And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow - Session 23 - No closure
I'm a broken record here, because just like the past two sessions, I came in a bit scattered and reluctant. This time though I think I had pretty decent reasons, as I didn't have the best week. The main thing though was that I wasn't sure about the pacing, and didn't have much prepared to a degree genuinely unseen before.
All I had for the second part of this session was a list of random encounters and stuff like this:
Salon of Hercules
Carno Carsi is here with his goons
And relied entirely on my knowledge of the NPCs to act on it. It barely qualifies as oracular because I didn't actually manage to prep all I thought I would need, we flew past that and into improvisation at that point. And again, still being a broken record: it worked well.
I think at this point we have well-established character arcs and a solid idea on how to interpret the dice, so it becomes more of a situation of trusting my instincts and getting help from the players to understand what's going on, and it worked perfectly well. I do wish to have more prepared for next session, as improvising takes a bit out of me, but we had robust enough procedures that I don't think I need to do much more than imply and think on my feet for the current situation.
The recap, if you even care
October [High Spring], Week 4
This started off with Cora and Corina's birthday, and it culminated with Corina feeling left out - or rather, excluded by the players through prioritisation - and dashed out from her own birthday party. The players had a great time with one another though, Giovanna and Belina hit it off so we're thinking it might spark jealousy in Cora.
WW: Cora: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action
Giovanna: WHY AM I THE ENEMY?
This was followed by Coronation Day, two days later, and the knights organised a helm show in support of his majesty King Constantine. Cora attended with Claudia, Fiorello with his sister Maria, and Cora was inside studying.
Fiorello and Maria hit it off amazingly, but Giovanna and Claudia's relationship became more strained as they realised they had nothing to talk about with one another.
Cellar: Giovanna's just suffering while Fiorello just quotes Vin Diesel from the Fast & Furious franchise
Finally, Halloween rolled around. There are many events being organised by the cliques, but Fiorello goes along with the Romantics for ghost-watching in the woods (a poor excuse to drink, tell ghost stories, and have unprotected premarital sex while dressed as animals), and it goes pretty well!
Cora takes Corina to meet the Mourning Dove and they hit it off famously, they eat candied apples while watching the kids trick or treating from a nearby roof.
Meanwhile, Giovanna is asked out by Claudia - a new addition to the Heart Engine, thought up by me and WW, where NPCs now ask PCs out too - and they relive their memory of their first time in the pool of Gabadona.
November, Week 1
Finals are at the last week of November, so everyone studies. I actually had a random event here, but I forgot about it and let it fire off next week.
November, Week 2
Everyone studies again, except Cora, who's hanging out with Francesca and talk about their professors, just generally friending out.
Eterna: Cora: Sunbeam Emerald is EVIL
Cora: she wants to KILL ME
WW: Francesca: that sounds like a you problem, have you tried finding Jesú?
Eterna: Cora: I spend a LOT of time in the Abbey actually
November, Week 3
Finals are next week, so Cora decides to go find Belina. Funnily enough, I had a random encounter that Belina asks her out to get some coffee at her favourite place. Cora tells her of the time she met Princess Naramante hiding in a little house on the beach and whispers that she wouldn't mind living with Belina in some distant place once they are tired of being knights.
Belina, however, is prone to being weak-willed about things like these, and so she thinks this is a nice dream, but an impossible one. Cora believes they could do it, but does not try to convince her, and they part as friends and without getting any closure.
Claudia asks Giovanna out and tells her that she's starting to understand her love of water. Once more they rest on their memory of that one day and manage to have a great time, but it's becoming more and more apparent to Giovanna that this isn't sustainable. They don't discuss their problems, they can't communicate, and neither is mature enough to be the one to discuss it.
Fiorello is studying, which in his case means flying an airplane, he doesn't want to let his mentor down.
Eterna: Cora and Giovanna keep mechanically succeeding but emotionally cracking
WW: It's always like this when Cora and Giovanna are having a terrible time
November, Week 4
Finals roll around and everyone passes, some with more ease than others - Giovanna passes with flying colours, the other two have a rougher time - and can breathe as they're free now.
On the last weekend, Cora goes out with the girls, Corina and Francesca, to do a paddleboard race at the beach, and they have a magnificent time.
Giovanna goes out with Belina to the amusement park, for the first time having one appear in a campaign inspired chiefly by a song... about having a good time in the amusement park with a loved one.
Eterna: You are lucky Cora is NOT seeing this
Cellar: up on the ferris wheeeeel :absolute cinema raccoon: [This is a reference to the song]
Fiorello tries going out with his friend Briglici down to the pinabll parlour, and has to swallow the hard pill that they don't fit in anymore - they like one another, but they're clearly growing apart. And so spring ends, summer vacation begins, and their families call them up to the Royal Ball.
The Royal Ball, first hour
Like I said, I had very little prepared for this. This was run as a sort of dungeon: I gave them a map (as mapping wouldn't be needed here) of the place, and said that from one room to the next would take one turn (15 min) to traverse. They can move two rooms in a turn if they decide to walk impolitely fast, like a chud, and perhaps even more if they decide to run. The ball starts at 20h and will go until 5h.
The big thing, though, is that emotions are high in the ball. While over the course of their regular lives, it takes a full weekend for them to get a roll for an NPC to like or dislike them more, in the ball this can happen over the course of a turn; everyone is extremely present and thus sensitive.
I won't go beat by beat because it's not important, but the first few turns involved them finding the cabinet of medals and a salon of abundance, being described the main adults (king and queen, as well as their duke and duchess lieges, and the young princess), that kind of thing.
Eventually they find Carno Carsi and his goons sitting around the Salon of Hercules. They immediately split as Fiorello wants to go to there and talk to them, while the girls go north, exploring other rooms dedicated to other deities.
WW: Carno is laughing, chudly.
Eventually Fiorello ceases talking to Carno and goes over to the chapel, where he finds his BFF Francesca with a religious lad he doesn't know, Aristarcus, and they hit it off pretty quickly. The girls find the Mourning Dove instead, out of his character and clearly depressed about it. Everyone being depressed about something, they decide to be depressed together for a while, and afterwards go stargazing in the royal gardens. Fiorello is moving towards them, and about this time I realised we were 10 minutes over time because WW mentioned - time had FLOWN by.
Next session we might get some closure on the strained relationship between Giovanna and Claudia, Cora and Belina, Fiorello and the boys... or maybe not. The dice in Hearts Aglow have proven themselves to favour a frighteningly realistic "sometimes shit just happens and people have to cope" approach to relationships. And also I'll likely have better formed thoughts on this sort of structure for the royal ball, though from the first hour of it, I think it works well enough.
