Nighthaven Redux Session 2

A plan executed to perfection...for now

Our session this week began with a dinner consisting of okonomiyaki and karaage chicken. I’m a firm believer in rewarding consistent players with a delicious dinner as well as a meaty gaming experience. Once dinner was done, the players discovered just what exactly 1:1 timekeeping means in a game. The bad but relatively contained circumstances of one vampire and four of his spawn had ballooned into 12 spawn, and a few angry patrons. Specifically, Brother Clement, a low-level Cleric of Kador they befriended last session, was very upset that they had taken up room in his mission recovering from their wounds instead of hunting down the monster. Sufficiently chastened for their inactivity, the party set out to learn more about Vampires by talking to the local coot, Willem Vanderhoek. Vanderhoek, also known as Willem the Stalker, turned out to be a font of information as a semi-retired Vampire hunter whose family just so happened to have literally written the book on Vampire hunting. The players did well enough on their reaction rolls and listened well enough to Willem’s ramblings that he offered to take them back to his hideout and equip them for a proper Vampire hunt.

One of the things that I want to do in my games is reward players for thinking strategically and trying to make allies rather than just facing down whatever threat they encounter on their own. I’m easing my players into a less traditional game that’s more in line with the Braunstein-style faction play and part of that is encouraging them to get involved with people who have information, resources or manpower that can assist them in accomplishing their goal. This interaction with Willem showed them the possible fruits of faction play as he took them back to his hideout, gave them the full rundown on Vampire anatomy, equipped them with magic items, and shared speculation and pet theories with them that they used to unravel quite the conspiracy. More on that later though. The players wrapped up their conversation with Willem and decided to make one more stop at last week’s destination The Warm Embrace.

The players found much amiss at The Warm Embrace, including working girls who were scared more of management than the monster that stalked their bordello. The brothel’s proprietor, Lady Calytrix, was conspicuously absent with her assistant Pauline serving as her representative. Pauline was a stone wall until the players let slip that they were searching for information on a Vampire. This conversational slip revealed a crack in Pauline’s stern veneer, but the players never got the chance to press her further as Graem Halford, the Knave Syndicate’s King of Batons, showed up to demand an audience with Calytrix. This is where things got interesting because, even though Graem Halford was upset, the players rolled on the positive end of the reaction table. Halford’s outburst was tempered by his curiosity about the players’ presence. This led him to seek their employment to take down the monster. Unbeknownst to the players, Halford had a personal connection to the monster and had pieced together his identity. Since the monster was a personal enemy, Halford wanted to kill it himself and he was willing to shell out a sizable sum of gold for the party to make that possible. He also got his boss, The Bower of Batons Jormunder Miasmer, to sweeten the pot. With a little bit of extra motivation under their belts, the players decided to gather their resources and actually hunt down the monster.

Their plan was daring, but well thought out. They knew from their research that the monster frequently landed across the street from The Warm Embrace so they hatched a plan to ambush him there, stake him to paralyze him, load him into a wagon and take him to a warehouse owned by The Knaves. Silas the One-Eared Thief hung from the ledge of the building waiting to jump up and surprise the Vampire. His companions, Kraag and Alkazar waiting on adjoining rooftops while Brother Clement waited on the street and the stubborn Willem covered them with a musket. The plan was for Silas to sneak up on the monster and stake it in the heart with a silver dagger. Unfortunately, the target number for a Move Silently throw in ACKS is 17+ at level one, so Silas was unsuccessful. To make matters worse, the surprise roll went in favor of the monster. Things were looking bleak until initiative was rolled and the Explorer Alkazar got the chance to shoot his bow at the top of initiative. The Vampire had turned his back to Alkazar’s position, so Alkazar was able to use his Ambushing proficiency to counteract the -4 for his called shot to the Vampire’s heart. With a straight D20 roll between success and failure for the party, the 18 he rolled was just enough to put a silver arrow through the Vampire’s heart. The players loaded up the monster and took him to their new gangster friends.

The night ended with the players having to talk Graem Halford out of pulling the arrow out of the Vampire so that he could gloat over killing him. Graem opted instead for a dramatic flourish that showed off his skills as a pistoleer, beheading the monster by emptying two revolvers into its neck. The session ended with the monster reverting to its human form revealing it to be Tobias Renier, the son of Cyrus Renier, the Captain of the Nighthaven Guard. The players now find themselves in an interesting position. They have made friends with the Knave Syndicate, but the Knaves are close to going into all-out war with the Scarlet Order. They have fulfilled their mission on behalf of the Guard, but the resolution has been messy and presents a lot of complications for the Guard and the players too. The players have made it mostly through the material that I have written for The Rake’s Codex and will now have to find their way in the city themselves.