TEXT: A HEARTBREAKING CASE OF SOULFUL JAZZ AND HAUNTING DEATH
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY
  A CITY OF MIST CASE
  
  CREDITS
  Writing, Game Design, and Production: Amit Moshe
  Assistant Game Producer: Omer Shapira
  Editing: Eran Aviram
  Proofreading: Marshal Oppel
  Art: Marcin Sobon, Mariusz Szulc, Gunship Revolution  
  (Oliver Morit, Harvey Bunda, Marlon Ruiz)
  Graphic Design: Manuel Serra Sáez,  
  Giovanna De Filippis
  Contributors: Macrovector (Freepik.com)
  The production of this game was made possible 
  thanks to our Kickstarter backers. Thank you all!
  © 2019 Son of Oak Game Studio / Amít Moshe
  CONTENT WARNING
  This game contains mild language as well as strong 
  themes of violence, crime, and immorality. It does 
  NOT contain explicit representation of sexual acts. 
  Parental guidance is advised.
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
  Background 
  4
  The Iceberg 
  5
  Martha 
  6
  Depth 0: The Hooks 
  7
  Depth 1: Lamenting of the Past 
  7
  Depth 2: Fall on Deaf Ears 
  14
  Depth 3: Toll the Death Knell 
  16
  Depth 4: A Deathly Night at the Opera 
  19
  Aftermath 
  20
  HOW TO USE THIS CASE IN YOUR GAME
  You can use Killing Her Softly as a standalone one-shot 
  or as a part of the Nights of Payne Town story arc.
  Within Nights of Payne Town, this case is the first 
  of three cases that form the Personal Vein. It is 
  followed by Carnival of Machines and Broken Glass.
  Throughout this PDF, red clues (clues given in red 
  cards) point the investigation to another case in the 
  Personal Vein or in the Nights of Payne Town story 
  arc. Reveal them to your players only if and when 
  you wish to lead the story to the given case.
  FIND OUT MORE AT  
  WWW.CITYOFMIST.CO
  
  4   |   CITY OF MIST
  A soulful jazz singer needs the crew’s 
  help with deciphering a series of 
  mysterious killings that circle her in a 
  vicious ghost dance. From Downtown to 
  Suburbia, people drop dead unexpectedly 
  clutching their broken hearts, with the 
  mysterious killer still rampant. As the 
  body count rises, will the crew be able 
  to save the City’s residents from this 
  haunting angel of death?
  Killing Her Softly is a classic neo-noir “whodunit” in-
  vestigation in which the crew traces the footsteps of a 
  mysterious serial killer. Against the backdrop of a dicey 
  jazz club and dirty alleyways, the crew examines crime 
  scenes, crosses paths with NPCs from different walks 
  of life, and overcomes altercations with dubious under-
  world figures. The case sets the players to falsely accuse 
  an innocent NPC or simply assume he is guilty, while 
  the real criminal feigns innocence and even seeks the 
  crew’s protection, fooling them, at least for a while.
   
  A DUET WITH SORROW
  Martha Ellis is one of the best small-time blues and 
  jazz singers in the City, with a heart-rending voice 
  whose grandeur is matched only by her melancholy. 
  Perhaps due to her penchant for blues lamenting, 
  Martha has awakened as the Rift of the Banshee, the 
  keening Irish woman of the fair folk who would warn of 
  a death in the family. After her awakening, she dis-
  covered that her voice could stir more intense feelings 
  in her audience than before. Where once she brought 
  tears to the eyes of a few sensitive listeners, she could 
  now induce utter emotional collapse in an entire hall 
  full of people. 
  When it first happened, Martha’s manager spun it to 
  the newspapers, labeling Martha as “Downtown’s most 
  soulful voice”. But Martha struggled to keep her powers 
  in check; her control of her audience’s emotions was 
  intuitive, but her own complex emotional state often 
  tempted her to use her powers in ways she shouldn’t 
  have. As fewer people returned to her shows, following 
  harrowing experiences, Martha’s career went down-
  hill. She fell into depression and alcoholism, and faced 
  financial hardship. Very few music halls and cabarets 
  would have her on stage.
  MENDING THE BROKEN
  Seeking help, Martha approached Dr. Selma Perrin, a 
  psychiatrist associated with Mending the Broken, an 
  organization offering help to Rifts (see Broken Glass). Re-
  framing her powers in a positive way, Dr. Perrin convinced 
  Martha that her songs can help people feel the sorrow 
  and the pain they are trying to avoid. Martha’s role, even 
  duty, was to penetrate their resistance and open up their 
  feelings so they could cope with their buried wounds.
  This new understanding of herself helped Martha come 
  out of the darkness she was enveloped in and gave her 
  a new hope. She was able to focus herself better and 
  her performances became more balanced and enjoy-
  able. She managed to get a regular spot at the seedy 
  but active “the Washboard” club. While on stage, 
  she would search the audience for that special person, 
  someone whose pain she could feel viscerally, some-
  one who she thought needed her help. In actuality, her 
  Mythos’ ability of sensing an impending death drew 
  her towards her victims; little did she know that she 
  would be the one responsible for their demise.
  MEANWHILE, A VISION OF DEATH
  Not far from the Washboard, in the Industrial Zone, 
  John Nowak, a deaf-mute factory worker, caught a flyer 
  blowing in the wind. It was advertising a night at the 
  Washboard, with Martha’s picture in the center. As soon 
  as his gaze fell on the flyer, Nowak awakened as the Rift 
  of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (A Christmas 
  Carol). His Mythos showed him a vision of Martha Ellis’s 
  possible death, filling him with sorrow and grief for the 
  brutality of her untimely end, the wrongs she has com-
  mitted, and the hate she was regarded with. Nowak felt 
  compelled to warn Martha. He dropped everything, left 
  work, and made his way to the Washboard.
  THE FIRST VICTIM
  Darnell Fox was sitting in the front row that night at 
  the Washboard along with two couples of his friends. 
  Feeling himself a fifth wheel, Darnell seemed despon-
  dent and shy. All through the night, Martha felt her eyes 
  drawn to the meek man. When his feelings of loneliness 
  overwhelmed him and he left to get some fresh air, the 
  singer took a break and followed him out. There, in the 
  alley, she convinced him to stay for a private show – she 
  would sing for him after hours, promising it would im-
  prove his mood. Darnell accepted out of politeness and 
  the two later met alone on the Washboard stage. 
  Name:  
   
   
   
  background
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  5 
  There, in the solemn spotlight, Martha sang for him, 
  voicing the Banshee’s lament at its most sorrowful, 
  singing about a boy who had no-one to call his own. 
  Darnell collapsed, overwhelmed with loneliness, but 
  the more Martha sang the more in pain he seemed. 
  The cathartic moment Dr. Perrin promised did not 
  come. But Martha Ellis could not stop. She was both 
  foretelling his death and enacting it, until finally his 
  heart gave in and he died of his intensified sorrow (an 
  unexplained heart failure, a Sleeper coroner would lat-
  er say). Just as this happened, Martha saw John Nowak, 
  a tattooed skinhead in a hoodie, at the far end of the 
  club’s floor, witnessing it all. Nowak handwaved and 
  mumbled to warn Martha of the future that awaited her 
  if she continued down this path, but lacking words his 
  warning fell on deaf ears. Martha tried to lament him 
  to death and naturally failed as he is deaf, so thinking 
  on her feet she started crying for help. The Washboard 
  bouncer, Syrus, arrived to see a dead patron on the 
  floor and a suspect hooded figure fleeing the scene.
  FURTHER LAMENTATIONS
  Shocked at what happened and the predicament she was 
  now in, Martha Ellis didn’t know what to do. She swore 
  never to talk to Dr. Perrin again and never to sing the 
  song of the Banshee. But the more she repressed it, the 
  more it tried to emerge in her evening performances. To 
  keep her career, she had to find a way to let the Banshee 
  have its fill. So far, two more victims fell prey to the 
  Banshee’s lament: an unhappy trophy wife whom Ellis 
  killed at her Downtown loft and a man mourning for his 
  dead son, who dropped dead when the singer performed 
  at the funeral. This last death happened only a day ago.
  In both cases, John Nowak was there to witness the 
  killing and try to dissuade Martha from her destructive 
  path. In both cases, Martha was able to pin the death 
  on him or at least disassociate herself from it, at his 
  expense. The police now have three unexplained Down-
  town deaths connected with Nowak. Officers Chaavi 
  Das (Gramadevata, a town’s guardian spirit in Hinduism) 
  and Matt Quinn (Sleeper) are working the case, search-
  ing after their main suspect, the skinhead in the hoodie.
  Sammy  
  Jefferson Jr.
  Martha 
  Attacked!
  Harrington 
  Welding &  
  Fabrication
  Martha Ellis' 
  Dressing Room
  Nowak's 
  Hideout
  The Opera 
  House
  Supporting 
  Cast at the 
  Washboard
  Police Officers 
  Das & Quinn
  The Washboard
  Snatcher
  The Killer 
  Strikes Again!
  Green Meadow 
  Funeral Home
  The Bancroft 
  Penthouse
  Depht 3
  Depht 4 
  Depht 2
  Depht 1
  Depht 0
  Name:  
   
   
   
  the iceberg
  
  6   |   CITY OF MIST
  MARTHA
  Martha Ellis is a voluptuous woman in her mid 50s, 
  usually enveloped in a flowing floral dress and head-
  dress during the day and a sparkling evening gown 
  that shows her curves at night when on stage. Her 
  mannerism and garb exude a sense of melancholy and 
  drama, of someone whose time has passed, but is still 
  holding on to the grandeur of the past. Her pitiful state 
  is accentuated when she is inebriated (all too often 
  these days). In the spotlight, however, her commiser-
  ating streak turns heartfelt, and she truly touches her 
  audience with a deep and soulful mood.
  PACING MARTHA
  Martha appears throughout the case, across Depths. 
  The PCs will likely have multiple interactions with Mar-
  tha as they investigate the case and as their suspicion of 
  her part in the deaths becomes more and more founded.
  Try to use Martha’s lies and deceptions to keep the 
  PCs away from the truth long enough for the case to 
  progress. At the same time, remember to play to find out 
  and surrender the truth to them if they earned it fair and 
  square. Remember, even if Martha is exposed early on, 
  the crew still faces the challenge of incriminating her and 
  apprehending her before she can do more damage. 
  PAIN BEHIND THE EYES
  Martha is naturally attracted to lamentable emo-
  tions in the people she meets. When she senses 
  someone’s pain, she remembers it and can tap into 
  it with a song later on. 
  When a PC Investigates and scores a 7-9, or as a 
  hard move, you can choose to ask the player about 
  their character’s own sorrow and assume that Mar-
  tha knows it (per her custom move Pain Behind the 
  Eyes). This is a good chance to give the character’s 
  themes and backstory some airtime. 
  At first, Martha appears deeply sympathetic and un-
  derstanding. However, revealing the PC’s private pain 
  also sets the PC up for Martha’s keening hard move. 
  Martha’s Danger profile appears on page 18. 
  To delay the revelation that Martha is the killer, give 
  different types of clues when the PCs Investigate Martha:
  • Provide only partial answers to their questions when 
  they spend a Clue.
  • If they roll 7-9, choose to give vague or part-true 
  part-false answers in order to keep the truth hidden 
  from them for a while longer. For example, if a PC is 
  checking if Martha is lying you can let them know 
  it is difficult to determine clearly due to her state or 
  intoxication, or reply that she seems very much on 
  edge, which may be due to lying but may also simply 
  be a result of the stress of recent events.
  When the pressure rises and the PCs demand an-
  swers, Martha will candidly reveal false information 
  to the crew in order to maintain their trust and to pro-
  vide a valid explanation for her behavior. Here are some 
  part-true-part-false clues you can use; Martha can also 
  reveal this even without the PCs Investigating.
  To excuse her presence at a crime scene, Mar-
  tha may feign confiding with the crew and re-
  vealing her powers. She will claim she can feel 
  impending death and that she is irresistibly 
  drawn to where the killer will strike, trying to 
  warn the victim.
  She will ascribe her own methods to the killer 
  (and technically, she wouldn’t be lying), hinting 
  that she thinks the killer somehow causes the 
  victims to die of grief.
  Martha could even allege that the killer is the 
  same person who sabotaged her performance 
  in the past (see below) and that it’s someone 
  with a grudge against her, creating a red her-
  ring for the crew to go after.
  Asking around about Martha or researching her 
  background can reveal some of her tumultuous history:
  Martha is one of the best small-time blues and 
  jazz singers in the City. She briefly gained fame 
  as “Downtown’s most soulful voice”.
  After a fiasco where the entire crowd at her con-
  cert had an emotional breakdown, and medical 
  services had to be called in, the papers labeled 
  her as too intense, and her career tanked. She 
  was quoted saying the incident was an act of sab-
  otage against her career and that the perpetrator 
  used psychoactive drugs in the drinks that night.
  She then took to drinking, became a depressed ec-
  centric, and was only ever seen again publicly in 
  the lowliest and most obscure of Downtown clubs.
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  7 
  DEPTH 0: 
  THE HOOKS
  The crew may become involved in the case in the fol-
  lowing ways:
  • The police could be reaching out to the crew for 
  help with their mystery killer, especially if the crew 
  previously worked with the police or runs an inves-
  tigative agency. Officers Das and Quinn just began 
  investigating the strange occurrence at the funeral 
  house, and are stumped at this point in the investi-
  gation: they have three seemingly unrelated suspi-
  cious deaths where the skinhead in the hoodie was 
  placed. Their boss seems to think it’s a coincidence 
  and has given them 72 hours to reach a breakthrough 
  in the case, after which they will have to drop it. Both 
  Das, who is a Rift, and Quinn, a Sleeper, believe they 
  have a serial killer on their hands, but they don’t 
  have a clue about his motive or method yet. (They 
  still haven’t connected the last two deaths to the 
  Washboard, so they don’t suspect Martha Ellis in the 
  slightest). To recruit the crew, Officer Das will make 
  contact by phone or show up at the crew’s hangout; 
  she’ll relate the details of the case and ask for help 
  but stress that the killer should be brought to justice 
  and that the matter must be resolved in accordance 
  with the law. 
  • The owner of the Washboard, Sammy Jefferson Jr. 
  (Sleeper), may contact the crew to bring the Darnell 
  Fox death to rest. Not so much shaken by a death in 
  his club as he is worried of interrupting his singer’s 
  lucky streak, old Sammy senses that his diva is on 
  edge since the case and wants to make sure no harm 
  comes to her. Likely connected to PCs who lean 
  toward the wrong side of the law, Sammy could hire 
  the crew to find the fellow in the hoodie and make 
  sure he doesn’t pull that kind of stunt again in his 
  club. Sammy is a middle-aged man usually wearing a 
  stained dress shirt, suspenders, and dress slacks, and 
  adorning a typical jazz-club-owner panama hat. He’s 
  a shrewd businessman and plays a mean bluegrass 
  tune if you put a banjo in his hands.
  • A member of the supporting cast could become 
  a victim of Ellis. Someone close to one of the PCs 
  could invite the PCs to the Washboard for a perfor-
  mance of Martha Ellis. Choose a character that is 
  carrying some distinct personal pain and could easily 
  become Ellis’s next mark. The supporting character 
  could be found dead the next morning or, if you’d 
  like to give the crew a chance to save her, be a part of 
  the Killer Strikes Again! triggered scene on page 18.
  DEPTH 1:  
  LAMENTING OF THE PAST
  In this depth, the crew studies the crime 
  scenes of the strange deaths that occurred 
  Downtown. At first, they seem unrelated, 
  but as the crew starts putting together the 
  clues, it becomes evident that the  
  Washboard club and its foremost singer,  
  Martha Ellis, are at the center of it all.
   THE WASHBOARD
  Tucked in the basement of a grimey brown-
  stone building overshadowed by Downtown’s 
  great skyscrapers, the Washboard couldn’t 
  be located any lower without dropping into 
  the sewers. Faint cellwo and piano notes 
  echo in the maze of alleyways and under-
  passes that leads to its front door, below 
  street level. The place seems scrubbed, 
  as if trying to rise up to the occasion of 
  having a fleeting shot at glory. The front 
  door is covered with posters heralding 
  Martha Ellis’ next gig.
  The Washboard is a long-standing establishment, a 
  jazz and blues venue from the days the City was young. 
  But unlike its more respectable brethren who started 
  out low and built their dignity and reputation with the 
  years, the Washboard was always a spot vaguely associ-
  ated with the wrong kind of crowd. While the truly big 
  crime lords stuck to their own clubs, this was a place 
  where hustlers and good-for-nothing lowlives often 
  congregated. In its heyday, the Washboard also attract-
  ed a flux of middle-class Downtown professionals who 
  craved some edge and came here to rub elbows with 
  the rougher regular clientele, and so business was good 
  for everyone, for a while. But trends moved on and the 
  masses with them, forcing owner after owner to sell 
  the joint to the next hopeful entrepreneur.
  The current owner, Sammy Jerfferson Jr., moved from 
  the neighborhoods to the alleys of Downtown decades 
  ago. He dabbled with pretty much everything one can 
  on the streets, but he always had a love for music, 
  and when the opportunity came, he purchased the 
  club. Sammy knew all too well that to keep the place 
  running he’d have to run other activities from the back 
  room, yet his dream has always been to truly make it as 
  a club owner.
  
  8   |   CITY OF MIST
  The Washboard is a roomy club, capable of holding up 
  to 200 patrons. The red-tinted lights set the mood but 
  also give the place a dark and seedy vibe. There are two 
  long bars lining the main room, and about 20 small cir-
  cular tables scattered in front of a medium-sized stage. 
  In the back there’s a kitchen, a dressing room, and stor-
  age space, as well as an office for Sammy. A back door 
  leads to a dirty back alley, even narrower than the one 
  that leads to the front door.
  INVESTIGATING THE DEATH OF DARNELL FOX
  The coroner report says Darnell Fox died of 
  unexplained heart failure.
  Everyone at the Washboard tells the same sto-
  ry: Martha and Syrus the bouncer walked in on 
  Darnell and the killer having words, when they 
  saw Darnell collapse and the killer fleeing. (This 
  is a lie Sammy and Martha came up with, but all 
  regular patrons accept their word as truth.)
  The alleged killer must have broken the lock 
  on the back door with a crowbar and slipped in 
  while Syrus the bouncer was locking up the front.
  Investigating Syrus could reveal Martha was 
  already there when he arrived. Sammy gave him 
  a bonus to say otherwise, to keep her out of it.
  If confronted with the above fact, Martha 
  would say Darnell asked to meet her after the 
  show and then declared his love to her. It was 
  normal for a lonely fan to get enamored with 
  a performer, so she politely declined; but then 
  the killer arrived and Darnell fell to the floor.
  No one at the Washboard really knew Darnell 
  or his friends. Asking around, Sammy and 
  Syrus learned they were a group of young pro-
  fessionals looking for a place for a double date.
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  9 
  Darnell’s friends are easy to find. They are still 
  in shock, and ascribe his death to an undiag-
  nosed cardiac condition. They tell of a shy and 
  meek man who never mentioned being in any 
  need of help, but if asked privately, some of the 
  ladies would reveal he seemed extremely lonely. 
  They all work for a local advertising firm.
  Beyond the Mist, the place is a dreary bog of 
  gloom and intense loneliness, both emotionally 
  and symbolically, with muddy ground covered 
  by low fog. An old sad tin whistle tune is playing 
  far away. If a PC can contact Darnell’s spirit, he is 
  overwhelmed-by-sorrow-4 and believes he died be-
  cause he simply could no longer bear carrying on.
  INVESTIGATING THE WASHBOARD
  Sammy is using this place for more than just 
  music. A little bootlegging, a little illegal gam-
  bling, sometimes even fencing low-risk stolen 
  goods, but nothing more. He is willing to pay 
  the crew to keep it under wraps, or pay Syrus 
  to bully them into keeping quiet.
  Sammy is betting all his chips on Martha Ellis’ 
  success in hopes of going legit and letting go 
  of some of his dubious back room activities. He 
  seems like he is willing to go to great lengths to 
  keep the singer – or her singing – from harm.
  Someone in the regular crowd at the Wash-
  board heard of another patron who recently 
  died of a heart attack, pointing the crew at the 
  Bancroft Penthouse. Another person says the 
  singer, Martha, was involved in a drama at the 
  Green Meadow Funeral Home not two days ago.
  SAMMY JEFFERSON JR. y
  HURT OR SUBDUE 1  /  BREAK SPIRIT 3
  • Shifty: When you Investigate Sammy, he first takes 
  shifty-2.
  • Weather the Storm: When Sammy makes you an 
  offer, the MC will put a reward on the table as a 
  temporary story tag. If you accept his bribe, you get 
  the tag.
  • Keeping Tabs: When Sammy decides to turn on 
  you, he gives you a status of implicated with one 
  tier for every tag you accepted from him through 
  Weather the Storm. You may Face Danger. 
  • Defuse the Situation: When Sammy grabs a 
  banjo and starts playing, everyone who can hear 
  him chills the hell out. As a soft move the MC can 
  choose one for each listener: reduce an emotional 
  status by one, burn an emotional tag, or give chill-1.
   
  • Threaten someone with a holdout pistol or a crow-
  bar (back-to-the-wall-2) or make good on his threats 
  or (flesh-wound-2 or banged-up-2)
  • Help someone relax (reduce an emotional status by 
  one, burn an emotional tag, or give chill-1)
   
  • Welcome someone with a smile and open arms
  • Suggest to step aside to talk business
  • Tell the band to start playing, now 
  SYRUS, THE BOUNCER y
  Syrus has been a bouncer at the Washboard for the 
  past few months. A typical muscleman, he towers 
  over most patrons at 6’4” and has arms like logs 
  and a torso like a barrel. A shining bald head, a tight 
  black T-shirt, and a thin ‘stache to keep him cool but 
  threatening.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 2  /  BRIBE 2
  • Not on My Shift: When Syrus enters the scene, 
  give him alert-2.
  • Boxer Moves: When Syrus is attacked with mun-
  dane hand-to-hand physical blows or weapons, 
  reduce the tier of the resulting status by 1. 
   
  • Thump someone (disoriented-2) or put them in a 
  headlock (restrained-3)
  • Throw a disoriented or restrained person outside 
  (humiliated-2)
   
  • Look down on someone over his huge folded arms
  
  10   |   CITY OF MIST
  OFFICERS DAS & QUINN
  Whether they requested the crew’s help or they are 
  just hovering around the crime scenes looking for 
  answers, Downtown beat officers Chaavi Das and Matt 
  Quinn will find a way to stick their nose into the crew’s 
  business.
  This devoted dynamic duo make everything that’s 
  happening Downtown, and in the City, their business. 
  Officer Das is a short, feisty, and direct policewoman 
  who proves big punches come in small packages. As 
  the Touched Rift of Gramadevata, a town’s guardian 
  spirit, she wields – alongside her taser and pistol – the 
  protective powers of a tutelary deity. She can create 
  magical shields that shelter people and property from 
  harm, both physical and magical.
  Officer Quinn – a tall, handsome, cornfed hunk – is 
  actually a big teddy bear who prefers to avoid violence 
  (until duty calls, at which point he proves a capable 
  combatant). While he is a Sleeper, he is the kind who 
  DAS & QUINN yy/y
  While they are both beat officers, both Das and Quinn 
  use the Detective Danger profile (MC Tookit, page 
  148) to reflect their exemplary police skills. Officer 
  Das also has the Mythos Power Set Messenger of the 
  Light (MC Toolkit, page 154).
  HURT OR SUBDUE 3  /  CORRUPT 5  /  OVERRIDE 
  AUTHORITY 3
  • Powers of Deduction: When Das or Quinn survey 
  the scene for the first time or as a hard move, the 
  MC will ask you one question. You must reply with 
  a straight answer or a solid lead. The officer knows 
  your answer, even if your character didn’t speak it.
  • On the Ball: When Das or Quinn enter the scene, 
  give them alert-1.
  • Protection from Evil (Das only): When Officer 
  Das takes a status from a source that is inherently 
  evil or dark, reduce the tier of the status by 2.
   
  • Put someone on the spot (tell the truth or take 
  pressured-2)
  • Shoot a suspect or a threat with a firearm (gun-
  shot-wound-3) or taser (stunned-3)
  • Cuff a suspect or tighten the handcuffs (hand-
  cuffed-2)
  • (Das only) Bless or enchant someone to protect 
  them from harm (protected-2)
  • (Das only) Banish the forces of evil or darkness 
  (banish-3)
   
  • Observe a scene and discuss it with each other
  • Find a piece of evidence
  • When alone, call for police backup
  believes all conspiracy theories but never really delves 
  into them. He will follow Das through thick and thin, 
  even when he can’t see what she sees. While he often 
  says he wishes he could see through her eyes, he really 
  doesn’t, a fact which keeps him firmly asleep.
  The pair can serve as backup or support NPCs that 
  help, tip off, and guide the crew throughout this case, 
  vein, or story arc. They can also serve as a royal pain 
  in the butt for PCs that run illegal activities, always 
  showing up when it’s least convenient. If they become 
  temporary or permanent allies of the crew, they can be 
  represented by an extra theme.
  DAS & QUINN
  Ally
  IDENTITY
  It’s our job to keep the streets Downtown safe.
  POWER TAGS
  working the beat, police work, banish evil, devoted to 
  their work, combine brawn and brains, create a magical 
  shield, interview witnesses, access to police files, the 
  usual suspects, heart of gold
  WEAKNESS TAGS
  must report ANY illegal activity, Das is a blunt force 
  instrument, Quinn is a big softy, trouble with the boss
  THEME IMPROVEMENT
   Sacrifice: When you get a hit on Face Danger, you 
  can always choose to extend the outcome to one 
  person or object around you that you can protect, 
  at the cost of exposing yourself. On a 10+, they take 
  no status and you take the status with -1 tier. On 
  7-9, they take the status with -1 tier and you take the 
  full status. If the move is Dynamite!, on a 12+, you 
  can choose to fully protect both of you (instead of 
  one of the other 12+ options). 
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  11 
   THE BANCROFT PENTHOUSE
  Meticulously furnished with the best and 
  trendiest interior design money can buy, 
  every corner in the Bancroft penthouse is 
  a demonstration of wealth and power. Step-
  ping inside on the reflective marble floor, 
  you realize it’s all just a lead up to the 
  grand finale: a panoramic view of the City 
  rooftops surrounds the condo. Breath-tak-
  ing, but boy, does it feel empty.
  Tiffany Bancroft was Martha Ellis’ second victim. 
  A beautiful woman in her late 30s, Tiffany turned 
  heads everywhere she went, and the Washboard was 
  no exception. Martha noticed her walking in with her 
  husband, Ross Bancroft, who she later learned was 
  a high-flying executive in a Downtown-based hedge 
  fund. While outwardly the couple looked glamorous, 
  Martha sensed a sadness in Tiffany. She met her at the 
  ladies’ room and invited her for a smoke and a drink in 
  her dressing room. When Tiffany opened up about her 
  loveless marriage and her unfulfilled life, Martha real-
  ized the young lady was feeling trapped in her perfect 
  existence. She wanted to help her, so they exchanged 
  numbers and agreed to meet the following week.
  Martha paid a visit to the Bancroft penthouse and 
  when the opportunity came, after much talk and wine, 
  sat by the Bancrofts’ grand piano and sang her hostess 
  to death. Nowak showed up just in time to witness her 
  kill Tiffany but he was already being pursued by the 
  building security. Realizing he was late, Nowak fled 
  the scene. Hearing security nearby, Martha Ellis took 
  the opportunity to leave via the service stairs, unseen. 
  When security arrived, they split between Nowak, the 
  alleged perp, and the victim, but no one thought to 
  look for Ellis.
  INVESTIGATING THE DEATH  
  OF TIFFANY BANCROFT
  The coroner report says Tiffany Bancroft died 
  of unexplained heart failure.
  According to the building’s chief of security, 
  a skinhead in a hoodie, about 25-30 years old, 
  tricked the guards and made it to the elevators. 
  From there he went on to the Bancrofts’ pent-
  house and probably scared Tiffany Bancroft 
  to death. He narrowly escaped the guards by 
  crashing through a window and falling onto a 
  dumpster, fleeing the scene before he could be 
  apprehended.
  If the search is expanded beyond the incident 
  with the intruder, security cameras or a jolt 
  to the concierge’s memory would disclose that 
  Martha Ellis paid a visit to the victim about 
  three hours before the intruder showed up. She 
  was not seen leaving.
  The neighbors heard the piano playing before 
  Tiffany died, but Ross Bancroft knows the 
  piece was just for show and that neither him 
  nor his wife could play.
  There is one ticket to Martha Ellis’ show at the 
  Washboard next week on the piano.
  Someone (Martha) called Snatcher’s number 
  from the loft, around Tiffany’s time of death.
  Beyond the Mist, the penthouse seems afflicted 
  by the same swamp as the Washboard, albeit 
  with gnarly dead trees giving off the feeling of 
  long-dead hopes and dreams and a prevailing 
  emptiness. If a PC can contact Tiffany’s spirit, 
  she is bitter-and-angry-3 and doesn’t really want 
  to discuss what happened, believing she died be-
  cause she finally realized it was her only way out.
  INVESTIGATING ROSS BANCROFT
  Ross Bancroft, husband of the late Tiffany Bancroft, is 
  a cold-hearted hedge fund executive that was looking 
  to get out of his suffocating marriage and keep his for-
  tune by murdering his wife. He is a red herring, because 
  he never got to enact his plans and he is not the killer 
  in this case. Fearing that an investigation will reveal 
  his former plan, he is uncooperative-2 and wants the 
  case dropped as soon as possible. 
  Ross Bancroft seems to be maintaining his 
  normal routine, working late at the office of 
  his hedge fund and drinking whiskey alone 
  at the apartment at night. He doesn’t seem as 
  heartbroken as you’d expect.
  If asked on the reason for his wife’s death, 
  he would curtly say that his late wife was so 
  accustomed to her bubble of refined perfection, 
  that she was scared to death by the sight of an 
  intruder, and her heart betrayed her.
  
  12   |   CITY OF MIST
   GREEN MEADOW FUNERAL HOME
  There’s a CLOSED sign hanging on the knob 
  of the front door of this deathly-silent 
  suburban funeral home, but the door is 
  slightly ajar, and someone is heard working 
  inside. The old house seems to creak and 
  whisper when you enter. Inside, there is a 
  portrait of yesterday’s dearly departed on 
  the floor of the foyer, a teenager. There 
  was some kind of struggle here, it seems. 
  The shattered glass from the broken pic-
  ture frame has not yet been swept.
  Adam Walsh was Martha Ellis’ third and latest victim. 
  A single dad of three who had recently lost his 15-year-
  old kid (Teddy) to an illness, Adam was drowning in 
  despair. Martha, who was hired to sing at Teddy’s fu-
  neral and felt the depth of his darkness, almost felt like 
  his savior when she channeled the Banshee in her and 
  sang about his endless sadness. 
  Nowak showed up uninvited to the funeral, barging 
  through the doors and kicking up a ruckus just in time 
  for everyone to see him exchange surprised looks with 
  Adam Walsh. Adam Walsh, who didn’t recognize this 
  man, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest and rushed 
  to the men’s room, where he collapsed, hearing the 
  last notes of the song that killed him echoing from the 
  funeral hall.
  This time Martha was caught face-to-face with her 
  ghostlike pursuer and, knowing she couldn’t outrun 
  him, resorted to shouting “It’s the killer!”, driving the 
  crowd to besiege Nowak and push him out the front 
  door. Martha hurried to her car and drove away; Nowak 
  fled by the skin of his teeth again, with bruises and 
  cracked ribs.
  INVESTIGATING  
  THE DEATH OF ADAM WALSH
  The coroner report says Adam Walsh died of 
  unexplained heart failure.
  Adam Walsh was mourning the death of his 
  son Teddy, who had died of an illness. The fam-
  ily lost the mother years ago. Adam had two 
  girls who now live with relatives, at least until 
  the end of the investigation.
  All who knew him can tell that, understand-
  ably, Adam Walsh was crushed by the death of 
  his son.
  Ross Bancroft was planning to use an expen-
  sive poison that simulates a heart attack. He 
  flushed the vial down the toilet when Tiffany 
  died but it snagged somewhere in the build-
  ing’s pipe system. Simple bloodwork cannot 
  detect the poison, or lack thereof, but Mythos 
  powers or advanced lab work would show Tif-
  fany didn’t have it in her system. To access the 
  body, the crew must hit the morgue.
  If the crew snoops around Ross Bancroft too much, 
  he may reveal his true colors and hire someone to get 
  rid of them. Ross can afford anyone, especially old 
  enemies and Nemeses of the crew who would work for 
  money. Otherwise, his go-to crew for this kind of work 
  are the paramilitary mercenaries the Valhalla Boys 
  (Varangian Guard, an elite unit of Norse warriors who 
  served as the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine 
  Emperor). The Valhalla Boys are instructed to ensure 
  the crew doesn’t investigate Tiffany’s death.
  THE VALHALLA BOYS yyy
  The Valhalla Boys are run-of-the-mill mercenaries, 
  usually dressed in a mixture of military and leather that 
  perfectly marries functionality with intimidation. Tacti-
  cally-trained and battle-hardened both in their Mythos 
  and in their mundane training, they’re capable of taking 
  out most low- to mid-power Rift teams they face. The 
  Valhalla boys wield shotguns, crossbows, throwing axes, 
  and grenades.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  BRIBE 4  /  THREATEN 5
  • Collective: This collective has a few members and a 
  size factor of 1.
  • Trained Paramilitaries: When the Valhalla Boys enter 
  the scene, give them body armor and alert-2.
  • Berserker: When the Valhalla Boys take a status of physi-
  cal harm or subdual, if hurt-or-subdue isn’t maxed out, the 
  MC may give them berserk-2. This status applies both to 
  attacks targeting the berserkers (including mental attacks) 
  and when Facing Danger against their attacks.
   
  • Signal each other silently or with clicks and then 
  execute a tactical routine (giving themselves tacti-
  cal-advantage-2 or removing up to two tiers of negative 
  tactical statuses)
  • Overwhelm a target with suppression fire (cornered-3) 
  or aggressive firepower (gunshot-3 or bleeding-gash-3)
  • Give their defeated enemy a message from their em-
  ployer (give an intimidate status with a tier equal to 
  that of a physical harm or subdual status the target has)
   
  • Deploy in a star formation, back-to-back, showing their 
  training
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  13 
  The attendants of the funeral saw him clutch 
  his chest when he laid his eyes on the intruder 
  in the hoodie. Then the singer shouted “It’s the 
  killer!” and the people in the room pursued him 
  out of the funeral home, some of them getting 
  physical, but he got away. Adam Walsh was 
  found dead in the bathroom moments later.
  Observant attendants describe the intruder as 
  smelling of machine grease and burnt chemi-
  cals. Studying the spot where he was wrestled 
  to the ground, collecting chemical samples 
  from a torn piece of his hoodie, and/or tracking 
  him in other mundane or mythical means could 
  lead to Harrington Welding & Fabrication.
  The owner of Green Meadow Funeral Home, 
  Sylvia Martinez (Sleeper), was the one who 
  invited Martha Ellis to sing in the funeral. She 
  did this as a favor to her friend Sammy Jeffer-
  son Jr, owner of the Washboard and Martha 
  Ellis’ manager.
  Beyond the Mist, the funeral home is a cacoph-
  ony of loud-and-angry-3 deceased spirits, and 
  it’s hard if not impossible to find Adam Walsh’s 
  ghost, who is still hugging his son’s ghost and 
  weeping somewhere in a dark corner. Any 
  of the spirits here would say they witnessed 
  Death himself visiting the funeral home today 
  (Nowak, Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come), and 
  heard his herald (Ellis, the Banshee). There are 
  traces of the same swamp as the Washboard 
  and the Bancroft penthouse, but it is muddled 
  with much afterlife activity.
   MARTHA WAS ATTACKED!
  You’re startled by the sudden ring of 
  your phone. On the other side of the line, 
  Officer Chaavi Das / Sammy Jefferson Jr. 
  sounds infuriated. “The killer got to her. 
  He jumped Martha Ellis. She made it some-
  how, but she’s roughed up. You better come 
  down here.”
  Sooner or later, Nowak finds his way to Martha Ellis 
  and tries to warn her of her miserable future. This 
  occurs off-screen, without the knowledge of the crew, 
  most likely at the Washboard or at her apartment. 
  Unfortunately, Nowak is not very planned; he tries to 
  communicate but can’t get his message across clearly 
  (on top of being mute, he is borderline illiterate; he has 
  basic reading skills, but can’t write very well). Knowing 
  from their first encounter that she can’t sing him to 
  death, Ellis pulls out a holdout gun; Nowak wrestles it 
  out of her hands, and in the process, she gets bruised. 
  When things get physical, Nowak hesitates, realizing 
  he won’t get through to Ellis, and flees again. Option-
  ally, he comes out with a gunshot flesh wound, leaving 
  blood at the scene.
  When the crew arrives, Ellis is sitting in the back of 
  an ambulance covered in a blanket. She is both shak-
  en-2 and inebriated-2; failed attempts to remove these 
  statuses may end with the paramedics taking her away 
  abruptly (Deny Them Something They Want). As 
  explained above under Martha (page 6), the singer will 
  try to spin this incident to her advantage.
  Martha will claim to have been attacked. Her 
  recounting of the event would be accurate ex-
  cept for the assault she tries to pin on Nowak.
  If asked how she survived and if she discerns 
  that the crew are Rifts, she may reveal herself 
  as a Rift and say she was able to resist the kill-
  er’s magic, which tried to drain her life away.
  Martha asserts that the killer has a personal 
  interest in her. If she’s revealed herself as a 
  Rift, she’ll tie it to the legendary connection 
  they share.
  The scene of the fight shows signs of breaking 
  and entry and of a struggle consistent with 
  Martha Ellis’ statement.
  Beyond the Mist, the place has the same 
  swampy feeling as the other crime scenes. 
  However, closer inspection shows the source is 
  Martha and not Nowak.
  Optionally, Nowak can be identified via a print 
  he left at the scene and/or blood, if he was shot. 
  His police record has a battery conviction over 
  a bar fight, and his parole officer can point the 
  crew to his workplace, Harrington Welding 
  & Fabrication. His police file or parole officer 
  could also reveal he is deaf (this would speed 
  up the case).
  
  14   |   CITY OF MIST
  DEPTH 2: 
  FALL ON DEAF EARS
   MARTHA ELLIS’ DRESSING ROOM
  Martha Ellis’s so-called dressing room 
  smells of dead flowers and alcohol. The 
  small, cramped converted storage room 
  at the back of the Washboard was proba-
  bly all the owners could spare to satisfy 
  the diva’s demands. The walls are lined 
  with newspaper cutouts and posters of her 
  glorious past. The title “Downtown’s Most 
  Soulful Voice” seems to stick out. Under 
  the vanity, there’s a bin with dozens of 
  small plastic liquor bottles. The poor 
  soul was just starting to pull her thread-
  bare life together, and now this.
  Searching Martha’s dressing room at the Washboard 
  could provide some insight into the singer’s past, 
  but it’s not easy to access. When she’s not there, the 
  room’s door is locked-2 and Sammy or Syrus are always 
  watchful-2, mindful of anyone snooping around the 
  back rooms.
  Some of the newspaper clips on the walls have 
  parts that were cut out or redacted with a black 
  marker. Comparing to the originals (perhaps 
  through microfilm research) will show these 
  are the sections where Ellis is criticized for her 
  over-emotional performance.
  Beyond the Mist, the dressing room has a faint 
  print of the Banshee Mythos, represented as a 
  vision of a melancholic bog, with faint trills of 
  a tin whistle in the distance.
  In a locked drawer, among lots of memorabil-
  ia, there’s the calling card of a therapist, Dr. 
  Selma Perrin, of a therapist association called 
  Mending The Broken. If the crew calls Dr. 
  Perrin, she may reveal details of Ellis’ troubled 
  past to get rid of them. If she realizes they are 
  Rifts, she may take an interest in them, invit-
  ing them to meet her. See a possible encounter 
  with a Mending The Broken therapist in the 
  case Broken Glass.
   HARRINGTON WELDING  
          & FABRICATION
  Driving outside of the city center and 
  down this part of the Industrial Zone al-
  ways has a sobering effect. Over there, 
  people dream of money and fame, while over 
  here, the people labor day and night just 
  to make ends meet. Harrington Welding & 
  Fabrication is just this kind of place, a 
  greasy workshop where the sounds of buzz-
  saws and machinery is loud enough to keep 
  conversations private, but the local eyes 
  follow you everywhere you go.
  Harrington Welding & Fabrication is John Nowak’s 
  workplace, but he hasn’t shown up to work for a week. 
  The foreman, Miles McFarland, can answer some 
  questions about Nowak, but he’s suspicious-3 of the 
  crew and has a soft spot for Nowak, so he wants to 
  make sure he isn’t assisting anyone who wants to hurt 
  Nowak. If the crew convinces him that Nowak was in-
  volved in the murders or if they threaten his business, 
  he may open up (reduce the status accordingly).
  John Nowak is deaf and mute. This is an 
  important clue because it rules him out as the 
  person who called Snatcher and it rules him 
  out as someone who uses singing to kill.
  Foreman Miles has not seen John Nowak or 
  heard from him since that afternoon last 
  week, when he saw Nowak pick up a jazz club 
  flyer on the wind and strangely stare into the 
  distance for a while, looking sad. Miles kept the 
  flyer; it’s the Washboard ad for Martha Ellis.
  John Nowak is alone. His elderly parents died 
  years ago, he has no known relatives.
  John Nowak is a stand up guy and everyone 
  at the factory will attest to that. His battery 
  charges were a result of a misfortunate alterca-
  tion where he tried to defend a friend in a bar 
  fight, and ended up being sued.
  John Nowak knows the Industrial Zone well 
  and can survive on the streets. If he doesn’t 
  want to be found, he is probably squatting in 
  some abandoned factory or rusted silo. (See 
  Nowak’s Hideout for details about finding him.)
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  15 
   
   SNATCHER
  A harrowing face covered in oozing scabs 
  and scars is the first thing that strikes 
  you about Maurice, AKA Snatcher. Then you 
  notice that he’s wearing a thick, bat-
  tered, and blood-stained plastic apron, 
  and carries around an unusually large meat 
  cleaver. You reassure yourself that it’s 
  normal for a butcher, but you also can’t 
  stop wondering exactly what sort of meat 
  comes under his knife.
  Maurice Alrawi (Ghoul), known in the criminal under-
  world as Snatcher, offers a no-questions-asked body 
  removal service. He works out of an old butcher shop 
  in the Industrial Zone, where he carves up and devours 
  the bodies he is hired to hide. The body is most often 
  the key component of his payment. 
  Snatcher is a dangerous witness, who has a small but 
  vital clue that can turn the investigation around. He 
  can be played as a location, where the crew seeks him 
  out at his butcher shop to get answers about the call 
  made to him from the Bancroft Penthouse; or he can be 
  played as a triggered scene, where he shows up angry 
  when the Killer Strikes Again! to claim the body he was 
  promised. In both cases he is uncooperative, and the 
  crew must strike a deal with him or force his hand in 
  order to get the clue.
  The person who called Snatcher to get rid 
  of the body changed their voice to mask it, a 
  common tactic in this business. (This indicates 
  the killer can speak, ruling out John Nowak.)
  Snatcher couldn’t even tell if it was a man or 
  a woman, which he admits is unusual (and may 
  point that the caller had some skill or training 
  in changing their voice).
  
  16   |   CITY OF MIST
  When he’s not following Martha Ellis around, trying to 
  warn her of her impending doom, John Nowak, Rift of 
  the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, lays low some-
  where in the Industrial Zone. He may be deaf and mute, 
  and he may have very little to his name, but Nowak 
  knows the streets here and he is a veteran urban sur-
  vivalist. Currently, he has settled in a machine-operat-
  ed section of a car factory that is only rarely visited by 
  personnel.
  FINDING THE HIDEOUT
  Finding the hideout won’t be easy. Nowak is cover-
  ing-his-tracks-3, and any wrong turn the crew takes in 
  the dark, empty streets and forsaken buildings of the 
  Industrial Zone could have them facing local gangs, in-
  dustrial-grade hazards, or stray Conjurations emerging 
  out of the many thin places around. The Valhalla Boys, 
  Snatcher, or any of the crew’s Nemeses could take this 
  opportunity to strike.
  CAPTURING NOWAK
  Once the hideout is located, seizing Nowak may 
  prove harder than expected. If the PCs score 7-9 on 
  their Investigate move to find Nowak, you can choose 
  to have Nowak know they are coming, in which case 
  he will flee, starting a chase. If Nowak escapes, he will 
  show up again when the Killer Strikes Again! or during 
  Martha’s performance at the Opera House. 
   
  NOWAK’S HIDEOUT yy
  CAPTURE NOWAK 4  /  NOWAK ESCAPES 3
  • Factory Hideout: When you enter Nowak’s 
  Hideout, take watched-2 and give Nowak’s Hideout 
  deafening noise.
  • Strings and Tripwires: When you Sneak Around 
  Nowak’s Hideout without first Investigating the 
  scene, you trip his system of visual cues. On a 10+ 
  or 7-9, Nowak knows you’re coming, but he can’t 
  see you yet.
  • Chase: When capture-Nowak:4 maxes out, Nowak is 
  cornered. When Nowak-escapes:3 maxes out, Nowak 
  flees (Deny Them Something They Want).
   
  • Provide Nowak with an escape path (give Nowak 
  escaping-1)
  • Block pursuers with a dead end, a metal grate, or a 
  collapsed pile of gears (remove one tier from cap-
  ture-Nowak or give someone stuck-2).
   
  • Churn and clank loudly 
   
  SNATCHER yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  BEG FOR MERCY –
  • Monstrous: When Snatcher takes a status that is 
  countered by his wide frame or by his rotting flesh, 
  reduce its tier by 1. When the MC makes a hard 
  move with Snatcher, he can hit two targets or hit a 
  single target for +1 tier.
  • Hangry: When Snatcher is denied a body promised 
  to him, give him hangry-3.
  • Gravediggers: Snatcher can call for his assistants 
  for help (Create a new Danger: Gravediggers, with 
  hurt-or-subdue:3, a size factor of 1, and cleavers 
  causing nasty-cut-2).
  • Who’s Your Daddy: When Snatcher feeds on a 
  body but does not consume it, the body turns into 
  a ghoul with the same abilities as Snatcher’s except 
  the ghoul slashes with their claws, does not have 
  the move Gravediggers, and has exorcise:2.
   
  • Go for a limb with his cleaver (slash-3) or wrap a 
  metal chain around someone and drag them along 
  (chained-3)
  • Violently break free of restraints (remove up to 3 
  tiers or burn up to 3 tags)
  • Feed off flesh (vicious-bite-3 and reduce one tier of 
  harmful status or give himself one tier of positive 
  status for each tier inflicted)
   
  • Screech and growl, exposing sharp and bloody 
  yellow teeth
  • Take the form of a body he devoured
  DEPTH 3:  
  TOLL THE DEATH KNELL
   NOWAK’S HIDEOUT
  The Industrial Zone looks like one big 
  haystack. Everywhere you turn you see 
  abandoned factories with grimey, broken 
  glass windows; piles of concrete pipeline 
  parts; endless lots with fleets of parked 
  trucks. John Nowak could be anywhere. Your 
  faraway gaze meets the smoke and steam 
  rising above the district, as the foghorn 
  in the docks nearby blows unnervingly like 
  a funeral toll.
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  17 
  INTERACTING WITH NOWAK
  Once cornered, Nowak will wait to see what the crew 
  does next. If the crew is still suspecting Nowak at this 
  point, they might attempt to subdue him or even take 
  revenge for his alleged victims and hurt him.
  Communicating with Nowak is difficult; being deaf, 
  mute, and partly illiterate, John Nowak is an isolated 
  man. Most conversational skills (and power tags) won’t 
  work here, and he must be assuaged before he can be 
  approached. When someone tries to gain Nowak’s trust, 
  give him apprehensive-2 if the crew has not acted vio-
  lently against him, and afraid-for-his-life-4 if they have. 
  Once cooperative, Nowak can easily answer yes-or-no 
  questions, point at people, objects, or pictures, etc.
  When he saw Martha on the Washboard flyer, 
  Nowak had a flash of her future. He’s vague 
  about the exact details of Martha’s future, but 
  if pushed he could sketch a newspaper page 
  with Martha’s picture titled MURDERER.
  Sensing the impending deaths, Nowak tried to 
  stop Martha at each of the crime scenes, but 
  he was too far or arrived too late. He needed to 
  be closer to Martha to be able to intervene in 
  time, but the crew and/or the police forced him 
  to lay low and keep his distance.
  NOWAK yy
  John Nowak is a tall, lean, and wiry man in his late 
  20s. He has an intimidating air about him, whether 
  because of his Mythos’ atmosphere or because of his 
  broken nose, shaved head, and many tattoos, ranging 
  from cheesy Christmas-themed illustrations to creepy 
  skulls, tombstones, and crows. He usually wears a 
  dirty hoodie pulled over a tanktop, worn-out cargo 
  pants, and work boots.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 3  /  (BANISH OR BIND 4) 
  • Ghostly Apparition: When Nowak’s hurt-or-subdue 
  maxes out, he doesn’t die or pass out. Instead, his 
  body becomes incorporeal. Hurt-or-subdue becomes 
  an immunity (hurt-or-subdue:–) and all statuses on 
  it are removed. Nowak gains banish-or-bind:4. Until 
  he learns to control this ability, he materializes 
  after the next downtime.
  • Deathsense: Nowak can sense an approaching 
  death. As a side effect, he can instinctively dodge at-
  tacks that would kill him. When Nowak takes a status 
  that would kill him and that can be dodged given his 
  precognition, he ignores the status instead.
  • Silent Toll: When Nowak’s deafness first becomes 
  apparent or relevant in a scene, give him deaf. He is 
  immune to Martha Ellis’s Banshee keen.
  • Flash Forward: As a hard move, Nowak forsees the 
  grim future of a person he can see and makes a rough 
  sketch depicting it. Upon gazing on the sketch, the 
  person whose future is depicted sees his predicted 
  fate and becomes emotional-3 or terrified-3.
  • Urban Survivalist: When Nowak enters the scene 
  give him alert-2. At the end of each downtime, if 
  he lost his last hideout, he finds a new one (Create 
  Danger: Nowak’s Hideout).
   
  • Throw a powerful punch at someone (staggering-3) 
  or grapple them (restrained-3)
   
  • Wave his hands and mumble in warning of what’s 
  to come
  • Receive a vision about someone’s death or grim 
  future
  
  18   |   CITY OF MIST
  • If Nowak is locked up or worse, and the PCs already 
  suspect Martha, they could be the ones looking for 
  her, arriving in the middle of her song.
  • If Nowak is locked up and the PCs don’t suspect Mar-
  tha, Officers Das or Quinn can walk in on Martha and 
  the victim, and then call on the PCs to investigate, 
  raising the possibility that they got the wrong man.
  The attack occurs at the victim’s home. When the crew 
  arrives, Martha is distraught-3 and of course drunk-3 as 
  last time. However, the victim isn’t dead; the song was 
  interrupted and they lost consciousness, conveniently 
  falling into a coma.
  Martha isn’t aware that the victim isn’t dead 
  (not even her Deathsense can operate at her 
  current level of intoxication). She relates to 
  the victim as having passed away until some-
  one notes that the victim is still alive, at which 
  point she becomes very nervous.
  Martha insists that ‘the hooded killer’ was the 
  one who affected the victim (whether or not 
  Nowak was at the scene). If she’s told Nowak is 
  locked up, she’ll insist there’s another killer.
  Confronted about her song, she will claim that 
  she was trying to help the victim.
  Nowak is immensely frustrated with his inabil-
  ity to communicate and doesn’t understand 
  why he was given this morbid gift of foresight 
  if he cannot even help anyone. He is on the 
  brink of despairing.
  He is also genuinely sad and sympathetic for 
  Martha, who is too caught up in her own pain 
  to see the harm she’s inflicting on others.
   THE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN!
  Left to her own devices, Martha Ellis will strike again, 
  seeking an outlet for her complicated, tormented soul. 
  Whether the crew suspects her or still believes she is 
  the victim, it is time to throw a fat clue their way. This 
  time around the crew will arrive in the nick of time to 
  witness Ellis and Nowak battling it out.
  The victim of Martha’s next strike should be someone 
  close to or liked by the PCs. Ideally, it should be one of 
  the crew’s supporting cast. Otherwise, Ellis may target 
  a favorite NPC from the case such as Sammy Jefferson 
  Jr. or police officers Das or Quinn, etc.
  This triggered scene can play out in several ways:
  • If Nowak is still on the loose, he arrives in time to 
  interrupt the ending of Martha’s song, but she locks 
  him up in the bathroom, capturing him.
  MARTHA yyyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 1  /  BEG FOR MERCY –  /  EMOTION-
  ALLY HEAL 5  /  (BANISH OR BIND 4) 
  • Apparition: When Martha’s hurt-or-subdue maxes 
  out, her body becomes incorporeal. Hurt-or-subdue 
  becomes an immunity (hurt-or-subdue:–) and all sta-
  tuses on it are removed. She gains banish-or-bind:4. 
  Until she learns to control this ability, she materializ-
  es after the next downtime.
  • Deathsense: Martha can sense an approaching 
  death. As a side effect, she can instinctively dodge at-
  tacks that would kill her. When Martha takes a status 
  that would kill her and that can be dodged given her 
  precognition, she ignores the status instead.
  • Keen of the Banshee: When Martha is incorporeal, 
  anyone hearing her sing is affected as if she is singing 
  about his or her personal pain.
  • Alcoholic: When Martha Ellis enters the scene, give 
  her drunk-2. As a hard move, she can give herself 
  drunk-2.
  • Broken: When you first try to discover or affect how 
  Martha Ellis feels, she takes full-of-self-hate-4.
  • Pain Behind the Eyes: As a hard move, the MC will 
  ask you about your character’s greatest pain. Martha 
  can sense your answer.
  • Opera House Showdown: When Martha sings to 
  everyone at the Opera House, give the Opera House 
  audience a spectrum of rend-hearts:6. When rend-
  hearts is maxed out, everyone in the Opera House 
  audience dies of grief.
   
  • Sing about one’s pain, if she knows it (emotional-
  ly-overwhelmed-4, if the target is a PC and the pain is 
  attached to a theme, they can mark Crack or Fade to 
  let go of the pain and avoid the status)
  • Push someone back with drunken force (if she’s not 
  incorporeal, prone-2 or bruised-2)
  • Pull out a concealed holdout gun and shoot someone 
  (gunshot-3)
   
  • Grab the mic
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  19 
  DEPTH 4:  
  A DEATHLY NIGHT  
  AT THE OPERA
   THE OPERA HOUSE
  “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Op-
  era House. Tonight we have a very special 
  lineup of musicians and performers who 
  will share with us the magic and mystery 
  of jazz music. From the City’s most be-
  loved big band tunes to the most alluring 
  and melancholic melodies, we have it all. 
  Prepare yourselves for a long night of the 
  soul… And now, to open up the performance, 
  please welcome Downtown’s most soulful 
  voice, the enchanting - MARTHA ELLIS!” 
  This triggered scene offers a grandiose ending to 
  the case in the event Martha Ellis has not yet been 
  stopped, or if she was set free for lack of evidence. 
  The crew catches wind of Martha’s next performance: 
  Martha Ellis will go on stage in a special jazz night at 
  the City’s Opera House, in a pivotal gig landed thanks 
  to the relentless efforts of Sammy Jefferson Jr.
  The PCs could arrive at this scene with different ideas in 
  mind, depending on what they had discovered so far. They 
  may wish to stop Ellis, to confront her, or, if she was able 
  to fool them thus far, to listen to her music. They may also 
  hear about this event as it unfolds and rush to the scene.
  Martha Ellis, in any case, will reveal herself on stage 
  as the Banshee she truly is. She’s only partly aware of 
  the feelings brewing in her, feelings of hatred and anger, 
  guilt and extreme sadness – all circling around a deep 
  sense of mourning for the past, her failing career, and 
  the crimes she committed to save it. These feelings were 
  always there, in every killing she carried out, and tonight 
  they will push her to try and sing her ultimate perfor-
  mance, the quintessential swan song, and unlock the 
  darkest emotions of not just one person but everyone 
  in the audience at once. If she is not stopped, the result 
  would be a public disaster that will be etched forever as 
  a painful memory in the history of the City.
  Depending on their situation and what they know 
  about Martha Ellis, the NPCs in the case may take dif-
  ferent roles in the scene:
  • As the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, John Nowak 
  still wants to warn Ellis from making the biggest mis-
  take of her life and being forever hated by everyone 
  around her. If he is free or able to break free, he will 
  show up at the Opera House.
  • Sammy Jefferson Jr., if he is still oblivious to the part 
  his singer and client had in the killings, will be there, 
  wearing his tackiest suit. For him, this night is about 
  finally legitimizing his shady business and starting to 
  make some real money. The bouncer Syrus may also be 
  invited, serving as a personal bodyguard for the diva.
  • Officers Das and Quinn could be doing traffic duty 
  outside the Opera House on this busy night; they could 
  be chasing an escaped Nowak on his way to the Opera 
  House; or, if they suspect a crime, they might be there 
  to “inspect the security arrangements” and keep watch.
  MORE BROKEN GLASS
  During this scene, when Martha’s wailing hits a cre-
  scendo, every artifact of glass in the Opera House 
  shatters – from stained-glass windows to lightbulbs 
  – showering the audience with shards of glass. This 
  is mostly for effect; the glass causes mostly panic 
  and minor scratches but no substantial harm.
  If exposed and threatened with consequences (such as 
  arrest), Martha will drop her act, revealing the restless 
  soul behind the facade. She will pick out one of the lead 
  characters present and start singing, hoping to bring her 
  would-be-captors down one by one and unleashing all 
  the hatred and anger she has built up for those who mis-
  understand her and stand in her way to glory and fame. 
  Unless she is helped, she won’t calm down until she has 
  killed someone with her keening. She would then come 
  to her senses and attempt to flee the scene.
  
  20   |   CITY OF MIST
  AFTERMATH
  Here are a few questions to consider and points to 
  revisit when you wrap up this case:
  • What was the end of Martha Ellis? Was she healed, 
  imprisoned, or killed? Even if someone found a way 
  to banish or destroy the Banshee, Martha’s emotion 
  may have left a powerful print that continues to echo 
  behind the veil of the Mist. If she was stopped in 
  time, is she being helped to work through her issues? 
  How are her powers contained? Perhaps she is ad-
  mitted to the Municipal Institute for the Criminally 
  Insane, where she will be groomed directly by Dr. 
  Krystal Knight and resurface as part of her doomsday 
  plan in Broken Glass.
  • What about Nowak? Was he able to help Martha and 
  accomplish what he set out to do? If not, does he 
  continue to stop villains from ruining their future as 
  a ghostly messenger of death, or did he despair and 
  turn to evil, or back into the sleep of the Mist? Did he 
  get to keep his job or was he sent to prison?
  • With the similarities in their Mythoi, and their rather 
  opposite mundane personas, do Martha and Nowak 
  become mortal enemies or do they develop an in-
  explicable love that crosses space, time, and prison 
  bars?
  • What kind of relationship formed between the crew 
  and officers Das and Quinn: a cold rivalry or a friend-
  ly alliance? Somewhere in between?
  • How did the legal aspect of the case close? Was 
  someone formally charged with the deaths of Darnell 
  Fox, Tiffany Bancroft, or Adam Walsh? Did anyone 
  help their families reach closure, or is it better to 
  leave them in peace? Do their souls rest in peace or 
  are they restless, seeking revenge?
  • What is the future of the Washboard? Did Sammy 
  Jefferson Jr. finally go legit or did he return to his 
  usual sources of income?
  Finally, if you are playing through the story arc, be 
  sure to go back to the red lead of Dr. Selma Perrin of 
  Mending the Broken (page 14), and sow the seeds for 
  the next installment in this vein. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/City of Mist (PbtA)/Adventures/01 Killing Her Softly.pdf