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 Madelaine (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

Ally comes in strong, having HJ create a flyer and setting up an event at Mike’s to attract the university students.

Meanwhile, Madelaine sets herself up, posing beatifically to draw in her prey. She reels in a gothic teen, putting him under her thrall. The young man, Russell, brings her to the head of the English Department. Val immediately welcomes Madelaine in a way that immediately had my hackles up. While I’ve met a number of professors, English especially, who were open to gossip, but not to undergraduate students who aren’t paying to sit in one of their classes. It’s also why I’m not convinced that there isn’t a secret society. Of course, Siobhan rolled an overwhelming success. Maybe she’s just that charismatic.

Seeing that HJ and Madelaine have everything under control, Vesper gives into her yearning, admiring libraries and aching for the education and studies which she lost due to her transformation. Unable to resist, she dives into the shelves of local zoology. However, she’s not alone. A student sorts through the cryptozoology section, and her approach doesn’t draw his attention. Vesper fumbles, basically interrogating him.

Emily has absolutely played out fumbling and anxious characters before, but she always manages to come out of the interaction with an almost endearing lean. Unfortunately, HJ and LaVonte arrive to completely steer the interaction into an absolute mess. HJ uses his powers, but in doing so, they see that Aaron is clearly fighting the vampire’s sway despite failing in the moment. His resistance could be a sign of inhumanity or that he is trained, perhaps as part of the Inquisition.

In the underground, Mitch and Zaeth continue to work on the computer system. Outside of the computer room, there’s a clear structure for a launch pad for a space shuttle or something like a giant missile silo; however, it’s empty. They manage to make their way back up to the diner. Their prolonged absence was noted. The sleeper a town, the easier to spot when one of your few customers goes missing, so they have no choice but to make a hasty exit to reunite with the rest of the group.

Vesper and LaVonte elect to stay home. After her botched interaction, the youngest vampire wants to avoid mortals while LaVonte aims to study the local bylaws in hopes of ousting the current canine mayor. On Vesper’s side, this works out wonderfully. She’s able to connect the underground project to: 1) a second mass casualty event in the town’s history; 2) the abandonment of the project to the dissolution of the Soviet Union; and 3) uncover the Megalopadarian Frequency which couldn’t be more obviously Big Foot related if it tried. Loved seeing everyone write that one down around the table as if they didn’t already know what it was.

LaVonte, Mitch, and Vesper head to the statue of Zacky Lee Maple. As they approach, there’s clear signs that the Airbnb buyouts connect to folks being unexpectedly pushed out from their homes into the trailer park. Zacky reveals he died when Big Foot came to defend the land.

Across town, Madelaine, HJ, and Zaeth head to the college party which Russell invited Madelaine to earlier. Despite rearranging his bones, HJ doesn’t really pull off being a college student which would’ve been hilarious to have that duality. Despite the weirdness of HJ, Madelaine and Zaeth absolutely attract the right attention. Madelaine seeks to find someone whose blood she can stomach while Zaeth attracts the attention of Patty Babcock and his adorable pup.

Madelaine’s search comes up hot with one of the super hosts present. Flirting, Madelaine immediately wins Ana over, having her apologizing for being engaged. Turns out her beau is Cal Whittaker. Ana Lopez is actually employed by her fiancé’s aunt, Rachel Whittaker, which means her name is basically a cover for them buying up the number of properties in a town that they basically already own.

Depressed, Zaeth takes HJ’s scooter off the roof, breaking his neck and putting the masquerade at risk all over again. HJ leaps into the mess. Grabbing Zaeth’s body, HJ carries him back off to their house.

After an eventful night, LaVonte pushes forward, purchasing a stake in Mike and hiring an intern while Madelaine wins over Cal, setting herself up as a throuple with him and his fiancé. She’s already won Ana, and her willingness to indulge his ideas quickly wins Cal to her side. However, Madelaine realizes that Cal isn’t compelled supernaturally by her kiss while Ana is, discovering he likely has some supernatural aspect to himself. Luckily, she’s won him over naturally, so she gets everything she wants regardless.

Map Analysis

The goose is dead. I don’t know what this is, but I think that I have to hang up my hat on these places being connected.

Final Score (4.5 out of 5 Stars)

The pacing was significantly better in this episode than last week’s. Zac and Ally remained highly chaotic; however, Siobhan, Emily, and Lou all locked in. Between LaVonte’s skillful investments and even the reining in of HJ to some extent to Siobhan’s well-planned seduction of possibly the most powerful young couple in Purpee, they set themselves up for success, building both their knowledge and power within the town. Unfortunately, Mitch and Vesper’s slip up and early murder means that Murph and Emily have to fight back from going a bit over a cliff, and from the way this episode ended, their history of chaos may continue to catch up with them come next week.

I will say that anyone not watching each episode’s Adventuring Party will likely not understand what Zac’s doing with Zaeth; however, having watched them all, I’m not sure you’re missing much. All I’ll say is that if Brennan folds and gives Zaeth a horse, I hope he takes it away in the most emotionally devastating manner. Or, you know, he could give the guy a moose instead. That’d definitely fit with the Sasquatch northwestern situation in my book.

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Featured Image: Dimension 20