The Dead, Liminal Play Report

 A one-shot play report for Liminal designed by Paul Mitchener.  The Dead is included in the free quickstart for Liminal and is available here.  This was my first GM experience, with my usual group of Call of Cthulhu, 13th Age, D&D5e folks, we had a good time and an enjoyable contrast to the crunchier games.  We played this on discord for voice and Google Jamboard to keep track of character stats and throw up handouts, maps and pictures, all worked well.

...Here Be Spoilers (and a slight amount of artistic licence)...

Ladies and gentlemen of the Watch, it’s 6.00am on a cold and dismal Monday morning,...

...the Watch is the nickname for the London branch of P-Division, a specialist division of the UK police which deals with crimes involving magic and creatures from the Hidden World.  Ah yes, the Hidden World - the world of secret societies of magicians, fae courts, werewolf gangs, 1000-year-old Vampires and haunted places where the walls between worlds are thin.

Dr Tony Marshall, Detective Samira Begum and Civilian Specialist David Wallace are standing at the back of the briefing room at "Sun Hill", a run-down police station in the east end of London.  Inspector Skinner is holding court, explaining the need to be extra vigilant at the HS2 construction site near Euston station, seems there has been an "incident" a few hours back.  He finishes by introducing the group at the back, The Fang Gang, vampire experts and a well-hidden area of P-Division, due in no small part to no one wanting to be anywhere near vampires or associates.  The rest of the room sneers and voice unpleasentaries under their breath.

Everyone piles out quickly and Skinner can only bark a few instructions at the group, head to St James Gardens and talk to the security guard, Joe Hurst, he's expecting them.

St James Square, before HS2

The group get a cab and on the way, the Doctor looks up the details of the site, a few key items come back;

• St James Gardens is now a building site after HS2 took it over
• 10,000s of bodies are being moved and it's being overseen by the Order of St Bede and P-Division
• From P-Division files - there have been a few "staked" corpses which require special attention

Detective Begum gets out of the cab and heads across the road to the gate and a nervous-looking man in a security uniform.  "You Joe?" she barks at him.  "Yes, Ma'am.  I've been expecting, someone, you them?"  "Yes, let us in now and tell us everything you know."  The man is somewhat podgy and pale-faced, he nervously rubs his arm, it hangs awkwardly by his side as he shuffles off.  They all follow.

They arrive at a tented off area, within a small smattering of trees, it's really the only area of grass and trees left in the park, the rest has been turned into mud and concrete.  The main construction site is off to the left, a muddy track leads down into the site. The guard gestures, to the entrance to the tent and they enter.

Inside is a scene from an abattoir, two bodies lie on the ground, one is deathly pale, eyes staring into the sky, the other is missing most of it's insides, which seem to be tossed around the area they now stand-in.  The Doctor kneels down and inspects the bodies and the area.  "Interesting, the pale one has been completely drained of blood, see the marks near the neck?"  "The other has been torn up, almost in half and the blood around her, mixed with bile, seems our friend spewed up his last meal.  Both of them dead only a few hours."  The Doctor points to the door, more blood heading out and away from the main site, back on to the street.  David Wallace pipes up, "They are recently dead, I can get a good signal from them, shall I?"  Detective Begum turns away, "Do the needful, freak."

Blood makes noise

David lays his hands across the body of the pale corpse, without touching her, he can feel her spirit somewhere nearby, lingering and anxious.  "You there, stay awhile." he directs this at her.  The spirit shifts, mentally it's mouth falling open, "I can feel you, am I... am I going to be okay?".  David sighs, "Look, we don't have time, you are dead, right? Dead, so you should move on but before you do, tell me what you saw?  Hurry now or you'll go to hell!"  David winks at Begum and puts a finger to his lips, Begum turns away in disgust.  The spirit of the girl tells, through sobs and anguished cries, how she and her friend were protesting HS2, they'd snuck into the grounds, planning to tie themselves around the tree, but were set upon by some red-eyed, beast of a man.  His clothes were odd, old fashioned and rotting on him, he stank, but what she remembers most is the hunger in his eyes, maybe she passed out after that.  The last thing, when pushed, that she remembers, is someone else watching - maybe a woman, with a dog on a string, standing across the road.  The girl's spirit thinks she'd seen her before.

Begum says to the others, "The Trail looks fresh, we should follow it, strike quickly before the contamination spreads."  The others agree.  "Good!", says Begum, "I'm going to finish talking to the security guard, you two look lively."  The Doctor and Wallace stare at each other, sigh and head off at a trot.

They head west, away from the Gardens, down a few streets, towards a row of Edwardian houses, slowing down, they see another pool of bloody vomit and across the road is a house with a window open.  As they walk towards it they see muddy footprints and a bloody handprint on the window ledge.  They call up Begum, "He's found a new home, posh one too, shall we go in?"  "No, wait for me... you'll just fuck it up!"

After a while, Begum jogs down the street towards them, stops, panting and lights a cigarette, okay, she says to the Doctor, get inside and open the door.  "Me!?", cries the Doctor.  "Yes, I'm having a ciggy, come on before it grabs someone else.". replies Begum.  "Yeh, likely victim No.3 will be yours truly, this is a crap idea."  But even so, the Doctor pulls himself up over the window ledge and flops into the room, edging along the wall, he sees wet muddy prints leading into the hallway, he follows.  Out in the hallway, the prints lead away from the front door and down a staircase.  He trots to the front door and lets the others in, Begum pulls out a gun and ushers the others forward, "I can cover you, go on, keep going."

The trio spend their time tip-toeing through the house until the downstairs is the only room not yet searched, they make their way down, spotting an open wine bottle and more blood/wine vomit.  The last room looks to be a home cinema, Begum prods Wallace, "Open it, I'm covering remember."  "Fucking hell!" he hisses.  Pushing open the door, he steps inside, it stinks of blood, earth and wine in the room, he reaches beside him for a light switch, only smooth wall.  He hears a guttural hiss and glances to his right, sitting on the back row of the cinema, is a shape, a large shape with glowing furnace red eyes.   David opens his mouth and says "....".  The shape seems to spread and enlarge before he realises it is leaping at him, he falls backwards and the Doctor is hit full-on, they tumble back down the hallway, the vampire snapping at the Doctor's neck, before sinking its fangs into his shoulder, he screams out, "Kill the fucker, shoot it, boot it!!"  Begum points and aims, "...then get out of the way..."  The Doctor lies on his back, the vampire astride him, tilts back it's head ready to plunge down and tear into his flesh, six shots ring out, the room explodes in lightning and thunder, the stench of cordite is strong in the air.  A smoking hole exists where the vampires head once was.  "Job's a good 'un" smiles Begum, let's call "Sun Hill" and write this up.  The good Doctor looks back at Begum, his face covered in congealing blood and gore, Wallace whimpers softly in the corner.

Tobias Gerrard

Back at "Sun Hill" the Fang Gang are lounging in Inspector Skinner's office, he's putting down styrofoam filled coffee cups from the new vending machine, he's shaking his head with a smile, "Great work, team!"  "What with all the Fae business up in the Midlands, we could have done without a vampire outbreak, so hats off to you all."  The group smile back.  "Oh, one last thing, there is a witness that says two people left the HS2 site, she's some crusty type, dog on a string, white lightning aroma, the works... I can handle it if you want?"  The group's smiles drop in unison, Begum stands up and looks into the Inspector's eyes, "Dog-on-a-string?  What is that phrase, all shit things come in pairs?  We better sound her out."

The group look through the peep-hole into the interview room, there is indeed a crusty looking woman, sitting bolt upright in a chair, next to her, on another chair is a dog, it seems to be chatting or chewing maybe as it looks at her.  The dog seems to look at Wallace and gives a gesture with its head, a kind of world-weary, come-on-let's-get-this-over-with nod.  They enter.

An hour later, the gang emerge, chatting to each other, so she said, you mean the dog, yes, the dog said, was it the dog?  The Dog said.  Okay, I mean, that's why she kept leaning over to listen to the dog, or maybe she had peanut butter on her ear.  "Anyway, Dog or Crusty seems like someone else came crawling out of the ground", the Doctor sighs.  They agree and turn the corner to find Skinner rushing along it, "Another murder, north of Euston, same modus operandi.", he holds up a piece of paper, "Here's the address, it's a right shit hole, assume you want to get over there tout suite?"  They take it and turn to leave.  Skinner stops them, he pulls out another slip, you are going to need a little bit more help.  He carries on, "As well as some equipment, you may want to call on The Hidden, for a favour, they could provide useful allies, just make sure the favour is something you can deliver on, else you'll be in their little black book."

A little bit more help...

Begum, Wallace and Doctor Marshall arrive at the most derelict of buildings, there is a lone copper waiting at the entrance, he nods at them and leads them inside, "Homeless guy.  Some kids reported finding him like this.  You mind if I head off now, my replacement is well overdue?"  Begum waves him away.

The Doctor checks out the site and body, definitely similar to the two girls, but this attack seems more controlled, neat puncture wounds, no vomited up blood, a quick kill, fed enough to satisfy his hunger but no more.  Also, on the dusty concrete are clear footprints, leading to the edge of the hole in the floor.  Wallace finds the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, this feels different, infinitely more dangerous than before.

Derelict Building

Leaning over the edge of the hole, Begum and the crew see the floor has collapsed smashing through into a storm drain, the prints lead north, into the sewers.

Sewer Entrance

The group are searching around in the sewer entrance, there are quite a few pipes heading off from this main area, but they can't seem to find a clear set of prints that match those above them.  They argue amongst themselves for a moment until a faint persistent tapping becomes louder.  They turn to look for the source of the noise.  A young man sits on a block of fallen concrete, he taps a pipe against it.  "I'm Sparrow, we Hidden have been told you need help, but if you do, we need quid pro quo Clarice, so's to speak."  Sparrow holds up a small orante box beweem finger and thumb, "This needs to get to the Leicester Museum.  Leave it in the Egyptian section and you need to do it before the next full moon, that's 3 days from now.  Deal-io?"  Begum steps forward, holding out her hand, Sparrow puts the box in it.  Begum opens it, inside is a Scarab Beetle, lifelike but inlaid with gold and jewels, the box seems to vibrate.  Begum shrugs and pockets the box.  "Three days, remember and if you dump the box, we'll know and help will turn to hinderence for you and the might P."

Sparrow jumps off the block and lets out a piercing whistle, he grins and hops back on to his concrete seat, "Now we wait.".  After half an hour a distant splashing is heard, a light glows steadily in the gloom, the splashing gets louder and a large figure looms into view, they are almost as broad as the tunnel.  The figure stops, and eyes up the group, they are a fearsome sight, mainly covered in filthy rags, there is a glint of metal beneath the rags and dark, bronzed skin.  They hold a cruel barbed hook on a pole, almost like an 1800s whaling harpoon, "Welcome friend Glaive" says Sparrow, "We are hunting for sharptooths.  A deal has been struck."  Glaive's massive frown, accentuated by his bushy brow and hair falling down around his shoulders, disappears and is replaced with a wide, yellow toothed grin, "Let the fine fellows lead on, I'll stake these scum out."

The group, inspired by their new companions, eventually spot a footprint, just under the water, it seems to turn off from the main tunnel and down a side one.  They pick up their gear and trudge onward.

Wallace is about to turn to Begum to let her know about the previous feeling of doom he had when his light shines down to the end of tunnel and on to a gate, transposed in the glare, is a hulking figure, who turns and snarls at them.  The figure lithely springs onto the wall, across the ceiling and down the other side, closing the gap on the group.  Glaive steps forward and tries to hook the creature down as it runs up the wall again and overhead but he misses and stumbles, long claws scour across his back, drawing sparks from the chain mail beneath his rags but also grunts.  Something spatters and lands on the Doctor, he wipes away blood from his face.

Thomas "The Flea" Flanders

There is an explosion of activity, Sparrow stumbles backwards away from the fight as Begum unloads her pistol and Wallace wildly swings a baton into space.  The beast springs from behind them onto the back of Glaive, tearing at the metal to get to his fleshy parts, Glaive calmly gets to his feet and steps back into the wall, crushing the vampire, who roars and doubles his efforts to get a grip on Glaive.  Glaive is again thrown off balance, stumbling away from the fight, as his spear clatters onto the ground.   Somehow the Doctor is now between the rest of the group and the vampire, calming cleaning his glasses of blood, he looks up at the group, who are looking at horror at the shape behind him.  The vampire sinks it's teeth into the Doctor's good shoulder, shakes him like a rag doll and throws him, cartwheeling down the corridor with a fading scream and splash.

Begum draws her MP5 and splatters bullets across the wall, the Vampire, the ceiling.  As the lights from their torches find the Vampire, they see it is hunched down, they approach... just as they step within reach, the Vampire rears up and reaches out with mouth agape and claws ready to rend.  Glaive rushes in at a sprint, pinning the Vampire to the wall with the barbed weapon, twisting it in as the Vampire gurgles and spurts blood from the wound and his mouth.  Begum steps forward, inspecting the corpse, loads another round into her MP5 and lets rip, just to be sure.

The Doctor cries out, "A little help...", they rush down the corridor, helping him to his feet.  As they turn to thank Sparrow and Glaive, they see only a dim light disappearing round the corner and the voice of Sparrow, "...3 days.".

Back at "Sun Hill", all is quiet congratulations, wounds are patched up and paperwork is begun.  Skinner leans over the team, palms down on the table, "Excellent work, I lost my bet with the lads that you'd all be maggoty corpses by the end of the week, but I'm glad to be proved wrong.", he grins at them and continues, "Now, what do you know about Egyptian Mummies in Leicester?"