This isn’t so much ‘Actual Play’ as one player’s attempt to work out what the back story or ‘mythology’ to our current game is. It’s as close to an Actual Play as I can upload at the moment because a. Lots of stuff has happened over four sessions and b. Lots of stuff is happening in my actual life. It also means I can upload plenty of storyline without showing my hand, because they’re as likely to find Monsterhearts on Google+ as anyone is. But first, a brief introduction to the characters (and their town)
CHLOÉ – The Infernal – bartered her soul with “The Poisoner”, for helping kill her abusive father, who was also the school caretaker. In love with Wolf, and certainly not in love with Charles, although she has promised the latter a date on Friday…
CHARLES – The Ghoul – rejected from some sort of dark afterlife where he saw his dead parents. Was in love with Chloé but has since begun a relationship with Japheth. Had the shape of a penis cut into his hair when Wolf removed some (as a sympathetic token) from his dead corpse. In the last session he had a lucid vision of a glowing white robed figure…
WOLF – The Witch – a gifted individual who has reluctantly begun a relationship with Chloé, even though she is secretly in love with the NPC Mabel. Good friends with the vampire Diabla, for no obvious reasons (other than their respective players being good friends)…
DIABLA – The Vampire – an ancient vampire who dwells in a mansion overlooking the town, and has only recently awoken. Goes to school but subtly hypnotizes people so that they just assume that she is one of the students, although her name is not on the register…
JAPHETH – The Queen – the eldest son of the local Jesus-loving preacher, who has a small compound at the edge of town. Japheth’s gang is composed mostly of his many younger brothers, who deal drugs. For as long as he can remember he’s been able to see through their eyes. Since he discovered Charles is dead he’s become obsessed with him…
CASSIE – The Shadow – a new player last session, but we’ve retconned that she (and two other PCs, who are now NPCs) were part of the same class, whose Shadow is an enthusiastic imaginary friend. Prompted by Chloé to go after Mabel, in part so that she (Chloé) could have Wolf for herself, although this resulted in the Shadow coming to the fore and beating Wolf bloody with a hockey stick…
THE TOWN OF NEWBERRY – Once the Vampire has established that there was a mansion overlooking the town (at it’s northern edge), the Witch established that she had one of her own in the woods on the other side of the town (to the south). It’s also been established that there is a reservoir (just south of the preacher’s compound and the woods). In town there’s a Tesco Express, a boarded up Blockbusters, a pub called The old familiar, and a sex shop(!) – the school and church are both named after Saint Agnes. The game is set in 1999 (July), somewhere in England – if I had to guess where I’d say somewhere north of London, south of Manchester.
With all this in mind, and considering I’ve told the players that there are likely just a handful of background elements responsible for the undercurrent of magic in the area, I suggested that these character origins are like facts or clues on a board in a police station, where the cops are trying to establish what connects each character to each character. What follows is one players attempts to create some sort of back story, or mythology, from those clues…
It. Is. Incredible.
In some cases it veers away from the ideas I’ve had – in others it’s veered pretty close. But it fascinated me that, with all the possibilities I’ve been considering, and the ways I’ve used them to construct a backstory so far, the players have their own ideas about what could be the causes of certain events, their own possible stories, their own theories and suspicions. Much of what follows is much more convoluted and detailed than ideas I’ve even considered in my ‘bigger picture’ plan to pull everything together. Of course, the advantage of playing feral is that I can choose to adopt these ideas for the story in future sessions, or I can steer away from them to really surprise the players…
Here are his theories…
“Alright then ladies and gentlemen. Prefer for some Occult Sleuthing, to answer the 6 questions in this game: 1) Why did Charles come back to life? 2) What is the source of Wolf’s (Ariel’s character) power? 3) How is Japheth Dave’s character) able to get in people’s heads like he does? 4) What is the Shadow (Laura’s character)? Question 5) Who is the Glowing guy? and 6) what does Diabla (Chelsea’s character) have to do with this?”
“1) Why did Charles come back to life? Let’s go over what we know. He died in the forest, having consumed enough pills to kill himself. then Wolf shaved a penis into his head. Then he woke up.
First of all, let’s talk about the forest. The forest is near Wolf’s hideout, where he practices magic. She mentioned this in the prologue. He showed Chloe demon stuff here. So perhaps the forest is fairly prevalent with the rememnants of her spells, like left over gas wiating for a spark to ignite.
Second of all, did you know the penis is a symbol of not only fertility but life in many cultures, including the culture that created Stone Henge. The shadow forms a penis when the sun is right.
Third, point to note. It was established that dead man’s hair is a powerful ingredient for certain spells or potions. Wolf said so, the MC said so. So Wolf probably didn’t use a normal razor. He likely used a knife, maybe one for his rituals, since he mentioned he was either on his way, or leaving his spell sanctuary in the woods.
Therefore here’s my theory:
By shaving a penis into the side of Charles’ head, she unknowingly cast a life spell on Charles. Combined with the leftover magical residue, and dead man’s hair (also presumably some form of special knife), it was enough to pull him back to life. However, because it wasn’t an intentional spell, the spell was imperfect. He’s not completely back to normal, he’s still mostly dead.
Thus, as long as the penis is carved on his head, Charles will stay alive, keep being brought back to life.”
“Theory 2) the source of Wolf’s power.
First let’s establish what we know about his magic:
1. Wolf’s origin is ‘gifted’. He also states his parents did not teach him magic, and don’t pay attention to him. He’s lived in this town his whole life, so he didn’t pick it up in some foreign boarding school. So we can assume self-taught.
2. His magic so far only expresses itself in two ways, his hexes Illusion and wither.
3. Wolf has some demonic knowledge. We know this because:
a) Chloe (a novice at best in magic) was able to summon a demon and make a pact, just from watching Wolf work/copy symbols from his wall.
B) Wolf’s only use of the illusion spell, out of all options, he picked demons as what Charles saw.
First lets think about Wolf. To understand magic, we need to understand the magician.
Wolf is spiteful, obsessive, bears grudges, and uses people. His best friend is Diabla, a vampire. Strangely their relationship is platonic rather than sexual, and the friendship is more genuine than any of Wolf’s others. (This will be relevant later)
However, he is very good at magic. That makes sense because he uses magic that helps him mess with people or get revenge (acne on Ben).
But what if the reason he’s so good at magic is because of his personality? His malicious personality makes Wolf more in tune with his source of power? Or vice versa? The power makes her more malicious the more he channels it? After all these years it might have skewered the personality.
But what is the source of his power? I’ve spoken about what it does, or might do, but not what it is. Well let’s go back to the beginning.
His origin is gifted right? Gifted usually means, “a natural or talented.” But it comes from the phrase, “gifted by God”.
But does it have to be God? What if his abilities were bequeathed to Wolf by someone else? Something darker?
Given his knowledge of demons, as established above, I believe that the source of Wolf’s power is an unknown demonic or devil benefactor. I do not believe Wolf is aware where his power comes from, nor does he truly care. Which is how the demon prefers it.
But why would a demon gift such power on an individual without exacting a cost, like The Poisoner does with Chloe?
Easy. Wolf does exactly what the demon wants. Cause mayhem, abuse power and spread sin/corruption.
What was the first act Wolf did in this game? He organised an orgy. Before the game started, he helped Chloe summon a demon that killed her father, and probably cost her immortal soul.
But why pick Wolf? Well he has very wealthy but absentee parents. Unlike a close knit or attentive family, Wolf is less likely to have gotten a strong sense of morality from them. Also absent parents won’t stop him from doing what he likes. Freedom to experiment with magic without explaining himself.
In addition, the intense wealth gives Wolf freedom to engage in depravities without drawing suspicion. To people at large, it’s just another crazy rich person, a new Paris Hilton. Also means he is less likely to worry about jail, which means he can commit more sins, and corrupt more Individuals.
So there is a demonic power, probably more powerful than The Poisoner, maybe in league. But what does this have to do with Japheth or Cassie?
Find out in part three.”
Okay, the third and fourth theories have just gone up. It’s dawning on me that there’s a mix of pop psychology and pouring over the mechanics of each Skin here. Which is great, in a conspiracy theory nut kinda way, but completely disregards the fact that I’ve had to be feral in a lot of my in-game decisions and also that I’ve had a vague idea of what the bigger picture is for a while (given my original small town idea, and the fact that although I’m playing feral, I want to ensure there’s a vague story arc, a slow reveal of things occurring, and a dramatic climax that validates the characters doing stuff beyond just fighting each other), and so anything regarding the new PCs of The Shadow and The Unseen is stuff that supplements the backstory, rather than being one of the pillars that supports it.
All that said, this is a fun read. Strap in, it’s a long one…
“Theory 3) Where does Japheth’s power come from? Actually this is also theory 4) where does the Shadow come from? And the unseen. “Who?” Exactly.
All three of these individuals possess an ability connected to the mind. Cassie has an alternate identity, that can take over her body, granting her enhanced physical abilities (her volatile is rubbish, but her dark stat is great for smashing). In addition, she possess an ability she hasn’t revealed yet, being able to infect another person’s attempt to gaze into the abyss, corrupting it. Most players who Gaze into the Abyss are looking inwards-which means she can influence other beings minds.
Speaking of influencing minds, Japheth the Queen can telepathically communicate and see through the senses of select individuals. Who are those individuals? Currently only some of his younger brothers, and his current infatuation Charles. This implies that Japheth can only enter the mind of someone who Japheth cares about deeply. Which is also the same limitation as the Shadow.
And what is the Unseen’s power? A Psychic Null field according to his sheet. This effect forces people to ignore him, or makes it difficult for them to pay attention to him. Which means that his power also invades minds-however he has no control over it.
What else do all these kids have in common? They grew up in this town, and their powers have been around since their youth.
Infact their origin is very similar to the Witch. Which means I believe they also gained their powers from a demonic benefactor. But why are their powers so different? And why is the Witch so much more in control of her abilities than the others?
Well that actually brings up a good point-they are not very different. The Witch can infect the mind as well, through illusions. She however is also powerful enough to affect the real world too, via her acne spells. Going back to theory two, I stated that because he acts in a specific attitude a demon would find appealing, her power is much stronger, aka gifted. He can do exactly what he wants, which is to mess with people.
But let’s look at the others, in order of strongest to weakest power. By strongest and weakest, I am referring to control of abilities.
First Japheth. He can turn his ability to look in minds on and off. However who he can affect is limited by his intimacy, how much they like him and vice versa. He needs to be worshiped, or adored. Some view sex as a way to gain power over someone, which is possibly why his ability is triggered by it (aka his sex move). Also, we know Japheth can be very psosesive, and likes to be in control. It’s possible he was given this power, or developed his power into this form, because that is what he truly wants.
Looking at Japheth, you see he is a drug dealer, a spreader of corruption and he gets his younger brothers (innocents) to help him along. He made his youngest brother Ham fight for him against Chloe. Because he’s accepted his dark side so readily, it would explain why he is able to control his gift so easily.
However, unlike Wolf, who can engage in sin openly, Japheth must hide his activities, curtailing the opportunities he has to engage in sin. Without being able to engage in sin, his power is still in it’s infancy and cannot grow as vast as Wolf’s.
Next is Cassie/Cassandra. Cassie seems to have the least control of her powers, being forced to sit on the sidelines of her own mind when the shadow takes over. However, Cassandra has full access to the abilities. Cassandra is the one who can infect other people’s minds/mess up Gaze into the Abyss, and use Mine freely.
Now this seems very strange. Why do all the other gifted kids get powers, but Cassie gets a demon in her head? Because, you are looking at it wrong. Cassandra is not a demon.
Before the age of 7, Cassie had an imaginary friend, who looked just like her. They were presumably very close. However, when her parents died, the imaginary friend disappeared. It was replaced by a voice inside her head. Since then, she believes the two are one and the same, so she blames Cassandra for all her bad actions.
However Cassie can be violent without the Shadow controlling her. She attacked Chloe before turning into the Shadow, and when she did, she was able to use her ‘Mine’ power. If this was a Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde situation, the powers would be separate, relegated to the demon being in control.
But she is always in control of the power. However, it only works, when she is angry, engaging in wrath. Because Cassie is a ‘good girl’ and doesn’t engage in many fights or depravity, her control and source of power is very low. However, Cassandra’s control (mind invasions) and power (easily able to beat an Infernal into the ground) is much greater. Why? Because Cassandra is far more accepting of her dark side, allowing the dark power to grow faster than Cassie.
But why choose a goodie two shoes for the power? Why necessitate a demon babysitter?
Because Cassie wasn’t chosen. Cassandra was chosen. Cassandra is Cassie’s schizophrenia, an alternate personality. Cassandra was born, when Cassie couldn’t find anyone to blame for her parents’ death (possibly murder, not sure the details). Cassandra is full of wrath, possessive jealousy, traits which the demon apparently likes, since these are traits in Wolf. She also has no parents, which means no one to prevent her from engaging in sin. What does Cassie’s guardian do? Run a sex shop. Cassie would have been the perfect beneficiary of the power, engaging in sin and growing in power. If she would, just. Stop. Being. Such. A. Goody Goody.
Finally the Unseen. He possess the least control, barely able to be noticed because of his power. It’s not odd why he was picked-like Wolf he also has very inattentive parents. In addition his power would be perfect for mischief or great crime. No one could ever blame him for stealing something, or hurting someone, or worse, because they could never remember he was there. He is in the prime position to commit all forms of depravity.
Except…he’s not doing it right. He’s fighting against his powers, trying to get noticed. And what does he get noticed for? He tells the teacher a fight is going on. He informs on the kids to the parents. He’s being a tattle tale.
This explains why his power is in the least control. Opportunity to commit sin, but doesn’t take it. It’s unknown if his power will grow with plotting, or if he will gain control. Who knows?
All we know, is that sometime in these students’ youth, all four of them (Wolf, Illya, Cassie and Japh) got their powers. The best guess I would have is after 7 years old. That’s when Cassandra said she started having voices in her head, so it would probably have been after then that Cassandra was chosen by the benefactor.
But there is one thing I do know. And that is who the demonic benefactor is who gave them their powers.
Stay tuned for the next theory.”
It’s been a while, but a new theory has gone up. So here we go…
“Right now: Theory 5) The mysterious shining man.
We met the shining man when Charles failed a gaze into the abyss roll, and ended up in some weird limbo.
What do we know about him? Not much, but here’s what we got:
1) he’s human shape, but incredibly luminous.
2) He said Charles was not, “One of mine.”
3) He existed in a realm not quite earth, that Charles entered while in a dream. He wasn’t physically there.
To determine who he is, we need to determine what he is. Well he’s very luminous, and in addition, exists in some sort of psychic space-again Charles was not physicaly there.
Psychic space. See there it is again, Psionics keeps coming up. The Shadow, The Unseen, The Queen, The Witch-all of them have abilities connected to the mind, as I stated in the previous theory. A group of teenagers, all with powers connected to the mind.
In addition, the Shining man was confused by Charles, saying, “Your not one of mine.” Why would he be confused? One of whom? Who else could enter the psychic space?
Perhaps those kids with the ability to enter the minds of others, like the Shadow, the Queen, even the Witch can put illusions in people’s minds. And we’ve already established* in a previous theory, someone or something gave these kids powers at a young age.
I believe that this psychic shining man gave these people their powers. It makes sense-the world Charles entered was a twisted version of the town. If the world was created by the mind of the Shining man, then clearly he has some obsession with the town. In addition, that would answer who he meant by, “Not one of mine.” Charles is also a teenager, but unlike the others, he wasn’t gifted at a young age-his power came recently by accidental withcraft (see theory 1).
But who is this Shining man? Well, in Christian and Hebrew mythology, there is a being who was called, “The Bringer of Light”, or “The Morning star”, the most beautiful of God’s Angels. Until he turned against God, and fell to hell. He is commonly known as Lucifer, or The Devil.
It makes sense-what is Wolf’s main influence in her works? Demonology. Demonolgy keeps appearing with the other characters as well-it would explain why he wanted to corrupt the first born of a Christian sect.
Thus I believe the Shining Man, and the patron of the Head Cases (Patent pending) is Lucifer himself.
But what does this have to do with Diabla? Oh you thought I’d forgotten about our little 5000 year old mistress of the night? Silly people. That’s theory number 6.
I’ll either post it here, or you can ask me about it later tonight at the session. See you there.
*Note, none of my theories are canon. Yet.”