Elena and Cody independently get a call from Elena’s brother Salvador about a curious situation that’s developed with one of his clients… officially a child abduction (sadly common in the chaos following the events of last Halloween… Harry Dresden’s destruction of the Red Court).
After gathering a bit more information, the clients are a couple of young Japanese immigrants pursuing the “American Dream” of owning their own honest to goodness ranch in Texas … but apparently a “creature” has kidnapped their boy.
Due to the potential language barrier, Elena gives their resident Japanese language expert a buzz, Erica, and drive down to Cleburn to gather more information. Cody was already there, having gotten the call from Salvador directly.
After some questions and answers… a couple of things become clear. This unsuspecting Japanese couple has been duped by the Fae and are living a nightmare version of the Rumpelstiltskin Fairy Story… courtesy of members the Court of The Erlking’s Daughter… goblins.
Apparently the couple, when they had arrived in Texas, were having tremendous difficulty making the ranch turn a profit of any kind. “Help” arrived in the form of a twisted creature that agreed to allow their crop of Coastal Hay to turn a tidy profit at market in exchange for jewelry. It was agreed. Again a rough growing season and again another crop of coastal hay was turned into a fortune in exchange for additional trinkets and baubles. Everything seemed fine for a time, there was enough money to turn the ranch around – buy machinery, equipment, livestock, everything was good. A third time ranch fell on hard times and a third time the creature appeared, this time it requested the first offspring of whatever was on the ranch. The couple had several pregnant sows and cows and readily agreed. The third crop of coastal hay was sold during a drought for a tremendous profit to nearby ranchers… and then every pregnant animal on the ranch died except for one. The mother was pregnant and gave birth to a son. The creature appeared and claimed it as his own. After the protests of the family, it agreed to give them three days to guess its name… and no, “Rumpelstiltskin” was not it.
There were 2 days left; the group put in a call for Jaime and Conor.
Once everyone is back together, Jaime puts together a divination spell to track down the missing child and … surprisingly … is blocked. Powerful opposing magics seem to be in play. As the non-magical members of group are researching an online version of Grimm’s Fairy tales and getting a bead on where to continue their search for the goblins… they hear a pounding at the door of the ranch house.
“Little pigs, little pigs, let us in!” – the snarling and growling is heard outside, and as they look beyond the windows they see a scene right out of The Lord of the Rings movies… goblins in armor, riding “wargs.” The heroes are given mere moments to come out and face the goblin warband or they threaten to fire the house and all who are inside.
After stepping out “introductions” in the classic warrior fashion are made, harsh words exchanged. Gutrip of the Hundred Battles is the warchief that faces them, and his “Devil Dogs.” Battle commences with a snarl and shout. What follows is a brutal, nasty, bloody affair full of magical spells, slashing blades, fangs, bullets, sweat and pain.
When it’s over… everyone is reeling with wounds and exhaustion, but Gutrip and a couple of his warriors flee into the Nevernever leaving the slowly dissolving bodies of the rest of his “gang” behind.
The group sets off to chase down the clues they had previously gained prior to the interruption and track down the kidnapper’s hut on a high ridge about an hour away from the ranch house. True to the story, the creature is dancing around a blaze singing… this time it’s name is “Skranglestylte” in this version of the stories. Rather than face it in its lair, the heroes decide to fulfill the terms of the creature’s “Contract” with the humans to forever end its magical power over them.
When the goblin arrives the next day, the mother blurts out its name, and as with the story terror is over. The child is returned and Skranglestylte vanishes, vowing vengeance.
- Game date: 2/21/113 (in game date, day 1 was 2/20, day 2 was 2/21)
- Minor Advancement
- Bennies at end of game
- Conor ?
- Jaime ?
- Erica ?
- Elena ?
- Cody ?
- Not Playing
- Matthew 11
- Ren 3
GM Update
Since we haven’t played a game since last year in October (2 children and a holiday season ago) we took most of the early evening to do some storyline advancement and bookkeeping stuff.
As a setting, we’re now post “Changes” – Halloween last year (2012) was Harry Dresden’s destruction of the Red Court – and now Dallas is dealing with the chaos caused by it.
Chaos Unbound
- Gangs
- MS-13 is on a rampage
- “Native” DFW gangs are fighting just to hold the turf they have (The OC is a special case, see below)
- The Koreans in K-Town are expanding their turf, and have picked up supernatural support with the Dokkaebi (Korean Fae).
- In self-defense, the Japanese yakuza presence (tiny as it is, but backed up by Jade Court muscle) has allied with the Southeast Asian gangs (Vietnamese/Thai/Laos/etc.) and the Chinese in Richardson to form what is being unofficially called “The Dallas Triad.”
- Winter Court
- The Marchioness has vanished without a trace and in her absence (and the absence of Queen Mab) the Winter Court has gone “feral” – many of the darker fae are returning to their natural “pre Accorded” state. The Orcs (including half-orcs like Hell-T and The OC) are now seen the company of the Goblins of the Erlking’s Daughter and Trolls and Ogres are returning to their more ancient “manflesh eating” state.
- Summer
- To survive this wild and unruly winter, the Summer Court has bunkered up in Fort Worth and little has been seen of them since Halloween.
- Wyldfae
- The Witch of Whiterock lake has opened her Demense to all those who are willing to pay her “toll” of information, stories, and news. Many (if not all) of the unaligned Fae in the Metroplex now call upon the safety of the “Freehold” of the Whiterock Ringfort (a grand mushroom circle around a willow tree, north of Whiterock Lake).
- Vampires
- White Court hasn’t been seen or heard from since the Red Court’s demise… they make be taking their time to recoup their losses.
- Red Court … they’re gone, and the money/power/influence vacuum left behind is massive.
- The Freakshow Confederacy
- The main organization has basically gone into hiding, many of their number has vanished without a trace in the chaos following Halloween. Raven/Donna leads this “group” such as it is.
- A few stronger independents maintain their own (Dona Esmeralda, Santiago, etc.)
- The group loyal to Belle Star keep to their own, helping to shore up the magical defenses around orphanages and hospitals (Pallas, Barbara, Claret, Tom Kazansky)
- There is a distinct state of “Cold War” between Pallas’s faction and the Donna/Raven faction… however so long as people keep vanishing into the night it’s kinda moot.
- Fort Wolf Posse
- With Feral Fae running around (and gangs and everything else) the FWP is basically in a state of constant vigilance to keep their families safe (patrols around schools, football games, walking kids home, etc.)
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