Monsterhearts: Devil Falls, AK Episode 3

In the third episode only three players were present: Max the hollow, Annalee the witch and Baron the infernal. A week has passed since the party and the disappearance of Chloe. The episode opens at the funeral of Erica. Annalee refuses to attend, therefore she isn't present. Max more or less watches impassively. Baron tries to throw some of the merrow ash into the grave, but is prevented from doing so by grandma April. The old witch wants to talk with Baron and grabs his ear. That's when he pushes her into the open grave. Max jumps down to help the elderly woman to get out. But apparently, she has broken her leg. The football team helps to get her out. Baron wants to runs off, but is stopped by Ms Chamberlain the homeroom teacher. She gives him detention for the rest of the week. Baron huffs off. Max follows him.

Meanwhile, Annalee has taken refuge in a quiet corner of the library. She gazes inward reaching for visions. She sees how Carol prays to Kal'Thoragh to set her free. The demon lord complies with her wishes and opens her cell door and loosens her straight-jacket. She attacks the nearest orderly and kills him by chewing through his neck with her bare teeth. Annalee feels that Carol is coming for her and Max. Frightened, she runs from the library into the arms of Spencer the groundskeeper. He corners her and she eventually faints. He carries her off into the gym.

During a short break, Max wonders where Annalee is. He asks around until he meets Misty, Iris and Amanda. They tell him that they haven't seen her at all. Baron hovers around the edge of the conversation, while Misty tentatively tries to flirt with Max telling him that she's sorry for what they did. But she also reminds him that without the witches he'd literally be nothing at all.

While Max is talking with the witches, Baron talks to his best friend Veronica. Then he suddenly has an insight where Annalee is. He sprints to the gym followed by the coven, Max and Veronica. Just in time they stop Spencer from doing something unmentionable to Annalee and wake her. Annalee runs out into the rain, while the three remaining witches turn on Spencer who is fleeing. Baron runs after Annalee, and Max goes after the witches.

The witches are standing at the edge of the hockey field, chanting. Spencer is climbing a ladder into the lighting rigging. Max suspects the obvious: the witches want Spencer to kill himself by jumping down to the hockey field. He starts to talk the witches out of their course of action. They don't really listen. In the end, Max grabs Misty to carry her away. Misty slams a pair of scissors into his back. Max is injured, but the circle is broken and Spencer survives.

Out on her way to the greenhouse, Annalee meets the merrow. The one that Chloe turned into. Baron stops in his tracks as well and flees into the greenhouse. He slams the door shut and cowers on the ground. Annalee is lunging with her knife at the throat of the merrow. Baron gazes into the abyss. Something unexpected happens. He sees a vision of how he can save himself from Kal'Thoragh by saving Annalee and trying to get away from his demonlord. He hears the words "God loves you." He gathers his courage and leaves the greenhouse to confront the merrow.

Annalee manages to wound the merrow, but it lashes out at her. Enough is enough. Annalee changes. Her hair becomes darker, her fingernails grow, she becomes her darkest self and casts an illusion. Suddenly, to Baron and the merrow she appears as an incarnation of Kal'Thoragh the Butcher. The merrow retreats in panic. Baron kneels down and sees that his demonlord reaches for him with his flaming sword. Annalee cuts of a lock of hair from a terrified Baron. The boy flees to the front of the school to get away from her.

Max, Baron and finally Annalee go to their sixth hour class: English Literature with Coach Delgado. Since Max and Baron arrive much too late, he gives them detention. Annalee arrives last, almost five minutes before the end of class. Delgado talks to her, giving her the choice between detention and joining the school newspaper. She opts for the latter. Then she tries to turn him on. He turns her down. She is hurt and turns all the books in class into bugs. Everyone freaks out. Except Baron and Max. Baron crushes the big bug in front of him and pulls its intestines out. Max watches calmly and suspecting something to be very wrong with Annalee. Annalee flirts openly with Gary who tries to protect his screaming girlfriend Faye. Delgado suffers a nervous breakdown. Class is over and Annalee persuades Gary to join her in the cellar for some hot kissing.

Annalee drags Gary down into the boiler room where they start making out. Kissing turns into much more. Afterwards, Gary gladly gives Annalee the friendship jewelry he shared with Faye. Annalee is happy, but not finished. As the two leave the cellar, they stumble upon a corpse. Another cheerleader has been killed. They inform Principal O'Rourke. But when they return with her, the corpse is gone.

After school's out, Max and Baron return from seeing the school nurse James who treated their wounds. They join Coach Delgado and the hockey team at the ice stadium. Zack is there, Baron's friend from the WoW guild, Veronica and Annalee. All three want to watch the hockey practice with Baron. Zack uses his iPad to tape the whole thing. Veronica doesn't like Annalee being there. She's afraid that the witch is after Baron who she's secretly in love with.

The hockey game between Team Max and Team Baron is surprisingly evenly matched. A whole lot of calling on dark powers is going on until Kal'Thoragh grants victory to Team Baron. Coach Delgado looks pleased that Baron is finally becoming a team player and offers him a place on the ice hockey team. Baron - to everyone's surprise - accepts.

Annalee is cheering Baron, and Veronica has had enough. She pushes Annalee into the row in front of her. But Annalee isn't intimidated. She causes all the hockey sticks to turn into snakes. Coach Delgado suffers another nervous breakdown. Zack runs out, leaving his iPad behind. Annalee snatches the iPad. Veronica also is visibly shaken. Delgado leaves to see the nurse and leaves Baron in charge. Baron simply ends the practice session by saying: "It's over."

TO BE CONTINUED

Notes:

• Annalee is still in her darkest self. Currently, I am not sure who she harmed the most: Carol or Faye. I told her Carol. She said "Oh, that's easy. I just drive to Fairbanks, go and see her, and then apologize." If things would be that easy, we wouldn't play to find out...
• The characters had another vision (not mentioned above) and know that Kal'Thoragh needs five dead girls before he can start to manifest.

Monsterhearts: Devil Falls, AK Episode 2

This was session I preped with a threat, a custom move and a love letter. Annalee the Witch, Max the Hollow, Cassidy the Werewolf and Baron the Infernal were joined by a new student, Gabriel the Angel. Gabriel knew that god loved Baron more than him, and Cassidy reminds him of heaven.

We cut back to the early afternoon and see that Baron drugs the beer with the green pills obtained from Paul. Just as Kal'Thorag the Butcher had commanded him to do. Then he goes back to the school and puts what is left of the pills into Boyd's locker. Boyd is the arrogant goaltender of the hockey team, and Coach Delgado's son. Baron doesn't like him in the least - though it is a mystery why.

Cassidy, Max and Gabriel arrive at the party early that evening. Cassidy and Gabriel both drink the drugged beer. Max doesn't, because he knows what is in there. Baron tricks Faye, the chaste and pure class president into drinking some of the beer too. Gary, her boyfriend keeps asking for Annalee who hasn't come to the party yet. The two fight a little and Faye stumps away frustrated. Just in that moment, Cassidy picks up screaming from beyond the hill leading back to town. Cassidy recognizes the scream as Annalee's. She runs off, followed closely by Gabriel and Baron.

When they reach a frightened Annalee, they see that she's attacked by a a hideous monster with green scales, black lanky hair and iron claws - the merrow that killed and almost ate Erica. They save Annalee from the monster and attack it. Baron and Gabriel hurl rocks and a golden glowing mug (Gabriel manifesting some of his powers). Cassidy changes into her wolf shape behind their backs and attacks the merrow viciously. The three of them bring the merrow down, while Annalee flees to the (questionable) safety of the party. There she meets Max and her friends Carol, Amanda, Misty and Iris. The five girls form a secret witches' coven. Carol, Amanda, Misty and Iris keep eyeing Max.

Meanwhile, Baron, Cassidy and Gabriel kill the merrow. Cassidy, still in wolf shape runs into the woods, and Gabriel follows her. Baron sits down besides the corpse of the merrow to gaze into the abyss listening for the commands of his master, Kal'Thorag. His demonic master answers and lets the body of the merrow burn into fine green dust. He commands Baron to take the dust and use it to turn someone into a merrow. Baron happily agrees.

Gabriel confronts the wolf and calls her on being Cassidy. Cassidy turns back into her human shape, and Gabriel lends her his jacket. Just then they are interrupted by Melissa, the head cheerleader, and her boyfriend Todd, the captain of the hockey team. They immediately suspect Cassidy and Gabriel as having had sex in the woods. Melissa giggles and makes fun of them. Then she and Todd run off to tell the others.

Finally, everyone is back at the party, happily drinking. Baron gets close to Chloe who had been pregnant with Kal'Thorag's child last summer, but choose to have an abortion. He puts some of the dust on her. She immediately begins to transform. Everyone is shocked, but nobody had noticed Baron doing the deed. As Chloe transforms slowly, hardly anyone notices. Annalee runs to her coven un order to do some magic. She wants the other students to flee. Together with her coven she enacts a big illusion of  approaching police sirens. Panic breaks out, everyone runs away. Gabriel and Cassidy drive off the merrow, before also fleeing. But now both are injured.

Carol collapses after doing the spell. Carol had been the designated driver and everyone else except Max has had something to drink. Max agrees to take Annalee and her friends home in Carol's pickup. On their way back to town, the car collides with a big black shape. Annalee blacks out. When she comes around again, she is alone in the car. Max and the witches are gone.

Cassidy and Gabriel end their flight at the football field behind the school. They start treating their wounds and eventually start kissing. Kisses turn into touches, touches turn into cast-off clothing. In the end, Melissa would be correct with her assumption.

In the meantime, Annalee walks home and tries to find out where Max is. She locks herself into her room and sacrifices Max' diary that she stole in order to cast a spell. She falls into a deep trance and enters Max' body. When Max opens his eyes, he is bound inside a cave, naked and in a ceremonial circle. Amanda, Misty and Iris are also there. Unbound, admiring their captive. As Amanda crawls all over him, Max gazes into the abyss. There he receives strange visions. He sees four girls (Amanda, Carol, Misty and Iris) forming a homunculous out of clay, praying and pouring life energy into the clay. Carol is not with the others. Instead, in the vision, in a small corner of the cave, she sacrifices to Kal'Thoragh. As she sheds her blood, the demon lord animates the clay creature who turns into Max. The hollow is tainted by the dark energies of Kal'Thoragh. Annalee's contact with Max gives him fleeting access to her spell powers. He confronts Amanda and casts a withering aging spell on her. As Amanda flees in horror, Misty and Iris etch a bit closer and Max, still bound, get's them to spill the story. They wanted their very own boytoy. That's why they created him. Annalee withdraws. Max convinces Iris and Misty to cut him loose. Then the two witches flee, leaving the still unconscious Carol behind.

Annalee has a good idea where the cave is located, even though she hasn't been there yet. She takes daddy's car and drives to the Devil Falls at the end of Crescent Lake. On her way there she tries to figure out how to help Max. She doesn't like where her thoughts are leading her. She suspects that Max was created as vessel for Kal'Thoragh. She wonders how to break the bond between demon lord and vessel, then she understands clearly that she has to kill Carol.

Max meets her halfway around Crescent Lake, but Annalee insists on going to the cave. There she plans to murder Carol, but in the end cannot bring herself to murder the unconscious girl in cold blood. Instead, Annalee and Max take her to grandma April. Annalee spills the story about Carol's involvement to her grandma late at night. The elderly witch binds Carol and the next day, she is taken to a mental hospital in Fairbanks.

Next morning in class, Ms Chamberlain the homeroom teacher announces that a new student will join the class. His name is Gabriel and he just moved to Devil Falls.

TO BE CONTINUED

Notes:
- Mostly went well. I should have let Annalee roll "Manipulate an NPC" to get her grandmother to help. But that roll didn't matter in the end.

Monsterhearts: Session Prep

Tomorrow, the second episode of Devil Falls, AK will be played. I've decided that I need some session prep. Not much, but three things need to be addressed:

• Annalee the Witch was cheated out of her gaze into the abyss at her grandmother's house.
• Player characters might encounter the Merrow of Lake Crescent.
• Baron the Infernal will drug the beer supply at the party. What happens if a player character drinks some beer?

I've decided to address Annalee's gaze into the abyss with a custom move, because she was looking for some very specific information. Also, I am going to introduce that custom move as a love letter. The Merrow will be statted as a threat. It is not, as of itself a menace, but rather a threat attached to a menace. I think the real menace is something else. Drinking beer at the party will be a custom move also. It will be rolled with +dark.

Love Letter to Annalee

Dear Annalee,

since I completely misjudged the scene at your grandmother's house with your aunts being all mean to you and you hitting the books looking for answers to your previous visions, you are entitled to roll +dark after the stats are highlighted. Don't forget to add the +1 carry forward from your previous vision. On 10+,  you can choose choose two: 

• You will learn that Cassidy can take the shape of a wolf
• You carry +1 forward toward asking Cassidy for help against the merrow
• You are cured of one condition.

On a 7-9 choose one:

• You will learn that Cassidy can take the shape of a wolf and you gain the condition "drained".
• You learned a confusing jumble of half-truths and maybe even suspect Cassidy to be the merrow.

On a 6- you take the condition "unloved" because you listened too much to your mean aunts.

Love & kisses

Your MC

The Merrow

The merrow constitutes a threat. It craves intimacy (isolate them), it offers power (shower them with outlandish gifts) and it has the capacity for sudden violence (outright kill someone they love). The merrow is a tough opponent and will require 8 harm before being killed.

• Is there only one merrow?
• Who awakened the merrow?
• Who is using the merrow?
• Who will be offered power by the merrow?

Drinking the Drugged Beer

When you drink from the beer that has been poisoned with drugs by Baron, roll +dark. On a 10+ choose three. On a 7-9, you can choose two.

• Baron doesn't gain a string on you.
• The next morning, you do not gain the condition "headache".
• You don't carry +1 forward when lashing out physically at the party.
• You do not end up making out publicly with another student from your homeroom.

Monsterhearts: Cardiff, Wales Episode 2

We continued our Google Hangout game set in Cardiff, Wales. The player of our witch Merill couldn't join us. So it was up to Lucien the Serpentine, Morrigan the Ghoul and Mattieu the Selkie to continue wreaking emotional havoc.

At the end of the last episode, Marcel the transgender teen was kissing Morrigan. Both were rather surprised by this event. Thomas saw that and looked confused between at Lucien and Mattieu. Lucien used that opportunity to smile back and obviously trying to turn Thomas on. Mattieu became jealous almost instantly and jumped over two tables to slug Lucien. Lucien's nose started bleeding and he faked unconsciousness. John the quarterback, who was standing next to Lucien, looked menacingly at Mattieu and cracked his knuckles. Mattieu told Thomas that he needn't follow someone like Lucien around - ignoring John completely. But Thomas reacted shocked and more or less told Mattieu to tell Lucien that he was sorry, because Thomas didn't want to associate with bullies. Mattieu reluctantly woke Lucien up and told him that he was sorry.

Morrigan came over and joined the boys, asking Mattieu: "And you want to become class president?" Mattieu just replied: "Actually, no. I only ran for the office, because someone told me it would be fun." Thus more or less taking himself out of the race. Then he left with Thomas.

After school Morrigan observed Felix handing over money to an older boy. In exchange, he got some knockout pills. Morrigan remembered that Felix had been infatuated with another girl, before taking interest in Merall. Back then, Felix had resorted to stalking. Morrigan figured out that Felix probably uses the knockout pills to get the girl he "wants" at the moment. She confronts him about it. Felix knocks her backwards into a lanternpost, causing a serious laceration. Morrigan, being the Ghoul that she is, shruggs the wound off and intimidates Felix by implying that the pills are the only way for him to get a girl. He leaves in a huff and gets on the bus.

Lucien comes home to the family mansion and is greated by his father. His father asks him sternly if he succeeded in becoming class president. Lucien tells him meekly that the voting has been postponed until the next day. Then he asks his father for help. Reluctantly, his father tells him about secret drugs hidden in grandfather's cupboard. He tells Lucien not to take too much, since grandpa isn't around anymore to make new ones. Supposedly mixed with alcohol, the drugs make a person very prone to accepting suggestions. Lucien also gets the car to buy some alcohol. He doesn't notice that he is not alone in the car. His little sister Cassandra has snuck into the backseat.

At school, Mattieu serves detention. Mr Gilles ordered him to clean all the desks in the classroom. Then he leaves him alone. Thomas joins him. Apparently standing back a bit insecurely. Mattieu exchanges a few words about texting with him. Thomas finds it hilarious that Mattieu "pretends" not to know about mobile phones and texting. Mattieu steps up to Thomas and then grabs him by the shoulders. Thomas apparently knows what he is doing and embraces Mattieu. Suddenly, he confidently kisses Mattieu. Mattieu shrugs out of his jeans and t-shirt, Thomas practically  tears of his own clothes and they explore each other. Mattieu submerges himself in the sensation, sees the visions the water brings him and realizes that he isn't the first Selkie to seduce (or be seduced?) by Thomas. The ocean shows him visions of Thomas making out with Mattieu's halfbrother Louie. The realization crashes down on Mattieu like waves and he looses himself in Thomas' arms.

Later in the evening Amanda and Mattieu prepare the beach party. The create a small, illegal fire, gather some driftwood around the fire, near a ruined boathouse. Mattieu asks Amanda, if she has a mobile phone and John's number. Of course she has. Mattieu borrows the phone and texts John as Amanda that she would like to make out with him at the party. Amanda reads the text, just smiles and shrugs, apparently not minding. Mattieu has thus fulfilled his bargain with John who is responsible for getting the beer.

Lucien arrives at the party, and his sister Cassandra darts out of the car. She wears make-up, entirely too provacative clothes for a fourteen year old and wants to party with Lucien and his friends. Felix, Lydia and her boyfriend The Matt! approach. The Matt! finds it entirely uncool that Lucien brrought along his little sister. Lucien's popularity takes a big hit. Lucien takes out the vodka laced with grandpa's drugs and after some cajoling gets his sister to drink some. Then he tells her to go home. Alone. Slightly tipsy. Way to go with responsibility.

Then he joins the other students at the fire. He gets Felix to drink some of the vodka and asks him for help. Felix agrees to help in return for getting Cassandra's number from Lucien. Lucien doesn't hand out the number right away, but Felix will help nevertheless.

Morrigan arrives together with Marcel, Thomas and some friends. They walk over to Amanda and Mattieu. Thomas and Mattieu are both grinning at each other openly. To Morrigan it is pretty clear what happened and she tells them. Mattieu tells her that they did it at her desk, trying to gross her out. Morrigan just turns to the fire.

Lydia approaches and takes the opportunity to talk with Morrigan about the class presidency telling her that The Matt! and she are still uncertain who to vote for. If Morrigan is interested in winning their vote, Lydia suggests for her to join her and The Matt! at the boathouse later. Then she turns around and walks off. Morrigan gazes at her back and stares into the darkness beyond the fire, the world forming a tunnel leading to Lydia... and the her hunger awakens. Morrigan finds herself consumed by her hunger for fear and hungrily eyes Ed the nerd who used to be her best friend and the scumbag Felix.

Lucien gazes into the fire and let's his thoughts wander. Before his mind pictures of Lydia and the Matt! rise. They are passionately kissing inside the boathouse and start love-making. Then Lucien sees himself stepping out of the darkness and joining them.

Mattieu only has eyes for Thomas. He observes him sitting at the fire. He remembers how he felt in his arms and smells the salty ocean loosing himself in the moment. Suddenly he realizes that Thomas wants to break out from his live and feel the excitement of the world. Louie probably promised him to show Thomas another exciting world. For Mattieu it becomes clear what he has to do. He has to show Thomas who he really his. Then Thomas' heart will be his.

Meanwhile, Morrigan decides to go after Felix first. She approaches him, casting first a menacing shadow over John's back who is shielding Felix from her. Then she walks around Felix, approaches him from behind, whispers in his ears what she knows about him. What he does to the girls. Felix is already intimidate and caves in. He sinks to his knees while Morrigan sniffs the fear that he exudes. John tries to chase her off, but she ignores him. Then she takes Felix' face almost lovingly in her hands and draws nearer and literally tasting his cold sweat, running her tongue over his face.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Notes: I found the last scene really creepy, even though I suggested elements of it. The development between Mattieu and Thomas was unexpectedly quick. Finding out about his halfbrother irritates Mattieu. All in all, our MC handled the classroom scene very well.

Monsterhearts: Devil Falls, AK Episode 1

Because I still don't have a viable and agreeable setting for FATE Core, we decided jointly to finally give Monsterhearts a shot with my regular gaming group. Maybe playing Monsterhearts a week ago also had something to do with it.

Our game is set in the fictional town of Devil Falls, Alaska. It is located inland at the also completely fictional Lake Crescent. The eponymous waterfall flows into the lake at the northeastern end. The town is located to the south of the lake on a plain. At the western end of the lake lies the Hotel Crescent, a spa and wellness hotel. A small airport lies on the westside of town. Devil Falls High School is located in the northeastern corner of the city containing a hockey arena, a football field and a greenhouse.

Our cast so far consists of:

• Annalee, a gifted witch
• Baron, an infernal lackey of Kal'Thorag the Butcher
• Cassidy, a werewolf born as a wolf and the only girl on the hockey team
• Max, a homunculus hollow and another member of the hockey team

We meet them for the first time as their Tuesday homeroom class is about to start. Their elderly but strict teacher is Ms Chamberlain. On their way to class, Cassidy runs up to Mary-Jane, the star pupil, and asks her, if she could copy her homework. Mary-Jane agrees, but only if Cassidy gets back the lunch money that Veronica bullied from her the day before. Cassidy agrees and waits outside of class for Veronica. Veronica is quite a piece of work. She and Baron got expelled from their last school for suspected arson.

While Cassidy waits for Veronica, Paul tries to sell green pills to Annalee and Max. Max has latched on to Annalee quite firmly and takes his social clues from her to the point of twinning (at least that's how Cassidy sees it). Max just takes the drugs from Paul and then shuts him down. Annalee is a bit conflicted about the drug business and hasn't made up her mind yet how to feel about the pills.

When Baron and Veronica arrive, Cassidy tries to slug Veronica with a puck as she doesn't want to give the lunch money back. Veronica sidesteps Cassidy and slams her head into the railing on the gangway to the classroom. Cassidy is hurt. Baron tries to drag Veronica with him to the classroom, because they are already late. Cassidy observes the two and suddenly realizes that quiet, pyromanic, violent Veronica is very much into bad kid Baron. As Ms Chamberlain approaches and gives afterschool detention to all three, Cassidy tells Veronica that she will make sure Baron and Veronica get some time alone during detention, if Veronica hands back the lunch money.

In class, Ms Chamberlain announces that Erica, a popular girl and last year's homecoming queen, has been found dead near Lake Crescent. Apparently her body was mauled by a wild animal - probably a wolf. During the third hour a short memorial will be held in the auditorium. Baron uses this as an opportunity to mouth off to the teacher and even threatening her. After class, Ms Chamberlain walks Baron to the principal. There he threatens Principal Kate O'Rourke. She decides that she's had enough and calls the police to have Baron arrested as a potential homicidal maniac.

During the memorial for Erica, Cassidy tries to turn the planned party down at the lake into a memorial party instead of the year's welcoming party. Zack, a friend of Baron's, hears that, climbs on a chair and announces that Cassidy is inviting the whole school to a party at Lake Crescent. Max is furious at this display of inappropriate behavior and tackles Zack. Zack goes down and Principal O'Rourke notices the commotion. She orders detention for Cassidy, Max and Annalee (who is more or less innocent in all this). Cassidy tells her that she already has detention today and get O'Rourke to postpone the detention to Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at the police station, Baron has been placed in a cell. There he tries to gaze into the abyss and fails miserably. Instead, Kal'Thorag the Butcher appears to him and asks him to poison the beer keg at the party in the evening with the drug that comes as green pills. Baron agrees and Kal'thorag opens the cell door. Baron walks out of the police station without being noticed.

Back at school, lunch break has started. Max and Cassidy sit at the hockey team/cheerleader table, where Melissa announces that she will become homecoming queen this year as Erica is unable to compete. Max shuts her down in disgust. Annalee is also at the table flirting with Boyd, the arrogant goaltender that she secretly detests. Suddenly he kisses her squarely on the mouth (gives her want he thinks she wants). Breaking out in tears, she runs away.

Baron has arrived at school again and seeks out Paul in a dark corner to get the green pills from him. Paul spills that he hasn't them anymore, because Max took them from him. In the end, he tells Baron that he can have the pills, if he can take them from Max.

Baron arrives in the cafeteria just as Max hits Boyd for kissing Annalee. Then Max runs off to find her. Baron follows him. While searching Annalee, Baron tries to get the pills from Max. Max ends up hitting Baron on their way to greenhouse where they suspect Annalee is hiding.

Amidst all this commotion, Cassidy feels rather lonely and stares into her coke. There she gains a crystal clear vision while being exhausted from the events. She sees a large, reptilian shadow following Erica while she is jogging around the lake. As the shadowy monster suddenly attacks the blonde runner, a wolf hurls itself at the monster, preventing it from devouring Erica. The monster throws the wolf into the trees and slithers back into the lake. Cassidy realizes that she was the wolf and that she cannot remember any of this.

In the greenhouse, Annalee has her secret and sacred space. She gazes into the abyss and the abyss answers her. She also gets the vision that Cassidy gets and realizes that she needs the help of the wolf in order to fight the green-scaled monsters with the lanky black hair and the claws of iron. She calls her grandmother April, the only other witch in her family and asks for advice. Her granny asks her over for tea after school.

As she leaves the greenhouse, she runs into Baron and Max. Rather distraught she realizes that Baron is trying to get the drugs from Max. She urges Max to destroy the pills rather than give them to Baron. But Max refuses. When she tries to hit him as frustrated as she is, she stumbles and he catches her. Looking down, Annalee realizes in horror that she's stumbled in a large three toed footprint that resembles the claws of the green-scaled monster. Now completely sick, she asks Max to take her to the school nurse James.

Sixth hour has started. Annalee, Baron, Cassidy and Max are supposed to attend the English Literature class. But only Cassidy is in attendance as Coach Delgado starts the class. Mary-Jane is also there, remarking on the looks of Coach Delgado who is wearing a muscle shirt as usual. Cassidy is more interested in the actual lesson about an obscure poem attributed to William Blake that describes a hideous monster with green scales, black lanky hair and iron claws. Blake calls that monster a "merrow". Cassidy has a déja-vu. Max finally arrives, carrying a tardy slip for himself and Annalee. James has excused her from attending English Literature.

After school, Veronica and Cassidy start detention absent Baron who is meeting with Max. Max is attending hockey practice and meets with Baron. Baron finally gets his desperately needed drugs. Now he can set the diabolic plans of his infernal master into motion. Annalee visits her grandmother April and her aunts Mae and June. She drinks tea with them and is treated to a delicious cheesecake, but unfortunately not to any answers.

Later, Annalee makes her way to the party at the shores of Lake Crescent. Suddenly, she hears twigs and branches cracking behind her. She turns around, her eyes widen and she screams in fear. Unfortunately, the music from the party drowns out her scream...

TO BE CONTINUED

Notes:

• Doing the homeroom seating chart was fun. I haven't even used a quarter of the awesome the players put in there.
• The NPC sheet sucks for me. I need lines on that sheet.
• Sketching Devil Falls on the community sheet was also not as rewarding as I thought. Going to redo that in MS Office Word.
• The player most critical of the whole Monsterhearts told me afterwards it was fun and he'd like to play again.
• I did a major goof-up with the scene at granny's house. I would have liked to dump some info regarding the werewolf on Annalee, but didn't realize how to do this. After having read this article on using gaze into the abyss as info dump/hitting the books, things have become much clearer. I should have let Annalee gaze into the abyss again (this time with the +1 forward for acting on the previous gaze into the abyss), this time with help from her grandmother. I am probably going to replay the scene at granny's home at the start of the next session with Annalee and have her roll +dark to find out about who the wolf in the vision is. After that we'll find out about Annalee's fate.
• The story is coming nicely together. Baron will poison the beer keg (and mark XP for that). Annalee needs to find Cassidy. Cassidy knows what they are facing but has no idea what to do about the merrow. Max has become a willing accomplice in drugging an entire party.

Monsterhearts: Cardiff, Wales, Episode 1

Yesterday, we played Monsterhearts via Google Hangout. We had four characters: Merrill the Witch, Morrigan the Ghoul, Lucian the Serpentine, Mattieu the Selkie. For the player of Lucian it was the very first role-playing game ever (cherish that memory, no game is like the first game).

The strings were distributed among the non-player characters and player characters. The ones between the characters were:

• Lucian watched Morrigan come back to live.
• Mattieu watched Merrill rummaging through Graham's stuff and kept quiet about it.
• Mattieu had seen Lucian swimming.
• Mattieu knew that Morrigan had taken his pelt and stuffed into her locker.

We took most of our time designing the class room together. Our GM had prepared great questions to get us thinking about the home room and the other students. We decided to set our game in Cardiff, School had started two weeks ago and already two girls (Carmen and Erica) from the class had gone missing. Our home room was Geography class taught by Mr Gilles.

Merrill was heading for class with Lucian who was followed by Thomas carrying Lucian's bag. On their way, they witnessed a confrontation between Merill and Felix. Felix had a thing going for Meral, a devout moslem girl from Pakistan. But it wasn't exactly romantic, rather a bit creepy and he was leaning in on her. Merill  decided to step in and teach him a lesson, when she saw him. First she kept steady as Felix told her to go away and bashed her into the locker, then she tried to fight back, but was stopped by Mr Gilles. He thought she was the guilty party and ordered after school detention. She challenged him and implied that he was tolerating girls being victimized. The other students saw her as being pretty furious and Mr Gilles was a bit uncertain that he had done the right thing.

Meanwhile, Lucian was getting a call from his father Mandrake. He practically ordered his son to run for class presidency.

Morrigan had already arrived in the class room and her former BFF Ed tried to talk her into another game of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. She shut him down immediately and he looked quite afraid of her - not knowing why.

In the corridor, Mattieu was also heading for class together with Amanda, a friendly face who had helped the Selkie find his way around school. They talked about throwing a party at the beach in the evening and Mattieu noticed Thomas standing behind Lucian. He pointedly addressed him first and invited him to come to the party, telling him he could "bring Lucian too" - visibly snobbing the Serpentine to turn on Thomas who everyone was suspecting of being gay. Thomas looked pleased (and Mattieu got a string on him).

Meral was now completely exasperated, stormed into the class room and cursed loudly about men while sitting down. Morrigan, who was sitting behind her, leaned forward and tried to find out what was going on. She noticed that Meral was in reality afraid of Felix.

Merrill came in and sat down at her desk next to Meral. She asked Morrigan, if she wanted to go to the party. Morrigan said yes. Then Ed asked Morrigan, if he could go to, and she shut him down again.

Then Mattieu and Amanda entered. Mattieu jumped barefooted on a table and told the whole class that they were invited to a beach party in the evening. Mr Giles didn't approve of him standing on the table though, and ordered detention as well. He was to help Merrill cleaning tables. Mattieu went to his desk and set down sullenly.

Mr Gilles started class. At first there was the business of electing a class president. Graham, the straight-A student, volunteered (as each year since 5th grade). But this time he was challenged. Mattieu had asked Amanda about class presidency which described in most boring terms, only to suggest to Mattieu that he should run as a candidate. Mattieu, being the clueless Selkie that he is, volunteers for the office. Lucian tries to get Thomas to nominate him, but Thomas just gives Mattieu a quick glance and does nothing. Meanwhile Morrigan denigrates the office, prompting Mattieu to nominate her. Meral nominates her then as well. Lucian is forced to volunteer himself for the office. Mr Gilles postpones the election to give everyone a chance to evaluate the candidates. Mattieu mentions that he's going to throw a party. Mr Gilles asks him, if he seriously expects to get votes that way.

Then a rather tedious and boring geography lesson starts. During the short break a lot of things happened. Lydia, the mayor's daughter, and her boyfriend Matt, the coolest kid in school, approach Lucian to offer their votes, if Lucian does them a favor. He doesn't really comply with that, leaving two votes up in the air.

Mattieu tries to talk John, a big and not very bright football player, into getting him some beer for the party. He succeeds, but John asks him to lay in a good word for him with Amanda. The Selkie doesn't really know what texting is, but promises to see what he can do. Actually, he recommends that John should Amanda and him on the beach next morning for surfing. But John doesn't care about the morning, he wants tonight. Whatever Mattieu needs to promise to get the beer.

Merrill urges Graham to fight for the class presidency. But Graham suddenly throws a fit and a note pad, shouting that he had enough of this. He doesn't want to run. The note pad is thrown with a such force that it hits Marcel's coffee cup and spills coffee over him. Marcel suddenly breaks down crying. It is all a bit too much for him. Well, up to the summer holidays, Marcel used to be Marcy. Now he calls himself Marcel and wears boy's clothes.

Morrigan senses fear in the boy and goes over to him. Mattieu is watching her intently. Morrigan just shouts: "It's only some stupid office. Stop making such a fuss about this!" (unfortunately Morrigan can't call people on their shit, because she doesn't have that adult move). Then she kneels down beside Marcel and tries to calm him down by offering her affection. She is as surprised as the rest of the class when Marcel kisses her.

Notes: This was planned as a one-shot, but we barely got started exploring the setting we had created. Creation was a lot of fun and I for one would love to see the story unfold further. Oh, in case you are wondering: I was playing Mattieu the Selkie.

Note the Second: If you are waiting for the second part of Club Babylon, I am sorry to keep you waiting. But Club Babylon is hitting pretty close to home and I find it very difficult to write and do the setting justice. Character Creation needs a serious rewrite before publication on the blog. But it will come, probably on the weekend.