It's raining in London... again (OOC)

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The squad on the platform [ref] are Goons (page 219). They don't matter enough to qualify for Put a Name to a Face, that sort of Move is reserved for whomsoever is sending them, if you can find that out.

OK, so a good start with my first Move. With 10, I think I'll choose "A loyal customer reveals the secrets of a powerful NPC", who would be the NPC that I need to fool/deceive as a complication in my scheme.

Alright. Do you have ideas for who either, or both, of these people are? So far we only know of Mark as a 'loyal customer' so if we want that one to be an NPC we can make someone up. It could be Dr Williams, or someone else (though NPC-bloat can quickly become a problem in Urban Shadows, but we can deal with that if when it happens.)

If it is Mark who brings you the secret, then that may involve him in your Scheme as well. All up to you.

In my opinion, it makes a lot of sense that this is Mark, if he agrees, of course.

No problem. But who is going to be the powerful npc? Will I make one up?

Cool, we will work out how you learn that your information is relevant to the Scheme. If you don't know about the Scheme itself you will have some other reason to tell Jacob.

If Mark does not know about the Scheme then the NPC would need to be someone connected to Jacob as well as to the Scheme.

@gnomius, would Jacob have involved Mark in a Scheme? The nature of the Scheme might affect that, I will make it open-ended that way.
If either of you have anyone you want to turn into the 'powerful NPC' you are welcome to suggest someone. We can adjust if it does not work.

I can also create the scenario and known actors involved and you can base your choice off of that. We can still adjust as needed.

Else I can always come up with someone if I have to.

The Powerful NPC can be from any Circle.

We can also save this information and revelation for later when it can have more impact.

@gnomius, I have also just read the Move, and it says it's "your choice", so I was not just being generous (or lazy (or collaborative:):) in offering you the option. This near the start you might not know enough NPCs to make use of this, so I can help with who it is if you need.

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@gnomius, once I know the answer to my question about whether you are going out to meet the threat or staying home for the 'surprise party' [ref] (I should have asked that in this thread): I will see if you learn about the Scheme on you way or yesterday.

I may have found some really crappy apartments there.

Depends on the nature of the Scheme. Unlike Rhiannon or Benji, Mark is not a collaborator (yet) but just a client. But that can easily change, if Jacob sees it would be beneficial for him to collaborate with Mark. ;)
I think it means "your choice" between "generate a new scheme or advance one of your existing schemes", not about creating the Scheme itself. But I'm more than happy to collaborate if needed (beyond the choices I already selected).
Jacob will wait for Benji to (hopefully) show up, he's not a fighter. By the time being, he will just keep an eye on the street to make sure they are really coming his way, with the plan B to go downstairs into the bookshop if things go left.

Also a tad far away from the others, this does mean you won't be able to just 'notice something happening' as easily as the rest can. So we will need to come up with reasons for you to be 'in the neighborhood'.

I don't mind if you want to be '10 mins away' by bike (also remember about the Boris Bikes if ever you don't want to have to lock up your own bike where you are going), but I am sure you can find a really crappy apartment in Covent Garden or Leicester Square or even Chinatown or somesuch. They could be in the business/market areas and therefore not good housing. Completely up to you.

In addition to the crappy apartment, I also noticed that you get a 'cell phone', while almost everyone else gets a 'smartphone'. I won't enforce it if you choose to have a smartphone, I find the idea of a plain cell phone a bit laughable in 2024, but there may be in-fiction reasons if you want to go with it. :)

We can make a reason to get Mark involved. There is an item you need but don't have, so he may be able to track it down for you.
That one does, but I was talking about this one:
• A loyal customer reveals the secrets of a powerful NPC, your choice

You get to choose which powerful NPC you learn a secret about. But we don't know many yet, so it may be hard for you to choose. If you have someone in mind, we can try make it be them; else we can find a suitable NPC as we play, and then you can learn their secret.
I, too, am more than happy to collaborate. If you have more input about a Scheme you want to try your hand at, just say so and we will try to put as much of what you suggest into it.
OK, I sorta figured, that's why I paused and asked. :)

We will divert Mark and Rhiannon to your location since they suggested they were heading to Picadilly.
No... He's only one of the toughest and hardest-to-kill characters we have with I'm a Fucking Demon. :)

I think I will introduce the Jacob's Scheme when we have a moment of quiet.

I'll take a look and edit my post for the "Crappy Apartment" also thanks for the Smart Phone!

As I had chosen Wild as the Circle involved, I am thinking that the S3 powerful NPC we need to fool is a fae (enough demons for the time being!). Perhaps the scheme can be somehow related to Jacob's efforts on finding out if the raven can live longer. Or we can leave that thread for later, if we don't want to overcomplicate this first Scheme.

You are getting an item for Wild. The ones you are fooling a don't need to be from the same Circle. And you also probably don't want them to be S3, that may be way out of your league. :)

Unless the NPC is directly part of the Scheme they don't need to be from Wild. They could be from another Circle only tangentially associated with the Scheme. Not everyone involved in the Scheme is from Wild, there is already Mortalis involved as you will see when you learn about it.
There are no fae in the city, there have not been for about a decade. Very few people have given them a second thought in a long time.
Agreed. There is more to Wild than fae and demons, though.
Yes, let's leave that one till have seen it in play and have something to care about. You can also pursue that outside of your Schemes, merely using your Schemes to tide you over.

It sorta sounds like Benji [ref] and Rhiannon [ref] are hoping for a surprise party attack? That would probably call for Mislead, Distract, and Trick (+mind).

This is definitely true for Benji to sneak up to them with a sword, but Rhiannon may be able to skip and immediately Turn to Violence (+blood) at range, though they will almost definitely know she is there afterwards. It all depends on what you describe your characters doing.

A good Mislead can give you a free Turn to Violence with little risk of reprisals, and even the possibility of remaining 'hidden'.

Yes, Benji is hoping to pull off a surprise attack. He’s mostly just jumping out and trying to stab one of them in the back before they know what’s happening though, rather than going for a more slow and stealthy approach. Should I add a mislead roll to my post?

Let's say yes, this time, even though it is a bit of a 'soft trigger'. The fiction in that post [ref] did not really contain any attempt to Mislead, so the Move does not trigger from there alone. To do it, you have to do it.

There were hints in your previous post [ref] that you were hiding, but that seems a bit weak as a Mislead, Distract, and Trick trigger. It is still there (mainly because I set them up with their backs to you:), so we can accept it as a first go. I sorta find myself wishing the system had Advantage and Disadvantage —even though I am not generally a fan of that mechanic— but we will have to deal with this in the fiction —which I generally prefer anyway.

Make a Move (add a roll to the post). Bare in mind the fiction of the situation when you make your choices, all options are available to you (sometimes the fiction precludes some options (like confusing them for some time), and sometimes —as now— it just makes those ones weaker).

Also bear in mind that if you Miss on Mislead you probably won't get to Turn to Violence and will be exposed. Your Blood is better than your Mind, so, despite your fears and characterisation of Benji, it may be more optimal, from a mechanical standpoint, to jump straight to Violence. The fiction of hiding and springing enables you to get a sword blow in where otherwise you would have had to fist get close enough.

It is up to you. Good luck. :)

Okay, no worries! I’ll go with Turn to Violence as I think it fits better with what Benji is trying to do in the fiction

Yeah.

I've added the roll to my post :)

That is a 9, 1 away from a 10+.

If someone wants to Lend a Hand they could possibly bring that up to a 10. This would be their 'action this round' (though such mechanics don't exist in PbtA) and could expose them to danger if they were otherwise not involved in the fight.

We will resolve this once we have seen what the others are doing. Feel free to discuss your actions here.

@Ysolde, the demons are in the alley [ref], as is Jacob's shop. They are out of sight of most cars passing, and you can slip into the alley and still attack them at range with your Holy bow.

Do you still want to charge in? [ref]

I tried... and failed miserably. :-/

That's your choice, you could have chosen to fail spectacularly! :)

@Stalker05: Only one person's Help can add to a roll, but many can roll to Help. So if Mark wants to try his luck at helping Benji, that is still an option open to you.

She's worried Benji will get himself hurt so, in this case, she'll get in Melee to give the demons another target.

Fair enough.

Only your Bow has +Holy, which we can assume is particularly effective against demons (+2 Harm or AP, whichever is better in any situation). Do you believe there also significance to Silver or Iron with demons? Do you think that is a common or a rare case?

I assume from the description that you are using your seax?

I think silver and cold-iron are common it's just figuring out which one it is. So some demons it is silver and some it is cold iron maybe flip a coin?

Makes sense since you, a demon hunter, picked them for your Arsenal.

I agree that some sort of randomisation is called for, though, since they are not exclusively anti-demons (as +Holy might be) and they should be less effective there, but also good against vampires or werewolves or fae and such. I am not sure how we will do that, maybe it is a coin-flip for each 'demon-type', and we learn what the types are as we play and you encounter them. The Move: Put a Name to a Face could influence this as well when it applies.

I think, maybe, +Silvered might bypass some protections (semi-AP and other 'unbinding' benefits) and +Cold Iron might provide 'protection' to the wielder? Your Cold Iron weapon is a flexible Chain, so you cold use as a 'magic circle' type barrier, and other such options, it is not all about the damage.

You can always commission, or find, new weapons (both through Advancement and through the story) to specialise or diversify more.

I'll promise Jacob will get you some new toys to play with, if you can get him out of this mess alive. ;-P

@Stalker05: We are learning, so it is not a problem, but remember, Do Not Edit and Do Not placeholder. Aside from guessing that that was what you were doing, I have no way of knowing that you made a change to the post since I read it and that there is information that I need to go back and read again, so such things will get ignored and missed.

Once you have put something out into the internet you have to assume people have read it immediately, so don't edit what they have read unless it is abundantly clear to everyone that you have done so and how and why.

Just add a new post with the results/outcomes of your roll. If it is purely mechanical OOC choices, or needs GM intervention before you can finish the action, you can add the new post in this OOC thread.

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How? And to what end? What is Mark trying to do?

The 'opportunity' needs to arise from the fiction of your action, and the 'lengthy confusion' needs that action to feasibly confuse them. Show us in the fiction what you are trying to do, then add the roll to see how well that works out, then —in a new post— show us the results of the Move.

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Nice imagery with the 'water of glass'. :)

I am sorry for editing the post but this is what I do with most games here since it's not possible to predict the result of the dice roll. However, I will follow the rules here onwards with the next posts.

Mark is trying to cast a spell that creates illusions about raining glass. The creatures won't expect this happening or at least try to understand who is creating a spell and thus create a confusion. I guess, glass raining all over the place will make the group run for some cover unless they are are impervious to sharp objects. Again, the target here is not to cause damage but to cause a sudden change of normal occurence to confuse these creatures. They will soon realise that the glass shards are harmless but by that time I am guessing Benji, Jacob or Rhiannon can make a move. Maybe this confusion will cause the creatures to bring out something from their arsenal creating an opportunity. This is how I interpreted the move.

:) Yeah, that's why we deal with the fiction up to the point where it could fail, then roll the dice based on the fiction.

The fiction must always come first. :)
'Casting spells' is done in three ways: though your Sanctum, where you can do almost anything; through your Channeling Move, which lets you cast the Spells you know, which is currently Stun, Shielding and Trinket; and via the Let It Out Move, which currently lets you deflect or redirect an oncoming blow before it strikes, perform a feat of telekinetic strength or precision, detect the presence and function of magical items or spells, or reshape the essence or nature of an exposed object or magical spell.

You are not in your Sanctum, so it can't be that, and this does not fit the Spells you currently know (and you did not Channel).

You may be able to use the effects of one of the Let It Out options to Mislead, though this does not seem like 'a feat of telekinesis' (though I am always open to being convinced) and the only other one that could apply would be 'reshape a spell', but that would come as a surprise since you don't know about any spells in effect right here and now.

In order to use a spell to Mislead, you first need to cast the spell via one of your three methods. Mislead does not cast spells.
Yeah, including your friends, who are squishier and more likely to think it 'a not normal occurrence' than demons from another dimension (Wild) who think everything here is strange. :)
Possible, yeah.

If you are set on this course of action and can explain how you 'cast the spell', then we can confuse the demons, but the PCs will need to Keep Their Cool to avoid also being equally affected.

What say you?

Yes, but bounded by the mechanics of the game's Moves. The above are the three ways you can cast spells (for now). You are welcome to inject non-mechanical 'spells' (cantrips?) into your narrative, but you can't just declare that significant things happen outside the mechanics.

Once you have cast a spell, you could use it to Mislead, or to Turn to Violence, or any other mechanic, but, same way the Hunter can't just declare that they kill a guy and use the shock of that action to Trick the other foes, you need to act within the mechanics.
Casting a spell that has significant effect on the world and the people is a lot more than just 'a narrative element' though. But we are learning how the system works, and 'other game' assumptions will creep in. :)

The Mislead Move requires you to first establish in the fiction what you are doing to try Mislead, Distract, or Trick your enemies. It does not, in and of itself, do any of those things, it merely says how well your fictional action turned out. It might allow you the opportunity to cast a spell, or casting a spell might allow you the opportunity to Mislead (or some other Move).
That is a specific rule specific to specific Playbooks in Masks. :)
Understandable. Maybe try read the parts extracted to your sheet. The 'Notes on Your Sanctum', and 'Notes on Channeling' specifically will provide guidance.
Sure. We are learning the system, these things happen. Better to first establish in the fiction what is happening, and clarify in the OCC if a roll is called for before rolling. Once you roll you are bound by the outcome (by the rules, on a 6-, I have to make a GM Move).

In this case the Stat difference does not result in a different outcome, so we can treat that as though you were rolling Channeling and got a 9.

Stun seems to fit what you described, and Stun can be directed to only target the enemies.

You can spend 1 of your 3 Hold and target one demon, or 2 Hold and target the whole group. They are not mere-mortals, so it won't last long, but it will buy your friends time.

• Do you understand how Hold works? It is one of the most asked questions. Usually the answer is 'read the rest of the Move'. In the case of Channeling, it is you 'manna' points. You can Channel again before you are empty and keep building your 'mana pool', but remember the costs and risks, and that it evaporates at the 'end of the scene'.

on a 7-9 Channelling costs you something. Pick one of the three options. We can talk about what they mean before you pick if you want.
Channelling and Let It Out are the two you can use for 'quick and dirty magic' in the field. Your Sanctum is a major part of being a Wizard and lets you do almost any magic you can think of, if you can meet the requirements.

Let It Out is very versatile, it describes its limits in very general terms. But it does comes with costs and downsides.

Cool. I will sum up the scene. When you respond, show us what your Channelling looks and feels like, and what using Stun is like for you. Don't feel bound by the previous description.
They are deliberately fairly broad, but also only do what it says on the tin.

What you described wanting to achieve seems to fit Stun very well. The rain turning to glass and all that is just flavour and could be how you Stun (this time). Or it could be a part of your Channelling, I don't know, you tell us.

If your previous description does not fit what you are actually trying to do in the end, then change the description if you have to. Maybe keep the old text struck-out so as to avoid confusing others who 'swear they read something about glass rain' and can not find it, some people find that sort of thing very uncomfortable.
Those are not really 'categories' they are the specific spells you currently know.
To quote from the book (and your sheet):
You can definitely make or learn new spells in your Sanctum. The difficulty of the requirements will be tailored to the power of the spell. Spells that are on a par with the ones in the book will maybe take similar effort to gaining a level of Advancement (one Advance gives you 3 Spells, but that is a once off and this is 'unlimited'), more powerful spells will either have limitations imposed upon them (• It will only work for a short time, and may be unreliable) or will take a lot more effort and time.

If you don't abuse the system we can have a lot of fun with this Move (and the Workshop Move from the Veteran (or the Savvyhead from Apocalypse World)). But I also reserve the right to revisit the limitations or costs if we find that something is overpowered and is making the game less fun.

Does Mark’s stun spell mean that Benji can pull out his sword without being clawed by the demon?

Yes, this perfect use of Stun did many things. It prevented two demons from getting to make a pick on the Turn to Violence options (actually they did pick to put Benji in a bad spot (choice of taking harm or losing his stuff), and to inflict harm on Rhiannon, but it prevented them from enacting those consequences), and it gave you all an opportunity to do something with relative impunity.

Benji does not know for sure that he is not still about to get whacked, but he can see that the demon looks stunned, or something, for some unknown reason.

Pulling the sword out should be easy, but may startle the demon awake again. Having seen what happened to Rhiannon's demons, and with her 'advice' (like 'be more deadly' is advice:) Benji might also think about pushing the sword further in, see if he can't take it out the other side and finish the job.

Withdrawing your sword does not require a roll (though, depending on what happens, you may choose to roll Keep Your Cool (+spirit) to avoid awakening it), trying to finish the demon still requires Turn to Violence to see how well it goes, but the demon probably won't get to respond at all on a good roll.

Okay, great!

Hmm... We need a place to mark Corruption on our sheets.

Where do we think it should go? In the Corruption section (as the PDF sheets do it) or up with the Advancement? Scrolling down to the Corruption could become a pain, so it might be better to have it up with the rest of the things we reference often and in similar situations (Advancement, Harm, Stats).

Between "Circles" and "Harm" seems a good place, if you ask me.

That is what I am thinking. I don't really want another whole section with a header, though, and it does not quite feel right to have it 'in' the Circles section. I definitely don't want to put it in the Harm section, since that implies negative connotations and Corruption is a totally valid character choice.

Hmmm... true. What abou within Stats then? It's weird, but doesn't feel as odd as in Circles or Hurt. After all, Corruption could be understood as a kind of "meta stat" as it somehow defines the character.

Maybe something like one of the three options now in the Test Sheet?

Note the upside-down check-marks in the Circles example. :)

I like the one in the stats area better

Why? Because it is in the Stats area? Or because it is 'right way up'?

Did you see the one in the Corruption area? While it is more scrolling, there is value in being consistent with the official sheets. I am pretty much 50/50 on there vs. Stats area.

The roll is a bit premature, but we can work with it this time.

Read up on Triggering Moves on page 37, and Rolling Dice on page 38, and then read the Trigger for Figure Someone Out in the Notes on page 80 (and in the Moves reference thread). You first need to establish what you are doing, and that it is even possible (can these guys speak? A language any of you can understand? ...) and only then roll dice.

The roll is done, so we are committed, but your results may be limited. This is just a goon, so it does not know much and "I dunno" is a valid answer (you can only learn about the goon, and its lack of knowledge is relevant).

The questions it/I can ask you in return are similarly limited, and may get uncomfortable (there is a cost on a 7-9), but we will have to see how the conversation goes.

Describe what you do next, how you go about trying to get answers from this goon.

@oopsylon: Benji took 2 Harm as the obvious consequence of your Miss on Lend a Hand while combating heavy-hitters [ref], that is Serious and 'needs medical attention'. See Harm and Healing. This does not need immediate attention, though.

The nature of harm and how it gets worse (if untreated) depends on the fiction where that becomes relevant. This is mainly internal and probably a concussion.

As a Vamp you have options available to you outside of hospitals (feeding? magic? who knows what else:).

Healing 1 Harm would bring you back down to Faint Harm, which will heal on its own in a few days.

Okay, understood!

By all means, grab some rock litter.

Are you guys planning on leaving the rest of the mess out there?

Someone who cares can also roll 1d4 to see now many of the staves are unbroken. The still-standing demon still has its weapon, which is why the 1d4 can't go to 'none', but it may not be happy to give it up. It depends on what is done with that demon.

Whoops I will read up more tomorrow.

@gnomius: Are you going to allow Rhiannon to bring the demon inside your establishment?

No worries. It is early days and we are learning the system.

Your miss on Persuade will make it harder to get answers, but it does not invalidate the two questions you still get to ask because of your previous success. It does limit them to ones that still make sense after you see the consequences of this miss; it mainly means that Persuasion and conversation is probably not the way to those questions.

Persuade clearly Triggered with you threatening it (viable because it is obviously scared of you). And rolling the Move is also the logical way to further your Figure Someone Out, but every time we roll there is the chance of a miss and consequence that can change the landscape.

Yes, better inside than outside.

Just two 'wands', the one Mark picked up and the one the 'remaining' demon still has.

For the record, as the consequence for the 4 on Persuading the demon, I am using the GM Move for Wild 'Pull Something from One Realm into Another', to have it get pulled 'home'.

I like it!

@gnomius In what form do you think Jacob provides blood to Benji? Is it Jacob’s own blood or someone else’s?

Per the sheet, Benji needs human blood. Jacob is not 'human'. Does his blood work? Slightly, but not as well? How come?

And would we have any on hand, or would we need to go out and get some?

Not Jacob's blood, definitely.

I'll say that Jacob gets it in the black market. There's an underground network of blood selling across hospitals in London (yeah, that precious blood needed for patients goes to vampires instead, some people would do anything for money)

My default pronouns are the neutral singular 'they/them'. If I am not paying attention when I type I will probably use those by mistake when we know someone's pronouns, but when NPCs are first introduced I will probably be using non-gender-specific pronouns until the group decides what pronouns the NPC uses and how they present.

Chaudry, for instance —as introduced to Rhiannon in the RP— is open for you guys to define as you wish and as details become relevant. Follow on from what others have already defined (or contradict if you have to) and add any details you feel appropriate (or inappropriate if that is appropriate:).

If Rhiannon tells any of you about them you are welcome to Put a Face to a Name with Power and see whether you know of them.

Okay, good to know!

@vagueGM would blood bags count as ‘feeding on someone’ for the purposes of the Eternal Hunger move? Obviously the ‘Your prey doesn’t suffer 3-harm’ option becomes a bit irrelevant but that could also just mean I have to select that as one of my choices on a hit (i.e. Benji’s prey does not suffer harm because he is not feeding on them directly). Although I don’t know what a miss would look like in that context…

Ultimately it is up to you how you want your feeding to work. Do what is most fun.

Blood bags could count as 'feeding', but probably not 'on someone'. Stored blood could be mixed and not from just one person. Standard medical ones also contain other chemicals —to stop the blood from coagulating and so forth— so might not be ideal.

As you say, 'they' obviously can not suffer harm, and you probably don't get to learn something from 'them', and a miss makes no sense. That means that you don't roll (the Trigger is not met if all the parts don't fit the fiction).

The purpose of the move is to add drama, eating a 'microwave dinner' is not dramatic, so the drama needs to come from elsewhere. There is a reason your blood-supplier incurs Debts for the task, it is not trivial to get, the drama comes from the challenge of acquiring the blood. If this requires us to rethink who your supplier is (maybe an NPC who you don't ask too many questions of?) then we can revisit that Starting Debt, but maybe Jacob is the one not asking too many questions about the 'willing' people he sends your way?

How much you can get from stored blood would depend on the fiction at the time. Where did it come from? How fresh is it? How desperate are you?

It is also possible that feeding from stored blood merely slakes some of your hunger —takes the edge off— but does not provide the other benefits, both the secrets and the healing seem to stem from the vital intimacy of the Move, no?

If it is easy to just grab a few bags and heal up, that detracts from the fundamental drama of the character and their needs. We may have to put effort into replenishing your store of fresh blood before you can use it.

Presumably if using bagged blood worked just as well as people, everybody (everybody but the degenerates who enjoy hurting others) would just use it, and there would be peace between vamps and humans?

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While the idea of blood bags is cool, maybe your source instead provides access to the donor? Maybe they are willingly giving to vamps for some reward? Or maybe they are tricked into believing they are giving to 'medical research' or something (but still willing, so not triggering Corruption, that seems a bit like sophistry?). It can turn into a complicated network if we are not careful, though.

Think about what you want this to do to the story. Remember that you are a predator, a monster, maybe don't take that away with the easy-out of storing up batteries of cold blood bags.

Good points! I agree that blood bags undercut the drama and stakes rather a lot… The ‘Harbour’ feature specifies that the Vamp’s haven contains "emergency rations" which implies that blood bags or some form of stored blood is viable for feeding, at least for survival purposes (perhaps its unpleasant/not as tasty which is why more vampires don’t opt for that option). Perhaps Benji just relies on Jacob’s black market blood as a backup for when he can’t find any willing live prey?

And I agree with your points about rolling Eternal Hunger not making much sense for blood bags! Benji will just have to find someone to bite if he wants to heal himself :P

Ah, sorry, I posted in the RP thread before reading this. If you finally decide you're not happy with the blood bags approach, then we can rewind and edit my post.

All good! I think the black market blood bags thing works fine for Jacob and Benji’s arrangement (perhaps, as I said, Benji just uses this as a backup option for when he can’t find someone willing to let him bite them), but I do agree with vagueGM’s points about the Eternal Hunger move needing to involve actually feeding on someone so I don’t think Benji will be able to heal himself using the stored blood. Still a nice gesture from Jacob so I don’t think you need to change your post :)

True. Though 'emergency rations' are not generally considered 'food' that people would choose to eat if they had other options. :)

This also might not be for you, you have the option of having 'staff', who are mortal and would need rations in an emergency (you could then them feed on them:), as well as people in your web who you might need to protect in your Haven in an emergency, not all games feature both a Sanctum and an Establishment with better protections than you Haven, so there may be games where you place is where people go in an emergency. But interpret these facts as suits your vision of the character.

Well... aside from assuming the 'blood from the freezer' is microwaved first. :)

Being a Wizard, Mark should have some way of gaining information about Chaudry. But, I don't get which move should I use for this? Should it be Figure someone out or Put a face to the name? Or will it be a city move like Consult your contacts?

In the fiction, yes. You can roleplay how you do that, and your being a wizard will provide many opportunities that others would not have.

You can also just declare that they are part of your Order and tell us what you know about them. You would not roll anything (and we may have to temper some extreme statements back to 'reality'), but that is almost always an option.
Fiction first. Moves only make sense after we have seen what you are doing in the fiction. Show us what you do (talk about it OOC if you need) and only then will we see that a Move applies.
Read the Notes on those Moves, they describe a bit about what you need to have done in the fiction to trigger them, as well as what they actually do.

Figure Someone Out is about learning motivations and worries by scrutinizing their body language, tone of voice, or other telltale clues. You need to be interacting with them to do that (though it could be in a flashback).

Put a Face to a Name is about us learning if you even know anything. It is the least 'fiction first' Move. Note that, when the fiction makes 'failure' improbable, even on a 6- the Move allows for you to still know them, but at a cost.

You can say that you probably know another wizard (you tell us how many there are in the city and if they all hang out together or whatever) and skip the Move, you avoid the risk, but also removes the possibility of learning something more on a 10+ (they are in your Circle, so you odds a good, which supports the fiction) or having them already owe you a Debt for past interactions, so there is a trade-off either way. If you roll and get a 10+ and choose to learn something interesting and useful, you are welcome to suggest what that 'something' is.
City Moves happen in the background, when time passes. They cover what your character was doing 'between episodes' when we did not see them. I did not put them in the Moves handout yet, because they won't come up for a while.

Does that help?

Mark scored a 10+. Does Chaudry owe Mark a Debt (and what for), or does Mark know something 'interesting or useful' about them?

---

You rolled a Move that marks Advancement. Tick the checkbox for Power under the 'Adv?' column of the Circles section of your sheet.

I think I am most inclined to keep things together and put the Corruption Advancement track alongside the Circles Advancement in the Circles section of the sheet, as seen on the Test Sheet.

Opinions?

It is a bit cramped on mobile, but that is already the case without it. :(

Sure, works for me. This way we have in the same area of the sheet all the bixes we'll need to be ticking during the game.

Do you any ideas about what this might be? We can also make a note and leave the revelation till later in the story when it becomes relevant and we realise that the thing you know is useful. If you have an idea now we make it part of the story.
Once we decide where it should be, we will add it to all the sheets (while avoiding edit conflicts):.

Corruption is definitely not Harm with its negative connotations, so we will move that one to the 'proper' place once we know where that is.

Could be. If we can make that 'useful'. We can bear that possibility in mind and see if it pans out, else learn something else.

That works

Are we waiting for anything from me? The characters are talking and I don't want to interrupt that, but it has gone silent mid-conversation. (I know it is weekend, so no stress.)

Let me know when we want to 'move on'.

I think we will go with the Corruption Advancement track near the Circles Advancement track.

Let me know when I can safely add that to your sheets (we don't my edits to overwrite anything you are doing).

---

If you want to make the edit yourself, you need to change the line:

[/table][/abilities][abilities="Circles"][table=rolls compact hl]

to

[/table][/abilities][abilities="Circles"]
[f=bold color:red background-color:transparent writing-mode:tb float-right]Corruption:
[f=accent-color:white filter:invert(85%)][_=0/5][/f][/f][table=rolls compact hl]

(Yes, the 'table=rolls' needs to be on the same line, else it adds a big blank space above the table.):

Mark done.

You can update mine too, or I will do it tomorrow when I get my hands on a computer, don't want to try from mobile!

In my case, I was waiting for the result of Benji's last Move "Put a face to a name" to see how we move forward with this Chaudry.

Yeah, confusions like that are why I asked. :)

On an 8 Benji only knows what most people know, so nothing new there and just the same as Rhiannon's 7. I indicated that everyone who wanted to roll should roll (after hearing the name), we can pool what we all know after everyone rolls.

Does Jacob not know them? No roll for you?

No, not really, I was thinking this time it would be more interesting if Jacob doesn't know a thing about them (as it seems he's the main target of whatever Chaudry is planning)

You’re welcome to update mine too whenever you get a chance! :)

Benji done.

I thought that might be the case. It makes sense that they would have tried to avoid your notice.
That is the assumption... but then, you know that they say... :)

Updated my sheet with Corruption track, BTW!

New Debts

Benji definitely did Jacob a favour by both alerting him to the danger and coming to his aid [ref]. It definitely seems that Jecob owes Benji a Debt for this action.

Mark and Rhiannon were tracking the demons for their own reasons (even if Mark does not yet know why). They just happened to be at Jacob's place when the action started.

Mark had no real reason to get involved in the fight, but I am not sure if Debts are involved, nor to whom. What do we think?

Jacob did call for help from Rhiannon, and she was instrumental in dispatching the threat outside. But she has not checked her messages yet and does not yet know that she was asked to help. When Rhiannon sees the message, will she claim to have been there to help Jacob and claim a Debt? If Jacob later finds out that she was already there for her own reasons and lied, it could swing the ledger the other way.

---

Update the Debt Ledger with any new Debts you agree on. Update both parties.

@Stalker05: Don't forget to add your own entry in the Debt Ledger

Jacob will gladly accept he owes one to Benji, I'll add it to my ledger.

As for Rhiannon, my understanding of our relationship is that we are partners: I provide her with material/support, and she protects me in exchange. So not sure if it makes sense to track all Debts with her, as we probably owe each other hundreds of them.
Hehehe, this was hilarious! :-) I was also thinking... "What? A crocodile?" ¬¬'

Noted it down in my ledger as well! :)

Any mutual arrangement does not incur Debts, they are only for when one person does something that benefits another for no recompense. Your business dealings are probably mutual, but you can still have Debts build up between the two of you when one does something purely to the others benefit (like Helping with a Move, or coming to their rescue).

We can see when that happens and deal with it then.
Aye, language. :)

Nice, safe water... or wait, if not even the crocs are brave enough to swim there! Wow! :)

I guess Mark really came to Jacob for his own portent's reading but he did help even the odds of winning the combat with such a big hit squad. But, then again, he acted anonymously. We roleplayed it in such a way that almost nobody knew why did the demons froze. So, I don't know if a debt can be owned.

... Or to whom, since Mark sorta helped the ones outside more than he helped Jacob. He had his own reason for tackling the demons, so he was not acting purely to help the others, I think. We can always revisit these details, doing so is part of the End of Session Move, though that mechanic is more applicable to non-PbP games.

Debts have always been a struggle for players to get their heads around. They do become more important later when they become one of the primary driving forces for Advancement, in the early-game Put a Face to a Name is often the main way to level, but once the characters know the main players in the city that tapers off and Debts between PCs takes over (especially useful in a game where all four Circles are represented by PCs).

Forgot to say you can add corruption to my sheet. Should be fine right now.

Also trying to set up a scene a bit before rolling skills.

Rhiannon done.
This seems like it might be Mislead, but I fear you have never seen a child before! You just said this was fossilised dinosaur poo! I am not sure you if you are trying to put them off or to increase their fascination. :)

Do you want to do more setup, or should a Mislead roll determine how well it works?

Just in case it’s not clear in my post, the thing Benji needs that he is Hitting the Streets for is blood :P (or, more specifically, someone to feed on so that he can heal from his head injury)

They have their own problems right now. Rolling the dice is always a risk. :)

Don't forget to mark Advancement in Mortalis.

It all depends on what you actually do in the fiction. Deal with the fiction of what you are doing first, then we can see if any Moves apply, don't think about the Moves and the mechanics first.

If you go out and talk to people, that might be Hit the Streets, or it might lead to the need for that move. But you know people (in your Order, for instance) who might be able to help you without needing to roll anything, depending on how you approach them. You also have 'an extremely knowledgeable assistant' who might be able to help you with answers.

Yes well she’s going more for actual feces than "Cool Dinosaurs" hopefully a 7 works in misleading them.

It is a Partial Success, so it works, somewhat. If any of the kids know what coprolite is they will be more interested than put off, but that is why it is 'partial'.

On a 7 on Mislead you get to choose two of the options, but they need to be supported by the fiction, and are about your 'opposition' which is the kids, so your options are obviously limited. Which of the options are you thinking of choosing, If they are not already covered by the response, I will try to work them into another response or later events if I can.

I don't recall them having any description before, there is a lot going on during Character Creation so I tend to skip asking questions about details that we don't need to worry about yet. As you did, we can see the details when they come up in the story.

Interesting. I like it, but just make sure that it sufficiently covers your needs for 'an extremely knowledgeable assistant'. The fiction you define may limit what sort of information you can get from her, and especially what sort of timeframe she needs to get you answers.

If we find that this is too restricting later, we can reveal new sources of information with (or to) her.
So, similar to Josephine? Is that a coincidence?

(Are you sure you want both to be 'J names', similar starting names can get confusing and lead to mistakes... (which can be fun in-game)).
Possibly a good source of 'reveal new sources of information with her' if we need.
Does that mean she does not go there? Or just that she prefers not to when she does not have to?

You are not meeting at your home, does Jena know about Josephine? If so, what is their relationship like? How old is Josephine?
We can leave that vague and undefined. 'A Cafe nearby' is good enough and does not lock us down.
I don't know Scooby-Doo, but I think you have described her well enough that that lack is not significant.

I also neglected to mention: Since Jena is your assistant, we assume you pay her, so Debts don't come into it... unless you ask her to go above and beyond.

---

Which has been with you longer?

Is observing the sergeant for an extended period of time sufficient to trigger Figure Someone Out?

That could trigger the Move, but look at the questions in Figure Someone Out and make sure they make sense for the situation and what is happening. How would your character be able to get any of these answers?

Many of the questions don't make sense (that is normal, but here is 'most' rather than 'many'):

'who's pulling your character's strings?' is not valuable, it is clearly the system and her superiors and her job. She is just doing her job and the tortoise is not her concern (tortoises can go months or even years without food, they are famously inveterate survivors).

She has no 'beef' with anyone, and is not 'hoping to get' anything from anyone, and is not 'worried about anything happening' —outside the normal worries.

She is probably not important enough to incur Debts (a nameless goon, essentially). If you want to change that, we could, but the RP already established that you don't know her, and that she holds you in low (or little) regard, so that may just set an important person in your way.

---

That leaves 'how can I get your character to ...', what? 'let me in'? 'not notice my sneaking in'? We already establishes she won't let anyone who does not have official business in when you made it clear you did not have such business. I suppose we could distract her long enough for you to sneak in, but then what, will that help Lizabeth or just slake your curiosity?

You could always ask her to ask the lawyer to to ask Lizabeth for permission to pop out and see you. That might work.

Or you could try to track down someone who can help you. Maybe you know someone in the police who understands how things work? Mortalis probably? You could Hit the Streets (wait long enough that they show up) and ask them for help. Maybe it is the lawyer you know?

Or, you can just wait and we can skip to what comes next. How bad is your Hunger? Does being hurt make the Hunger worse? Do we need to worry? Up to you.

The questions I was hoping to ask were:
 • how could I get your character to tell me why Lizabeth was arrested?
 • how could I put your character in my Debt?

The sergeant won’t help Benji in her official capacity as a police officer, but she’s also a person so she’s not immune to persuasion. By observing her, Benji was hoping to pick up something about her personality or personal life that might give him some idea about how she might be most easily persuaded (e.g. would she be susceptible to bribery? Does she have some hobby or interest Benji could pretend to share? Is there a particular cause or group she might be more sympathetic to? Is there something Benji could help her with that might put her in his Debt? Etc etc). Does that sound reasonable?

On the matter of Debts, is there a reason low-status NPCs can’t incur Debts? Even if they’re low status, they could still owe someone a favour, right?

Yeah, those two are the only ones that are really possible.
Yes, this could give you a route to Persuade an NPC. That is feasible. The risk of rolling is that you might Miss, the upside is that you get to introduce something into the fiction that will definitely count as leverage for triggering Persuade.

Roll Figure Someone Out and then we can see what you learn. On a success, feel free to tell us what you discover that can serve as leverage for however you wish to Persuade her.
She is a no status NPC, she does not know about the supernatural world and therefore does no participate in the Debts mechanic per the rules.
Favours are not Debts. Debts are enforceable, both by the mechanics and by everyone in the world who is aware of that whole part of reality.

You could possible get her to owe you a favour, but that would be a purely fictional thing and you would need to talk to her about it to get anything from it. It could be on the same scale as a Debt, but does not have the backing as a currency that Debts do.

If we want to get her involved in the Debts system, then we will turn her into a Status-0 NPC and find that she does know something of your world. This is fine, it makes sense for a grizzled old sergeant to have seen things that are hard to explain, but she is possibly in denial about.

This is sounding more and more interesting, so if you get a Success and choose to invoke Debts, we will do that, you would need to remind her of the reality of the world, and that might have ongoing consequences. If you can get her owing you a Debt you could leverage that to get in to see your friend without needing to roll Persuade, though that would require you doing something for her first, you can tell us what she needs if you have ideas.

I’ve added the roll to my post but it was an abysmal failure, unfortunately :P
Ohhh, okay, got it! That makes sense

Sorry swore I posted yesterday

It happens.

It is also three-men's-worth of stone bits. How did you transport all of them to your hunters, on a bicycle? Or did you stash most of them and only bring some samples?

No one talks about the drudgery of the cleanup after demon hunting. Everyone wishes it was like Buffy and they would just whoosh into dust. But someone has to do it. :)

Yes, I said in the RP for you to describe your meeting with her. Go ahead and show us what the looks like, how that meeting goes, how you ask her for help with this, what you give her, and so on. (Up till the point where it is not clear what happens next and my intervention or a roll might be called for).

I should have followed up and clarified after you answered some of this in OCC. Sorry about that. Requests in RP call for responses in RP, but we can (as we did) talk about details in OOC as needed.

Please describe the meeting, in as much detail as you like.

What is her job? Where does she 'work the night shift'?
Are you expecting her to already know something useful about this stave? It is not a 'wand', but she might be able to tell you that if she knows these things.

Do wizards us 'magic wands'? If so, what for and how? Are there other common 'props' (like your umbrella or the umbrell-drawn goetic symbols [ref])?
I am not completely sure what you mean, but you can describe it when you get to your Sanctum.

Do you need anything from me before you go there? This might depend on the answer to the second question about how much she, as a non-practitioner, would know off the top of her head.

Let’s go with she stashed them and then came back with her vehicle to collect it.

This is good characterisation, but remember that she is part of your Sanctum feature, so she should be available for your use. I like having to play out dealing with her fear of the place, so let's do that this time, but we should probably, eventually, resolve that for future convenience?

Maybe she had a scare? The curse did something to her? Maybe that was when she discovered the curse, or came to believe you about it? Or did you only learn about the curse then? Or was that the first time it was serious enough to be a danger? Once she has learned enough to cope with it, or you get that danger under control, she may be confident enough to not need 'persuasion'†? We can set a Clock (a general PbtA concept that is not mentioned in Urban Shadows‡) and see how well you handle this situation, once the clock is filled, her (current) worry is mollified and you don't have to deal with it, but you may have to finish the clock over a few interactions.

This can also lead you towards understanding the 'curse'.

If you resolve a downside in the fiction we don't need to replace it. You can make your place better by working on it. By the same nature, the fiction can add more complications to your Sanctuary (or Ward, or any part of you sheet).
Yes. And trying to pressure her into going now (even if that was not your intent) has made the trauma worse. I am increasing the size of the clock, making it harder to overcome.

How do you go about learning that information in this case? Body language, unspoken hints, some demonic extrasensory perception? Asking leading questions? Piecing together rumours?

You always first deal with the fiction of what you do, then we see if any rolls apply.

Describe the Sanctum. Include any hints towards the curse or the hidden secrets. Use as much detail as you like.

Then show us what you do and how you are trying to get information.

I just asked a very straightforward question, and my idea would be to read between the lines in his response: body language, hints that are not said out loud but are still there... This kind of stuff.

Is that enough? It might not be 'pressing' enough to meet your expectations of the Move, let me know. This does open up the possibility of helping Slippery Jim many times, racking up Debts from him and building your street-level network, as well as learning about the mysterious Beggars' Guild.

You can leverage this to push for more specifics of ways you can help him now. Feel free to suggest tasks you could do for him.

@Ysolde, what was your intent with the 'Hit the streets (mortalis?)' roll [ref]?

By the Move you need to first 'name who you are going to' before making the roll. It is hard to formulate a response to the Miss that does not have supporting fiction, and you did not go anywhere, so all I could do was Hint at Offscreen Badness.

Sure, enough to understand his motivation, for sure! Let me see if I can tempt him.

To be fair I wasn’t sure what roll to use. I figured she was more looking around the likely areas she thought the demons might have come from. So, in this case looking around the Wizard’s place but, probably not exactly going to see him personally. More, sneaking around his place and seeing if she could find some hints of demonic summoning.

Sounds feasible.

• It's going to take you hours of work.

• It will only work for a short time, and may be unreliable.
This means that, to use it:
• First you'll have to construct a magic circle around those wielding the staves.
The quality of the circle setup will affect just how unreliable it is, and if they move out it will stop working.

You could choose to offset the unreliability by doing more test-firings, but:
• It's going to mean exposing anyone nearby to serious fallout (or going somewhere where that does not matter?).

The time you need to spend means you can't really help Rhiannon, assuming she is asking for your help [ref]. If you go out and help her, you will be stuck with untested and unreliable results, but you may find other solutions in the field.

Yeah, we can't know what rolls apply till we see what you are doing in the fiction.
How would you find such locations?

Did you and Benji speak about what he knows? Even though we did not see it, if you both agree, we can say that, before you split up, Rhiannon was made privy to these details. You would need to show us how you tried to follow up on that, and that might call for more rolls, based on the fiction you describe.

We won't use the previous roll for your followup, we already know it is a Miss, and it is hard to describe the fiction after we know the result. That roll stands, though (once the dice hit the table they are set and final (even if we sometimes adjust what modifiers should have been applied), and the consequence is the ramped-up stakes of the demon-bits being a problem for the kids.
What mage? Chaudry? See above. You have no way of knowing their 'last known location' or 'their place', you last heard of Chaudry years ago.

If you want to track this information down, you can try do that. Show us how.

---

I am also not sure what the unspoken parts of this post refer to. 'More than one' 'wizard/mage' to summon the squad? Or 'more than one' 'squad of demons'?

Benji would have been happy to share that information with Rhiannon

@Stalker05 Mark, I misspelled it

Sorry still getting used to this form of RPG. I'll add a call to Benji to get more information too and the other part is basically "When there's more than one demon there's more than one demon." basically "get a full count of all the demons you can."

Quite alright. The narrative nature of 'non-traditional' RPGs is hard to wrap ones' head around when coming from systems like DnD and its ilk. My 'DnD' games were already narratively driven, so I did not know there were other ways to run games before the Bakers codified that fiction should come first and people were saying how revolutionary that idea was (there were reasons everyone kept telling me I had to try Dungeon World:).

So long as people don't get fed up with me repeating that the the fiction should come first, I am happy to keep saying it and explaining how that applies to each situation. I am used to it, and patient, so don't stress about it.

I am happy to go into more detail, or give more examples (possibly unrelated to this game) if people want. Just ask.

Remember what the book says: 'to do it, you have to do it' (page 37, Triggering Moves). It might help to carefully read each move and the accompanying notes to see what they say about what needs to happen before a roll is called for, but most of them boil down to 'do it in the fiction, only roll when you need to, and when none of us know what will happen next'.
Can't argue with that logic. :)

The time requirement is a cost, it means you can't really help Rhiannon. If you want to help with the other work (and there are direct ways you —and you in particular— can help find the kids) then you can't take the time to do your research. If it conveniently ended at the point where other things came up it would not actually 'cost' you anything. So it is one or the other, but you get to choose.

Yes, you can do that from your Sanctum. You have a part of the demons, so you can use that to find the other parts.

It will be easy enough for you to get the current locations of the other bits on a map. If you wanted to make something that could follow them as they move, that will require more and we will have to talk about it.

Anything other than tracking the matching bits will be a lot harder, trying to find the unbroken demon that got away would be hard, and trying to find other summoned demons or the summoner would be very, very hard.

Hey just a heads up that I probably won’t be able to post tomorrow!

It is also where a 'treasure hunt' is/was taking place [ref] [ref], and you may have coincidentally heard mention of an archaeology school outing that also had a treasure hunt component [ref], where do we think that might have ended up? :)

If you do the quick location tracking [ref] you will find there are a few bits outside Jacob's —in the drains and cracks— a large collection wherever Rhiannon stashed the remains, ... and at least one piece at the museum... Oh No!

(I have not defined which of the many museums we are taking about, but they are one and the same. Also close enough that the school expedition could get there easily enough. We can define it when we need to.)

Cool, let's leave any followup scenes with Rhiannon's doctor [ref] till later in the day then, give her time to do other things in the meantime. Let us know when you are back and we can pick it up again.

@Ysolde Remember that oopsylon is not around (see above), so Benji's scene will have to wait.

Do you want to deal with Jacobs's question first and get back to Benji later? It is up to you if you know anything or if you have to ask around or hit the books, or you could roll Put a Face to a Name (with Wild) to see if you have had dealings there.

I don't know what you were doing at Green Park station (if you actually went and did not get sidetracked by other things) [ref], maybe Benji would be more able to get answers from such a place once you have helped him with the doctor, so we can come back to that as well?

@Stalker05: Please continue. If you did the quick divination/tracking show us that, else take us to the museum with what knowledge you do have.

@VagueGm Sorry missed they were out. I’ll have her over at the station in the meantime…just assume my second post is earlier in the day from my first

I’m back now and can post whenever Rhiannon’s done with her previous scene! Also, I’m happy to go looking for some bad guys to chomp on if Rhiannon would rather do that then go to her ex-girlfriend for help. (Presumably Benji also has a few other willing blood donors he knows other than Lizabeth but it felt a bit cheap to just keep rolling Hit the Streets for blood until I got a success…) In any case, Benji will definitely help Rhiannon track down the demons afterward and I think he probably owes her a Debt for going out of her way to help him!

Of course. Having things happen out of order is a common part of PbP.

But oopsylon is back, so we can pick up from there. You can pick him up and introduce us to your Ex and her place of work.

---

What was the roll to 'Persuade Charles to help Benji' [ref]? I did not see anything in the fiction where anything like that was happening. This means I can't find appropriate GM Moves as the consequence for the Miss on that roll and we would not know how to respond on a Success. I will have to work that consequence into whatever happens next.

Remember to give us the fiction first, then we can talk about if a roll is needed.

Sounds like fun. But bear in mind that they are still 'unwilling', so feeding on them will still Trigger Corruption, even for 'bad guys'.
Presumably so.
Yeah, we can decide that failing to find the thing you want means it is not available for a time, not just that that persons was unavailable.

But you can also try again later. Remember that if you keep rolling until you get a Success, you are rolling Misses until you do, and every Miss adds complications like Lizabeth's arrest and then that becoming a serious issue (due to another Miss) and not just a mistaken identity or something simple. Rolls are risky and complicate the story.
Yes, Benji presumably owes Rhiannon for the in introduction (or you could be Cashing in a Debt to get her to make the introduction, you guys choose), Benji will then owe the doctor a Debt for the service, and Rhiannon may end up owing her a Debt (or a date?) for seeing you, but we will know more after the fact.

That was an unintentional roll. I had a different scenario then changed mid typing and forgot to remove the roll before I posted.

Ouch... I guess that's not a metaphorical cyclone, but an actual one... O_o
Stay safe!

It sure looked that way. :)

Let's ignore that roll then, this time.

Stay safe. We will work around you.

Mark is a few hours ahead of most of the others anyway.

Remember that you have to meet the Move trigger requirement before you can roll the Move, Persuade says 'When you persuade an NPC with seduction, promises, or threats' and you did none of those three things. The Notes section reiterates this by stating 'Simply reasoning with them isn't enough here; you have to have some leverage for the move to trigger.'

You were just asking him to do something reasonable, you don't roll for that. But you did, so now I need to come up with how to use the rule: 'On a 7-9, they counter your offer or demand payment'. Your social life is getting crowded. :) (Say if this is a problem and we can change it, and you can turn him down.)

Hi there!

Just a quick note to say that tomorrow I'll be travelling, so I'm not sure I'll have time to post. Warning just in case!

Thanks we will work around you if need be.

---

I hope you don't mind my countering your 'Once he's sure he's alone and unheard' [ref] with a sneaky street urchin [ref], I worry we might not get anywhere without intervention. :)

Not at all! Your countering is more than welcome in this case. :)

That does sound a lot like the description of Cold-Blooded from the Notes section of your character Sheet. But the part that was in the In-Character bit —'... He hisses and snarls and bares his fangs ...'— also sounds much like how any desperate person might act (s/fangs/teeth/).

It would be a 9 anyway —which is why it is hard to make these decisions after the roll results are known— and the costs for Cold-Blooded would be different to those of Keep Your Cool. Cold-Blooded might scare Bev off, make her think you are a monster, and mean she won't be happy treating you in the future, while Keep Your Cool would probably affect you more and could mean you can't stand the treatment and get the choice to scare Bev or have her have to stop.

No matter the choice, you did roll a Success on the Move, even if it is Partial, so you manage to avoid hurting them.

Rhiannon can try to hold you down well enough to save you from that outcome. I am not sure what roll that would be, it is not often that someone can roll Lend a Hand on Keep Your Cool, but it could apply now (if you are using Cold-Blooded for the 9) and she takes desperate steps to restrain you. I am not sure what that would look like, though. The consequences on a 7-9 would depend on how it is described and what she is most trying to avoid (which is probably 'scaring Bev so much that she is unwilling to help in the future'?), and another roll could make things worse.

We can decide between us what we want to do, and then pick up the scene with what comes next.

Ask questions till everything is clear.

I was imagining it as a bit more animalistic than would be typical for a human, I think. Like the veneer of humanity has vanished and he is just in full feral vampire mode. If you think that’s enough to qualify for the Cold-Blooded move, it was my intent to use that move if possible so we’ll go with a Cold-Blooded 9 (or potentially a 10 if Rhiannon wants to lend a hand).

OK, let's go with that then.
Let's try for that, it makes sense to Lend a Hand here.

Glad to hear it.

Nothing has changed for Mark's story, so jump right in and meet Jena when you are ready.

I left that open for you to do so if you wanted. Supply as much details you like, I will fill in the rest.

Missed yesterday because I took a decent chunk off my finger with a knife. After the urgent care visit I just wasn’t feeling up to typing

Quite understandable. Hoping there are no lingering effects.

---

Do you want to accept the Partial Success (9) that Benji got trying to Keep his Cool [ref] while being a 'scary vampire' [ref], and accept the 'cost' of scaring Bev enough that she might be hesitant to help you again next time [ref].

Or do you want to treat your recent post [ref] as Lending a Hand to his efforts, and maybe keep things under control enough that it is 'about what Bev expected'? There is a chance you could make things worse —directing some of Bev's fear to yourself rather than just the types of people you hang out with— on a 6-, but I don't see a 7-9 adding any significant extra cost in such a situation.

Just from looking? No. Or at least not more than one would expect from an ancient artifact.

If you want to do a more thorough check you have the option of your Let It Out ability 'detect the presence and function of magical items or spells' that might work. Or you can do research about it. There is nothing overt now.

---

We are also ignoring that you walked up to strange children and touched them. In this day and age that can get you arrested. :(

You walked up to a stranger and touched them? Yeah. Not technically a 'bad touch' but still. A strange child without parental supervision, yeah, that would get you looked at strangely by a 'responsible adult' were any there. Touching anyone without consent would be considered an issue. I get that you did not mean anything by it, and were being 'fatherly', so I treated it as minor rather than having the kid —who you already made nervous— make a big deal and shut down the scene.

It helps that they probably know Jena works here.

I don't think it is a problem, just a strange interaction in this 'stranger danger' world.

@Ysolde, did you see my question above about whether you are Lending a Hand, or accepting Benji's Partial Success and the consequences?

She will lend a hand

Go ahead and add that roll. Cross your fingers if they don't hurt too much. :)

Ha! Thankfully I will be able to keep the tip. I can’t believe my bread knife was that sharp!

She got a 9 so..

I’ll check in again later to post more.

That's great. Modern medicine is amazing.

You have a +1 Night Rating, so it is a 10, good work.

@Ysolde and @oopsylon, this seems like it might count as 'sharing a moment of Intimacy' between the three of you? Take a look at the wording of that Move on your sheets and see if you think it applies. If so, then we can talk about how to make it work in a three-way with two different characters' Moves.

Works for me

Sure! Sounds good to me
For reference this is Benji’s intimacy move:

When you share a moment of intimacy —physical or emotional— with another person, tell them a secret about yourself or owe them a Debt. Either way, they enter your Web and owe you a Debt.

I feel like Benji owing each of them a debt makes the most sense in this context (since the moment of intimacy occurred when they were helping him), although Bev is asking Benji questions so maybe he shares some kind of secret about vampire physiology (maybe a weakness that vampires usually try not to let people know about or something like that)

By the rules you can wait till the moment right before damage is done, after the GM has declared that it happened, before declaring you want to use Shielding. But in this case it makes sense to use it as a buffer, and the protection has psychological affects that can be beneficial.

Depending on how far you are pushing the stave, you might never actually take damage, and if you want to push it to the point of breaking you guys will be safe enough (though I can't speak for the table:).

What are you hoping to achieve with this?

OK.

---

Possibly. But remember that you already probably Owe Rhiannon for introducing you to someone who can heal you. And you already Owe Bev a Debt for the healing.

Anything that comes from the Moment of Intimacy we just shared is over and above that.
She would love that. But be warned, she will have more questions later. :)

There are no stupid questions... allowed. :)
So this must not have been one. :)
Once you know how to do a thing, you can do the thing, though you do, of course, still need to do whatever is required in the fiction.

If it is trivial, then we don't need to see it in much detail and can just allude to it, or even ignore it as a 'solved problem', but that is not the case here.
You have learned that breaking the staves is not hard, and are pretty sure that doing so will release all the energy they have stored up. If this is a lot of energy this release will probably kill whoever is wielding the stave or carrying it in a pocket, and would probably also be bad for anyone near them.

You would need to find a way, in the fiction, to break them. The main difficulty is doing so from far enough away to be outside the blast. They are rather small for ranged attacks, but that is an option. A blast from another stave might do it too, but there has been no way to test that.
Did you try that? Or did you just let the power you pumped in dissipate over time [ref]?

If you did the experiments then you will be tired out [ref], but not so much that it counts as Harm or prevents you from taking further action today. It might be enough that you might want to save more actions (Rhiannon's followup?) for tomorrow, but is a non-mechanical, RP issue.
You can replicate what you have discovered in the fiction. There are no mechanics to do any of that, but your actions in doing so may call for rolls (Keep Your Cool to set up a circle; Turn to Violence or Mislead, or something else break a stave; and so on) but that will depend on the fiction you (or someone else using your information) describe at the time.
You did not 'need' any of the research, but it has provided you with possible answers that can lead to solutions. More can always help, but time is a limited resource and you have already spent most of the day on this.

If we want to get the PCs back together, we know that Benji spent hours at the police station, and they can take some more time at Bev's, so we can set the phone call to Rhiannon for later in the day, or even tonight as Benji suggested exploring the rails is better left for when the trains are not all running.

Mark is a few hours ahead of most of the rest of the scenes. This is part of the reason why I had Bev put off the question of vampire feeding till another time when we can give it its due consideration. That way we can speed that scene along to catch up. [ref]

When separated by time it may be best to assume we use asynchronous communications like messages rather than phone calls that expect immediate and synchronous responses. Cell phones made storytelling way more complicated. :)

---

Does Mark respond to Jacob's message [ref]? Presumably he can see the message when he is done with his experiments, but you can also easily reply with what you would have said back then, and we can deal with any rolls that may have been called for as they come up.

We don't know yet if the Surveyors are Power, so far these are just rumours that Jacob has heard, but we can easily turn them into a Faction if we like the idea (I was just reacting to the sign on google maps:). If so we can see what Mark's involvement with them is, probably by a Put a Face to a Name roll.

Benji almost definitely has some knowledge of the Underground systems and hierarchies, but this is sorta far from his demesne, so it might take some work to get their help.
It makes sense that Benji would know the people at Piccadilly, we can just assume he has some level of access to the 'behind the scenes' stuff over there. But they may not talk to Jacob who they don't know.

These cameras may be useful in Benji's search for demon dogs on the tracks near Piccadilly, and maybe we reconvene there and see if there is any camera access at that location for that mystery and then see if we can leverage that into access to the cameras at Westminster Station (Debts for an introduction, Hit the Streets, whatever).

Decided Rhiannon knows a Surveyor but, he already paid back any favors he owed. So before she "Hits the street" maybe someone has something valuable to throw in…

We can see if anyone else has anything valuable to add, maybe they know Nigel Crane (Put a Face to a Name) and are owed a favour? Else you will need to persuade Nigel to meet with you (though if you Hit the Streets we probably assume they are willing to meet?) then may need to negotiate with Nigel to gain access to that information.

Sorry, now I got lost. I was texting Mark about the Surveyors, so not sure how Rhiannon got in all this. :-) Perhaps we can sort this out just by saying we have a messaging group all of us?

Technically Put a Face to a Name applies to people, not Factions, but we can also use it to determine if, and how well, you know a Faction by using it on a the first member of that Faction you encounter.

You can also just say you have or have not heard of them or their Faction independently. If you haven't and no one else has then they can be a nobody or a mystery you can examine later, but there is little reason to say you don't know someone who has been established as an actor in the city —as happened here— so we probably only use this choice if none of the players know of them.

If anyone knows about them, then they are a mover and shaker in the city and you might as well roll the move to see. We always have the choice to say a Miss means you don't know them, and I won't force Debts on the roller unless we all agree it is more interesting.

So rolling the Move has little downside and two upsides: You get Advancement ('XP') if you have not already marked the Circle, and it might turn out they Owe you a Debt which is valuable for opening the door.

---

The Surveyors are Power, like yourself, but they may not be 'actual wizards' by your definition, they are not one of your Wizardly Orders.

You can roll Put a Face to a Name on Nigel Crane, or you can say you know someone else who might be in their Faction.

Yes. It is often easiest to assume we all know what is happening with each other at a reasonable time-frame. Then we explicitly state what we don't tell each other and try to keep that information compartmentalised. In a case like this there is little reason to not get everyone else involved in the question.

You guys can also decide if there are any NPCs on these message groups, and state if we are using a list that excludes anyone. Then people like Jena or Charles Whittier, or other useful NPCs can chirp up and offer suggestions if appropriate. These NPCs need not be on the general list, but we easily say that Rhiannon forwards relevant messages to her Hunters' Society if it helps.

@gnomius, @oopsylon, @Stalker05:

Anyone who wants can Put a Face to a Name with Nigel Crane of The Surveyors. Then remember to Mark Advancement (Adv?) in Power.

This is probably the only chance you get to roll that Move on this NPC, you don't get to save it for the next time you encounter them to cheese the Advancement system. (If you did not see the message and don't engage with the story involving them then you might be able to justify rolling the next time instead.)

---

@Ysolde: Presumably Rhiannon does not roll, per the post where it says "I know one of them. They don’t owe me" but if you want to still roll it might turn out you Owe them which could be a fun reason why you are trying to get someone else to approach them instead of going yourself? :)

Sure, let me roll!

Remember Don't Edit. Rather add a new post after the roll so people who have read your previous don't get messed up.

Ah, okay.

But if I warn in the post that I am going to edit it, and the post is empty, that theoretical reader would check it again, right? ;-)

Sorry, just arguing for the sake (and pleasure) of it, I'm okay with your rules. :)

Probably. Though, when? Do we keep checking till the edit comes? Adding a new post uses the site's features to let us know.

In this case there was nothing to really add, since this Move does not have strong fiction associated with it (hence the roll without fiction first being valid at all). Just letting us know that it is time to check again would be helpful.
Understood. :)

Do you have a preference? I think it may make the most sense, given that you called others for help, to not know Nigel. But you did know that The Surveyors existed, so we could explain away your knowing Nigel and Owing him, maybe it is news (bad news) to you that he is part of that Faction?

Maybe I could know him from past times, but I didn't have a clue that he was part of the Surveyors faction now?

OK. Let's do that. You knew he was involved with something magical, and he helped you with something in the past and you Owe him for it, but his Surveyorship is news to you.

It seems The Surveyors are both a very old and a very new Faction. We will need to see in play how that can be true. :)

Missed Advancement Marking:

• Rhiannon, Mark Wild for rolling Put a Face to a Name for Millicent Fawcett [ref]. You Mark the Circle even on a Miss.

• Jacob, Mark Power for rolling Put a Face to a Name Nigel Crane [ref]. You Mark the Circle even on a Miss.

True!

Done, thanks for the reminder.

Hit by some bug. Hopefully feel better tomorrow

Urgh. Hope it's a quick bug, and mild.

Wow! Mysterious guys, these 'Surveyors'. :)

Jacob knows Nigel from before, but does/did not know he is part of this Faction [ref], Rhiannon has, at least, heard that he is with them, but we will wait see if there is more there [per the question] (no pressure Ysolde, take your time).

Do Benji or Mark know him and Owe him? It is getting messy, so more Debts Owed would heavily influence the way the story goes. It is easy to say you don't know him and keep things simple, but we can complicate the relationship of we want to steer the story that way.

These Misses don't block the story. You can still try approach them through Nigel. You can ask around and see if someone you know can introduce you (possibly using the Debts mechanic) or do research into them now that you have all realised there is definitely something going on with them (I mean: that 656!).

I think I’ll keep it simple and say that Benji doesn’t know him

Somewhat better still on and off cold/hot

Unpleasant, but at least it is improving.

---

You rolled a 7, so at least you don't Owe him a Debt, this confirms that you have some general knowledge of Nigel and the people he hangs with, but we knew that.

I will provide some details about The surveyors and then we might want to know:

• Where do you know Nigel from? Do you know him from before he joined The Surveyors about a year or two ago or did you have dealings with him as a Surveyor? Did you work together or did you meet him at a social gathering? Do you have any details you want to add? (I can come up with answers to these questions if you would prefer.)

Rhiannon met Nigel when he was working for the Surveyors. The demon she was hunting was actually attempting to prey on him and get a member of the Surveyors in his debt. Rhiannon ended up killing the demon and briefly Nigel owed her one. However, in Rhiannon’s very next hunt she called in the debt he owed her and he was able to provide an exacting layout of a demon lair just outside of London.

Nigel is a very thin brown haired man with brown eyes. He has a taste for fine wine and can talk for hours about baroque painters and their styles.

Nice.

Mark is also possibly unaware of Nigel and he will ask around and incur debt there to know more about the Surveyors.

You won't know any more than the general stuff most people know, the Debt on a Miss on Put a Face to a Name is the cost for turning the Miss into the equivalent of a Partial Success and "• On a hit, you know their reputation; the MC will tell you what most people know about them."

The fact that you know Nigel well enough to Owe him a Debt does mean you have some contact and a way in to get more information, of course.

Why do you Owe him a Debt? What sort of dealings did you have with him in the past? Did you know he was one of The Surveyors?

BTW, I guess we should add NPC Debts in our ledger as well, shouldn't we?

Indeed we should.

The book search is low priority, maybe the characters focus on the demon problem first and think about Nigel and The Surveyors when there is time or if they become relevant?

Where are we going? To Benji's station manager at Piccadilly [ref]? He may be able to help with both cases.

Who is going? Everyone? We can set the time to later that night, that way you can be there after the trains stop (is that at midnight?) and get access to the tracks if we need.

I think Piccadilly's station manager is the best way forward right now, and indeed we may kill two birds with one stone. :)

I will definitely go with Benji!

From what I can see online, the last trains leave at around 12:30 and they start back up again around 5:30. Probably we should go just before closing, right? If we're waiting until midnight and Rhiannon didn't want Benji's help with anything else beforehand, Benji would probably go back to the station early to sleep and try to make some money before meeting everyone else there

Do we think this triggers Persuade and NPC? There is some overlap with Hit the Streets, but that Move does not the fiction as described here, we already know he has what you want and is available.

I suppose the Persuade 'leverage' is that you are offering him a Debt? Or is there other leverage?
How should we handle this? I see two obvious ways (mechanically speaking). We can roll Persuade and deal with this if we need to (as part of the 7-9 result, for instance). This may end up being Figure Someone Out to work out what he wants, 'how you can get him to help you with camera access'.

You could also preemptively roll Figure Someone Out to find some leverage and possibly avoid the initial Debt.

I am not sure, but I don't feel too keen on having two Debts for one action, so offering a Debt as the initial leverage on Persuade might mean we need to get fancy on any 7-9 results. I can make two Debts work if we have to, but would prefer to avoid that when possible. So having something else in the back pocket before the roll would help.

Yeah sorry that was a clumsy attempt at Persuade (the leverage I was trying to offer being the promise of a favour in return (possibly in the form of a Debt)). Should I make the roll or would you prefer I do Figure Someone Out first?

If you are happy just Owing him a Debt then you can roll Persuade.

Anything that he has as a counteroffer would probably end up pretty much being a Debt anyway unless we want to derail the quest to do something for him first.

Do you have any ideas what he might want? To allow for future use of your Keep Your Friends Close Character Move we could use this to introduce a 'true hunger' for him if you want?

Great! I’ve added the persuade roll to my post
Happy to leave that up to you! I don’t have any ideas off the top of my head but I’m sure I can come up with something if you need me to

It's a 9. Does anyone think they can Lend a Hand with this Persuasion? It seems feasible that having all these fancy-looking people around might sway the station manger.

Sure, I already suggested that Jacob could be generous with them, but let me phrase that out loud and roll. :)

Perfect use of this power.

What does this look like? How do you do this? How are you 'actively letting out the darkness within, giving it control to get what you want'? What does it feel like?

Are you doing this now, while there are still commuters in the station and trains running? Your effect will be limited by having people around (the fiction of the situation affects the outcomes).

On a 10+ on Let It Out you get to choose whether you ignore the Corruption this Move brings with it or avoid the inherent cost, limitation, or instability. I don't see how this would be 'unstable', so your description of how you do this will affect if it 'costs' you or is of 'limited effect' (above and beyond the already limited effect from working in a crowd of civilians). Taking Corruption would offset this Move-inherent downside.

Waiting till after the station is empty (we can assume you guys will make a plan to be there after-hours?) would make this more effective as you will have a freer reign to work, but doing it now, as you stated in your post, would mean you could use the results to guide the slog of scrubbing through camera footage for who-knows-what 'clues'.

It is up to you. Maybe you missed that the station was still open [ref], or we can delay the camera access till after it closes —though that means that Stefano has to stay late and will want compensation.

Oracle roll to guide what Stefano wants as Leverage. [Persuade 10 due to Lend a Hand 12]. Benji and Jacob directly involved in the roll.

Let's have a curved table:

The character might want to, but the game has no mechanism to solve your problems by throwing money at them.

Someone might want money as their repayment for a Debt, but that will be enough money that you need to take action in the fiction to get it, not the sort of money you have lying around. In this case what you are asking for is a fairly minor thing —risk his job by allowing outsiders access to security footage— so the compensation would be suitably minor. If it is solved by money then it might need you to sell off some valuable stuff, for instance, so this one would not be the sort of money that demands you rob a bank to get.

But, in this case, it is not about the cost of a drone or a ticket from Sheffield, that was just an example he came up with. There is a reason there is no information about this area, no footage, no plans, no satellites! I deliberately did not define where it is so we can come up with reasons for this that might tie into further endeavours in the city. If you get a drone and a family member to pilot it you would still need to contend with whatever has prevented others from getting this information before.

Remember, though, that Stefano is just talking about something he happens to want. He is not demanding you get it. If we don't want to help him with this problem we can come up with a counter-offer he likes.
I assume so. Your sheet lists 'an upscale house'.

But that just means you don't need to worry about money most of the time. You can use it as you did with £40 for the street urchin, but that was about how you treated them and your social interactions not the actual money (which we don't track till it becomes a problem).

Is this a situation where we have to get him the photos before he’ll show us the cctv or can we just agree to help and deal with it later?

You rolled a 10 (with help), so he is happy to help you out now, but you owe him. This is a thing he wants, but there is no urgency, we was just showing off while we bought some time to see what Rhiannon was doing (and when).

He also doesn't want 'photos', he wants to be able to (be the first to) accurately model this part of the city, photos are just one thing that might help him do that. You are welcome to come up with other options.

Okay, great!

Hi there,

This is to warn that I'll be travelling from tomorrow until Friday, and I'm not sure I'll have availability to post (most proably not), so please feel free to put Jacob in NPC mode these days if needed.

Thanks!

Sorry missed this post and wondered where Rhiannon was supposed to come in. I’ll chalk it up to the fact that my Oxygen saturation was below 90% most of last week.

Those are not good sats!

---

You describe the station being dark in your post. We can leave this action till after we have looked at the security footage and the station is closed if you want.

If we do it that way, were you there when they looked at the model and the footage?
Do you want to contribute that conversation? Else we can move on with the assumption that you know what was learned there.

If you did it before, then maybe it is 'dark to your senses'?
Mark Corruption on your sheet.

What you describe sounds very 'magical' or 'supernatural', so that veers a bit away from your being Mortalis. This is OK, maybe we are seeing the first signs of change within you, signs that you are not completely 'human' anymore? Interesting that this comes with Corruption (you know what Nietzsche says about staring into the void:).

Bear in mind that you are Mortalis and not 'supernatural' when you describe such things, too much supernatural description may lead to forced changes to your playbook (always within your control as the player, of course, you decide how supernatural vs human you describe your character and the system adjusts for that).

You don't see them appear nor see how they get there, the footage cuts out and when it comes back they are just there. [ref]

You can't tell over a camera what happened. Maybe you can develop some way to reach through video and do or sense magic, but you don't currently know of a way to do that.

Yeah, I got some good stuff for my lungs and now I'm breathing well again.

Having been in the London Underground and the New York Subway even with the lights on down in the track area and tunnels can still be pretty dark. I was thinking she was in the dark corners and dank areas away from the light sort of hiding in the shadows around the tracks trying to find her prey. In any case lets go with she knows what happened in the conversations and it was "dark" because she was avoiding lights and cameras.

Also, yes I know she's mortalis but I do like the idea that corruption and pulling on that power brings her further from human and closer to something else. So I marked corruption...

@Ysolde Is this ("She drops from seemingly nowhere into the group of allies. She swipes a few black feathers from her shoulder a remnant of her time in thrall to her power.") Rhiannon dropping into the middle of the scene with Stefano and the cctv? Just wanted to clarify so Benji can be appropriately startled by Rhiannon suddenly appearing from the shadows hahah :)

OK. So let's set this exploration after that meeting and have Rhiannon be present while everyone was looking at the camera feeds. That way she has some guidance as to where to look.
If you are exploring the tracks themselves, then maybe we wait for the others to finish their scene and we all do down there? That way we get to see that exploration and everyone gets to be involved. If the others think they would avoid going onto the tracks and let Rhiannon do that on her own that is fine too, but maybe we want to play out that scene rather than hide the whole exploration and discovery behind a roll?

Either way, whether you have company or are alone, you can then use your 'powers' to track down signs of the demons' passing.

---

If you are exploring the station itself there will not be much you can find. Its been a whole, busy day of people parading through area, so most signs will be pretty washed out. We can try to find something for you to find, but this Ability needs something to work with, it is 'limited information or trail' not 'no information'. I doubt there is much more you can glean that is not apparent from the security cameras (though it is amusing how the 'Mortal Human' goes out and gets freaky while the Wizard, Demon, and Vampire look at the mundane computer:).

Sounds good the on the tracks stuff can be after

Do we want any more information from Stefano?

What are we doing next?

This is your home. I assume you know your way around and know how to get places without being seen but the ubiquitous cameras.

There are cameras on the tracks, of course. But they probably are not watched all the time, right?

Sorry double post. You might think Rhiannon is joking about the foxes but apparently they actually do take the buses and trains in London

They have adapted really well to city living.

Don't tell Stefano about them using the trains, though, he will have a cadenza about ticketing! :)

Hey guys, quick post to let you know I'm back from my travels. I'll try to catch up as soon as possible.

Excellent. There shouldn't be much to catch up on. If you want to do anything more with Stefano before the group leaves him, just carry on with that scene.

I assume so. This is where the hell hound was spotted, and also appears to be where the demon squad 'appeared' in the train. The squad was not on the train at Green Park and were on the train at Piccadilly Circus —one stop later— so something happened between those two stations, so the tunnel where it happened seems like a good place to start looking?

Mark was lamenting the fact that you can't pinpoint the exact place [ref], but maybe Jacob was paying attention (while you were away) and noticed something that could help locate the spot? Or Rhiannon's tracking [ref] can point you in the right direction?

Yep! Sorry, I think I moved the scene on a little prematurely, but the intent is to investigate the tunnel between Piccadilly Circus and Green Park where the demons suddenly appeared/the Dog has been spotted and give Rhiannon an opportunity to do her tracking

I don't think anyone else was doing much more with Stafano, anyway. But, if anyone does want to say they did something before we went down to the tracks you can still show us that as part of the previous scene.

OK, it does not sound like we are taking extreme efforts to avoid being noticed. This may cut down on the time you can spend down here or result in other consequences.

Mark, do you want to roll to Keep Your Cool to see if you happened upon a hiding place sufficient to avoid notice by the driver?

Absolutely, however, you first need to find 'a Place of Power' as the Move Study a Place of Power is not about finding them, but about studying them once you have found one. You are close though.

Mark is an experienced magic user, so he he noticed it easily enough and can resist it without needing to roll. He has learned something about the sort of magic in use here, and that may be a clue he can pull on.

I’m thinking of rolling Let it Out again ("display your dominance; low-Status NPCs flee, PCs must **keep their cool**") to try to scare the dog off. Obviously there’s a risk that I could fail and make the situation worse (and even on a success the other PCs would have to keep their cool), but the possibility of avoiding a fight with the dog altogether seems like it might be worth it. Does the dog qualify as a low-Status NPC? Also, does growling back at it qualify as ‘displaying dominance’?

Sounds like an excellent plan. :)
Sure is. :)
It does now.
I would think there is more than just a simple 'growl'. It needs to be enough to trigger the Move and scare away a guard-dog (from hell?), and you imply that the other PCs would need to Keep their Cool, so it is surely something more scary, which it needs to be anyway.

If you are referring to the text of the Move, 'low-Status NPCs flee, PCs must keep their cool', then those are two separate clauses for when you choose to target PCs vs NPCs. If you are not trying to scare the PCs away or to dominate them then they probably don't need to roll (unless it is very freaky and scares them, which we will deal with if it comes up).

Describe how you display your dominance (the others don't know about the hell hound yet).

Oh! Okay, great! I misunderstood the move as meaning it affected everyone in the scene, but being able to target it is much better :)

Rather than make a new post, I edited the existing post (and added the roll …It didn’t go great lol)

Given the misunderstanding followed by your rolling a 4 it is tempting Turn the Move Back on you and your friends. But I don't want to induce a fear of you in them, so let's not do that.

However, it makes a lot of sense to have the dog be even scarier than it first seemed (hence not fazed by your display) and ask everyone to Keep their Cool.

We might want to discuss as a team what sorts of things could happen. Do we want to allow for the possibility of being frightened away from here and losing this thread (for now?), or do we want to limit it to things that still allow us to stay down here and finish this exploration? There will be other opportunities if we flee, but I don't want to force such a decision based on the dice.

When you roll [ref] to Keep Your Cool, think about what sort of 'costs' you might have to pay on a 7-9. The costs should not overrule the success of the Move, and need not be directly related to what you feared might come to pass, but this is something that needs to borne in mind when setting the terms for the Move, if there are no logical 'costs' on a Partial Success then maybe the Move does not apply and should not have been rolled.

@Stalker05: What are you worried about or wanting to avoid with your roll? What does it cost you to overcome that fear?

That does sound like '• reshape the essence or nature of a magical spell'.

I am not sure how much that would help with the scary dog. The dog is real, not part of the spell.

The spell might make them more inclined to 'go home', so dispelling that might make that a less likely outcome, but that takes away their choice of what they are worried about...

On the other hand, the Let It Out Ability says 'reshape', so you might be able to use the existing spell to try repel the dog? That sounds like a tall order, though, so expect high costs if you try that.

We first need to deal with the round of Keep Cool rolls, though.

Can anyone think of a way to Lend a Hand for poor Benji with his apparently-cursed rolls [ref ref ref]? We could turn that 6 to Keep his Cool into a 7. I am not sure how one would help with 'bravery', though...

By RAW we only roll the Lend a Hand Move to help, but it might make sense that turning off the 'go home' magic would 'diminish the desire to flee' and count as helping (everyone), in this case. That would mean the magic effect is gone (if Mark can do it, of course) and can not turned against the dog. We would also need to deal with Mark's Partial Success on resisting his own fear [ref] before he can act to do that.

Everyone, so far, has a Partial, though, so there is already an overwhelming desire to get out of here. "Guys? Should be just leave?"