The first round of Eastern Promises characters are here to tell you about their experiences! We'll hear from some members of Faruza's merry globe-trotting, cow-collecting band, as well as Alvin's group of high-class miscreants in a world that really ought to be catering to their needs way better than it does. Also, bonus Yadi.
The one drawback of the Eastern Promises rotating roster is that when characters are out of play, we all miss them and want them to come back and be ridiculous all at the same time.
Showing posts with label James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James. Show all posts
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Scion AMA: Gangs of New York, Mark I
It's time for some AMA questions again, this time from the most infamous group of all: Michael Chambers, a.k.a. The Great Terrorist, and his band of cronies. New York has never been the same. This set is mostly dudes since most of the ladies are still working on their questions, but never fear, there will be more borderline internationally illegal incidents to come later.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Vintage Portraits
Are you guys ready for super awesomeness? Today we've got a gorgeous set of portraits for the current Eastern Promises group. They are some good-looking divine adventurers. (Well, except for Haji.)
All by the fantastic Julian Lancaster. We can't decide what we love most about these - Alvin's smarmy face, James' aristocratic sneer, Leona's cat-with-cream smile, Mrs. Young's unconquerable misanthropy, or the fact that Haji is apparently wearing a coat with nothing under it. Everything is wonderful.
Alvin:
Haji:
James:
Leona:
Mrs. Young
All by the fantastic Julian Lancaster. We can't decide what we love most about these - Alvin's smarmy face, James' aristocratic sneer, Leona's cat-with-cream smile, Mrs. Young's unconquerable misanthropy, or the fact that Haji is apparently wearing a coat with nothing under it. Everything is wonderful.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Dancing in the Streets
Oh, man, you guys, do we ever have some more art for you tonight! From two different artists and two different games, and both are fantastic.
First, we have one of our all-time favorite scenes from Better Next Time, starring everyone's favorite pain in the ass, Goze! After discovering that Raijin and Fujin had seized control of the skies over Japan and were pretty much drowning the entire area in a constant hurricane, Geoff's group went to try to stop them by infiltrating in an undercover mission. However, they were pretty sure that one or both of them would notice if a rogue band of Scions suddenly appeared in their territory, so Goze was split off to go on a solo distraction mission. Upon arriving at their base, Goze spent several minutes almost getting eaten, and finally hit upon the idea of keeping the none-too-bright ogres occupied with tricks and flim-flammery. Finally, in desperation, he started busting off tribal dance moves he had learned from an Australian goddess, and poured everything he had into a crazy high roll to succeed. And succeed he did - so well, in fact, that both Raijin and Fujin joined in. They then proceeded to dance so energetically and for so long that Goze was forced to create a doppelgaenger of himself to leave there, eternally dancing with them while he made his escape.
Which leads to this incredibly awesome picture of a giant Japanese monster dance party:
But that's not all! Over in Eastern Promises, we also have a great new picture of James Howard, Duke of Norfolk, squiring the Lady Leona Middleton about town on the lovely streets of Charleston, before the many Great Irritations of America started harshing all over their courtship. Mrs. Young, acting as chaperone, really does look like she operates under a constant raincloud of dislike and crankiness.
Guys, I am just completely bowled over by how awesome these artists are, and how incredibly neat it is that they want to draw things for our games. If they lived close enough, I'd hug both of them, and everyone they know. Give them a round of applause!
First, we have one of our all-time favorite scenes from Better Next Time, starring everyone's favorite pain in the ass, Goze! After discovering that Raijin and Fujin had seized control of the skies over Japan and were pretty much drowning the entire area in a constant hurricane, Geoff's group went to try to stop them by infiltrating in an undercover mission. However, they were pretty sure that one or both of them would notice if a rogue band of Scions suddenly appeared in their territory, so Goze was split off to go on a solo distraction mission. Upon arriving at their base, Goze spent several minutes almost getting eaten, and finally hit upon the idea of keeping the none-too-bright ogres occupied with tricks and flim-flammery. Finally, in desperation, he started busting off tribal dance moves he had learned from an Australian goddess, and poured everything he had into a crazy high roll to succeed. And succeed he did - so well, in fact, that both Raijin and Fujin joined in. They then proceeded to dance so energetically and for so long that Goze was forced to create a doppelgaenger of himself to leave there, eternally dancing with them while he made his escape.
Which leads to this incredibly awesome picture of a giant Japanese monster dance party:
But that's not all! Over in Eastern Promises, we also have a great new picture of James Howard, Duke of Norfolk, squiring the Lady Leona Middleton about town on the lovely streets of Charleston, before the many Great Irritations of America started harshing all over their courtship. Mrs. Young, acting as chaperone, really does look like she operates under a constant raincloud of dislike and crankiness.
By Steph!
Guys, I am just completely bowled over by how awesome these artists are, and how incredibly neat it is that they want to draw things for our games. If they lived close enough, I'd hug both of them, and everyone they know. Give them a round of applause!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Status Report: Still Flailing at the Unknown
Question: Can we get an update on what is happening in your three games?
We sure can - in fact, let's ring in the new year with one!
Things are rough in the god-level game, where our Legend 11 superstars are having serious trouble juggling their loyalties, their secret missions and their political obligations. They're still on a secret mission from their parents, who charged them with gathering the omphalus stones of each of the Titanrealms in order to use them in a ritual to reinforce Tartarus, which is in danger of breaking open again now that they've managed to get a bunch of Titans back into it but nobody really bothered to go and spackle up the cracks they got out of last time. Going to Titanrealms is dangerous and difficult and takes up a whole lot of time, and in the meantime Sowiljr's position as king of the Aesir is suffering because he's not around to do it. They recently also figured out that removing a realm's omphalus stone makes it more powerful, so they're just beginning to realize they may have royally screwed some of the other pantheons who were fighting those Titans and just got suddenly overwhelmed by extra power. And while they have a few friends among the gods, they know that their parents are still incognito after Ragnarok and they're not allowed to tell anyone they're alive, which means they can't ask for a lot of help with their mission without having to field uncomfortable questions. Already some of the Bogovi are angrily trying to stop them, because what they're doing is pretty much directly opposed to both Harmony and the usual Bogovi mindset of not touching things that aren't yours.
At this exact moment, Sowiljr and Jioni are in Gimli (the renamed Asgard, post-Ragnarok), trying to get it ready for the Kingsmoot, a meeting of all the pantheon heads that Sowiljr has called in an effort to get everyone to make some policies, alliances and plans that help the overall war, not to mention solidify his own tenuous position as king of like two people. Folkwardr has likewise called, or is trying to call, a Magemoot to deal with the problem of the Titanrealm of Fate having been severely screwed up by Theoi shenanigans, making the Fate purviews not work properly, but he's unable to get much going on that since he's currently trapped in the Titanrealm of Illusions with Eztli, who he's desperately trying to get out since he knows she's ill-equipped to do so herself. Eztli, in turn, almost got out once but refused to go when she realized that Tonatiuh, the sun god of her struggling pantheon, was trapped there, too; she refused to leave him, and all three are now fighting to survive and remember who they are before the Titan eats them whole. Sowiljr is miserable over Folkwardr and Eztli being stuck in there, but knows that he both can't really help them and that he doesn't dare not show up to this major political event he's throwing, so he's just doing the best he can and trying not to Loyalty extremity every day. Jioni's just tired. Of everyone.
In Eastern Promises, the current band consists of Alvin, James, Leona, Mrs. Young and Haji, the same misfits from the last adventure, who have just begun a new saga in order to fulfill requirements asked of them by Fate after James used Deus Ex Machina to save their lives in the last story. They've been sent to go to the Garden of the Hesperides and retrieve a box for Ishtar; they have no idea what's in the box, nor are they feeling great about going to the Garden of Hera Kicks Your Ass, but Fate wants what Fate wants. They've just begun to get some clues that not all of the gods may be around, although where they are and what happened to them is anybody's guess, and that they're largely on their own when it comes to dealing with their supernatural problems. Most recently, James attempted to get permission from Queen Victoria to marry Leona, only to be told in the politest terms possible that he wasn't about to get permission to marry anyone who's half brown and he has a duty to the Crown to marry someone more suitable in case his children come up to inherit the throne one day, which he's trying to combat by finding a way to prove that Leona is descended from the pharaohs and therefore appropriate marriage material; and Alvin, in order to save his drowning comrades from an angry Proteus, agreed to spend a night with the god as his eromenos and is exploring a strange but interesting new world of sexuality. Mrs. Young hates everyone and wants to go home. Haji's good, though.
Finally, the Gangs of New York game just brought their story, starring Zoe, Skylar, Russel, Isaac and Anton, to a thrilling conclusion where somehow most people survived. Isaac accidentally got himself dragged into a world where he exists as pure computer code, and there met the mistress of the giant technological web, who turned out to be Arachne; she offered him the chance to stay with her and influence the web (and thus the world) from within, which he accepted, bowing out before the final game session. Back on earth, where all the Scions of the current story are duly appointed superheroes (codenamed Containment Prime) in the employ of the United States government in charge of defending New York City from supernatural threats, Skylar fled a monster attack that destroyed an Army base and was subsequently sentenced to death for abandoning his duty; Zoe and Anton made a desperate helicopter trip from New York to Washington, D.C. in an hour and half in a stolen military jet, being attacked by monsters all the way, to barely make it in time to stop Congress from voting in his execution. Zoe made an incredible patriotic speech about Skylar's value to the country and the need for superheroes, successfully saving him from death and the group from disbandment, and Anton made sure it went viral so that the United States as a whole is now on the superhero bandwagon. Meanwhile, Russel and Skylar, defending New York on their own, teamed up with a surprisingly skilled human cop they ran into to take on the last of the fire demons that have been plaguing the city recently, in a fierce battle that nearly killed all of them but finally managed to take her down and save the day.
At the end of the story, Zoe was recalled to Washington to coordinate political concerns for the new group (and deal with the fact that Isaac has gone AWOL and, since he's a former terrorist, that's super not good), Anton went with her as bodyguard and chauffeur, Russel missed his opportunity to try to tell Zoe he has feelings for her because of Skylar's bionic interference, and all was well in the Big Apple. The next story will rotate characters again, so Zoe, Isaac and Anton will go out and Russel and Skylar will stay in, and we'll pick up with a new crisis and set of heroes next week.
So, you know, they're keeping busy.
It just occurred to me that this post is queued, so there might have been a game or two between when I wrote it and when it goes live, but that just adds to the mystery, I think.
We sure can - in fact, let's ring in the new year with one!
Things are rough in the god-level game, where our Legend 11 superstars are having serious trouble juggling their loyalties, their secret missions and their political obligations. They're still on a secret mission from their parents, who charged them with gathering the omphalus stones of each of the Titanrealms in order to use them in a ritual to reinforce Tartarus, which is in danger of breaking open again now that they've managed to get a bunch of Titans back into it but nobody really bothered to go and spackle up the cracks they got out of last time. Going to Titanrealms is dangerous and difficult and takes up a whole lot of time, and in the meantime Sowiljr's position as king of the Aesir is suffering because he's not around to do it. They recently also figured out that removing a realm's omphalus stone makes it more powerful, so they're just beginning to realize they may have royally screwed some of the other pantheons who were fighting those Titans and just got suddenly overwhelmed by extra power. And while they have a few friends among the gods, they know that their parents are still incognito after Ragnarok and they're not allowed to tell anyone they're alive, which means they can't ask for a lot of help with their mission without having to field uncomfortable questions. Already some of the Bogovi are angrily trying to stop them, because what they're doing is pretty much directly opposed to both Harmony and the usual Bogovi mindset of not touching things that aren't yours.
At this exact moment, Sowiljr and Jioni are in Gimli (the renamed Asgard, post-Ragnarok), trying to get it ready for the Kingsmoot, a meeting of all the pantheon heads that Sowiljr has called in an effort to get everyone to make some policies, alliances and plans that help the overall war, not to mention solidify his own tenuous position as king of like two people. Folkwardr has likewise called, or is trying to call, a Magemoot to deal with the problem of the Titanrealm of Fate having been severely screwed up by Theoi shenanigans, making the Fate purviews not work properly, but he's unable to get much going on that since he's currently trapped in the Titanrealm of Illusions with Eztli, who he's desperately trying to get out since he knows she's ill-equipped to do so herself. Eztli, in turn, almost got out once but refused to go when she realized that Tonatiuh, the sun god of her struggling pantheon, was trapped there, too; she refused to leave him, and all three are now fighting to survive and remember who they are before the Titan eats them whole. Sowiljr is miserable over Folkwardr and Eztli being stuck in there, but knows that he both can't really help them and that he doesn't dare not show up to this major political event he's throwing, so he's just doing the best he can and trying not to Loyalty extremity every day. Jioni's just tired. Of everyone.
In Eastern Promises, the current band consists of Alvin, James, Leona, Mrs. Young and Haji, the same misfits from the last adventure, who have just begun a new saga in order to fulfill requirements asked of them by Fate after James used Deus Ex Machina to save their lives in the last story. They've been sent to go to the Garden of the Hesperides and retrieve a box for Ishtar; they have no idea what's in the box, nor are they feeling great about going to the Garden of Hera Kicks Your Ass, but Fate wants what Fate wants. They've just begun to get some clues that not all of the gods may be around, although where they are and what happened to them is anybody's guess, and that they're largely on their own when it comes to dealing with their supernatural problems. Most recently, James attempted to get permission from Queen Victoria to marry Leona, only to be told in the politest terms possible that he wasn't about to get permission to marry anyone who's half brown and he has a duty to the Crown to marry someone more suitable in case his children come up to inherit the throne one day, which he's trying to combat by finding a way to prove that Leona is descended from the pharaohs and therefore appropriate marriage material; and Alvin, in order to save his drowning comrades from an angry Proteus, agreed to spend a night with the god as his eromenos and is exploring a strange but interesting new world of sexuality. Mrs. Young hates everyone and wants to go home. Haji's good, though.
Finally, the Gangs of New York game just brought their story, starring Zoe, Skylar, Russel, Isaac and Anton, to a thrilling conclusion where somehow most people survived. Isaac accidentally got himself dragged into a world where he exists as pure computer code, and there met the mistress of the giant technological web, who turned out to be Arachne; she offered him the chance to stay with her and influence the web (and thus the world) from within, which he accepted, bowing out before the final game session. Back on earth, where all the Scions of the current story are duly appointed superheroes (codenamed Containment Prime) in the employ of the United States government in charge of defending New York City from supernatural threats, Skylar fled a monster attack that destroyed an Army base and was subsequently sentenced to death for abandoning his duty; Zoe and Anton made a desperate helicopter trip from New York to Washington, D.C. in an hour and half in a stolen military jet, being attacked by monsters all the way, to barely make it in time to stop Congress from voting in his execution. Zoe made an incredible patriotic speech about Skylar's value to the country and the need for superheroes, successfully saving him from death and the group from disbandment, and Anton made sure it went viral so that the United States as a whole is now on the superhero bandwagon. Meanwhile, Russel and Skylar, defending New York on their own, teamed up with a surprisingly skilled human cop they ran into to take on the last of the fire demons that have been plaguing the city recently, in a fierce battle that nearly killed all of them but finally managed to take her down and save the day.
At the end of the story, Zoe was recalled to Washington to coordinate political concerns for the new group (and deal with the fact that Isaac has gone AWOL and, since he's a former terrorist, that's super not good), Anton went with her as bodyguard and chauffeur, Russel missed his opportunity to try to tell Zoe he has feelings for her because of Skylar's bionic interference, and all was well in the Big Apple. The next story will rotate characters again, so Zoe, Isaac and Anton will go out and Russel and Skylar will stay in, and we'll pick up with a new crisis and set of heroes next week.
So, you know, they're keeping busy.
It just occurred to me that this post is queued, so there might have been a game or two between when I wrote it and when it goes live, but that just adds to the mystery, I think.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Death on the Streets
Question: What happened to Mabel and James in your Gangs of New York session?
Good heavens, everyone is so excited about the Gangs kids lately! Their awesomeness must be showing. Alas, both Mabel and James fell victim to the classic Hero-level Scion trap of antagonizing too many mortals before they were high enough Legend to handle it.
James, a private eye attempting to suss out the truth about some frightening incursions of Titanspawn and other magical phenomena in his area, accidentally ran afoul of the law a few too many times and found himself in a direct fight with some police officers. He then made the ever-popular Dodekatheon Scion mistake of channeling his vengeance against them, leading to a burning and permanent hatred of law enforcement officials that haunted him until he died. After outright murdering several police officers around the city, vengefully destroying even ones who had never seen him in retribution for their fellows' slight against him, he finally went down in a massive hail of bullets when he was cornered by several SWAT teams. He went down flipping them off and yelling. His death also put Michael Chambers, James' bandmate, on the hook for owing Hermes a favor, thanks to Hermes blaming him for allowing James to die and waste the investment he'd so far put into keeping him alive.
Mabel survived much longer, and her death wasn't really her fault; thanks to Michael being branded a highly dangerous and wanted terrorist by Homeland Security, Mabel ended up implicated in his crimes after the mortal authorities noticed that she was coincidentally around him too often and decided she was an accomplice. After a particularly harrowing escape from army helicopters that forced the band to split up, Mabel ended up trying to take refuge in a safehouse run by a local witch, but unfortunately the magical wards on the place failed and the army was able to lay siege to it. It was just her, the witch, and Jake's normal teenage brother, so there was no hope of succeeding; she marched over to the door, opened it to glare at the team of Men in Black in the hallway, and was shot so many times there was no hope of ever saving her. With her dying breath, however, she used the last of her magical mojo to reinstate the wards on the safehouse, so the kid was spared and the rest of the band was able to temporarily return to it as a safe base to hide from pursuit.
The Dodekatheon parents - when they can be reached, which isn't very often - don't seem to be very pleased about the double failure of their offspring. The pressure's on the rest of them (especially Alan, at the moment) not to screw anything else up or die, or there will probably be some epic Olympian problems down the road for everyone to deal with.
Good heavens, everyone is so excited about the Gangs kids lately! Their awesomeness must be showing. Alas, both Mabel and James fell victim to the classic Hero-level Scion trap of antagonizing too many mortals before they were high enough Legend to handle it.
James, a private eye attempting to suss out the truth about some frightening incursions of Titanspawn and other magical phenomena in his area, accidentally ran afoul of the law a few too many times and found himself in a direct fight with some police officers. He then made the ever-popular Dodekatheon Scion mistake of channeling his vengeance against them, leading to a burning and permanent hatred of law enforcement officials that haunted him until he died. After outright murdering several police officers around the city, vengefully destroying even ones who had never seen him in retribution for their fellows' slight against him, he finally went down in a massive hail of bullets when he was cornered by several SWAT teams. He went down flipping them off and yelling. His death also put Michael Chambers, James' bandmate, on the hook for owing Hermes a favor, thanks to Hermes blaming him for allowing James to die and waste the investment he'd so far put into keeping him alive.
Mabel survived much longer, and her death wasn't really her fault; thanks to Michael being branded a highly dangerous and wanted terrorist by Homeland Security, Mabel ended up implicated in his crimes after the mortal authorities noticed that she was coincidentally around him too often and decided she was an accomplice. After a particularly harrowing escape from army helicopters that forced the band to split up, Mabel ended up trying to take refuge in a safehouse run by a local witch, but unfortunately the magical wards on the place failed and the army was able to lay siege to it. It was just her, the witch, and Jake's normal teenage brother, so there was no hope of succeeding; she marched over to the door, opened it to glare at the team of Men in Black in the hallway, and was shot so many times there was no hope of ever saving her. With her dying breath, however, she used the last of her magical mojo to reinstate the wards on the safehouse, so the kid was spared and the rest of the band was able to temporarily return to it as a safe base to hide from pursuit.
The Dodekatheon parents - when they can be reached, which isn't very often - don't seem to be very pleased about the double failure of their offspring. The pressure's on the rest of them (especially Alan, at the moment) not to screw anything else up or die, or there will probably be some epic Olympian problems down the road for everyone to deal with.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Kids in Gangs
Question: What can you tell us about the new characters from the New York game?
Our youngest baby, Gangs of New York, has been affectionately nicknamed "worst game ever" by its players and "home of the stupidest decisions" by its Storytellers. It is consistently batshit insane, but also totally epically fun, so everything's working as intended.
Like Eastern Promises, the Gangs character roster rotates with each story, so several different characters have made appearances in the same continuity.
The first group consisted of James Keenan, Mabel Grey, Michael Chambers, Nic Mason, Rick Nolan and Valentina Radic, and they got their entrance into the problems of the divine when a high-society Manhattan New Year's Eve party was crashed by some human-sacrificin', dude-seducin' ancient Babylonian sirens. Michael, a high-class prostitute Scion of Ishtar who was being paid to attend the party as a celebrity's handsome escort (for the Broadway fans in the area, he was dating Anthony Rapp at the time), was the focal point of the problem, since he accidentally enhanced the summoning ritual that brought in the bad guys and turned out to have previously been sexually involved with their leader, to boot. Rick Nolan, a Scion of Mah and the New York male equivalent of Paris Hilton who was only at the party because Nic had called him and asked him to lend it his star-studded presence, ended up in the basement trying to defuse the situation along with Valentina Radic, Scion of Bastet and an international jewel thief and member of a secret crime syndicate, who had been lying low in New York to await contact from her fellow thieves after a major heist in Toronto. James Keenan, a Scion of Hades and hard-boiled New York private eye, followed Mabel Grey, Scion of Hecate and known peddler of Weird Shit at her magic shop, to the scene of the insanity thinking she was a demon, only to become immediate allies against the security forces that turned on them and then failed to contain the supernatural threat. Nic, a Scion of Enlil and the party's organizer and all-around golden boy of the celebrity party elite, took a look at the devastation left of his carefully-planned event and got drunk out of his mind.
In the process of everything, buildings were blown up, mysterious notes from parents were received, magical teddy bears broke James' knees and got Rick into a photogenically compromising position with Michael, Mabel and James became the best buddy-cop movie in history before he conceived a burning hatred against the New York police force that eventually led to his downfall, Valentina rode an elevator into the sky Willy-Wonka-style and Michael was declared an international terrorist. It was a wild ride.
The second group, currently still playing, consists of Michael, still in the game, and Adira Bazzi, Alan Parillo, Jake Devon, Simon Rockwell and Winona Nelson. Thanks to Michael's involvement in the debacle of the previous story, his terrorist affiliations have made him wanted by the police and Homeland Security, and in the process of trying to escape them he hijacked Alan's boat (leaving the Scion of Poseidon, a Canadian national on retirement vacation with his wife, suddenly implicated in his crimes), got Winona (a Scion of Nergal with a terrifying leper-like appearance and a distinctly unpleasant outlook on life) and her fellow hobos riddled with bullets during a police firefight, ruined Jake's career as a prizefighter on the underground boxing circuit (something his father Vahram is probably not too pleased about), accidentally got Simon, a Scion of Anubis and forensic scientist for the NYPD, on the wrong side of the law, and dragged Adira into magical combat before even figuring out her name. The rest of the characters refer to him as The Life-Ruiner.
So far, they've battled living statues and approximations of gods, fled from massive mobilization of army and national security forces, discovered mortals that can somehow pinpoint Scions and create magical Titanic energy rifts, gotten the local good witch of Central Park killed, created acid bombs from stolen car batteries, crashed several trains, struggled to even find the secret coded puzzles their parents want them to solve, let alone succeed at them, encouraged Poseidon to devastate the city with a tidal wave and moved into a homeless commune in the subway tunnels beneath New York City. They're in pretty bad shape and running scared, but ever hopeful about the situation getting better. After all, it almost has to, right?
We're totally loving this game, by the way. There have already been two character deaths and more would not surprise us, but it's action-packed and hilarious at every turn, and the players are a riot.
I suspect this question is here to drum up interest in Winona on the fiction poll; the next round of voting will probably also include Michael and Valentina as possible storytellers. Show them some love, and we'll write them a story!
EDIT: Hey, did you guys know we also have some awesome fanart of the Gangs of New York characters? In addition to all their awesome character portraits, done by Jon Niemeister, we also have these awesome scenes!
Man, we have so much awesome fanart we should probably find somewhere on the site to put it all, eh?
Our youngest baby, Gangs of New York, has been affectionately nicknamed "worst game ever" by its players and "home of the stupidest decisions" by its Storytellers. It is consistently batshit insane, but also totally epically fun, so everything's working as intended.
Like Eastern Promises, the Gangs character roster rotates with each story, so several different characters have made appearances in the same continuity.
The first group consisted of James Keenan, Mabel Grey, Michael Chambers, Nic Mason, Rick Nolan and Valentina Radic, and they got their entrance into the problems of the divine when a high-society Manhattan New Year's Eve party was crashed by some human-sacrificin', dude-seducin' ancient Babylonian sirens. Michael, a high-class prostitute Scion of Ishtar who was being paid to attend the party as a celebrity's handsome escort (for the Broadway fans in the area, he was dating Anthony Rapp at the time), was the focal point of the problem, since he accidentally enhanced the summoning ritual that brought in the bad guys and turned out to have previously been sexually involved with their leader, to boot. Rick Nolan, a Scion of Mah and the New York male equivalent of Paris Hilton who was only at the party because Nic had called him and asked him to lend it his star-studded presence, ended up in the basement trying to defuse the situation along with Valentina Radic, Scion of Bastet and an international jewel thief and member of a secret crime syndicate, who had been lying low in New York to await contact from her fellow thieves after a major heist in Toronto. James Keenan, a Scion of Hades and hard-boiled New York private eye, followed Mabel Grey, Scion of Hecate and known peddler of Weird Shit at her magic shop, to the scene of the insanity thinking she was a demon, only to become immediate allies against the security forces that turned on them and then failed to contain the supernatural threat. Nic, a Scion of Enlil and the party's organizer and all-around golden boy of the celebrity party elite, took a look at the devastation left of his carefully-planned event and got drunk out of his mind.
In the process of everything, buildings were blown up, mysterious notes from parents were received, magical teddy bears broke James' knees and got Rick into a photogenically compromising position with Michael, Mabel and James became the best buddy-cop movie in history before he conceived a burning hatred against the New York police force that eventually led to his downfall, Valentina rode an elevator into the sky Willy-Wonka-style and Michael was declared an international terrorist. It was a wild ride.
The second group, currently still playing, consists of Michael, still in the game, and Adira Bazzi, Alan Parillo, Jake Devon, Simon Rockwell and Winona Nelson. Thanks to Michael's involvement in the debacle of the previous story, his terrorist affiliations have made him wanted by the police and Homeland Security, and in the process of trying to escape them he hijacked Alan's boat (leaving the Scion of Poseidon, a Canadian national on retirement vacation with his wife, suddenly implicated in his crimes), got Winona (a Scion of Nergal with a terrifying leper-like appearance and a distinctly unpleasant outlook on life) and her fellow hobos riddled with bullets during a police firefight, ruined Jake's career as a prizefighter on the underground boxing circuit (something his father Vahram is probably not too pleased about), accidentally got Simon, a Scion of Anubis and forensic scientist for the NYPD, on the wrong side of the law, and dragged Adira into magical combat before even figuring out her name. The rest of the characters refer to him as The Life-Ruiner.
So far, they've battled living statues and approximations of gods, fled from massive mobilization of army and national security forces, discovered mortals that can somehow pinpoint Scions and create magical Titanic energy rifts, gotten the local good witch of Central Park killed, created acid bombs from stolen car batteries, crashed several trains, struggled to even find the secret coded puzzles their parents want them to solve, let alone succeed at them, encouraged Poseidon to devastate the city with a tidal wave and moved into a homeless commune in the subway tunnels beneath New York City. They're in pretty bad shape and running scared, but ever hopeful about the situation getting better. After all, it almost has to, right?
We're totally loving this game, by the way. There have already been two character deaths and more would not surprise us, but it's action-packed and hilarious at every turn, and the players are a riot.
I suspect this question is here to drum up interest in Winona on the fiction poll; the next round of voting will probably also include Michael and Valentina as possible storytellers. Show them some love, and we'll write them a story!
EDIT: Hey, did you guys know we also have some awesome fanart of the Gangs of New York characters? In addition to all their awesome character portraits, done by Jon Niemeister, we also have these awesome scenes!
Nic and Rick get into a gentlemanly fight over the charms of a certain Babylonian siren! (Art by Theo Wolff!)
Mabel and James heroically set forth into the dangerous basements beneath the New Year's Eve party! (Art by Steph!)
Valentina bails out of an airborne elevator like a boss! (Art by Theo Wolff!)
In an unfinished sketch, Rick, Michael and an agitated Nic argue over strategy! (Art by Steph!)
Man, we have so much awesome fanart we should probably find somewhere on the site to put it all, eh?
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