It didn't quite have the same delirious energy of the first couple sessions, but we hit a lot of plot points like they owed us money, and we got some good characterization in. Still no Ben Franklin though. I mean, what the hell? If I could summon up a lecherous, intangible, undead founding father I'd be on that like a teenager's cell phone!

The session commenced with Leo and Lucien waiting in the car while Cicely and Seth spoke to Dr. Park (whom one internet correspondent dubbed "Gandalf Lechter"). I imagine awkward small talk, as Lucien wouldn't take his mask off and they discussed the issues of teleportation.

Driving back to the airstrip, where they took a prop plane back to Cincinnati, they chatted about what they'd learned, and Seth expressed an interest in hiring Bolt on in an official capacity. Though, of course, that would mean he'd have to tell people his real name. They also discussed Dr. Park.

CICELY: For what it's worth, I don't think that guy's a harmless ethnographer. He's done sorcery, I think.
SETH: I can't say why, but I get this feeling that him getting out would be about the worst thing that could happen.

On the plane, Seth's cell rang. It was his secretary with a mysterious phone call that was supposedly "urgent," though the guy wouldn't give his name. (I actually flubbed this as an opening scene, so we retconned it -- clumsily, but with no scar tissue).

SETH: Hello?
MYSTERIOUS CALLER: You are in contact with Chlotilde Giroux?
SETH: Who is this?
MC: I don't have much time, but it's imperative that you tell her a letter from Prague has arrived for her. Do you understand?
SETH: Yes.
MC: (hangs up)
SETH: Pilot, can you do a low flight over the city? We have to get off.

Bolt teleported Cicely and himself down to a small cafe, while Seth attempted to fly down Leo. I say attempted because he blew his roll, lost a Willpower point and had to try again before safely arriving on his (recently cleared) balcony. His sign to contact Chlotilde was to take the fern off the balcony and put out the cactus, which he did while Leo ran to the bathroom to puke. As that was transpiring, a knock came at the door. Seth's player mimed pulling aside a shutter and peeping cautiously out.

SETH: Hello?
GM: It's Annette.
SETH: Annette! Hey, c'mon in, I was going to call you...
ANNETTE: Yeah, are you okay?
SETH: Sure.
ANNETTE: I heard you got attacked.
SETH: Um...
ANNETTE: By Amanda.
SETH: Yeah, see, I was going to tell you about that.
ANNETTE: Look, if I give you something, will you use it? Will you trust me?
SETH: Sure.
GM: She hands you a big portfolio type folder.
SETH: What is it?
ANNETTE: You're not going to turn me in for this, are you?
SETH: Of course not.
ANNETTE: Good. If it comes back, try to get it to walk across it... it should trap it, or block its powers. Try to keep the symbol between you and it.
SETH: ...okay... thanks... and hey, can you do me another favor? Between midnight and one, make sure you're somewhere that you normally wouldn't be. Doesn't matter where, as long as it's not typical. Random would probably be good.
ANNETTE: Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself.

When she departed, Seth noticed that she was limping. Inside the portfolio was a 3x3 square of flat plywood that had been whitewashed and had a diamond-shaped pattern on it in what appeared to be bloody footprints. He immediately pried up the doorjamb, pulled up the carpet, put the symbol under the carpet and put everything back as it was. There was a little bit of a lump in the rug, but he put a doormat over it.

As for Leo, he heard the whole thing. Exiting, they ran into Leo's old prep school buddy, who happened to own the car that got trashed in Seth's lot. Apologies and insurance information were exchanged. (This time I didn't use the Thurston Howell accent.) Then they met Bolt and Cicely at the cafe, where they were playing "I Never." Leo got a brief call from his agent Devon.

DEVON: What kinda music you like? Who's playing in Cincinnati?
LEO: Um, I think John Mayer's in town.
DEVON: I'll getcha tickets.
LEO: Really? How'd you manage that?
DEVON: Funny story. I've got this client in New York and he happened to pull a car out of a ditch and it had this record company guy in it, or something like that... anyhow, what's happening with you?
LEO: Well, did you hear about the flaming Salamander?
DEVON: Is that the guy down in Texas? Yeah, he's pretty brave coming out down there...
LEO: No, the big burning lizard that attacked Miami's campus!
DEVON: When were you in Miami?
LEO: University of Miami at Cincinnati.
DEVON: If it's in Ohio, why is it called Miami?

Almost as if in passing, Devon asked Leo if he was ready to start talking to the press, and when Leo said he thought enough time had passed, Devon asked if he wanted to position himself as a pop culture media figure, or more of a serious sociopolitical person.

DEVON: Basically, d'you want to be on NPR or MTV?
LEO: NPR. I want to be like Harrison Ford.
DEVON: Doesn't everyone.
LEO: Well, I mean, Ford isn't caught up in the scene, but when he takes his private helicopter to rescue people on his own dime, it's influential.
DEVON: Check. As long as there's no "Seven Days, Six Nights."

After exchanging contact information (Bolt has a burner phone) the PCs went back to their respective homes to rest. Lucien had a message from his brother that both a police detective and a private investigator wanted to talk to him, while Leo walked in to the familiar reek of Tracy's glaucoma medication. What was not familiar was the purple metal-flake helmet with big, horn-like spoilers that Tracy was wearing.

LEO: Uncle Tracy. Please no.
TRACY: (Pushing the faceplate aside) Isn't this great?
LEO: Where'd it come from?
TRACY: Vast sent it to us! He wanted to say thanks for the scar thing. Apparently when he was just starting out, some artisan made this for him on spec. Get this, the guy thought his name was 'Fast'. Since he can't wear it, he sent it to us.
LEO: Yeah, but the problem is, if you're not inhumanly fast someone's going to grab you by that spoiler and twist your head off.
TRACY: Sheesh, what a killjoy. Check this out... lemme find the button... (a panel opened on the front of the spoiler and a bright spotlight shone out) Isn't that neat? Oh, and these... (Another button, and police lights started flashing.) It's got some kind of radio rig in here, and it's titanium, try it on!
LEO: No thanks. I'll be in my room.

In his room, he called Swanda, who chastised him briefly for not calling back, said she'd heard he saved some other coed's life -- "Should I be jealous?" -- and told him that she'd been declining interviews. After a little more conversation ("You should call Doug, he's worried about you") she mentioned that Heather had called her to apologize. "Apparently, she's calling everyone. Or, if not everyone at the party, everyone who was... you know, everyone endangered."

Emerging from his bedroom, Leo asked Tracy if he wanted another crack at healing Cicely, and the old vet said he felt the spirit moving within him, so why not? He made the call, she agreed, and when she came out of her house, Trey was watching. An ugly and very well-acted quarrel ensued.

CICELY: What are you doing here?
TREY: I... I wanted to make sure you were all right, when I heard what happened...
CICELY: You couldn't phone first? Because after getting jumped I'm a little protective of my personal space, so you sitting outside my house like a stalker is...
TREY: I was in the area! Did you see my car here when you came home? No! I drove by and saw your car parked. I decided to see how you were doing. I guess I got my answer! Look, let's just... let's just try to calm down and not have this be antagonistic.
CICELY: I'm not being antagonistic, but I think it's a good idea to put up some boundaries.
TREY: Oh for the love of... I guess this is the last time I go out of my way to be considerate.
CICELY: (With a short, bitter laugh) Oh yeah, because THAT was such an issue between us.
TREY: I give up, I'm going, I'm gone, I just... look. I just want to know you're too smart to let your personal feelings about me get in your way if you need help, okay?
CICELY: If I had personal feelings for you, they wouldn't.

Seth talked to the police chief and found out that some scant evidence had shown up near the site of the salamander attack: A partially melted fine tip plastic brush under the kiln, and a single plastic bristle with human blood on it in the men's bathroom. A witness who was in the Fine Arts building before the attack remembered that the bathroom was locked and had an "Out of Order" sign on it... but that the sign was on a Post-It note, instead of the usual janitorial plastic sign. Furthermore, only someone with a key would be able to lock it from the outside, so it was plausible that someone put up the note, then locked himself inside the bathroom to do... well, something with human blood. Musing about that, Seth told the chief he was heading home.

Cicely drove to Tracy's house, where Tracy rolled his freaking TEN DIE pool to Heal her, got a 3x1 set that failed to beat the Difficulty set by her injuries, and was completely flustered. He's really starting to wonder why his powers are failing him with this girl.

CICELY: I feel a little emotionally better, is that part of it? (Out of character, to the GM) She doesn't, by the way.
TRACY: No, I... the way it usually works is, I feel the spirit build up inside me and then it flows out...
CICELY: You're not a sorcerer, are you?
TRACY: (Offended) Certainly not!
CICELY: Well, I mean, I'm in that program at the college and I know there are some people who... they just have a natural talent.
TRACY: (Stunned and appalled) I... I'm... um, I'm hungry, I'm going to cook up some eggs, anybody want eggs?

Cicely then offered to take Leo out to the woods. She wanted to get her act together, but also wanted someone to watch her back. On the way out, she felt him out about his ability to keep a secret, then told him about Ben Franklin's ghost and her other activities. When they reached an abandoned shack out in the middle of nowhere, she asked him to keep watch while she summoned an archon.

INTERLUDE: FRETTIN' 'BOUT THE RULES
As I've currently got it set up, sorcerers have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops and do a whole bunch of stuff to get results, and if they fail even one, it's a pretty meaningful setback. In this instance, she had to (1) roll to cast the spell, (2) roll the spell's pool to summon the spirit, (3) roll to cast another spell to try and bias it towards her and then (3) roll the spell's pool again to turn its head. Yeah. Not exactly "one roll does it all" in this instance, but the player was actually okay with it, feeling that when you're trying to do a big bad spiritual effect, it SHOULD require you to do a load of setup. We'll see.

SESSION THREE: CONTINUED

The summoning involved her stripping naked, presenting a sword to the four points of the compass, and chanting for about an HOUR. Leo, who'd been fascinated at first, was just starting to get bored when a HUUUUGE bolt of lightning struck... and a sword-shaped chunk of it didn't fade away, but instead asked her "Who implores the Blade of Justice?"

Some good rolls got her the Blade's protection for a month, and its first offer was to heal her undeserved wounds. (She didn't even know it could do that!) She said yes, it did it, and then suggested that if she wanted it to protect her, she should let it conserve its strength. (It can be arduous for spirits to exercise their powers on the mortal world.) Heading back into town, her phone rang and Seth invited her to meet him for some out-of-costume beers. She picked a place and he said he'd call the others.

GM: Now you can watch Leo and see if Seth was really calling everyone, or was just mackin' on you.

Instead, Seth called Bolt, who'd gotten a message from his brother that a THIRD investigator was asking for him. Bolt reluctantly agreed to show up unmasked. But first, he went and stalked the other PCs to see if anyone was tailing them. As it happened, someone was. Walking by Seth's apartment building, he noticed a bald woman with glasses in a parked car, who looked up when Seth took off Nothing elsewhere.

Arriving at the bar, Bolt cased the joint while Seth played pool. A pretty woman lost to him, then suggested they play for money, then (when he rooted around in his wallet to 'see how much he had' casually badging her at the same time) hastily amended that to 'Or we could just play loser buys the winner a drink!" About that time, Lucien sidled up to play him.

BOLT'S PLAYER: I'm going to subtly let him know who I am.
GM: How? Like, pass him a bolt in a handshake? Like, the little piece of hardware?
BOLT'S PLAYER: Why not?

Leo and Cicely showed, and Bolt's mysteriousness was somewhat dispelled when a fellow patron came up to him and said, "Lou? Hey, it is you! That car you sold me is a LEMON, man!"

CICELY: You know, my car feels like it's been pulling to the left lately...
LEO: My uncle's a mechanic, you know.
CICELY: This is the same uncle who tried faith healing? Maybe I'll just take it to Midas.

Lucien told Seth about the bald girl following him, and he said, "It's okay, I consider her family, but I think she feels like she'd be reminding me of Amanda." Cicely halfheartedly cruised for action, but upon being told that the likeliest prospect was a beefy, crewcut man in a corner wearing a leather jacket and drinking vodka, she decided to wait. Around 11:30 Seth suggested they go for a walk, just in case Amanda's headless corpse showed up, and as they arrived at an appropriately foggy public park at the stroke of midnight, it did.

GM: Roll Cool+Stability.
LEO'S PLAYER: Four tens on four dice!
GM: Have a Willpower point. Lucien?
LUCIEN'S PLAYER: Where's Stability?
GM: (Examines his sheet.) Y'don't have it. Roll two dice.
LUCIEN'S PLAYER: (Pause) What happens.
GM: Oooohkay, you have a choice. You can lose half your Willpower and go fetal, or you can lose ALL your Willpower and continue to act.
LEO'S PLAYER: Though, without Willpower, you can't use your powers. I'd start huddling and sobbing if I was you.
LUCIEN'S PLAYER: Okay.
GM: Yeah, this vigilante idea sounded great, but you somehow always pictured it as bullying street thugs and rescuing kidnap victims, not a freaking DEAD BODY with a head made of blue FIRE.

I decided Seth didn't have to roll, since he'd seen the thing extensively before, and Cicely has Stability out the wazoo. It was fast and tagged Seth on the arm before he scooped up Cicely and flew into the air out of its reach. And then Annette showed up, pistol in hand, blazing away. Leo summoned his Alter, who protected Annette, while Cicely invoked the Blade of Justice, which immediately said, "The Blade is drawn."

Next round, the thing threw a rock, which Seth avoided and which Cicely could have caught had Seth not avoided it, while the spirit said, "The Blade is raised."
Annette continued to fruitlessly try and shoot it (she's a crap shot), Seth dodged and at the end of the round, after "The Blade descends" this friggin GINORMOUS lightning bolt hit the creature and literally exploded it.

Sobbing, Annette tried to conjure back her sister's ghost. When she failed, Cicely tried and (being a much stronger sorceress) succeeded. Then it was time for the Clue Exposition Discharge, which went pretty well, I thought. One aspect of the setting is that ghosts have no emotions -- they're just memories and logic structures left over from the living. So Annette was calm and dispassionate as she explained that she'd been trapped by the nemesis spirit, which accessed her thoughts and memories to predict what Seth would do and to be better able to hurt him.

SETH: What happened to you?
ANNETTE: I didn't see who grabbed me. They put a bag over my head, and I think it was soaked in some sort of chemical because I immediately got dizzy and passed out. When I woke up, I was in a car trunk with my hands cuffed behind my back. They were the plastic, disposable cuffs. It wasn't a new car -- the trunk showed signs of wear, and it was spacious, so I think it was probably a sedan. We drove for some time, even after I woke up. I got a brief look around when they let me out -- I saw a river, some docks, and I smelled this strong soybean odor. I could hear a highway nearby and it looked like I was in a rundown neighborhood. I think it was Columbus. The sun was just starting to get low when they grabbed me, and I could still see a little sunset when I got out, before they put the bag back on. They walked me into a building. I think it was an apartment building, because I heard sounds of habitation around on the first floor. It smelled bad. We went up a flight of stairs, and heard more family sounds. Then, after another set of steps, nothing. One more set of steps and they led me into a room with no windows. They took the hood off me and used a taser on me. While I couldn't move, they secured my ankles, then tied both my ankles and my wrists behind my back. There was a ring set into the floor, they used that. A woman with dark hair and a mask had a serrated knife, a long one like a bread knife. It had a black handle. She cut my head off, starting at the front and sawing back and forth.

While they digested that information, the ghost turned to her sister and said, "I've been thinking about that argument we had at Thanksgiving and, in retrospect, you were right. Mom and Dad did always behave as if they loved me more, though I preferred not to think about it. That's why I reacted so strongly, because I knew what you said had some merit. I always loved you." Then she turned to Seth and said, "When I was in the car, I was very angry with you, but I can now see that what happened to me wasn't your fault. Be well."

With that, she went on to her final rest.

Driving home, Seth got a call from Chlotilde, setting up a meeting.