Tom (Citizen_W from his blogging days) volunteered to GM (technically FM as the person running the campaign is referred to as the Fatemaster rather than a Gamesmaster) and is an experienced GM having run campaigns in a variety of systems ranging from the more story driven (such as Vampire the Masquerade and Call of Cthulhu) to the combat based systems such as Fantasy Flight Games's Deathwatch and many others in-between. He's also somewhat notorious for certain 'surprises' that he's inflicted on players and for the fact that he keeps careful track of how many bullets you've fired.....
A number of players had expressed an interest but given real life's tendency to get in the way the attendance has been a bit sporadic but the system handles people dipping in and out quite well. Some people will be mentioned by their real names as I'm terrible at remembering character ones...
The Characters.
Marcus Smith is my character, Ron Cobb and Maverick Gibson belong to Martin and Dave Jennens respectively, Verity is Graham's...the others are mentioned just afterwards..
A seven and a half foot' tall miner with one fully steam-punk arm called Ron Cobb who given the racial prejudices of the time puts on the front of 'scary black guy' but is actually both a skilled blacksmith and a talented engineer. His interest in explosives may be considered excessive however...
Marcus Smith the youngest son of a family whose legitimate business involves organising fighting events but actually make most of their money through gambling, prostitution and other forms of 'entertainment' much of which is supplied with support from the Ten Thunders. Acted as an enforcer for his family as a combination of illiteracy and a complete lack of social skills made anything more sophisticated a bit of a problem...he also likes knives...a lot...
Maverick Gibson a professional gambler, con man and wastrel who has journeyed to Malifaux to escape the consequences of a con gone wrong.
Verity Hardcastle a high society courtesan and information dealer who murdered a customer (no idea whether this was pre-meditated or in 'self defence'...it may become apparent later...) who became unhappy with finding his confidential secrets had been sold to a business rival.
...and the two whose character names I forgot...
Toby's character is an overseer and business man who has manipulated his way to success through a combination of natural charm and information gathering skills, Harold's is a Neverborn Hunter...of course, we don't know that, lol.
Our GM Tom also has a character he uses basically to get us into trouble which he'll use should some-one else take the reins for a session called Sabrina Smith who's a thief who dabbles in magic.
My narrative parts are in normal text, the original notes of our GM that he's sent me are in italics and any additional notes from me are in purple italics.
Through the Breach.
It was decided that all our characters would be new to Malifaux and therefore would effectively meet on the journey there so the story began with a piece of narrative detailing our initial journey through the breach and our subsequent arrival at the station in Malifaux. I was somewhat unsure about how we'd end up working together if we had no connections other than being on a train together...
Editors Note - There's no mention in any of the books where the Earthside end of the breach actually is so our GM decided it was in London...
Each of you has travelled into the nightmare smog of London to make the trip through the breach, some of you may be escaping your past or looking for a new future, other are driven by desire or a dark secret but you’re journey’s so far all converge in this place.
Paddington Station bustles with activity as you shove your way through the crowds to platform M. You make your way carefully down several flights of elegantly tiled stairs, their polished surfaces glinting in the gas light. The station opens out before you all of a sudden, almost as if it had been lying in wait beneath streets above. The train that stands at platform M is unlike any you have seen before. It pulses out gouts of steam every few seconds almost as if it were breathing rather than venting ready for the move.
You find a compartment with relative ease, pleased to find it empty. You glance out the window as the last few stragglers pile into their own carriages, a cross section of Earth itself. The train slowly begins to pull away, through the vibration from the rails you can feel an unsettling intensity as if the train itself was desperate to be surging toward the breach.
You doze on your long journey out of the smog of London through the rolling fields of the home counties barely noticing the pedestrian traffic outside your compartment but each clack of the rails bringing a sense of ease, as if you were journeying home. “Breach, Breach” The guard calls out as the gas lights dim a little.
The train judders for what feels like an eternity, your stomach shifts and the flicker of the gas lamps becomes a dazzling kaleidoscope of colour and shape. You become lost in the roiling sweep of sensations, slowly feeling drawn toward the mysterious veil, compelled, invited into…
The world settles and your eyes fall upon the steady certainty of the compartment clock; to your surprise only a matter of seconds have passed. A conductor shuffles awkwardly along the corridor outside the cabin “Breach side, Breach side” his voice seems distorted, indefinably different from moments before on the Earth bound side of the rift.
The view through the window has shifted from rolling countryside to an ashy waste. The only feature, two rail lines stretching into the distance. “Malifaux, Malifaux.” The guards shout stirs you from your contemplation. You gather your meagre belongings and move towards the door as the train slides into the station, with what you could almost call grace.
Malifaux station is deserted but for a few officials checking the documents of those attempting to leave the station and porters milling around eagerly awaiting the nod from weary passengers. A commotion toward the rear of the train draws your attention. The officials break from their stamping and many break into a run, closing on the scene.
Curiosity draws your forward, only to regret your decision. At the rear of the platform lies a body.
On arriving in Malifaux our disembarkation from the train was delayed due to some commotion outside and when eventually let off the train we were kept in a cordoned off area and couldn't help but notice that there was a significant guard presence in the area...perhaps due to the body of some unfortunate man lying dead next to the tracks...
Editors Note - We were then handed some notes. Tom often does this in order to relay information that may only be known to certain characters or if it's relevant to aspects of our characters that are unknown to the others. Mine had a brief run-down of which of the guards looked able to look after themselves and which didn't and mentioned that the wound on the corpse was probably made by a bladed weapon of some kind...I anticipated some difficulties in my immediate future as I had several knives and not all of them were concealed. One of our group was also given a note full of useful information which he kept to himself and probably should have shared...more on that later...
From behind you a whistle sounds, “Hold still. Everyone here is under arrest by order of the Mercantile guild, and the authority of Mr Lucius Mattheson.
Fortunately for me the fact that our group of passengers also included a gentlemen who was a foot and a half taller than the rest of the crowd had drawn attention away from myself somewhat though given that I 'd heard stories about strange things occurring on the journeys through the Breach I checked my weapons for blood stains regardless of the fact that I couldn't remember killing any-one recently...there weren't any...which was a relief...
A significant group of people were already separated from us and were obviously mine workers of some description.
Most of those entangled in the guilds pen are similarly attired, their rough spin brown overalls bearing bar codes across their left shoulder. They gather in small groups muttering amoungst themselves.
A hooded figure approaches the guard from behind the station hands over a document and whispers a few quiet words. The lead guard turns and gestures at the huddled groups of brown clad workers.
“You are all free to board the next train.” He turns to the hooded figure, “It’s on your head now”
After a brief period where we asked various questions about the surroundings, the corpse and a few other bits of information relevant to our various characters we were escorted to a room in the station and separated into smaller groups (presumably for the guards to manage easier) and by a strange coincidence our group consisted of all our characters and the few generated by people who were unable to attend...
Editors Note - Any regular players of RPG's reading this will be aware that getting a fairly large group of people with actual real lives together can somewhat be problematic as birthdays, events and work related disasters sometimes get in the way. Tom included the characters of the people unable to attend the initial session so at least they were in Malifaux and could be inserted into the campaign later.
We were then given the chance to chat amongst ourselves (in character of course) while the more action orientated people were looking for possible escape routes. I listened at the door and discovered that the Guild Guards basically had no idea what to do in the situation and were waiting for some-one of rank to turn up and decide whether to let us go or investigate further. I was also informed when asked that kicking down the door wasn't going to be difficult but would certainly take a bit of time and would definitely draw the attention of every guard in the station. I then decided to have a chat with the one person in the room who looked like he could remove the door much more quickly than me (and possibly a good chunk of the surrounding wall) and me and Ron had a bit of in character banter before deciding to wait and see before we did anything unspeakably violent. On returning to listen at the door some more it opened before I could reach it and we were told that we were free to move around the station and surrounding area but weren't to pass through the cordon that had been set up. Luckily the immediate area contained a tavern which most people promptly visited.
Marcus did a subtle once around of the area we were limited to in order to scout for escape routes though all were guarded...not well guarded, but guarded none the less. I also got handed another one of those notes...
Editors Note - This was a description of the guards which I as some-one with extensive knowledge of the background told me that several of the Guild Guards weren't actually Guild Guards...Unfortunately my character isn't so well informed so to him it was just a list of poorly equipped Guards, lol.
The tavern was a dive of the worst kind and as every-one else had already started to mingle my guy was beginning to stand out a bit so I promptly invited myself to a dice game being played by two people who looked easy to intimidate and attempted to blend in...
Maverick was similarly engaged though with a game of cards rather than dice, Ron had taken a table to himself and was being quite obviously observed by a couple of poorly disguised Guards, Toby's 'Overseer' was trying to chat-up both Verity and a lady who introduced herself as Sabrina Smith (no relation to Marcus, lol) and the other characters (who were effectively NPC's till their players turned up for a session) were briefly described doing in character things...
Due to a set of both improbably high and amusingly low card flips both Toby and Sabrina failed to con any information out of the other but also were totally aware what the other was attempting. Sabrina did successfully steal most of Toby's bullets though. Verity was also quite obviously way out of the league of any-one in the tavern but on the bright side didn't need to pay for any of her own drinks. Ron didn't pay for any of his either...though for significantly different reasons.
The highly suspicious Guards left the tavern and were followed by the rest of us with the exception of Marcus who (to be honest) was going to do a runner while the Guards were gone...unfortunately it then got complicated...
Editors Note - One of the guys playing was relatively new to role-playing and therefore missed some of the finer points. Points such as information handed to you on notes such as 'you see what the actual murderer looked like' and 'those Guards are more than likely Neverborn in disguise' might be worth sharing. He also didn't bother to help in any way with the incapacitation of the aforementioned guards leaving the job to a guy who could carry a train carriage and has an arm that's basically a giant metal club. It was also pointed out later that if my character wan't so busy looking out for himself he would have been in the alley and as my character is basically a boxer and owns a pair of knuckledusters he could have took out both the guards with little effort...I still blame the others though...
What should have been a simple job of knocking out a couple of people, examining their bodies (not that we'd have any reason to as we weren't told that they were probably bloody Neverborn) and then sneaking off turned into a double homicide as Ron was forced to do the 'knocking out' which turned into a decapitation as the man's head promptly disintegrated in a spray of very none human looking blood which started to melt through both Ron's arm and much of the floor and then having little to lose the other guard was shot by one of the remaining group...
Meanwhile the sound of shots from outside resulted in mass panic followed by a mass evacuation of the bar which Marcus soon joined and having little other option followed the only people he actually knew which unfortunately for him turned him rather neatly into a fugitive as well, lol. As luck would have it Sabrina seemed to know her way around and had a rather useful contact that could help to hide us out for a bit...
After a significant chase down several alleyways, side streets and through what we thought were blind alleys we reached a well disguised side door and were then introduced to Sabrina's contact Oscar. He wasn't particularly happy to see us...
Oscar was halfway through berating Sabrina for bringing a group of fugitives to his house and shouting at us for being a bunch of fugitives in his house when a crashing noise came from upstairs so Marcus decided to redeem myself in the groups eyes by rushing upstairs to investigate with Ron closely behind...and then I narrowly avoided getting a brace of throwing stars to the chest though I did have to cheat the Defence flip as apparently Torakage are quite good at throwing things. The would be assassins obviously weren't expecting to find any-one other than Oscar in the house and Marcus used the moment of indecision to kill the first one with his opening attack (He's quite handy with the Pugilism Skill) but the other was to far away to engage and suddenly my character looked like having a really short career as the second had time to prepare himself. He wasn't however prepared for a gigantic black gentlemen to come charging into the room like a freight train and smash his skull in with a giant metal arm though..
With us somewhat redeemed in the eyes of our new host due to the whole 'saving his life' thing we disposed of the bodies as close to the site of our original crime as we could in an effort to implicate those assassins for the aforementioned event and then were offered temporary shelter until a solution could be found.....
Editors Note - Yes we made a mess of this one...if it's any consolation we don't do much better with our next mission either, lol.
If you're interested in hearing more of our adventures then I'll see what I can do and as usual thoughts and comments are most welcome.
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