanges the license plate for another bike's and visits a biker store to get a leather suit and helmet. He already has his sniper rifle and handgun with him, as well as his bugging devices, the radio headsets, lockpicks and a topographical map. To complete his equipment he visits an outdoor store and buys rope, spikes, a grappling hook, warm clothes, flashlight, backpack etc, then sets out towards Marsillac and the chateau. The drive takes about four hours over the narrow, curving mountain roads. James spends two days looking at the map and familiarizing himself with the pretty wild and woody terrain, scouting out the forest service roads and the best way to get at the château unseen and leaving again, memorizing possible retreat routes. He also scouts the parking lot at the bridge leading up the château access road and finds two of the Comte's people standing guard there under a lantern at night. He sneaks up to the bridge itself from behind, trying to figure out whether he can somehow sabotage or destroy it but it turns out to be much more stable than it appears to be on first sight, seemingly purpose-designed to masquerade as a ramshackle proposition when it's really quite sturdy. (Since he doesn't have demolition skill there is nothing he can do about the bridge). He scouts out the cellar windows but finds no access due to the heavy bars. He also downloads the intakes of the hidden surveillance cameras he had installed two days before during the Lodge meeting at the château (last playing session). The hidden camera in the torture chamber hasn't seen anything going on there. The camera up in the corridor leading to the guest rooms shows him that while most guests have left, Jean-Claude Fouchét, his bodyguard and his follower, the charming Tarot are still in the château staying with the Comte. James appropriates a canister of petrol and manufactures some make-shift fuses because he's coming to the conclusion it'd be best to set a fire somewhere at the château to cause confusion when he strikes finally (and although he already set a porn-film studio ablaze some playing sessions ago in the favelas of Mexico City he claims he's not a compulsive arsonist.) On the third day James gets a call by Francesca who tells him she's arrived safely in Rom and that Ornella Gambrelli (the mafia boss they'd been working for in Rome three playing sessions ago) had relocated to an unknown destination after James and Chiyo having sent her the russian secret data CD she had had them get for her (two playing sessions before). Obviously the data on the CD was pretty hot but neither James nor Francesca know what it was. About Jannis' studies concerning the D'Aubrac family Francesca can only say he is making progress but he's refusing to tell anything before it's verified to his satisfaction. James' pressing her for more information, pointing out he might need it badly during his upcoming strike against the Comte doesn't help as Jannis just has refused to tell Francesca anything more specific, much to Francesca's own frustration. Chiyo spends her first two days in pre-trial custody in a single cell with a simple bed, table, chair, sink, TV, barred window and not much else. Her personal belongings have been taken away and she's been made to wear a fashionable prison jumpsuit. She's being taken out of the cell and brought to the dining area three times a day and to the showers in the evening. She tries to contact her friends or a lawyer but the guards don't react to her pleas. That she doesn't speak french at all doesn't help either. And while she suspects at least some guards understand english pretty well they consistently pretend not to. The prison has a library and she decides to visit it as soon as she can get permission. The lawyer Francesca appointed is busy on her behalf but is met with suspicious delays by the authorities and Chiyo doesn't know about this anyway, not being allowed any outside contact. Among the personal belongings taken away from Chiyo is the Guadaloupe pendant she'd gotten from Maria in Mexico and which Jannis had hinted at might help protect her from the Comte – though protect from what he never wanted to say. During the second night Chiyo dreams of Francesca sounding very disappointed and reproaching her for letting Prof. Sunderström die and for not doing more to protect Anabel and Justine. Correspondingly Chiyo sleeps badly and wakes tired. She searches her cell for any explanation for the uncomfortable dreams and finds a tiny speaker and receiver hidden in her pillow which she disables as inconspiciously as possible. In the evening of the second day when finishing showering, a nude Chiyo finds her way back to the changing room blocked by three graces in prison jumpsuits, one quite a machine, the other two more haggart. They start to taunt her in french. Chiyo suspecting there may be more to this encounter than just the wish of the women to establish the pecking order, instinctively decides to avoid a confrontation if at all possible and returns under the shower to wait them out. This leads to the women entering the shower room, circling her - but unblocking the entrance into the changing room. Chiyo, using her superior speed, slips in between them, avoiding their grasping hands (using her acrobatics skill) and reaches the changing room and her clothes. To save time she skips the underwear and just slips into the jumpsuit while the women come up in pursuit, circling her again and trying to punch her angrily. She dodges, grabs her shoes and panties (giving them another shot at trying to punch her, them again missing due to her good dcv), then slips through them again with acrobatics without waiting to close the jumpsuit zipper and reaches the door. She half suspects finding it locked - which would have landed her in a real mess. But the door opens and - as she wants to escape into the corridor - she finds herself facing three female guards waiting outside. This pretty much confirms it was all a setup. She freezes, trying to look real harmless with the shoes and panties in her hands and the three graces in pursuit. She isn't really surprised as the guards ignore the thugs pursuing her and take her into the middle, grabbing her arms and dragging her along. She follows them docilely to her cell. The guards are suddenly able to speak english and tell her she'll have her TV taken away and being kept in solitary confinement from now on without seeing any of the other prisoners or visiting the library. She suspects someone pulling the strings here and - possessing a healthy dose of paranoia - can guess who. The bright spot is she's really happy she didn't do anything to the three graces and thus denied the guards any excuse to punish her even more. The next two days three guards always accompany her when she's brought to the dining room, her eating schedule adjusted so that there never is anyone else around, her food already sitting on the table. Her paranoia blooming she doesn't touch any of it. This coupled with her increased metabolism doesn't really make her stay very enjoyable but she's too afraid of the Comte and possible psycho-drugs somehow finding their way into her food. She avoids the drinks too, only drinking water from the outlet in her room She checks her room for hidding security devices and finds two cameras built into the ceiling. The receiver and speaker have been removed during her absence from the cell. She doesn't find any replacement anywhere which only lets her paranoia bloom even more. She also finds the handle on her window removed and can't open it any more. The air inside the cell doesn't get any better. During the next meal she tries her best to persuade the guards to let her talk to a lawyer or to at least bring the TV back and reinstall the window handle or at the very least explain to her why she's being treated like this. Although she brings all her formidable presence and persuasion skills to bear, she doesn't manage to get more out of the guards than a pitying smile by one of them and a promise by the same woman to tell her wishes to her superiors. The next night she stays awake on purpose for several hours, pretending sleep. And – surprise, surprise – again she hears Francesca's voice, sounding so disappointed and reproaching her. This time she's awake and tries to locate where the voice is coming from – not from the pillow. It sounds as if Francesca is sitting on the chair. It sounds so real she even looks at the chair, only to of course not see anybody in it. She stuffs toilet paper into her ears - and notices the voice isn't silenced by it at all. Now that's a little disquieting. She uses her resistance skill (managing her dice roll) – telling herself again and again all this is only meant to influence and break her - and can pretty much ignore the voice's effects for the day. Meanwhile James sneaks up to the chateau from the side through the forest during Chiyo's third night in prison. He sets the stables and the garage on fire, using delayed fuses and gasoline and then climbs up to the Comte's balcony and waits at the balcony door which is half-open so he doesn't even have to pick the lock. The Comte can be heard sleeping inside. Then the fires start, commotion begins outside and the Comte gets up. James opens the door, aims at the Comte's head and blows his brains away, leaving a mess on the carpet. James fires two more shots into the Comte's head to be on the safe side and just wants to fire yet another as his own heart suddenly stops (24 points of body damage out of nowwhere). James falls down in the Comte's bedoom, practically dead, for no visible reason. It is 3 am at night. The next morning: On her fourth day in prison Chiyo still refuses to eat when escorted by the three guards to have breakfast. She has no idea about what happened to James. The guard who had smiled at her the day before and promised to talk to her superiors isn't with the team fetching her any more. An older woman who seemingly doesn't speak any english has replaced her. At noon she gets again fetched from her cell. This time they don't bring her to the dining room – she gets brought to a visitor room where Francesca and the lawyer Di Cantrella await her. Francesca is on her way to Paris to the Lodge meeting and stopping by to help free Chiyo. Francesca hugs her tightly and finds a Chiyo who's withdrawn and distant, keeping up her walls, not daring to let them crumble and break down. Francesca tells her that James intended to shoot the Comte last night and hasn't called since nor answered the phone. However Francesca today contacted the Comte's followers, who had given false testimony against Chiyo and found them suddenly withdrawing their statements. Also the court has finally agreed to a hearing which will take place in two hours already. The information about James' disappearance is very disquieting. Chiyo can hardly believe it but true enough she has her clothes and belongings returned and gets brought directly to the justice building. The hearing takes place, the lawyer pleads (managing a very good dice roll on his law skill) and Chiyo actually gets set free on the spot. She still can hardly believe it, yet has not time to wonder since she's now worried about James. Francesca says she has to immediately leave for Paris in order to be at the Lodge election meeting in time (which will start at 9 pm, it now being 3 pm). Francesca and Chiyo kiss each other and thank the lawyer, Francesca leaves Chiyo her rented car, herself going to the train station. Chiyo immediately calls Ornella Gambrelli, asking if she knows someone who can break into a phone company computer system and home in on the location of James' mobile. Ornella promises to help and call back. Meanwhile Chiyo visits an outdoor store – actually the same one James went shopping three days earlier – and gets camo pants and jacket, backpack, torch, rope, grappling hook, knife, water bottle, binoculars and a first aid kit. At another store she buys a topgraphical map. Then she gets into the car and drives towards Marsillac and the château. Only once she's on her way does she realize she has had no time to grab anything to eat. After an hour she gets a call by Ornella's technician who has managed to pinpoint the location of James' mobile within a couple kilometer radius inmidst of a pretty remote forest about 30 km from the château. She tries to call James again, without success. She stops at a diner, grabs something to eat and studies the map, then hurries on, driving as close to that forest as the car can go in the mountainous region. The evening approaches fast and she doesn't have much daylight left for a real search. She leaves the car a couple kilometers from the area the mobile must be in, grabs herbackpack with the equipment and runs through the forest to get there before darkness. Chiyo manages to get there when there is still some light left and crosses the area a couple of times, using her spotting skill to find some sign of James – any sign – not having enough time for a systematic search as evening breaks rapidly. She finds a largish spot where someone has recently dug. She starts to dig feverishly, wishing she'd bought the shovel the shopowner had tried to sell her, digging with bare hands and some branches and her knife. After a while she finds a big blue plastic bag with something large in it. Pulling the bag out of the ground she opens it, dreading what she'll find inside, the forest around her near dark by now. She finds James' body and his equipment. She goes all numb inside, keeping a tight grip on her terror, forcing herself to examine her lover's body. She knows he has regenerative powers. James shows no outward injury but his heart isn't beating. Nevertheless the body isn't completely cold yet. A hopeful sign. She applies cpr (managing her paramedic skill roll) and actually manages to start his heart again (healing 2 points of body damage). This stabilizes his condition, preventing further health loss. After a little over four minutes he is completely regenerated (regenerating 1 point per turn). James is totally disoriented at first and Chiyo assures him everything is alright, then breaks down, crying. After a while they both recover enough to make plans. Question: Go to Paris and help Francesca and Jannis or stay here and visit the château again to see what's going on and why James' 'corpse' hasn't been turned over to the police as the Comte's assassin. That James got buried in some forest is strange and leaves only the less than totally welcome conclusion that something is still going on at the château that made him being turned over to the police impractical. One thing is pretty clear: What nearly killed James was a spell cast by Jean-Claude (they have already been targeted by this power of his in the past). They hadn't know yet he can use this ability so quickly though, having hoped he'd need a lot of time to prepare it. They call Francesca and Jannis who tell them the election meeting will start in an hour already. Jannis finally can be persuaded to reveal some of his research results (under protest) and says the D'Aubrac family, having been chevaliers at that time made a fortune during the siege of La Rochelle in 1627-28. After that they pretty quickly aquired the comté of La Roche Lambert near Le Puy and since then have been known to be rather long lived. Only after a lot more protest and sufficient disclaimers does Jannis reveal that legend has it that a Comte of that time has made a pact with the devil, the deal allowing him to lengthen his life by bringing a human sacrifice every nine years. The same legend states that if killed by unnatural causes he can be raised from the dead by the same ceremony, going into an undead state. James and Chiyo cut off several more disclaimers of Jannis' and decide to hurry to the château and see if there is any truth to the legend - and if so if they can prevent that ceremony. They agree to stay in regular contact with Francesca. They return to the car, then drive to the beginning of the forest service road on which James left his appropriated bike the night before. They find the bike and discuss what to do. Chiyo is really afraid because she is pretty much helpless against Jean-Claude's spell (unless the Guadaloupe pendant helps any which she has no clue about). In the end they decide she'll stay near the bike and James crosses the creek on foot, and sneaks through the dark forest towards the castle. Once near it, he hides and starts to download the intake of his security cameras to see what happened. The torture chamber camera despite the bad video quality shows clearly enough the Comte's corpse being brought into the room and laid on a table. A pretty long time later a row of hooded people enter, bringing two bound squirming nude persons, a man and a woman. The man gets hung from the ceiling head down over the Comte's corpse and then gets decapitated, the blood gushing down and onto the Compte who's destroyed head starts to rebuild. Finally the Comte raises and stalks the blindfolded woman, sinking fangs into her, sucking until she falls lifelessly to the ground. At this point James, a little shaken and always healthily paranoid uses his spotting skill to listen around carefully, decides someone or something is approaching and starts a hasty retreat. He hurries back to the creek as fast as he can in the dark forest and jumps onto the bike. Chiyo with her danger sense senses something is terribly wrong and jumps onto the bike behind him and they drive off along the nightly forest road. Chiyo can sense the thing behind them seems to stop or at least slow at the creek. She wonders if Maria's Guadaloupe pendant which she's wearing again will prove to do any good but is glad to have it. They leave the stolen bike at the car, then get into the car and drive off towards Le Puy and from there onward towards Marseille. While underway she calls Francesca, telling her what happened and hearing Francesca and Jannis will head back to Rome and that Goran Scepec has been elected to take the place of the deceased Prof. Sunderström while the Comte's faction successfully staved off a discussion about the whereabouts of the Comte and a possible election of a successor to his seat. They are still in the car, driving towards Marseille ... END OF SESSION (1 am) copyright: Bruno Behrends Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amris Posted November 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2010 The Story of Chiyo and Yuitsu part 3 CHAMPIONS session saturday mar. 6th 2010: - Background: The player characters have fled from the château de Mont l'Aubrac at night after James, having downloaded the intake of his hidden surveillance camera in the château's torture chamber, has witnessed the Comte Maurice's raising from the dead. They are on the road to Le Puy at night and then onward towards Marseilles and plan to journey on to Rome. Francesca d'Este and her lover Jannis Amenakis have flown from the lodge meeting in Paris back to Francesca's estate near Rome. NPCs: Contessa Francesca D'Este (Italian lodge member) Yannis Amenakis (her lover, Greek lodge member) Comte Maurice de Mont d' Aubrac and various followers (French lodge member) Paul Vandervelden with mobster bodyguard "bulldozer" (Dutch lodge member) Viktoria Krylova with maid Enny (Russian lodge member) Goran Scepec (Hungarian lodge member) Hakon Björndalen (Swedish lodge member, new lodge president) various other lodge members (unimportant at this point) - Gameplay: Chiyo and James safely reach Marseilles where they turn the rental car back in and board a plane to Rome. In Rome they take a taxi to Francesca's estate where they stay the next days after a sufficiently warm reunion. James makes plans to travel to Mexico City again on a "business trip" as he tells Chiyo. (Actually we wants to meet Sarah, a girl whom he had spent some nights with during the player characters' recent stay in Mexico, 6 playing sessions ago.) Sarah is the lieutenant of a drug-lord in there. Chiyo feels still short of money. James' and her captivity by and later escape from and war against their arch enemy Gerald Sommerfeld and his Cromwell Inc. goons (gaming sessions from sept. 2 2007 - oct 18 2009) had pretty much deprived her of income, not to mention she didn't have access to what limited funds there were on her bank account in the first place as they'd been permanently on the run and changing their identies. And even though after Sommerfelds' belated demise she had finally earned some money during her stints as hostess in Mexico City and then later during her assignments for mafia boss Ornella Gambrelli in Rome, her bank account still isn't anything she'd call healthy. A point exacerbated by the fact her taste in clothes (and everything else) runs to luxury. Which means she needs to find another source of income. Ornella Gambrelli has for now gone into hiding and doesn't need a bodyguard at this time, so no income from that source. What Chiyo really wants to do is set up as a free-lance high-class bodyguard. So she asks Francesca - who is well-connected in the Italian upper class - if she knows anyone who could act as a manager or agent for her and provide her with bodyguard assignments. Francesca recommends Giovianni Di Centrella, the lawyer who already had represented Chiyo during her unfortunate stay at the Le Puy prison. In the end Chiyo talks to Di Centrella who agrees to broker assignments for her against a 25% fee. Now the fee is maybe less a reason to sing joyful hosiannas but on the other hand she doesn't have a lot of choice and if he's worth it, he's worth it. Francesca and Jannis tell them they'll have to attend yet another lodge meeting in Paris in four days because a successor for the Comte de Mont l'Aubrac has to be elected. This is insteresting insofar, as the Comte's death isn't common knowledge and because James claims to have seen the Comte raising from the dead on his surveillance cam intake. Anyway James and Chiyo agree to accompany Francesca and Jannis to the lodge meeting to safeguard them. Chiyo who was born with more than her fair share of vanity, asks Francesca for a good tailor in Rome, then goes there and orders three customized suits and skirts. She also shops for several pairs of shoes, a hand-made handbag and classy watch and spends about € 10.000,00. If her bank account was less than healthy before it's now practically wiped. But in her opinion the expenses were absolutely necessary. Critical even. Fortunately Chiyo gets a call by her new agent, Di Centrella, who tells her she's been offered an assignment as a bodyguard: Renowned ballet choreographer Sergei Tretjakov who'll arrive in Rome in 5 days wants to contract her for 3 days for € 15.000,00 total (25% of this would be Di Centrella's fee). On two of these days Tretjakov's ballet troupe from St. Petersburg will perform at the opera. 50% of the money would be advance payment. Kiara asks about what kind of security Tretjakov has already and what kinds of threats he faces. Turns out he already has two bodyguards! Now what real or imagined threats someone in the dangerous profession of ballet choreographer might face that would make him need two - and now three! - bodyguards - he doesn't want to tell. To her it sounds - mysterious. She agrees to the assignment. Three days later (one day before the scheduled lodge meeting) Francesca gets a call, telling her that the meeting has been rescheduled to take place at the estate of one Hakon Björndalen, the new lodge president, in Pisa instead of the usual club in Paris. The next morning Francesca and Jannis (in Francesca's Ferrari) and James and Chiyo (in Francesca's Alpha) drive from Rome to Pisa and attend the lodge meeting at Björndalen's house. When Bulldozer arrives, accompanying his employer, Paul Vandefelden, his face lights up as he gets sight of Chiyo. He steps close, touching her butt, before she can step away and says: „You aren't so skinny anymore! I like a well-rounded ass!“, causing an identity crisis in Chiyo and causing her to immediately go onto a diet. James takes exception to Bulldozer's disrespectful treatment of Chiyo and nearly gets into a brawl with him. There is a party with the usual chatting and smalltalk as all lodge members spar for position and prestige and try to impress each other with their wit, apparent power and the quality of their followers. The two factions - one led by Francesca, the other formerly led by Comte Maurice still are bitterly opposed. Francesca again has Chiyo circle among the male lodge members, especially Goran Sczepes, in order to influence them away from the comte. Chiyo impresses three neutral lodge members with her presence, then does the same to Goran and ends up in bed with him. However the election then gets called off as the lodge member Viktoria Krylova presents a letter - or will - by the Comte Maurice which states that he wants belgian Paul Vandefelden to succeed to his seat in the lodge. The meeting ends without anyone getting killed. Hallelujah. Francesca, Jannis, James and Chiyo drive back to Rome. Chiyo calls the Gambrelli family in New York to ask for a lawyer who can represent her there in getting her car - a nice Mustang - back from the sealed UNIX parking basement. They recommend one and she contracts him. The car has been there since the day Cromwell launched that surpise raid on UNIX, capturing James and Chiyo (then called Matuo and Kiara). It seems to her this all happened ages ago. So much has happened since. Now Sommerfeld, the mastermind behind Cromwell, is dead finally and Cromwell Inc has been disbanded. Sometimes she still can hardly believe it although it happened weeks ago. END OF SESSION (8 pm, short session) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted November 4, 2010 Report Share Posted November 4, 2010 Re: The Story of Chiyo and Yuitsu Feels like we're picking up in media res. Impressive that James managed to get such a droop on a... vampire? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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