Mage: the Awakening, Actual Play 3

This week’s game also starred Martin and Yuuko, the same characters from last week.  I won’t go into too much detail on this report, but I will be putting up the highlights.  If anyone’s interested in asking further questions feel free to post on my comments and I’ll answer them and hopefully clear up any questions

• Late one evening, Martin stumbles onto a weird radio station broadcasting an extremely annoying novelty song.  Not really giving it much attention, he turns the radio off and goes to sleep, trying to ignore the nagging Earworm.
• The incident would not have been so bad if it wasn’t so persistent, leaving Martin in a constant state of agitation.  the Lyrics of the song were also strange as he couldn’t remember much except for a line that went something like “Falling down, down, down.”
• Alarmed at the strange quality of the Earworm, Martin contacted Yuuko, who aids him in trying to do research when their efforts are cut short by a news flash of a hysterical person who was looking to jump to his death on TV.  The two rush to the site, and see the man plummet to his death, noting that the man left a message “Duck and Cover” sprayed on the wall next to where he jumped from.
• Also alarming was the fact that the corpse and the blood and brain matter from the fall spelled out a message in Atlantean Runes saying “Revere Me.”
• Meanwhile, the Earworm was getting louder, threatening to overwhelm Martin’s hearing altogether.  It was then that an earthquake occured, flooring most of the residents as billboards and windows were hurled out of buildings, plummeting to the crowd below.  Yuuko reasoned that the lyrics might actually be prophetic in a way, even as they sought cover among the falling glass.
• They hurried back to Yuuko’s place to do some more research before discovering another suicide with the message “The Wave’s coming in.”
• Sure enough the earthquake triggered a large wave that crashed into the docks, destroying property and killing several people.  Yuuko was able to alert a group of mages based on the Boston docks in time, sparing them from the disaster and scoring a favor from the cabal.
• Again the wreckage spelled out “Revere Me”
• Unwilling to allow this to go on further, Yuuko cast a Fate spell to see how these things could be related, and how the song was doing it… her spell instead led her to a nearby poetry book in her home’s library book, and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
• They picked up on the clue quickly and headed towards the statue of Paul Revere by the old church, and it was there that they met the source of the strange song that led to the suicides… a Spirit of warning, twisted and frustrated and desperate.
• It was an old spirit, but one robbed of most of it’s power.  It was an ancient herald, a spirit of new beginnings, of events significant to time.  It was present when destinies were shifting, and lived off humanities reactions to change.
• The message “Revere me” was a play on words, as it was the spirit’s plea to preserve it’s existence, trying to get men to notice and hear it, as it was no longer being heeded in today’s society.  Frustrated and faced with oblivion, the spirit took drastic measures and opted to resort to killing people to get the attention it needed to survive.
• Unfortunately the sprit was still in a very volatile state, leaving them in danger as it started to lash out with it’s Influence Numina, driving both mages into massive panic attacks.  Martin’s command over Life was what saved them both as they forced their minds and bodies to respond as commanded rather than by the instinctual fear.
• Desperate, the two mages hashed together a plan involving the use of Martin’s stash of drugs and downers and setting it on fire to offer it to the Spirit and hopefully get it to mellow down.
• The spell worked, altering the spirit enough that they could calm it down.  Yuuko considered her options, thinking of perhaps giving the spirit a temporary home in a fetish, or perhaps informing the Consilium, but instead she offered the spirit a place as her own familiar in order to save it from being forgotten and fading away into nothingness.
• Without much options, it agreed, and the rash of suicide-inducing music ended.  Yuuko on the other hand, now has a needy cat familiar to worry about.

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Overall I enjoyed this game as it had a lot of interesting moments.  Interestingly, alternative lifestyles seem to play a role in my past 2 games, first with S&M, and now with recreational drugs.  I’m not sure exactly where this is coming from, but feedback from Mappy (who was playing Martin) was to push for a more long-term story arc rather than the monster fo the week format that we’ve had so far.

I’m inclinded to agree with him given the situation.  So far my planning’s been hit by ethe fact that I ended up scrapping a lot of the stories I have so far because of the smaller roster of players than initially expected.  Still I’m hopeful and I had fun running this session

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