So we had this session a little while back (because of some last-minute scheduling issues we switched a Starfinder session to a Chronicles one), and I would have had this up sooner but I had some other work I wanted to finish up first, and we had a week where we didn't play so that gave me some breathing room in that regard.
Before I get into the post, just a quick note that the group gets up to some unsavory stuff towards the end of this session, so consider this a content warning for violence.
(Quick note before we begin: Bryan, Weaver's player, couldn't make it to this session so unless we decide otherwise later we're assuming that Weaver is recovering from the beating he took last session. I'll update this if anything happens to change that assumption.)
So where we left off, Otis was at the club with Duncan Rush, the Mekhet that Derrick turned into a Khaibit before facing the strix a year and a half ago. Duncan and Otis are getting to know each other a little bit, and Duncan explains some of his history in the city to Otis and it comes up that Brady would be willing to vouch for him if it came to it. Duncan doesn't know that Otis just had a conversation with Brady maybe a half-hour ago, but Otis definitely files that away for later.
They get into the previous attempt to kill Derrick, which segues into the subject of mages. Duncan's not a fan in general, but he describes a local mage he's aware of that goes by the name Prodigal[0], and says that they might actually be able to get him on their side if they run into him. But this circles back to strix weaknesses and how they apply to the Hungry Shadow, and I think that's when Stills and Josh show up at the club after dumping Weaver at his place.[1]
So Duncan starts from the beginning, explaining the weaknesses of a Khaibit -- namely, that they're extremely sensitive to light, and that's something they should be able to exploit. He suggests that if they want the weaknesses of this spirit, combining multiple weaknesses of vampires and strix is a good start. Which also means they were going down the right road with their attempt before, summoning it in the middle of the day like that, but maybe they might need to include fire. That said, he has to explain a couple of times that strix don't have a lot of weaknesses distinct from vampires, aside from a few individuals having to worry about specific stuff (but then, vampires sometimes have to worry about specific stuff, too). And he also has to point out a couple of times that they're not fighting a strix, but a creature that's more 'inspired' by them. Josh, in particular, asks a lot about the specific strix they fought, but Duncan doesn't know a lot about that one and even if he did he suggests going with the most common weaknesses -- maybe combining fire and sunlight -- and start from there.
The group considers maybe finding a farm house in the middle of nowhere -- not particularly difficult in this part of West Virginia -- where they can summon/trap Derrick and the Hungry Shadow and set the building on fire, and do all this during the day. Which is an obvious problem because that means that there's not a lot that vampires can do in that scenario (which Stills has to explain to Josh).[2] Duncan suggests that maybe they could look into other weaknesses of the specific strix; if it's got a history, then surely somebody has to know if it has any specific weaknesses. Josh mentions they still have a bunch of books with information about it that they'd liberated from Derrick's place, and Duncan offers to do the research for them while they prepare an appropriate deathtrap, possibly using floodlights to neutralize his abilities.[3] He suggests a specific place, a property he knows that has a barn that (last he checked) is rarely used and has a pond right next to it just in case.
So they decide to go check the place out. On the way to get their vehicles from the parking garage, they see a man following them in some sort of city worker's uniform. It looks like Bill, from a while back. Stills and Josh see him but keep walking, to see if he follows them -- which he does. Otis ducks into the parking garage ahead of the guy and melds into a shadow there.
Stills stops and turns to look at the guy, making sure the guy knows it's been seen, but it just keeps focusing on Josh as it keeps walking. Josh activates Aetheric Resonance and confirms that this guy is definitely an angel. He warns Stills, but Stills is confident they can deal with him.
Not that there's much to worry about -- Otis ambushes it from the shadow, lunging at it with his teeth, and with a single bite rips it apart into mechanical bits and some sort of gelatin-like substance. He digs out a whisky flask to wash his mouth out while Josh takes a closer look. The angel looks like a low-grade Destroyer, probably one who happened to be in the area that got tasked with poking at Josh (and not the one they encountered at the club before, despite the similarity). So the Machine isn't sending dedicated hunter-angels after him yet, but he's still a little freaked.
They stuff what's left of the thing into the trash can as bits of it start sublimating into mist, and Josh explains what they just encountered. He's worried about whether he should get a new cover, or do something to bolster his existing cover. But he files that question away for later as Otis needs to go feed while Josh and Stills go to check out the barn. Otis proceeds to go down to the waterfront trails, which are practically a secondary Rack at this point[4], and attacks and chases a late jogger into his lair for devouring purposes.
Josh and Stills head out to the middle of nowhere. The barn and pond are part of a larger property with a decently-sized log house up the hill. The area is lived-in, just the barn doesn't get a lot of use. Josh pokes around the barn itself, finding little more than vermin and moldy horse feed, using his demonic traits to determine that there is power running to the barn, at least. Stills is concerned about disruptions because they won't have full control over the property, so he decides to rectify that.
Stills Obfuscates himself and heads up to the house, sneaking inside and determining that there's just a couple of old hippies, a husband and wife couple, living there. They're asleep, because it's quite late at this point. He gets a knife from the kitchen, slits the wife's throat, and puts the knife in her husband's hand. He then wakes the guy up and hits him with the full whammy of his Nightmare Discipline to make him see his wife as some sort of monster, and he panics and starts stabbing what he doesn't know is an already-dead body.
At this point, Otis has caught up and is about to check out the barn when he hears screaming coming from the house. He heads up there and finds what Stills has apparently done. He comes outside to find Josh walking up the hill towards the house and Stills casually lounging in the grass outside. They talk about what Stills did, and how now this place is going to be a crime scene for who knows how long and there are going to be cops all over it. Josh, who's been looking at bolstering his cover, decides that maybe he can kill two birds with one stone here.
He goes into the house to find the husband covered in blood, barely able to walk from the shock he's been through. Josh offers to help him deal with this -- sure, the guy saw his wife was a monster, and he's been through a terrible experience, but Josh points out that without help the man is likely going to go to jail. So he offers him a pact -- the man, Howard, signs over the house to Josh (really, retroactively transfers the house to Josh so that Josh has had it for some time). In exchange, he'll get a bunch of money to find a better place to live and start his life over, and some new friends on the police force who would be willing to make this go away. The guy accepts the deal, signs on the literal dotted line, and the deed is done (and Josh has just earned some experience to spend on his Cover).
Cue a montage of the cops coming in, making a big show of assuring the homeowner (which is now Josh) that they're going to arrest Howard when in fact they're going to cover this up for him, and by the time they're gone the house is Josh's and the universe is convinced he's had it for some time.
Now Stills is hungry, and Otis' 'meal' was less than filling, so he talks Stills into letting him tag along to the truckstop up the road with the Beast in his shadow to piggyback on the feeding. It's easy enough for Stills to duck into one of the shower rooms they have available, drink his fill, and slip out with Otis in tow.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Josh looks over the property and gets the logistics of what he'd have to do to clean it up and put it to use not just for their purposes but as something of a backup base in the countryside.
And we leave off on the group making plans to meet up again after sunset, as it's getting late, and Josh going off to deliver Derrick's books to Duncan to the club where the Khaibit can do the research he needs.
[0]-- If you've followed my posts and fictions from this setting on this blog, you may recognize Prodigal as a mage NPC from my Hunter LARP days, though during much of that time he went by a different shadow name.
[1]-- My notes are a little shaky on exactly when they showed up, but I'm mostly sure it was right after the conversation about Prodigal.
[2]-- Now, this is my screw-up. When I started this plot, I had an idea of the group finding out how they can influence the development of this entity and basically build their own boss fight. Derrick turning on the group and unleashing the beast himself left me scrambling to come up with my own weaknesses for it, and I hit on the idea of combining fire and sunlight without even considering the impact that would have on any allied vampire PCs or NPCs. Honestly, not my finest moment, and I'll own that.
[3]-- Duncan doing the research himself is my way of throwing a bone to the group so they don't have to -- especially since, if I'd thought of this from the start, they would have found that information by now anyways.
[4]-- While Otis isn't a vampire, he feeds very much like one, just more violent and messy.
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