A Red and Pleasant Beginning (Part 1)

It goes snicker-snack.

When I offered to run +Zak Smith's "A Red and Pleasant Land" at the local +MK RPG club I wasn't sure what the response would be. I knew I'd have a few takers as there's a small LotFP appreciation society (that does seem to slowly be expanding) but I was pleasantly surprised to end up with 6 players (though one could not make last night). With great excitement I got the ball rolling.

"I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see?"

As with Purple I wanted character creation to be a detailed process. The players were given their "brief": it was 1680 and they were in London. To be precise they'd been recently admitted to Bethlem Mental Asylum at Moorfields. Due to the absurd list of reasons you could be submitted to Bethlem it was easy to create relatively sane characters though all boasted interesting back stories by the time we'd finished bouncing ideas off each other, and yet again utilised the Tenra Bansho Zero Emotion Matrix:

• Cuthbert Harrington (Dan) - ex military, he was admitted due to his laziness, seen as a disappointment in his father's eyes. A kind, relaxed fellow who holds a love for music over violence now.
• Eric Forsing (Tom) - admitted for severe burns and criminal activity. He was caught in a family's home trying to steal their goods and his method of escape had been to set fire to the home. This failed leading to the deaths of several others and the severe burns on his face.
• Lemule Black (+Scott Dorward) - the bastard son of the De Grace family. He worked as a gardener for the De Grace family but after he learnt of his true heritage he started trying to capitalise on his claim to fame which led to his inevitable admission into Bethlem, safely out of sight from the De Grace family. A violent man now, and has proven he maybe belongs in Bethlem repeatedly since.
• Winnie Sweet (+Kathryn Jenkins) - the daughter of a drunken lord, her step mother found out that Winnie was set to inherit whatever money hadn't been pissed up a wall. Poor Winnie soon found herself in Bethlem.
• Eliza De Grace (+Victoria Allin) - a daughter from the De Grace family, she made the mistake of accepting a marriage proposal from a jeweller's apprentice. Her father, deeply ashamed of this foolishness, had her admitted promptly.

I supplied modified LotFP character sheets which included a new Common Activity, "Wonder", as well as the removal of some bits that I knew wouldn't be used (or rarely used).

The game began with the players waking up in the middle of night in their respective cells. Confused they became aware they each had a slip of paper in their hand with a random phrase or word on it - for example Cuthbert's note said "Snicker-Snack" while Lemule's slip said "Tax Exempt". While they tried to comprehend this, they heard screams from the front of the building and these weren't the usual screams of Bethlem's treatment plans, these were the screams of people being removed from their mortal coils. As they made their way down to the front they came across weird scenes; people eating themselves (or each other) in happiness, an orderly masturbating with a knife, one lady hanging herself while bouncing off the walls giggling. Entering the main foyer they saw a gaunt man who had the head of a rabbit. Turning to them as they entered he hissed, "Shit." and ran back into a mysterious hall that had been built recently.

It was about this time that Melancholia and Raving Madness, the two statues that been erected over the entrance to Bethlem, came to life and began turning any escapees into meat paste.

The mysterious hall revealed several more of these rabbit-headed men, clothed in strange tabards depicting fish, trying desperately to rebuild a giant broken mirror. Around the entrance lay the dead bodies of the remaining asylum staff. The rabbit-men seemed to be making a terrible mess of things, unable to assemble the mirror despite how obvious it looked. While Winnie and Eliza helped do it properly, Lemule opted to interrogate one of the rabbit men which led to a confusing conversation of where there was despite them being here and there being there so how could more information be supplied if there was, simply, there?

Lemule responding by punching the rabbit man as the rest of the group realised the shards of mirror seemed to act like a portal to somewhere. This was confirmed when they finished assembling the mirror in its entirety and they were able to jump through as Melancholia and Raving Madness made their way into the room.

On the other side of the portal Winnie wasted no time in destroying the portal by pushing it over, causing its surface to turn black and crusted in a shower of sparks. They had now found themselves in a stone room which vaguely resembled the room they had just left in Bethlem, alone save for the handful of rabbit men. Oddly however now they looked closely it seemed they were just ordinary men wearing really bad rabbit masks. They were very keen to let the players wear their tabards which they explained showed their loyalty to the Colourless Queen. The conversation continued outside where the players were first faced with the vista of Voivodja; a curious series of different levelled plateaus, sprawling green land atop old buildings.

Eric asked, "What can you tell us of the Colourless Queen?".
The man waved a hand airily, "Well, shes the queen of course and she is-"
"If you're next fucking word is 'Colourless' theres going to be trouble." Lemule interrupted.
The man cast a wary eye at Lemule before finishing, "-void of colour....", earning him a punch in the face from Lemule.
"Thats close enough!"

The group decided they needed some answers and began demanding the rabbit-mask-wearing-men take them to the Colourless Queen. The men snorted with laughter, saying they weren't remotely important enough to be reporting to her but things turned peculiar when they caught sight of Eliza's recently changed birthmark which now resembled a heart within a heart. The men immediately fell into overly respectful bowing and accelerated their departure (with Lemule skewering one through the throat after Eliza tackled him to stop him leaving).

Some players took to madness quicker than others.

Eric began to loot the body but realised that in his own pocket he had a small toy soldier, something he had last seen in the burning building from his past. He hid it back in his pocket as he withdrew a perfect wine glass from the dead body before him.

Others realised they too had small mementos. Lemule found a rabbit's paw fob (from the first rabbit he had killed), Eliza found the engagement ring from her lover on her finger, Winnie now sported her mother's evening gloves, and Humphrey found his flint and steel from his military days. Curiouser and curiouser.

They made their way to the edge of the plateau they were standing out and gazed at surprise below for before them lay a battle between two armies, one side rallied under a banner with a similar heart symbol to Eliza's birthmark and the other side wearing the emblem of a red crown. The unusual thing however was that the battle was completely frozen, everyone locked in a position of mid-combat.

Cuthbert queried if any of those soldiers would let go of their weapons before looking down at the dagger he had looted from the orderly back in the asylum. He then realised that the dagger had gone and in its place he was holding an impressive, dangerous looking blade. If he was to hazard a guess he'd say it was made of pure vorpal (and went 'snicker-snack').

The session was coming to a close but the curtains had not yet drawn. The sound of purring coming from Winnie caused a ripple of concern. Approaching Winnie with his new vorpal blade in hand led to Cuthbert receiving a scratch across the face as a Cheshire cat slowly faded into view around Winnie's shoulders. The Cheshire Cat seemed amused by their presence, sure that they were going to leave a possibly red and likely pleasant mark on Voivodja.

Next session is on Tuesday 6th of October, circle me to receive the next update straight into your G+ stream!