After some false starts with other campaigns, my monthly gaming group has decided to start the next “season” of our urban horror/fantasy hunters game. As a new feature to the site, I’ll be including session recaps and some general GM notes. (But not so much to spoil any mysteries for my players.)
Road Trip Kitchen Sink Urban Fantasy
Unholy Preyer was a campaign I ran in 2010 using the Dresden Files Roleplaying Game, a pre-“Core” version of Fate. However, rather than using the Dresdenverse, the group decided they wanted something a little more universal, so characters and foes could be established without worrying or arguing about canon. Also, to better accommodate for player absences, I thought it best to structure the game around monster hunters who traveled frequently, like the hunters in the TV show Supernatural. I further riffed on the show by requesting all player characters have some sort of “cool car” with its own aspect.
Each session was to be its own episode, where I would present the player characters with an obstacle and wove in an overarching plot as well as individual character arcs. The campaign lasted for two years (about 24 “episodes”) and ended with the “big bad” dying but greater looming threats on the horizon. The group then decided to take a break from the more serious storyline type of gameplay and we shifted to Bulldogs!, another pre-“Core” version of Fate, set in space and with a comedic element. The plan was to eventually return to season two of Unholy Preyer, but other games (and non-games) took president and life and a cross-country move on my part put a halt on a lot of gaming.
Now, thanks to Roll20.Net, Discord, and friends from other groups joining in, the players have opted to get back into the spirit of ghost-hunting, though only two characters from season one will be returning. For the purpose of new player initiation and to help any of the upcoming session recaps have some ties to the history, I wrote up a season one summary.
Season One Recap / Season Two Intro
“Every sorcerer goes bad.” That’s the saying. Most believe it’s due to a constant thirst for power, a corruption of the morality of an individual gifted with special powers. Others know the truth. The powers sorcerers possess are called an “Open Gateway,” and that gateway leads to another plane of reality; a dimension that wants to overtake our own. Sorcerers sought their power from this dimension, it was not foisted on them unawares and not all those who sought the power were granted it or contacted by these other beings that used the Open Gateway–the conduit to power. At least, that was the case.
A little over a year ago the beings that provided both the power and the downfall of sorcerers began to manifest themselves and open the Gateway in humans, regardless of the human desire or inclination. This set off a series of investigations with a small group of hunters. A powerful sorcerer by the name of Evan Sunder was working with select followers and turning them into Brood Mothers, females who would “birth” manifestations of these beings. The broodlings, as they came to be known, were all but invisible to the naked eye, but could be harmed or killed with physical attacks. They climbed onto the backs of others, reaching into their heads to open that person’s Gateway. In their investigations, the hunters killed three Brood Mothers and Evan Sunder, but how many mothers remain and how many people who have been unnaturally “awakened” by the broodlings is unknown.
Early in their investigations, the hunters fell prey to car-thieving arachne, centaur-like creatures with the lower bodies of spiders. These particular arachne worshiped a silver-covered skull, decorated in runes and possessed with a spirit. Upon freeing themselves and wiping out the nest (and car-stealing, human-abducting operation), the hunters worked with the self-serving spirit in the skull, whom they called “Burt.” Burt provided knowledge and power, but for its own price; it was secretly implanting pieces itself into the dreams of others as the hunters carried the skull from location to location.
After much investigation and sometimes unrelated hunts, the hunters were able to track Evan Sunder to Kelowna, Canada. During their confrontation, Burt aligned itself with the sorcerer–which came as little surprise to the hunters, but with additional challenges. Before his death, the sorcerer revealed why he was helping to create brood mothers and why the beings, the Brood, that gave him power via his Open Gateway had become far less subtle. A rift from a different dimension was opening; one of classical demons and dragons. The hunters had dealt with this new (yet, in many ways, old) threat in a prior escapade but did not believe the solution was to instead be invade by the Brood. Both threats would be dealt with in time. The immediate threat of Evan Sunder was resolved–by the sorcerer’s death at the hunters’ bullets. Burt was caged and brought to a contact of theirs who specialized in magical artifacts, Alexander “Xan” Santos.
For most hunters, the concept of the broodlings is only starting to become shared knowledge. The idea of them being the same things that power sorcerers or that there is another dimension (much less two–or more–and one populated with “devils”) trying to invade will sound like fiction to most, even in the crazy world in which hunters exist. For the hunters that encountered Evan Sunder and his brood mothers, their battle will not only be with the monsters, but with hunters believing their stories as the scope of this battle against evil shifts.
Season One Player Arc Recap
Narsimha “Mac” Mohin – During the course of season one, Mac went from being a Native American hunter who trusted few outside his own society to a team player and, in many ways, team leader. His decision-making focused the greater good and immediate issues. While he guided many evils to be slain, he also promised Marshal Wretched, a powerful fey, that his half-Tuatha teammate, Nicola, would make her Choice within a year–without his teammate being present. Proud, but not un-wise, Mac is learning from his mistakes.
Steven Hudson – One of the youngest hunters of season one, Steven found love–or at least mutual infatuation–with another hunter, Ashley Jiang Song. In the course of seeking a cure for her unnatural blindness, though, the twenty-year old fell prey to a monster and currently lies in a coma.
Nicola Christino – Straight-forward to the point of blunt, the half-Tuatha hunter often served as a source of caution for the team, pointing out possible flaws in their plans and reminding them that the information Burt provided was often to serve itself. However, in the course of season one, she was put in possible danger by fellow hunter Mac who promised Marshal Wretched, the Moonlight Marquis, that she would make her Choice within a year. Would she lose her free will to keep her powers, would she lose her powers and stay a hunter, or was there another way out?
Claire Renfield – The youngest member joined the hunters late into the season but saw the new adversaries of devils and imps and felt a strange, and disturbing, kinship to them. Already worried that her pyrokinetic abilities were influenced by a greater evil, she fought against both them and was there for the showdown with Evan Sunder. The knowledge she gained in these hunts has given her additional doubts.
Janis Hendrix – The ex-sorcerer and former pupil of Evan Sunder, Janis split from the hunters mid-season to follow her own leads and contacts–primarily other members of her now-disjointed coven. She was able to point the hunters to Evan, but was not present to see his downfall or learn about the growing war between dimensional forces.
Karl Orloff – While he helped defeat some monsters with the other hunters, Karl was not fully privy to the events regarding Evan Sunder. He had other messes to clean up and the cap driver turned hunter was on the East Coast fighting were-rats in New York when the confrontation went down.
Season Two Characters
Narsimha “Mac” Mohin has spent some time with his tribe, regaining his strength and meditating. Their goal of ridding the world of monsters means he must return to the outside world, and the hunt, once again.
Having cleared out a nest of were-rats Karl Orloff‘s path once again takes him out of New York and across the Americas.
Zdenko Jurkovich came to the states to make it big, but has settled for running scams to pay for his lover’s lifestyle. His biggest money-maker is in selling monster parts to sorcerers and, if they happen to “go bad,” then, well, he knows where to find them so he can re-sell the items and any other bits of their horde he can hold.
Artunis is a Zoroastrian priestess, blessed and guided by Ahura Mazda. She is drawn to the hunt to protect humanity.
Raven Kendrick does not consider herself a hunter. She’s a fighter and antagonistic, with a desire to not save anyone but herself. However, her psychic ability to see the deaths and demons of some people makes her want to act and defend those who cannot see the dangers around them.
Ex-Agent Dobransky was a sometimes field agent for an undisclosed US agency before she was embroiled in the world of monsters. There were things out there endangering civilians that the government wouldn’t acknowledge and she could not hunt and keep her badge. She chose to do the former, though did not break all ties with her contacts.
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