Happy day after Christmas everyone! We continue the playthrough of my new game, Blaydon Grange Solo Edition (available at Itch or DriveThruRpg, free or pay what you want). This is a solo RPG based in the genre of girls boarding school fiction, similar to the Malory Towers books (and TV series), the St Clares books, the Trebizon novels and others
Rather than start with a random scene this time I want to pursue the Scandal story arc – in the last session Miss Penrose suffered a setback as headmistress Miss Yates called her on her unorthodox teaching methods and gloomy influence. Verity remembers the mysterious phone call she heard Miss Penrose making one night earlier in the term and suspects something underhand is going on.
It is evening in the Common Room and Verity has confided her concerns about the phone call to Miss Penrose to Evelyn Kendal her best friend: “The other girls seem to adore her, but they don’t see what a horrid influence she is! And when I heard her on the phone she was being beastly about the teachers here and the girls too. She has some kind of secret and I don’t think it’s a good one.”
Evelyn looks around nervously. “But what can we do about it?”
“I don’t know yet,” Verity replies, a determined expression on her face, “but we can keep a close eye on her.”
For the next few days Miss Penrose goes about her day as she always had, but delivers more typical history lessons, cutting back on the nihilistic philosophy and artistic cynicism… at least a little.
Which reminds me – Miss Yates has said the girls had to take a history test – now while this was to see how well Miss Penrose had been teaching, Verity of course wants to do well in it! I’ll make that a straightforward Brains Challenge – an 8 difficulty for a pass, a better level of pass with a 10… She draws a 4 of Hearts – even adding +2 for Verity’s Brains score of 2, that’s appalling. I’ll give her a point of Distress for doing so badly and a FRUSTRATED condition which will give her a -2 on anything requiring patience or calmness until she gets rid of it. Do the rest of the class also do badly (Likely) – Yes/No Oracle gives – 5 of Diamonds – YES, BUT… Yes they do badly BUT they don’t blame Miss Penrose for this, being taken in by the teacher’s nonsense about “the foolishness of simply learning detail and missing out on experience!”
The extra attention being paid to Miss Penrose will yield some opportunity to learn more of course – but what sort of opportunity? I’ll use the random challenge Oracle to find out what will be tested and draw the King of Clubs – so it will be a hard (difficulty 10) Courage test!
It is a free lesson in the afternoon and Verity has just taken a message to Matron. On her way back from the San to the Common room she glances along a corridor and sees Miss Penrose, with her outside coat on, leave her room in a hurry… and she doesn’t notice that the door hasn’t closed properly behind her.
Sneaking into someone’s room is wrong of course, and if Verity were to get caught it would be awful, but if she dares do it, here’s an opportunity to find out more about Miss Penrose and possibly uncover some secret.
As the teacher descends the stairs rapidly, Verity creeps along the corridor… and then pauses.
Being distinctly average at Courage tests and this being a Hard one, I decide that getting some help would be a good idea. Verity spends her last remaining Popularity point to gain Advantage (a 2 card draw) on the next draw.
She dashes back to the Common Room and finds a friend to keep watch.
Is it timid but faithful Evelyn (Evens) – Ten of Diamonds (No), Is it sporty Emily (Evens) – 2 of Clubs – YES/BUT…
“Of course,” says Emily, “but I’m doing my French Prep. If you’ll do that for me later that would be very kind of you!”
Groaning inwardly, and noting that Emily always seems to want to make bargains for her help, Verity agrees and the two girls head back toward Miss Penrose’s room. Emily keeps watch as Verity once more creeps along the corridor…
And draws a 7 of Diamonds (a failure) and a Queen of Clubs (a matched success). I’m not applying Verity’s FRUSTRATED penalty to this as it doesn’t rely on patience/calmness. Also that’s a matched success so I’ll use the bonus to get rid of the FRUSTRATED penalty right away.
Steeling herself, Verity pushes open Miss Penrose’s door and looks around…
No idea what she’ll find there so it’s Oracle time. There will be a CLUE of some kind (what kind of world would it be if not!) but will it be something easily discernible (Unlikely)? – YES/NO Oracle: 4 of Clubs – YES/BUT… And what type of Clue? Using the Theme Oracle: 3 of Hearts & 6 of Hearts: Arrange/Hidden Agenda!
Spotting an unusual looking document on Miss Penrose’s desk, Verity tugs it out from underneath the notebook atop it and unfolds it. It looks like a map of the school and grounds, very professionally made. There are annotations on it, lines sectioning off areas of the building, rectangles drawn on the grounds. Along the edge of the map Verity sees a paragraph of messy handwriting… what she can read of it makes her blood run cold.
A low whistle from outside is a signal from Emily of danger. Acting quickly Verity pushes the document back underneath the notebook … but knocks over a teacup on the desk that splashes across the paperwork and onto the desk and floor.
Did you think I’d forgotten the BUT on the YES/BUT that provided the clue? Perish the thought!
No time to clean up if someone is coming. Verity dashes out… does she get away unseen?
That would be a routine Mischief check… she draws 5 of Hearts – ouch. Who sees her? It’s not likely to be Miss Penrose as she was heading out, so we’ll start with “Is it a Pupil (rather than a teacher)?” (Evens) – Ace of Hearts – YES/AND…
“False alarm!” says Emily, pulling Evelyn into view at the end of the corridor, “It was just Evelyn”
“Not a false alarm at all!” says Evelyn in a panic, “Miss Penrose is coming back. I knew you and Emily were up here so I thought I’d warn you!”
The girls dash off and make it to their Common Room.
Verity did fail her Mischief check though – so she takes another point of Distress meaning she is at 3 Distress which gives her the Condition SHAKEN (which lasts until Distress falls below 3) and another Condition (I’ll make it ANGRY – because of what she saw on that document)
“Are you alright Verity?” asks Evelyn anxiously
“Of course she is!” said Emily, “And she’s going to help me with my French Prep. I assume you didn’t find anything useful in Rosie’s room?” (Rosie being a disrespectful nickname given to the teacher by the wicked Emily)
“As a matter of fact I did,” says Verity, her face pale with anger.
This is going to be a Downtime scene because Verity’s in a bit of a state at the moment.
The kindly Evelyn brings a glass of water for Verity and a plain biscuit from the tin, and Evelyn sips the water before telling her story.
“I saw a blueprint in her room…,” she says “And it showed the school and the grounds… and it had notes on it about turning the school into a hotel and building chalets in the ground. I think she’s here to sabotage the school somehow… so that someone can turn it into a resort or something.”
The other two girls look horrified. “Let’s go to Miss Yates – after all if you have proof-“
“But I don’t!” Verity says, “I left it there… in the heat of the moment I wanted to cover up that I’d been there, so I left it there. And Miss Penrose will know someone has been in her room- I knocked over a cup!”
“Oh crikey,” says Evelyn.
“Alors,” said Emily, “which reminds me… my French prep?”
We end the Downtime scene by drawing a card for Verity to see if she recovers… 8 of Hearts! Perfect. The chance to share her concern and the matter-of-fact practicality of Emily makes Verity relax a little. She can reduce her Distress by 2, leaving her at Distress 1 AND getting rid of the Shaken Condition. She still has Angry but that is perfectly appropriate.
I’ll also give an extra tick of success toward the Scandal Arc.
Otherworlds 