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The Tunnelers Campaign Session 9
It is June 5th, 2003, 8:45 PM.
Ash and Jel wait at The Rocks. Only one of the goth teens reappears:
they recognize them as Jay, from prior conversation and resemblance to
the vampire OC with that name. Jay is the tallest and most athletic of
the goth teens, and had been the designated boombox carrier earlier that
day. They warn the party: “You shouldn’t do this, you will probably
die.”
Ash and Jel refuse to give up, and begin grilling Jay about the blood
king’s palace. In particular they try to ascertain if their suspicions
are true about the whole vampire situation: that the teens have less
control than they earlier claimed, and that others from the town have
been killed by them. Jel, earlier, had noticed a defaced piece of
vampire graffiti with the name Selena: she asks Jay about it, and Jay
breaks down crying.
Jay explains that the vampire palace thoughtform, as a shared project,
was really started by Selena who had recognized and used the place of
power at the rocks to make it tangible. After she disappeared into it,
seemingly on purpose as a form of self harm or suicide, Jay and their
compatriots Karl and Dennis grew protective of it but found themselves
with less control, and were heavily scrutinized suspects in the wake of
Selena’s disappearance in a way that dealt a lasting blow to their
interaction with each other and their creation.
Jay is a character I’m delicately feeling my way around playing: a
closeted queer teen in a time period I personally lived through (though
I was younger than a late teen in 2003), naturalistically choosing to
not out themself to the players who they have no reason to see as
trustworthy wrt queerness, and who thus puts forward mostly a series of
aesthetic signifiers that can paint them as patently ridiculous in the
way a vampire obsessed teen can be. There’s a whole balancing act in
doing this satisfyingly in a game where the very inclusion of this
category of person places them in danger, and able to be
instrumentalized into danger: I hope to have more to say on the matter
as the game goes on.
Seeing that the Ash and Jel will not be dissuaded from trying to save
Jerry, Jay offers to accompany them to provide the protection that a
co-creator of the thoughtform can offer. It is just past 9 PM. The sun
sets and a dull red glow suffuses the field. Gothic iron fences topped
with modern barbed wire fade into view. Two familiar red-suited figures
stand in the fanged gateway, guarding the path to the palace.
I am using Halls
of the Blood King by Diogo Nogueira pretty directly for this
dungeon, though with an aesthetic pass in some areas to conform to the
tastes of teens who listen to industrial (honestly much of it is already
basically perfect), as well as repurposing the vampire hunter Seleana
into the vengeful remnant of a missing teen girl.
Jay leads the way, loudly declaring to the guards that Ash and Jel are
honored guests attending the feast. Ash and Jel speculate on the
likelihood that Jay is just planning to feed them to the vampires, but
follow through the gate and front doors, where Jay again declares them
guests to the guards. They ask if the Guards know Jerry’s location, and
they are told he is in the hall, celebrating. Jay commands open the hall
doors and leads the party inside, where every type of vampire a teen
might imagine into being is engaged in revelry. Ash asks if Dracula is
here. Jay says yes, but seems to find this fact offputting. They think
it was kind of corny to put Dracula in the palace, and they are
intensely irritated at the suggestion that The Blood King might be
Dracula. No, they say, the Blood King is way cooler.
Ash’s player here asked if Count Chocula was present and the game
derailed for half an hour as we looked at the history of General Mills
Monster Cereals on wikipedia. We found much that baffled us. Fruit/Frute
Brute is in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Count Chocula’s first name
is Alfred. There was a dye in Frankenberry with unfortunate effects.
Wild stuff out there.
We returned from this diversion and got back to the game: Jay introduces
the player characters to several vampires — a curmudgeonly blood red
shadow named Yandir who they seem to be friends with, and a two headed
space vampire named Haltis-Paldis who tells bad jokes constantly –
before they get a sense of where Jerry is. They navigate through the
crowd carefully and find Jerry completely shellshocked, crusted with
dried blood, draped in a cloak, giving a thousand yard stare to a goblet
of blood while a snake-headed barbarian king vampire loudly boasts of
various exploits in conquering of fortresses and razing of cities to
him. Ash and Jel approach to get his attention, and he is clearly
distraught: “I’m dead. I got killed out there. Oh god did you die
too?”
The party says no, they came to get him back, and he explains that he
fears he can’t leave: he reveals new fangs, and his wounded but
bloodless body. Ash apologizes for not saing him, but is fascinated by
the vampirization. Jel is confidant that he can actually leave.
The snake vampire refers to Jerry as “Mr. Garcia,” and Jel incredulously
asks about the name.
“Fuck off. I fucking hate the Grateful Dead. Don’t tell anyone that’s my
name,” says Jerry, the most energy he’s shown since dying.
Ash and Jel begin steering Jerry to the exit, hoping to vacate the
palace for now before they draw too much attention.