[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Instead of the PCs, two NPCs named Enoch Young and Wyatt Jackson saved the day, stopping the pishtaco from reaching 'Gwen Delvano', armed only with pistols taken from the bodies of correctional officers. Their reward was being arrested for impersonating police officers, as they had somehow given the impression that they were detectives from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, in the process of infiltrating the University of Texas Medical Branch - Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital.

I assume these were some of Kessler's Night Riders? Depending on how it gets spun, they may be able to get away with no or minimal consequences, seeing as they risked their lives to save the others in the hospital. That's likely to count for something (particularly in the media).

Originally Posted by Icelander

Despite their heroics, the last pishtaco to die managed to break an ivory statue of a skeletal ouroboros that was carried inside a bottle of water, while his companion broke two crystal figurines of ravens. Enough mystical energy was released to short out every single electrical device in the room.

Very nice symbolism, but I'm curious as to what exactly was done here. I'd assume the skeletal ouroboros helped aspect the area to Path of Loss, while the ravens were for wiping her memory (and was it two because they used two charms in case the first failed, or two so the one representing Mugin wiped her memory while the one representing Hugin addled her mind?), but that seems to fly in the face of the rule against magic enhancing magic...

Originally Posted by Icelander

PC heroics in this session were confined to policing crime scenes, talking with investigators and playing different law enforcement agencies against one another. Oh, and Lucien Lacoste attended an autopsy where he performed a necromantic ritual.

Anything interesting pop up?

Originally Posted by Icelander

Teddy Smith is odd-looking, somewhat creepy and socially awkward. However, he has now twice carried distressed young females away from danger and in both cases, they've fallen head over heels for him. In the first session, because of a 6-6-6 on a random Reaction Roll, in this session because Teddy Smith used Diplomacy to calm Ms. 'Delvona' when she awoke and to convince her that she was in no danger, she could trust him and he would take care of her, before he had to carry her out of the crime scene (which was still dark, covered in broken glass and full of dead bodies). And rolled a critical success, which we interpreted, obviously, as the innocent-as-a-newborn-babe amnesiac imprinting like a baby duck on the first person to show her kindness and affection.

Outstanding, glad to see such a tropey result (seriously, "amnesiac villain falls in love with a hero" plots are pretty much the bulk of "amnesiac villain" plots) occurring more-or-less naturally in play.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Joking aside, no Texas law enforcement officer is going to be surprised at Nazi Lowriders working with people of Hispanic origins.

I did not expect that (I assumed they were making an exception in exchange for untold power), and I'd imagine a good many people - particularly some of the more reactionary in the media - won't either, so there is going to be some degree of confusion about this case, particularly for those who try to put the perpetrators in an easily-defined camp other than "criminal." Again, I suspect it would be darkly entertaining to watch how this plays out in the media (although the death of four correctional officers certainly reduces the entertainment value).

Originally Posted by Icelander

Which, mind you, she might have had before her memory loss, but for now, her mind is mint condition.
(...)
One apparent side effect is that pretty much every negative memory in Gisella's life has been thoroughly destroyed.

Wait, the Path of Loss actually improved someone's life? Did the PC's fail after all, and the apocalypse is imminent?

Originally Posted by Icelander

It's possible, but it wouldn't be cast using the Path of Nonexistence (Loss) tradition the the cultists all share and thus couldn't use as much of their stored energy or accumulated bonuses from various sources.

Unfortunate, particularly as it means the cult will have to try to convince her she used to work with them (and probably without a handy Total Recall-style video recording), rather than her suddenly regaining her memories and having to make a Very Important Choice. On the bright side, it means so long as the PC's treat her decently (and from what I can tell, they'll be rather inclined to do exactly that), she's very unlikely to turn on them.

Originally Posted by Icelander

So, Gisella seems to lack any self-consciousness, calculated deceit or jaded defence mechanisms. All the jumbled memories that remain to shape her personality are simple, happy and mostly dating back to her childhood and teen years. So she's basically an unbeliably naive, sheltered and happy teen in personality, but with quite a lot of knowledge of language, literature, movies and other escapism hobbies. And somehow, her jumbled memories didn't affect her intelligence, making her a lot smarter than most teens, albeit much less cynical.

With this in mind, the PC's are likely going to want to be more-or-less upfront with her if they want her to tag along as an ally, but will probably want to couch things under the assumption she was being controlled by the cult (which, to be fair, may well be the case - not magically controlled, but controlled nonetheless in more mundane ways). She has the intelligence and skills to potentially uncover the truth, particularly from the clues she'll pick up going with the PC's to monster hunt in the Caribbean (assuming they can convince the authorities that she a) isn't useful in their investigation and b) will be safer and happier protected aboard the Penemue than with whatever they have in mind), and she may well feel betrayed - betrayed for the first time in her memory, which will hit her even harder - if she discovers the PC's have been lying to her. That's a quick way to turn her against the party. Of course, there's also the risk she'll try to get them to restore her memory once she is informed of (a sanitized version of) the truth.