• Session 1
  • T Sep 2 2030
  • W Feb 2 2011

Scene 1: Everybody Loves a Parade

Minutemen march down a cobblestone street to the beat of drums and the whistle of fifes. They are part of a parade in downtown Boston, the first of many to come during the quadricentennial celebrations in 2030.

Scene 2: Back to School

James rides a bicycle through campus, getting lost, getting funny looks, and generally having a rough time. Finally, he arrives at XYZ Hall.

He checks in with the RA, who gives him a funny look when he's clearly carrying no luggage and accompanied by no parents or movers.

He's shown to his room, and it appears someone's already moved in, but is absent at the moment. He locks the door and opens his satchel.

Out of the satchel come his things: furniture, clothes, and books galore, all miniature and animated, marching themselves into position, then popping into full size, all at his direction.

Only a few minutes later, a knock comes to the door. He opens it, and the RA is clearly stunned to see he's already somehow settled in.

He steps outside to appreciate the beauty of the campus, and happens upon a big scene. A crowd has gathered, as students and the media try to get a look at the new arrival: Sylvia.

She announces that she's holding an impromptu concert at a local venue...admission's on her!

Amidst the din, he spots a suspicious young man looking upon Sylvia with something more than admiration...something creepy. He chances his aura sight, and sees definite magic...black magic. The young man notices and flees, but not before dropping the cell phone he'd been using to take pictures. James retrieves it.

Scene 3: ER

Night has fallen.

At Mass Gen, a boy (15 year old Alan Danes) is rushed into the ER. Julian is attending. When science fails, he calls upon his faith, but even that cannot heal him...it merely stabilizes him, but he remains in critical condition. He looks deeper, and finds that the patient suffers from a curse, probably demonic in nature.

He goes in search of the paramedics who brought him in, but just misses them as their ambulance pulls away for another run. However, a certain detective is there, half-amused, half-concerned.

McLaren has already questioned them. Apparently the boy got in a fight with some young men outside a club in Cambridge. Presumably, he was trying to weasel his way into the club with a fake ID; he probably came with friends who bailed before he was picked up.

He mentions that he hears a lot of stories like this. He wonders aloud if Julian might know more about it than he claims. The two part, both pursuing the lead in their own way.

Scene 4: Heroes

James has tracked the mysterious stalker to some sort of night club, "Heroes", via his cell phone (which was, tragically, destroyed by the magic of the locator spell). The kid is jazzed up in a punkish outfit, but that doesn't seem to amuse the bouncer...until he waves a hand in his face, stares him in the eyes, and announces "I'm a very important person", a fact which the bouncer cannot but agree and let him in.

Jim has no luck getting past the long line. Instead, he circles around back, looking for an alternate angle of approach.

He sees a likely back door, whose lock is no match for his keen lockpicking skills. As he prepares his spell, he doesn't notice the vampires sneaking up on him.

He squares off against two vampires, who have cornered him in an alley. Just when things seem to be at their worst, he is bailed out...by another vampire.

Meanwhile...

Julian is stalking through the alleyways, following his divine intuition. He reaches the scene of the crime, and begins reaching out with his senses.

"That's far enough," says the cop, with the sound of a gun's hammer clicking into place. "Show me what's in the bag," he demands, referring to the gym bag Julian is carrying.

Julian turns, unveiling the shining sword within. "Nice piece. Drop it, then put your hands on your head."

Julian doesn't drop it, but readies his grip. McLaren shouts more warnings. Julian trusts in his faith that the foolish mortal won't hit him, and charges...to meet the monster closing in behind him.

Somehow, against all odds, McLaren's shots go wild, and when he is borne over by Julian, he sees only a confusing jumble, as a demon cries in pain from the angelic blade, shedding golden sparks from his wound, and flees from the alley.

Both are startled when a wizard clambers over the wall behind them, and vampires leap into the fray. A fight ensues, and the vampires are bested; one is dusted, while the other escapes.

Much is explained. They follow the warlock inside to foil his evil plan.

Scene 5: Not Like the Movies

Inside, the club is packed to the gills with adoring fans. As if it weren't hard enough to find one punk in a crowd, in the dark, the energy of all the people interferes with the locator spell, shorting it out.

As they grasp for a way to find him, James being the only one who's even seen his face, McLaren's instincts save the day. He notices something odd in the bearing of one of the "stage hands" setting up.

Violet leads them through the back passages. They catch up with the warlock and confront him.

The warlock unveils his full power, but they are triumphant, thwarting his plan and subduing him. Only then does Sylvia herself appear to confront them. She reveals that the punk is her boyfriend Reese Carter, and doesn't seem too surprised that he's a warlock. She asks James to overlook his foolish antics, in favor of sending him somewhere he'll be "well cared-for". The warlock disappears into Faerie.

Scene 6: Coffee

At the Magic Bean, the party decompresses. A stunned McLaren tries to cope with the reality of what he's seen: magic, monsters, wizards...

The party members find kindred spirits in one another, none having any knowledge of other friendly supernatural types but themselves. They agree that the night has been a big, crazy mix-up, and, sure that it's like won't happen again, they go their separate ways.

• Session 2
  • T Sep 3 2030
  • W Feb 6 2011

Scene 1: Hapless

The scene opens the following morning with a stark realization: he's late!

James rushes to reach his first class on time. His alarm clock, an old-fashioned affair with bells and a hammer, had failed...because he forgot to set it. His watch tells him that it's 8:45, meaning he'll be well more than fashionably late for the first session of his very first class at Harvard.

Struggling the navigate the confusing campus, he manages to stagger in a mere hour after the class has begun. The students snicker as he bumbles his way past the irate instructor.

Scene 2: A Cry For Help

Professor Arthur Simons teaches The History of American Entrepreneurship to the very luckiest of freshmen, and, in Violet's case, lazy sophomores who skipped one too many classes in the previous year. The codger insists that his students take notes with pencil and paper, and presents his lectures with the aid of a slide projector. He explains that "technology should be earned, not assumed".

The lecture is interesting enough, but it's all too relieving when it finally ends at 11:30, almost four hours after it began. As the students file out, one approaches James.

A meek, shy girl with a colorful dragon battling a wizard on her white t-shirt, she can barely contain her embarassment as she tries to relay her plight. She overheard the group talking last night, and has presumably divined their true nature. She manages to introduce herself as Pearl Morley, and begins to tell her story, managing only to imply that "a good friend" of hers needs their help, then fleeing before the overbearing presence of Sylvia as she parades down to the hapless mortal. In her passing, she drops a sketch of a nasty-looking dog, along with some notes.

James realizes that she's probably in trouble, having been stalked by the clearly supernatural creature, and seeks at once to research its nature and determine how to combat it.

Scene 3: Pearls

At Widener Library, they bump into Julian, who has coincidentally happened into the place on assignment from the hospital. James has little luck finding any solid information, until assisted by the librarian, Pearl, who procures no less than 13 useful, in-depth texts on the subject.

The party determines that Black Dogs, also known as Yeth Hounds or Cano-fiends, are quasi-demonic creatures (not fey) who typically fill the role of psychopomp, or harbinger of doom and death. Some have been known to hound their prey for many nights in order to foment fear, the better to feed upon.

Clearly, Pearl is in danger. Likely, the dog will strike again tonight, and so far, no one knows where she can be found.

McLaren arrives in time to be briefed om the monster. He's looked into Pearl's background, and learned that she is living with her boyfriend Ryan Cross at 225 Pine St, Cambridge MA. He drives off to investigate the house (shadowed by Violet), while James runs off to class.

Scene 4: Swine

225 Pine St. A once-respectable row of turn-of-the-century Victorian townhomes blighted by age, now a low-rent Mecca for the downtrodden of Cambridge.

McLaren knocks on the door of the brownstone walkup, apparently waking up the sole current inhabitant. Ryan Cross, disheveled and living up to his name, answers, speaking only through the crack in the door. McLaren manages to get a few basic questions answered, but Ryan mostly dodges, insisting he has to leave for work shortly.

McLaren leaves, and Ryan emerges shortly to walk the dog. Seizing the opportunity, Violet sneaks into the house through the window. She reconnoiters the interior, noting a particular disregard for cleanliness and sanitation on Ryan's part, and manages to find an interesting clue in Pearl's room, before fleeing back out the window against an onrushing dog.

She returns to the party to show them the clue: Pearl's book of spells, including one that could have something to do with the Yeth Hound.

Scene 5: Stalker

Catching up just after James' last class, the party goes over the evidence. The ritual in Pearl's spellbook seems important; James is concerned that she might have summoned the creature herself, inadvertently or otherwise. Night is falling, and it seems clear the dog will attack again soon, perhaps this time for good. However, the party has nothing with which to track it...that is, until Sylvia suggests dealing with the Little Folk.

She lays a trap for them, and when they arrive to swarm the offering of candy, they are sealed in a circle. She demands that they guide her to the Yeth Hound to earn their freedom back. And so they guide the party on a merry chase, heedless of the sensibility of their directions, leading them across roads, through businesses, and generally leading to much exasperation.

But their efforts were not unrewarded. As they emerged from an alleyway onto Massachusetts Ave, they intercepted Pearl, who seemed to be on her way somewhere in a hurry, heedless of the danger, as the Yeth Hound stalked behind her. They moved to intercept, and the hound attacked!

They bested the hound, seemingly finishing it by forcing it into the path of an oncoming bus, but no remains were found. Distraught, Pearl thanked them for their aid, and led them to her home at their insistence for her safety.

Back at 225 Pine St, they boarded up inside, making use of Ryan's many redundant locks, and quizzed Pearl on exactly what was going on. She explained that she had recently moved in with her boyfriend, partially in rebellion against her father (seemingly well-off and controlling) in Schenectady, NY, as she entered her sophomore year at Harvard. In that time, she had learned that the locals consider the area dangerous, and her boyfriend in particular didn't like her going outside alone. She assumed it was because his mother was killed by an unknown assailant while walking on the street just outside her home.

In retrospect, the Yeth Hound seemed to make sense. Lana Cross had joined many others (mostly figures of seeming urban legend in previous generations, such as "a young girl in the 60s") in her mysterious death by what authorities had decided was a wild animal of indeterminate, but probably canine type. If the hound had been plaguing this area, that might explain the local legends.

She debunked the theory that she had summoned the creature, saying that she'd only begun research on it after first encountering visions of it in the dark while walking her dog. She never mentioned the hound to her boyfriend, fearing he would overcompensate and pen her up, and seeking to avoid adding to his emotional torment with a situation that mirrored his own mother's death.

All seemed to be going well, until Ryan's dog, Todd, started barking loudly at an unseen intruder. No one could be seen outside, but the dog was convinced. Violet got the idea to look up, as it were, peeking over the roof from the wall, and almost fell into the front yard when she saw an apparition of a man dressed like a Victorian gentleman, but with a fierce and wicked grin that was altogether in human.

She clambered in and sealed the window; the party soon set to securing the house against ethereal invasion, salting the portals, lightning candles, and the like.

Through the front window, Julian and James saw the magical aura of the ghost stalking down the road, a fearsome visage of considerable magical power. The ghost assaulted the house, but couldn't penetrate the wards...at first.

Violet and Mac thought to check the basement, which they found to be joined into a single, vast room with the other townhomes, separated only by thin partitions and doors, some of which were open. Before they could seal them off, piles of stored athletic equipment began to animate, attacking them. They fled upstairs.

Soon, the athletic equipment clambered up the stairs; golf clubs fired at the party like arrows from their bag, hockey sticks scored penalties for high-sticking, baseball mitts fluttered and swarmed like bats, and ice skates slashed at them in dazzling displays of footmanship. Rather than risk a dangerous and potentially endless battle with used sporting goods, they retreated upstairs to Pearl's room, barricading the door with furniture, and completing a magic incantation to sanctify the area.

All through the night, the animated objects slashed and rammed at the bedroom door, to no avail. With the sunrise, they fell, inert, to the ground, and the party emerged from their hiding place.

The house was a wreck; everything not nailed down had been picked up and scattered, and much of it had been used as weapons against what was nailed down. The windows were shattered, the door ajar. And they were just in time for Ryan to get home.

As he quivered in surprise, rage, and probably jealousy upon seeing Pearl with strange men, he blew up in their faces...until Sylvia laid a gentle caress on his cheek, soothing him into a stupid, complacent state. They interviewed him, and though he couldn't shed light on the ghost, he could confirm his belief in the local legends about killer ghost-dogs at night, and about how it was only safe to be outside with a dog or in large groups. He bawled openly as he revealed his concern for Pearl meeting the same fate as his mother.

He was dismissed with a suggestion to make amends with his estranged father in Southie, and to leave everything regarding his house to the party. He, Pearl, and Todd departed, along with a nice, fat check from Sylvia to cover the damages.