The Menace at Macy’s: Gaming summary for 4/25/04

Well, this blog is moving along in stunning fashion, isn’t it? After just one post in January and another in February, it was reasonable to hope that the 7 posts in March might be the start of a trend, but here we are at the end of April with nary a post to be seen. Scott and Rachel must think we’ve all died, or lost all interest in role-playing. I take some of the responsibility for this on myself, since I have taken on the role of the chronicler of the “Borderlands” campaign, yet I have only managed to attend one session this month. I will do my best not to let this happen again.

I’m told there’s a game going on during the Sunday nights that I don’t attend, but nobody is summarizing that, so I have no evidence of it. Come on, guys, I can only game every other week, give me some vicarious gaming to read while I’m supposed to be working.

Wendy, feel free to post the quotes from the Borderlands campaign so far; I’ve already forgotten most of them.

So here’s the summary for last night’s session, which featured not only our first actual combat in this campaign, but also the first earned point of Mojo (to Doug). Unfortunately, said point of Mojo was expended just moments later to prevent Doug’s untimely death, but nobody’s perfect. Extra kudos to Doug for attending a gaming session fresh from a 27-hour flight back from Australia. He didn’t even stop home first, people! That’s dedication! I’ve also switched from present tense to past tense for the summary. Why? Because I felt like it.

When we last left the party, they were heading up to Macy’s to cause a ruckus and sneak into a back corridor in pursuit of Fitz’s dream woman. This session opened with a small change in cast members: Gabe went off to do something else, and Chucky (Doug) opened his theater in time to see the rest of the party about to head out. Tamsin filled Chucky in quickly, and although he was bewildered, he agreed to go shopping with the rest of the party.

Once the party arrived at Macy’s, the plan went off with relative ease. Obediah jumped up onto the fragrance counter and launched into a surprisingly tuneful version of “Natural Woman,” which drew the attention of the security guards. Tamsin kept watch while Chucky and Fitz ran down the corridor and opened the storeroom that Fitz had seen in his dream, to find it full of…mannequins. Fitz pulled open some boxes, to discover that they contained women’s clothing. Although Chucky’s faith in Fitz was rapidly deteriorating, he suggested yanking open more doors in the corridor, which they did, only to find…the employee break room. After ascertaining that the men’s room was in another department, Chucky and Fitz retreated back out onto the main sales floor, meeting up with Tamsin. Obediah’s performance had ended by that time, and since he decided not to resist the guards, he was only hustled out, not arrested. Confident that Obediah was safe for the moment, the rest of the party examined the mannequin from Fitz’s dream, or rather, Tamsin examined the sweater set while debating its merits with Fitz, to cover for Chucky while he quicky scrawled a Communicate scroll and affixed it to the mannequin’s foot.

Chucky once again employed his horrendous Engrish accent to determine that the mannequin did have some sort of spirit associated with it, and that she wanted help. Unfortunately, the conversation was interrupted by another disembodied voice, that of a little girl, asking Chucky if he wanted to “play.” Chucky, who is nobody’s fool, ended the conversation at that point.
The party picked up Obediah and retreated to Veronica Savage Investigations, where the guys killed time while Tamsin did research. Tamsin turned up some information on spirit jars, but nothing on spirits being involuntarily transferred to inanimate objects. The party debated whether to continue with the mannequin problem, or address the issue of Obediah’s Fish Folk encounter. Although the Fish Folk seemed the more immediate threat, Obediah recommended dealing with the mannequin first, and the rest of the party agreed. After some more debate over whether to destroy the mannequin, and how to do so, the party decided to simply take the mannequin for further study. Tamsin and Chucky, as upstanding citizens, weren’t wild about the idea of breaking into Macy’s in the dead of night to steal a mannequin, but went along with the plan anyway. Tamsin provided the company van (although she can’t drive), Fitz declared that his skills as a telecommunications tech would (somehow) be adequate to disabling the alarms, and Obediah revealed previously unsuspected lock-picking skills. Chucky provided a traditional Chinese flunky’s outfit, complete with oversized head.

After arriving back at Macy’s, the party easily evaded the guard, disabled the alarm, picked the lock, and entered the store. Chucky used his second sight to determine that there was an evil presence in the building, but was unable to pinpoint it without getting closer. Fitz disabled a security camera by the entrance, but was surprised to note that there weren’t any other cameras in evidence. In fact, the store’s merchandise and trappings appeared to be from an early 20th century period, although the layout of the walls and furniture was identical to its modern incarnation. Obediah muttered something about having passed through “a door,” and the party took the stairs up to the women’s department.

Fitz’s mannequin wasn’t in her regular place, but there was an empty stand for her. In fact, there were no mannequins at all. Obediah noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, which caused Fitz to draw his (replacement) katana, an act that comforted precisely no one. Fitz also gave Tamsin one of his handguns, which didn’t make anyone feel any better. Breaking the tension, the party was attacked by a pair of mannequins, neither of whom Fitz recognized. Chucky whipped out his note pad and started scrawling (with flourishes). Obediah attempted to dodge, but was caught in a mannequin’s polystyrene grip. Fitz attempted to free him by attacking the mannequin with his sword, and failed miserably, but Obediah was able to slip out of his coat and escape. Chucky quickly used his prayer scrolls to paralyze one mannequin, then the other, after which Fitz and Obediah’s attacks were much more successful. Unfortunately, two more mannequins attacked the party at that point.

Tamsin, sensing that she couldn’t do much in the fight (although why she thought she’d be less useful than Fitz, I don’t know), used the “Forgot About Me, Huh?” Mundane Shtick to sneak past the mannequins and down the corridor to where the storeroom was earlier, only to find a ghostly little girl, who was animating two more mannequins. Tamsin chose imparting information over useless confrontation and retreated back to the party. Fitz and Obediah continued to fight the mannequins, and continued to fail miserably. Chucky realized that the mannequins were coming faster than he could write prayer scrolls, and decided to get to the root of the problem. He scrawled off a scroll and gave it to Tamsin, and then jumped into the corridor, shouting “Playtime’s over, little girl!” It was a beautiful delivery that successfully distracted the little girl, who shouted “NO!” at the top of her lungs, stunning the party, and tossing Chucky across the room and into the elevators with a resounding thud. Tamsin took the opportunity to stick the prayer scroll on the girl, which immobilized her and also halted the mannequins. With the party out of danger for the moment, we broke for the evening.

In two weeks: Is Chucky OK? Who’s the little girl? Why is she remodeling Macy’s? Will the rest of the party stop teasing Fitz about his supposed obsession with mannequins? Don’t miss it!