Is it Homicide or Suicide if you kill your evil twin? Recap of yesterday’s half session of Nobilis. We return to our regularly scheduled D&D game in two weeks.
(Dis)members:
We awaken in an alley. Three black men, an Asian man, an Asian woman, and a white man all come to consciousness in a circle lying around what appears to be an angel. Wings and all. The angel lay in a pool of blood, seemingly beaten, stabbed, and shot. We lay about him, each of us with an implement of murder worthy of a game of clue: Fireplace poker, tire iron, shovel, Louisville slugger, pistol, knife. Problem, aside from Angelcide, is that none of us know each other, or ourselves, as if our pasts have been completely wiped away.
After a near standoff as one guy (Aaron) makes a move for the pistol that is next to the someone else (Chiasa), we inspect the body. For a second we see that it is the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen, then it kind of turns mortal and mundane, a businessman face down in a pool of his own blood. Of course the most freakish part of this whole thing was when Aaron dabbed a bit of its blood on his tongue for some unknown reason. Apparently he tasted good.
We do a search of ourselves and find hints of our past but none of it rings a bell.
About then a couple of gangsters come down the alley and proceed to try and hold up Chiasa for her purse. Maiko takes initiative and lashes out with a few martial blows and hurts one guy but not without taking a few bullets for his trouble. Strange thing is, while they hurt like hell, it’s only a few minutes before he’s fine (except for the blood). There’s a struggle with Gabriel tackling the remaining one and Chiasa breaking his arm.
Here’s what we know:
We visit a few places (Liquor store, Bar) and then head for the motel. The place has been turned over by someone searching for something. There’s an address and a name “Lorraine”. We head there and discover it’s an empty house, but one that has been accessed as the back door is open. Someone has been going through things, but more selectively. During the search, another Aaron shows up and takes a swing at Gabriel. He sees Aaron and shouts that he wants his soul back. The two struggle and anyone watching closely can see a strange umbilical tether between the two as the other Aaron is trying to drain the life force from our Aaron.
After much struggling and discussing, Aaron kills his double and suddenly his memory is back, except for the last two days. He’s a prison inmate, a heart surgeon who proscribed drugs for rich and famous people and ultimately wound up in jail as a dealer. He has a wife and child. Of course he’s going to have to forget them for now.
We consider where everyone else is, what our other doubles are doing, and how they’re likely to want to come after us. We surmised that FBI Agent Bob is likely to have the most tenacious, and likely dangerous, pursuer. By use of a credit card we lure him to a hotel while we stay across the hall. When Bob shows up and tries to kill Bob, we ambush him and drag him away. Some folks there try to snap pictures of us but so far so good. We get him out of there and end up killing Bob II and subsequently dump the body.
The game is getting darker by the minute.
We try to bait Chiasa’s double by use of credit cards (especially since we spend a lot of time buying new clothing due to all the blood). We check out the Laguna shop and discover she’s on her way back up to San Francisco. We end up going that direction, investigate her shop and think we’ve missed her again. But as we sit in a coffee house, a car rams the place and pins Chiasa against the back wall. We have to assail her and make her back off the gas and put a few bullets in her head. Chiasa gets her memories back and we now have to head cross country.
Of course by now we’re media darlings. There’s a story about a businessman murdered in an alley in L.A. There’s a story about a recent parolee cut up into pieces. There’s an FBI agent sought for questioning, but his body is eventually found and the media presumes this is because he was into something bad. And a crazed woman drives into an SF coffeehouse.
We arrive in New Orleans after a long drive, and some of the guys go to Gabriel’s place of work and find out that Gabriel’s mom has been calling for him regarding something urgent. The boarding house where he stays has only a note saying “See Mom”. So we find the address and go there. It’s in a rural area that won’t see much traffic, so we roll up, knock on the door and Gabriel answers the door and tries to stab Gabriel. After a brief struggle the group puts him down and upon entering we discover that Gabriel’s mom is beaten and abused and keeps shouting “don’t hurt me Gabriel”. We leave despite Gabriel’s desire to try and explain to his mom that it wasn’t him.
On the trip north we stop off in Atlanta. Maiko has been using his credit card in order to draw the attention of his double. It works, but it seems he’s the double has booked a flight to NY. So we continue on that way to kill two clones with one stone.
While investigating Phiillip’s home in a rundown tenement, we find and murder him as well, but on our way out, Maiko shows up and tries to gun down his original with a shotgun. There’s another struggle and murder before we run off.
Now everyone has their memory back, but over the course of days we begin to discover that we don’t feel whole. It’s as if we’re missing half of our souls. We start having dreams. Some of us have clearer leads. Chiasa has to track down an electrician in Vegas to get a clue as to how to complete herself; Phillip has to get into (and out of) a high security room in the federal reserve; Bob has to tell “The Aristocrat” (the horrible disgusting unfunny joke) from the movie of the same name in front of an audience AND win that comedy competition as a result; Gabriel has to see an indian in a desert somewhere; Maiko has to contact a tech critic online and find a clue, which ends up being that he needs to get a hold of a prototype of a microchip that isn’t accessible to the public at Intel; Aaron needs to get his hands on some heroine from a shipment that is coming in from France.
Chiasa finds the electrician, who tells her about how he designed the blinding light that used to come out of the top of the Luxor, but how by law it now only shines at a fraction of its brilliance. She gains access to that spot and amps the light back up to full. When she does, she gains a piece of her soul and an instant miracle. She crafts these earrings that emit light. She’s the governess of the domain of Light.
Maiko gets his chip by use of the tech critics high security access and discovers that he’s the god of Technology. For his miracle he crafts an Ender’s Game style computer that, while it can’t read all computers, it can read all the ones local to where he is.
Aaron gets in with his contacts, tracks down the shipment and bargains for a piece of the drug trade and a brick of the incoming heroine. Upon sampling it (orally) he becomes Drug Kingpin and for his miracle crafts a drug that can cure breast cancer, though he’s not sure how to replicate it yet.
Gabriel did a little research in the library before he discovers some information about Superstition Country, AZ. There he discovers an Indian with a little grudge against the white man, who sees me eying a book on his desk and gives it to me. It’s a book of superstitions. The book it turns out is The Amityville Horror. Gabriel has to go to the Amityville house, gain access, and find his clue. There in the basement he finds the real clue, which is that there was someone between when the murdered DeFeo family and the haunted Lutz family lived there, and that they were responsible for the false haunting which blew up into a legend. With this truth/lie in hand, Gabriel becomes the lord purveyor of Superstition. His miracle is that he manifests a working voodoo doll; just collect hair & such from the victim and apply effects. (Though I seriously thought about making the Amityville House really haunted, the Blair Witch into a real being, or making Bloody Mary really appear when you chanted her name 3 times in front of a mirror in a dark room).
Phillip gets into the Federal Reserve, but getting out is the trick which me manages to do by virtue of being the God of Doors. I don’t recall what he did or created. (Sorry, I was looking up stuff about Amityville)
Bob goes to the comedy festival and tells the disgusting joke in such a way as to put the entire audience into hysterics. As they roll around helplessly gasping for breath he manifests his miracle: A joke that when told will disable opponents with laughter.
Next time we play this game, which will only be when the other game is down for whatever reason, we will have to gather the remaining fraction of our power.