Actual Play: Dresden Files Accelerated Hollywoodland Session 5

Dresden Files Accelerated: Hollywoodland Session 5 Write-up

Played Friday, June 9th, 2017

Dramatis Personae

• Father Darren O'Connell, Catholic priest and holy sword bearer (played by C)
• Daniel Ehrlichmann, hot-shot reporter/wereleopard (played by F)
• Sammy Wesson, Clued-in Mortal/Changeling (played by R)
• Ted Summers aka The Dazzling Dante, White Court wizard (played by B)
• Raymond Sanders, monster hunter/Changeling (played by N, not present)
• Darlene Merritt, Daniel's nemesis
• Fritz Lang, Hollywood Director and Monster Hunter
• Peter Lorre, Hollywood Actor and Monster Hunter
• Persephone, White Court Vampire Assassin
• Adrian Brandeis, Red Court Vampire Assassin

Ted and Sammy went to Laurence the Fence's business to investigate the bloodmark spell. They broke in easily with the keys and Ted performed a ritual to find the blood sorcerer who cast the spell.

Ted learned more than he realized. He bound the spell into his wand and knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the blood sorcerer was Ted's father, supposedly dead for 28 years, since Ted was 6 years old!

That drove Ted into a alcoholic binge. He dropped the wand and headed straight for Mick's, demanding that Mick leave the bottle. Sammy, puzzled at Ted's behavior, picked up the wand and followed him to Mick's.

There, Ted revealed that the blood sorcerer was his dead father, which drove him to drink even more. Sammy said he understood and Ted asked how he could. Sammy showed Ted the finger from his father, given to him by Maeve. Ted looked at the finger and said that was messed up.

Darren met up with the survivors of the Berlin Monster Hunter lodge, which turned out to be actor Peter Lorre and film director Fritz Lang. Darren mentioned Persephone and Daniel's interest in her. 

Peter and Fritz identified Persephone, "Bringer of Death" and Adrian Brandeis, German for "Dark dweller on a burned clearing", as the vampires who killed their comrades. Both Peter and Fritz wanted in on the hunt to kill these two vampires. They left the restaurant and went to find Daniel before it was too late!

Daniel was making love to Darlene and started slapping her around, demanding to know who put Darlene on his tail. She fought back, thinking he'd kill her but he overpowered her.

While she was fighting back, there was a knock on the door, that became rather insistent as Darlene struggled to escape Daniel. Daniel couldn't tell who was at the door, because there was a muffled reply. Other people in the apartment building were being disturbed, so Daniel knocked Darlene out and, naked, grabbed a pillow and opened the door.

On the other side was Persephone, looking quizzical at Daniel naked with a pillow. Daniel asked her to come back in 10 minutes but she insisted on seeing him right now. She asked him to invite her in and he did.

Persephone came into the apartment and immediately pressed herself against Daniel, with only a pillow between them. Daniel was overcome with passion and dropped the pillow. Daniel picked up Persephone and threw her on the bed then jumped on her, ready to make love.

Persephone inspired Lust in Daniel and started to feed, but Daniel realized that something wasn't right and cooled off the passion, claiming that now wasn't the right time.

That's when Darren, Fritz and Peter showed up, busting through Daniel's door ! Darren drew his holy sword Durendal and attacked Persephone.

Persephone dodged Darren's attack with inhuman speed and picked up Peter and Fritz with inhuman strength and threw them around the room, which clued Daniel into realizing that Persephone was dangerous.

Persephone escaped by jumping out the window, onto the fire escape, then started climbing the ladder to the roof in the driving rain. Darren followed, sword in hand.

Ted and Sammy continued their drinking binge and Ted focused on the wand to point to his father, the blood sorcerer. It first pointed to him and to the bottle that he was drinking from, as if to accuse him, then pointed out the door. They finished their drink and hired a cab to follow the wand where it lead them. 

They traveled all about town, finally ending up in front of an apartment building. Stepping out of the cab, they spotted Darren chasing Persephone up a ladder to the roof. Ted blasted Persephone with a water blast (plenty of water around with the driving rain) and Sammy froze the water blast, both in an effort to knock her from the ladder.

She was buffeted but managed to make the roof, with Darren right behind her. Sammy used his Unseelie magic to ride lightning from the ground floor up to the roof in an instant, joining Darren in the fight with Persephone. Ted followed the wand into the apartment building and up to the fifth floor, right at the stairs that led up to the roof, where he found a body, face down.

In Daniel's apartment, Fritz and Peter picked themselves up and jumped onto the fire escape, using the ladder to climb to the roof in pursuit of Persephone. Daniel quickly dressed then pulled out his camera and took naked pictures of an unconscious Darlene as blackmail!

Darren swung Durendal at Persephone and she dodged. A figure stepped from out of the darkness and rain on the rooftop and attacked Darren, just barely grabbing onto him. It was Adrian, a Red Court Vampire Assassin. Both Fritz and Peter tried to assist the heroes but did nothing but get in the way. Adrian pulled Darren close to feed but Darren used his strong Faith to resist!

Sammy attacked Persephone, blasting her with his Unseelie Magic as Fritz and Peter again tried, and failed, to assist, just getting in the way. Daniel came up on the roof and transformed into his jaguar form, jumping on Adrian's back.

Ted stared at the body laying face down in front of him, frozen in indecision. The wand pointed straight at the body. Trembling, he turned the corpse over and saw his father's face, drained of blood by a Red Court Vampire. 

Filled with rage about all the lost years and mourning his father's death a second time, Ted brutalized the body, smashing his fists into his dead father's face. At the height of his drunken rage, his magic merged with his rage and his father's bloodmark fused into him, gaining him knowledge about the others who were also granted bloodmarks by the evil ritual. 

He felt that two of them were on the roof, dead. Ted headed for the roof. 

Meanwhile, Persephone, seeing that there were more opponents than allies on the roof, turned tail and ran. Sammy tried to stop her but she managed to get off the roof, with Sammy in pursuit!

Next time: the conclusion to the fight with Persephone and Adrian! Will this lead to the film canister?

On a personal note: This was a difficult combat. I had never run vampires in this system, so with their strong and varied abilities, they were hard for me to run for the first time. The strength of Darren, a Holy Knight with his Holy Sword Durendal, proved to be his Faith +5 approach, which gained the PCs a strong advantage. It would have been a far different combat without it and I doubt that Darren would have avoided being fed upon by Adrian. On the whole, it was a good first try and hopefully I will improve in the next session.