Official Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Ambercon Campaign Session 2

Lucien 

Illustration by Jason Rainville

Official Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Ambercon Campaign Session 2

 Slot 6: Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 7pm to midnight

 GM: Kit Kindred

 12 Players

  Bridgette: Maria del Oliviera, American, Las Vegas. Stage magician.

  David M: Elijah Crumb, American, NYU. Professor of literature.

  David M: Beckett Callavicci, Belgian, Cern. Theoretical physicist

  David V: Annalise Meyer, American, Battle Creek Michigan. Graduate student.

  Elizabeth: Coralynn LeGarde, French, Nice. Sculptress.

  J.P.: Timothy Carlton, British, Birmingham. Genre author, conspiracy theorist.

  Joe: Sir Richard Reynolds, British, Surrey. Author, explorer, television host.

  Kris: Alex Wynne, American, Penn State. College football player.

  Madeline: Ismail Haq, Chinese, Afghanistan. Man of action

  Michael: Kevin Burkhart, American, Chicago. Architect.

  Sol: Xander Smelminski, Canadian, U Mich. College football player.

  Tara: Claire Roberts, American, Pennsylvania. Waitress.

Behind the curtain: Last year’s co-GM, John Lees passed away unexpectedly in the Fall. His absence was strongly felt. I had two players leave the game and one who joined. The character of Timothy Carlton was taken over by a new player. The character of Valentina was replaced, retroactively, by Coralynn. The character of Elijah was retroactively added.

Set-up: The game picked up almost immediately from the end point of the first session. Cal transported the characters from a house in Westchester whose security had just been compromised to another house near Paris. He took the body of the dead Gossamer Lady with him and asked the players to remain inside until he returned, hopefully in the evening.

The Game:

Ismail scouted the house, made contact with some people he knew in Paris, acquired some weapons, and returned to the house.

Claire and Xander went to breakfast. They bought cell phones and picked up food for those who remained at the house.

Kevin went off to wander Paris on his own. He planned to meet Maria and Claire for lunch.

Maria and Annalise went out for an epic shopping expedition.

Alex watched Sir Richard field strip his gun and was allowed to practice on another gun.

Timothy molded a model of the Stair out of cheese brought back to the house by Claire and Xander. He then ate it.

Coralynn organized a trip to the Louvre. Ismail, Xander, and Claire decided to remain in the house. Maria, Kevin, and Annalise said they might joint Coralynn’s group at the Louvre.

Coralynn used her family connections to gain access to an intriguing stairway exhibit at the Musee d'Orsay. Sir Richard immediately noticed it was not the Louvre. Coralynn, Sir Richard, Elijah, and Alex went to the exhibit, crossed the barriers, and walked up the stair. Timothy was trying to use the stair to make contact with the Stair. After some time standing on it and contemplating it, he and Sir Richard and Coralynn began hearing a sound they associated with the Stair. Timothy, Elijah, and Coralynn began trying to hum it. At this point, an Erebi appeared and began walking toward them. It was a humanoid rip in space and it destroyed everything that came into contact with it. Its footsteps made holes in the stair as it walked after the characters.

Sir Richard fired on it and hit center mass, but the bullets just seemed to cease to exist on striking it. They raced up the stair, opened the exit door at the top and found themselves on the Agora.

They closed the Door behind them and the Erebi did not pursue.

Maria and Annalise had an epic shopping trip. They met Kevin for lunch and then went to the Louvre to meet the others. When they didn’t find them, they went on a tour of their own. Kevin knew of an exhibit involving doors and wanted to look into it. They crossed a security barrier, opened a door and quickly noticed a shapeshifting monstrosity falling out of another now open door nearby. As it was heading toward them, they stepped through the Door and into the Agora. They closed the Door behind them and the ur-orobus did not pursue them.

In Cal’s house, Beckett, Ismail, Xander, and Claire discovered that there were no photos of Cal and little or nothing to identify the owner of the place. They set a Google alert in case their was trouble at the Louvre and then searched the house and tested their physical condition. Becket discovered that he was beginning to perceive the world as a formula to solve and could ‘see’ how far something was from its ideal iteration. Ismail and Xander noticed that they were faster and stronger and hardier than before. They were barely tired from their experience over the last day.

By this time, twitter was abuzz with the incident at the Louvre. Xander called Alex’s phone and left a message. They called cal’s phone but got a message that sid that if it was really important they should use his Icon.

Ismail, Xander, and Claire gave Cal’s house a more careful exploration. They discovered four doors that seemed to be Doors. One went to what looked like a library. One went to a market place. One went to a maze of some sort. The last went to what looked like an Indian place with an unusual sky overhead. Claire went to the library, but couldn’t open the Door to Cal’s house. Ismail and Xander opened it from their side and brought her back. While Xander held it open, Ismail went through the door to explore the library. There, he met Lucien. Ismail explained that they were trying to contact Cal. Lucien said he would see what he could do. Ismail raced back through the Door to Cal’s home before it snapped shut.

On the Agora, the two groups explored the sprawling marketplace. They bartered for weapons, knowledge, and clothing. A friendly weapons merchant was very helpful. Elijah, deciding that this was the basis for legends of a goblin market, was fascinated and traded names of disliked students for luminescent clothing. Eventually, they tried several Doors, with each leading somewhere interesting, but not where they wanted to go. Sir Richard finally managed to open the Door to his bathroom and his group went through. Maria’s group eventually opened a Door to an alley in Paris.

In London, Sir Richard discovered he had a phone message from his solicitor regarding the incident in Paris. Coralyyn had a similar message from her aunt. Alex had a message for Xander. Phone calls were returned. Sir Richard told his solicitor that the security pictures were faked. Coralynn called in favors to have to offending material removed. Both then went into the city to be caught on CCTV making financial transactions to establish that they couldn’t possibly have been in Paris when the incidents took place. Xander and Alex filled each other in on events.

Sir Richard’s group found they could open a Door to the Agora and to landings on the Stair but not directly to Paris.  Eventually, they went through to a landing, found a Door that seemed to be Paris o n the other side, and opened it to an old bookstore. They quickly left to return to cal’s place.

Ismail watched the front door as people came back. He noticed an odd sparking as people crossed the threshold. It had not been apparent when he left and returned or when Xander and Claire left and returned. Maria soon noticed it and watched as Sir Richard’s crew arrived and it sparked around them.

Becket informed them that he was aware of some sort of protective measure about the house like a firewall. Crossing the threshold apparently tripped an ant-virus check. Maria soon found she was aware of the thing but in a very different way than Beckett. She began trying to recreate it on a much smaller scale on a box she had purchased. She quickly found this exhausting.

People began to compare notes when Becket and Maria quickly became aware of the shields being tested. The test became increasingly fast and powerful. The shields attempted to compensate and drew all the warmth and power from the house. Flowers wilted. Fruit spoiled. But the shields held. As the attacks on the shields grew in intensity, two of the Doors opened-the one to the library and the one that seemed to be India with another sky. This was viewed as the house providing an escape route. Timothy felt drawn to the maze, but the others stopped him. They felt their best choices were the Agora or the Indian city, but the Agora was not one of their provided options. While the characters debated on which Door to pass through, the house broke the other two Doors. The colors in Elijah’s new clothing faded and energy seemed to drain from the room. The house then used the energy to launch a counter offensive while the character went through the Door to the place that looked like India. The house then closed the Door to the library and broke it. Ismail thanked the house for its hospitality and its noble sacrifice and went through the Door. It closed behind him and immediately broke.

They found themselves in a huge courtyard in an Indian place under a night sky of cascading light and shooting stars. People came and went through many Doors along the courtyard and mostly paid them no notice. Shortly, a man approached and welcomed them to Shatterlight. He explained that they were now guests of the Gossamer Lady Vala and were welcome to remain as long as they left any intrigues behind and brought harm to none in Shatterlight. They eventually accepted his offer of rooms and Timothy asked for an audience with Vala.

They were soon given rooms, clothing, and food. Timothy wandered away at that point. While the characters pondered what to do next, a woman appeared at their door. After being welcomed inside, they learned that she was Vala and that rather than granting a formal audience had instead come to them. She again told them they were welcome as long as they did not bring intrigues or harm. She asked how she might help them. For the time being, they settled on asking for permission to have use of the libraries of the place and to ask questions.  She granted this and told them, they may seek her out if they had other requests. She then departed.

After she left, they decided to learn as much as they could in as little as time possible and to keep each other informed of their discoveries. Their time may be limited as Maria has a performance in 3 days and many of the others will soon be missed.