Sam: You all arrive in the dining area of the Serenity Mission Hospital.
John: Pocketing cutlery.
Sam: Butter knives? They don't exactly serve steak for dinner, you know.
John: Can I slip into the kitchen?
Sam: Sure. Dex+Stealth, dif 7.
John: What about my Arcane 3?
Sam: You get three extra dice, then.
John: Wonderful. I'm going for the most practical blades. Ones I can conceal on my person.
Sam: Okay.
Bill: Any medicine?
Sam: Whiskey for breakfast?
Bill: There never was a philosopher who could endure the headache patiently. It doesn't have to be liquor. Beer would
do.
John (smirking): I will make it a felony to drink small beer at breakfast.
Nate: "Eat your eggs, sir. God created them to create new life or to sustain the old. You have the look of one needs
both in equal measures. Your current craving is the ill that ails you now."
Bill: "The road of excess leads to wisdom, Walter."
Nate: "If that be so, sir, you must be wise indeed. Eat your breakfast. The food will ease your pain." Can I use Life
3 to make the eggs cure his hangover? I'll pray over his food as a focus. My explanation would make it coincidental, right?
It's just a hangover, after all.
Sam: It'll be coincidental only if the hangover fades slowly, Walter. Dif 6, 2 suc.
Nate: I say grace as we prepare to eat, then. (rolls) Only one success.
Sam: Draw, are you eating your food?
Bill: Can I eat my food? It's pretty hard to eat solid food with a hangover, isn't it?
John (ooc): You know an awful lot about hangovers for a tea totaller, Bill.
Bill (ooc): If others had not been foolish, we would be so. I've heard tales, though the eagle never lost so much time
as when he submitted to learn of the crow. What do you think, John? You're a physician. Would I be able to eat and English
breakfast after a night of drunken revelry?
John (ooc): You definitely have a point.
Nate (ooc): So, are you eating your eggs?
Bill (ooc): No. I might nibble on some toast.
John: (rolls) Five successes.
Everyone: Jeez!
Sam: You manage to palm three respectable blades without anyone noticing.
John: Pointies! I glance at Mel to see if any of the people in the kitchen are marked for death.
Sam: Nope. There is a small tank filled with fish that are marked for death, though.
John: I doubt Death will need me to give it a hand with them.
Bill (ooc): Little warning, John. If Sam tells you that an albatross is marked for death, don't you dare take matters
into your own hands. It might result in the entire cabal's getting killed.
Sam (grinning): Would I do that to you?
Everyone: YES.
Sam: Allan, what are you doing?
Ed: Just eating breakfast, I guess.
Sam: Right. At some point near the end of breakfast, one of the patients comes downstairs. She is a bright damsel dressed in a
silken robe of white. She has a neck that makes that white robe wan. Her stately neck and arms are bare. Her blue-veined feet are
bare.
John (groans)(ooc): You didn't.
Sam grins.
Bill: I get to my feet, blowing a Willpower to remain steady for the rest of the scene, if necessary. "Good morning,
lovely lady. Hath thee from heaven descended to eat with us this morn?"
Sam: Everyone, Per+Alertness, dif 8. Homer, Per+Awareness, same dif.
All: (roll)
John: Three successes.
Bill (chuckling): None.
Ed: One success.
Nate: None. Walter just sits there wondering if Draw is going to eat his eggs, I guess.
Sam: Allan, you notice two scabs on the inside of her left elbow. Homer, she has the mark of untimely death upon her.
She is in danger of death, but it is Mel's job to protect her.
Sam: She blushes. "I am no angel, sir. My name is Christabel. I came here with a fever, but it is broken, now."
John (ooc): Yes, a fever may be lowered by reducing the patient's blood levels. This can best be accomplished by applying
LEECHES.
Bill: I kiss her hand. "That is a pity, miss. Perhaps I can raise your temperature again. It would bring color back to
your fair cheeks."
Ed: Scabs? Like from an IV?
John (laughing)(ooc): You forget who our GM is. Beautiful women wandering around half-naked spells "plot hook".
Ed (ooc): How are scabs on the arm a plot hook?
Sam: TWO scabs on the inside of her elbow.
John: Yes, like the ones made by a pair of fangs.
Ed: Oh! I hit her with a bolt of lightning, then. Forces 3 Prime 2.
Bill (ooc): Please don't do that. I'm kind of standing between you and her, at the moment...
Sam: Yes. And it would be incredibly vulgar, too.
John (ooc): Besides, just because she has fang marks on her arm doesn't mean she's a ghoul. It only means she has been
bitten by a vampire.
Ed: Okay. Nevermind then.
Sam: Man+Subterfuge, dif 5, Draw.
Bill: This should be easy. (rolls) Only one success.
Sam: "You come too late, sir. I love another man."
Bill: "See how you slay me with your words. Who is this fortunate soul?"
Sam: "His name is William, and" she emphasizes this point "he is a gentleman. He has promised me a ring, but never
have we more than kissed. His kisses, though, are long and deep."
John (ooc): No. Go not to Lethe. Nor twist Wolfsbane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine. Nor suffer thy pale
forehead to be kissed by nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine.
Ed (ooc): We've gone from an RPG to a poetry reading, now?
John (shrugging): Just trying to guess the nature of the plot hook.
Sam: She's just the tip of the iceberg.
John (ooc): Yes, we know. When does our ship leave for Anarctica?
Bill: "Where is your beloved now?"
Sam: "He works at a carnival not far from here. He is a stage magician."
John (ooc): Hmm... Diabolist, Tremere, or Nephandi. You be the judge...
Nate (ooc): Rule Zero, John.
Bill: "An intriguing profession. I am the heir to a minor estate in the Highlands. It gets very cold in the Highlands,
Christabel. In the winter, sleeping alone is considered a form of suicide. You wouldn't want me to kill myself, would you?"
Nate: "Draw, come back to the table. You haven't finished eating your breakfast."
Bill: "Would you care to join us, miss?"
Sam: She shrugs and sits at your table.
Bill: She shrugs? I have an Appearance of 4 and a Charisma of 3, and she shrugs?
Sam: You also have bloodshot eyes, stubble, frazzled hair, morning breath, and the stench of alcohol on your clothes.
Bill: This is true...
Sam: Christabel spends the entire meal gushing about William the way lovers tend to do and how she can't wait to see him
perform tonight.
John: At some point, she has to take a breath. When she does, Homer interrupts her. "I was in love with a beautiful woman
named Mel. By day, she was my devoted lover. By night, she killed people the Reaper marked for death. She died before reaching
her quota. Only when she completes her assigned tasks will her ghost be at peace. I help her. She tells me who is marked
for death, and I kill them. When I have set her soul free, I will take my own life. I cannot imagine a life without my Mel."
Ed: As soon as Homer stops talking for a moment, Allan speaks. "I loved a woman once, too. She was transformed into a vampire
and I was forced to kill her with my own hands."
Sam: Walter, would you care to add to the cabal angst pool?
Nate: "I took a vow of chastity."
John (ooc): That's a start. We can find a way to milk some angst out of that.
Nate (ooc): Better never to have loved at all than to love and be used as a plot whore.
Bill: I urge Christabel to continue with her own story. I prefer to keep my own love life quiet.
John (ooc): Yes, before he can give the history of his past loves, he has to study his black book as though revising for
an exam.
Bill (ooc): Black book? Who keeps a black book? Both of us are usually drunk. The next morning, we're still strangers.
If we see each other at another party, we won't even recognize one another.
Sam: After Christabel finally gets all the passion off her chest, she wishes all of you farewell and heads out of the
hospital. "You should come watch the show. William is a simply amazing magician."
John grabs his lip in thumb and forefinger.
Sam: What? I wouldn't want you to get lost, now would I? Everyone have an excuse to jump on the plot wagon, now?
John: Yep. Got to protect the pretty lady from impending death.
Ed: And Allan is curious about those bite marks.
Bill: Draw is probably thinking there should be women and alcohol there.
Nate: And Walter isn't going to let three patients leave the hospital without supervision.
Sam: Great. Then we'll move forward in time to tonight.
Everyone: Hold on. I had something I wanted to do during the day.
Sam (sighing): Alright, but let's not make an entire session of it.
ST (Sam) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Draw (Bill) - William Blake
Homer (John) - John Keats
Walter (Nate) - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Allan (Ed) - Edgar Allan Poe