Other Borders Session 3-1 (The Ties That Bind)

by | Jan 13, 2020 | LoTT Actual Play

Filippo “The Great” Pacini – Shawn

Manny Velazquez – Jesse

Javier Castilllo – John

GM – Tod

Cisco comes to the theater unexpectedly late. He tells Filippo that Morgan has admitted to making and selling the “Little Smoke”.   He wants Filippo to take him to Morgan’s shop in the morning. Filippo agrees and after Cisco leaves he heads upstairs.

Filippo sits in his little room, drinking and staring into the mirror, seeing the ghosts of his paternal ancestors behind him and they are chiding him.  Filippo wants to make his ancestors proud but he doesn’t know how to extricate himself from the life of crime he has become involved in. He pulls out an I-Ching coin and flips it to make a decision: he needs to show this town who he really is.  He begins tinkering away in his workshop (we can’t see exactly what he’s doing), and then goes to bed, where he sleeps fitfully and has nightmares until morning.

Javier heads to Manny’s house to try and reconcile with him. He tells Manny that Filippo has warned him that Cisco is looking for his Tio.   Javier also tells him that he has sidestepped into the Borderlands and spoke with his spirit cousin, Coyote, and that Coyote has pointed him in Manny’s direction. So Javier agrees to introduce Manny to Tio Marten if Manny helps rescue him. Manny tells Javier about his encounter with Miguel and thinks he maybe able to help.   Javier thinks Miguel is a crazy old coot who does magic tricks for tourists but Manny insists he’s a legit wizard. Javier agrees to visit with Miguel.

Manny and Javier walk out to Miguel’s house in the foothills. He is not surprised to see them, and he knows who Marten is. After some vague talk, Manny blurts out his request. Looking for an easy out, he asks Miguel to “pop in and grab Martin, and bring him back to safety.”  Miguel tells them that simply moving Marten from one place to another will not avert the trouble in town. Then he tells them to follow him, as he walks around the back of the house and deftly scrambles up a steep hill.   Atop the hill Miguel prepares a pipe and hands it to Manny. Manny resists at first, but Miguel explains that if he wants his help, first he must be able to see. Manny accepts the pipe, which goes around the circle three times. The world breaks into red and green pixels and reality becomes… strange. Manny is intensely uncomfortable; he’s never done anything like this before. Miguel guides Manny’s vision to various spots around town. They watch as smokers’ souls are diminished little by little, small sparks of energy sailing off to feed the dark spirits who swarm around them.  Just as Miguel said, this is now happening all over town. Manny has a realization: If this continues, the whole thing might bleed over, damaging the veil between the worlds, and allowing evil spirits to enter our realm. Miguel agrees to help them indirectly, but on one condition: Manny must come to see him once per week for the next year, and learn from him, to carry on his legacy. “I will not be the one who enters that place,” says Miguel, “but I will equip the two of you for your journey. You will have to learn to trust each other.” Heading back into the house he prepares medicine bags for them both. One item is given directly to Manny: a sticky brown bud which Miguel explains will enable Manny to travel along with Javier through the astral plane. He tells them he will be watching, and will help as he can. This drug will work only if they trust each other, because while Javier will be the one driving (so to speak) Manny might be the one who makes everything go wrong. Manny pulls out a knife and cuts his palm, offering the knife to Javier. Javier repeats the gesture, and the two of them shake hands.

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