Witch Hunt

From Gothpoodle

Contents 1 Sessions 2 Plot 3 Connections 4 New NPCs 5 Scenes 5.1 Hard Questions 5.2 Assignment 5.3 Scared Witness 5.4 Winter Court Ambush 5.5 Debriefing 5.6 Dealing with the Coin 5.7 Postponement 5.8 Visit from Bo 5.9 The Deal 5.10 The Accident 5.11 Commander Visit 5.12 Subtle Threats 5.13 Tina's Trial 5.14 Facing the Enemy 5.15 Meeting the Lawyer 5.16 Liv Vandenberg 5.17 Unseelie Accords 5.18 The Cavalry 5.19 The Verdict 5.20 Final Showdown 6 Trial 6.1 Trial (Day 1) 6.2 Trial (Day 2) 6.3 Trial (Day 3) 6.4 Trial (Day 4) 6.5 Trial (Day 5)

Sessions

• 2011-01-08
• 2011-01-15
• 2011-01-22
• 2011-01-29
• 2011-02-12
• 2011-02-26

Plot

Liv Vandenberg goes on trial for kidnapping and attempted murder, but pleads not guilty, claiming her husband was the ring-leader and she was abused and forced to participate.

Connections

• The evil in the city working to get Liv out of jail so she can do the Imperator's work.
  • SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN FRISCO (City)
  • COLD, CALCULATING BITCH (Liv)
• Maddy begins her apprenticeship with Eva and asks some hard questions.
  • WORRIED ABOUT DADDY (Maddy)
  • MOTHERHOOD'S A BITCH (Eva)
• Daisy is drawn to court to support Tina, who's credibility as a witness is attacked.
  • ALWAYS THERE WHEN YOU NEED HER (Daisy)
  • HOMELESS FORMER JUNKIE (Tina)
• Tolliver is bound by the Laws of Magic but Deirdre has no such limitations.
  • WHITE COUNCIL PATRIOT (Tolliver)
  • LOYAL SERVANT OF THE FAE (Deirdre)

New NPCs

• Liv Vandenberg, diabolist and host of Lilith
• ADA Kevin Chan (Scholarship +3, Presence +2, Rapport +2)
• Ricardo Perez (Scholarship +3, Deceit +2, Rapport +2)
• Experts (+3 on appropriate skill)
• Egbert Pritchard, changeling wizard lawyer

Scenes

Hard Questions

• Location: Eva's apartment (Sunday morning)
• Participants: Eva Dubois, Maddy Barnes, others?
• Setup: Maddy arrives for the beginning of her apprenticeship. Asks about magic fixing her father. Needs help constructing foci to help her Evocation control.

Assignment

• Location: Shrine of Vinyl (Sunday afternoon)
• Participants: Tolliver Pritchard, Robin Wheeler
• Setup: Robin asks Tolliver to attend Liv's trial as his first Warden-in-training assignment.

Scared Witness

• Location: Daisy's backroom (Monday night)
• Participants: Daisy Mae McGraw, Tina Yates
• Setup: Tina is terrified about testifying tomorrow and her junkie instincts are kicking in.

Winter Court Ambush

• Location: Nevernever (Tuesday night)
• Participants: Hector Salazar, The Scarecrow, Four Malks, Troll
• Zones: Path (x4), Bridge, Forest (x8+), Creek (x2)
• Aspects: MOONLIT NIGHT, ELDRITCH WOOD
• Setup: Hector and the Malks sneak up (Stealth +5) and attack the party. Only Hector gets to fight Deirdre (until he leaves). The Troll and Scarecrow appear on the road in either direction and move in. Hector and the Malks will concede as soon as they take anything higher than a Mild Consequence. The Troll won't leave his bridge. The Scarecrow will concede if nobody is scared of him.
• Initiative: Hector and Malks: Epic (+7), Scarecrow: Good (+3), Troll: Fair (+2)

Debriefing

• Location: Daisy's backroom (early Wednesday morning)
• Participants: Robin Wheeler
• Setup: Robin asks them about what happened, is very upset about the dead cops, leaves to contact Colorado Dave.

Dealing with the Coin

• Location: Daisy's backroom (early Wednesday morning)
• Participants: Lilith
• Setup: Lilith will use her gifts to manipulate the PCs while they question her. She is friendly, sympathetic, and utterly unhelpful. Everything she utters is a lie (Deceit +7) or half-truth. She will continuously try to break the circle (+7).

Postponement

• Location: Courtroom (Wednesday morning)
• Participants: Tina Yates
• Setup: Lots of angry looking cops searching everyone who enters, Liv not present. The trial is postponed until Monday, at which time it will resume as a closed-door proceeding. Tina is very upset she has to continue her testimony without Daisy there. She is questioned by the police about her whereabouts last night and if she knows anything about what happened.

Visit from Bo

• Location: Tolliver's house? (Wednesday morning)
• Participants: Bo MacNeil
• Setup: Bo shows up to ask about the EMP burst and attack on Liv, has news on the cops (one dead, one in critical condition) and on Homeland Security investigating. Is very unhappy with the cops getting hurt, questions their methods.

The Deal

This only occurs if Lilith isn't free by Thursday morning.

• Location: Daisy's shop (Thursday morning)
• Participants: Daisy Mae McGraw
• Setup: A letter is slipped under the door of her shop with the SS thunderbolt emboss on envelope and stationary. The message reads: "Release Lilith or many people will die. You have until sundown."

The Accident

This only occurs if Lilith isn't free by Thursday at sundown. An electrical fire in an apartment building in the Sunset District will cause the building to go up in flames. Kindle is on hand to use fire evocation to make sure that nobody escapes. Thirty-five people are killed. An hour after sunset, a seagull bearing another note will arrive at Tolliver's home. It simply has the address.

Commander Visit

• Location: Shrine of Vinyl (Saturday afternoon)
• Participants: Dave Stenstrom, Robin Wheeler, not Deirdre
• Setup: Stenstrom wants details on what happened with Liv, wants an explanation for her facial wound, concerned about Summer Knight's involvement. Asks why they didn't just use Thaumaturgy to exorcise her from afar. Forbids any move against her until the heat is off.

Subtle Threats

Each of the PCs will receive an envelope in the mail with no return address but the SS thunderbolt emboss in its place. Each will contain a single strand of hair:

• Eva - Jean
• Deirdre - Her mother
• Tolliver - Perry
• Daisy - Tina

Tina's Trial

• Location: Courtroom (Monday morning)
• Participants: Tina Yates, Liv Vandenberg, probably scried on by the PCs
• Setup: Her testimony is finished, continuing the attempts to discredit her, followed by character witnesses depicting her as an unreliable junkie. The social attacks will leave her with social consequences. She is dismissed at lunch. The afternoon is the parade of defense forensic experts.

Facing the Enemy

• Location: Beneath Kwan's Potions (Monday morning)
• Participants: Ao Qin, Mr. Kwan, Gideon Kindle, Belial
• Setup: Kindle's complaint is presented and a conversation ensues.

Meeting the Lawyer

• Location: Tolliver's house (Monday evening)
• Participants: Egbert Pritchard, the PCs
• Setup: Egbert is introduced and goes over the evening in question. Refuses to speculate on how things will turn out, is sarcastic at any concept of justice or truth.

Liv Vandenberg

• Location: Courtroom (Tuesday)
• Participants: Liv Vandenberg, Gideon Kindle (in disguise)
• Setup: The morning is character witnesses and the defense psychiatrist, all of whom testify to Liv's vulnerability and domination by her spouse. After lunch, Liv testifies and, if she has Lilith, charms the jury and lawyers with her act. Kindle will be on the look-out for interference and will counter it himself. He is disguised as one of the police officers on guard (the original is asleep in the trunk of his squad car).

Unseelie Accords

• Location: Beneath Kwan's Potions (Tuesday and Wednesday)
• Participants: Egbert Pritchard, demon lawyer, Ao Qin, Mr. Kwan, Gideon Kindle, Belial
• Setup: Tedious legalistic arguments all day. Belial looks bored, Kindle looks interested. Kindle and Belial are jumped in Hell after leaving Tuesday Night by Stenstrom and his wardens.

The Cavalry

• Location: Daisy's shop (Tuesday night)
• Participants: Dave Stenstrom, Jed McGraw, John McGraw, Ron Finnley
• Setup: Jed shows up with his team (minus Kim) and the badly wounded Stenstrom (whom they stumbled on a few blocks away). Ron sets to taking care of Dave.

The Verdict

• Location: Courtroom (Wednesday morning)
• Participants: Liv Vandenberg, Gideon Kindle (in disguise), Bo MacNeil
• Setup: Gideon will use psychomancy to get what he wants out of the jury. Bo senses something is up. Deliberating takes the afternoon.

Final Showdown

• Location: Alley behind the Hall of Justice (Wednesday evening)
• Participants: Bo MacNeil, Jed McGraw, John McGraw, Liv Vandenberg, Gideon Kindle (in disguise), Belial, another cop
• Zones: Underground Garage Entrance, Parking Lot x4, Lawn with Trees, 7th Street (3-lane one-way) x3, Sidewalk x3, Parked Cars
• Aspects: HALL OF JUSTICE, LOTS OF CAMERAS, ALLEY IN TWILIGHT
• Setup: Gideon (still disguised as the cop) leads Liv out to the waiting van with Belial after giving her back the Lilith coin. Bo follows and Jed finds himself in the area (probably with the PCs). An epic fight will ensue. Gideon will offer a concession (probably offering Liv and/or Bo and the cop's life in exchange for his escape) if threatened.

Trial

All rolls are modified by Scholarship, but are generally social rolls (Rapport, Empathy, Intimidation, Presence, Deceit, Performance). Opening and closing remarks allow direct influence of the jury (Obstruct and Move Another). Otherwise, they focus on the witnesses (Attack and Maneuver).

Trial (Day 1)

• Opening Remarks (lawyer vs lawyer to influence the jury)
• Bo's Testimony
• Prosecution Forensic Experts (set the scene, dead man)

Trial (Day 2)

• Liv's Psychiatric Evaluation (Severe Consequence: Enthralled by Liv, consider a defense witness)
• Stefan's Testimony (if Liv's allowed to touch him, +6 lust block to testifying against her)
• Tina's Testimony

Trial (Day 3)

• Defense Forensic Experts (question autopsy and dead man, pick apart scene)
• Character Witnesses Against Tina (heroin junkie, mentally ill)

Trial (Day 4)

• Character Witnesses For Liv (shattered after death of her child)
• Liv's Psychiatric Evaluation (battered spouse syndrome)
• Liv's Testimony

Trial (Day 5)

• Closing Remarks (lawyer vs lawyer to influence the jury)
• Jury Deliberation:
  • [ ] Guilty (an afternoon)
  • [ ] Guilty (a day)
  • [ ] Guilty (a few days)
  • [ ] Hung (a few days)
  • [ ] Hung (a day)
  • [ ] Hung (a few days)
  • [ ] Innocent (a few days)
  • [ ] Innocent (a day)
  • [ ] Innocent (an afternoon)