Habrá Sangre: La Hora Cero

 Habrá Sangre was on Sunday, it was pretty epic.  Everything in italics are things that happened In The Ring.
The player characters were:

El Mini Grande - The leader of Lucha Libre Sin Fronteras' mini locker room and one of the head trainers, he was once the compatriot of El Grande - the promotion's perennial champion.   Having sacrificed his mask to save El Grande's martial pride, he now feels betrayed and gone rudo y yanqui in retaliation.  No matter where the LLSF pitches its tent, El Mini Grande has a malicious legion of black hearted little people at his beck and call.

Tornado Rosado -"Rose Tornado"- El Grande's daughter and bearer of his legacy, Tornado wishes to reunite her father and El Mini Grande.  Driven by a strong sense of justice, Tornado Rosado is a role model to her Tornado Scouts and wears the Mask of the South Wind.

Tobillo Largo -"Long Ankle"- A relative newcomer,  she earned her ring name after she gained the upper hand in her debut match with El Diablo Abismo and retired him after he refused to submit to her ankle lock.  Under the mask she is a medical doctor raising money to keep the doors of her family's free clinic open. Her iron grip is not to be trifled with.

 El Chupacabra - "The Goatsucker"- Literally the legendary cryptid.  While he rarely wins, the creature in funerary garb doesn't fail to entertain. The last of his kind, he seeks the attentions of Tobilla Largo as a salve to his loneliness.

The session opened in a smoke-filled writer's room, deep in the bowels of the Monterrey Sports Arena, the night before La Hora Cero - LLSF's biggest show of the year.  Personnel shortages had rendered the previously planned bookings unworkable, the legendary luchadors and the PC's had attended a dinner party at Dory Blanchard's mansion and not returned.  Motivated by loyalty to Serafina Alonzo the writers booked the show to punish the most outspoken members of the locker room:

Trios Championship - Fuerza Aerea Magnifica vs. Los Mensajores De Muerte- Los Mensajores was booked to win and are consolidated under the leadership of El Diablo Abismo as Los Mensajores Del Diablo.

Triple Threat Elimination - Aguila Ayudas Jr. vs. The Executioner vs The Mad Monk- The new kid was booked to defeat the two men responsible for his father's prideful fall.

Flipper, the seal boy, knocked on the door and told the staff that Tobillo Largo, El Chupacabra and El Mini Grande were all seen returning to the staging grounds.  The writers immediately included them on the card.

Women's Championship - Tobillo Largo vs. Las Hermanas Extranas - Elimination match, Tobillo Largo was a shooter and thus less exciting in the ring.  She was booked to lose to the 3 brujas.

Cage Match - Chupacabra vs. Buffalo Ramos - The Foul Thing's infatuation with Tobillo Largo could be counted on interfere with her Women's Championship match.  In preemptive punishment he was booked to face "The Rough Beast" Buffalo Ramos and fall to Ramos' Extremo La Pista.

Fatal 4 Way - El Mini Grande's 4 most valuable minis all enter the ring, only the winner keeps his job.

Lucha de apuesta - El Grande vs El Diablo Abismo - Mask vs mask, with El Grande returning for his retirement match, it was fitting for him to to go under, unmasked by Serafina's husband.

Mega Championship - Carmelita "La Jugosa" vs The People's Champion - The writers came upon the grand idea to charge the audience for beads that they could drop in urns for each luchador, so they could be "involved" in booking the main event.  Of course this was worked and the staff planned to have Mariposa Asesina work Carmelita "La Jugosa" after rigging the outcomes.

Meanwhile, in the rough country surrounding Monterrey proper, a yankee doodled limousine sails over a cliff.  Crashing at the bottom of the gorge fire quickly spreads from the steel carcass.  Forcing their way out of the trunk Tobillo Largo, Tornado Rosado, and El Chupacabra drag an unconcious El Mini Grande from the wreck, unmasked and scalped respectively.  Swearing revenge on the traitorous Mad Monk, the four stagger out of the hills and towards the bright lights of the Monterrey.

 An old mission church sits atop a hill, redeeming what was once an Aztec place of worship.  Outside the sanctified wall a beleaguered man stumbles away from a freshly dug grave and makeshift cross.  Mumbling and lost, he heads back to "home" fearful for what he has caused to transpire. A hand rises slowly from the tilled soil, the scratched name "ALONZO" comes into focus on the cross.

That evening, La Hora Cero is set to begin and the crowd files in,  Mexica cunningmen ride in on a bus to sanctify the arena.  Smudging the area with smoke and preparing the arena for the Sport of the Gods. Monterrey Arena is brought into alignment with the Thirteen Heavens and ascends through Elysian climes.  Hallucinations and numinous experience wrack the crowd, one of the writers falls into madness while another goes to the police only to find himself in a holding cell to sleep off his crazy.

First match - trios - Fuerza Aerea Real vs Los Mesanjores de Muerto - The opening match was full of energy and Fuerza Aerea Real put up a helluva fight, but Los Mensajores won as booked. El Diablo Abismo came out of the back and rechristened them Los Mensajores Del Diablo. 

Meanwhile our intrepid luchadores approach the Arena, finding gates have been dropped and locked over the entrances & exits. El Chupacabra leads them through a sewer grate, passing his shrine to Tobillo Largo on their way.  Emerging from the underbelly they start seeking answers.

Triple threat elimination match - Aguila Ayudas Jr vs Mad Monk vs Executioner - The Mad Monk and The Executioner both do their job and go under to Aguila Ayudas Jr. The hot-blooded heart throb gets over with the crowd and several votes were cast in his favor.   The arena's ceiling retreated upward, raplaced by an expanse of stars - their attention palpable.

Backstage the 4 heroes split up: El Mini Grande seeks out Carlos Alonzo for an explanation, Tornado Rosado encountered the skinless corpse of an overweight man wearing the scalp of El Mini Grande, El Chupacabra grapples with a similar creature bearing his scalp beneath the ring, and Tobillo Largo pulverized her doppleganger - retrieving her mask in time for her match.

Women's championship - Tobillo Largo vs Las Hermana Extranas - Handicap elimination match.  Crestfallen that they would be facing the true Tobilla Largo rather than a familiar.  Able to keep her opponents grounded, Tobillo forced he match she wanted to have - grip to grip.  Through superior technical acumen she made quick work for the three brujas.  The witches' one opportunity to cheat was foiled by surreptitious interference from El Chupacabra.  Leading to Tobillo's clean sweep of Las Hermanas and securing her first Women's Championship.

In Carlos Alonzo's office, El Mini Grande confronts the boss' son with "Hermanito," an oversized revolver, drawn.  Demanding answers for what transpired up on the mountain and the Mad Monk, Carlos plead ignorance of what happened and sent someone to go get the Mad Monk.  Tornado Rosado entered the office bearing Mini Grande's scalp as the Mad Monk was made intimately familiar with Harmanito's interest in his nethers.

Cage match - Chupacabra vs Buffalo Ramos -With the cage not even lowered, Ramos went to work redecorating the arena with Chupacabra's ichors.  The canvas mat, ring apron and the front row were redyed to match the Goat Sucker's innards.  Chupacabra spied several strange, supernatural audience members in said front row.  El Chupacabra picked up the win by barely slithering out of a pin following Extrema De Pista.  Buffalo Ramos was incensed, tracked down El Chupacabra in the locker room making his displeasure known.

Cold gun barrel pressing up under his pelvis, the Mad Monk started spilling his metaphorical guts.  Explaining that everything that happened was at the direction of Pablo Jimenez and Vincente Alonzo's last will and testament.  A feeble knock echoes from the office door, cracking it open Tornado spies the beleaguered lawyer who was the root of all this.  Pulling him in, Jimenez quickly confesses everything: outlining Vincente Alonzo's failing health, disappointment in his children,  fears for the company, and desperate desire to cling to life.  Delving into the dark sorceries of the brujas, nagual, and the Smoking Mirror Vincente hatched a plan for life ever after by ascending to the Barren Throne while the gods' attention is diverted.  But to sit upon the mighty seat of Creation, Vincente must have the heart of a champion.

Tobillo comes across a crumpled Chupacabra and tries to help him out the best she can.  El Mini Grande  runs out to the ring because 4 of his workers were booked for the following match.

Fatal 4 way - Flipper vs Lagarto Saltando vs Consuela vs Sexy Eddie, all 4 managed by El Mini Grande - Winner keeps their job, losers get fired.  This was El Mini Grande's magnum opus as a rudo and a manager.  The match was a panoply of foreign objects, referee bumps, mistaken identity, replacement referees, trees of woe, and dirty blows.  Exhausting on the dirt tricks he had ever learned, El Mini Grande felt his left side go numb and signalled for Flipper to pin Sexy Eddie and take the win.

Simultaneously to the mini-free-for-all Tobillo, Chupacabra, and Tornado all ran to El Grande's private dressing room, the sounds of sobbing and tongue-lashing leaked through the door.  Inside El Grande was in tears, apologizing for all the lies as Tornado's  doppleganger berated him for the half-truths.  Tornado leapt to the defense of her father, her spinning heel kick making short work of the creature's rot-ripened skull.  Reclaiming the Mask of the South Wind she embraced her father and told him everything was fine.  Tobillo exhorted the Mad Monk to ward the dressing room against supernatural evil, hoping to deter Vincente's plan.  The defrocked priest decamped to his trailer to gather materials necessary.  El Grande protested being locked in his room because he had to go out and wrestle.  As his entrance music resounded through the building, Tornado Rosado pushed her father back and flew to the ring.  Her allies followed her, should Los Mensajores interfere.

Her father's intro music blaring, the crowd lost their shit when Tornado Rosado came out to defend her father's honor.
A heavy knock rocked El Grande's dressing room door.  Asking who was there, the living legend opened the door to a soft familiar voice and received an alien fist of stone.

Lucha de apuesta - El Grande Tornado Rosado vs El Diablo Abismo with El Mini Grande as special referee.  Telling the ageless story of the young, enthusiatic competitor facing the experienced, tricky veteran, El Diablo fought well for a man with only one good leg.  However he was outmatched by Tornado's speed and power, El Diablo was pinned quickly and willingly removed his mask.  Cementing the future rise of Tornado Rosado and securing her father's legacy.

Serafina Alonzo came out to the ring with the urns (which no one had a chance to rig), accompanied by Carmelita "La Jugosa" LLSF's Mega-Champion.  Commencing to vote counting the processing were interrupted by Remi Alonzo, dragging the hemorrhaging corpse of El Grande.  Robbed of his chance at revenge El Mini Grande called out El Grande's murderer from the back. 

His challenge was answered by a mountain.

El Grande's stolen heart beating in a stone cavity, Vincente Alonzo's rigid grin gave silent answers. Serafina stripped El Grande's corpse of his mask and donned it, attacking Tornado. The heroes fought against Los Mensajores and Serafina as Vincente charged the ring. Scaling the top rope and calling upon his Legion De Minis one last time, El Mini Grande peeled his scalp free and motioned for El Grande's mask. His vision blurred. 

A vast, regal throne congealed from starlight, filth, and kayfabe. Alonzo's eyes lit with greed. The ring became a grand altar. 

Covered in shadowy minis, his allies struck down by Tornado and company Vincente had only one goal: ascend the throne. Tornado whipped her father's mask from the usurper, Serafina, and threw it to her uncle, El Mini Grande. Tobillo gripped Vincente's vast ankle, rolling him into a bow and arrow, exposing his mountainous chest cavity. 

Pulling the mask over his bloody pate, El Mini Grande launched himself into El Tierramoto, the finishing move  he had forsaken, plucking his estranged friend's heart from the abomination's chest. As that stolen organ beat it's last rhythm, El Mini Grande's matched it beat for dying beat. 

Mega Championship Carmelita "La Jugosa" vs voted luchador Tornado Rosado.  Stunned by the death of her mentor and no match for the grief enraged  Tornado, Carmelita dropped the belt with minimal resistance. Crowning Tornado Rosado with her first Megachampionship. 

Play Report: Festivities of Fear and Loathing

Habrá Sangre was on Sunday, the player characters were:

El Mini Grande - The leader of Lucha Libre Sin Fronteras' mini locker room and one of the head trainers, he was once the compatriot of El Grande - the promotion's perennial champion.   Having sacrificed his mask to save El Grande's martial pride, he now feels betrayed and gone rudo y yanqui in retaliation.  No matter where the LLSF pitches its tent, El Mini Grande has a malicious legion of black hearted little people at his beck and call.

Tornado Rosado -"Rose Tornado"- El Grande's daughter and bearer of his legacy, Tornado wishes to reunite her father and El Mini Grande.  Driven by a strong sense of justice, Tornado Rosado is a role model to her Tornado Scouts and wears the Mask of the South Wind.

Tobillo Largo -"Long Ankle"- A relative newcomer,  she earned her ring name after she gained the upper hand in her debut match with El Diablo Abismo and retired him after he refused to submit to her ankle lock.  Under the mask she is a medical doctor raising money to keep the doors of her family's free clinic open. Her iron grip is not to be trifled with.

 El Chupacabra - "The Goatsucker"- Literally the legendary cryptid.  While he rarely wins, the creature in funerary garb doesn't fail to entertain. The last of his kind, he seeks the attentions of Tobilla Largo as a salve to his loneliness.

The Game:

After the city of Monterrey is wracked with tremors from the collapsed Aztec temple previous, the scions Alonzo put on a free show to bolster the city's spirits. A trios match was announced featuring El Mini Grande, El Chupacabra and the Mad Monk against Tobillo Largo, Tornado Rosado and Aguila Ayudas.  Initially framed as a match betwenn the tricolor and yankee traitors, the Mad Monk's vicious catechism reshaped the match into a battle of the sexes.  Aguila Ayudas had his masculinity mocked in the opening exchange, a nagging jeer with repercussions later.

Flinging their bodies at high velocity, the luchadors inspired the audiense to new heights of hope and fear: deep arm drags, lariats from hell, shotgun knees, and eye rakes abounded.  Ina particularly vicious exchange, Aguila Ayudas and Tornado Rosado attempted a stereo dive onto the Mad Monk and El Mini Grande, but the rudos countered with synchronized steel chair shots.  Knocked loopy, the technicos managed to regroup and apply pressure once more.  Unfortunately for them, Aguila Ayudas turned against his teammates, combined with El Chupacabra supping on Tobillo's essence and mimicking her iron grip.  With a suplex into a small package, the ashen ghoul placed his weight on her injured elbow and won his first match, though Tobillo won his cadaverous heart.  Seeing their heroes defeated so angered all the mothers and abuelitas in the crowd that the air was soon full of flung chancletas and rolling pins.

Shamed by the matronly rebuke, Aguila Ayudas is convinced by El Mini Grande to retire his eagle regalia and adopt the vulture's carrion plumage as the Buzzard. 

Powdering out of the tent, the luchadors were sent to a nearby pulqueria for a meeting with Carlos Alonzo, the shiftless middle brother.  He informed them that he had been contacted by a  wealthy retired wrestler, Dorrance Blanchard, who had requested that Carlos send some of LLSF's rising stars for him to meet and possibly mentor.  Carlos selected Tornado Rosado, Chupacabra, and Tobillo Largo as representatives for LLSF's future, and El Mini Grande, the Mad Monk and the Buzzard as examples of the promotion's adaptability. Blanchard's mansion was located outside of town, a towering tubular eyesore called La Casa de los Tubos haloed by ominous storm clouds.

 Lucha libre legends La Dama del Silencio, Cyclone Anaya, Xochitl Cuahtemoc, and El Rey Plomo had arrived ahead of time. Greeted at the door, Blanchard's butler took their capes and accessories, ushering them into the dining room where a banquet was all laid out. Assured that Blanchard would be along shortly, the luchadors were encouraged to dig in. Two other luchadors arrived after the party, Zapato de Muerte and El Ciclope; disgusted with Tornado's presence Zapato derisively compared her to Eva Maria.

Restrained by El Mini Grande from assaulting Zapato, Tornado swore on her family's honor to avenge the slight.  El Mini Grande slipped her a steak knife and advised her that revenge is best when allowed to chill, a murderous glint in his eye.  Dorrance Blanchard emerged from a side room once nearly all the guests had helped themselves to the repast laid out, the Mad Monk refrained since he'd sworn an oath of deprivation.

Blanchard informed them that the future of LLSF was murky, and he was looking to form a core of talent to help him lead the company into the future. Once they'd cleared up any questions regarding the inheritance and Vincente Alonzo's death.   Cyclone Anaya stood up and toasted Blanchard's vision, as he gulped the last of the wine he keeled over apparently dead - eyes split apart like flowers mid-bloom.  Blanchard informed everyone present that they'd been poisoned with Black Lotus Powder (a toxic hallucinogen) and that this was an audition not an open casting call - 4 antidotes were hidden in the locked down manse. You survive the night, you're in.

 

Panic overtook the guests, Tornado Rosado tried to void her stomach, but all that came up were mewing kitten heads and sadness and Zapato de Muerte snapped his shin kicking the door.  El Mini Grande quickly threw himself to consuming as much charcoal as possible, before pinning and scalping a helpless Zapato de Muerte.  Tobillo Largo consumed activated charcoal she kept in her medical bag and scanned a small handbook for common antidotes.  El Chupacara's alien digestion delayed the onset of side effects.  The various luchadors then scattered throughout Blanchard's bleak manse seeking the secreted antidote: El Mini Grande racked up a game in the Billiards room to discover a secret passage to the Lounge, Tobillo Largo found the empty container of Black Lotus Powder in the Kitchen, El Chupacabra investigated the Library which was connected to the Studio, and Tornado Rosado clutched the mewling kittens to her as she checked the light fixtures.  Las leyendas and others scattered to other rooms.

El Chupacabra came upon Xochitl, Rey Plomo, and La Dama Del Silencio fighting in a barbed wire roped wrestling ring over an exquisite vase, ostensibly storing the antidote. His entrance distracted Rey Plomo for an instant, allowing La Dama to drag his throat across the top line of barbed wire and chainsawing through his flesh.  The drugs hit El Chupacabra in that instant, transposing Rey Plomo's with a great horned goat's head - yearning and hunger overtook him completely.  

In the lounge El Mini Grande came across the butler smothering the maid on a divan as the Buzzard slowly stalked them both, all three bearing the telltale unfurled eye.  El Mini Grande convinces the butler that if he gives Mini Grande his antidote, then Mini Grande can call off the Buzzard.  Taken in by the mini's silver tongue, he produces a vase which Mini Grande promptly snatches up and runs into the Hall - leaving the butler to the Buzzards tender bladed ministrations.  Entering the Conservatory Tobillo Largo discovers that was now a green space for cultivating Black Lotus, but the portion used to create an antidote was already cut away.  Beneath the surface of the water she spotted a corked vase, retrieving it she found one of the antidotes.  Consuming the contents, she headed towards all the ruckus.  Tornado Rosado clutched the largest kitten and entered the Hall, in the Ballroom El Ciclope called out to her - holding a vase in one hand and a rose in his teeth.  El Mini Grande quaffed a portion of the potion, the lotus' grip released  he saw El Ciclope holding a large cactus and several spines piercing his mouth while Tornado Rosado clutched a vase of the antidote like she would a tortured pet.

In the Studio Chupacabra's voracious lunge wrenched free Rey Plomo's head - his last words: "You're beautiful" before his eyes unfurled, releasing his soul.  In the ring La Dama hit a gory neckbreaker on Xochitl and released her, reeking mortal injury on her opponent.  Chupacabra witnessed an angel vacate Xochitl's body, pulled through the ceiling in radiance.  Sensing an opportunity, La Dama launched herself in a suicide dive at El Chupacabra which he dodged at the last minute.  Rey Plomo's head rolled into the vase, which Chupacabra lost sight of.  Following his nose he was able to find the vase and scramble downstairs into the Hall. Eager to save the life of his new discovered love, Tobillo Largo.

El Ciclope implored Tornado to split the antidote with him so they would both have a chance at life. Not taking her silence as a refusal he took a face-full of cactus spines, attempting to administer "the antidote" mouth to mouth. as he leaned in to "give her some sugar" he caught half a Chelsea grin & a flanged tongue for his trouble.  Staggering back with the knife caught in the meat of his neck, El Mini Grande slipped in and whispered in Tornado's ear as he administered the potion: "I am a greater man than your father." Chupacabra caught up with Tobillo at the stairwell and proffered his vase, calling him a pendejo she forced its contents down his gullet.  Amused by the carnage on display, the Mad Monk applauded Tornado's bravura and joined the other characters in the Hall. The butler's choked death scream rang out of the Lounge preceding the Buzzard's gore caked entrance, knife brandished and eyes blooming. 

The earnest butcher grinned wide in anticipation, a rictus grin he'd wear into death as his skull exploded into chits and brain fragments.  Dorrance gripped the smoking gun, gloating that only the most ambitious and ruthless luchadors were worthy of his enterprise. This moment of triumph was cut short as Cyclone Anaya's 1946 Chevrolet crashed through the Ballroom's large window, pulverizing Blanchard.

Three floating feminine forms silhouetted against the stormwracked sky.

This whole session was a lucha libre/exploitation/melodramatic/horror remix of Clue.

Play Report: The Termites of God

I ran a playtest of Habrá Sangre a weekend or so ago,  here were the characters:

El Mini Grande - The leader of Lucha Libre Sin Fronteras' mini locker room and one of the head trainers, he was once the compatriot of El Grande - the promotion's perennial champion.   Having sacrificed his mask to save El Grande's martial pride, he now feels betrayed and gone rudo y yanqui in retaliation.  No matter where the LLSF pitches its tent, El Mini Grande has a malicious legion of black hearted little people at his beck and call.

Tornado Rosado -"Rose Tornado"- El Grande's daughter and bearer of his legacy, Tornado wishes to reunite her father and El Mini Grande.  Driven by a strong sense of justice, Tornado Rosado is a role model to her Tornado Scouts and wears the Mask of the South Wind.

Tobillo Largo -"Long Ankle"- A relative newcomer,  she earned her ring name after she gained the upper hand in her debut match with El Diablo Abismo and retired him after he refused to submit to her ankle lock.  Under the mask she is a medical doctor raising money to keep the doors of her free clinic open. Her iron grip is not something to be trifled with.

The Game:

 Bright carnival tents are pitched outside Monterrey, a city mid transformation m mingling its colonial Spanish roots with an industrial future. La Hora Cero is days away and LLSF' s future lies after. The luchadors venture into the city to drum up excitement for the upcoming spectacle: Tornado Rosado signs autographs & works community outreach, Tobillo Largo goes to a farmer's market, & El Mini Grande courts turistas.

Having worked up an acceptable crowd a preliminary house show commences,  Tobillo & Tornado wrestle the Mad Monk & the Executioner, managed by El Mini Grande. Action is fast & mean, advantages are created and Momentum shifted between the two teams, culminating in Tornado nearly getting the pin on an isolated Mad Monk. Before the ref's hand can hit the mat a third time El Mini Grande summons his Legion De Minis.

Small hands and compact shadows rise and extrude from beneath seats and in the aisles. Chuds are seen among the more usual minis, the crowd freaks out and vacates the tent in droves. The local underdwellers are spotted leaving the tent bearing Remi Alonzo, the late owner's youngest daughter.

Appealing to their shared past and the great man he was, Tornado convinces Mini Grande to accompany her & Tobillo into Monterrey's vicious inframundo. Descending through the tunnels the intrepid trio grapple with a giant octopus, uncover the Wounded King's last resting place,  recieve warnings of las Termitas De Dios (Termites of God) and their monstrous Worm Queen, defeat a Jaguar Eidolón, & Tobillo y Tornado get captured.

Entering the Inner Sanctum, El Mini Grande's flashlight reveals a great Aztec temple in relief, steps leading downward into a terraced abyss. At the very bottom he spots the luchadoras tied next to a panicked Remi alongside a yawning pit.  Sneaking past the Termitas swarming the inverted pyramid, Mini Grande takes cover behind a sarcophagus occupying the space and shape of an Aztec chacmool.  Spying a short figure wearing an elaborate buzzard headdress looming over and laying filth streaked hands upon Remi while whispering abominable futures for her skin.  Mini Grande scoops up a discarded obsidian knife and sidles up behind him.  Whirling the figure around, he plunges the knife into the carrion priest's belly and stares into the face of his greatest student, El Zapatito De Muerte.

 

Fueled by Zapatito's fading life, the knife sawed open his rib cage of its own accord and flicked his still beating heart into the gaping hollow.  The floor began to shake, acting quickly Tornado shredded the net of hair and bones restraining her and Tobillo.  Newly freed, Tobillo peeled the manacles binding Remi so she could make good her escape.  The floor surged upward as a mighty blow struck it from below and brincks nad stones started to fall inward revealing the Termitas' brood mother: the Worm Queen - a foul mix of termite queen, sea worm, and Sofia Vergara.

Filled with revulsion and righteous anger the luchadors struck at the abomination by sundering the key load bearing pillars.  As the ceiling came down, the Worm Queen tried her hardest to draw the intrepid heroes to their doom but they escaped by the skin if their teeth.  Amidst the Queen's annelid death throes the characters saw Zapatito's corpse drawn under the sarcophagus' lid....

Reflection: Forcing the participants to gain momentum before they can deal stress fixed one of my biggest issues with green Fate players - Gain Advantage is the best action for the opening exchange(s) so we see more temporary Aspects created.

Kismet: Flick of the Tail (Play Report)

The Party:

 

Farida - Topaz eyed paladin, out into the Wide World for the first time.  Paladin of Ancients

Hakim -  A priest of the Adventurous, weak for a pretty face.  Trickery Domain

Zaina - A nomad sorceress carrying a royal legacy in her veins.  Ifrit Bloodline

It's Market Day in Huzabba, the Grand Jewel, and the streets are packed as several caravans have arrived in the early morning or the night before.  The party ambles the crowded thoroughfares of the Grand Bazaar towards Mahmoud, the camel drover, pursuing the rumor he has brought a mystic camel to market.  The air is thick with cloying perfume, spices, and pack animals; but the distinct smell of grilling goat draws Farida down a street, her mouth watering and mind swimming with thoughts of savory delicacies.

As Zaina and Hakim follow her they are accosted by an erstwhile street vendor offering a wide range of jewellery for sale.  One piece in particular draws Zaina's eye, and she is able to haggle the vendor into selling it for 3 gold shekels.  Hakim's book learning recalls a reference to the fabled 7 Tears of the Lion Queen and suspects that the bauble may lead to greater treasure in the fabled Land of Lions.

Following her nose, Farida is blocked from the sought culinary delights by a knot of people surrounding a scuffle.  A fisherman and porter grapple and kick over possession of a beautiful, ruby fish until the fish pops free and lands in a nearby well.  The porter kicks the fisherman and stalked away, muttering curses.  Knocked to the ground by the porter's parting blow, the fisherman tears at his hair and wails lamentations to Fate over this cruel development.  The paladin intervenes before the man plucks himself bald, inquiring why he would care so much about a single fish.  Surely as a fisherman he has seen hundreds of their ilk come through his nets?

Zalid, the fisherman, explains that he is forced to fish because he is ill suited for any other sort of work, and he is terrible at it.  But such a beautiful fish, pleading with him in a voice ringing with silver bells, would surely fetch a high price with the right buyer, and Zalid knew just the noble seeking a fine prize from Lake Hali. As the other two PC's catch up, Farida recalls that Marids of high birth have to spend time as a fish before they come into their inheritance.  Having explained the fisherman's plight to her friends they state they retrieve this fish.  Hakim knows that the ruling families of Huzabba have intermarried with the Marids in the past, the nobleman Zalid mentioned may be seeking to bolster his cache.  Zaina had heard stories of the Marids but never seen them, knowing they were genies of the sea.
They ask him to wait for them at a nearby coffeehouse, while the party compares notes.  Resolving to rescue the fish and disregard Zalid's situation.

After asking some quick questions around the square, the party finds out that the well is connected via cistern to a nearby bathhouse which has fallen into disuse.  Before breaching the doorway Zaina notices cursemarks carved into the door frame, just a few flourishes away from hexing any who step through.  To disrupt their completion she Mends the door, and the party steps through.  Moving quickly and quietly, they see the surfaces have a fine layer of dust and large cat paw prints left behind. 

After some empty rooms that once had purpose they find the once bricked up arch to the cool room, whose pool held a similarly twisted and broken iron grating in its depths.  Eschewing any spelunking they scout out the rest of the floor, finding a large room full of tallied bags of linen, with doors that open to large alleyway.  Turning another few corner they come to a T- Junction with signage pointing them to either the changing rooms or the hot baths, Hakim insists that Zaina should take the opportunity to bathe, she takes exception and fires back.  As they trade barbed quips, Farida notices motion in the changing room.  Shining her light upon it reveals a carpet of animal skeletons surging towards them.

Swarmed by diminutive attackers and facing a death by a thousand cuts, Hakim open the windows of his soul and shines the Light of Adventure to Turn the undead.  Animated by the party's negative energy but rebuked by their unity of purpose, the swarm recoils and skulks in the shadows of the changing room waiting another opportunity to strike.  Not giving it to them, Zaina forces the door closed as Hakim wards it against undeath.

Heading in the opposite direction, they come upon the hot baths proper which contains another mauled iron grate.   No longer able to avoid getting in the deep end, the party links hands, casts Light, and holds their breath as they scuttle down the sunken tunnel.  Barely able to maintain their breath, they break air upon entering a larger copper cylinder with a 3' hole in its side.  Distorted humming fills the air around them as they shimmy out of the copper tube and onto the empty, flooded floor of what has once the boiler room.

Announcing their presence, the party dives under the copper boiler and come upon an old woman kneeling on a mat.  Shelves surround the walls behind her, cluttered with odds and ends, but separate from all that is a bowl with a gasping, ruby fish.  Conversing with the party she asks Hakim to leave her some food for the fright they gave her, muttering nonsense under her breath ("ytterp hsif".)  Hakim grows suspicious of her but Zaina, ever bold, steps past them and seizes the bowl as Farida moves between the crone and her friend.  The elderly woman snarls and her illusory masks drops, revealing a horned, green skinned head full of yellowed teeth.  Her lunge reveals her folded legs unfurl into the lower part of a lion as her weight bears down upon Farida.

Zaina gets a face full of venomous snakes for her trouble, Burning Hands saves her from any further harm though she passes out from poison.  Farida mixes it up with the hag as Hakim rushes to Zaina's aid.  With Zaina stabilized he then rushes to bolster Farida's efforts, getting eviscerated in the process.  Farida's steel and Zaina's sorcery prove to be too much and the foul beast flees into the darkness beyond the boiler.  Farida calls upon the Moon to restore Hakim's rent flesh and gets him on his feet.  Stumbling into the flooded room seeking their foe, Zaina sees the fish is still dying.  Realizing they will need to return her to the water she was taken from, she scoops up the fish and the party makes their egress.

Hakim ponders out the logistics and tells the others that without camels they will not make it in time.  Reminding the others of Mahmoud's rumored mystic camel, Zaina leads them to his corral and pleads with him for his aid.  As Mahmoud is married to her mother's sister twice removed they are family and he will loan them the camel for 25 gold shekels.  Hakim readily pays him, and the party clambers onto the mighty beast of dunes.  Riding like the Traitorous Angel is chasing them, they blitz past the coffeehouse where Zalid was waiting for them.Seeing them ride past with HIS fish, Zalid runs out after them but is soon left eating their camel dust.  Avoiding any further complications through Zaina's expert camel handling, they deposit the fish in Lake Hali.  In thanks she sings them a song and swims away. The party makes camp on the lake shore, eager to nurse their wounds and avoid any further dangers.

The morning reveals a bundle of kelp containing 11 pearls and piece of broken pottery bearing the word "MULUK."