Dresden Files Recap #1

So nearly two weeks late, I'm finally posting the update. innocent_man had beaten me to this by nearly two weeks, but that's neither here nor there. I had stuff to do, like finish posting all the chargen stuff. That's okay though. I'm going to borrow liberally from Matt's write up and repost it here, if that's okay, along with addendums and additions as necessary. I'll likely do my own in future, but time is short at the moment.

And now, the first session in our Dresden Files game.

We begin our story with...well, with a song by Devil Makes Three called "The Plank." The characters were at a bar called the Brass Monkey, mostly just to hang out and check out a band called Blueberry Bitches (which it turns out is a real band, with a Myspace page and everything!). Most of us know each other - Danny is pretty much the lynchpin, so we kind of gravitated to her. We hung out and bullshitted a bit, drank some beer, and discussed whether the lead singer of the opening act was male or female ("Girl," whispered Aidia to Dylan, "I slept with her"). Uno was more or less apart from the group at this point, hanging with his Fae buddies near the band.

And about then, there was a ruckus at the door. Irving, the bartender, was shoving a dude back. Zeke, ever helpful, went up to see what was going on, and saw that the person there was Mouthpiece, who has some problems with demons in his brain. He motioned for the rest of us, and we went outside, because Mouthpiece just wanted to tell us something. We walked across the street, and he said:

The Genie that haunts the moonbeams spake to the Demon of the Valley, saying, "I am old, and forget much. Tell me the deeds and aspect and name of them who built these things of Stone." And the Demon replied, "I am Memory, and am wise in lore of the past, but I too am old. These beings were like the waters of the river Than, not to be understood. Their deeds I recall not, for they were but of the moment. Their aspect I recall dimly, it was like to that of the little apes in the trees. Their name I recall clearly, for it rhymed with that of the river. These beings of yesterday were called Man."

So the Genie flew back to the thin horned moon, and the Demon looked intently at a little ape in a tree that grew in a crumbling courtyard.

Someone asked if he was crazy, but he said he knew a hawk from a handsaw. He also said that "the children know not what they do." Dylan recognized that hawk comment as Shakespeare, but didn't know the other quote. Danny used the Sight on Mouthpiece, and Saw him as a human ridden by an oily, dripping, black slimy cloud-like thing. Mouthpiece became less helpful (and less possessed), and wandered off.

Well, the evening well and truly fucked, the characters decided to dig into this. Mouthpiece is a known demon associate, and even if we didn't trust him (we don't), it was good to get a leg up on this kind of thing. Aidia faded into the background here, and went in search of a "tree in a crumbling courtyard." Zeke followed her. Uno went off with the band to have a good time (and confirm the whole "girl or boy thing"). Dylan, Danny and Morris got in Morris' kick-ass car and headed to Danny's for research.

Aidia wound up talking to a nifty Scottish ghost named Molly, who'd been hanged in the 19th century sometime. She wasn't able to tell us anything about Mouthpiece in particular, except that demons spoke through him, and it wasn't always the same demon. She would give us more information in exchange for a stone (she didn't have one), and so Aidia went looking.

Zeke took a moment to invoke Sauriel, the angel that rides around with him sometimes. Sauriel informed Zeke that there the Mouthpiece was speaking for Nikor a demon. He said he was likely not working directly for himself but more likely pointing us at a competitor or something of the like.

Zeke asked a question like "Don't s'pose you could point us at said competitor?" (I forget exactly phrasing) but knew the moment it was out of his mouth, that Sauriel wouldn't answer and followed up with "Of course you can't tell me that you've gotta be all mysterious. Can't make it too easy... Otherwise it might eff the ineffable plan..." To which Sauriel responded "You're learning...besides you've found a poem and looked a round a bit. After all it's only been 2hours. You've got to learn somethings for yourself." And sported a Cheshire cat grin!

I then asked, well can you at least tell me how to honor Molly so she's happy, and he informed Zeke about leaving a stone offering to build her a cairn at her tree... "Its a lil' pagan like - but from that time what wasn't... and it's harmless enough..."

Dylan opened up his Damned Book, grabbed some graph paper and his compass, and went to work (he can use the book to cast one Divination per session). As it happened, I got a kick-ass roll. Dylan saw a hungry, storm-like power out in the bay, waiting for something. He saw spiritual powers intersecting with lines of learning, and attempting to bring forward a power-in-waiting. But, as usual, the math didn't add up - he couldn't get more specific.

Danny, meanwhile, had tracked down the demon in question - a minor demon called Nicor. This demon is a demon of the sea, blamed for shipwrecks and the like. Combined with what Dylan learned, this seemed ominous.

Meanwhile, Aidia and Zeke had spoken to Molly again. She refused to say anything about the larger issues Dylan had uncovered, but she would say that if a demon uses his own words, he's usually lying. If he quotes someone else, he's generally telling the truth. Since Nicor had quoted Lovecraft (oh, the characters figured out that's what the initial quote was), he was ostensibly telling the truth...but about what?

"Lines of faith intersecting with knowledge" sounded like Loyola University. We contacted everyone and met up at the library. It was after hours, yes, but when has that ever stopped a group of PCs before?

Next time, we break in.

Thank you for the write up, blackhatmatt, and thanks to Matt K for providing the Zeke/Saurial conversation. :)

Decision point: Phone service

Okay, so I have my iPhone. I LOVE my iPhone. It is shiny and happy and puts a little smile on my face every time I get to use it, or close enough thereto. It gives me stories to read and music to listen to and messages and movies and internet access and games and notes and contacts and calendar and info syncing and every good thing. What it does not give me, however, is phone coverage at the house.

Unless I go outside (or oddly, of late, into the bedroom), I get sporadic one-bar signal only. Outside I can get up to two, and in my room I can get two sometimes, but one nearly all the time. In the main part of the house, I occasionally get one and most of the time get nothing. At school my coverage is great; if I leave and go shopping or run errands or drive around, it's great. It's just here at the house that it is crap. Sigh. This is true for a number of different phone services, but not Verizon, apparently. Matt and Heather are both with them and have no problem connecting here at the house or elsewhere.

Here's the thing, though: I really, truly do love my iPhone. The thought of giving it up really troubles me. I have friends who have Droids, but it just doesn't seem the same. I'm not under contract to AT&T anymore so I could switch, but having to give up my iPhone as a phone just kills me. I know, I could just use it with wireless and have it become an iPod Touch with more potential, but that's just so SAD. And I doubt that I'll be able to maintain service on my iPhone along with another phone just to have coverage at the house -- that's just silly, and iPhone-compatible plans aren't the cheapest thing out there.

Here it is, then. Can someone tell me of the things that make a Droid awesome? Is Verizon all that and a bag of chips? I love the ease of compatibility with my phone and my macs, the access to iTunes (and the ease of sharing media between computers and iPhone), the relative stability of the platform and all its apps, and the easy intuitive interface of the iPhone. How does a Droid compare on these fronts? All opinions and anecdotes are appreciated.