This game of teen superheroes is great, I haven't played it for a while and forgot how fun it can be and we will definitely be playing more Masks in the near future!
Our characters were:
Lacuna (Doomed) - A native American girl subject to a family curse, which has unfortunately fallen on her shoulders. Destined to end the world!
Dante (Transformed) - A monster, transformed by mysterious forces into a hideous creature - hiding his new form beneath a cloak and Mask.
Brad (Outsider) - An alien from another world, stranded here for a short time after crashing his spaceship while joyriding.
Will (Beacon) - An everyday, normal, human guy. Wearing a football jersey and jeans and with no powers at all. Best friend of Lacuna and aware of her curse.
As with most of my games, this was completely 0 prep - the players made up most of the adventure hooks at the table based on who their characters are and what their interests are.
The players decided that they were starting in 'Dorothy's Ripples' an ice creamery in Halcyon city they made up where all the kids (super or normal) from their school would hang out. The current owner, Fred, has one rule - no powers in the store. He's a tolerant fellow, but will not allow superpowered beings to wreck up his store. Fred's offsider Rufus is decidedly different - he's outright hostile to supers and would rather their menace was ended. The group decided they were celebrating their first foray as a 'super team' - they had recently defeated 'Miss Fleur' the substitute teacher who was possessed by an evil entity and who had been killing students in their school. (I had laid out some prompt enemy cards on the table and they made up this cool story about coming together to defeat her, but not realising that she was an innocent vessel for an evil entity). The fallout from this event was the husband of Miss Fleur, a local man named Sam, had been petitioning and rabble rousing about the 'scourge' of the super-powered in this city, and how it must be wiped out. Sitting there sharing a soda and ice cream together late one snowy winter afternoon, no one batted an eye when the door blew open and a gust of wind brought a snow drift inside.
Suddenly, the peace was broken when WHACK poor Will was knocked clean out of their booth to land upside down a few seats away. Dante used his super senses and could make out the outline of the mysterious invisible humanoid shaped attacker, but the others were not so lucky. Lacuna picked will up from where he landed, and thinking quickly, Will picked up a fire extinguisher and showered the creature with powder - making it visible to all now. Not wanting to get banned for life from Dorothy's for using his powers, Dante cleverly allowed himself to be dragged out of the store and into the snow where he could properly unleash. Unfortunately, he quickly realised that he was surrounded by more of the invisible creatures and was in a bad situation. A fight ensued, with the rest of the group making their way outside - at one point Will placed himself between the invisible creatures (identified only by their footprints in the snow) and his friend Dante. A car screeched around the corner and collected Dante, sending him sprawling into the snow, while the invisible creatures grabbed hold of Lacuna and manhandled her into the boot. Brad had a crazy idea and used an alien plasma gun he had handy and shot up the car, setting it on fire!! Will bravely opened the driver's door and scuffled with the invisible creature driving the car - successfully throwing the creature out into the snow and taking over the (now lit up) vehicle. Seeing the kerfuffle happening outside, Fred and Rufus poked their heads out of the shop door and started abusing the teen superheroes (they couldn't see the foes!!) for causing so much damage and nuisance. This had a dramatic effect on Lacuna, who had grown up in fear of becoming the dangerous freak monster that Fred was now calling her.
At this point, the remaining three invisible foes scattered into the night. Lacuna hopped out of the car boot and used her mind-altering powers to make Fred and Rufus forget about this incident, but Will ran off home in fear. Dante and Brad decided to follow the footsteps etched into the snow, splitting up. Lacuna said she was doing the same, but rather headed straight for main street and ignored the invisible threat. Keeping in touch with each other via WhatsApp, the group went their separate ways. A touching moment was when Will sent his best friend Lacuna a message simply saying "You are not a freak". Awww. (One of the key mechanics of this game is the emotional damage and healing - being called a freak had damaged Lacuna, but Will was helping her overcome this). The boys followed their invisible targets for some time throughout the city, until Brad got ambushed in an alley by the invisible creature he was following which had doubled back, and then the one that Dante was following joined its compatriot. Dante was soon on the scene and a brawl erupted - made worse by the third remaining invisible enemy (that Lacuna said she'd follow) joining the fray - things were looking desperate. Meanwhile, Will and Lacuna had been texting each other and decided to both meet up at main street with the aim of going to the apartment Lacuna shared with her stoner cousin in midtown - unaware of the fight for life going on with their two friends nearby.
Brad and Dante were getting the crap kicked out of them, and just as Brad was getting dragged out of the alley by the ankle, Dante had a clever insight - he realised that none of the creatures were really trying to kill them - they'd only been trying to drag them away, which was something he was curious about. Letting himself be captured and slammed into the boot of a car, he was driven away by the creatures as Brad made his escape. Using the WhatsApp group (including Dante in the car boot!), the friends established that they would track Dante using 'find my iPhone' and surprise these invisible goons wherever they took him. Arriving at Lacuna's apartment, she went into a ritual ceremony with her cousin looking for answers (she came up with a mystic item that might help - a dream web type thing) while Will used the technology to track Dante. Soon Brad arrived and the group saw the blip on the map stop at a familiar location - Will wasn't sure what it meant, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew this rural farmhouse where the invisible monsters had taken Dante. Lacuna's cousin chimed in and informed them that the farmhouse was on tribal land, and then the penny dropped - although they had never been there personally, they'd all heard about the farm that Miss Fleur the Substitute teacher and her husband had recently purchased!!
Realising that they needed to get there right away, but with none of them old enough to drive, Will called his grandmother and begged a lift - not an unusual thing for a teenager to be doing late at night in the middle of winter. Nanna arrived and the group piled in for the long drive out to the farmhouse. Meanwhile, Dante had escaped from the car boot at the farm before the invisible goons came to get him, and had led them on a merry chase through the bushes and all over the farm, establishing that someone in the main farmhouse seemed to be directing their affairs, and that the enormous barn house nearby was protected by a mystic force field. He managed to evade his pursuers and wait for his friends to arrive by hiding in a stable, and soon saw that the person in the house was none other than Miss Fleur's husband, Sam - dressed in a weird cult-ish robe and wielding a magic staff. Sam came from the house and went into the barn, which started humming and throbbing with bizarre magic emanations. Nanna arrived and dropped off Will, Lacuna, and Brad who made their way up the long gravel drive to the farm - Will and Brad headed straight for the farm house, but Lacuna brandished her mystic token and walked straight through the force field and into the protected barn.
Will and Brad searched the house and found it a veritable shrine to the deceased Miss Fleur, giving Will the idea that perhaps making amends with Sam might stave off whatever dark ritual he was planning. Will also considered that perhaps this was all bait and it was one great big enormous trap for them. Either way, he picked up a wedding ring belonging to Miss Fleur and a photo of himself involved in her defeat and subsequent death - tools he hoped would aid in negotiating and empathising with Sam.
Lacuna meanwhile was more worried about this being her peoples sacred lands, and emerged into the enormous barn to find dozens of hooded and robed cultists led by Sam - all chanting a ritual while surrounding the corpse of Miss Fleur. She threatened Sam, trying to talk to him about the curse she embodied and the wrath of her people, but this was having little effect. Sam had a counterpoint in many cases, but in others he simply wasn't listening - this was a man who had lost his wife and it had driven him crazy.
Will and Dante allowed themselves to be captured and brought inside the force-field, where will proceeded to make amends with the devastated and deranged Sam. This was working well, until two of the hooded and robed figures stood up and with familiar voices started chastising him for standing up for these superhuman criminals. Being his parents, they also gave him grief for hanging out with that 'loser stoner' Lacuna again. Will managed to work with Sam to talk him down, advising that opening portals using magic never ends well either, and that he was really sorry for the death of Miss Fleur. Sam agreed that he would not proceed further, but he could do nothing about the cultists - many of whom were friends, family, and the entire P&C committee of their school. In an attempt to stop them from completing their ritual, Dante unleashed his powers en-masse - twisting limbs and causing very painful injuries to the whole gathered cult - but most importantly, causing them to lose focus on the spell they were chanting - causing Miss Fleur to arise prematurely.
Miss Fleur and Lacuna went head to head - one twisted abomination against the other. At some point, outside Brad called his space-ship in to land in a nearby corn field and then entered the barn too. Anyway. Dante was fighting off cultists, Will was trying to keep his parents (and Sam) safe from the twisted powers of Dante, and Lacuna was battling the possessed and now undead woman who had started all of this. Unleashing her powers, Lacuna brought forth the world-ending entity within her and speared Miss Fleur with multiple tentacles of darkness, temporarily disabling her. Brad and Dante attacked some of the cultists, but many simply turned and fled out into the dark night. Realising that her doom was ever nearer, Lacuna put a permanent end to Miss Fleur by incorporating the evil inhabiting the substitute teacher into her own internal darkness. Lacuna was doomed - more so now - but for how long might she be able to contain not one, but two world-destroying entities?
Thanks Tamara, Benjamin, Jared, and Jock for a great game!
What was our latest foray into Halcyon city, but it won't be our last!! Reach out if you want in!
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