The First Episode

Episode 1 Summary: Between a Boncc And a Hard Place

We met all of our players: Mari, the half-elf warlock with a baffling Instagram following; Dor-vey, a half-orc monk with a penchant for drugs and the doing of them; Anthe, a Fallen Aasimar Bard with a killer band; Artichoke, or Artie, a Human Cleric who really does not want to be here; and Kat, a Human Sorcerer sorority sister with the almost literally killer looks to match.

Our whole party convened at a literal frat party hosted by Justin: frat bro, friend of Anthe, boyfriend of Kat, and ex-boyfriend of Mari. Trouble began when Justin pulled Anthe away to enlist her help keeping "his ex" away. After realizing who he was referring to, Anthe, Artie, Dor-vey and Mari embarked on a game of vodka pong, which is beer pong, but worse. After a rousing game, Drunk Mari decided to ignore the advice of her roommate Olivia, who told her to make out with someone to make Justin jealous, went down to track him down and apologize for crashing his party, and ran instead into Justin and Kat— who resultingly just decimated Mari.

As the two ladies faced off, Justin slipped away only to be accosted by a large frat bro asking if he could "hit that" in reference to Mari. Justin responded with a good ol' fashioned pownch, and the frat bro responded by taking off his glamour to reveal himself as a half-ogre. He punched Justin in the face and battle ensued, in which the party found out that Kat's family is in some capacity working with the Institute— the organization responsible for making sure magical races and classes hide and blend into the real world.

Shortly after the fight ended, agents from the Institute showed up and froze all the "mundanes", or nonmagical humans. Kat took the fall for starting the fight, and the Institute took the party plus Justin and sorority sister Trish into custody in long black cars.

Episode 2 Summary: Lockup 

The gang found themselves whisked off into two black cars as the Institute swept in to clean up the mess the Witches had made while fighting a half-ogre who had crashed Justin, the frat bro's, party. In one car, Dor-vey and Artie interrogated a cagey Justin. Dor-vey believed his half-hearted excuses, but Artie saw through the bullshit and pressed further. Artie and Justin bonded over religion after Justin noticed their ring of Harmonia, then both of them transitioned to memes when Dor-vey exclaimed her boredom.

In the other car, Anthe, Mari, Kat, and Trish butted heads over what had gone down. Anthe and Kat traded insults, and Trish did lizard person things until both cars arrived at the Institute: A Men-in-Black type building where all manner of magical creatures walked inside without the need for glamour, or magical items that conceal their non-humanity to the outside world. As glamors are removed, we are introduced for the first time to the true forms of Dor-vey, a half-orc, and Justin, a Hellbourne, or Tiefling. We already saw Trish, because Trish is wild. The gang checked in and each was interviewed separately. Everyone maintained the lie: That Kat, instead of Justin, was the one who initiated the fight. Each person interviewed was then asked if they heard strange sounds or interference over the phone or radio before being sent to holding cells for the night.

Back in the rooms, Dor-vey flirted heavily with Trish, Kat and Mari bonded slightly, and Anthe found out some new things about Justin. Kat did some research about the interference and discovered that, though to humans, or "mundies", interference means ghosts, in the magical world it means something inter-dimensional trying to cross over. Meanwhile, Artie in their personal holding room had a terrifying dream: a city in ruin, their new "ehhh, friends?" in peril, and the number seven repeated through each image. They were left with a final message: "You cannot save them", before they awakened.

The gang was then taken out of their holding cells and to their guardians, where Kat's father laid down an ultimatum: Either the gang all stays out of trouble, or they all go down. The group must find a way to behave together or all lose their scholarships or places at the school.

Episode 3 Summary: One, Maybe Two Things

The gang all piled into cars after lockup with their guardians. Some conversations happened: Most notably, Victor, Kat's father, revealed to her that Kat's mother was taking over as president of the school on their drive back. Mari arrived back at the dorms with her brother Sebastian and met up with her younger brother Alex to spend the weekend with him. He came out to her as trans, and they celebrated before planning a movie night with Mari's new friend Artie. Dor-vey hit up the bar and met Vikki, a very saucy young lady who she flirted with with nebulous success before running into Sebastian, Mari's older brother. They drank together, and Dor-vey soon realized Sebastian was drinking a little too much and handled the situation, promising Sebastian at the end to look out for Mari.

Back in the dorms, Anthe helped Justin/Justice's sister Charity move into her apartment with her. As they were doing so, Mari came over and Anthe revealed to her that, shortly after Justice and Mari broke up, she and Justice became involved in a situationship of sorts. Following this confession, Justice arrived and Mari beat a quick retreat. He helped Anthe get Charity settled in before warning Anthe that Charity may be dangerous. Anthe, Dor-vey and Charity had a night in partying. Later, Justice confronted Kat, telling her essentially to stop being terrible to his friends, to which she, amazingly, agreed. The two of them parted on a slightly awkward yet arguably good note.

Later in the week, Mari's boss The Spectator decided to show Mari the "back room" of her workplace Brimstone Records, which was actually a recording studio that he revealed would be used by Anthe and her bandmates to record some samples and possibly sign on. When the band arrived, Mari warned Anthe about the Spectator and his possible shadiness before Justice appeared and Mari chased after him when he attempted to bail. Anthe then had her own conversation with the Spectator, where he revealed some of his background and covertly offered the concept of a deal.

Outside, Mari spoke to Justice, who implied that Mari had not been truthful or forthcoming while they dated. Mari in turn confessed that she had loved him, whereupon Justice left. In the wake of the fallout, the Spectator appeared and suggested the concept of a deal to Mari, which she did not accept.

Episode 4 Summary: Lay to Rest

The gang had their first group movie night, which was the tradition agreed upon by all members to keep one another together and accountable per Dr. Bane's order. Mari showed up second to Anthe's apartment, beaten only by Justice, who took her aside and explained a large bit of lore to her— in which he revealed that he grew up in a cult, spent an estimate of three thousand years in hell being trained by his shitbag father, escaped and was placed by the Institute in Woodside University, and then began to date Kat— who he fell in love with, but only received drunken reciprocation. He went on to explain he dated her, Mari, for a while, and fell in love with her— then, after their breakup, began hooking up with Anthe and, surprise surprise, fell in love with her, too.

After a text from Mari and an admission of her love for him, he revealed to her that he broke up with Kat in a drunken haze, then slept with Anthe again(in a not drunken haze). At that point, Justice realized he was still in love with all three people and needed to step back in order to get his priorities straight, though he was, to Mari's knowledge, still sleeping with Anthe.

The two returned to the party to find that Kat and Dor-vey had arrived— but no Artie. As the group tried to figure out where they were, they received a phone call from Doug, resident Water Boy and Institute Agent, who instructed them to come to the Founder's House.

The group ran to the scene and found Doug desperately trying to clear the house of an excess of psychic energy, commonly referred to as a "haunting". He asked for the gang's help, and the group entered and discovered that the machine typically responsible for cleansing the house was broken and out of the fluid needed to contain the spirit's essence. While trying to find a solution, the group was attacked by ghostly spirits. Mari went down, Kat was possessed and nearly went down before the final ghost was killed by Justice and everyone headed upstairs.

Dor-vey put together that the primary ghost was most likely the Founder, a bigoted bible thumper who definitely hates the gays. Upon entering an upstairs office, the gang saw Artie, standing in the center of the dark room completely motionless. When members of the party approached them, their eyes were glazed over, and they were mumbling the number seven repeatedly under their breath. When members of the party tried to come to their aid, the door shut behind them and was barricaded, forcing them to face the primary ghost with only Justice, Dor-vey, Trish and Anthe actually in the room.

After some struggle, Anthe going down and quick sleuthing occurring, Doug discovered that placing the crucifix back on the wall would expel the ghost. Victory was had, but with Artie still in their trancelike state and Anthe still unconscious, the party headed to the Institute to try and fix the aftermath of the Water Boy's mess.

Episode 5 Summary: The Cost of Wisdom

The session began with the gang still in the Founder's House, trying to decide what to do with a catatonic Artie who kept repeating the word "Seven", as well as an unconscious Anthe. Doug the Institute Agent informed the party that Artie would not be okay, and advised them to head to the Institute office on campus and cleanse Artie there.

On their way, Mari and Doug had a quick, tense conversation, where Doug asked Mari where she'd received her magic from, and Mari avoided the question while begging him to swear to secrecy. They arrived at the Institute and met Delilah Bane, Kat's mom and part of the research department at the Institute. She took Artie and put them in some kind of bath that mimics the ectoplasm the Witches saw at the Founder's House. She promises that the method used will "most likely" work, and the party retreated to the waiting room to wait out the process.

During the wait, Anthe was taken to the medical bay and Justice went to check up on her, having a brief conversation before returning to the group just as disaster struck. All of the alarms in the building began to blare, the lights began to flash, and the witches rushed back into the room to see the liquid in Artie's bath turn a terrifying color, as well as Dr. Delilah Bane looking very stressed. Then the party began experiencing visions. Artie's vision, which began in the Founder's House itself, was comprised of three Norns, who promised to give them understanding of the vision they received during their last visit to the Institute. The Norns showed them outside the window, where a pillar of light and energy was twisting together and then shooting off in different directions across the campus, showing two different eventualities that could result from the strange vision-- along with all of the aspects of Artie's original vision changing to swap out the different members of the party. They explain that a "right turn instead of a left" could mean different things for the party: That everything was preventable. They promised understanding, which, after brief consideration, Artie takes them up on. They then dropped Artie into a well.

While they were sinking, the rest of the party also experienced visions: Dor-vey found herself back in the Undercity, able to prevent the death of one of her close friends and watch them grow up and thrive. Kat was able to stay with her high school girlfriend and eventually marry her. Anthe ended up with Justice after a conversation they once had goes in a different direction, and Mari was allowed to stay with her family, barring the presence of Davian, her "father". Then Artie's vision returned in time for them to be saved by their god, Harmonia, who told them there was a way to help their friends out of the seeming inevitability of their vision. Artie breaks through the vision with Harmonia's help and wake up to see a terrifying faceless being of blue energy over them, its tendrils reaching out to their friends.

We then saw the end of Mari's vision, where she was confronted by the Spectator who had disguised himself to look like Davian. He confirmed her suspicions about the visions not being reality, then pulled her out of the vision and made Mari choose who to wake next. As Kat was awakened, she was approached by a terrifying woman who told her to call her her "friend", offering to make the vision true in exchange for surveillance on the party. They then all awakened, battled the creature and defeated it, then the Spectator left and the party was left wondering what had even happened. Anthe, Dor-vey, Kat, and Doug all went to the bar, and Justice, Mari, Trish and Artie went home.

Episode 6 Summary: A (Literal) Beach Episode

Summary incoming

Episode 7 Summary: Beach Episode, Take 2

We opened on the gang all in the living room, trying to deal with the fallout from the Charity/Justice fallout situation. Mari insisted that everyone go down to the beach, and For-vey assisted by supplementing it with volleyball. The whole party went down to the beach, and Mari and Justice had a brief conversation where he revealed that either Charity was stronger or he was weaker, and that disputes "where he came from" are usually resolved by weapons.

Dor-vey, Anthe, Mari, and Trish all played volleyball while Artie, Kat, and Justice stayed on the sidelines. While they played, Justice spoke to Kat, encouraging her to go after Emily and find out what happened. After Mari and Dor-vey emerged victorious from the game with a just barely intact ball thanks to the biting machinations of Trish, a still angry Anthe left to make lunch, and Justice followed after. Kat and Dor-vey convened, and Kat revealed that she'd both told Justice that she was ace and that she'd told him about Emily, who she in turn told Dor-vey about. She also encouraged Kat to go after Emily. Mari sat with Artie and thanked them for spending time with her brother, and Artie paid Mari a compliment that made her brain go static.

Back at the house, Justice and Anthe hashed it out, resolving their issues with both Charity and Justice's concern for Anthe's safety. They decided it would be best if Charity stayed somewhere else and get cooking.

Kat searched up Emily's name and found that she had disappeared from the internet completely. Her accounts still exist, but they have stopped posting.

As everyone headed back to the house, Trish, Artie and Mari found Charity behind a closed door, crying. Mari went in alone like the fool she is, but ended up just comforting Charity and staying with her as she called the Institute for help. Mari initially balked at the idea of contacting "an emergency number", and Charity caught it, trying to get Mari to open up. It didn't work, but that was a good try, Charity.

Charity left with a member of the Institute and the group panicked initially. Justice assured them that it will be alright, and revealed that he was in therapy with the Institute and therefore knew Charity would be safe. Artie then had a conversation with Justice where they offered him their beads to ward off bad dreams, which they got from the member of the Institute who picked up Charity. Justice refused them, saying that blocking out bad things wasn't his problem, and the two talked about religion for a bit before Justice promised to look out for Artie.

Mari and Anthe went to take pictures, and Mari apologized for pushing Charity's feelings on Anthe before revealing that she knew Anthe was in love with Justice. Anthe revealed that she and Justin were no longer doing anything, and the two ended on a fairly sweet note.

Justice tracked down Dor-vey and told her that she shouldn't talk shit about herself and she was beautiful. It would have been a much sweeter moment if Dor-vey wasn't stripping, but it was sweet nonetheless. Dor-vey apologized for getting so angry and offered to meditate with Anthe.

The group all then had a rousing game of two truths and a lie before Trish, Anthe, and Dor-vey left to vandalize some houses of sex offenders. There was some talk about leaving on Sunday or Monday, and Justice hurried to say they should leave on Sunday, to the relief of Mari.

After the group left, Kat confronted Mari and asked her if she was okay, then asked if she could look up Emily. Mari did some sleuthing but didn't find anything beyond what Kat had. Mari promised to look more and the two parted for the night.

Episode 8 Summary: Underworld Business

Our session began, just after the beach, with Mari arriving, alone at the Institute. She met with Dr. Bane, Kat's father, and she provided him with strange information before asking for someone's books and promising "we're going to find your friend."

We picked up the next day with Dor-vey waking up to a knock at her door from an Institute agent named Monica. Monica was a hardcore Dor-vey simp, which, relatable, same, but had a mission for Dor-vey and the crew: find the fake glamours that were stowed in the UnderCity. Dor-vey had a personal tie to these, as she was involved with the(now defunct thanks to her) gang that created and distributed them. She exchanged numbers and flirted with Monica before calling the gang together.

We quickly found out that something had gone down with Justice, Anthe, and Mari: Mari and Anthe appeared to not be on speaking terms, and Anthe refused to go to Justice's place when Dor-vey invited her. Kat came to Mari's door and saw that she was NOT doin good, and asked her what happened. Mari was evasive, but revealed that she apparently needed to "fix" something or she would have "broken something again". Kat then revealed that her mother had had the same vision she had in the room of her getting married to Emily and was supportive, which prompted Mari to promise that she would help Kat find Emily and figure out what was going on.

The gang convened at the bar to learn about the mission, and after some angst and objection, everyone finally agreed to go. The gang met Monica and the headed out, going through the institute mineshaft facility to the undercity, which was a cool as hell place. After a gift shop excursion, the gang headed to an old haunt of Dor-vey's: Her guardian Damian's house, a wonderful goblin who takes care of the orphans of the undercity. He fed them all and scurried them off to bed, eager to reconnect with Dor-vey.

THEN WE GOT SPICY DORVEY BACKSTORY: but it's not spicy, it's sad. She revealed that, after failing to be adopted or make friends, she turned to a less good influence and fell in with a gang, becoming known as Red Dahlia. Damian gave her a kid to look after, Corbin, and she learned to love him like a baby brother, but still continued her involvement with the gang.She fell in love with a woman named Isabella and tried everything to keep her, even stealing glamours to escape the Undercity-- but as they were escaping, Corbin came to try to say goodbye and was killed by a startled Isabella. Damian comforted Dor-vey by telling her she was still the good kid he knew and loved.

Dor-vey then came to retrieve Anthe to sleep, and Anthe revealed that she had "majorly fucked up" with Justice and she feared that they were no longer friends. Dor-vey comforted her and they fell asleep downstairs, Anthe crying heavily.

Episode 9 Summary: Red Dahlia

The gang woke up in the undercity and went on their grand mission. Dorvey donned her hot AF Red Dahlia lewk, and Mari pulled her aside to ask her if there was service in the Undercity for her phone. She expressed nervousness about not being able to reach people, and Dorvey assured her that if they were safe when they left, they would probably be safe when they returned.

The party left and found the waterplant, but decided to let Artie stay behind with Trish when they seemed panicked about entering. The remainder of the party snuck in and split down to discover the lab where the glamours were being created. The witches soon discovered that whoever ran the operation was not only making fake glamors, but ones that could impersonate other people: and that somehow, the Unseelie, or the organization of the most powerful criminals, were involved.

The party then encountered a fake Doug, who made three party members face their worst fears before he was defeated. Mari, Kat, and Anthe all went down, but were all revived. Upset and angry, the gang headed back after a big ol' yell from Mari. Back at Damian's, a distressed Artie prayed to their god Harmonia, who comforted them, saying "you cannot keep them(the party) from the fire".

Anthe and Dorvey headed back to the plant and checked out the rest of it without the rest of the party's knowledge. the gang then headed back and found that they all had messages from Justice. They listened back as he warned them not to head to the dorms, then... headed to the dorms. The Institute was crawling all over the place, and agents stopped Kat from getting through-- but Mari walked through, and saw Justice, in a body bag, on a stretcher. Dead. Mari fell to her knees, screaming and crying-- fulfilling the first of Artie's seven visions.