allicorn

Character gen and first session went fairly well. Exhausting though! The cast are:

* Extremely wealthy London-based socialite and concert violinist, Victor Ringford.

* Down-at-heel dilettante, unsurpassed moocher and disowned shame of the family, Lord Samuel Fitzlackington.

* Fitzlackington's loyal and unpaid valet (actually his bodyguard, paid for in secret by Samuel's father), the humourless and ruthless Polish ex-cavalryman, Blött.

* Handsome Doctor of Medicine and practising alienist, Dr Laurence Howe.

We managed to get through the whole introductory segment, The Queen And The Stranger, during the first session. Differing, dreamlike impressions of the dubious play were had. Yellow signs were on display, and there was a fracas amongst the crowd. The lure of a little free after-show food & drink kept the party around despite the disturbances and the somewhat baffling play. Only Blött and the two young lady-friends on the arms of Fitzlackington and Ringford seemed to really draw much from the evening's performance though.

The Doctor was fascinated by the apparently unsettling effect on the audience exhibited by the strange yellow symbol. He made a quick drawing of it in his notebook and later queried it with the players and author - whipping out his notebook to remind them what it looked like, of course.

I tried to play Talbot Estus as the slightly unhinged and overly effervescent artist (not something I find hard) and probably rambled on a bit too much. This led to the players not really drilling him for information and not getting access to his sources. (Note to self: don't get so carried away in the NPC characters that you forget to advance the plot.)

Next week, the campaign-proper begins with the receipt of some correspondence containing a request for help.