Saturday, November 19, 2022

Go through the pub door, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over

• We come out of the cabin door and find that hardly any time has passed at all, so we decide to immediately go through the pub door
• We find ourselves in what looks like the backroom of a pub with old empty barrels by the door, and more modern looking kegs and bottles the further away
  • It's a bit cold (cellar temp), damp, and the walls are grey brick, making me think this is somewhere in Europe
  • The size of the cellar and the stock makes it look like we're probably in the cellar of a small independent pub
  • There is the sound of Irish punk music coming through the door
• I take the lead and go through the door into pub proper, which is a small, dimly lit place
  • It's a basement pub with multiple small rooms
• We immediately feel a deep ground in Protocol effect of "take it outside"
  • I get a sense it was cast by a middle aged troll woman behind the bar, but not the one from our vision
    
• We're in Galway
• They have a Declan too (an elderly satyr with huge horns)
  • He has a fiddle and a synthesizer
    
• And a Aoife (the troll)
• We all get the distinct impression they're not excited about having Aoife here, as this is definitely a commoner's pub
• The rest of the regulars come in
  • An old clurichan, Padraig
    
  • A piskie, Seamus O'Connor
    
  • A selkie, Siobhan
    
  • A woman we can't place in terms of kith, Catriona
    • She's a bastet
    • She's evidently an internationally wanted art thief
      
• There's an enormous white wolfhound with purple haunches, blue feet, and red tail
  • He's definitely the dog I saw in the vision
  • He's the pub dog and his name is Bran
  • He's lying in front of a large fireplace that is clearly a balefire
• The piskie, Seamus, tells us about weird things going on
  • Unusually cold weather
  • Animals acting strange
  • A talking cat, who could talk into his mind
• The pub was bombed during the Troubles, and now it only exists in the basement of the Starbucks above it from sundown to sunrise like our freehold
• They have the key and we're making bar bets to see if we get the key and the dog
  • I put up my treasure necklace as our end of the bet
  • The bets:
    • Agnes: finding books about specific topics in the local library (moist encyclopedia, ancient pornography, fluffy true crime)
      • She wins 2 to 1
    • Moira: drawing a crowd to one side vs their guy on the other
      • She wins by a landslide
    • Blaze: parkouring across the roofs to the cathedral
      • She wins significantly
    • Aoife: getting folks out of jail
      • She wins
    • Me: betting on the ponies!
      • I lose
• There are snakes in the police station, a statue menacing right outside the bookmaker's door, a taxidermy bear and tiger in the library, unprecedented ice on the rooftops, and ghosts out in the square
• We also all figure out we've picked up tails that are Hunters, thanks to Aoife invoking the Wyrd to deal with the snakes and her Hunter thinking she was an angel
  • They're Society of Leopold and were going to follow the changelings back to their place and burn it down
• We win the bar bets and they give us the key and Bran follows us home
• Bran, the Hound of Fionn
  • This chimerical wolfhound once served Fionn mac Cumhaill himself. He is mostly white, with purple haunches, a crimson tail, blue feet, standing over five feet high. He is loyal only to his owner.
  • Power: The wolfhound is massive and incredibly loyal to its owner. It has enhanced senses and can detect even the slightest signs of danger, making it an excellent companion for an adventurer. (40 point companion)
  • Location: Lostling’s Pub, as the bar mascot
  • Stats (40 points):
    • Attributes (10): Str 5, Dex 3, Sta 5, Cha 2, Man 2, App 2, Per 5, Int 2, Wit 4
    • Abilities (7): Alertness 5, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Empathy 2, Intimidation 2, Kenning 3, Survival 3
    • Tempers (15): Glamour 5, Willpower 2, Health 8 (Soak 7)
    • Attacks: Bite 6 (7 damage)
    • Redes (8): Armor 2, Sense Banality, Weaponry +2