Stories from The Between RPG
By Alex White
- 13 minutes read - 2720 wordsThe Between 16th December 2024
Players
- Jen P - Vanessa Lythe, The Vessel; whom the dark entity ‘the Rowan Man’ has his eyes on.
- Jen M - Valentine Demaris, The Undeniable; whose memory dates back to Roman times and dresses as male or female to suit their needs
- Diana - Paloma Carrión, The Mother; a scientist who is trying to create anew her dead lover, Winston.
Day
At breakfast the group are idly leafing through the Illustrated Police Gazette when a story grabs their attention - It tells of a young maid, Ginny Hess who was found dead of shock at a home in St James’s Street. The lurid story claims that it is a ghost as they always do in these situations, but Vanessa notices a detail in the story that convinces her that there is a genuine ghost in play - the story mentions ice on some indoor mirrors. This needs investigation along with the Whateley Camera and Sally No-Face!
Preparing for the day, and in light of recent experiences, Valentine wants to acquire a bodyguard. They also want to resolve some of their conditions, and so asks Vanessa if she would like to join them in a flogging. Just as a voyeur, of course. Vanessa willingly agrees - she has heard of a means whereby one can use a sand table to collect messages from the other side as the psychic trauma of pain moves the tiny grains around, and would love to try it out in a controlled fashion. Valentine sends out a message to one of her worshippers, that they might come along for a quick flogging.
Meanwhile Paloma wants to spend some time self-medicating for the partial facial paralysis which she is suffering from. She has an idea that mouldy food might help in some way, so she is poking around the back of the cool box in the cellar when her eye is drawn to a small porcelain vessel which she doesn’t recognise. Taking it out and lifting the lid there is the acrid smell she recognises of fresh blood! Looking into the vessel she sees the blood steaming and warm, and for a moment it is a face different to hers that looks out from the reflection! Then that moment is gone. She shows it to Vanessa who finds it curious, but doesn’t have any additional insight. Vanessa helps her with application of the potions Paloma has concocted, and her facial paralysis is largely cured, and she can talk clearly again. Paloma then disappears off to her hidden laboratory… this blood in the porcelain jar might be a clue of some kind, but she isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth! She secretly infuses the blood into Winston’s new body in the crypt.
A gentleman arrives in a bowler hat for the flogging and is shown into the appropriate room. Valentine demeans him and flogs him, which he appears to enjoy. Vanessa sprinkles sand in time with the impact of the lash. Valentine tells him to confess his sins, and he admits that he has talked about her name to the Dapper Boy, and it was wrong, and he will now spread other messages, to take Valentine away from Sally’s attention. Meanwhile the sand table has shown patterns that suggested first coagulating blood, and then rouge - a transition which Vanessa thinks is an important clue.
The sore gentleman leaves, and starts spreading counter rumours which removes Valentines condition “known by Sally No-Face”
There is some speculation about Sally No Face as they start drawing their clues together. They decide that they don’t want to just find out Sally’s lair and attack her… they want to understand where she has come from, and what has driven her to this madness.
For the afternoon, Valentine scars their reflection to find a worshipper who will be a good bodyguard, and comes home with a confident young rake who is well practiced and deadly with his rapier. Somewhere the two melodies which weave together in Valentine’s song become mismatched, with one overriding the other at moments when they should be balanced.
Meanwhile Paloma and Vanessa want to gather some additional clues by visiting that Whitechapel townhouse, disguised as washwomen. In the bins at the back they find the remains of party food. steak tartare, vol-au-vents and the like. While there, they can hear from inside a quartet of musicians playing furiously. Paloma takes a risk by climbing up on a bin and looking through the window at the musicians. Inside she sees the quartet playing, dressed in formal clothes but all with their heads fully bandaged up, with blood seeping through the bandages! As she shifts on the rubbish bins there is a clatter and their heads snap round and stare at her at the window, without interrupting their playing.
The two of them decide to try their luck at the front door, and finding it unlocked they creep inside. The large hall has a room to the right with the musicians and a room to the left but they have cold feet and decide not to investigate future. Paloma notices a stack of the gold-embossed invites which suggests that this is the place people are invited to, and she takes one. It has written on it the name Dr Van Cleef and this address. As they are leaving they saw a portrait of a noblewoman on the wall, but with lines drawn on her face and neck as if planning for surgery.
When they return home, Vanessa gushes to Valentine about what an excellent role Paloma had played in the investigation, to the extent that Paloma gets a little bit embarrassed! When they describe the noblewoman Valentine realises that it is Dame Margaret Teasdale, who they had met after mass last week and was talking about her marvellous facelift. She is also intrigued by the string quartet, and asks Paloma to hum her the tune. Hearing it, Valentine’s face grows pale and she staggers back and falls heavily into a chair. The musicians had been playing her tune. HER song!
They start to draw the clues together. They know of a doctor who was struck off for untoward medical practices. They think he was now living two lives; one as a tailor in a high class dress shop, rubbing shoulders with the rich and wealthy, and the other as an academic with access to society who can invite wealthy older people for miraculous facelifts. Those rich patrons have no idea that their rouge is based on the blood of innocents, as the tailor uses the poison from his plant to paralyse young victims - fresh-faced men and women - so that he can steal their faces and use them to repair the damaged old rich ones. Furthermore Valentine realises she had been the inspiration for this doctor. He was obsessed with her tune, with her face, with her timeless beauty! Is this all an homage to Valentine Demaris?
The theory is correct - they also all use a mask to get a mastermind clue too.
Valentine uses the moss covered gate - falls back to a chair and sits. oh the disharmony! she blocks her hears, can’t bear the sound, all of the lives which have been scarred by her. Walking back through the years, she wonders at the impact of her life. Is this murderer, Sally No-Face the true face of her legacy? Staring at her? And she swoons.
Vanessa uses a mask of the past, remembering when she was introduced to The Coven. Her headmistress had said that it was time for her to join the faculty. She dressed in her most lovely clothing as requested, but when she got to the room there was a burning pit and smoke and not the interview she was expecting. She had to donate quite a lot of blood, and was told she would always be part of the Twilight Garden. Vanessa slips off part of her blouse and shows the scars on her back which mark the distinctive shape of the rowan tree.
Paloma remembers the happiest day she shared with Winston. He loved fishing at the grimy docks with a little rowboat. One day he fished out a small stuffed animal, which he donated to Paloma and put in a little crib as a love token. It was such a happy day filled with laughter!
Preparing to go out, Paloma is concerned that she is still wanted by the police. Valentine agrees to give her a makeover while Paloma is consoling herself with her medicinal tonics. They talk during the process and Paloma describes Winston, and their love they had for each other, and wonders how Valentine ever manages dealing with love. What would someone do for more time with their lover? Valentine responds by saying that her centuries wouldn’t measure up to what Paloma had had. Pinkness returns to Paloma’s cheeks as she says that she only wanted more time with Winston. Valentine feels it in a way unexpected and unusual to her.
Meanwhile in late afternoon Vanessa visits St James’ street after picking up some nice pastries along the way.
She is let in by a maid and led through to the drawing room. Shortly after, the mistress of the house arrives, Mrs Alice Beal. Mrs Beal apologises that she can’t send down to the cook for some tea, because she just hasn’t been able to employ a new maid since that awful newspaper report about the haunting.
Mrs Beale says that they have lived there for about a year there - they moved in with their son Roger (who is nine) and a few months ago little baby Mary Alice was born. At first they thought the troubles in the house was Roger breaking things out of jealousy and sibling rivalry, but when the glass tiger shattered while Roger was with them, it was clear that something else was up. She had sent Ginny (what a lovely girl, so good with Roger) to investigate, but Ginny hadn’t found anything. However, it was that evening when there was a ghastly scream from her room, and they found poor Ginny dead! Mr Beale had been particularly distraught.
Vanessa asks if she can see Ginny’s room, and Mrs Beale is happy to take her up. It is a small room in the eaves; a bed, a dressing table, a mirror. The mirror still shows some signs of the ice which had originally piqued Vanessas attention. She looks at it more closely and then suddenly in the mirror she sees a face wreathed in flames and a blast of heat as if someone has opened a blast furnace door. Then the mirror cracks, in a weird spiral pattern. Vanessa asks Mrs Beale a couple of things - can she take the mirror, and can she cast a spell of protection on the baby’s nursery. Mrs Beale is very happy with this, so before she left Vanessa does a ritual of barring around the nursery. The ghost may be tied to the house, but it won’t be able to disturb the baby in the nursery. As soon as the ritual is finished, the baby settled right away.
Returning back to Hargrave House, Vanessa recounts her experiences at St James’s Street. As she finishes, they all look at each other with the same realisation hitting them all at the same time. Who let her in to the house?
Dusk
The Conservatory
Hargrave House has a conservatory. It used to be the favourite room of one of the hunters from years gone by who turned out to be a serial killer. How do we know it was his favourite room?
- There was a group of trees that are difficult to grow without lots of organic fertiliser. There is a mound that settles a little more each year
- He had a terrible temper and you can see marks in the wooden moulding where he had thrown things across the room.
- One of the previous members enjoyed taxidermy. the animals are arranged around the conversatory. Roger had turned them round so he wouldn’t see their eyes.
Unscene
None of the 117 rooms at Brown’s Hotel on Albermarle Street are the same, though they each have housed some of the most fashionable people you’ll find in London or anywhere. A concierge, Teddy Miller, delights in spying on the hotel’s posh clientele.
Night
Unscene Act 1: Teddy puts his ear up against the door of a wealthy young bachelor. He hears the one-sided conversation of the man on the phone “no, no, tell me about the ruby one again? And the diamond one? Oh stop it, I’ll take both!”
The hunters have decided to meet with Vittorio Clemenza at his shop. Although it is closed for the day he lets them in after a second glance at Valentine, and realises who she is. He then locks the door behind them again.
Sitting down with them, Valentine tells him that she knows what he is doing, and she knows the cost of what he is doing in a way that he doesn’t yet understand himself. He talks excitedly about how he has been inspired by her example and wanted to make a lasting difference in the world and make a name for himself!
While he is talking he reaches into a pocket and draws out a wicked sharp scalpel, encrusted with rubies and diamonds. He gestures with it while speaking to them.
Unscene Act 2: Teddy rummages through the personal effects of an actress staying at the hotel while she is out. He finds a very fancy face powder, and it smells faintly of lillies. It is the same face powder that his mother would use in the evenings before going out. He feels a rush of boyhood love and admiration and is swept away for a moment.
Valentine decides to illustrate the problem facing him. She draws out a little flute, and starts playing her tune, which he recognises well. Then she starts playing again - the original version before it started to be scarred. It is so much more beautiful that a tear appears in Clemenza’s eye.
“You must understand” Valentine says, “There is a cost to what you are doing. My life has corrupted what started out as beautiful. You talk about your legacy but perhaps from now on every step you take will corrupt it”
Clemenza is taken aback by the thought. He glances over at the vase of lilies near him and says “maybe there has been too many deaths. Maybe I have done enough now?”
“I think you have” Valentine confides. “And if you give yourself in now…”
“Then my name will be in the papers!” Clemenza exults. “Everyone will know of my work and I’ll be remembered forever!”
The hunters look at each other, and lead him off to Scotland Yard, where DI Pettigrew is astonished to hear a full confession.
Unscene Act 3: Teddy returns to his tiny, dingy flat in East London. He has set up a shrine with discarded bits of makeup and stockings and costume jewelry. He likes to pull the curtains and dress up as one of the guests and speaks to his shadow in plummy tones.
Valentine has taken as a reminder of this threat the ruby and diamond encrusted scalpel of “Sally No-Face”
Vanessa has found the skin of Edward’s face, and buried it properly as she had promised so that Edward’s spirit can find rest.
Paloma was seriously considering whether there would be a body part that she could take for Winston, but then realised that the medicinal (ahem) uses of the paralytic Oleander plant could be useful, so she takes that.
Dawn
A question was answered, a threat resolved.
Vanessa gains experience and her Presence increases, perhaps becoming more confident in who she is internally is allowing her to come across to others with more purpose and direction.
Paloma takes the move “Beneath the Skin” allowing her to find out a lot more clues from dead bodies and crime scenes.
Valentine takes the move “Unquenchable Thirst” Their beauty is now aggressively eternal. Physical conditions will disappear at dawn (at a price) and they get advantage when using their physical attractiveness to accomplish something.