Session Recap: Planet Mages Session 4

Close to the scene in my mind's eye.

We break into a place that Sasha knows intimately, there is a firefight, and then a bunch snooping for clues.

Cast

• Players
• Henry Poe (Myself) - A shapeshifting wannabe actor who does stunt work. Has big confidence issues holding him back.
• Sasha Ivanova - an ex member of a coven. She rejected the groups traditions when her mentor died, and took on a cowboy persona.
• Nathaniel Stone - Born around the turn of the century, an incident during World War II turned him nigh immortal. The events he in which he participated in said war have sparked a long running deadly feud with a wicked man similarly gifted.
• NPCS
• Sergeant Johnson - Someone from another dimension who is working with the "Spiritual Society"
• Xiao Zhu - A friend of Nicholas Cage who knows a lot about the spiritual society.
• Anton Belyakov - Deceased, the man who tried to kill Nicholas Cage. Has connections to the "Accelerators."

Summary

August 21, 23:50

The guys went and took care of a few things before getting back to Red Square where we reconvene with Sergeant Johnson. Nate catches him up on the things that matter, and then Nick Cage and Xiao Zhu show up. Nick Cage explains that the man sent to assassinate him is connected with a magic coven called "The Accelerators," a group that Sasha announces she is, or was involved in, and she knows a lot about, but she left a while ago. Guess it's just a dramatic coincidence, right? Sergeant Johnson can read my discomfort with the situation and promises to pay me for my help, so there's something. Helps a lot actually because I work contracts so having something to do before another gig, might as well. They ask if I can disguise myself as Anton Belyakov to sneak us in, but Sasha is confident that she can do it without my help. I ask Xiao some questions since he seems like the most sane man in the room, I'm apparently able to communicate well enough in Broken Cantonese to get across my desire to know more about the magic information he has access to.

I get Nick Cage to sign a tie for me, the one I wore when disguised as him, and the group begins to break up. I get a ride back to the theater with Nate to get back to my car and my hotel room. We are to reconvene tomorrow morning

August 22, "Morning"

I gather up the things I have in my room, including my knife, gun, and a suit of body armor I use for stunt work. This is insane that I'm getting involved in this. Nate, Sasha, Xiao Zhu and myself gather after we take care of our preparations. Following Sasha's lead, she knows the password for the front door to the secret space, so we go into this secret facility through a bar.

Sasha shoots the hinges off a door silently... and we find out it is unlocked already, so I scoff. When we walk in, we hear a psychic ping, not sure what that means, but that gets me spooked. The next door, after a waiting room, Sasha looks through via clairvoyance, and sees that there is a guard in the next room with a gun pointed towards the door. Using her super gun powers she shoots him dead... or would if he wasn't a holographic illusion. Everyone is worried about a trap in the hallway so we try to get Xiao Zhu to analyze the hallway, he immediately notices a real gunman coming forward.

When Sasha realizes Xiao Zhu means that it is a real gunman, she shoots him too, right through the wall.

Nate Stone goes forward, but another person comes around the corner, a girl that Sasha maybe recognizes? She is also shot after she puts up an ice wall, and she faints from her wounds. One last man comes out from behind the corner with a frigging grenade launcher so I hit the ground, and start crawling closer, hoping the ice is sufficient cover. Sasha shoots him in the foot, causing him to misfire the gun... killing himself and the woman in a grisly explosion.

This causes me to faint. [Luck saves me from acquiring another quirk though!] Luckily the situation is safe and Xiao Zhu revives me.

We look around the facility which looks pretty much abandoned. One room, has a man burned to death, and a broken window, one has several boxes in it, there is a library and two classrooms. In the library, I take the following books; no one is gonna miss them apparently:

• Paracelsian Basics
• Chemistry for Dummies
• The Blue Book of Guns
• Holy Bible

Xiao Zhu is surprised to see a burnt man because he detects as being killed by magic, and according to what he knows, it is impossible to start a fire with magic. He and Sasha argue back and forth about it, but nothing important comes of that.

I start to meander the facility and find a false wall. Nate breaks it down and we find a red rotary phone inside, but we don't know what it is for, but it is in service.

In one classroom I find a picture of a nine pointed star drawn on a chalk board. Sasha hears about this and is surprised because Accelerators don't believe in the Spirit Society's nine pointed star topology. This leads to another argument with Mr. Xiao.

In the other classroom, I find the number 2006 written on a chalkboard. I do not know what it means, but I write it down anyway.

Without any more success, the party leaves through the shattered window.

Thoughts and Self Reflection

• Things I did Well
• I took a bit more initiative this time instead of letting myself just do whatever the other players did.
• Things I could have done better
• I made a realization that a very skeptical character is actually a little bit outside of the character I should be. Henry should be more dumbly naive; not a short skeptic.
• I think I was a bit distracted during a few of my turns in combat. I was surprised that I was even in "the combat."
• Things I need to do eventually.
• I have 11 points, my first goal is to get Luck at least to the 15 point level.
• bought!
• After that, Brawling and Wrestling at DX+2 for the sweet bonuses
• After that, need to start buying off backlashes for my beneficial afflictions. The drawbacks on regeneration are pretty bad.
• The combat shakes at CR 6 is pretty disruptive, I probably want to get that to at least a 12, and I probably want to remove Bad Self-Image altogether eventually, but I'm hoping to buy it off after some "character growth."
• I've been in enough fights to buy up post-combat shakes to 12.
• Things That the group did well
• The GM was well prepared
• The other players played their characters well.