Heart of Glass Recap Part 6

Wow, we're on the penultimate session of Heart of Glass! The follow is a SPOILER HEAVY recap of Heart of Glass for Street Wolves. If you missed part 1, check it out here!

As a reminder, here are the characters:

• Doc a medic
• Crash a con artist (and stunt man)
• Hornet a driver
• Cobra a thief

It Begins

The Street Wolves know they’re running low on time, with Jonah tied up in his cabin and the FBI probably reacting from the call they made to them, the clock is ticking for being able to make moves in the small town of Keysville.

The Wolves had three things they wanted to do:

1. Go to Eastlake Mental Health Facility to meet the sole survivor of the Keysville Three.

2. Meet with Pastor Werther and see what they could get out of him.

3. Break into the police chief’s safe and get to some tasty evidence of the massive coverup.

The Wolves split into two teams. Team A was Doc and Crash who headed to Eastlake. Team B was Hornet and Cobra and they went to talk to the Pastor.

But before they could go there was some fallout to take care of…. a couple sessions previously Crash conned local loser Tommy Olson into believing they were going to hire him for a movie. As part of that, they got Tommy to loan him his truck. As a part of the con, Crash told Tommy that he could have a chance getting back with his ex-Wife Gina, who is the waitress at the diner that the team have talked to a few times (and helped her with Tommy who slashed her tires in part 1). Gina wants nothing to do with Tommy and is saving up to escape the town.

Well, Gina had talked to Tommy and was not at all happy with what Crash had done, particularly saying Tommy could probably win her back. In the motel parking lot she ran up to Crash and let him have it in an expletive peppered rant. She then stormed into her motel room and shut the door.

Crash was taken aback a bit. After a couple of minutes he knocked on Gina’s door. After a tense moment, she agreed to hear him out. He apologized for what he had done and basically admitted that they were in town to put a stop to the rotten things going on. He didn’t specifically say they were Street Wolves, but he pretty much laid out their whole deal. Gina begrudgingly forgave him and the two shared a beer before we cut to the team splitting up to go about their own investigations.

Developer’s Note 1: I really wanted some fallout from Crash giving Tommy that hope. It really was a crappy thing to do. It hit me that the dope would say something to Gina and she would be angry, for good reason. Iwas going to leave it with Gina being pissed off and refusing to talk to any of them afterwards, especially Crash. However, Crash’s player is charismatic and he plays a charismatic character well. When he apologized he role played really well and the fact that he admitted they were vigilantes on a mission of justice also helped his case. I did make him role Persuasion a couple of times (he did get a bonus for good role playing). The first was at the door to get him to even talk with him at all and the second was during their conversation.

Hanging with the Pastor

Team B (Cobra and Hornet) went to the church looking for Pastor Werther and found out he was at home. They then headed over there. Cobra went up to the Pastor’s door alone with Hornet sitting outside. They agreed that if she didn’t come out in a half hour that Hornet would come in to check on her.

Inside the house Pastor Werther offered to help Cobra. She said she had all kinds of problems and wanted spiritual guidance. Werther spent little time on normal conversation, he was ready to open up to this woman who seemed like she was “bad” and she was also an outsider that didn’t know anyone in town. For him it was the perfect storm to try to woo her. He offered her tea and cookies during this conversation. She didn’t drink any tea even though the Pastor did. It was good for her because it was spiked with laudanum. The Pastor was fine, because he’s done a fair amount of it and has a high tolerance.

The conversation shifted and Werther offered to show Cobra his hidden “special hobbies vault”, which contains adult related items and things that are banned in the town, like rock n roll records. Cobra was really into it (!), so he then straight up offered her laudanum from a bottle in his vault. They both drank some. I am not joking, she straight up was totally fine with taking this drug with this weird dude.

Developer’s Note 2: This is the SECOND time in this session that a player threw me for a loop. First Crash apoligizing, then Cobra doing this. With Cobra’s player going along with the laudanum drinking, it brought the tone down from creepy/scary to the Pastor having a good time and thinking he may have a legit chance with this woman. It suddenly became a fun hang out. Oh and I did make Cobra see if she was affected by the drug as well as a Drive check. While I’m not focusing on mechanics here, she did lose some Drive, which she really should have.

Developer’s Note 4: Really make sure you're cool with your players when doing a scene like this. You really need to trust each other and also offer them the chance to stop or discuss things if they're not comfortable with a situation like this.

Developer’s Note 4: This scene isn’t in the book, but the seeds are planted in it with the Pastor’s laudanum addiction and special hobbies vault. It was really fun to play this part through. And I recommend “The Pink Room” from the Twin Peaks soundtrack for at least part of this scene.

We cut to Hornet in his car realizing the half hour was up. He got out and carefully scoped out the house and checked the door. It was unlocked, so he went in (I had decided that Werther didn’t want to scare Cobra by locking the door behind her and it’s a small town, so it’s just something people don’t do).

I started playing some Doors “Break on Through”, telling him it was really muffled. He looked around the house until he realized it was coming from behind a wall. And because he found a hidden door at Jonah’s place, he was ready to look for one here and he popped it open to find…

…Paster Werther tied up to an “X-cross” (yes, I did have to look that up) while Cobra was just bopping along to the music. Hornet didn't go in, seeing Cobra had things under "control" he decided to wait in the living room and just listen in.

Cobra started to ask Werther questions about the murders and the Crusaders to which Werther started sobering up a little bit to tell her he wasn’t having fun and asked her to untie him.

Cobra apologized and let him go. Werther walked into the living room to find Hornet chilling out. He  really knew something was up, so he went into the kitchen telling them he’d be right back.

Cobra and Hornet heard the sound of Werther using a rotary dial telephone. Hornet decided to stop that, so he walked into the kitchen and put his hand on phone to hang up.

We then cut to team A arriving at East Lake Mental Health Facility.

Meeting the Doctor

Crash and Doc were not screwing around. At the receptionist they said they needed to meet with Doctor Roberts (Jonah Tate’s former doctor and member of the Crusaders) about Jonah.

They were escorted to the doctor’s office. Once Doc began talking  she pretty much laid all the cards on the table: They knew Jonah was a murderer, that the doctor and a bunch of other people covered it up, and they were going to take care of things. And they weren’t the police. While Doc was the "good cop", Crash was the “bad cop” or should I say, “potentially voilent cop” threatening the doctor with murder if he didn’t help them out. That got him talking.

He confirmed that there’s evidence in the police chief’s safe. Remember, Jonah had lied about it, so the Street Wolves weren’t entirely sure that stuff was still there or not.

Crash then worked his crash magic and convinced the doctor not to turn them in as soon as they left by making an apeal. He said that the doctor has been doing terrible things for years and that perhaps he was being controlled by others. Now was the time to try to balance the scales and finally do something right. The doctor agreed.

Developer’s Note 5: The players had no idea that Doctor Roberts held onto a terrible secret and that he had literally been controlled by the Tate family since the ‘30s. The fact that Crash hit on the "being doing bad things under the control of bad people" felt like the right chord to strike with this guy to get him to comply.

They got the Doctor to agree to stay out of their way, but also to call the FBI and tell them what he knew, but to wait at least 24 hours before doing so. For their part of the deal, they couldn’t promise him anything legally, but they weren’t going to kill him when the time came either. They then demanded that they hand Mike Archer over to them.

Mike was the last of the Keysville Three, the group that got framed for Jonah’s killings in the 1980s and the Street Wolves were going to bust him out of the metal hospital… except things don’t always work out for the heroes.

The doctor had Mike brought to them and he explained that Mike had been lobotomized several years ago. The doctor stated that he had actually saved Mike’s life, since Donald Tate wanted him dead. At least Mike was alive. He painted himself as a hero, though the Street Wolves didn’t see it that way.

Developer’s Note 6:  I realize that mental illness is a sensitive issue. I checked in on them several times during the session. Especially during this scene. I didn't role play as Mike. It was a bit more descriptions of things he said and what not than attempting to act it out and potentially be offensive.

Winning Over the Pastor

We then cut back to Hornet hanging up the phone in Werther’s kitchen. Werther was a bit pissed, but Hornet, like Crash, sold the fact that he’s a dangerous dude putting evil people in the ground. Werther folded like a wet paper bag. Like the Doctor, Pastor Werther was willing to work with the Wolves as long as they didn’t kill him AND they destroyed the blackmail tape held in the police chief’s safe, which was the biggest piece of evidence implicating the rest of the Crusaders in the conspiracy to frame the Keysville Three.

Developer’s Note 7:  Another aspect of Werther that I played up was the fact that he didn’t know that Jonah kept killing. He suspected it, but didn’t know. When presented with the fact that Tate was a prolific serial murderer, that also got him to cooperate.

They asked Werther if he knew the combination to the safe and he said he didn’t, but he had recently had a sort of confessional/therapy session with the police chief’s wife, Eileen. Eileen told him that she had found the combination. After going in the safe she discovered some disturbing stuff. She’s unhappy with her marriage and even unhappier now.

Developer’s Note 8: Cobra is a thief who automatically knows that it requires specialized tools to break into a safe, and even better if you know the make/model. I told her that she could possibly get something going if she went to the hardware store and put something together (crafting), but it would take a good amount of time. I figured to make the combination within reach by having Werther drop that he knew someone that knew it. She seemed much more interested in that route.  

Back to the Motel

It’s 4PM and the team meets back up again. They decide to see if they can get Eileen to turn over the combination. Crash figures he could sweet talk her, but he wanted a better in. So he then comes up with a plan to ask Gina very nicely if she could get Eileen to meet with them at The Hideaway at 5PM. With Gina being a local and having a terrible (ex) husband, he thought she could connect with Eileen in a way he couldn’t to get her to come to the meeting.

We did a brief cut scene with Gina at Elinee's door saying, "You don't know me, but..."

And with that, the session is over. The next session is promising to be pretty intense…

But What Happened to Jonah? Aka Bonus Content for Heart of Glass

Last session the Street Wolves captured Jonah and left him in his cabin, unable to escape. They called the FBI, hoping they’d raid the place, arrest Jonah and bring the whole house of cards down.

Here’s the thing: It’s not that I didn’t want that to happen, but it didn’t feel logical for the situation after thinking about how things might play out. The following is how I worked it out in my head.

The FBI got the call and presumed it was some sort of a crank. They still follow up on the call, by calling the Marinette County Sheriff’s office who does the policing for the area where Jonah’s cabin is located. They request that the County Sheriff’s office perform a wellness check to scope it out, just in case there is some truth to the call.

Now it would make sense to me that with Donald Tate being a powerful man (former Wisconsin state Senator and now US Congressman) that he has fingers in many pies in Wisconsin, one of them being the Sheriff’s office that is in the county his hometown is located in. That same home town where he’s done a lot of illegal things and he’s actively suppressing first amendment rights. So of course he’s going to be a big donor to the Sheriff’s political campaigns and likely a contributor in other ways (police benevolence associations, maybe even a slush fund), and likely friends with the Sheriff.

So when the Sheriff gets a call about something weird going on with Donald Tate’s brother, he gives the Keysville Police department a heads up. They have 24 hours to check it out before he sends any of his people over there.

And this is when things get interesting.   

The Current Timeline

The following events occur or will occur unless the players change them.

Sunday 5:00 PM:

• After some debate about what to do with the call received in the morning, The FBI requests the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office do a wellness check on Jonah Tate.
• The Marinette county sheriff alerts Keysville's police chief, giving him "first crack" at checking out the cabin.
• Eileen meets with the Street Wolves. They’re likely to get the combination from her. She may also cooperate further.

Sunday 5:30 PM: Officers discover Jonah tied up in his torture dungeon, finding evidence of his horrific crimes. They call Chief Krause and ask him what the heck to do.

Sunday 6:00 PM: Krause comes up with a temporary plan. He wants to nail Jonah, pinning everything on him. He has his men take Jonah into “protective custody” and bring him back. He sends a couple of other officers to the cabin to  secure the place and make sure there’s no evidence that leads back to Krause or Donald Tate. At some point, Jonah gives the police descriptions of the Street Wolves.

Krause gets a hold of Donald Tate. As much as Donald loves his brother, he knows the can of worms is opened and it's time to do damage control. He gives Krause permission to blame Jonah for everything and to also silence him.

Krause calls an emergency meeting of the Crusaders. Shortly afterwards, Doctor Roberts and Pastor Werther try to call the Street Wolves to give them a heads up that something is going down and there's a meeting planned for 7:00 pm.

However, they may have already noticed this, because there’s a squad car patrolling Keysville and a couple of pick up trucks full of Stormfronters looking for the Wolves. 

Sunday 6:30 PM: On the way back to Keysville, Jonah figures out that things aren’t going to end well for him. He’s a smart guy and sees the writing on the wall. Potentially one of the cops mistakenly lets loose with something. Jonah isn’t handcuffed. He manages to overpower the officers. The car runs off the road just outside of Keysville. Both officers are dead, but Jonah is free. 

Perhaps the Street Wolves find the abandoned patrol car with the dead cops inside and wonder what happened…

Sunday 7:00 PM: The Crusaders meet. Krause tells them the plan to implicate Jonah. If they play it right, they don’t have to worry about a thing. It’s at this point that he’s made aware of Jonah’s escape. He then gives the remaining officers and Fronters a second mission to find Jonah (this is likely more important than the Street Wolves in his mind).    

Sunday 8:00 PM: Krause returns home, gets into fight with his wife. Things are falling apart quickly for this guy. It’s highly likely he’ll either try to destroy the evidence in the safe or take it to a “more secure” location like the police station. I haven’t decided this yet and will play it by ear.

And that's what I've got cooking for background moves. There's plenty of opportunity in here for the Street Wolves to get into even more trouble as the campaign concludes.

By the way, I’m not 100% locked into these times. You should be willing as a GM to move things up and down for dramatic purposes. Like, don’t do it to screw with the players, but if it would make for a more interesting scene if something happened a little earlier or later, then do that.

I want to add that I’m not the kind of GM that needs the bad guy to get away, but the pieces have fallen in my mind for this to be a reasonable series of events to have Jonah walk away. Maybe the players will want to do a follow up session to track down the one that got away.