An adventure run by my good buddy David Concepcion, this was one for the history books and honestly kind of difficult to sum up in a post of this nature.
Describing this session as I do other gaming scenarios doesn't properly convey the subtly and nuance of the story, the way he absolutely nailed the genre, and the creative approach he used to lay out the clues while simultaneously leading us astray.
Agatha Christie would be proud.
The Case of The Murder's Murder's Murder
AKA: A Ghost of a Clue
Gamemaster: David Concepcion
Synopsis: The Ghostbusters are invited to dinner at the home of an eccentric and very wealthy entrepreneur who is a big fan of theirs. He is also a collector of occult items and books and has donated many of both to museums and various paranormal societies. The GB team are the last guests to arrive; already present are the Host's Business Partner, his Lawyer, his Personal Assistant, his Nephew, the Butler, and the Maid. Everyone is escorted to the dining room and seated around a huge table. The guests wait for a while but when the Host doesn't show, the Butler goes to fetch him. He returns a few moments later to reveal the Host is dead!
Everybody rushes to the Host's bedroom and the Ghostbusters are able to determine the old man was strangled. In addition, he'd likely been dead over 24 hours and that's too long for him to have personally invited the Ghostbusters just that morning. Scanning the room revealed PKE until a power surge caused a lot of their equipment to fail. It also made the lights flicker, the phones go dead, and fireplace roar. The attendees discovered the windows and doors to the outside were all suddenly locked shut. A few of the guests wondered if this weren't some con by the Ghostbusters but the Lawyer and Assistant confirmed their findings and noted they arrived last [other confirmed when they had seen the Ecto-1 drove up]..
Re-assembling back in the dining room the Ghostbusters offered to help solve the Host's murder when the lights went out yet again. This time when the lights returned, not a moment later, the Nephew was dead, also murdered! Curiously, not the same way; the Nephew had been slabbed with a knife!
What followed was a mystery worthy of Hercule Poirot with numerous twists, turns, and everyone a suspect! In addition, the Host's Ghost appeared to aid the Ghostbusters in finding the killer, though his ability to do so was hampered by bouts of supernatural exhaustion. The Ghost was notably adept at switching between a Phantasm/Vapor (largely intangible) and an Undead/Corporeal state (physically solid, more like a Zombie) by absorbing energy around him (hence the failure of the lights, phone, the Ghostbusters equipment, etc.). His power to do this was taxing and limited so he couldn't give us all the insights he had without draining himself considerably (or so it seemed).
In the end it turned out the Nephew killed his uncle the Host and the Host, in Zombie Ghost form, killed the Nephew and then turned back to his less substantial state and passed through a wall while the lights were out. All the time he appeared to be assisting in our investigation he was actually drawing us further and further from the truth. Unfortunately for him (though much to the delight of the GM) we noticed something was amiss and the more he did it the more we realized he had to be the guilty party (at least in part).
While we helped solve his murder, we did have to capture and incarcerate the Host Ghost for his crime of revenge. He agreed completely and said it would be an honor to be caught by the Ghostbusters (though he didn't make it easy).
Highlights: Aside from the scenes I mentioned above in the synopsis, the one moment in the game that stands out in my memory was this unprepared, unplanned 'Who's on First' meets The Marx Brothers routine the team got into while discussing the mystery and the Host's role in it. We started to get suspicious that the Host's Ghost was not telling us everything he knew. Most of his words rang true...but definitely not everything.
So the Ghost, the Host's Ghost, did indeed boast the most exposed clues to post but always had ripostes when we asked that inmost truths be approached.
This went on for a good five minutes.
Notes: To clarify, the Ghost assisted us in finding the clues and possible motivations for his killer, which in turn lead us to suspect the Nephew. When we arrived at that conclusion he said, "That can't be, can it? I mean...it makes sense but he himself was murdered."
Part of what made The Home Office game awesome is, as I've noted in the past, the fact that each GM brought a different feel to their sessions. It should also be said that the rotating Gamemaster also gave us a range of adventures types that one might not see with a single GM. If I had run all of the sessions it is highly unlikely we would've gotten an Agatha Christie style mystery. Especially back then I don't think I would have had this type of scenario in my repertoire.
As I said before, Dave absolutely nailed the particulars of the 'Cozy Mystery' and in doing so brought an alternative way of looking at the Ghostbusters universe and how Ghostbuster characters interact with it.
AD
Barking Alien
No comments:
Post a Comment