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Family of Fear
The next holiday isn’t until Valentine’s Day, so for January they get this adventure, Fainting Goat Games’ “Festival of Fear” but without a holiday connection.
Being a solo play with Abraham Cadabra, Honeybee, and Demiangel.
Before we start, let’s do a little bookkeeping: Both Honeybee and Abe have four minor achievements or a medium achievement; Demiangel has three minor achievements.
- Honeybee is going to spend three achievements, upping her Science to +2 and becoming an expert at Technology. (She always was in my head, I just didn’t have the rolls.) This leaves her with 1.
- Abe is going to use his four minor achievements as a medium achievement, and increase his magic to 6. This leaves him with no achievements.
- Demiangel is going to spend one minor achievement on Wrestling. This leaves him with 2 minor achievements.
Contents
Scene 1: Orphanage Daze
Bill hadn’t been back to the orphanage since he grew out of it, but Ms. Krupp had sounded so eager on the phone that he had taken an advance on his next pay, bought a bunch of treats, and hauled them out to the orphanage. He got off the bus and walked the half-block to the St. Sophia orphanage.
No one greeted him.
He checked the email on his phone — no, he hadn’t arrived during a day trip. He pushed against the front door and it swung open, unlocked.
“Hello?” he called.
No answer.
He cautiously stepped inside and set down the bag of treats, then walked quickly through the building, poking into the nooks and crannies he remembered as hiding spots.
No one.
The common eating area had a bunch of pie plates sitting out. Plates and forks were sitting on the tables; most were dirty. He sniffed at one of the bits of pie left in a pie plate. [1] It was coconut cream but smelled a bit off.
He knew from personal experience that some orphanage administrators would cut costs by using substandard food but not Ms. Krupp. She’d find some way to get the right stuff donated or go without rather than use something that didn’t meet health standards.
He checked her office next. The computer was on and files were open on the desk. He bumped the mouse to check; the screen lit up and requested his login. He moved to the bedrooms.
No kids there. Beds were unmade. And Bitsy had left behind Mr. Simba. She left Mr. Simba on her bed only for meals and chores.
Foul play. He pulled out his phone and texted the rest of the group. Every1@St. Sophia orphanage missing. Foul play. Pls come.
Abe appeared at the front door a minute later. [2] “Honeybee will be a moment. She was naked for some reason— Oh. There she is.” She was full size. She said fewer things ran into her when she was full size.
“What’s the sitch?” she asked Bill. “And what lies is Abe telling you?”
Bill explained quickly. “And he didn’t say anything.”
“I pointed out you were naked.”
She hit Abe in the shoulder. “I was trying on clothes!”
“I’ll talk to neighbours,” Abe said. “Somebody must have seen something.”
“Show me that pie,” Honeybee said. She looked at Abe. “There is no way you can make that dirty.”
“I didn’t say a thing,” he said, and disappeared with a gesture. [3]
“This was your place, wasn’t it?” asked Honeybee.
Demiangel nodded.
“Show me around,” said Honeybee. “Tell me about the place.”
“Twenty-one kids, half of them left over from my time,” Demiangel said to Honeybee on the way to the eating area. “Mostly kids who were never going to be adopted. Too old or delayed or—or mutants.”
“Like you.”
He shrugged.
Honeybee sniffed the pie. “Substandard coconut cream. And you’re right, something seems off about it. Probably drugged but I don’t have equipment here to analyze it.” She put some of the pie in a sample container, then looked around the room and counted. “Twenty-one dirty plates. Just kids?”
“She—Ms. Krupp—she usually passed up stuff so the kids could have it. Usually administrators are just, you know, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss’ but she was...she was pretty good.”
Honeybee nodded. “Let me look at her office.”
She glanced at the computer. “From the way you describe her, it probably wasn’t an inside job. Maybe the papers hold a clue.” She jiggled the mouse and got a screensaver: a group shot of the kids. It was locked, though. Rather than crack it immediately, she checked the papers on the desk.
“Copy of the order for the pies. Dino’s Upper Crust Bakery.”
“Yeah. She ordered cakes and stuff from there because they’d sell stuff with no markup, and mark it as a charity donation.”
“By the way…” Honeybee tapped one file folder. “This one’s your file,” she told Demiangel. “She wrote some pretty nice things about you.”
“She let me stay about a month after I aged out. Then the Moyar twins came and she had no room.”
“So you went on the street.” Demiangel nodded.
Half an hour later Abe returned. “The lady across the street is terribly suspicious of these hooligans. She had choice words about you, Bill.”
“Mrs. DeGrado? Yeah. We never got along.”
“Anyway, a truck from Dino’s Upper Crust bakery was here, dropped off the pies, and left. Get this—the pies were delivered by clowns .”
“I hate clowns,” Demiangel said. “Remind me of an albino kid who used to be here. He was nasty. I mean, he didn’t pick on me, but I was big. Bitsy took the brunt of it until I got him to lay off her.”
“Bitsy was the one with Mr. Simba?” Demiangel nodded. “Then more clowns came in a couple of school buses and took the kids and Ms. Krupp away.”
“Where’d they go?”
“Well, Mrs. DeGrado didn’t know. Any luck here?”
“Kids were probably drugged. Not much else.”
“Call the police, let them know we’re looking into this. No Bill, just Demiangel right now. You said that Bitsy never let go of that toy?” Demiangel nodded. “Bring it to me. Let’s see how badly it wants to go to her.”
“Magic?”
Abe nodded. “Principle of contagion. Honeybee, while I’m doing this, scout out Dino’s. I hope it’s just a stolen truck but in case…”
“On it!”
Scene 2: Bake Fail [4]
The blinds were shut and someone had turned the sign around to CLOSED. [5] Honeybee heard muffled cries for help and ducked into one of the ventilation grates; she squeezed through the vent and found herself on the main bakery floor.
A large polka dot barrel was sitting there, and it was ticking. [6] Since it was out of place, she decided to make it the priority. “Place closed, big ticking polka dot barrel and I’m assuming it’s a bomb. Not strong enough to carry everyone out, so I’m dealing with the bomb,” she said into the communicator.
First step was to check it for traps. [7] “Booby-trapped out my tiny ying-yang,” she muttered to herself. There were several traps, but she managed to disable them and confirm for herself that this was, in fact, a bomb.
Next step was to look for a way to disarm it. That might be trapped too. [8] It was, but being this small made it easy to reach things, and being able to see in the dark eliminated the other problems. Heh. Two timers: one counting down as soon as it was breached and the real timer which worked on a radio signal. She disconnected both of them.
Last step was actually disarm the bomb so that it couldn’t actually explode. She set the pieces aside and far from the actual explosive, and then tried to find the voices she had heard.
The…pantry? The room where the sacks of flour were stored. That was jammed shut and the noises were coming from inside. It was the work of a moment to move things aside. “Hold on!” she said through her external speaker. “Any reason I shouldn’t open the door? These guys are big on booby-traps.”
One muffled voice said, “We’re tied up.” Another said, “You can open it.”
She grew to full size and untied and ungagged them. There were eleven of them, mostly women. The second-oldest was Dino.
“Clowns. Clowns busted in the door before opening, made us add some chemical to the orphanage’s pies.”
“Smell of the stuff nearly made me pass out,” added another baker.
“Know what the stuff was?”
“I kicked one of the empties under the bread-slicer,” said a bird-like woman.
Yet another baker said, “Then they tied us up, made some joke about how it was going to be a bang when heroes got here.”
“Call the police, tell them what’s happened.” Honeybee said. She shrank down, flew to the bread-slicer and got under it. The label was up: the bottle was from the abandoned Deuce Chemical factory. On the communicator, she said, “Try the Deuce Chemical factory.”
“We’re headed in that direction,” said Demiangel. “Abe’s worked up some kind of detector. I’ll let you know if that’s not where we end up.”
“I’m headed there now.”
Scene 3: The Festival Factory
Honeybee got there first. She did a quick circuit of the buildings. The factory looked dark and boarded up, but she poked into several buildings and found two garishly-painted buses in one. From here, she could hear canned laughter in the main building.
“Not uninhabited,” she murmured into her communicator.
“We’re almost there,” said Demiangel.
“Don’t engage until we arrive, please,” added Abe. “I’d like to hold you in reserve.”
“Like usual,” Honeybee said.
“If it ain’t broke…”
“Fine. Buses are in one of the outside buildings, main factory has canned laughter.” She shut up because she was at the threshold of the main factory floor. [9]
The room had been turned into a…what? Carnival tent? Boxes decorated with blue and white diamonds formed a ring. To one side, away from the ring were the kids from the orphanage, who were chained to the floor. They still looked drugged, and all of them were pointing so that they had to watch the movies being projected on the wall: Urbane clowns getting the better of their opponents. First she counted. All twenty-one of them were there. Brainwashing of some kind? So destroying the apparatus is step one, prevent further mental damage.
One clown, clearly the leader, was standing at the center of the “ring” with his hand on a woman’s head, fingers twined in her hair. The woman looked like she had been crying and was trying not to. Inside the ring but on the far side, on a ramp, was a clown car: small and pink and decorated with stylized daisies.
Okay, she thought, car is an odd touch. Clearly it does something or is ready for some kind of getaway or is part of the clown-circus motif. I could probably disable it. Let’s wait until the boys arrive.
“We’re almost on-stage now, dear,” the clown said to the woman, and pulled her hair so she nodded. “Bill should be here soon.”
“How…How do you know?” the woman asked.
“Bomb didn’t go off, and I made sure to ‘forget’ one of the bottles when we left. Maybe he’s scouting the property now.”
“Bill?”
“I owe him.” A red light flashed to one side, in his field of vision.
“Come on, do-gooders! These children belong to Big Top now! In just a few short minutes their indoctrination will be complete, and a better crew of wags, acrobats, pickpockets, and ne’er‐do‐wells you’ll never have seen! So off to your fancy headquarters and keep hiding from your past. Unless, Bill…you want to fight.”
Demiangel said, “Phil? The fight didn’t go well for you last time.” He had his wings of flame up, so he was floating about two feet off the ground. Abe softly glowed with mystic shields beside him.
“I brought friends this time.” Clowns started coming out of the car, though Honeybee had been sure it was empty. “And if you don’t want to fight, well, I’ll kill Ms. Krupp.” He lifted her up by her hair and shook her. She yelped in pain.
“I thought you wanted me to go home,” said Demiangel.
While they were distracted by each other, Honeybee flew around to the brainwashing device. [10]
“Your friend can go. I’ve decided I need to show you who’s boss in this big top.”
“Oh, I think I’ll stay,” said Abe. He executed some passes but there was no obvious effect. [11] “You’ll see what that does in just a bit.” He smiled. “From a fellow showman — keep’em in suspense.”
Honeybee figured they might need the brainwashing device later. The easiest way to disable the brainwashing device so that they could use it later was to remove the power supply. [12] Fortunately it was a standard part: she disconnected it and hauled it away.
The clown noticed when the brainwashing stopped—“There are three of you. But fortunately there are six of me!” The clowns from the car stepped forward. “And you’re killing her!” [13]
Abe lifted his palm. Suddenly Ms Krupp was higher, pressed up against his hand. [14]
Honeybee dropped the power supply in a hiding spot and headed for the car. Disabling his gadgets seemed prudent.
The five clowns dashed forward, three of them heading for Abe, two for Demiangel.
All three aimed for Abe at once; [15] their boxing gloves sprang forward and hit him simultaneously. He flew back into a wall.
Meanwhile, the other two had focused their boxing gloves on Demiangel, [16] and hit him, knocking him up to the ceiling. Demiangel dove down on OG Phil, hoping to distract him so that Ms. Krupp could get free.
“Afraid to take me on? Still?” he said to Phil. [17] The clown dropped Ms. Krupp to grab Demiangel and toss him to the floor. [18]
Ms. Krupp ran to one side.
Abe said, “Let’s see how you fellows like this.” He used the same spell to pick up the car and slam it into the three clowns at the edge of the ring. [19] They were knocked prone and the car was wrecked. Okay, they’re tough, thought Abe, and he scrambled behind pillar.
Honeybee saw the car ruined and thought, Don’t need to break that. And the boys need help. Abe was clearly out-matched, so she started with the three facing him. She concentrated on widening the focus of her blast so that it would get all three. [20] She hit them but didn’t know if did any damage.
Two of them and the central clown — Phil, Demiangel had called him — walked out to the middle of the children. “You and me, Bill. Well, all of me. Beat me, and I leave. Lose and these kids become the best circus-themed gang you’ve ever seen, and we turn your friends into bisque.”
One of the duplicate clowns made a flourish [21] and a ghostly tiger leapt at Abe, but he didn’t flinch. Another stared, trying to spot Honeybee. [22] The main clown made a come-hither gesture to Demiangel.
“I’ll fight the original you, not you with duplicates. Dismiss them and I’ll fight you.”
“I can’t,” said the clown. “They came from the car, and the car is wrecked now. There’s no place for them to go.” [23] One of the duplicates grabbed Abe and picked him up; of the other two, one glowed yellow briefly and the colour touched Demiangel but had no effect. The other was looking up and then smiled creepily. “There you are, little girl.”
“Let my friends go,” said Demiangel. “Your hate-on is for me.”
“I don’t think so. We need them to make you cooperate.”
“Hey, Bill,” called Abe. “Keep your wings up while you’re fighting.” [24]
“Quiet!” said the clown. “I’m in control here!”
Abe said, “Oh, Bozo, you have the upper hand for a bit, but you are not in control.” [25] At the twitch of Abe’s fingers, Demiangel’s wings shifted and flowed until they enveloped the clown and wreathed him in fire.
Honeybee zipped down to knee height on another clown so she was firing up at them. [26] They jerked their heads back as the sound ripped through them.
Phil threw his trench coat off, leaving him unburned but in a polka dot body suit. “How did you do that?” he demanded to Demiangel. “Or was it you?” he asked Abe.
The clown holding Abe squeezed, which hurt, so Abe laughed. “That’s it? No wonder Bill beat you as a teenager.”
Please don’t fire at the kids, Honeybee hoped. She was going to have to free them. There had to be a control somewhere…
The clown who was watching her turned yellow again, and Honeybee turned yellow too. [27] She felt fear touch her but it was nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. Two others tried to fire their boxing gloves at Demiangel [28] but, shaken, missed.
Demiangel said, “You haven’t kept your agreement.” He tossed a spear of fire at Phil [29] and it splashed all over the clown, who screamed in anger.
Abe saw the opportunity and the flame from Demiangel’s wings concentrated on Phil again. Honeybee took the opportunity to blast again [30] and once again the air above her shimmered with the sound blast.
OG Phil, “Cover me!” to the others, and started to run to the edge of the warehouse.
“I’ll kill him!” said the clown holding Abe. “I swear I will.”
The other clowns each grabbed a child. “I’ll kill it!” said the chorus of clowns.
“I’m betting that you’ll go away if we get rid of Phil,” said Demiangel, and he threw another spear of fire. [31] It caught Phil on the head and Phil collapsed, unconscious.
The other clowns vanished, leaving Abe and the kids to slump, limp.
“You okay?” he called to Ms. Krupp and the kids.
Ms. Krupp nodded and the restraints on the children popped open.
The kids started to cheer.
Demiangel picked up the fallen body of Phil. “I should deliver him to the police.”
The kids were standing up now. Ms. Krupp said, “Maybe one of the others could do that?”
Demiangel took Mr. Simba from Abe and gave it to Bitsy. “I guess they can.”
The Cast
Members of Uncanny Justice: Abraham Cadabra, Honeybee, Demiangel.
Abraham Cadabra
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PRW: 3 |
Specialties Leadership (+1), Occult Expert (+2) |
Powers
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Stamina 9 DP 2 |
Qualities
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Honeybee (Lauren Twilt)
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PRW: 6 CRD: 5 STR: 5 INT: 5 AWR: 4 WIL: 5 |
Specialties Science Expert (+2), Technology Expert (+2), Aerial Combat (+1) |
Powers
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Stamina 10 DP 2 |
Qualities
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Demiangel (William Halvorsen)
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PRW: 6 CRD: 6 STR: 8 INT: 5 AWR: 4 WIL: 4 |
Specialties Aerial Combat (+1), Wrestling (+1) |
Powers
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Stamina 12
DP 2 |
Qualities
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Team Qualities (Uncanny Justice)
- We do weirdness
- Found family
- Connections everywhere
(I like “Found family” but the others need refinement)
Big Top, evil clown (Philip Sicilian)
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PRW: 6 |
Specialties Fighting (Slapstick Combat) Master (+3), Investigation (+1), Performance (Intimidation) Expert (+2) |
Powers
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| Stamina 14 |
Qualities
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Car
Speed 6 Handling 3 Structure 4 Armor —
[1] 4+1>2
[2] Teleport shock: 6+3>2 so he’s not shocked.
[3] 6-3>2; no teleport shock.
[4] One of the nice things about doing this as a solo play is that I can split the party this way without anyone annoyed.
[5] 4-2 is not enough; she doesn’t notice the door has been forced.4+2+1> 3; she does notice the muffled cries for help.
[6] We’ll run this as a pyramid test, difficulty 5 A couple of bad dice rolls could make this impossible, or a good dice roll might make it easy.
[7] Where to attack it? 5+2+4>5; massive success. 5+2+1 (Technology) > 5; major success.
[8] 5+2+3 > 5; massive success.5+2-1>5; moderate success.
[9] But does Big Top notice her? She’s trying to hide…gets a Major success at coordination, so she’s Difficulty 3+2 (Her hiding)+2 (her size) to spot…a 7. Big Top rolls a 1+4<7. Nope.
[10] She doesn’t do well on the Stealth roll, but she’s shrunk: difficulty 5 to spot. A series of -1 and -2 rolls for the five new duplicates mean they don’t spot her.
[11] Magic: He’s prepping Great TK for this, and succeeds (5+2+2>6)
[12] Using Advantage (“There is no one like me”) and a determination point for a retcon.
[13] Oh, yeah: Initiative. Abe 12, Honeybee 12, Big Top & copies 10, Demiangel 7
[14] He grabs her with TK: 6+1>4+2. He’s not trying to wrest her away, just supporting her at this moment.
[15] Working together; Abe has terrible Prowess, so they are likely to hit. Yup: 11, 7, 8. He takes 8+2, 4 Stamina, and a Stun, but he immediately spends a determination point to counteract the stun.
[16] Both hit, because 12>7 and 10>7, and Demiangel takes 9-4=5 Stamina.
[17] He spends a Determination point and uses the Quality “Bad past” to create the Quality “Distracted.” Call it a Prowess roll, but I’m going to add 2 because they clearly have a past. Difficulty is 6, he gets 6+0+2.
[18] Demiangel takes another 4 stamina. I’m going to say that because he was expecting it, we’re not going to check for Slam or Stun; he spends a determination point on recovery, activating “Trying to do good”
[19] Willpower+surprise vs coordination: 6+2+0>4. They each take 3 stamina, and are knocked prone and the car takes 6 damage, which renders it unusable.
[20] She spends a Determination point to stunt Burst activating “There is no one like me.” 5+1+2>4, 5+2+2>4, 5-3+2=4. No slam results, but two take another 3 damage.
[21] Trying to use his Illusion power, but 6-4<anyone’s willpower.
[22] 3+3<7, so he fails.
[23] Oh, there are still three duplicates. One grabs Abe because, really, his prowess is 6 higher; he’s not going to miss. Another is going to use Fear on Demiangel: 6-3<4, so it fails. The third is going to spend Determination on spotting Honeybee, so Honeybee gets a determination point and spotted (4+2+3>7).
[24] Abe spends a DP and activates “Child of Magic” for a recovery so he’s at 9 now.
[25] Fire control: he’s using his fire TK to make the clown’s clothes catch on fire. 6+3>4 and his clothes now have the Quality “Burning up.” They’re Damage Resistance 3, he’s got Fire Control 5, so say in two pages they will be gone.
[26] She still has Burst stunted; 5+1+2>4. No slam, but they both take 3 Stamina..
[27] Fear control, which lands solidly but has only a marginal effect.
[28] Both miss: 9-3<7, 9-4<7
[29] 6+0>4, so it hits and does 4 Stamina.
[30] 6+2>4, but no Stun effect
[31] Abe is going to offer a DP (Leadership) to improve the chances of hitting; good thing, because that’s a crappy roll, but with +2 it’s marginal: 4=4, and 2 damage and no damage resistance knocks him out…
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