London 1802: Gathering Gloom
Wednesday October 6, 2010 at 5:30pm | world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes | Comments (0) » |
Robert and Katherine moved forward to sit beside the girl on the sofa. Molly began closing curtains around the room while George escorted the other guests toward the kitchen. Gerald simply stared in frustrated confusion.
The girl continued to engage Robert in conversation while Katherine listened closely, trying to pick up any sound from the girl, but she was completely silent. The girl asked again where Lance might be and seemed surprised when Robert indicated that he didn't know this person. She mentioned that he hadn't called for her in several days. She then asked Robert about himself and how he'd been lately, inching closer to him on the sofa. Katherine, who'd finally managed to hear her, thought she was fairly obviously flirting with him. The girl was about to leave when Katherine addressed her. She seemed startled, almost as if she hadn't noticed anyone else in the room. She also seemed surprised the others could hear or even see her. Katherine asked her her name, and she replied that she was called Diana. They talked briefly about the strange happenings in the city, and Diana seemed to know something was wrong as well. She told them that there was something lurking in the east side of the city, driving other things away. She told them the east side didn't "feel" right anymore. They asked her how they could reach her if they heard from Lance, and she told them to go back to Allens Street. She then put a flower in Robert's hand, smiled, and stood up - vanishing as she did so. The flower Robert held wilted and dried immediately.
The group was still quite exhausted after their day spent on the fire brigades and, as they welcomed the guests back into the main area of the house, decided they would clean up and have a brief discussion before bed. The guests present seemed to have all but forgotten the events that had just transpired.
Katherine was awakened suddenly in the middle of the night to the sound of breaking glass. She roused Molly and the two of them crept down the hallway, hearin the sounds of someone moving about downstairs. Molly had grabbed a knife and Katherine had an unloaded pistol which, she thought, might be useful for bluffing if necessary. Robert had heard someone walking past and had emerged quietly from his room as well, also holding a knife. The three of them heard another crash come from the direction of Gerlad's room - it seemed as though more intruders were coming. The group ran down the stairs.
They found the intruders to be rather sloppy burlars, uncoordinated and thuggish. The fought with the brutes, Molly and Robert giving two of them rather significant knife wounds and Gerald knocking one out with his medicine bag. The encounter was nearing its end when Katherine felt a prickle creep up the back of her neck. Peering past the material realm into the twilight, she saw the hideous form of the spirit creature that had been possessing the large sailor they'd fought earlier in the day. She screamed. Robert came back around the corner and asked what was wrong, but he was unable to see anything. Katherine pushed her arm into the twilight and took a swing at the creature with the butt of her pistol, but it seemed to have little effect. It was at this moment that Robert felt something wash over him, and his eyes seemed to pierce the darkness as he saw the hideous beast before him. "What is that!?", he exclaimed. Katherine was moving backward up the stairs and was just about to bash its head again when it disappeared. Katherine and Robert looked at each other, relieved but still shaken.
After binding the unconscious intruder, calming some of the others in the house who were awakened by the commotion and making sure the house was relatively in order, they returned to their beds, still more exhausted than before.
The next morning was spent around the bathhouse. The rains continued to pour outside, and it was particularly cold for this time of year. There were an abnormally large number of chimney's spewing particularly dark smoke - especially from the east side of town - as well, adding to the fog and smog that seemed thick around the city. There were very few people on the streets.
The thug they'd subdued didn't seem to remember much about the previous night's activities. The Register reported that there'd been a large number of such break-ins and random crimes around the city and the source of the fires that had ravaged parts of the east side the day before was still to be determined. Parliament was scheduled to discuss these matters in a special session that day, and some governmental action was expected.