Session 12: The Winter Court's Errand Part 1

 October 6th, 2013 

Our protagonists met up the following morning (Sunday) to figure out what to do about Tybalt, the ogre. Eric produced the bottled memory that supposedly belonged to Simon, which he'd acquired from the goblin market. The group determined that Simon would have to drink the memory to make it work, at which point the group used a temporary dreaming Pledge to ride along as Simon fell asleep.

 Simon's Memory 

After determining that the dream wasn't very useful in its present state—especially since Simon wasn't able to figure out yet what felt off about it—the group decided to head to Rev. Williams' church to ask him about Simon's backstory. Rev. Williams was willing to share, though he seemed sorrowful about his unsavory past.

Peter Williams was involved in the drug trade when he was younger. He got involved as a teenager, and by the the time he reached adulthood he'd gotten rather skilled at avoiding arrest. He wasn't a very nice person, and took every edge he could against his competitors. In 2003 he sold out a rival, Jeremiah Stoke, to an informant who promised to make the problem go away. Williams walked away with a nice payoff for the deal, and his rival dropped off the map. A year later he was involved in a felony DUI, hitting another car and forcing them off the road into a tree. While Williams stumbled away from the accident and was picked up by police several miles down the road, the other car's driver—a young man—was killed and his three passengers severely injured. Peter spent five years in prison, during which he found religion, and upon his release he finished his studies in the seminary before becoming a minister and organizing support groups to help others with addiction.

Unfortunately for Simon, due to the timing of selling out Stoke and the subsequent car crash—which the memory confirmed was Simon's abduction—the group determined that it was he and not his fetch who was responsible for Tybalt's abduction.

The group met with Mr. Gone the next day at the latter's request. He had an assignment for them from the Winter Court, a request to acquire a potentially dangerous token from a trio of changelings known as The Jacks, in exchange for pay and court-given pardon for breaking into their vault back when they needed the camera. The token in question was a hunting horn the Jacks had come into possession of recently, and according to the Winter Court's sources it fair smelled of dark fae magic. The group was then given leave to investigate.

They checked out the library areas where Just Jack was known to hangout, as well as downtown where gremlin activity likely caused by Handsome Jack had taken place. They even spoke to Mr. Fix-It about the Jacks, and were given Handsome Jack's apartment address as well as specific details on Just Jack's library hangouts. Unfortunately very little was to be had on the third Jack, Jack Fable, as he was an extremely secretive changeling.

By this point, Eric needed to get to work, so everyone else hung out and tried to follow the leads to little avail. Chiara also continued her Facebook-stalking of her fetch, who it turned out had a hot date with her investment banker fiancé that evening.

That evening the Irregulars met up again to hit up Dusk, a nightclub frequented by the Jacks. There, they found Just Jack, and tried to talk to him. The group tried to tip the scales in their favor by building a temporary Pledge to boost Tia's social skills, but even so Just Jack was skittish and panicky and didn't want to talk about the horn. He just wanted to leave. The motley didn't want that, so Tia tripped him up, and Chiara blocked the emergency exit while Eric ducked outside to intercept him. Just Jack hit Tia and Chiara in succession with a Contract that inflicted them with Hysteria about dancers, and Chiara botched her resistance and fled in terror from the gyrating bodies around her. Just Jack fled, and managed to lose Eric in the streets despite the latter's best efforts. The motley regrouped and determined that Just Jack was afraid of the horn, or possibly his motley mates. Maybe even both.

The group decided to follow up on the Handsome Jack lead—his apartment—next, but when they arrived they found the building on fire, with firefighters and a camera crew outside in addition to the gawking crowd. Most of the group was at a loss, but Eric decided to take advantage of his fae nature and run inside while the others waited. Inside the burning building, Eric found a father and his kid trapped and managed to get them outside, then worked his way to Handsome Jack's apartment. He found evidence of a fight, Handsome Jack himself dead, and a wrong-feeling Hedge-Gate, but no sign of the horn. Not wanting to stay in the conflagration any longer, Eric grabbed Handsome Jack's body, made a new gate into the Hedge, and met up with his motley back outside.

Upon investigating Handsome Jack's singed corpse, they determined that the cause of death was a knife-wound in the changeling's ribcage. With little else they could do at that moment, the group decided they needed to wait out the fire, and made plans to go back in later after the crowd had cleared.

NPCs Met
Just Jack, Darkling moonborn whose motley has the hunting horn.

Enemies
Just Jack?

Other Stuff
Session 11: Scavenger Hunt

Session 13: The Winter Court's Errand (Part 2)