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

If you haven’t checked them out already, you can catch up on our reviews of prior episodes – one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight!

We immediately jump right back into the thick of it this week. Zaeth catches the arrow, gaining hunger as he seeks his target. His immediate focus gave me hope. Unfortunately, the difficulty level was too high, and he succeeded in going full vampire, meaning anyone who saw now knows what he is despite the code of secrecy. Mitch and Vesper join Zaeth in his chaotic disregard for the masquerade.

Of course, I’m willing to forgive them in light of a literal vampire hunter, but if I were a hunter, I’d totally have set up cameras or something to expose them just in case I failed to kill them. Maybe that’s too much planning on Aaron’s part, but the fact that nobody considered it worries me.

The trio attack Aaron. All three of them are pretty much full feral. Zaeth attempts to dive through the hunter’s chest. Unsurprisingly, they win, and Vesper opens the void, swallowing Aaron’s corpse in the aftermath.

LaVonte and HJ quickly work to cover the trio’s carelessness. Desperate moves and a number of excellent rolls allows them to cover the mess. Banksy for the win? I’d be curious what the artist thinks about this.

After the party, the coterie go to Aaron’s house, working to ensure he has no conspirators. Though he applied, the Second Inquisition refused his application because he refused to relocate. They’re able to confirm both his mother and father are die. It turns out they died by vampires, which leads to confirmation of another Banksy cover unrelated to our group. There was a bit of an eye roll on that one.

Sending over the home theft lead to Nancy, our incredible journalist digs into Florian’s divorce in addition to the Whittakers’ control of the town. This leads the coterie to consider allowing Florian to take the seat on the City Council in order to upend things down the line when an election comes up. Though this feels like a step back, a slow but methodological takeover is much more in line with long-term success, so long as they don’t have an opponent gunning in the shadows, which remains unclear.

LaVonte pushes for Elysium’s construction. Zaeth back him, and they make a play for the lumber mill as a rock climbing gym under which Elysium will be built.

Meanwhile, Vesper learns about a creepy statue in the Templar’s basement. She takes the ruby, and as she grapples with whether she’s a vampire or a half-bat, Herb punches the statue, announcing it was the only thing left holding Jack of the Pines back.

Elsewhere, Madelaine and Mitch go the hostel and meet Cody. When Mitch tries to be a pile of trash to sneak away, Madelaine has to cover, pretending that they weren’t together upon entering. She fails. The pair is definitely not the most successful group. Cody immediately calls them out as vampires.

Cody reveals that vampires generally avoid the area. Purpee suffers more from ghosts; however, as he’s about to tell them the Douglas family isn’t an issue, we see the outside affects of the statue in the Templar’s basemen breaking. As Cody lays his cards on the table, Mitch and Madelaine reveal they’ve taken care of most of his concerns.

And we end with Zaeth’s sire deciding to visit.

Highlights

Best moment in the episode goes to Murph’s chuckle as he has Mitch reveal that Aaron is dead to Cody with a simple “No, there’s not” in response to the warning of a hunter being in Purpee.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

Our Intrepid Heroes continue to spread their influence in this week’s episode of Dimension 20’s City Council of Darkness, but as much as our coterie continues to work on their list of goals, their chaos works against them, especially with Zaeth pretty actively fumbling. At the beginning of the season, I didn’t believe a single player could absolutely throw off a table, but Zac’s efforts have undermined every effort Lou has made as LaVonte, who while the most focused character this season would still rank among the more chaotic if we decided to do a ranking.

I absolutely loved Cody, especially as he saw right through Mitch and Madelaine. HJ was a bit too chaotic for me, but Ally skillfully used their help rolls with Vesper and LaVonte, so I can’t be too mad. I hate the Banksy situation, but what are we gonna do? It’s the bit of the season thanks to Lou’s dedication to it almost as much as Siobhan’s “I’m so small” in that French accent.

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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