Disclaimer: This post includes bad language and attitudes that really aren’t a representation of what we actually think. It only goes to show out we have bad taste.

As we grow more and more accustomed to this hack and how it works we manage to extend the game and bring in more interesting elements to the game.

This week I send two of my players a love letter. Now I am not sure I actually used them the right way but since this is after all our game I think the point was that they were successful. Or at least one was.

Due the first letter and the roll that followed one of the PCs got a prison tattoo. That was not too interesting. That taught me to be more considering when making the letters. Dull outcomes bring a little to the game.

The second letter was much more interesting. It bring out demonic possession and end up nearly killing the whole group.

The rough translation of the letter I send:

Dear Longtree,

your life as the lawyer of the Native American reservoir must have been rough. Hopefully these past few weeks have not been too hard on you? You were after all kidnapped by the Well-dressed man. You have began to remember some… things from your time as his captive. At the beginning of our next session, please roll+deep.

On a 10+ choose 1

On a 7-9 choose 2

On a Failure we both choose one

– You were buried alive as a part of hideous occult ritual

– You were brainwashed to act as a nazi sleeper agent

– You were possessed by a malign entity

– You did leave someone in trouble when you escaped

– You did tell the secrets of your PC party to your Nemesis

Sleep tight and have fun!

Love,

Your Game Captain

Now I was convinced I could use a hard move like this since the player of this character was thinking about changing his playbook. A clean start with a fresh character? Now I couldn’t just hand that out. I needed to took out this character ASAP and with a bang.

The player rolled 8 and chose “You were buried alive as a part of hideous occult ritual” and “You were possessed by a malign entity”. Perfect for my plans. Aki had already introduced the theme of demonic possession with his character’s angle and I really felt like giving him the kick to write his seasoned playbook.

The session began with mundane themes. The characters were talking about their plans and what they should do next. One character went out to get a new camper got followed by Japaneses muggers and beat the living crap out of them. Then they decided it was time to visit the cabin in the woods.

As a part of his character’s background the player got the love letter above had introduced a cabin of his mentally unstable relative. It had already been established that he was paranoid about the demonic apocalypse and was preparing for it. The characters had left the cabin a couple of in-game days ago as the cellar was filled with gas while they were tampering with a safe.

After reaching the cabin the group set out to investigate whether there had been any sings of malicious enemies lurking around. It did not take long for half of the group to notice the gas was gone and to began working on the safe again.

This was the first time in our campaign a introduced a working Sigil in a way that made an impact. It was a devil’s trap so Longtree (the character who was now possessed) was trapped in it. They Mikko (the player) played it cool and tried to fool other players that his character was just too afraid of thigh spots to carry on so he stayed in the relatively more opens space.

Aki and Kuha (later playing a russian mobster/salesman) opened the safe and found a hidden room. Sami and Peetu (playing the Cox brothers) stayed above the ground guarding the cabin and the vehicles while this last room was searched.

What followed probably was not exactly fair game but it made sense story and roll vice.

While Investigating this hidden room Aki rolled a result that allowed him to choose “the situation escalates” outcome so I took over Mikko’s character. This was the first hint for the players that something wasn’t right. When Kuha’s character went to check out on Longtree he noticed him acting a bit strange. At this point I was pretty convinced that Aki was quick to notice what was happening and what was going to happen.

Players keen on playing before the shit hit the fan.

After that point the situation escalated via a couple of “situation escalates”-outcomes and the unfortunate silence from my players. So after throwing Kuha’s character towards the cellar shelves Longtree was ambushed by the others. They tied him down, reasoned he had been possessed and managed to get Aki’s character to perform the exorcism ritual.

I had really hoped that I could have used the Jenga for exorcism ritual (an idea that sparked during our Demon Week). But naturally I did not have one with me at that time. My backup plan was to use a regular deck of gaming cards. Did not have one either. Luckily Aki had his vast collection of MtG-cards so I took seven white cards and three black cards. Each character assisting the exorcism drew one and black meant that they were about to get in trouble.

We put some O Fortuna playing and Aki rolled the dice.

The god(s) were not with the characters in that dark concrete cellar that night. Aki failed the roll miserably freeing the demon from its restrains. Peetu and Sami had both drawn the black card and were slam against the walls too. Peetu’s characters passed out while Sami’s was only momentarily stunned.

Going on a full “your mother sucks Cox in Hell”-rampage the demon tried to overcome his enemies. What followed was a major chaosfest. Aki’s character was so shook up that he reasoned that only outcome for it was the dead of every living being in the cellar and that if he killed his friends he could at least save their souls. The tried to shoot Aki’s character but his heartfelt bleads (“I don’t want to die! I can’t go to Heaven because I’m gay!”) convinced him to turn his gun on the demon possessed Longtree.

After saving his own ass from the bullets from his friend Sami’s character tried to pick up his sawed-off shotgun failed miserably and was forced to shoot his own head off. Kuha’s character jumped in and managed to Assist him not to kill him self by shooting the demon with AK-47. Sami turned the shotgun towards his former “friend” and blasted half of his face off. Somehow Sami managed to spend his experience to re-roll his Act Under Pressure to get out from the reach of the demon and Peetu’s character followed him.

Ears ringing (and quite likely bleeding from shooting guns in a confined concrete basement) the party escaped from the cellar leaving the bloodied evangelist to confess his sins to the demon. Aki was half convinced his character would die in hunger in the corner of the room that the demon could not reach.

The survivor rushed to search the nearby warehouse for something they could use to break Aki’s character free and Kuha managed to roll “12” on his Investigate so they found a power drill.

At this point we were quite exhausted for the long session and the encounter and I just did not want to drag it any further with them trying to find a correct spot to drill in without breaking the sigil that kept the demon in bay. I only made Aki roll one last Act Under Pressure to resist the temptations of the demon. He aced it.

The gaming session ended with the characters half dead laying above the cellar where the butchered remains of their friend still hosted the malign entity.

—

I mentioned me being unfair at the beginning of this rant. What I meant was that I did not allow Mikko to roll any Act Under Pressure to resist the demon possessing him. I also did lose the track of hard moves and whatnot when the thing got rolling. But I’m fairly certain it all played out in such a memorable way nobody cares.

We are having the next session as soon as the next week’s Friday and I told the players to come up with a month of downtime for all characters to have some time to heal. As this experience with the love letters was such success I think there just might be something like this coming up in the future. I also might end up writing a hazard track for this kind of thing to be used again.

That is if Aki manages to write his exorcist kind of playbook.