Play@YSDC

Hi Everyone

Welcome to Dead Man Stomp, the 4th and last in the HoneyDog Rule Book series. This should be a much more fast-moving adventure than the last. The scenario deals with some of the racial politics at the time - in the 1920's Boston had a small but long-established African-American population which was recently bolstered by immigrants from the Caribbean and Cape Verde. Will your characters survive with their sanity intact?

There are four players; evil_scientist (Isadora), Mr. Handy (Alice), innsmouth (Henry) and andyw666 (Balzac). Your familiarity means that we can get straight to the action and skip lengthy introductions.

The action begins at the Blue Heaven Ballroom in Boston. The Ballroom is also a speakeasy, it freely serves alcohol but it is patronised by the city's elite and so is left alone by law enforcement, but it is also protected by organised crime. Evening wear is compulsory, and food and drinks are not cheap. The Ballroom also plays host to the finest jazz acts in town. In short, it is the place to be.

I suggest the characters meeting outside the Ballroom. As Balzac is a trumpet player, he might enjoy jazz and has suggested the Blue Heaven for a reunion while he is in town. Also, it is rumoured that Henry may be seeing a nightclub singer.

Perhaps you'd like to begin by just explaining a little about what your character has been doing in the 2 1/2 months since the events in Vermont. Have they recovered from the ordeal? Surely a few drinks with friends won't lead to any outlandish alien conspiracies?

Alice has recovered, and is in fact more confident due to having played such an important role in defeating the aliens. She has continued to work for Henry as his typist, proofreader, and editor. She had been hoping he would show interest in her, and she is interested to see if the rumors about him and the nightclub singer are true or not,

Oh dear! I hope I haven't caused problems...

Oo, drama!!

Later today I will update my sheet and post!

Henry has just published his latest novella The Curse of the Gold Sarcophagus through a new publisher he met though contacts via Auden and the Theosophist Society. It is early days but it appears to be selling well. Over the summer Henry has started seeing a flame haired nightclub singer called Verena Jack who performs in various venues across Boston including the Blue Heaven Ballroom. Henry feels conflicted due to his interest in Alice but believes she is not interested in him. He is already on the look out for inspiration for his next book.

HoneyDog wrote:Welcome to Dead Man Stomp, the 4th and last in the HoneyDog Rule Book series.

Word is HD will kill us all off to avoid having to invest in a new scenario collection.

innsmouth wrote:

HoneyDog wrote:Welcome to Dead Man Stomp, the 4th and last in the HoneyDog Rule Book series.

Word is HD will kill us all off to avoid having to invest in a new scenario collection.

-------

Since Vermont, Isadora mostly has been patching up things with her husband, who was understandably nervous about his beloved wife's latest "adventure". He was only told the minimum: that Isadora had spent a night in the wilderness, looking for a dead journalist, and had almost frozen to death herself.

The quick sketches she made of the alien creatures and the salvaged weapon are in a sturdy, lockable safe box, hidden under her art supplies. She always carries the key on a silver chain around her neck.

Isadora's new series of paintings include enlarged snowflake/ice crystal-like structures, not unlike the patterns she embroiders on her dresses, but more rigid, less organic, more alien. She also paints many winter landscapes of Vermont locales: these are successful with buyers, as they appear more "conventional", than some of her usual works. There are some strange big birds (?) hovering over the hills, and the winter sun's rays are unnaturally cold... and there absolutely NO people, nor any sign of human presence... but those are just small details, right? It's not that Isadora is depicting an Earth after a cosmic apocalypse? Right?

Right?...

I think it might be time to intensify Isadora's visions this adventure.

And

innsmouth wrote:

HoneyDog wrote:Welcome to Dead Man Stomp, the 4th and last in the HoneyDog Rule Book series.

Word is HD will kill us all off to avoid having to invest in a new scenario collection.

Well, I was thinking about it cause I want to try a Gaslight adventure next actually. But if you all wanted to continue I might be convinced to stay in this era and not kill you. Of course, it depends on what happens now and how this adventure progresses. I think in this scenario you need to be more concerned about your sanity than getting killed though.

I'll wait for Andy before we move into the Ballroom.

HoneyDog wrote:Well, I was thinking about it cause I want to try a Gaslight adventure next actually. But if you all wanted to continue I might be convinced to stay in this era and not kill you. Of course, it depends on what happens now and how this adventure progresses. I think in this scenario you need to be more concerned about your sanity than getting killed though.

Or maybe one of us players can step up to act as Keeper for a session.

But let's see what happens here first...

HoneyDog wrote:I think it might be time to intensify Isadora's visions this adventure.

Would be interesting!

Looking back at my description of her new paintings, I like the idea of her apocalyptic visions looking like calm winter landscapes to causal observers I'm proud of this part.

I have my hands full with my own campaign, so I doubt I could run another scenario at the same time. I'd be up for either continuing this one in the Classic era or playing Gaslight after this.

I don't want to run Gaslight or Classic nowadays (although I'd be interested in playing Gaslight!), because I want to explore more settings from the 1960s-1980s period... Hence, Sukakpak, and probably something else, afterwards.

But let's not put the cart before the horse!

Yes we'll finish this one first.

Isadora can have stronger 'feelings' in this game - I think I can safely tell you there are no fungus bees.

I'll see if Andy posts today.

Sorry Guys, still catching up with some other stuff after the flu...

Balzac has continued to oscillate between his French-Canadian base and New England, as Vermont has only reinforced his belief that this hidden world of new scientific discoveries is most easily found or accessed in the latter. His academic output has suffered somewhat but fortunately his colleagues in Montreal still consider him skilled enough to warrant some latitude.

In Boston for a few days, Balzac is always keen to catch up with his American friends. And his passion for jazz, food and alcohol makes the Blue Heaven a natural magnet whereat he suggests the quartet might rendezvous. Although Balzac's own trumpet abilities are pretty amateur, he spends enough of his free time listening to bands that he is on good speaking terms with many of the better jazz players in town.

Thanks Andy!

Zeppo is going to be joining us. I suggested that his character be a friend of Balzac, so maybe they can arrive together. I suggested to Zeppo that he look at Balzac's character sheet and think about how they might know each other.

Once you two have met the other characters, we'll move inside the ballroom. The action should move pretty quickly from then on.

Cool stuff.

Thanks Andy! We'll just wait for Zeppo then.

I'm here

I've made my character an acquaintance of Balzac's from the war.

Andy, feel free to make their acquittance as strong or as fleeting as you like.

Welcome!

Welcome Zeppo! You might want to up your age a little bit to fit your great war back story as we're now 1928. Hope you enjoy the game!