The Mages now have two bodies on their hands: both fellow Awakened. The ghost of this latest victim is somewhat drunk, and so is not likely to be of much help. They do know a little bit about him though.

Enigma had been an ill-respected member of the Mysterium. He was somewhat lazy and self centered, and really only landed in the Mysterium because he had been a professor at NYU. He had been with the english department until some scandal involving a student caused him to lose his job. If anyone in the Mysterium who knew him told you that they were surprised by this they would be lying. Enigma reeked trouble, which is why he never found a cabal to fit in with. He was universally distrusted. As a result he found no sympathy when the following story reached the Consillium’s ears.

Karen Myers, a student at NYU, was taking American Literature with Professor J Dowe (AKA: Enigma). She hadn’t been doing well in the class. Otherwise a straight A student, Karen set up an appointment to discuss her poor grades with her professor. Karen, in the habit of recording her classes with a digital voice recorder, recorded the meeting as well. It became clear to her during the course of the meeting that Professor Dowe had taken a liking to her and graded her harshly in an attempt to obtain favors from the young woman. The dean of the literature department and the president of the university agreed with Karen, and Professor Dowe was dismissed. Seeking to avoid bad press, the University arranged a settlement with Myers that included a full scholarship, and the re-evaluation of her coursework by the Dean of the English Department. Myers, only seeking to be treated fairly, agreed to not drag either the professor or the university (or herself for that matter) through the disgrace of a public trial. She was happy to have her tuition and board covered by the settlement, allowing her to graduate without facing years of student loan payments.

This gives the Mages a place to start. Perhaps there is something about the Myers case that will lead our friends to some link between Enigma and Matt, the animator who hadn’t even been a Mage long enough to have chosen a shadow name. Maybe there is something about NYU that will lead the Mages closer to this multiple murderer.

And heck, if not maybe Argus can find a date: Changeling Pick-Up Lines

The first thing Aenaiyah spotted as she walked from work to the train platform was his feet sticking out from behind a car.  As she got closer she realized that she recognized this man from the bar. He had been there quite a bit lately, usually the last one to leave. At first she thought that maybe he had simply passed out, but soon realized that he was well and truly dead. Not being overly fond of dealing with corpses, Aenaiyah decided to call on Riff-Raff. Both as a Moros Mage and a former NYPD Officer dead bodies were no problem for him. At first glance it did appear to be alcohol poisoning, but Riff-Raff did pick up spell resonance here so he cast Forensic Gaze to see what really happened.

What really happened was that someone had bashed this man’s face in with a heavy, blunt object. This is precisely what had really happened to a certain stop motion animator. If the puppets hadn’t tried to fix him…

As I stated in an earlier post, I made the decision to end a chapter with the departure of two characters and start a new one. The question was where I wanted to go from here.  I already had some ideas about where I wanted the PCs investigations to lead (more on that later), but what I needed was a hook. I needed to get them started.

It started with a phone call to our resident Former FBI Agent (technically on leave) and Guardian of the Veil Argus Guille. You see, the Werewolf half of the campaign had just helped him close a cold case (they solved the crime, he reported the findings for them), and so he received a phone call from Officer S. Murphy.

“Goodevenin’ Agent. I hear you recently closed a big case. Congratulations.”

 :::pause so Argus can pat himself on the back:::

“I hear rumor it was some sort of ritualistic cult thing or other. Does this mean you’re back on active duty then?”

:::pause so Argus can say he’s easing himself back in by consulting:::

“I got a weird one for ya. Paramount Building on Broadway. 31st floor. Ain’t seen nothin’ like it ‘fore.”

 :::pause so Argus can ask what he means by that:::

“Y’might wanna see for yourself Agent. Good t’have ya back.”

:::end conversation:::

What could possibly be a better investigation hook than the dead body of a stop motion animator that has been filled with skin colored modelling silicone? You see, in my World of Darkness “Celebrity Deathmatch” is still being made in good old New York City, right where it should be. On a routine overnight walk-around a security guard spotted the body of an animator sprawled across the entryway to a shoot room. He had been vivisected (think autopsy) and his body cavity had been stuffed with skin-colored modelling silicone. You don’t see that every day.

There were many paths that the investigation could have taken, and the players actually covered their bases well on this one. They were smart enough to investigate the stop motion camera, which did in fact have a few very interesting still frames shot due to the animator having tensed and squeezed the shoot button as his head was bludgeoned in by something that can’t be seen on the film. This is interesting because judging by the angle they are seeing the blows at on the still frames they really should be able to see what hit the poor guy. And then of course there is the fact that his head isn’t looking very bashed in at the moment.

They searched through the security camera tapes, but aside from the door closing a bit slowly at one point when somebody entered there was nothing concrete there. Argus did a search of the body and found some odd markings under a flap of skin where he had been dissected. A WITS+COMPOSURE roll made him think of a painter’s pallet… little swatches of color, almost like there was real effort made to match the colored silicone to the animator’s skin tone. Max Factor would be proud! No happy little trees here though.

Clearly Post-Cognition was called for. This session happened at right about the time that I started to become more comfortable with this spell, and really learned how to make Aenaiyah squirm and throw up a little in her mouth. I knew all about the moment the animator had died, what the reason for his death was, and what happened later. Bring it Acanthus! Right on schedule, she does. She asks me to see the silicone being stuffed into his body. I ask her to step out of the room and into the hall. I know that one of the best things about Aenaiyah is how her player reacts to things. This is clearly going to be priceless.

This pleases me.

She can only see a few moments of time around an event at this point in her Magely Learning, so I only tell her that she sees small, stubby little hands pulling back the flaps of skin, and working the silicone into the poor dead man. It looks like they are being extremely careful about the work. They seem to be very detail oriented. She shudders, and says “I look around me… what do I see?”

You see stop motion puppets. Hundreds and hundreds of small silicone celebrities. They’re all around you.

Freakout in 3…2…

Sometimes I love being the GM!