Title: City Council of Darkness
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Vesper Childers (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Zaeth Bondana (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as La Contesse Madeleine (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as LaVonte Worthy (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as HJ Wingstreet (he/him). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Mitch Frederick(he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

Our Intrepid Heroes returned in true comedic vampiric fashion. While this isn’t the first foray into the blood sucking undead, Season 14’s Coffin Run was in 19th century Transylvania with Jasmine Bhulllar in the game master’s chair. This newest season clearly took a page out of the What We Do In Shadows cookbook, exploring classic media tropes with an almost reality television, messiest characters you will ever meet sort of way. Of course, for it all to work, none of them can realize how messy they are or the sort of train wreck their lives must be to attract the curiosity of a camera crew.

Siobhan gets our first introduction. La Contesse Madelaine d’Artois is an immortal nineteen-year-old centuries older than her appearance suggests. From the artful curls of her hair to the white of her dress, her styling and accent hail to Bram Stroker’s Dracula and all the numerous films which banked on the visual pull of the bride (or in some cases brides) of the titular undead count.

After a parade of NPCs, we meet her bodyguards, played by Emily Axford and Brian Murphy. Closer at hand is Mitch Frederick, who ends up on the wrong end of a powerful Nosferatu-style vampire priest.

Hanging in the rafters is Vesper Childers, the sidekick to Mitch’s superhero persona Darkness Man. Bitten by an actual bat, she has a less traditional vampiric becoming, but I’m sure Morbius would be jealous.

Entering into the main party area, we meet HJ Wingstreet, a finance bro-style vampire who could’ve walked out of a supernatural version of American Psycho or on the less successful side of Daybreakers. He’s somewhere between a con artist and one of those self-proclaimed alpha males who gets rich off of convincing others that he can teach them how to get rich. To maintain a living persona, HJ is the sort of immortal who fakes his own death every now and then to then take up the role as his own son.

His partner-in-crime, and clearly a planned pair by Lou and Ally, is Lou’s LaVonte Worthy. While ten physical years older than his counterpart, LaVonte seems a bit more interested in modern tech but just as power hungry and interested in the hyper-stimulated state as well as sitting on other people.

Brennan clearly had fun with his NPCs, bouncing through a who’s who of tech bros and financially corrupt soulless billionaire types which was just a little too on the nose for me at some points. Both LaVonte and HJ quickly strive to ingratiate themselves to the priest, desperate to align him to their interests.

From a lower royal and bodyguards to finance bros, we circle around to our final Intrepid Hero who has taken on the whole of 1980s dive bar vampire aesthetic, leaning more David from Lost Boys than Spike.

Ignoring his sire’s instructions, Zaeth puts the group at risk, exposing vampires to the FBI. With Mitch and Vesper causing a disturbance outside, disasters continue as HJ and Madelaine prep to feast. Madelaine clearly has no intention of letting her prey live while HJ clearly intends to let his victim live and plans to fund her start-up as repayment for her blood. Unfortunately, the distraction and a number of bad choices lead to the priest decapitating a billionaire on a live stream.

As this is our inciting incident, the absolute disaster gathers the group, but Madelaine and HJ worked so hard to minimize the fallout. Unfortunately for them, the Prince of San Francisco elects to banish them, depositing their coffins in an unfamiliar place. They must set up dominion in Purpee, Oregon. If they succeed, they’ll be forgiven.

Highlights

Eating a missile wasn’t on my vampire bingo board for this, but with Emily Axford at the table, there’s no telling what will happen when the stars align.

Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)

As with every first episode, this one was a wild ride, introducing our new cast of characters and setting them off on the quest of the season. We have a few potential mysteries on hand from exactly how old HJ is to why Zaeth’s sire is so protective of him despite his clear idiocy. Is Vesper even truly half bat? All kidding aside, I’m curious if Mitch secretly sired Vesper, and considering HJ has an ancestral home, does he come from a lineage of vampires, and who exactly does it race back to?

We also have a strangely organized Ally. Despite jokes, the chaos appears contained to the bits with their efforts focused into rationalize the reaches of the other players. With them and Lou teaming up, it’ll be interesting to see if that remains true.

Time will tell where this season will go, but I’m loving this start. Let us know what you thought in comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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