So first off, I actually have some news before I get into this week's write-up. A book I worked on is out!
Terra Firma is a supplement for Trinity Continuum: Æon (which I also worked on), expanding on Earth (and nearby environs) as it's presented in the Æon setting. It fleshes out 10 nations (including the moon) with a detailed city for each. There's also material for various threats and weirdness on and around Earth, as well as a bunch of technology both mundane and fantastical and new Paths and Edges for player characters. (Terra Firma requires the Trinity Continuum core and Trinity Continuum: Æon books to use)
And now, with that out of the way, let's venture back to 1951 Vegas...
So where we left off, Eddy and Kenneth were getting back to the hotel, and Kenneth immediately jumps into his own car and drives out to Boulder City to look for Mission Nevada Solano. On the way he stops somewhere to change into some more casual clothes so he doesn't look as much like a Fed (also, his pant leg was torn up by that dog before). He asks around the city and determines there are still people living out at the Mission, which is out in the hills near the river. But he also gets a few 'oh, those people' sorts of reactions when he asks about them, and is expecting to find a bunch of Commies or something. He loads up on water, drives as far as he can into the hills, and then starts hiking the rest of the way.
He gets there to find an old Spanish mission compound from a little over a hundred years ago, from back when the area was still part of Mexico. He can see there are people living there, working in a garden, straightening up the place -- Kenneth doesn't have the worldly experience to make the association, but imagine something in between a classic monastery and an Amish community in overall demeanor. He's still pretty sure these are gonna turn out to be Commies -- or even worse, artists.
As he enters the courtyard he's greeted by a woman in her late-30's or early-40's named Jessica. She introduces herself as a Deacon (not a title normally afforded to women in the Catholic church) and offers him some water after his journey, and as he introduces himself he tries to feel her out politically only to discover this isn't any sort of pinko Commie enclave but a Christian cult of some fashion. She also off-handedly mentions that they've seen signs of his arrival and have been expecting him and now he's starting to worry.
He explains that he's here trying to learn more about Father Nazar Guerrero, and discovers that this group has not only heard of him but venerates him as a saint. He founded the mission in the late 1830's and dedicated himself to serving as a liaison between the local Natives and settlers and the like, following in the footsteps of Saint Francisco Solano (who, if the Wikipedia link isn't a giveaway, is in fact a real saint). Of course, the rolls of the Vatican don't consider Father Guerrero to be a real saint, but the people of the mission know that he sits at the right hand of God.
Deacon Jessica leads him into the basement of the church where they still have a bunch of Father Guerrero's journals. They're written in Spanish, but Jessica offers to help translate. They go through the books, and find descriptions of Guerrero's dealings with the locals. And it sounds like he made a legitimate, sincere effort to make sure the Natives were treated fairly -- like, actually fairly, not just fairly by white people standards. But they don't find anything about the land deal that Kenneth is trying to learn more about, until he notices there's a book that Jessica's been pointedly ignoring.
He mentions it and she warns him that that book is incomplete, as it was the journal he was still working on at the time of his death. But this has what Kenneth is looking for -- Father Guerrero was negotiating a land deal between a Spanish merchant named Nolasco de Sandoval and the local tribes, speaking to a representative named Coyote's Cackle (or at least, the journal acknowledges, that's the best translation they've got). He mentions in the journal that Sandoval was putting more and more pressure on the priest, really trying to just steamroll the local Natives. And then, as is to be expected, the entries just stop.
Jessica mentions that there's not an official record of what happened next, as far as she knows. However, the stories passed down suggest that the Native negotiator brought an animal to the last meeting, things got heated, and the animal killed Father Guerrero. Of course, Kenneth knows (and the geist admits) that there was no animal but in fact Coyote's Crackle himself using magic to transform. And he does remember killing the priest.
Now, it's possible that Sandoval's people may have taken the land by force in retaliation. Kenneth asks if there are any records of that, as proof that the land wasn't taken in any sort of legal deal would be a massive boon for the local tribes, and she considers it a moment. Obviously the church's archive wouldn't have records of Sandoval's company, but there are still records of the dealings that Guerrero was involved in (separate from the journals) and there may be something in there that can jumpstart some research. That could take forever to go through, though, and she's understandably reluctant to just let Kenneth borrow the old books.
But she realizes that the congregation is about to sit down to a meal and invites him to have something to eat while she looks into it. He accepts the invitation, discovering the hard way that this cult is vegetarian.
We jump back to Vegas for now, where Richard has returned with the truck (and Jeremy, the ghost inhabiting the truck). He takes it to the hotel and shows Jeremy around and asks him what business might be keeping him bound to the land of the living. Jeremy guesses he just wasn't ready to go yet -- his family (including 5 siblings) is back east, and Jeremy came out to Nevada to find his fortune. He'd hoped to send some gold or something back to their home in New York City, either working in the mines or maybe getting lucky at the casino. But his folks always told him he'd die in a ditch and get eaten by vultures. Mel was paying him one of those gold coins (though he didn't know it was cursed), and he'd have sent that back to his family if he could have. Richard considers a few options for getting some money back to the guy's family on his behalf.
He gets an idea and gets together all of his spare cash. He also gets the lead coin the krewe took off of Mel the other day, and takes it all out to one of the more honest casinos and takes it to the roulette table. He then gives the coin a flip, as it has the ability to give you a run of extreme good or extreme bad luck in games of chance -- but because both sides of the coin are smooth, there's no way to tell what the result is until the game of chance is over[0].
And it pays off! As Richard moves chips around on the table, one of them falls off the stack and lands on a specific number and he isn't able to retrieve it before the next round begins, and it hits. So he's got a stack of cash. He uses some of it to purchase a gun for himself (as he's been meaning to flesh out his defensive capabilities), and takes the rest back to the hotel to show Jeremy, who's mind is blown. Jeremy gives him the address for his family and asks if there's any way to make it look like he'd sent it before he died or something. Richard takes the package of cash to the post office and manages to talk them into doctoring the package to make it look like it'd been bouncing around the system for a while. So this has resolved enough of Jeremy's remaining baggage that later, with a ceremony, the krewe will be able to help him pass on.[1]
Meanwhile, still upset over what he learned about Rossi's potential involvement in his geist' death, Eddy puts krewe's celebrants (both living and dead) on surveillance on Rossi's operation. It comes up at one point as he's dealing with them that one of the ghosts, Abe (a suicide who jumped off an internal balcony in a casino's open area and doesn't remember why), hasn't been seen in a couple of days. They think perhaps he's hibernating in his anchor (the rug he landed on, which is in storage in the hotel), perhaps hiding from one of the Reapers that've been running around. Eddy can't determine if he's in there, but he files the apparent absence away to follow up later.
Back out in the hills east of Boulder City, Kenneth finishes eating and comes out of the mess hall to find Jessica taking care of one of the congregants who'd apparently hurt himself on a gardening implement. And he sees as Jessica's hands glow and the man's wound is healed right there before Kenneth's eyes. He's startled, and in the ensuing conversation he refers to what he just saw as sorcery, but Jessica assuages him that this is just the blessings of the Lord, working through her.[2] Just as a test, given recent experiences, he shows her the symbol that's marked Mel's victims but it doesn't mean anything to her.
She leads him into the church, saying she can loan him the record books, and when they go in he can see a figure behind the altar -- the ghost of Father Guerrero (who Jessica can see). The Skinwalker loses his shit and Kenneth manages to keep him reined in and he explains himself to the priest. The resulting back and forth is somewhat amiable, especially as it becomes clear that he still beats himself up over what happened to the Skinwalker's people. But in the end, he agrees to let Kenneth borrow the books.[3]
Eventually Kenneth gets back to the hotel, books in tow, and Eddy is still worked up over Rossi. Kenneth and Richard fill everyone in on what's happened, and then Eddy gets into how he owes Rossi for what happened to the Lonely Proprietor. He mentions that he's reworking his plans to rob a bank[4] into a plan to rob Rossi on the Proprietor's behalf. (Kenneth, BTW, is a little sore that Eddy gets to be Bound to the geist of someone he actually knew when he was alive that he can understand, while Kenneth is stuck with a 'century-old evil wizard.')
Eddy starts getting into the plan, wanting to hit one of the Manny's deposits on their way to the bank, or possibly just robbing the casino itself. But Kenneth's concerned because his priority is getting what he needs to put Rossi away and he's afraid of having the investigation tainted by any potential association with a heist. Eddy's not thrilled with that reaction, and wants to use the heist to push Rossi into making the sort of mistake that Kenneth could exploit. But Eddy's also making it clear that this isn't something they're doing tonight, and he's going to put together a firm plan that won't get Kenneth in trouble. Richard also says that he's not going to get involved in this until there's a firm, completed, decent plan, and Eddy's a little disappointed.
But in the meantime, the subject of having Kenneth use Memoria to find out exactly what happened to the Proprietor and see if they get anything that they can use as a jumping off point. Kenneth stresses that he needs to find a way to connect it to actual evidence. As he puts it, the courts need to know just how the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
So the trio go down to the alley where the Proprietor (in his living days as John Staff) was stabbed. He brings up a vision of what happened, letting everyone else see it. In the vision, John comes out into the alley with a deposit bag. They see someone in a hat and coat approaching him, and asking if all of the money's going to make it to the bank this time. John insists he hasn't stolen anything, but they fight and the man stabs him and runs off with the money. In the scuffle, his hat comes off and Eddy recognizes... Johnny Wallis, the man who married Delores.
Naturally, everyone's upset and the Proprietor wants to rage. Eddy lets him go to tear up the alley since a proper target of his rage isn't anywhere close. Kenneth goes ahead and bottles up the memory. Eddy explains the full meaning of what they just saw, and reassures Kenneth that he's going to deal with Wallis without killing him, and Kenneth gives him the bottle. They decide to leave before someone hears the noise and the cops show up.
And we left off there.
[0] -- As a reminder, the coin (which was Mel's magical focus) has become a Memento. By default I don't let folks automatically know what special effect that found Mementos have without experimenting. But if they go ahead and spend the experience to 'claim' the Memento, in addition to the plot armor that comes with that I let them go ahead and know what the effect is (knowledge acquired however the player feels like justifying it).
[1] -- For the record, they don't get to this this session because there isn't a great moment to get the entire group together when they have the time.
[2] -- For anyone following along at home, this is an ability provided by the Mystery Cult Initiation Merit.
[3] -- In case it needs to be said, this whole ordeal definitely completed one of Kenneth's Remembrance scenes.
[4] -- Yes, Eddy just casually blazed past 'I was planning to rob a bank,' which nobody else knew about (or asked about at the time), without expanding on it. I knew, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment