To start things off, Akina throws the magic ring that she has not been able to get rid of into a hole to see what happens. It doesn't come back. Yay? Also Molly gets a new rookie named Peter to follow her around. The poor NPC kid is not in the know.

Next the group decides to meet together at The Underground. There, the helpful bag lady Gretchen, whose voice sound a lot like Howard's mother from Big Bang Theory, informs them that they can take an underground train to Crafter's shop. This should give them the insight they need to decide if the want to help the Triad or not.

Crafter is busy working on weaponizing spells that normal people can use for 'The Lady'. At first the group thinks this lady is Chin Xi, leader of the Triads. When Crafter describes 'The Lady' as a soul devouring monster, other theories form as to her identity. Perhaps she is the mysterious lawyer Vivian Damé, or perhaps she is the police chief Rebecca Black.

Crafter's brother Jerry, a savant, arrives with things he has found scavenging. He knew Jenny Denny, the murder victim from Episode 1. He also let's slip that his brother, Crafter, made the ring that was supposed to protect Jenny. As it turns out, Jenny's soul was in the ring and trying to communicate with the party. Yes, this is the same ring that was thrown into a hole and didn't come back. Oops.

Fortunately, Jerry had found the ring. The group uses it to communicate with Jenny's soul in mirror reflections. She clues the party in on a few things. Before she died, she stalked people (including the party) with magic connections and gave reports to her boss, Vivian, on them. She also left her grandfather before he went senile, and she admitted to dabbling in some dark arts to try and protect herself. Now she just wants her body back. She had no clue it had been cremated. 

The party gets Crafter to make a fake ring, since a couple of supernatural baddies have been trying to get it. Then Molly and Jacob go to visit Arthur Denny while the other 4 go to plant the fake ring at George Telkai's house.

Cyphus uses a veil and swaps the fake ring for a magic coin in his trophy room. The visible people have to deal with George, who tries to threaten them at first. A bad soul gaze with Chong, whom he had been ignoring until then, lets the party walk with the deep criminal shaken. He is so distraught at the massive social loss that has no witty reply while the party walks out cool and confident. He sends a demon to give Steven a blank piece of paper but otherwise it is the picture of the heroes walking away while the enemy explodes in the background (only in this case, it was a Social explosion).

At the Denny mansion, Jacob disguises himself as a security guard of the neighborhood to escort officer Molly to the mansion. There, thanks to some investigation and bumbling rookie falling down the stairs, they find a sleeping pet drake, an unresponsive Arthur, as house where Jenny's presence has been erased, and a secret wizard's lab in the basement. Jacob is able to soul gaze Arthur and sees that he is being poisoned by one of his failed love potion recipes. The culprit? Police chief Black. Molly finds a live journal, a book that write its self based on Arthur's thoughts.

Chief Black shows up suddenly to give Arthur his 'coffee' so the duo have to vamoose. They meet the others and swap stories. That's when white court vampire and Neutral Grounds arbiter Sven phones in about a YouTube video of Steven and others at George's house, only the blank paper looks like a blood contract where they swear to serve George. Oops. 

The party goes to Sven's Blue Jazz club to clear things up. As it turns out, Sven also arranged for a lot of other people to be there including: both sides of the Chinatown conflict, Vivian Damé, the Summer Lady and her local sidhe, a ghoul, Jacob's evil father Isaac (and wearing a new grey cloak), and the Red Court Infected leader. Sven says he wants peace, but he acts like he is trying obviously to start a war, which results in a ceasefire and more shadow games. That could not have been his plan all along. 

Jacob announces he is on his own side and walks out. Molly follows because she doesn't really care about the supernatural drama. Cyphus stands with the summer court. Steven stands with Amellia, the red infected leader. Akina and Chong take to the open bar (which is what got someone killed in episode 1). Rebecca Black shows up, cuz the 2 in the parking lot called her so they could hide Arthur and the drake at Akina's book shop (surprise!). She announces that certain criminals will be brought to justice once they leave the neutral grounds and storms off.

Once things die down, Chin Xi makes deals with Steven and Cyphus. She wants to get a magic sword or 5 coins bad so she can get to the fey line spring in the Peach Blossom valley. The others don't trust the Triad leader, especially since she is so quick to turn on her other allies to recruit the party. When they exit the club, the parking lot shows signs of a major fight (and the smell of deaths), but they missed the action. The group rejoins and throw around a few theories about what to do next and who to trust.

(PC Characters: Akina the Packless Werewolf, Jacob the Hobo Wizard, Steven the Soulless Semi-animate Man, Chong the Mystic Martial Artist, Molly the Detective in the Know, Cyphus the Summer Changleling)

There is a box in our game that no one must ever EVER open. For some reason, some of the players want to open it.

Any ideas for what I should put inside?

Working on an idea for a guardian of a tree that produces magical fruits. He can use the fruits for various magical effects, but without a fruit he cannot use his powers.

I was thinking of using a sponsered magic with a [-3] refresh cost since the tree only produces 2 fruits a day, even though he can take the fruit with him, but it might make sense to treat it more like a place of power [-4] that he can take with him wherever he goes. Possibly even a [-5] since he might be able to technically share the fruit with others if things get desperate.

Thoughts?

We begin with the murder of PC Akina the werewolf. A large humanoid chases her through Denny Park, grabs her face in one hand, and crushes/suffocates her to death. The same thing happens To Jacob, Steven, Molly, and Cyphus. Total party kill? No. It turns out that everyone was hit with a Death Curse from Jenny Denny, the actual murder victim that shared her death with everyone she thought might be able to help her.

 

After some phone calls that verify they all had the same vision, the group gathers at the scene. Cyphus the changeling, under veil, finds $4,000 and a cold iron rod in her purse. Molly, being a cop, IDs the victim. Steven, our cursed instigator trying to be helpful so he does not get arrested, shares that the victim is a member of the last wizard family in town. Her shoes are gone, which is odd because she had them in the vision. Cyphus, thanks to his fae heritage, recognizes traces of ectoplasm. A fairy of some type was at the murder scene, though for some reason all evidence of footprints and damaged branches are gone. Jacob, wizard in training, looks at the contents of her purse for protective wizardy things and finds a phone number for the Blue Jazz club, the local Neutral Grounds. Steven remembers that there is a party going on and promises to get the group invitations.

 

The group scatters. Jacob borrows Akina's book store to research ogres and ghouls. Steven contacts Scarlet, the Red Court Vampire, to get invitations. Cyphus gets a Sidhe date to the party. Molly calls the police and works with them as they find one more piece of evidence the party missed: a man's gold ring that smells of mistletoe. Akina tries to get a rental dress, then waits for the police to leave so she can sniff around. She gets a whiff of Jenny's scent, then also finds a gold ring smelling of mistletoe. She takes the ring with her as the group meets for the big party.

 

At the VIP room (Steven got good invitations), the group gets to mingle with a few other people aware of the supernatural world. Scarlet the vampire is there with a dedicated meat candy escort, as are Chin Xi and Lurch from Chinatown. Lurch is the official police suspect of the murder, since he is the only human they know big enough to leave the hand-shaped bruise on the victim's face. The police chief isn't there, since the ring in evidence mysteriously vanished.
Cyphus makes a fabulous first impression, out shining even his date. Steven chats up the bartender while his date, Akina, helps herself to the open bar. Molly and Jacob do some observation of folks and realize that Lurch is actually Chin Xi's arm candy despite the appearance that things are the other way around. Jacob talks with her a bit to establish a good impression, and Cyphus's date reveals that while she is a summer Sidhe Lurch is actually a Winter Sidhe.

 

Sven, the white court owner of the club, arrives and offers the guests a tour of his collection of rare items (mostly so he can sip on their GREED). He leads them to his quasi-dimensional vault, where things can be seen but not touched. Cyphus and Jacob bring a drink; Akina brings a bottle. The vault is like a museum displaying many things that catch everyone's interests. Cyphus finds a dragon egg, Molly finds a little mermaids in a fishbowl, Chin Xi finds an important Japanese sword, Scarlet finds an Arabian Lamp, Akina...well, she has her bottle, and Steven finds his soul in a box.

<insert dramatic music>

Cyphus's date and Scarlet get into a verbal fight, as only a southern belle vampire and a noble fairy can. Akina, in a slightly drunken slur, calls them out for dampening the party's mood. Despite everyone's half-hearted attempts to stop her from making things worse, a fight breaks out. Scarlet claws at Akina, but Akina shoves her to the floor. This causes Jacob to stumble back (or he did it on purpose) and bump into the glass around the case. Wait, did he just touch it? And crack the glass?? Sven hoists him up, and Jacob creates a veil so the two can have a private chat. Chin Xi and Lurch withdraw from the fight, and Molly eavesdrops on their conversation in hopes of getting evidence about Jenny's murder. She overhears a confession from Lurch, which upsets Chin Xi, and finds out that Chin is a high ranking member of the local Triads.

 

Back to the fight, Scarlet sheds her flesh mask to go all bat monster. Akina goes werewolf and pins the vampire down. With a little glamour, Cyphus makes the booze bottle look like holy water, terrifying Scarlet. Steven, enjoying how the tables have turned on the one he owes a debt to, tries to get a murder confession from Scarlet, but she knows nothing about the death of Jenny Denny. Sven and Jacob, meanwhile, come to an arrangement: Jacob gets the sword that Chin Xi is so interested in if he gets everyone to stop fighting. After all, they are fighting in Accorded Neutral grounds. Every supernatural nation could condemn them for it.

 

Which is when Akina, with a little compelling encouragement from Steven, rips out the vampires throat. Uh oh. Now the group has to come up with a peaceful plan that everyone agrees on. So they plot and scheme and negotiate with each other until they come up with a plan. The official story is that the meat candy killed his mistress, and he can't object since he lost his mind when she died. Molly gets to arrest Lurch for Jenny's murder. Jacob promises to bring the sword to Chin Xi the next day. Akina gives up the ring to Cyphus's date so she won't hold a grudge against Steven for socially putting her in time out while the fight was happening (it was an epic use of fate points and a high roll combined with some dramatic roleplaying). Cyphus trades the ring, which they found out is enchanted to steal a wizards powers, for the dragon egg.

Everyone wins. 

A couple of questions were never fully answered though. Why did Lurch kill Jenny Denny? Why didn't Jenny use her cold iron rod to protect herself? How was Jacob able to accidentally make the vault items corporeal? What happened to Jenny's shoes? How did the crime scene restore its self to its natural state? Who left Steven a note about trading his soul for killing the wizard? What is Cyphus's date's name?

And how did the mistletoe ring get back in Akina's pocket the next morning?
 

I have read all 3 of the pregenerated adventures at Drive Thru RPG as well as the Sleepy Hollow adventure. My google searches are failing me in finding any more. Does anyone know a website or a thread that has some pregenerated adventures?

Our group is playing their first adventure next week. We already went through city creation and character creation (yes, I know those are part of the story as well). Now I am planning a mystery to have the 6 characters solve, and I realize I have a small problem: they have no reason to work together!!

When we did the character creation, I also made a character in case we trade GM's later in the campaign, so I was a guest star in 2 stories and had 2 guest stars in mine. That means there are 2 characters that I only know through other characters (friends of a friend). This isn't a big deal for my character since I am the GM and all, but I did not realize at the time just how distant that would make some of the group. None of the characters are fast friends, but nobody really hates each other either. They all established various degrees of respect, but not appreciation.

So what is the best way to get them to work together? Start them off working individually and have the adventure steer them together? Get a City-wide threat that forces them to join forces? Put them all in a tavern and have someone ask for a group of adventurers?

So I am hosting a one-shot last weekend at a local game store for Dresden Files RPG. I get a couple of people I played with before, a couple of fans of the TV show, and one guy that just wants to try a new game. I pass out character sheets from the Neutral Grounds adventure, and new guy gets the White Court Emo Virgin because he says that he likes to play characters with inner struggle.

That should have been my first clue that I needed to recruit this guy for a campaign.

During the adventure, the group encounters a magical market where anything can be purchased for a price. The plan was to get the party familiar with dealing in fae stuff. Most of the party avoided the market because the players had past experience, but the new guy said that his character would be interested even though it was obvious that the other players acted like it was a bad idea.

That really should have tipped me off that I needed to recruit this guy for a campaign.

He is haggling with the shopkeeper for something that will help him deal with his inner demon, so the shopkeeper offers that he has a holy item in the back. The player asks me if he can spend a fate point to choose what sort of object it is. I accept. The FATE system is all about creativity after all. Who cares if the guy is going to try and give himself an extra edge out of the deal? So he says that he wants the item to be a blessed cane sword, something that looked like a rich kid would have (cane) that hid its holy nature (blessed) but that he could also use as a weapon (sword).

He had never heard of the Dresden Files as far as I know, but he wanted a holy cane sword that would keep his demon in check. Every other player was very quiet and very intently watching this new guy. When I asked him if it was ok for the item to be a japanese cane sword, he said yes. He rolled a conviction score to see if the sword would accept him: all for dice +.

After the game, he asked when he could play again. He said that he would be willing to buy books and dice (which he did) for next time.

So yeah, I recruited him into our campaign.

I am planning a one-shot intro for a Dresden Files RPG. We only have 4-6 hours to play, but I am really hoping to start a campaign based on interest so I want to really show off the system. Here are some thoughts I had, and I would love feedback and suggestions.

1. Use pregenerated characters. I figured the Kids from Night Terrors would work well. I wish we had time for full character creation, but hopefully filling in skills and aspects will give them a taste.

2. Create an island. We don't have time for full city creation, so instead each player picks one thing they expect to find on the island they all shipwrecked on ( it was only supposed to be a 3 hour tour) and we turn those choices into locations.

3. Offer some power options. I know at least one player wants to sling spells, so instead of tweaking characters I want to have a face or more offer items of power or better yet sponsored magic. I am hoping this will inspire some good roleplaying as well.

4. Hilight the unique strengths of the system. I want the climax scene to be less about physical combat and more mental/social. Maybe resisting a demon offering power or a way home. I also want to get the players used to tagging aspects and being tagged.

5. Make some handouts. Besides printing the character sheets I figure I will need a few index cards for any spells or items the sponsors offer and perhaps a quick sheet on combat basics (common skills, Using maneuvers, consequences, etc).

6. Keep the plot simple. I love complicated plot twists, but for a one-shot that just won't do. So the kids are shipwrecked and need to get home. They explore the island until they find someone that offers to send them home if they get rid of a demon. The demon is bound to an idol, so all they really have to do is break it or toss it in the ocean while the demon tries to persuade them not to.

7. Use everyones contribution. The demon and the sponser will each fit into one of the locations a player makes for the island, but I don't want to leave anyone's creativity out. Throw in a couple challenges to make sure every location has something interesting (a climb check or a snake to fight) and I hope to have a winner that everyone wants to play again.