Chapter Three
Campaign: Rough Magic
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The Vampire Murders
Characters
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Game Sessions
2018-09-18
The gang is drawn into a new mystery: the Vampire Murders! But everyone knows that there aren't any vampires in the Empire.
YouTube recording of game session
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2018-09-25
The gang is given a tour of St. Benedict's by Dr. Fanu's assistant Olivia. She is helpful, and properly horrified to learn of what happened to the people for whom she had cared.
They then go to the impound lot to examine the van in which the Vampire Murder victims had been transported. Doctor Celyddon casts a retrocognition spell, and finds that in the past six months, the van had been used to dispose of dozens of bodies. The disposal points had been all around Camaret-sur-Mer, but the trips all began at the same warehouse in Crozon.
The gang goes to Crozon and stakes out the warehouse. It seems closed for the night, so they call Detective Segol and say that he should come and investigate it. While waiting for the gendarmes, the gang is attacked by a werewolf! Or is it a wolf-man? In any case, they make quick work of it (or at least Doctor Celyddon does -- everything burns). They discover that the warehouse is owned by none other than the upper level Parrains gangster Alexandre Montand.
After giving Detective Inspector Segol the information they have gathered so far, the gang retires for the evening. Unfortunately, Doctor Celyddon is intercepted by the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He is vigorously questioned until dawn, and then released, when the inquisitors decide that he doesn't know anything useful (being, after all, nothing more than a cheap huckster of amulets and potions).
In the morning, Carole Desjardin is invited to the home of Alexandre Montand. Montand is polite and charming, and makes it plain to Carole that he will kill her if she continues to investigate the Vampire Murders. She agrees to cease her investigations, and then reports the incident to her boss, Anna Petronevich, Deputy Director, Société Impériale de Thaumaturgie. Petronevich doesn't bat an eyelash, and commends Carole on her work so far.
YouTube recording of game session
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2018-10-02
Dr. Fanu's assistant Olivia comes to the gang (primarily Carole) and tells them that someone came into St. Benedict's late at night and abducted a patient. She took down the license plate, but was afraid to contact the police. The gang tracks down the truck to a Maghrebi "front" which sells construction supplies.
The gang informs the police, who descend on the location in force. They find dead bodies, evidence of multiple murders, and everyone in the building is arrested and taken away. The Vampire Murders, it appears, have been solved.
The gang is not satisfied. They enter the scene after the police have gone, and through detective work and magic, they conclude that the people who were arrested did not commit the crimes committed there, and that the murders committed at that location only went back a day or so. Something doesn't add up, and the gang suspects that the Maghrebi have been framed.
The Maghrebi come to the same conclusion, and visit the Cafe Azure Americain in order to exact revenge on Johnny Diamond, who was the one who actually tipped off the police. The Maghrebi become aggressive, and the demon mask given to Johnny by the Egyptian tears two of the Maghrebi into small bloody pieces. The rest flee, along with the club's patrons.
Later, Jean-Jacques Verchère, the boss of the Pieds-Noirs gangsters in Camaret-sur-Mer, visits and politely asks to chat about recent events. Johnny reassures him that as far as he knows, the Pieds-Noirs are not involved, and Verchère asks that if Johnny learns differently, to please let Verchère know before taking the step of informing the police -- to give him the chance to resolve the matter internally, if possible. The meeting is generally amicable.
YouTube recording of game session
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2018-10-09
The gang gets to the bottom of the mystery: Doctor Fanu is behind the Vampire Murders, aided and funded by the Parrains. Doctor Fanu dies of brain aneurysm while in police custody (with a little help from Doctor Celyddon).
Doctor Fanu's motivations appear to have been somewhat noble, if twisted: she was trying to find a cure for a type of hemophilia, as well as prove to the Imperial medical establishment that they were wrong for dismissing her and calling her "mad". The Mileu's motivations are less clear, but the gang assumes it has something to do with creating an army of wolf men.
However, as far as the police are concerned, the entire thing was the work of a single disgraced doctor, and the case is closed.
YouTube recording of game session
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2018-10-16
Detective Inspector Segol asks for a private consultation with Johnny Diamond and his associates. They arrive at a crime scene, which appears to be another Vampire Murder -- although Detective Inspector Segol is careful not to call it that.
Segol does not want to re-open a closed case, particularly one so high profile, but the evidence at the scene is troubling. Over a dozen people have been drained of blood, their corpses left behind in a stack. Doctor Donald Martin, Assistant Medical Examiner, confirms that these bodies were killed in the exact same way as the original Vampire Murders, but these bodies were not prepared for disposal as were the original bodies. Additionally, the original victims were killed over the course of weeks or months, while these were all killed within the last 24 hours.
Doctor Celyddon magically examines one of the corpses, and discovers two disturbing things. First, Doctor Fanu was present when the victim was killed, shortly before Doctor Fanu's arrest. Doctor Fanu was directing the operation, and intent on finishing as soon as possible. Second, he "sees" that someone else arrived and talked with Doctor Fanu during the grisly exsanguination process -- and looked straight at Doctor Celyddon. They then cast a spell which "fogged" their appearance to Doctor Celyddon, from the moment they entered the room until the moment they left. In short, someone in the past saw that someone in the future was scrying on them, and magically obscured themselves (but not Fanu or any of the Parrains thugs doing the wet work).
The gang goes back to St. Benedict's and looks closer to see if they had missed anything. They discover that they had. There is a hidden basement under St. Benedict's, magically obscured and protected. This hidden basement connects to catacombs which extend in every direction. A short distance away, they find a demonologist's ritual laboratory. In the center is a complex ritual circle, surrounded by dozens of urns filled with blood. The blood in some urns is relatively fresh, while other urns have blood that is months old, long since coagulated.
Doctor Celyddon and Leosliath determine that this is a summoning circle, and that it is complete. All that remains is to activate it at the appropriate time -- shortly after midnight, two nights hence, on the night of the full moon. Not finding the demonologist on site (likely the same magician Doctor Celyddon saw in his retrocognition spell), Doctor Celyddon and Leosliath decide to sabotage the ritual circle. Doctor Celyddon makes a small but catastrophic change to the circle itself, while Leosliath cuts his palm and lets his faerie blood fall into several of the urns, wishing all the while for it to cause as much chaos as possible.
The gang leaves, and waits.
In the meantime, Carole is framed for a "Vampire Murder". The gang quickly determines that not only has she been framed, but she was framed by someone who was able to appear as Carole, down to her outfit. They then use magic to clear her, to the relief of Detective Inspector Segol, who was finding the whole situation uncomfortable.
On the night of the full moon, just after midnight, Doctor Celyddon and Leosliath feel a magical vibration as St. Benedict's Hospital implodes, leaving behind a smoking crater. Shortly afterward, Olivia de la Barthe enters the Cafe Azure Americain, furious.
She make it painfully clear that the gang will pay for what they have done, as will their friends, their families, and anyone or anything they have ever loved. They have cost her years of work, and she. Will. Have. Revenge. The gang responds by goading her, hoping to get her to trigger the demon mask, but Olivia is well aware of the mask and what it can do, and she keeps her cool... right up until Doctor Celyddon offers her a glass of wine. She angrily smacks the glass out of his hand, shattering it.
The demon mask awakes, and the demon moves toward her. She focuses her magical expertise on the demon, losing control of the illusion that made her appear young and beautiful. She wrests control over the demon, modifying the rules under which it operates -- and suddenly the demon is protecting her, rather than the restaurant.
A pitched battle ensues. Olivia de la Barthe is critically injured (primarily by bullets from Doctor Celyddon's invisible pistol), and flees. The demon, no longer having anyone or anything to defend, retreats to its mask. The dust settles.
In the next few days, the gang (primarily Doctor Celyddon) tries to track down Olivia, but she has fled the region. Doctor Celyddon also repairs the contract binding the demon, adding a few conditions to try and prevent anyone from repeating what Olivia did.
Things go back to normal (or something resembling it), for a while.
YouTube recording of game session
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