Welcome back as we continue a SPOILER HEAVY recap of Heart of Glass for Street Wolves. If you missed part 1, check it out here!
This session was pretty intense. The team got to one of the key moments in the campaign!
As a reminder, here are the characters:
- Doc a medic
- Crash a con artist (and stunt man)
- Hornet a driver
- Cobra a thief
Starting the Session
We picked up at 9:00 pm on a Saturday with enough time to do some night time shenanigans or fast forward to the next day.
The team did a lot of discussing of what their next move was. They knew Jonaah was at his cabin and would likely return Sunday in the evening, thanks to their talk with his neighbor Ruthie during the previous session.
They was a bit of back and forth about going during the day or night or simply waiting until he was gone to snoop around. They were pretty sure he was a killer at this point, so they decided they’d rather go while he was there to get him in the act.
There was also the worry that there was potentially some vicitm that was still alive at his place, so they wanted to not wait around too long.
Designer’s Note 1: There wasn’t any hint of another person being held by Jonah, but I guess there’s always a chance.
They decided to head out Sunday morning and get there while it was light out.
Designer’s Note 2: This is something you can’t really control. The players get to Jonah’s cabin (if they go at all) whenever it’s convenient and that’s not always going to be in the middle of the night where Jonah can sneak around easier. I did find it a bit suprising that they wanted to go during the day light, because their ability to hide was minimized too.
Designer’s Note 3: I was a bit surprised because at one point the Players sounded like they were going to veer off their course and visit the mental health facility that they hadn’t been to yet before they went to the cabin. I was ready to facilitate that, but they went back on their original plan.
The team drove the hour north to the cabin. They found the entrance and after driving a few yards found the gate with the “trespassers shot on site” signs and the chain link fence that surrounds the property. Both things were pretty big red flags for the crew.
After picking the lock on the gate they approached the cabin on foot. Cobra noticed the camera on the trail and there was a whole lot of debate about what to do before deciding that this was no longer a sneaking mission, this was an assault mission.
They got to cabin and saw Jonah’s car, an RV, a storage shed, and the cabin. Hornet went around the back to cover a rear door (there isn’t one). Crash lived up to his name and decided to kick open the front door.
I’m staying away from talking too much about mechanics, so I’ll keep this vague: He missed noticing there was a trap on the door, but Doc saw it. I had Doc make a roll to see if she could help Crash and she did, pushing him out of the way at the last second as spiked mounted on a hinge swung down. Those things would have done a lot of damage so it was a really close call.
Now that the team was aware of the traps, they proceeded more cautiously.
Designer’s Note 4: Oh boy, I was ready to spike Crash, but Doc’s player at the last second said she wanted to help, so that’s how the dice rolled.
While Crash and Doc investigated the Cabin finding the bathroom and pantry, they heard a clunk like noise coming from below them.
Designer’s Note 5: The clunk noise is not written in the book. On the spot I decided that because they were listening very hard and since I had decided that Jonah was in the basement that I’d throw them a bone and have the hidden door down there make a noise so they had a clue what was going on.
Cobra and Hornet went around to the storage shed. Cobra picked the lock and Hornet went inside, finding two rain barrels with decomposing human remains in them.
Back inside the cabin Doc found the bedroom and Crash opened the door to the cellar. He was much more cautious this time, opening it from the side, so when the shotgun trap went off it missed him.
Hornet and Cobra went back to the house and basically stood guard inside while Doc and Cobra went down into the cellar and found Jonah’s torture/dissection room and were pretty grossed out by it.
Designer’s Note 6: While the Street Wolves were in the cabin I debated on having Jonah rush up, slam the door, lock it, and set the cabin on fire. However, that dang daylight made me not do it. There was too big of a risk for him to get caught out in the open by Cobra and Hornet. My thinking was that Jonah felt safer in the woods at this point, so that’s where he stayed.
Doc found Jonah’s collection of stuff from victims and in her haste found two names written on the boxes that she recognized: Ted and Stacy.
Designer’s Note 7: Okay, so they know who Ted was because they found his body and were expecting to see his cut off foot in a jar in the box (which they did). They didn’t really react when I said Stacy… I’m not sure if they recognized that Stacy was the one giving them the tapes? There was a lot going on at the time with Jonah being on the loose, so maybe they just filed it away. I was expecting a bigger reaction. I am wondering what will happen next time when they play the tape that was also in the box.
They were in a rush to catch Jonah and since Doc has crazy good observation skills and they had heard a clunk they looked around and she found the hidden door. Crash led the way through the tunnel out into the woods.
Meanwhile Cobra and Hornet investigated the RV. Cobra grabbed the door handle of the RV and was rewarded with an electric jock. Hornet did some quick thinking and kicked Cobra to break the connection, but she did suffer some damage. Inside the RV they realized it was bigger on the outside than the inside. After carefully examining things, Cobra found a hidden door to the rear where Jonah had restraints set up for when he captured victims he could safely bring them back to his cabin.
Back to the woods: After popping out of the trap door, Crash and Doc looked around silently when Jonah shot Crash who was hurt, but not mortally so. They took cover while Cobra and Hornet ran into the woods.
Doc and Crash rushed forward while Jonah tried to flank, unfortunately he failed his contested roll with Crash so he didn’t a sneak attack on him.
We drew initiative.
Designer’s Note 8: At this point I knew Jonah was toast. It was daylight, he had four Street Wolves on his ass, and he drew last in the initiative. It was a little disappointing, but I got my horror show out of the way.
Cobra fell into a pit trap and rolling her ankle, but I didn’t consider her much of a threat for this combat since she didn’t have a gun. Hornet could have shot (with a penalty for distance) but he held his action. He didn’t want to kill Jonah.
Doc shot Jonah followed by Crash. The way the rules work on this game Jonah was out, but not dead (which I hoped he would be). Instead, Doc the medic immediately worked to save his life, they wanted this guy alive.
They tied him up and were debating what to do. Doc said something about sedating him and I said first aid kids generally don’t have anything like that. And then I said, because it just occurred to me, that Jonah likely has a lot of drugs like that. They then got the idea that they could use his basement to keep him restrained in his own dungeon.
And that’s where the session ended.
Designer’s Note 9: Oh boy, this is the first time that the Street Wolves have captured Jonah alive. Honestly, there’s not much about this in the scenario itself, but I feel like I’ve given enough advice on this sort of thing in general in there. In particular, dude is not going to be cooperative. If anything, he’s going to lie and try to lead them off course.
Yeah, they could try to torture him, but I’ll pile on Stress checks for that sort of thing. And even then, torture doesn’t guarantee results.
What I might do if I can is to have Jonah try to lead them to Brandon Marks, the leader of the local Stormfront chapter. Jonah knows that Brandon has a lot of firepower and enough dudes to take this group out. Let’s see if the Street Wolves realize they’re being lied to.
When we ended the session it sounded like they were they want to head to the mental health facility… but as written there’s not much more that either the Doctor there or Mike (one of the original people set up for Jonah’s crimes) can offer them. However, if they do go that route it can confirm if Jonah is telling them the truth or not. It would be the smart move rather than relying on the word of a psycho serial killer.
There’s a ticking clock now. It’s Sunday morning. Monday morning Jonah is expected to be back at school for his job. With him being a no call no show there’s alarm bells going off with his employer (Principal Morehead) who tries calling both his home and cabin phone number. Morehead then calls the Keysville police and on Monday afternoon they perform a wellness check at his house. At that point a couple of Keysville police are sent by Chief Krause to Jonah’s cabin (they're out of their jurisdiction, but he would NOT trust the local cops to do this).
So I’m thinking police arrive at the cabin at 4:00 pm unless something else happens. The Street Wolves only have so many hours left before there’s a manhunt for Jonah and the Wolves lose their ability to investigate as easily.
We’ll see what the Street Wolves do in the time that they have!