Some of my game’s antagonists…

Some of my game’s antagonists…

Some of my game’s antagonists…

Red Glare – Murderous, violent, patriot

Voodoo Vox – Manipulative, morally bankrupt, greedy

Katie Connelly – missing girl, some kind of connection to supervillain attacks and the failure of law enforcement’s high-tech gear.

Katie and Vox are pulled straight from Google image searches.

Red Glare (my personal favourite) is a combination of several images. First off, that’s Ronda Rousey underneath the makeup. The shoulder pad belongs to The Comedian from The Watchmen movie. The flag tattoo and body armour were also pulled from Google image search. I threw everything together in Photoshop and added the lens flare and a red tint for good measure.

As the heroes move through our gameworld, the gameworld moves on around them.

As the heroes move through our gameworld, the gameworld moves on around them.

As the heroes move through our gameworld, the gameworld moves on around them. I’ve started creating fake newspapers to highlight interesting things are happening in and around Halcyon City that don’t involve the group, but that they are free to investigate if they want to.

Here’s the first one. I’ve added in a real article from that actual date just to add some realism.

The jig is up. The truth is out. My immortal’s identity has been revealed as Judas Iscariot.

The jig is up. The truth is out. My immortal’s identity has been revealed as Judas Iscariot.

The jig is up. The truth is out. My immortal’s identity has been revealed as Judas Iscariot.

Session Report: Shadows Under Boston

Session Report: Shadows Under Boston

Session Report: Shadows Under Boston

So, last night was pretty epic in regards to secrets revealed and wizards incinerated. This is a long report!

The curtain came up on our intrepid heroes as Liam Mitchell, the Aware, arrived at the secret hideout of the Emerald Wizards, and $100 later he was speaking with one of them about a way to power the mechanical raven construct that Volund was working on – a way that didn’t involve ganking a relative of the wizard Koslovski. Liam learned about other wizard circles in Boston, but most of all learned that Volund’s wife, Hervor, was being held entranced by something on her person – likely something containing cold iron.

With Gareth continuing to prep for faking his own death and taking on a new identity, he decided to track down the home of Merika, a vampire and wife of a Dutch slaver killed by Gareth in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. Merika later became a vampire and tracked Gareth down through the ages in an attempt to find and kill him. Gareth wanted to find the information she had on him and destroy it, so he went to her house which he found occupied by a young vampire, by whom he was caught messing about in the house. Gareth was attacked and killed, and too late Volund and Sol showed up, killed the vampire, and absconded with the information Merika had as well as Gareth’s dead body.

Back at Sol’s safe house, the elf and hunter watched Gareth for a few hours. Volund knew what would happen, Sol did not. When Gareth regenerated and awoke, he needed to quickly convince Sol that he was not a vampire himself, but an immortal. Then, he spilled the beans.

Gareth was somewhere around 2000-2200 years old, and was born in a small village in the south of what is now Israel, his name at birth was Judas Iscariot. Gareth was in fact who some say was the greatest monster in history. Gareth also shared his relationship with Liam’s family with the duo. Some questions were asked and answered, and eventually Volund and Gareth left – Volund to work, Gareth to rest and recover.

Meanwhile, Solomon and Liam had made plans to attempt a rescue of Hervor from Koslovski. They went to where he had a penthouse and lit a fire in the stairwell, hoping that the fire alarm would smoke Koslovski and Hervor out of the penthouse suite, but it did not. Instead, Sol kicked in the door and went in, guns blazing.

While Sol went toe-to-toe with the wizard, Liam learned that the item holding Hervor beholden to Koslovski was her girdle, so he tried to pull it free, however under the wizard’s spell, Hervor would have none of it and began kicking the crap out of Liam. Sol was blasted and burned by the wizard’s magic, and attempted to disarm him by stealing the man’s focus – a decorated cane – however it did no good.

Meanwhile, Volund arrived somehow and watched, as he had promised Koslovski that he would not harm the wizard or Hervor. The elf watched, perched like a bird on a heavy stone mantle. He suddenly saw the loophole in his promise and dove to hold Hervor still while Liam finally pulled free the girdle and the spell was broken.

Magic and bullets flew, and soon a fire elemental bared down on Sol. The hunter moved in towards the wizard quickly, delivering a crushing blow to the old man’s larynx and then tossing him into the blazing elemental. The elemental burned away into the sky as the wizard died with a rasp (and, unbeknownst to Sol, with a curse on his lips).

That marked the end of the session.

Another great session of “Urban Shadows: Shadows under Boston” or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ragnarok”.

Another great session of “Urban Shadows: Shadows under Boston” or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ragnarok”.

Another great session of “Urban Shadows: Shadows under Boston” or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ragnarok”.

Our plans to face off with the Twilight Trio (or, as I prefer to call them, the Ragnarok n’ Rollers) got pushed off because Völundr decided to take three days and make a giant, silver-and-onyx, clockwork raven. Additionally, Gareth consulted his vast digital library to gain some insights into possible weaknesses of the Trio; Fenrir, Jörmungandr and the other one I can’t remember right now.

So, while that was happening, Solomon the Hunter had a training montage with his apprentice and my Immortal, Gareth, had a tête à tête with Liam the Savant.

With Gareth’s help, Liam was able to learn a little more about his mysterious lineage, finding out that he is somehow connected to a long-standing line of members of the Teutonic Knights. Liam was also able to suss out that there is some kind of direct connection between Gareth and the Knights, as well.

Not a single Blood roll was made.

So, I’m enjoying watching the show “Alphas”.

So, I’m enjoying watching the show “Alphas”.

So, I’m enjoying watching the show “Alphas”. I had the thought last night that an “Alpha” could make an interesting addition to the ranks of the Urban Shadows play books. Maybe, maybe not, we’ll see. This is just a spot to discuss it.

If you’re not familiar with the show, an “Alpha” is a human who has taken a large step towards the next phase of evolution, where a natural function of the body is enhanced one-thousand fold.

Here are some examples of Alpha abilities;

Hyperadrenal: able to utilize the fight-or-flight response to increase their strength and speed for short periods of time, before becoming a danger to the Alpha.

Synesthete: able to control sensory processing in the brain. A typical use of this ability is to refocus mental resources from other senses into one. The one focused sense is enhanced to a superhuman degree, but the other senses are temporarily reduced to practically nothing.

Transducer: ability to intercept communications and encrypted messages with their minds. They can literally “see” electromagnetic wavelengths but have also been shown to hear noises produced from the frequencies that even a synesthete can’t hear.

Influencer: able to override the willpower of others.

Hyperkinetic: the mind’s imaging systems and muscle control are perfectly in tune with the motor skills center of the brain. Hyperkinetics possesses flawless aim, perfect balance, and greatly enhanced motor skills. Perfect aim, perfect balance, perfect synchronization between thought and action.

As I sit here writing this, however, I’m not sure if this would translate well into a play book. Would the play book be “Evolved” (or whatever), and then they choose a single one of these examples as a move… and then what? Or would there have to be a different play book for each type? That would be too much.

Thoughts? Maybe this is too complicated or maybe it doesn’t jive with elves, werewolves, hunters, and immortals.