TEXT: A STORY ARC BOOK FOR CITY OF MIST ROLE-PLAYING GAME
  
  NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  A CITY OF MIST STORY ARC
  
  CREDITS
  City of Mist created by Amit Moshe
  Writing, Game Design, and Production: Amit Moshe
  Assistant Game Producer: Omer Shapira
  Additional Writing: Omer Shapira
  Editing: Eran Aviram
  Proofreading: Marshal Oppel
  Art: Marcin Sobon, Gunship Revolution (Oliver Morit, 
  Harvey Bunda)
  Graphic Design: Manuel Serra Sáez
  Contributors: Matt Brown  
  (Carnival of Machines, Albion Awakens)
  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
  Neon Lights, Smoke, 
  Camera Roll, and... Action! 
  4
  What’s in this Book 
  6
  City of Mist Case Structure 
  7
  Using Cases in Your Game 
  8
  Modes of Play 
  9
  The Story Arc of the Grail  
  10
  Corbin Payne 
  11
  The Past 
  11
  The Present 
  13
  How to Run This Story Arc 
  15
  The Persinal Vein 
  16
  Killinh Her Softly 
  19
  Background 
  20
  The Iceberg 
  21
  Martha 
  22
  Depth 0: The Hooks 
  23
  Depth 1: Lamenting of the Past 
  23
  Depth 2: Fall on Deaf Ears 
  30
  Depth 3: Toll the Death Knell 
  32
  Depth 4: A Deathly Night at the Opera 
  35
  Aftermath 
  36
  Carnival of Machines 
  37
  Background 
  38
  The Iceberg 
  40 
  Depth 0: The Hooks 
  40
  Interested Parties 
  41
  Depth 1: Downtown Disaster 
  43
  Depth 2: A Well-Oiled Mechanism 
  46
  Depth 3: Such A Fun Way To Die 
  49
  Depth 4: What Makes Folks Tick 
  55
  Aftermath 
  56
  Broken Glass 
  57
  Background 
  58
  The Iceberg 
  60
  Depth 0: The Hooks 
  60
  Depth 1: A Cry For Help 
  61
  Depth 2: Cool Reception 
  69
  Depth 3: Throwing Stones At A Glass House 74
  Depth 4: Shoveling The Heart’s Snow 
  77
  Aftermath 
  79
  
  4   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  The detective poised himself behind the 
  blonde thief, blocking her way out of the 
  alley. “Why’d you do it, Goldie? And don’t 
  give me that too-hot-too-cold crap. I ain’t 
  buying it no more.” Cornered, she turned 
  around, her eyes like the eyes of a deer 
  caught in the beam of his flashlight. With a 
  mane of blow-dried hair and iridescent plas-
  tic bangles, you could hardly tell her from 
  a Downtown streetwalker, but no, she was 
  different.
  “How’d ya find me? Listen, Holliday, I didn’t 
  mean to…”
  “Save it,” the detective brought his revolv-
  er up, “I just want to know why.”
  “Look, I don’t know anything else, all 
  right?” She dropped the duffle bag that was 
  slung over her slender shoulder, “I’m reach-
  ing for a smoke, okay?”
  The detective nodded. She pulled out a ciga-
  rette pack and, when she saw he wasn’t going 
  to offer, a lighter. After a few puffs, she 
  leered at the gun’s gaping barrel nervously.
  “Everyone’s running from something, Tom. You 
  know this better than anyone.”
  “What you running from?”
  “Routine, I guess. A home. It scares the 
  hell out of me, makes my lungs burn.”
  “Sure it’s not the smokes? Never stopped you 
  from getting into other people’s homes and 
  take what you want. And what’s so bad about 
  a home, anyway? We could have had every-
  thing.”
  She took another drag, “Sometimes I think 
  maybe I could be happy, and then, this 
  thing inside me, it wants to tear it all to 
  shreds.”
  “I’ll help you. We’ll get you the best doc-
  tors.”
  “It’s not like that! You can’t see it. No 
  matter how sharp a detective you are, you 
  never see it. It’s this god-awful town, 
  with its demons and kings. It’s built this 
  way. All those dead-ended alleys.” She 
  turned to stare at the tall brick wall 
  that was blocking her escape on the other 
  side. ”Someone built it this way, to make 
  us hurt. I’m not sticking around, Tom. I’m 
  gonna keep on running.”
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  5 
  “I can’t let you go.” A small sigh escaped 
  him. “Not after what you did.”
  She picked up the duffle bag, slung it over 
  her shoulder again, and put out her ciga-
  rette on the wet asphalt with the pointy tip 
  of her shoe, “You do what you need to do.” 
  The subway passed underneath, shaking the 
  street and blowing smoke and steam into the 
  alley. The thief dashed over to a nearby 
  dumpster, ready to climb the wall at the al-
  ley’s end. The street lights flickered. The 
  detective took his aim.
  A click, the kind that lets you know you’ve 
  been fooled again. He quickly flicked his 
  revolver’s cylinder open; the rounds were 
  gone. He heard them falling one by one from 
  her spindly fingers to the floor, all the 
  way there, by the dumpster. She seemed sad, 
  tired, like she was feeling more than she 
  could bear.
  “How the hell did you do that?”
  “Good bye, Holliday. Take my advice and get 
  the hell outta Payne town. This place is 
  ready to burn.”
  Welcome to Nights of Payne Town, the 
  first published City of Mist story arc and 
  collection of cases. Here, myths and leg-
  ends are incarnated as gritty detectives 
  and crooks, destined to reenact the dra-
  ma of their ancient stories in a moody, 
  modern, noir world. Bullets whistle 
  through the air as street gangs and po-
  lice exchange fire, only to be stopped by 
  a knight’s shimmering armor or an old 
  witch’s magic spell. 
  Greed, hatred, and a lust for power drive countless peo-
  ple to commit atrocious, but ultimately human, crimes: 
  crimes of passion, crimes of pre-meditation, and 
  crimes written in the stars. Their pain, and the pain of 
  their victims, is glowing like neon in the night…
  Will the lead characters, the PCs, try to stop them or 
  join them? In doing so, will they stoop to committing 
  wrongs of their own or betray one another? Will they 
  try to heal all this pain and bring the City together? Or 
  will they watch the City’s open wounds fester until it’s 
  too late? Let us find out.
  
  6   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  • Broken Glass: A psychiatrist turned asylum patient 
  and her army of malicious therapists poison Rifts 
  against one another and plot to spread Rift-hatred 
  throughout town. (The Snow Queen)
  THE MYSTICAL VEIN
  Cases about a strange cult that transforms Sleepers 
  into Rifts, as contrived by the alchemist villain Ar-
  mand Kai (Flegetanis, the heathen astronomer and 
  alchemist who first wrote of the Grail).
  • The Furnace: A new drug circulating in the City lures 
  Rifts into a trap, where their very Mythos essence is 
  drained out of them. (Hansel and Gretel)
  • Cult of the God King: A cult takes over the City’s 
  youth, using unwitting members as guinea pigs for 
  mystical experimentation. (Magnus Opus, Yokai)
  • The Alchemist: The Elixir of Life awaits in the manor 
  of an aging alchemist, guarded by his disciples and 
  alchemical creations. (Alchemy)
  THE CRIMINAL VEIN
  Cases about the crime lord Lance Beaumont (King 
  Arthur), his attempt to take over the City, and the turf 
  war that ensues as a result.
  • Albion Awakens: A gang of bike-mounted hooli-
  gans seeks to carve out a new and peaceful kingdom 
  in one of the City’s neighborhoods. (Knights of the 
  Round Table)
  • Home Is Where The Heart Is: An aggressive real-es-
  tate agent takes over neighborhood after neighbor-
  hood, sucking the tenants' blood dry in more ways 
  than one. (Wendigo)
  • The Streets Bleed Neon: The City is dragged into 
  an all-out faction war as a crime lord from its past 
  reawakens and attempts to violently seize power, 
  vowing to protect the City from impending doom. 
  (King Arthur)
  Finally, the tenth case is an overarching case which can 
  encompass the entire story arc, but can also be played 
  as a standalone
  • Percival: The PCs seek the truth about Corbin Payne, 
  the City’s long-forgotten construction tycoon, the 
  Rift of the Fisher King, and keeper of the Grail. To 
  stop him from hurting the City, they must find the 
  only soul in town who uncovered the secret of the 
  Grail. (The Fisher King, Percival)
  WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK
   
  WARNING FOR PLAYERS
  This book contains case information intended for 
  the Master of Ceremonies (MC). If you intend to play 
  as a player in one of the cases given in this book, 
  reading the information here will reveal the details 
  of the investigation and may spoil your sense of 
  mystery and enjoyment.
  Nights of Payne Town contains ten individual cases. 
  Each case has everything you need in order to run a 
  City of Mist story: its background, an investigation 
  flowchart known as the Iceberg, detailed information 
  about the locations and the NPCs involved in the case, 
  Danger profiles for all the threats, and some maps 
  for visualization. Depending on your group’s style of 
  play and the specifics of the case, each case could take 
  between one and four sessions to complete.
  The cases in this book can be run separately from one 
  another. However, this book also contains informa-
  tion on how to run all cases as a single interconnect-
  ed story arc, allowing you and your group to play it as 
  an entire series (campaign). All the cases in the book are 
  laid out on a story arc Iceberg, which helps you navigate 
  the connections between the cases and decide which 
  case to run next or even in parallel. You can find more 
  information about the story arc starting on page XX.
  CASES IN THIS BOOK
  The book is divided into three sub-arcs – the person-
  al, the criminal, and the mystical – each comprised of 
  three cases.
  THE PERSONAL VEIN
  Cases about and around individuals and their person-
  al and emotional turmoil, instigated by minions and 
  victims of the psychiatrist villain Dr. Krystal Knight 
  (The Snow Queen).
  • Killing Her Softly: A jazz singer asks for help with 
  stopping a stalker, who she claims is responsible for 
  the many strange deaths around her. (Banshee, Ghost 
  of Christmas Yet to Come)
  • Carnival of Machines: A demented scientist, who 
  draws a twisted sense of control from deconstructing 
  Rifts, creates an elaborate fairground wonderland to 
  lure them to their deaths. (Hephaestus, Goldilocks, 
  King David, Paul Bunyan)
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  7 
  CITY OF MIST  
  CASE STRUCTURE
  City of Mist is a cinematic “sandbox” 
  game, which allows the players the 
  freedom to choose how to continue in 
  their investigation at each point (within 
  the boundaries of the case). City of Mist 
  cases are designed to support this style 
  of play. Each case is described using 
  a flowchart called the Iceberg, which 
  shows the potential steps the PCs can 
  take to solve the case. 
   
   
  The building blocks of the Iceberg are locations. Each 
  location contains information that could lead the 
  investigation forward or potential interactions that 
  affect the investigation. Whenever the crew arrives at a 
  location, a scene is played there.
   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 cello 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... 
  Another component of the Iceberg is triggered scenes, 
  scenes that you, the MC, initiate when certain con-
  ditions apply, such as a gang attacking the crew or a 
  serial murderer striking again, thus creating a new 
  crime scene. Triggered scenes don’t wait for the players 
  to reach a location; they happen when the MC wants 
  them to happen, drawing the crew in.
   MARTHA WAS ATTACKED!
  You’re startled by the sudden ring of your 
  phone. On the other side of the line, Of-
  ficer Chaavi Das sounds infuriated. “The 
  killer got to her. He jumped Martha Ellis. 
  She made it somehow, but she’s roughed up. 
  You better come down here.”
  Sooner or later, Nowak finds his way to Martha Ellis ...
  Locations and scenes are arranged on the Iceberg in 
  Depths: the closer a location or a scene is to the final 
  truth of the case, the greater its Depth. The bottom 
  Depth represents the location where the ultimate truth 
  of the case can be revealed.
  
  8   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  USING CASES  
  IN YOUR GAME
  ADDING STORY ELEMENTS  
  FROM YOUR SERIES
  Your City of Mist series is more than just the content 
  of its cases, it’s about the lead characters and the crew. 
  You can and should incorporate some of your series’ 
  story elements into the cases of Nights of Payne Town 
  (see the MC Toolkit book, under Series Resources, page 
  105). City of Mist games truly shine when the campaign 
  focuses on the lead characters and brings out their 
  personal stories. This can be done by including:
  • The nature of the crew, its goals, and its Mystery or 
  Identity
  • The lead characters’ Mysteries and Identities
  • The relationships between the crew members
  • Symbolism related to their Mythoi
  • Complications arising in their lives (their career, 
  relationships, obligations, etc.)
  • Their supporting cast, especially as victims, accom-
  plices, or bystanders in the events of a case
  • Nemeses
  • Memorable NPCs from previous cases you played
  • As you play through the cases of Nights of Payne Town, 
  you can add these story elements into the locations 
  and scenes described in the cases. You can also give 
  airtime to the lead characters’ lives and interests by 
  playing scenes that are not described in the case. 
  Ideally, try to keep things connected and have the case 
  and the series interpenetrate one another: supporting 
  cast get mixed up in the case, around-the-clock case 
  investigation hurts the PC’s personal lives, etc.
  PRE-WRITTEN CONTENT  
  VS. ACTUAL PLAY
  City of Mist puts a lot of power in the hands of the 
  players, allowing them to drive the narrative (especial-
  ly when they Stop. Holding. Back.). Your cases will 
  not always go down the Iceberg as presented in this 
  book: players may lose the investigation thread, the 
  lead characters may befriend the crooks and betray the 
  victims, or they may choose to sacrifice everything to 
  destroy an arch-villain in one fell swoop. It’s all good, 
  because you’re here to play to find out. 
  In practical terms, this means you may be forced to 
  retrofit some of the locations, NPCs, and Dangers 
  in the case to the new situation. Instead of ignoring 
  unused content altogether, aim to find creative ways 
  At each location, the information pertinent to the 
  investigation is arranged as clues, shown as yellow 
  cards. This information is usually accessible to players 
  when their characters investigate, using the Investi-
  gate Core Move. The players then spend Clues (game 
  resource) to ask the MC questions and the MC should 
  incorporate the information from the location clues 
  into her answers. In other words, when the players 
  spend their Clues to ask the right questions, they get 
  the case clues in the yellow cards.
  The coroner report says Darnell Fox died of 
  unexplained heart failure.
  Clues that point the investigation to another case on the 
  story arc outside the current case are called red clues 
  and have a slightly different design. Their use varies 
  depending on the mode of play you choose (see below).
  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. [...] See a possible en-
  counter with a Mending The Broken therapist 
  in the case Broken Glass (page XX).
  Any threats to the PCs or their investigation at a loca-
  tion are described using Danger profiles. See Chapter 
  3: This is MY City! in the MC Toolkit book for guide-
  lines on using Dangers in your game.
  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 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
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  9 
  to introduce NPCs and Dangers that were skipped in a 
  different way than stated in the case. For example:
  • When your crew is avoiding a key location, you can 
  have an NPC from that location come to them.
  • If the crew exposed the culprit in the case early in the 
  investigation, focus the case on any follow-up actions 
  they may want to take against (or with) the culprit.
  • Convert a Danger that was supposed to guard clues 
  at a location to one that directly attacks the crew as a 
  triggered scene.
  • Once the bulk of the case is solved, have an NPC ask 
  the crew to clear up some of the loose ends.
  MODES OF PLAY
  You can use the cases in this book in a number of dif-
  ferent ways, each with its own requirements, challeng-
  es, benefits, and downsides.
  ONE-SHOTS (SIMPLE)
  You can run each case in this book separately from the 
  others, ignoring the story arc completely. The focus 
  in each case becomes the crime or wrong at its center 
  and any loose ends are either wrapped up or remain 
  a mystery. This option is useful for casual games and 
  one-shots, but it strips away the deeper subtext and 
  mounting drama of the series.
  This mode of play requires the least prep and tracking. 
  It is advised to read each case before you run it, but 
  there’s no need to read or keep track of the greater 
  story arc. During play, you should omit red clues or use 
  them only as flavor, in order to avoid pointing the play-
  ers in the wrong direction or to other cases in the arc.
  CASE-BY-CASE  
  (STRAIGHTFORWARD)
  You can run the entire story arc, playing one case at a 
  time. The investigation focuses on one crime or wrong at 
  a time, bringing it to some kind of resolution before mov-
  ing on to the next case. This allows you to enjoy the full 
  impact of the story arc, without the overhead of tracking 
  multiple cases at once (like in the sandbox option, below).
  This mode of play requires you to become familiar with 
  the story arc information for context, but you only 
  need to prepare one case at a time. Red clues should be 
  given at the end of each case, to avoid crossing over to 
  another case in the middle of an ongoing investigation. 
  Case-by-case, vein-by-vein: The first nine cases in 
  the story arc (all but the grand finale) are divided into 
  three “veins”. Each vein is a thematically-linked set of 
  three cases that could be the subject of a single sea-
  son. To make tracking clues even easier, you can run 
  the story arc one vein at a time, completing a mini-arc 
  before moving on to the next one. In this mode, avoid or 
  downplay red clues that cross over to other veins until 
  the vein is completed. This is the recommended mode of 
  play if you are running the campaign for the first time.
  SANDBOX CITY (CHALLENGING)
  You can run this story arc as an open-world game, 
  allowing the players to investigate multiple cases at 
  a time. The lead characters can visit locations from 
  different cases in the same session and get NPCs from 
  one case involved with NPCs from another case. The 
  spotlight then falls on the lead characters, their lives, 
  and the state of the City as a whole, as they try to put 
  together many threads and uncover what is driving all 
  the wrongdoing around them. This is the mode of play 
  most open to player input and creativity, emphasizing 
  a ‘realistic’ approach, which has the potential of evolv-
  ing into a very gratifying and grand detective tale.
  This mode of play requires the most of the players and 
  the MC. As the MC, you will need to familiarize your-
  self with the story arc and its Iceberg to quickly switch 
  between cases and you should either read the cases, have 
  the ability to quickly glean what you need from a case 
  during play, or be willing to improvise extensively. Red 
  clues should be given whenever they are presented in the 
  case. It is advised that players take it upon themselves to 
  keep track of their clues and cases in order to take that 
  duty off the shoulders of the MC. This mode of play also 
  holds the risk of becoming as grinding and as technical 
  as a real-world investigation if the players and MC don’t 
  hold fast to the cinematic consideration of “What would 
  be interesting now?” and mix action, drama, and investi-
  gation to achieve a good cinematic balance. 
  THE ORDER OF CASES
  The cases are numbered from 1 to 10 for ease of 
  reference. While you can follow the numerical order 
  of the cases to run the story arc, they can be played 
  in any order that makes sense as explained above.
  In each vein, the first two cases make good starting 
  points and middle layers. The last case includes the 
  details of the final clash with the vein’s villain, so it 
  should be played last in its vein.
  When you play Percival in a story arc, it becomes a 
  special case with three acts, each played after you 
  complete a vein (see page XX).
  
  10   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  11 
  Why is this town the way it is – dirty, 
  corrupt, and self-devouring? Why do 
  people here wrong one another at every 
  turn? Murdering, stealing, selling drugs 
  and weapons, cheating – all of this has 
  become the routine in the City, on all 
  strata of society. Is it cruelty, plain and 
  simple, that has blackened the hearts of 
  the people? Is it greed, that selfish and 
  all-consuming desire to have it all? Is it 
  an ever-growing sense of indifference, 
  as the citizens’ humanity is further and 
  further eroded by the Mist?
  If you had asked criminal psychiatrist Dr. Krystal 
  Knight, decades ago, she would have said that cru-
  elty, greed, and indifference could all drive people to 
  commit anti-social wrongs, to hurt one another. But 
  it is pain, she would say, that is the root cause of all of 
  these. The wish to be free of it drives us mad. When we 
  try to pass it on to another, we are cruel. When we try 
  to hoard money and power to protect ourselves from it, 
  we are greedy and aggressive. And when we shut our-
  selves out to the suffering of others, so that we don’t 
  hurt, we are indifferent. According to this renowned 
  therapist of the past, it is our own pain – pain we were 
  born into, pain we have been subjected to, and the pain 
  of merely existing – that drives us to hurt the world 
  around us. 
  By now, you already know this City is run by legends. 
  In their quest to re-enact their Mythos on a city-wide 
  scale, Avatars of desire, of war, of lies, and even Avatars 
  of hope, have turned this City into what it is today. But 
  even before the oldest of them attained Avatarhood, 
  there was a force in the City that shaped its very foun-
  dations. Silent and hidden, he continues to torment 
  the City from the shadows, poisoning it, sending his 
  knights to sow more and more misery. This story arc is 
  his story, a story of suffering and how we pass it on – 
  and the purpose it may serve.
  CORBIN PAYNE
  The Fisher King, Keeper of the Grail
  CORBIN PAYNE’S TIMELINE IN A NUTSHELL
  As with everything in the Mist, historical details 
  and dates become fuzzier the further back in time 
  one goes.
  A CENTURY AGO
  • Corbin Payne is the City’s foremost construction 
  tycoon
  • Tormented by the lack of substance in the City 
  (caused by his growing awareness of the Mist), he 
  awakens as the Fisher King
  • He is shot in the groin (by his own Conjuration), an 
  injury that marks the beginning of his demise
  • The Grail appears in his possession and keeps him 
  alive, but he cannot use it to cure himself
  • His business empire crumbles, his death is an-
  nounced, and he fades out of public memory
  SEVERAL DECADES AGO
  • Noble-minded Rifts seek Corbin Payne out for the 
  Grail, but instead he breaks them and amplifies 
  their own suffering
  • They are sent back to the City as his so-called 
  ‘knights’, further spreading suffering
  TODAY
  • The knights’ plans or destinies come to fruition 
  and they resurface from their individual dormant 
  states 
  THE PAST
  THE MAN WHO IS THE CITY
  Corbin Payne built this City, but to most people, he is 
  nothing but a fading name on a plaque. In the early roar-
  ing years of this town, when construction was booming 
  and the City was expanding in every possible direction, 
  Payne Construction Company was a name you couldn’t 
  escape. From residential neighborhoods to the financial 
  district’s most prominent skyscrapers and government 
  buildings, this leading contractor built up the City like no 
  other company, amassing a host of subcontractors under 
  its financial umbrella. The Payne Construction Company 
  logo and name was on every corner stone and its glori-
  fied founder cut one red tape after another. 
  
  12   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  At the time, newspapers estimated the company was 
  involved in constructing over 60% of the projects in 
  the City, and was branching out to the construction of 
  the subway tunnels, expanding the port, and building 
  a new airport for the City. Politicians were divided: 
  some were alarmed by the sheer financial power of 
  the construction giant while others commended its 
  spirit of entrepreneurship which has generated tens of 
  thousands of jobs for the City. Reporters started calling 
  the City “Payne’s Town” or “Payne Town”, a name that 
  in time would be the only legacy Corbin Payne left in 
  public memory, as his empire would turn to figurative 
  ashes. The tall, striking, and stout tycoon whose black-
  and-white picture once featured daily in every newspa-
  per would soon all but vanish from living memory.
  EXISTENTIAL TORMENT
  Unlike his contemporaries, who were still largely un-
  aware of their Mist-bound sleep, Corbin Payne achingly 
  felt the futility of everything he did and the unreality 
  of life in the Mist. While his endeavors to build up the 
  City were celebrated, he questioned the point of it all, 
  coming to a realization that the ‘real world’ was not 
  as real as it seems. This existential angst deepened 
  and worsened, until it became the tormenting self-
  doubt which led to his awakening as the Fisher King 
  (or the Wounded King), the guardian of the Grail in 
  Arthurian legend. Whether to end his suffering or to 
  perpetuate it, Payne subconsciously created a Conjura-
  tion of a hooded man who attacked him one day as he 
  was alighting from his limousine, shooting him in the 
  groin. The mythic gunshot wound, which was supposed 
  to kill him, festered and crippled Mr. Payne instead. He 
  shut himself off from the world, neglecting his con-
  struction empire.
  Recession struck and Payne Construction Company 
  collapsed, although economists and historians are 
  undecided on which followed which. Some say the 
  dashing tycoon became an eccentric recluse, that his 
  heart was broken, or that he fell ill. Whatever spin the 
  newspaper gave it, Corbin Payne left the public life 
  around the same time his company declared bank-
  ruptcy and its assets were seized and foreclosed by the 
  banks. What was left of Payne Construction Company 
  was broken down into its many subcontractors, each 
  going on to seek its fortune independently. Years later, 
  Corbin Payne’s death was announced and his meager 
  estate was divided up to various past lenders, revealing 
  that he had died virtually penniless. The Mist crept in, 
  and this once great man was soon all but forgotten.
  KEEPER OF THE GRAIL
  Upon his awakening as the Fisher King, Corbin Payne 
  discovered a strange cup on his desk. Every time he 
  would look at it, the cup took the form of another type 
  of receptacle. This cup was the Relic of the Grail, and 
  it gave Payne hope that someday he may be cured; it 
  also kept his wound from killing him by its mere pres-
  ence. But the more he tried to activate the Grail, the 
  more dormant the Relic became. Now forgotten by the 
  world, Payne passed his days in the half-finished husk 
  of his greatest construction project, Corbin Tower, 
  which slowly transformed into an Enclave of the Grail 
  Castle overlooking the City on one side and the sea on 
  the other. Sometimes he would escape the broken spire 
  to go fishing on a dilapidated dinghy off an abandoned 
  port just outside town, but most days, he would sit in 
  his empty chambers, in solitude.
  THE KNIGHTS OF PAYNE
  Decades passed by. Legends of the Grail started crop-
  ping up among the City’s Rifts, and brave heroes and 
  heroines set out on a quest to find Corbin Payne and 
  the Grail. Many perished or lost their minds and souls 
  in the process, but a handful of Rifts were able to pen-
  etrate the veil of Mist and find the wounded tycoon in 
  his skyscraper ruin.
  Unfortunately for all involved, they were ill-prepared 
  for what they were about to encounter. The old king, 
  twisted and tormented by years of mythical pain and 
  having lost all hope of unlocking the secrets of the 
  Grail, has become a living maelstrom of misery. He laid 
  their own pains bare, exposed their bleeding hearts and 
  squeezed them till they burst. The vanquished heroes, 
  who tried to cure the Fisher King but did not have in 
  them what it took to awaken the Grail, were cast back 
  into the world, reeling with pain. They became his 
  knights, his messengers, who would spread his pain 
  across the City as they wrestled with their own suf-
  fering. Through them, Corbin Payne insidiously and 
  subversively infected the entire City with his pain, 
  becoming the Avatar of the Fisher King.
  There were many Grail Knights over the years. Nights of 
  Payne Town focuses on the Fisher King’s three greatest 
  knights, individuals who sought him in the heyday of 
  the City (or were related to someone who did), decades 
  after the demise of his empire, and were closest to 
  healing him:
  Dr. Krystal Knight (the Snow Queen), a criminal 
  psychotherapist who hoped to treat Corbin Payne’s 
  depression, spent years in sessions with him. She 
  ended up losing herself in his sorrow, awakening 
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  13 
  as the Rift of the Snow Queen and vowing to sow 
  hatred towards Rifts everywhere in the City.
  Armand Kai (Flegetanis) was a scholar who sought 
  life everlasting. When he saw the crippling wound 
  of the Fisher King he was so deeply appalled that he 
  became obsessed with preventing his own mortality, 
  creating a murderous alchemical cult with the sole 
  purpose of allowing him to find the Elixir of Life.
  Rio Beaumont (Percival) was the person closest to 
  unlocking the secrets of the Grail, but, distracted 
  by the Mist or her Mythos at the crucial moment, 
  she failed. Heartbroken at her failure, she became a 
  Sleeper and Denied the Beyond, disappearing forev-
  er to all Rifts in the City.
  Holding the Fisher King responsible for the loss of 
  Rio, her father, Lance Beaumont (King Arthur), 
  swore to become powerful enough to stand against 
  him, but his quest for security turned him into a 
  crime lord, who would sacrifice anything for the 
  power to defeat his enemy.
  The three surviving Grail Knights have all disappeared 
  long ago. The doctor was hospitalized in an asylum, 
  never to be seen again; Armand Kai shut himself in 
  his lab until the world forgot about him; and Lance 
  Beaumont died, shot dead by his cousin in a gunfight. 
  Now, with their plans and destinies finally coming to 
  fruition, they have all resurfaced, ready to drown the 
  City in the Fisher King’s suffering. Rio remains inac-
  cessible and forgotten, somewhere in the City. 
  THE PRESENT
  Much to everyone’s detriment, his own 
  more than anyone else’s, Corbin Panye 
  is very much alive. The wounded king 
  of a ruined empire, he is now a miser-
  able and broken man on an epic scale, 
  doomed to suffer eternally until a cure 
  can be found for him. That cure remains 
  infuriatingly close and yet out of reach 
  in the form of the Grail, a fact which 
  only adds to the old king’s torment.
  Corbin Payne wants this City to suffer. He wants 
  to bear open her wounds – physical, historical, social, 
  emotional – and rub salt in them until every individ-
  ual shares his immense pain. So deep is his obsession 
  with City-wide suffering and it is so blurred by his own 
  physical and emotional misery that it’s hard, even for 
  him, to tell what started it. Does he simply seek relief 
  by passing his pain to others? Is he enacting vengeance 
  against the City that forgot him? Or is he using pain to 
  educate the City and spur it to awaken from its Misty 
  sleep? Whatever his reasons are, Corbin Payne is a 
  pain-monger that feeds off the City’s crime, corrup-
  tion, and alienation and the negative emotional charge 
  they produce. While this old tycoon remains hidden, 
  waiting to be cured, his unwitting so-called ‘knights’ 
  rain suffering and wrongdoing on the City, perpetuat-
  ing the state of affairs in Payne Town.
  OVERVIEW OF PAYNE
  • Agenda: make the City suffer (and maybe thus find 
  a savior)
  • MO: hurt powerful Rifts so that they hurt others
  • Feeling: pain
  • Motifs: fishing, crows, modern-day chalices (the 
  Grail),
  • Frontliners: his knights' minions
  • Stronghold: the abandoned Corbin Tower con-
  struction site
  PAYNE’S MODUS OPERANDI
  Payne is taken by his own suffering so entirely that 
  he is only vaguely aware of his own agenda. Most of 
  the time, the excruciating legendary pain contained 
  within his mortal body blurs his mind, giving way to 
  alternating anger, self-pity, and deadened apathy, and 
  driving him to hurt others out of sheer spite. He is able 
  to maintain a noble composure for a brief while, but it 
  is just a temporary, fragile facade. 
  Nevertheless, there is a part of Payne that hopes that if 
  he hurts the City enough, at some point someone will 
  find him and figure out a way to either put him out of 
  his misery or cure him. This mixture of knee-jerk reflex 
  and wishful thinking is the closest thing he ever had to 
  a plan.
  Payne gets his release, and hopes to find his savior, 
  by creating a vicious circle of misery. Just like in the 
  story of the Fisher King, he attracts noble-minded Rifts 
  that hope to heal him or who seek the sacred force of 
  the Grail which he possesses. When these invariably 
  flawed heroes fail to do so, he wounds them so deeply 
  that they become beacons of suffering in his image. 
  They then return to society as his ‘knights’, spreading 
  misery to others in the same way, branching out and 
  reaching more and more people (one of whom may be 
  the savior Payne longs for).
  
  14   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  The more suffering is caused through his ‘knights’ (and 
  perhaps even the more the City suffers in general), the 
  more powerful the old tycoon becomes, because of his 
  ability to control and manipulate pain. Right now his 
  pain-mongering manifests as an old and forgotten fes-
  tering wound, but there may come a day when he steps 
  off his dinghy and out of the shadows to truly agonize 
  the City. 
  PAYNE AND OTHER AVATARS
  Payne was never a mastermind nor an inspiring 
  leader, so other Avatars and the Gatekeepers could 
  have easily taken him out by now, theoretically. Un-
  fortunately for all, he embodies the most primordial 
  force of all, that which everyone is afraid of. Fearing 
  untold suffering and the possible reopening of their 
  old human wounds (thus ending their Avatarhood), 
  the City’s Avatars either keep their distance or 
  reluctantly do Payne’s bidding on the rare occasion 
  he expresses it. He is a secret observing member in 
  the council of The Truth which strives to keep the 
  status quo in the City (see Chapter 3: Don’t Believe 
  the Truth, in the Shadows & Showdowns expansion). 
  He is using the council to perpetuate the City’s state 
  of misery, while keeping tabs on the secret pains of 
  each Avatar in the pantheon, to be used if they ever 
  turn on him.
  During the events of Nights of Payne Town, the Av-
  atars of the City and their operations are unusually 
  absent, especially when it comes to interfering with 
  Payne’s knights. If this raises the suspicions of the 
  lead characters, they could investigate, although 
  getting the truth out of Avatars may prove virtually 
  impossible.  
  PAYNE’S OPERATION
  Over the years, Payne has hurt and corrupted more 
  than a handful of heroic Rifts that attempted to 
  destroy or cure him and failed. These ‘knights’ of his 
  have returned to the City and carved out a place for 
  themselves, continuing to spread misery insidiously 
  or overtly. Some of the villains and NPCs encountered 
  by the crew in the past or who are a part of the crew 
  members’ background could also be unwilling emissar-
  ies of the Fisher King, although today fewer and fewer 
  Rifts are able to surmount the challenges of the quest 
  to find him.
  Each knight’s operation effectively serves as a branch, 
  or a vein, in the Fisher King’s operation:
  Dr. Krystal Knight (the Snow Queen) leads the per-
  sonal vein, concerned with sowing Rift-hatred and 
  self-loathing among Rifts in the City.
  Armand Kai (Flegetanis) leads the mystical vein, 
  searching for the Elixir of Life by awakening new 
  Rifts and then robbing them of their powers.
  Lance Beaumont (King Arthur) leads the criminal 
  vein, seeking to take over the City in order to protect 
  it from the Fisher King, but in doing so hurting all 
  who stand in his path.
  HEALING THE WOUNDED KING
  Even if his messengers can be stopped, the Fisher King 
  is beyond mortal help. His very presence unleashes 
  people’s own pain, turning them into his unwilling 
  torment-spreading knights as they hurt others around 
  them.
  Corbin Payne hurts because the City hurts. They are 
  one and the same. He is the mythical representation 
  of the suffering caused by the clash of two opposing 
  forces: Mythos and Logos, the fake and the real, true 
  nature and mere appearances, or any other set of oppo-
  sites you choose to put at the core of your campaign. 
  The Grail is the key to healing Corbin Payne and 
  ending the cycle of misery. It brings opposites 
  together in harmony. Dealing with Payne’s ‘knights’ 
  is not enough. Only true ‘knights’, individuals willing 
  to go to great lengths and make great sacrifices for a 
  higher calling, are able to unlock the powers of the 
  Grail. The lead characters will have a chance to do just 
  that, but tapping into the Grail will only happen when 
  they heal themselves first. The paths to unlocking the 
  power of the Grail are further explained in the final act 
  of the concluding case, Percival (page XX).
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  15 
  HOW TO RUN  
  THIS STORY ARC
  As explained above, you can run the story arc vein-by-
  vein, case-by-case, or as an open sandbox. Here is the 
  full story arc iceberg.
  Cases #3, #6, and #9 end with an encounter with one of 
  Payne’s knights, those who have a direct relationship 
  with him and know the most about him. Each such 
  encounter reveals information that unlocks the next 
  act of the overarching case #10, Percival. The act is un-
  locked whether or not the crew has the upper hand at 
  the end of the encounter; in the moment of truth, the 
  villains share the information necessary even if they 
  are winning.
  The order in which the knights are encountered (and 
  not the identity of the specific knight) determines what 
  each knight can offer the crew to bring them closer 
  to the Fisher King. In other words, Dr. Krystal Knight, 
  Armand Kai, and Lance Beaumont each take the role of 
  the first, second, or third knight, depending on the or-
  der the crew reaches them, and share clues accordingly.
  • The first knight reveals the existence of Corbin 
  Payne as an overarching villain and warns the 
  crew of him. However, the first knight is unable to 
  tell the crew where to find Payne (whose hidden 
  castle can’t be visited twice) and does not have the 
  means of finding him. This unlocks the first act of 
  Percival where the crew may investigate the past but 
  reveal very little about the present.
  • The second knight knows how to reach the 
  Fisher King, but does not know how to cure him. 
  This unlocks the second act of Percival, in which the 
  Fisher King emerges from his hiding and stages an 
  attack on the City, upping the stakes.
  • The third knight has information about how to 
  cure Corbin Payne, about the Grail, and about Per-
  cival. Once the confrontation with the third knight is 
  resolved, the third act of Percival is unlocked and the 
  crew must find Percival and/or face the Fisher King.
  Murder 
  Victims
  The Personal Vein
  The Mystical Vein
  The Criminal Vein
  Armand Kai 
  (Flegetanis)
  Lance Beaumont 
  (King Arthur)
  Corbin Payne 
  (the Fisher King)
  Rio Beaumont 
  (Percival)
  Depowered 
  Rifts
  Affected  
  Districts
  #1 
  Killing 
  Her 
  Softly
  #2 
  Carnival  
  of Machines
  #3 
  Broken 
  Glass
  #10 
  Percival
  Act 
  1
  Act 
  2
  Act 
  3
  #4 
  The  
  Furnace
  #5 
  Cult of 
  the God 
  King
  #7 
  Albion 
  Awakens
  #8 
  Home is 
  Where The 
  Heart Is
  #9 
  The Streets 
  Bleed  
  Neon
  #6  
  The  
  Alchemist
  Dr. Krystal 
  Knight  
  (The Snow Queen)
  
  16   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  “Let your rage out, Martha. Don’t you see? If you keep it 
  inside, it will consume you. All your life people around you 
  tried to silence you, to put out your fire. You have been 
  wronged so many times. You need to allow yourself to heal, 
  and your healing cannot begin while you still hold all this 
  rage inside. So listen to me: it’s time to let go. It’s time to 
  sing about your pain, so that everyone can hear you.” 
   – Dr. Selma Perrin, Mending the Broken
  
  INTRODUCTION   |  17 
  OVERVIEW OF THIS VEIN
  When DR. KRYSTAL KNIGHT left Corbin Payne, 
  devastated and ruined at her failure to help him, he 
  gave her a Relic, a broken mirror that reflected her 
  self-loathing and contempt (the Devil’s mirror in the 
  tale of The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen). 
  The spirit of the once-hopeful therapist, who believed 
  in everyone’s ability to reconcile their inner conflicts 
  and transcend their pain, was now permanently shat-
  tered, like her mirror, and infused with more self-ha-
  tred than she could bear. Unable to strike back at her 
  abuser, she turned this hatred towards herself and 
  those most like her – the City’s Rifts. 
  The former psychiatrist’s operation aims to infect the 
  City’s Rifts with enmity and malintent toward one 
  another and toward themselves. Its first line of inter-
  action with the City’s legendary citizens is the thera-
  pist association known as MENDING THE BROKEN, 
  a group of Sleeper psychiatrists and psychologists 
  Touched by Dr. Knight’s powers. Mending the Broken 
  therapists pose as aware and understanding mental 
  healthcare providers who seek to help gifted individ-
  uals. In reality, they are equipped with the power to 
  plant seeds of ever-growing hatred in the hearts of 
  their patients, driving them to self-destructiveness or 
  aggressiveness towards other Rifts.
  Two of the most troubled victims of this organiza-
  tion have already started on their path of destruction. 
  MARTHA ELLIS, a small-time jazz singer and the Rift 
  of the Banshee, is using her supernatural laments to 
  emotionally overwhelm her audience to the point of 
  killing them with her songs. Another affected patient is 
  MAXIMILLIAN DRAKE, a rejected genius and the Rift 
  of Hephaestus. Since his scientific mind cannot explain 
  the existence of legendary powers, he is bent on anni-
  hilating his fellow Rifts by figuring out which of their 
  buttons to push and luring them into a deathtrap he 
  has set up at an ABANDONED FAIRGROUND, gaining 
  a twisted sense of control.
  While this is happening, Dr. Knight is preparing her 
  ultimate attack on the City from the Municipal Insti-
  tute for the Criminally Insane, simply known as THE 
  ASYLUM. While officially registered as a patient there 
  since her encounter with the Fisher King decades ago, 
  the Snow Queen has since taken over the asylum and 
  uses it as a base of operations, impersonating the head 
  of the institute. Once she amasses enough hatred in 
  her mirror, she plans to disseminate its magic through 
  objects made of glass throughout the entire city and 
  then shatter them, infusing the whole City with a 
  feeling of enmity in one fell swoop and causing City-
  wide anarchy. This is made possible through another 
  gift she received from the Fisher King, a subsidiary of 
  Payne Construction Company titled AURORA GLASS-
  WORKS, the company which has been producing most 
  of the windows in the City for almost a century.
  ADDRESSING MENTAL CRISIS AND ILLNESS
  The personal vein touches directly on the subject of 
  mental health. Dr. Krystal Knight is a victim of abuse 
  who has become an abuser out of pain; her men-
  tal condition is a magical one, induced by Corbin 
  Payne’s Mythos as well as her own. Her minions 
  and victims, who feature as villains in this vein, are 
  under the same influence. The PCs themselves are 
  likely to wrestle with intense emotions when facing 
  these challenges.
  The personal vein can be used as a platform for 
  exploring emotions and themes of mental health, or 
  it can be a cinematic foray – humorous or serious 
  – into the dark side of the soul, or it can even be a 
  combination of both. Whatever slant you intend to 
  give it, check with your group what their boundaries 
  are for incorporating these issues in your game and 
  what language they are comfortable using when 
  addressing mental health.
  The language used in this vein attempts to strike a bal-
  ance between the cinematic desire to convey the grit 
  and brusqueness of the noir genre, and consideration 
  towards the very real-world issue of mental illness.
  
  18   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  THEMES AND MOTIFS
  • Private Investigation: The personal vein focuses 
  on individuals rather than the City as a whole. It 
  highlights the everyday lives and hardships of City 
  residents, and especially Rifts caught in the net of 
  Mending the Broken. The cases in this vein are the 
  closest to the classic noir style.
  • Emotional overload and mental health: Dr. Krys-
  tal Knight herself and NPCs in this vein affected by 
  Mending the Broken all deal with various forms of 
  emotional hardship including despair, self-contempt, 
  melancholy, and more. The PCs are also subjected to 
  Mythos powers that can cause emotional overload.
  • Hatred and Self-Loathing: In the tale of the Snow 
  Queen, shards of the devil-glass cause people to see 
  everything as ugly, and therefore hate one another. 
  In this modern version, Dr. Knight’s powers also 
  make people hate themselves. 
  • Broken Glass: You can use broken glass as a re-
  curring motif in this vein. Work into your narrative 
  freak accidents regarding shards of glass to build up 
  suspense. Whenever someone dies of a cause that is 
  related to Krystal Knight’s minions and the hate they 
  spread, have it include the motif of broken glass: 
  someone crashes through a high window and falls to 
  their death in a shower of broken glass, a fire started 
  by the sun focusing on a broken window causes a 
  disaster, or someone gets violent with a broken glass 
  bottle, etc.
  
  KILLING HER SOFTLY   |  19 
  
  20   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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 page XX). Refram-
  ing 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   |  21 
  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:  
   
   
   
  iceberg
  
  22   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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 XX. 
  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   |  23 
  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 XX.
  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.
  
  24   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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   |  25 
  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
  
  26   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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   |  27 
   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.
  
  28   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
   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 picture 
  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   |  29 
  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, Offi-
  cer Chaavi Das / Sammy Jefferson Jr. sounds 
  infuriated. “The killer got to her. He 
  jumped Martha Ellis. She made it somehow, 
  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 ex-
  plained above under Martha (page xx), 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).
  
  30   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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. Un-
  der 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 (page XX).
   HARRINGTON WELDING  
          & FABRICATION
  Driving outside of the city center and 
  down this part of the Industrial Zone 
  always 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   |  31 
   
   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).
  
  32   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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   |  33 
  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
  
  34   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  • 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   |  35 
  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.
  • Officer 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.
  
  36   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  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 (page XX).
  • 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 XX), and sow the seeds for 
  the next installment in this vein. 
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  37 
  
  38   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  When a Rift love triangle ends in a 
  tragic car crash at a Downtown junction, 
  the crew must trace the chain of events 
  back to its source. Was this just another 
  sad story, so common in this City, 
  or did a guiding hand have a part in 
  this? The more they learn, the more 
  the crew members sense that they are 
  being led down a path from which they 
  can’t escape, towards the same end 
  as the victims of the crime they are 
  investigating.
  Carnival of Machines starts out as a neo-noir murder 
  investigation but pivots mid-case into a classic comic 
  book “death trap” scheme. In its investigation-heavy, 
  moody first half, the crew unfolds the personal mis-
  fortune of three Rifts whose Mythoi caused them to 
  become involved with one another. In the second half 
  of the case, the crew reveals the scheme behind the 
  tragedies and must survive a creepy, forsaken, and 
  boobytrapped funfare, designed solely to kill them and 
  those like them. The case also features an NPC on a 
  crash course, Goldie, whose fate is determined by the 
  PCs actions. 
   
  MECHANISM n. The philosophical doctrine that all natu-
  ral phenomena, including life and thought, allow mechan-
  ical explanation by physics and chemistry.
  THE MECHANIST
  Maximilian Drake used to think he had the capability 
  to understand anything. For him, the universe, life, and 
  people were nothing more than complicated machines 
  who could be understood through analysis. He was a 
  genius of applied sciences, making groundbreaking dis-
  coveries at Helix Labs, before he awakened as the Rift 
  of Hephaestus, Greek God of blacksmiths, craftsmen, 
  and volcanoes. Sight beyond the Mist exposed him to 
  phenomena he could not explain, and he became more 
  and more anxious. This was exasperated by the fact his 
  awakening came in the wake of a lab accident which 
  injured his spine, leaving him with a walking disability. 
  His spirit and body broken, he left Helix Labs, sentenc-
  ing himself to exile from his beloved sciences.
  In his darkest hour, Drake sought the help of what he 
  referred to as a “brain mechanic”: the psychiatrist Ar-
  chibald Tennant, a member of Mending the Broken 
  (see page XX). The psychiatrist seized the opportunity 
  and poisoned Drake’s mind, stoking his obsession with 
  understanding through logic and empowering him to 
  regain control over his life “by eliminating the unpre-
  dictable variables in the equation”. For Drake, those 
  unpredictable variables are the wielders of legend-
  ary powers: Rifts, whose ‘magic’ he both mocks and 
  detests. Drake sidelines his own Rifthood, convincing 
  himself his powers are a form of intellectual evolution, 
  capable of bringing order to a chaotic world.
  THE CARNIVAL
  As an expert engineer, Drake applied his genius to 
  studying and deconstructing Rifts. Researching folk-
  lore and comparative myths, he was able to discover 
  the patterns that govern legends. He came to under-
  stand the logic in Rifts’ powers, and most importantly, 
  the driving force of their legend. Based on this knowl-
  edge, he surmised that Rifts can’t help but follow 
  their Mythos, and devised a plan based on this law: to 
  build a fairytale fairground that will attract Rifts into 
  customized death traps that will kill them when they 
  take the mythic bait.
  To that end, he teamed up with an impoverished trav-
  eling carnival set up just outside town, the Lemnos 
  Carnival, and its members, who refer to themselves as 
  “Carnies” (the Sintians, a folk of plunderers who tend-
  ed to Hephaestus after his fall from Olympus). Touched 
  by Drake’s Mythos, the Lemnos Carnies accepted him 
  as their messiah and worshipped him as a god, and he 
  gifted them the uncanny science that would bring their 
  funfair devices and mannequins to life. 
  To help him collect information on potential Rift 
  targets, Drake hired P.I. Chuck Holliday (Sleeper) and 
  equipped him with a camera with a lens that can see 
  through the Mist. He sent the private investigator to 
  find and profile Rifts for him. He then used his Carnies 
  and their lifelike mannequins to lure hapless targets 
  into the death trap fairground.
  Drake’s hypothesis turned out to be true. Fascinated 
  with Rifts’ nearly-mechanic, predictable behavior, 
  Drake devised traps for each victim, deriving a twist-
  ed sense of control and pleasure out of the victory of 
  science and logic over his legendary prey. He killed 
  as many as a dozen Rifts before P.I. Holliday sent 
  him three profiles of interconnected Rifts (and one 
  Sleeper), who posed an interesting jigsaw for Drake’s 
  intellect to solve.
  Name:  
   
   
   
  background
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  39 
  A DOWNTOWN LOVE TRIANGLE
  Drake’s new targets were the following.
  • Pauline Woodworth (Paul Bunyan, a giant lumber-
  jack in American folklore) was a private construc-
  tion contractor who possessed immense strength as 
  well as the power to grow bigger. She had her own 
  business, Woodworth Builders, and a beautiful 
  wife, Ellie Woodworth (Sleeper). Her Mythos urged 
  her to settle the wilderness, so she was interested in 
  construction projects outside town.
  • David Nguyen (Rift of King David) was a high-flying 
  executive in Orimaka Finance. His Mythos allowed 
  him to slay giants (David and Goliath), but also 
  pushed him to covet someone else’s wife (as the 
  Biblical king did).
  • Samantha Goldstein, or Goldie (Rift of Goldilocks) 
  was a master thief with the power to get into any 
  home, bypassing locks, security systems, etc. and the 
  drive to take what other people own.
  Drake set in motion the machinations that would lead 
  them to their deaths:
  • He lured Pauline with a project of rebuilding the 
  abandoned fairground at the edge of town (settle the 
  wilderness).
  • He arranged for David to have a bad date at the same 
  diner where Pauline and Ellie dined, predicting that 
  the adultering king would set his heart on Ellie.
  • During that date, he had P.I. Holliday tip Goldie off 
  about a rich man in the Downtown diner who could 
  be an interesting mark. Naturally, she showed up, and 
  started casing David, planning to steal his money.
  THIS FATEFUL NIGHT
  A few weeks passed, with David harassing the Wood-
  worths and Goldie sizing up David and trying to estab-
  lish where he kept his fortune. Tonight, Drake’s plan 
  came to fruition.
  • David followed Pauline to the fairground where they 
  battled it out, David and Goliath style, and he killed 
  her, shooting her with a revolver.
  • Drake and his Carnies had a death trap waiting for 
  David, a lifelike mannequin made to look like Ellie. 
  When David kissed her, his lips started burning. The 
  mannequin’s lips were glazed with poison.
  • Realizing he was deceived, David raced back to town 
  to find the real Ellie and get medical help but it was 
  too late. The poison killed him and he crashed his 
  sports car close to the diner where they first met.
  • Goldie was present at the car crash site, where she 
  realized David was involved in something bigger 
  and that in order to find out more, she must find 
  out where he came from. A customized death trap 
  already awaits her at the fairground.
  The case begins with the car crash.
  
  40   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  Theresa 
  Nguyen
  PI Holiday
  The  
  Woodworths'  
  Apartment
  David Nguyen's 
  Condo
  The Spook
  The  
  Abandoned 
  Fairground
  The Control 
  Room
  Car  
  Crash Scene
  Police Officer 
  Das & Quinn
  Goldie
  Office of  
  PI Holiday
  Rondo's Diner 
  and Shinobi 
  Sushi
    Corner of  
  Pine and 5th
  DEPTH 0:  
  THE HOOKS
  The most cinematic way to open the case is by having 
  crew members present at the corner of Pine and 
  5th that night, when David Nguyen’s sports car comes 
  hurtling down 5th Street. As the crash takes place in a 
  busy Downtown junction, some of the crew members 
  may be there as part of their daily routines and start the 
  scene as accidental bystanders. Precognitive Rifts could 
  have had a vision of the impending crash, arriving at the 
  scene in time to try and prevent it. Perhaps the crew sits 
  down for a late dinner and conversation, in a diner close 
  to the junction such as Rondo’s Diner or Shinobi Sushi.
  Those at the scene first hear the rumbling growl of a 
  sports car engine, then spot the out-of-control vehicle 
  running rampant on 5th street, about to crash. The driver 
  seems to be unconscious, head against the steering wheel. 
  Even if the crew brings the car to a safe stop, David 
  Nguyen is already dead, killed by fake Ellie’s poison kiss.
  OUT-OF-CONTROL CAR y/yyy
  SAFELY BRING TO A STOP 5  /  CRASH 2
  • Sports Car: When Out-of-Control Car enters the 
  scene, give it speeding-4.
  • Collision Course: When crash:2 maxes out, the 
  Out-of-Control Car crashes into whatever hard 
  barrier is in its path.
   
  • Speed towards an impact point (about-to-crash-1)
  • +yy:  Hit someone who isn’t being careful or who 
  can’t get out of the way in time (hospitalized-5 or 
  Make Something Horrible Happen)
   
  • Speed down the street, engine growling
  • Pass a bystander, creating a doppler effect sound
  Name:  
   
   
   
  the iceberg
  Depht 3
  Depht 4 
  Depht 2
  Depht 1
  Depht 0
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  41 
  The crew may also become involved in the case in the 
  following ways:
  • If the crew has a reputation of working on the 
  wrong side of the law, David Nguyen’s grandmother, 
  Theresa Nguyen, may contact them an hour after 
  the accident. Icy cold on the phone, the elderly and 
  extremely wealthy lady offers a substantial bounty 
  to anyone who could bring her the head of whoever 
  is responsible for her grandson’s death on a literal 
  silver platter. If the crew doesn’t take her up on her 
  offer, she’ll move on to another crew, but she can 
  still be convinced to pay for information about her 
  grandson’s killer.
  • Downtown beat officers Das and Quinn, who fea-
  ture in Killing Her Softly (page XX), will be called to 
  handle the crashed car and the surrounding commo-
  tion. If the crew has established a working relation-
  ship with them, they may call upon the crew for help 
  with investigating David Nguyen’s death.
  INTERESTED PARTIES
  While the crew is investigating the scene 
  of David Nguyen’s car crash, they are 
  watched from a distance by two persons 
  who take great interest in the accident. 
  Alert PCs (and players) who Investigate 
  to check if anyone is watching them, may 
  notice either or both individuals spying 
  on them. You can also let the players 
  know they are being watched if you want 
  to introduce these characters. Goldie 
  may approach the crew and introduce 
  herself, as explained below.
  GOLDIE
  Samantha Goldstein (Goldilocks), known as Goldie, 
  plays the role of the redeemable criminal, an NPC 
  who is on the wrong path and whose fate will be deter-
  mined by the actions of the PCs. She is a hustler and thief 
  who excels at breaking and entering and robbing people 
  of their wealth. Goldie has a distinct 80s streetwear style: 
  she sports a mane of blow-dried bleached hair, a torn 
  jeans jacket, and lots of iridescent plastic bangles. She 
  is able to shape inanimate objects by declaring they are 
  “too hot”, “too cold”, “too big”, “too small”, “too hard”, or 
  “too soft”, which then becomes true.
  GOLDIE yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 2  /  REDEEM 5  /  CATCH 5
  • Other People’s Things: Once in the series, Goldie 
  can stop holding back and transfer into her posses-
  sion any single object, privilege, or power possessed 
  by someone else, as long as she can see either the 
  object or its owners. She then leaves town.
  • Too Hot, Too Cold: Once per scene, Goldie can use 
  her powers as an intrusion to defend herself, nul-
  lifying a single status of physical harm of tier-5 or 
  lower by making it too hot, too cold, too hard, too 
  soft, too big, or too small to be effective.
   
  • Make her pursuers’ clothing “too hard”, “too big”, 
  or “too small” (entangled-3 or can’t-breathe-3), 
  slow them down by making the floor “too soft” 
  (slowed-3), or escape them altogether by making a 
  passage “too small” for them to follow (Deny Them 
  Something They Want)
  • Steal something, or force someone to drop an object 
  by making it “too hot” (burn up to two tags and give 
  herself appropriate tags)
  • Escape restraint, making an object “too big” to 
  restrain or imprison her (remove up to 3 tiers of 
  restraint statuses or burn up to 3 retraint tags)
  • Expertly circumvent security measures, making 
  locks “too small” and security systems circuitry “too 
  hot” to function (give a security system override-3 
  or burn 3 of its tags)
  • Turn on a dime, shirking responsibility and aban-
  doning all the progress she’s made (remove 3 tiers 
  from any statuses on her redeem spectrum or guilt 
  and responsibility statuses)
   
  • Smile ear to ear and flick her hair joyously as she 
  escapes
  Mythically attracted to other people’s things, 
  Goldie craves a chunk of David Nguyen’s fortune 
  and will do whatever it takes to discover where he 
  hid something of value, be it cash, gold, diamonds, 
  bonds, whatever. This legendary cleptomancy already 
  has her ensnared in Maximilian Drake’s trap, careful-
  ly designed to push all of her Mythos buttons. If she 
  follows David’s trail and reaches the abandoned fair-
  ground, as Drake expects she would do, there’s a death 
  trap waiting there just for her.
  Goldie will try to use the crew. Once she sees them 
  investigating the accident, her most obvious course 
  of action is to team up with them. She will lie to, 
  steal from, and eventually probably betray the crew, 
  but only as long as no one gets badly hurt, since in 
  
  42   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  those cases her dormant conscience wakes up for a 
  moment. For example, she may initially pretend to be 
  Ellie Woodworth and try to get the crew to break into 
  David Nguyen’s Condo or to share what they discover 
  about his recent whereabouts. Play her as a believable 
  and friendly ally, who then shrugs sweetly when she 
  screws the crew over, as if she can’t help it and can’t 
  be expected to. Try to keep her betrayals taunting and 
  humorous rather than grievous and play up her charm 
  to get the crew to take interest in her fate.
  Goldie has been casing David Nguyen and knows the 
  clues listed under Investigating David Nguyen on 
  corner of Pine and 5th. She also knows all the pub-
  lic details of his involvement with Pauline and Ellie 
  Woodworth, given under Rondo’s Diner and Shinobi 
  Sushi, and can bring the PCs up to speed.
  P.I. HOLIDAY
  The other individual watching is Private Investiga-
  tor Chuck Holliday (Sleeper), the gumshoe working 
  for Maximilian Drake who nonetheless never heard 
  his employer’s name or met him (see sidebar). Always 
  in the classic rain coat and fedora hat, P.I. Holliday is 
  well-equipped for Downtown’s rainy alleys. A heavy 
  smoker, he leaves a scattering of cigarette butts wher-
  ever he’s staking out a target.
  P.I. Holliday doesn’t care who he’s working for; 
  in fact, he doesn’t want to know. He only wants to 
  get paid at the end of the day. He doesn’t see himself 
  responsible for other people’s problems (“nobody is 
  innocent”), and he has seen enough dead bodies of 
  people whose problems caught up with them to care. 
  He’s a sleazeball, but he’s not evil; confronting him 
  with hard proof that his work is used to hurt people 
  would make him think twice about taking on additional 
  work from his mystery employer.
  P.I. HOLLIDAY’S TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT
  P.I. Holliday is employed strictly via mail correspon-
  dence and has been offered double his normal fee 
  for profiling Rifts. He received a special camera, 
  with a Mist-penetrating lens through which he can 
  see and take pictures of a Rift’s true form and pow-
  ers (the photos he takes with the camera only reveal 
  legendary phenomena to its bearer and to Rifts). 
  Since then he has been shadowing Rifts all over 
  Downtown at the behest of his employer, sending 
  the report dossiers to an obscure mailbox.
  The mailbox is checked twice a day by one of the 
  Carnies who drives into town. Assume that P.I. 
  Holliday is immediately reporting all findings to his 
  employer, perhaps even using an emergency tele-
  phone number if he feels what he found was very 
  valuable or pertinent (the same Carnie also answers 
  the phone). Once Maximilian Drake receives the first 
  reports of a new set of Rift targets – the crew – he 
  sets out to build custom death traps for them.
  PROFILING THE CREW
  Throughout the case, when the PCs score 7-9 on their 
  Investigate score, use the counter question option to 
  ask them about their Mythos and Mythos powers.
  When a PC uses her powers and P.I. Holliday can see 
  them, ask:
  • What is the nature of your powers?
  • What do you think could block your powers or con-
  tain them?
  • Could your powers be turned against you?
  When a PC displays a behavior related to their Mythos, ask:
  • What does your Mythos really want from you?
  • What does it wish for you to find out?
  • Which character in your Mythos is most important to 
  you?
  Note down the answers and use them when you de-
  scribe the death traps Drake prepared for the crew 
  at the abandoned fairground. The character doesn’t 
  have to reveal the whole story for this to happen; you 
  can assume that both P.I. Holliday and Drake do their 
  research and extrapolate a great deal of information 
  from just a few key details.
  FOLLOWING P.I. HOLLIDAY
  Giving P.I. Holliday the slip and then following him 
  isn’t easy. His custom move Street Smarts and his 
  familiarity with the alleyways Downtown, reflected by 
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  43 
  the hard move Deny Them Something They Want, 
  make him hard to shadow. If the crew manages to 
  follow the private eye, they will find him at his office 
  (Office of P.I. Holliday), following Goldie or spending 
  time with her, or dropping a package into the mail 
  collection box on the street.
  SHIPS IN THE NIGHT
  To complicate things further, P.I. Holliday fell in love 
  with Goldie while profiling her over the past weeks. He 
  approached her, or rather, allowed himself to be seen 
  by her, and the two now lead a no-strings-attached, 
  on-and-off romantic affair. David Nguyen’s car crash 
  has P.I. Holliday worrying about what his employer 
  plans for Goldie, and this concern for her may or may 
  not be enough to drive him to cross his professional 
  red lines and become involved.
  Goldie can become a means for the crew to reach P.I. 
  Holliday, but it works both ways: information about the 
  crew, their powers, and their plans can leak through 
  Goldie to P.I. Holliday, and from there to Drake himself.
   
  P.I. HOLLIDAY yy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 3  /  BRIBE 4  /  THREATEN 4
  • Powers of Deduction: When P.I. Holliday surveys 
  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. P.I. Holliday knows 
  your answer, even if your character didn’t speak it.
  • Street Smarts: Whenever you try to follow or fool 
  P.I. Holliday, first give him alert-2. This status can-
  not exceed tier 3.
  • Thinks On His Feet: When P.I. Holliday takes a 
  status he can avoid or soften with common sense or 
  resourcefulness, reduce its tier by 1.
  • Professionalism: The first time in a scene you try 
  to get information from P.I. Holliday about his em-
  ployer, if bribe or threaten have not maxed out, first 
  give him my-lips-are-sealed-3.
   
  • Draw out his revolver and threaten someone to back 
  off, or he’ll shoot (wary-2 or gunshot-wound-3)
  • Dash down a smokey alley and disappear or fool 
  someone trying to shadow him (Deny Them Some-
  thing They Want)
  • Grease someone’s palm when they’re giving him a 
  hard time (give them wad of cash if they get out of 
  his way)
   
  • Watch silently from a distant street corner, smoking
  DEPTH 1:  
  DOWNTOWN DISASTER
   CORNER OF PINE AND 5TH
  Steam rolls up from the engine of the 
  crashed sports car and the acrid smell 
  of burnt tires fills your breath. The car 
  lights flash in tandem with a restaurant’s 
  neon sign on the side of the building, 
  drowned in the cacophony of alarms from 
  nearby cars. The streetlight above the 
  signpost of Pine Street and 5th Street 
  flickers and then dies. The windshield, 
  smashed into a million glass pieces, still 
  desperately holds onto its frame, hiding 
  everything behind it except for a big, 
  round, blood stain.
  The corner of Pine and 5th street is a bustling Down-
  town junction with a few businesses, including some 
  popular cheap eateries. This is both the scene of David 
  Nguyen’s car crash and the setting for his one-sided 
  love triangle with Pauline and Ellie Woodworth, whom 
  he first noticed at one of the local joints, Rondo’s Diner. 
  The Woodworths’ Apartment is only a block away; this 
  area used to be their go-to destination for a quick bite, 
  and people here know them, at least by their looks.
  Following the accident, an influx of curious bystanders 
  swarms the crash site, soon followed by an ambulance 
  and then the police (possibly officers Das and Quinn), 
  who mark out the crime scene and push onlookers 
  back. If the crew members are there first, they can 
  Investigate the car and the driver before the police ar-
  rive, but they are seen doing so (unless they first Sneak 
  Around or create an equally dramatic diversion).  
  DEATH BY GLASS
  If the car crashed, David Nguyen’s body is found in 
  a gruesome state, with a large shard of windshield 
  glass embedded in his skull. Modern windshields 
  don’t break like this, a fact which you can mention 
  for added creep factor.
  The driver is dead. It’s hard to tell what exactly 
  killed him, especially if the car crashed. Careful 
  examination will show his lips have traces of 
  lipstick on them, seemingly from a kiss.
  
  44   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  According to the driver’s license, this is David 
  Nguyen. He is clearly a wealthy person, wear-
  ing an expensive suit, watch, and shoes and 
  driving that fancy sports car.
  There is gunshot residue on Davids’ hands. He 
  recently fired a firearm.
  Considering tire tracks, the collision course, 
  and additional dents on the car, Crime Scene 
  Investigation analysis would show David lost 
  control of the car a few moments before it 
  crashed.
  It’s impossible to determine where exactly the 
  car came from. Extensive and tedious CCTV 
  cameras research or magical means of tracking 
  may show that it drove in from out of town, but 
  that’s where the trail goes cold.
  A careful investigator would notice David’s 
  shoes have mud on them. The same mud can 
  be found in the car’s tire grooves. Analyzing 
  the mud can indicate it came from out of town, 
  but sending it to a lab could take one to several 
  downtimes to get results (if the Mist doesn’t 
  make the lab lose the samples).
  If the deceased’s memories or mind are accessi-
  ble by magical means, the last image he recalls is 
  the sight of Ellie Woodworth when he kissed her 
  (not knowing it was her mannequin clone).
  Beyond the Mist, David Nguyen’s spirit is still 
  in shock and is transitioning-3 to the afterlife, 
  or the void. When he comes to, if he’s still 
  around, he will become obsessed with Ellie 
  Woodworth and seek her out, possibly going 
  to the Woodworths’ Apartment, but he won’t 
  willingly share any information about what he 
  had done earlier that night, and, either way, he 
  doesn't know. (Unless he is aided by a Rift, his 
  spirit cannot affect Ellie in any way.)
  Beyond the Mist, the Lemnos Carnies’ poi-
  son which David breathed in gives off a 
  vague Mythos footprint of Greek pirates and 
  plunderers.
  Further beyond the Mist, there is an almost 
  impalpable trace of malice in the broken 
  windshield. It’s impossible to associate it with 
  anything or anyone related to the case at hand, 
  only with some faraway malintent.
  INVESTIGATING DAVID NGUYEN
  Once they put a name to the victim, the crew may try 
  to gather more information about David.
  Someone local would recognize David or his 
  car, saying they have seen him hanging around 
  recently at Rondo’s Diner or Shinobi Sushi.
  David Nguyen is a filthy rich high-flying ex-
  ecutive in his 30s, an Associate Partner at Ori-
  maka Finance. His success seems to be ascribed 
  as much to his family connections as it is to his 
  talent and hard work.
  He is single, and has been active on dating sites 
  / speed dating cafes / newspaper personals. 
  About two weeks ago this activity stopped after 
  he had one last date with Emma Bailey, a flight 
  attendant who also hangs out at Shinobi Sushi.
  He owns a luxury condo in one of the fanciest 
  apartment buildings Downtown (David Nguy-
  en’s Condo).
  Later, if the crew has access to the morgue 
  and/or the coroner report, they will learn 
  David died from respiratory failure caused by a 
  poison, most likely ingested or breathed.
   RONDO’S DINER  
          AND SHINOBI SUSHI
  Standing in the rain on the corner of Pine 
  Street and 5th, you notice two bustling 
  eateries on opposite sides of the road. 
  On one side, with red booths lined with 
  pink neon, Rondo’s Diner looks like the 
  joint that will serve you a greasy meal 
  or a pancake stack and watery coffee any 
  hour of the night. On the other side, un-
  der a blue-lit sign, Shinobi Sushi looks 
  like a place for people who are trying too 
  hard to be seen. Both places seem packed, 
  though, so you figure someone around here 
  must have seen or heard something.
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  45 
  The two local eateries at Pine and 5th can help the crew 
  unravel David’s past and point at his connection to Pau-
  line and Ellie. The Woodworths’ were regulars in both 
  the diner and the sushi place, so other regulars know 
  who they are and what they’ve been through recently.
  David Nguyen was first seen around these 
  parts on a date at Rondo’s Diner with Emma 
  Bailey, a mousy flight attendant (who is eating 
  tonight at Shinobi Sushi). The date night was 
  ruined because he couldn’t stop staring at Ellie 
  Woodworth. Emma mentioned to him that Ellie 
  was spoken for, that she’s with Pauline, but 
  David didn’t seem to lose interest.
  David Nguyen started stalking Pauline and 
  Ellie and on some occasions tried to impose 
  himself and join them at dinner. He made overt 
  advances at Ellie in front of Pauline. They 
  refused him politely at first, but at some point 
  Pauline threatened to hurt him if he didn’t leave 
  them alone. He kept stalking them, hanging 
  around this part of town more and more often.
  It was Emma’s request to have the date at 
  Rondo’s Diner, a curious choice because Emma 
  doesn’t usually frequent the diner. She didn’t 
  plan on staying in ‘that cheesy place’, prepar-
  ing to be picked up there and move on to a 
  nicer restaurant, but then David saw Ellie.
  Questioning Emma reveals a mysterious third 
  party wanted David and Ellie to meet. Some-
  one (P.I. Holliday) who knew she had a date 
  with David left her a note, promising to take 
  care of next month’s rent for her if they went 
  to the diner first. She was tight for money so 
  she agreed, thinking it was a publicity stunt, 
  and then forgot about it. After the date, next 
  month’s rent was paid.
  The Woodworths live just around the corner, less 
  than a block away (the Woodworths’ Apartment).
  
  46   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  DEPTH 2:  
  A WELL-OILED  
  MECHANISM
   THE WOODWORTHS’  
          APARTMENT
  Looking up the drab brick building facade, 
  you spot her, the sweetest sight,  wait-
  ing at the window, raindrops like dew on 
  her figure. The look on her face tells you 
  she’s waiting for someone, someone who 
  isn’t coming. Is it the love of her life? 
  The dead guy in the car? Someone else? You 
  ring the doorbell and she bolts to buzz 
  you in. You brace yourself for the disap-
  pointment in her eyes when she sees it’s 
  just you, and for some greater pain you 
  feel you’re about to bring into her life.
  The Woodworths’ live in a modest apartment in one 
  of the few affordable residential buildings Downtown. 
  Ellie Woodworth (Sleeper) is home waiting for Pauline, 
  who did not come back from work today and is not an-
  swering any of the messages Ellie left. Ellie is a pretty 
  and petite young woman, gentle and soft spoken, and 
  wears a casual dress. When the crew introduce them-
  selves or when she learns about what happened to Da-
  vid, Ellie’s fear overwhelms her, and she starts pacing 
  back and forth, wringing her hands.
  Pauline has not returned from work today. 
  Pauline has projects all over town so Ellie 
  doesn’t know where she was working today.
  David Nguyen has been stalking them for two 
  weeks, making inappropriate advances at 
  Ellie. Pauline was furious and wanted to teach 
  him a lesson, but knowing how strong Pauline 
  is (even if not why), Ellie feared a disaster and 
  begged her to stay out of trouble. They report-
  ed David once to the police but the case was 
  dropped. They thought of seeking legal help, but 
  realized their budget was no match to David’s.
  Pauline has been somewhat distant lately and 
  vague about her work. Ellie thought it was 
  something to do with David’s harassment but she 
  also thinks Pauline has been hiding something. 
  Maybe a surprise new home in the suburbs?
  Ellie’s lipstick matches the shade and brand of 
  lipstick found on David Nguyen’s lips (except 
  it’s not poisoned).
  SEARCHING THE APARTMENT
  To search the apartment thoroughly, the crew will have 
  to get Ellie’s permission or sneak in when she’s not 
  there. Ellie will want to know who the crew members 
  are and why they are interested in the case before she 
  gives her permission.
  Under the Woodworths’ shoe rack, there’s 
  mud that matches the mud found on David 
  Nguyen’s shoes and tires. Analyzing the mud 
  follows the same routine.
  Hidden between two boards in the clothes 
  cabinet (Pauline was hiding such a Mythic 
  project from her wife), there’s a folder with 
  construction plans, describing a theme park to 
  be built just outside town, where now there’s 
  the abandoned fairground.
   OFFICE OF P.I. HOLLIDAY
  Private Investigator Holliday could not 
  have chosen a more typical Downtown P.I. 
  office. Accessed through a narrow stair 
  between two street-level businesses, the 
  second-floor corner office has a nice view 
  of the junction below. The block lettering 
  on the milky glass door, the broad hard-
  wood desk, and the green desk lamp all 
  tell you he’s one of those traditional 
  detectives. The Murphy bed folded with the 
  sheets still on and a bottle of whiskey 
  stashed in the file cabinet do a double tap 
  on that assessment.
  P.I. Holliday’s office is located a few blocks away from 
  the corner of Pine and 5th. If P.I. Holliday is present 
  when the crew arrives, he welcomes them and pretends 
  to be helpful, but keeps his lips sealed regarding his 
  current assignment (tracking the crew and Goldie) 
  or past assignments (profiling other Rifts including 
  Pauline Woodworth and David Nguyen) as per his Pro-
  fessionalism custom move. He will use the occasion 
  to collect more information on the crew, trying to dis-
  cover their Mythoi. If the crew gets information out of 
  him, possibly by bribing or threatening him, he reveals 
  what he knows, partially or wholly.
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  47 
  Searching the office proves difficult as any evidence 
  has been well-hidden by the veteran P.I.; if the P.I. is 
  present, searching under his nose triggers his Street 
  Smarts custom move, giving him alert-2.
  A phone number P.I. Holliday recently called 
  or a mailbox address etched in his notepad 
  could lead the crew to the Carnie that receives 
  his communications. Following the Carnie 
  successfully could lead them to the abandoned 
  fairground.
  P.I. Holliday keeps a copy of all his profil-
  ing dossiers. There are about twenty of them 
  stashed in a cardboard box hidden in a hole in 
  the wall, behind a bookcase. They include the 
  profiles of David, Pauline, and Goldie, but not 
  the files on the PCs, unless P.I. Holliday had a 
  lot of downtime to put together an organized 
  folder.
  The profiles contain a host of interesting 
  details and pictures, not an analysis. A good 
  detective can surmise P.I. Holliday didn’t really 
  know what exactly his employer was looking 
  for, and therefore just described the subjects’ 
  lives and special abilities. The profiles can also 
  point the crew at the Woodworths’ Apartment 
  and David Nguyen’s Condo.
  David’s profile contains a pictures of his lavish 
  condo, with some antiquities and archeological 
  artifacts hanging on the walls, most notably an 
  ancient shield with a Star of David on it. There 
  is a picture of him playing a guitar in some 
  Downtown dive with a note behind it: “When 
  I woke up, he was gone, everyone in the room 
  was asleep.” (This alludes to King David’s magi-
  cal lyre playing.)
  Pauline’s profile has pictures of her working 
  in a construction site as a giant, lifting a pallet 
  of bricks from the ground to the third floor. 
  There’s a map of the City with the locations of 
  her projects; all of them are on the outskirts 
  of town. There’s a scribble on the map: “urban 
  expansion?”. There are also photos of her and 
  Ellie hiking and kayaking.
  Goldie’s profile is a fat bundle of police re-
  ports, describing unsolved burglary cases. 
  There are photos of shrunk down doors fallen 
  off their hinges and charred alarm devices. 
  Some fetching portraits of her, taken clearly 
  without her knowledge, betray the P.I.’s feel-
  ings towards her.
  SOMEONE ELSE?
  P.I. Holliday’s box of profiles can contain a profile on 
  another Rift – a supporting cast character that the 
  crew cares about, a series regular (like officer Das), 
  or perhaps even a Nemesis. The crew must warn 
  this person in time, otherwise they may meet this 
  character at the abandoned fairground, or worse, 
  find her dead in one of Drake’s traps.
   DAVID NGUYEN’S CONDO
  To get to David Nguyen’s place, you cross 
  over to the other side of Downtown, the 
  side with the clean streets and endless 
  promises. Amid shiny skyscrapers and lavish 
  hotels, you find an expensive-looking apart-
  ment building with a valet waiting outside. 
  In the lobby, a snooty concierge stands 
  watch to fend off any unwanted visitors. He 
  may have died like a dog on the street, but 
  David Nguyen sure lived like a king.
  The up-and-coming financial advisor David Nguyen 
  owned and lived in a beautiful 30th floor apartment, 
  overlooking the Financial District, a stone’s throw away 
  from his Associate Partner office at Orimaka Finance.
  This location contains a few clues about David Nguy-
  en’s Mythos and his obsession with Ellie Woodworth. 
  It also serves as a point of obsession for Goldie’s wild 
  goose hunt for any tangible assets David left behind. 
  GETTING INTO THE CONDO
  If the crew was hired by Theresa Nguyen or have a war-
  rant allowing them to investigate the circumstances of 
  David Nguyen’s death, getting into the condo shouldn’t 
  pose a problem.
  If they have Goldie with them or if they are following 
  her, getting in won’t be a problem but it is illegal and 
  while Goldie can take care of herself, the crew mem-
  bers still need to Sneak Around to avoid being caught.
  
  48   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  If the crew is breaking-and-entering on their own, 
  they have the condo’s security measures to contend 
  with. They may also find that Goldie already broke into 
  the apartment, or perhaps she’s still there, dealing 
  with David’s pet spider (she didn’t break in there until 
  she saw David was dead because she has a terrible 
  tendency to hang around for too long and get caught 
  red-handed by the owners). If the police are alerted, 
  officers Das and Quinn are likely to show up.
  HIGH-END SECURITY SYSTEM yy
  ALARM 2  /  OVERRIDE 5
  • Red Alert: When alarm is maxed out, create a new 
  Danger: SWAT Team / Elite Security (MC Toolkit, 
  page 150) and give locked-in/out-5 to unauthorized 
  personnel in the perimeter.
   
  • Increase its internal threat level (give itself threat-1 
  on the alarm spectrum)
  • Make anyone trying to override it nervous-2 or give 
  them sweaty-hands-2
   
  • Present another security countermeasure that must 
  be overcome, such as a magnetic lock, a keypad, a 
  window alarm, a motion detector, an unexpected 
  safe mechanism, etc.
  INSIDE THE CONDO
  While there are certainly a couple of expensive items 
  to steal in the condo, the secret hoard that Goldie 
  assumes David is keeping somewhere is nowhere to 
  be found. If she is present, Goldie will search the place 
  from top to bottom, possibly helping to uncover some 
  clues, and eventually conclude that David must have 
  stashed his wealth somewhere else, probably wherever 
  he was driving back from on the night he died.
  Searching the apartment can yield the clues below, 
  but also holds the risk of triggering the alarm, or more 
  dangerously, attracting the attention of David’s giant 
  pet spider.
  There are ancient artifacts hanging on the 
  wall: a bronze shield, a sling, and a blood-
  ied rock. The shield is etched with the Star 
  of David (also known as the Shield of David). 
  Looking Beyond The Mist will reveal a biblical 
  battle scene where David Nguyen, hiding be-
  hind this shield, uses the sling and rock to slay 
  a giant warrior.
  David was obsessed with Ellie. There are pho-
  tos of her on the glass-and-gold coffee table, 
  seemingly taken by a P.I. (not Holliday). There 
  is also a telescope in the window, pointed at 
  the junction of Pine and 5th St. (revealing that 
  the condo is on a street that continues Pine St.).
  David was tracking Pauline. Hidden in his 
  cabinet or on his computer, there are the 
  results of a financial research he made into 
  Woodworth Builders, revealing that Pauline 
  was working on a big project in the abandoned 
  fairground just outside town.
  GIANT PET SPIDER yyy
  There’s a story about King David being helped by a big 
  spider when he flees the soldiers of his political rival, 
  King Saul. The spider spins a web that covers the cave 
  David hides in, making it look as if he couldn’t have 
  gone that way. This story is manifested in the City as 
  a huge Familiar loyal to David Nguyen, who watches 
  over his condo against intruders. 
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  SCARE OFF 5
  • Giant: When the Giant Pet Spider takes a physical 
  harm status, reduce its tier by 2, unless it affects all 
  of the Giant Pet Spider.
  • Creeper: When Giant Pet Spider enters the scene 
  by surprise, the MC can make one hard move. Addi-
  tionally, give everyone around terrified-3.
   
  • Spit out a jet of sticky webbing (glued-3), setting up 
  its prey for a bite
  • Bite its prey, injecting venom (poisoned-3 and the 
  target takes the same status again at the beginning 
  and at the end of each Downtime thereafter, until 
  the MC rules they survived the poison. Poison-cur-
  ing effects only need to remove the poison status 
  once to stop it from repeating.)
   
  • Hiss and poke at its prey with furry legs
   
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  49 
   THE SPOOK
  Once Drake has received enough information from P.I. 
  Holliday about the crew, he may attempt to lure them 
  into his trap by sending one of his lifelike, animated 
  mannequins. These creepy robotic clones are made in 
  the image of someone the lead characters would take an 
  interest in. Drake is not limited in the repertoire of char-
  acters and special effects he can create, but he’s smart 
  and knows how to elegantly arouse curiosity without 
  giving too much away, so he will target only one crew 
  member first, to make the encounter more believable.
  The appearance of the spook is a cinematic mo-
  ment, meant to fool the lead character as well as the 
  player. The spook is most likely to show up in an alley, 
  in the fog or rain, and at a good distance from the lead 
  character, enough for the character to partially identify 
  this figure, but far enough so it’s hard-to-see-3. It will 
  then disappear, leaving behind it a message that points 
  to the abandoned fairground. The message would be 
  left in a manner appropriate to the form it took: a mys-
  terious agent will leave a sealed letter, a fiery being will 
  burn its message on the alley wall, etc.
  The spook could take the form of any person or charac-
  ter, as long as it’s shaped after someone Drake knows 
  about and that it makes sense this person would point 
  the crew to the abandoned fairground. It could be:
  • A major character from the PC’s Mythos
  • A character from the PC’s personal life, dead or alive
  • A member of an organization or group the PC is seeking 
  • Someone likely to have information the PC has been 
  searching for
  Try to trigger the PC’s Mysteries and Identities, tempt-
  ing them to pursue the spook or mark Fade/Crack.
  Attempting to catch the spook can spark off a chase 
  (catch:5), but the spook starts with far-away-3 and will 
  vanish the first time the MC makes a hard move (Deny 
  Them Something They Want).
  DEPTH 3: 
  SUCH A FUN WAY TO DIE
   THE ABANDONED FAIRGROUND
  Wind blows over the open gray flats where 
  the old funfair stands, a cluster of rick-
  ety booths and faded tents. Once-flashing 
  signs now hang crooked with broken neon 
  tubes and washed-out lettering. Torn and 
  colorless tent tarps flap repetitively. 
  A Ferris wheel looms above the countless 
  crests of rides, games, and oddity shows. 
  The big archway sign, one side of it col-
  lapsed, reads THE LEMNOS CARNIVAL. There 
  isn’t a soul in sight.
  The abandoned fairground was once the home of a 
  successful business operation, run by the Lemnos fami-
  ly, a family of distant Sinti (Romani) descent who over 
  the years assimilated carnival folk from many different 
  ethnicities. The carnival was one of the strangest and 
  most popular shows in town, and it basked in its unreg-
  ulated status outside City limits. 
  The more successful the Lemnos family became, the 
  more others envied their unregulated status. Govern-
  ment officials started badgering the Lemnos family, 
  gradually constricting their business activities until 
  the carnival went bankrupt. Some of them left the 
  fairground and emigrated to the city below the City to 
  join the trash-digging Marginals (see The Undertrash), 
  while others held out and survived by stealing food 
  and stooping to petty crime. Their seer, Masilda, told 
  them a god will eventually come to lead. The fair-
  ground spent years in a state of disrepair, rotting and 
  fading. Until, one day, Maximilian Drake rolled up into 
  the fairground on a wheelchair, an outcast-by-choice, 
  mysteriously attracted to this bizarre place.
  
  50   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  The clan, who called themselves the Lemnos Carnies 
  (Carnival employees), embraced the Rift of Hephaestus 
  as their newfound god and cared for him; in return for 
  their kindness, he taught them his Mythos-powered 
  sciences and made them weapons that enhanced their 
  abilities and turned them into super-powered maraud-
  ers. Touched by his Mythos, they awakened as Rifts 
  of the Sintians, becoming his guard, his spies, and his 
  family. Together, they started executing his plan to 
  eliminate Rifts in the City, building the fairground into 
  the fairyland death trap that it is today.
  NAVIGATING THE FAIRGROUND
  The fairground spreads over many acres of land, most of 
  it densely covered with dilapidated pavilions and broken 
  down game booths and rides. All Hephaestus-powered 
  devices installed across the fairground serve one of three 
  functions: separate, lure, or kill. All of the devices are 
  operated remotely by Drake from the control room using 
  a combination of mundane technology (according to the 
  technological age in which you play) and mythic mecha-
  nomancy (which exceeds the technology of the age, giv-
  ing it a magical twist, in this case, the mysterious magic 
  of the Greek god of metallurgy and crafts).
  PREPPING FOR THIS SCENE
  Before you run this scene, take a moment to consid-
  er the lead characters’ abilities, Mythoi, Mysteries, 
  and Identities, and devise a lure and a death trap for 
  each as described below.
  1) SEPARATE GROUPS INTO INDIVIDUALS 
  When a group tries to advance through the fairground, 
  Drake will remotely trigger:
  • Props that collapse and block their path, like a huge 
  hot dog from above a hot dog stand
  • A tarp that drops between them, separating them 
  among different parts of a pavillion
  • Broken revolving doors and turnstiles that let one 
  person in but shut immediately after
  • Rides such as a carousel, a Ferris wheel, or bumper 
  cars that come to life just as the PCs cross them, 
  forcing them to wait a long time to reunite
  None of these devices are truly dangerous or threat-
  ening, and any barrier formed between the PCs can be 
  easily circumvented, if the PCs split up and try to go 
  around. If the PCs insist on reuniting there and then 
  they must Take the Risk to scale or cross the barrier. A 
  miss could result in:
  • Getting injured or stuck
  • Getting lost, coming out a different way than expected
  • Triggering a trapdoor that leads to another level 
  of the fairground, such as an underground room, a 
  service corridor behind the tents, etc.
  Once an individual is visually separated from the crew, 
  they are considered lost, and need to Investigate to 
  locate the other crew members. Musical rides suddenly 
  turn on if the crew tries to communicate by shouting. 
  To keep his prey in the dark, Drake has also rigged the 
  place to interfere with mundane communications and 
  scanners (all tech takes jammed-5) and may devise a 
  contraption ahead of time to tackle any Mythos divina-
  tory powers he is aware of.
  2) LURE INDIVIDUALS INTO THEIR PERSON-
  AL DEATHTRAP
  When an individual moves alone through the fair-
  ground, Drake will remotely trigger his mannequins to 
  tease that individual’s specific Mysteries, Identities, or 
  other motivations (see under The Spook, above). Drake 
  will also use extensive special effects such as fog, smoke, 
  lighting, sound effects, etc. to make the experience seem 
  realistic. The purpose of this show is to make the target 
  follow the lure, away from their team and into a sepa-
  rate booth, pavilion, or section of the fairground.
  Describe the lure to your players as you would 
  describe a regular scene, e.g., as if the PC truly had 
  a vision of their guardian spirit or as if an informant 
  was really beckoning them to follow him into a pavil-
  ion. The only exception to this is that, as a side effect 
  of Drake’s mockery of creatures of magic, fantasy, and 
  myth, they all look just a little over the top.
  Here are some optional clues for suspicious or obser-
  vant PCs who Investigate what they see:
  Everything seems real. So why do you still feel 
  like someone is mocking you?
  Beyond the Mist, there is only legendary ma-
  chinery and the din of a hammer striking the 
  anvil.
  Any beings that appear mythical to the naked 
  eye do not have a Mythos print beyond the 
  Mist.
  If their suspicion is aroused, PCs can Change the 
  Game to prepare for whatever is coming.
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  51 
  3) THE DEADLY FINALE
  Drake is the master of machines, and he is out to prove 
  human beings in general and Rifts in particular are just 
  different kinds of machines. Once he figured out what 
  makes an individual tick, he uses their deepest wish or 
  fear to manipulate them into the trap.
  When an individual enters their personalized pavilion, 
  booth, etc., she beholds a spectacle carefully designed to 
  appeal to her deepest mythical questions, for example:
  • If she comes from another realm, such as the Pits 
  of Hell or the Enchanted Forest, the trap will be de-
  signed to look like that.
  • If she was the product of a lab experiment, she could 
  discover a secret lab, leading her to believe the origin 
  of her powers might be inside.
  • If she has been searching for someone or something, 
  this person or object would be standing right there 
  (an animated mannequin, of course).
  The purpose of this spectacle is to draw the target to the 
  focal point of the room, where a specialized trap awaits. 
  The trap triggers as a soft move (by now, there have been 
  plenty of fair warnings) and the character is hit by a tier-5 
  status chosen specifically to overcome her abilities:
  • A speedster Rift would be beset by a chain of explo-
  sions, firing a thousand sharp javelins all around her, 
  so that wherever she’s running, she’s running towards 
  a shower of javelins (impaled-from-every-direction-5).
  • A physically invincible Rift could be buried in a tank 
  of molten armored steel, which is then instantly 
  cooled off (caught-in-a-solid-block-of-steel-5).
  • A Rift that can become incorporeal is shackled with 
  magical bonds (materialized-5) before being crushed 
  by an iron weight (crushed-5).
  PCs get to Face Danger if their players can explain 
  how they avoid the death trap; only tags relevant to 
  that method of escape apply. Alternatively, PCs can 
  Stop.Holding.Back. and make a no-return sacrifice to 
  avoid getting caught, or to free or heal themselves.
  
  52   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  GOLDIE’S TRAP
  Goldie arrives at the fairground looking for David’s 
  tangible assets. In one of the pavilions, there’s a 
  lavish apartment not unlike David Nguyen’s Down-
  town condo. Strangely, however, the apartment has 
  three steaming bowls of porridge on a nice modern 
  glass dining table; three mid-century modern chairs 
  of different sizes around a faux white bearskin rug; 
  and three king-sized beds of different firmness. Not 
  knowing her own Mythos that well, Goldie is not 
  sure what to make of it, but it piques her curiosity in 
  ways she can’t explain. After she samples the first 
  eight stations, she finds in the most comfy bed a 
  duffle bag full of money. Satisfied like never before 
  in her life, and under the influence of the sleeping 
  pills mixed into the third bowl of porridge, she goes 
  to sleep hugging the duffle bag and never wakes up. 
  The bed is also equipped to electrocute her to death 
  if she skips the porridge, so her fate is sealed. That 
  is, unless one of the lead characters does some-
  thing to stop all this from happening.
  AFTER THE TRAP TRIGGERS
  So long as there are other Rifts navigating the fair-
  grounds (not including Drake and the Carnies), Drake 
  will have the Carnies bring incapacitated Rifts to him 
  at the control room. He simply wants to prove a point, 
  and he’s not getting any satisfaction from preaching to 
  his choir of Carnies, so he is looking to keep incapaci-
  tated targets alive for a few more minutes just to show 
  them how he kills the rest of the Rifts. At your option, 
  and if your game group’s social contract permits it, the 
  final trap to trigger will deal a tier-6 status, following 
  which Drake will proceed to kill or get rid of his inca-
  pacitated audience.
  PCs who survive their personal trap are now aware of 
  the situation and can ignore any lures they encounter 
  and warn others (if they can find them or communi-
  cate with them). They can also proceed to investigate 
  the fairground without further distractions. Drake 
  won’t waste more time trying to lure such a character. 
  Instead, he sends the Carnies to finish the job.
  INVESTIGATING THE  
  ABANDONED FAIRGROUND
  Once the PCs figure out that the lures are false and 
  turn their attention elsewhere, there are many secrets 
  they may uncover:
  There’s an area by the edge of the fairground 
  styled to look like a biblical setting with fake 
  stone buildings and palm trees. The mud here 
  matches the mud on Pauline’s boots and Da-
  vid’s shoes and car tires.
  There’s a high-caliber revolver haphazardly 
  stashed behind one of the fake stone houses. 
  The cylinder has only five out of six rounds, 
  having fired the bullet that killed Pauline 
  Woodworth. It matches the gunshot residue on 
  David Nguyen’s hands.
  There’s a large patch of turned earth in the 
  middle of the biblical land display, big enough 
  for a giant to be buried in. Digging for a while 
  reveals the giant body of Pauline Woodworth, 
  shot between the eyes.
  Beyond the Mist, an act of giant-slaying took 
  place here, echoing with visions of a giant fall-
  ing to the ground as the earth shakes.
  The interior of one of the pavilions looks like 
  a king’s palace, where a life-sized mannequin 
  that looks just like Ellie is standing motionless. 
  The lipstick on its lips, identical to Ellie’s, has 
  peeled off, corroded by the same poison that 
  killed David Nguyen.
  Electrical wiring and radio transmissions all 
  point toward an inconspicuous but tall scaf-
  folding structure at the center of the fair-
  ground, covered by a patchwork of corrugated 
  metal and endless lights, props, and signs. This 
  is where the control room must be.
  Beyond the Mist, seeking the maker of the 
  mannequins or the fairground machinery also 
  leads to the control room, which burns against 
  the horizon as a rusty iron tower overflowing 
  with molten metal.
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  53 
  THE LEMNOS “CARNIES”
  The Lemnos Carnies have been living in the aban-
  doned fairground for years, scavenging and stealing for 
  survival after their funfair empire collapsed. Building 
  upon their years of living on the margins of society, 
  Drake’s Mythos Touched them, casting them as the 
  Sintians, a strange traveling folk of raiders, pirates, and 
  plunderers who nursed Hephaestus back to life after he 
  fell from Olympus, later becoming his followers. Today, 
  they serve as the carnival’s behind-the-scenes opera-
  tors, builders, and guardians.
  The Lemnos Carnies respect outcasts, social pariahs, 
  and those who survive on their own. They have a chip 
  on their shoulder when it comes to City slickers and 
  conformist members of mainstream society (who have 
  turned on them before), nor do they particularly like 
  sociopaths and nihilists with no respect to others and 
  no familial tradition or code. For now, they believe 
  their master’s rants that Rifts are abominations who 
  defy the laws of nature, and willingly take part in his 
  quest to eradicate the City’s “devil spawn” as they 
  see it. Carnies may, however, find themselves facing a 
  dilemma if someone they see as a social outcast Rift 
  asks them for help or if someone opens their eyes to 
  the truth about Rifts.
  The Carnies are often seen in work clothing: a grease-
  stained sweater, torn jeans, and wooly hat. Many of 
  them embraced a rugged and disheveled exterior, and 
  like to stick long menacing stares at any urbanite who 
  stares at them too long. Their tools glow red like metal 
  out of the furnace when they channel Hephaestus’ 
  magic with their Mechanomancy.
  ()Individuals among the Lemnos Carnies became inde-
  pendent Rifts of legendary versions of traditional car-
  nival shows. Drake’s strange science further enhanced 
  their abilities. These four Carnies serve as Drake’s per-
  sonal guard and follow his commands unequivocally.
  • Yulanda, the Iron Jaw, received a literal jaw implant 
  made of smith-god steel.
  • Mariush, the Human Cannonball, got special fiery 
  boots and an unbreakable helmet that allow him to 
  shoot himself at his foes.
  • Ismail, the Fire Eater, was gifted an unknown num-
  ber of flaming scimitars that he can store in his belly 
  and cast at his foes. The swords then fly back to his 
  hand (or mouth).
  • Bartley, the Trick Shooter, received a pair of 
  six-shooters that never run out of ammo.
  
  54   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  LEMNOS CARNIE yy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 3  /  THREATEN 3  /  TURN 5
  • Rough Exterior: When you first see a Lemnos Carnie 
  this scene, if you’re a City slicker or conformist, take 
  apprehensive-2. When a Lemnos Carnie takes a social, 
  emotional, or mental status, reduce its tier by 1.
  • Mechanomancy: Once per scene, as a soft move 
  (or any time as a hard move), a Lemnos Carnie can 
  bring back to life a carnival ride, booth, death trap, 
  or any other machinery that is broken or mal-
  functioned. Remove all negative statuses on that 
  machine and restore its tags, if burnt.  
   
  • Start a mechanical carnival ride to distract the crew 
  (distracted-2, temporary) or block their path while 
  the Carnie gets away (Deny Them Something 
  They Want)
  • Touch a machine and get it to attack someone 
  (thumped-2 or zapped-2)
  • Get violent and stab someone with a pocket knife, a 
  screwdriver, or a broken bottle (bleeding-2)
   
  • Stare intently, tapping a tool on her palm
  YULANDA, THE IRON JAW yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  TURN 6
  • Impossible Acrobatics: When Yulanda takes a 
  physical or subdual status she can dodge, reduce it’s 
  tier by 2.
  • Self-Disciplined: When Yulanda takes a social, 
  emotional, or mental status, reduce its tier by 1.
   
  • When in a circus tent or close to high structures, 
  perform an acrobatic trick, grabbing someone and 
  throwing them in the air (broken-bones-3) or hang-
  ing them from a rope (entangled-and-suspended-3)
  • Snap her iron jaw shut on someone (shat-
  tered-limb-4) or something (shattered-4)
  • Chew off restraints (remove up to 3 tiers of re-
  straints statuses, hers or others)
   
  • Tumble and flip overhead
  MARIUSH, THE HUMAN CANNONBALL yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  TURN 6
  • Absorb Concussive Force: When Mariush takes a 
  physical impact status, his magical helmet absorbs 
  it. He converts it to a temporary velocity status of 
  the same tier.
  • Olympian Headgear: When Mariush takes a men-
  tal status, reduce its tier by 2.
   
  • Launch himself at someone or something (bro-
  ken-bones-3 or broken-3; if he has a velocity status, 
  it either enhances the tier of the broken status or 
  impedes attempts to Face Danger)
   
  • Ignite his boots, levitating unsteadily a few inches 
  in the air
  ISMAIL, THE FIRE EATER yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  TURN 6
  • Flurry of Flaming Scimitars: Ismail’s magical 
  scimitars can parry almost any melee strike or 
  projectile including bullets, beams of energy, and 
  magical bolts. When Ismail takes a status he can 
  parry, reduce its tier by 2. 
  • (Almost) Immune to Fire: When Ismail takes a 
  heat or fire status, reduce its tier by 4.
  • I Know This Trick: When Ismail enters the scene, 
  give him alert-2.
   
  • Cast flaming scimitars at multiple targets and 
  have them boomerang back and hit again (scorch-
  ing-cut-2 four times)
  • Spit fire in a cone in front of him (extensive-burns-3)
  • Hold someone’s attention with incredible juggling 
  of flaming swords (entranced-3)
  • Cast a scimitar to hover around a teammate and 
  parry incoming attacks (negate up to three tiers of 
  incoming attacks on that teammate)
   
  • Pull out yet another flaming scimitar from his throat
  BARTLEY, THE TRICK SHOOTER yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4
  • Quick Draw: When you attack Bartley, he first gives 
  you gunshot-3.
  • Controlled Ricochet, Placed Shot: When you Face 
  Danger or Change the Game against Bartley’s gun-
  fire, you cannot use tags or Juice that describe cover 
  or armor unless they provide complete protection.
  • Sharpshooter: When Bartley enters the scene, give 
  him aim-2.
   
  • Fire multiple shots at a single target or multiple tar-
  gets (flesh-wound-2 three times)
  • Execute a trick shot so that something heavy breaks 
  loose and falls on someone (obstructed-2, prone-2, or 
  Complicate Things, Bigtime, usually forcing them 
  to Take the Risk)
   
  • Spin both of his revolvers on his trigger fingers
  
  CARNIVAL OF MACHINES   |  55 
  DEPTH 4: 
  WHAT MAKES  
  FOLKS TICK
   THE CONTROL ROOM
  Drake’s control room lies at the heart of the fairground 
  labyrinth, within a makeshift tower of scaffolding and 
  corrugated steel, covered from top to bottom with 
  signs advertising the various rides and attractions of 
  the funfair. If they haven’t been taken out of the equa-
  tion, the four Carnies that constitute his guard will 
  defend the control room to the end, as their brethren 
  watch from all around the fairground. 
  Inside, the dark, rusty, and cramped space is filled wall-
  to-wall with monitoring equipment, such as screens 
  and displays, that allows Drake to know of everything 
  that is happening in the fairground. There sits the 
  demented genius in his motorized wheelchair, moni-
  toring the traps and timing them perfectly while at the 
  same time sketching schematics for new traps.
  Masilda, the Carnie elder and tarot reader who helps 
  Drake interpret the information from P.I. Holliday and 
  decypher what each Rift victim wants, is also here. She 
  is watching the traps as they snap shut on the gullible 
  Rifts with enjoyment; as long as they’re treacherous 
  City folk, she cares not. If things get messy, she’ll try to 
  creep out unnoticed.
  THE SPEECH
  Maximilian Drake has an axe to grind: he wants someone 
  to understand and reaffirm the genius of his plan, of how 
  he deconstructed the motivations of Rifts as he would lit-
  tle wind-up toy drummer monkeys. As described above, if 
  he captures incapacitated Rifts and forces them to watch 
  their friends fall prey to his traps, he will regale them with 
  the details of his brilliant plan and Mechanist philosophy. 
  This could be an opportunity for PCs that are perhaps 
  physically incapacitated to use other abilities to escape or 
  dissuade Drake from going forward with the killing.
  SURRENDER?
  Drake is more of a scheming mastermind than a stand-
  up-and-fight kind of villain. He’s a powerful Rift, and 
  has the upper body muscles of a divine blacksmith, 
  but he lacks the guts and motivation required for a 
  physical altercation. If the tides turn against him, and 
  depending on how he gauges his chances, he may opt 
  for different tactical approaches; in deciding how to 
  end the case, factor in your cinematic considerations, 
  e.g., is the story suffering from combat fatigue, etc.
  • If he thinks the crew will spare him, Drake is not 
  above surrendering. He figures no ordinary jail can 
  hold him for long (metal has a way of bending to his 
  will), so he could be back on the streets again soon.
  • If he thinks the crew is out to avenge the Rifts he 
  killed, he’ll try to escape, ejecting himself through a 
  vertical shaft into a converted getaway car (catch:5). 
  The crew will have to take action to stop him from 
  escaping.
  • Finally, if the crew are on their last legs, Drake might 
  don a suit of armor he created, dubbing himself the 
  Mechanist (he’s a nerd). This exoskeleton, shaped 
  like a rusty-red metal armor, allows him to walk and 
  take a beating, and so he’ll make a final stand, trying 
  to complete the job and kill the crew.
  Even if he’s caught and defeated, Drake will nonethe-
  less give his speech, only it will be bitter and seething, 
  explaining how concepts like ‘magic’ and ‘gods’ always 
  put a wrench in the plans of ‘true’ logical thinkers. He 
  has a full belly, and he won’t miss the chance to unload 
  his anger in the ears of anyone who would listen – even 
  officers Das and Quinn as they escort him to prison.
  If the crew interviews Drake about what drove 
  him to turn to such drastic methods and to act 
  upon his philosophy, he will relate his sto-
  ry, mentioning the name of the psychiatrist 
  who helped him cope with his disability: Dr. 
  Archibald Tennant, of an association called 
  Mending the Broken.
  Drake’s personal phone has only ever made 
  calls to one number: the Mending the Broken 
  helpline. He always asked to be connected with 
  Dr. Archibald Tennant.
  Drake carries a pillbox with an anti-depressant 
  psychiatric drug. The sticker indicates it was 
  prescribed by Dr. Archibald Tennant. The pills 
  have trace amounts of glass powder in them, 
  possibly due to a faulty manufacturing envi-
  ronment.
  
  56   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  THE MECHANIST yyyy
  DECOMMISSION 5  /  CURE OF HATRED 6
  • Poisoned by Hate: When the Mechanist enters the 
  scene, give him seething-with-hatred-2. This applies 
  to any attempts to convince him or cure him of his 
  hatred to Rifts.
  • Olympian Exoskeleton: When the Mechanist armor 
  takes a physical or subdual status, reduce its tier by 2.
   
  • Use mechanomancy to create a weapon that would 
  counter a Rift’s special abilities (giving an appropri-
  ate tier-3 status but giving himself embarrassed-1 for 
  using magic)
  • Use mechanomancy to magically fix the exoskeleton 
  (reduce any status on decommission by 2 tiers but 
  giving himself embarrassed-1 for using magic)
  AFTERMATH
  Here are a few questions to consider and points to 
  revisit when you wrap up this case:
  • Did everyone in the crew and in the supporting cast 
  survive Drake’s trap? If not, how are the surviving 
  members dealing with losing a friend? What emo-
  tions do each of them experience? Do they vow to 
  hurt Drake as revenge?
  • What was the fate of Maximilian Drake, the Mech-
  anist? Was he able to convince anyone with his 
  self-important philosophical rants? Did he see the 
  error of his ways or did he finally accept that there is 
  more in heaven and earth than could be explained by 
  natural science? Has he become more staunch in his 
  opinions, if that’s even possible? How does the crew 
  plan to prevent him from killing more Rifts?
  • What happens next with the carnival? If Drake 
  is free, will he complete his vision and open the 
  Rift-slaying theme park he dreamed up? If their god 
  is gone, what will the Lemnos Carnies do? Will they 
  wait for his return in the ruins of the carnival? Or 
  will they rebuild, and if so, would it be to reopen 
  the place as a legitimate funfair or to continue their 
  master’s legacy?
  • How does the crew plan to approach the organization 
  of Mending the Broken? If you played through Killing 
  Her Softly, they now have met two villains connected 
  with the therapist group.
  • Punch someone, pick them up and throw them 
  around, or slam them with his oversized blacksmith 
  hammer (broken-limbs-4) 
  • Use a flamethrower (everyone in range gets on-fire-2 
  and again after each time they make a move, until the 
  status is removed or the fire is put out)
  • Preach aggressively about how Rifts are not legendary, 
  they are just machines (everyone takes self-doubt-1)
  • Take off, propelled by a jet of fire, and fly away (Deny 
  them something they want)
   
  • Ridicule Rifts
  • Patronizingly explain to someone why their powers 
  won’t work on him
  • What ever happened to that street hustler, Goldie? 
  Did she make it out alive of the death trap Drake set 
  for her, or did her mythical and worldly urges seal her 
  doom? If she survived, did she repent, or continue to 
  steal from the rich and give to herself? Perhaps she 
  becomes a series regular and continues to tail the 
  crew, getting herself into dangerous situations.
  • And P.I. Holliday – did he make it safely out? Or did 
  he follow Goldie and got caught up in the fairground 
  drama? Will the crew blame him for his part in the 
  deaths of Pauline Woodworth and David Nguyen?
  • What about Ellie Woodworth? Is anyone going to tell 
  her that Pauline is gone? That it was David Nguyen 
  who killed her? Would seeing the giant body cause 
  Ellie to awaken and join the Rift underworld? Or 
  would the crew decide to spare her the truth and let 
  her hope she’ll someday see Pauline again?
  • If Theresa Nguyen hired the crew, she’ll want to 
  know what happened with Maximilian Drake, unless 
  she gets his head on a silver platter as she asks. Such 
  a brutal elimination is bound to gain the crew a ne-
  farious reputation on the streets.
  • Finally, what about Drake’s technology, lying about 
  in the mud just outside town? Someone could pick 
  up a magical part and use it as a Relic, wittingly or 
  unwittingly, sparking off a whole new origin story.
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  57 
  PERSONAL VEIN
  
  58   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  There’s a secret kind of hate blowing through the 
  streets these days, bitter-cold and blood-curdling. Peo-
  ple aren’t even sure what they hate anymore, they just 
  do: they hate each other, they hate their lives, and they 
  hate themselves. Could Mending the Broken, a support 
  network for those who see beyond the Mist, be the 
  lifeline the City needs? As the crew struggles to curb 
  this wave of dark emotions, they may find that same 
  chilling hatred has taken root in their hearts.
  Broken Glass is a psychological thriller that pits the 
  crew against a supervillain who can evoke intense 
  emotions, providing opportunities to explore the lead 
  characters’ own emotional hardships. The investiga-
  tion takes the crew through the ranks of the villain’s 
  operation, a twisted mental health organization. Flesh-
  ing out the case are several optional side scenes that 
  can be inserted as desired, to add drama and action. 
  The case culminates in a confrontation with the villain 
  and a rush to save the City from her ultimate scheme. 
  Depending on how you intend to run the case, you may 
  wish to discuss with your group how best to handle 
  intense PC emotions and themes of mental health at 
  your table (see Addressing Mental Crisis And Illness on 
  page XX).
  As the finale of the personal vein, this case includes 
  encounters with powerful adversaries suitable for a 
  well-prepared crew of veterans (such as an optional 
  clash with a team of elite Gatekeeper stormtroopers 
  who could potentially turn Rifts back to Sleepers). 
  Adjust the challenge level to suit your crew.
   
  THE HISTORY OF DR. KRYSTAL 
  KNIGHT
  GOOD INTENTIONS
  In the early years of the City, Krystal Knight (The Snow 
  Queen) was a promising psychotherapist who aspired 
  to heal society of its emotional wounds. Born to a 
  family of aristocrats, Knight used her family fortune to 
  gain access to the City’s exclusive cliques of therapists, 
  some of whom studied with the first proponents of 
  psychology and psychiatry. Under their tutelage, she 
  trained as a psychiatrist and specialized in criminal 
  behavior, spending two decades perfecting her art.
  Captivated by the power of words to heal the wounds 
  of the past, but disillusioned by the system’s corrup-
  tion, she began focusing on offering therapy to the 
  City’s white-collar criminals – its corrupt politicians 
  and businessmen – helping them to become better 
  people, hoping that with their power, they’ll be able to 
  cure the entire City. Her therapeutic services were in 
  high demand among the rich and powerful of the City, 
  but despite years of effort, social change did not come. 
  A hidden force seemed to keep the City’s people on 
  track for alienation, isolation, and violence.
  THE ROAD TO HELL
  Dr. Knight continued to diligently practice her profes-
  sion, overlooking her own mounting bitterness at the 
  state of her life and her unfulfilled vision. When she 
  heard Corbin Payne, “the man who was the City”, fell ill 
  and became depressed, she offered her services, seizing 
  the opportunity to help the most powerful individual 
  in the City. Not yet an Avatar, Payne thought he might 
  still be cured and agreed.
  The two spent years in intense daily psychoanalysis 
  sessions. Like radioactive waste, the tycoon’s legend-
  ary misery seeped into the doctor’s soul and infected 
  it, eroding her natural positivity and mental fortitude. 
  Within their sessions, she still played the role of the 
  optimistic healer, but outside of them her life was in 
  shambles and she began hating everything and every-
  one around her.
  Eventually, the king broke his so-called savior. To 
  complete her transformation into his Grail Knight, 
  he gave her a Relic, the Devil’s Mirror (of Hans Chris-
  tian Andersen’s The Snow Queen), which immediately 
  took her as its bearer and awakened her as the Snow 
  Queen. Every day, when she looked at herself in the 
  mirror, the mirror showed her the worst qualities in 
  her, that which was most loathsome and condemnable. 
  Knowing the powers of the Mirror, Payne also left her 
  one of his last remaining subsidiaries of his crumbling 
  construction empire, Aurora Glassworks, who made 
  windows, windshields, and display panes for the entire 
  City (although, at the time, she didn’t care about that). 
  Then he left, shutting her out and leaving her with her 
  failure, her self-loathing, and a hateful heart.
  IN THE ASYLUM
  Hanging in her bathroom, the Devil’s Mirror drove 
  Krystal Knight out of her mind until one day it shat-
  tered her spirit just as she shattered it with her fists. 
  Tiny shards from the mirror lodged themselves in her 
  eyes and heart; she had the rest sent to her glasswork 
  factory to be melted down. The doctor then went into 
  a self-destructive tantrum, was declared mentally un-
  stable (in the jargon of the time), and was hospitalized 
  in the Municipal Institute for the Criminally Insane 
  run by her rival Esther Monahan.
  Name:  
   
   
   
  BACKGROUND
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  59 
   
  WHY DID THE THERAPY FAIL?
  Both Knight and Payne had a long time to think 
  about the past and make sense of it. Though she 
  won’t share it with anyone, the doctor knows her 
  failure was a result of her childish obsession with 
  healing everyone else, while ignoring the darkness 
  she was harboring inside herself. This failure bur-
  rowed itself into her mind, feeding her self-hatred; 
  she hates herself for having had a chance to do 
  good and missing it. 
  Payne has a similar but slightly different take on the 
  matter. For him, it was folly for a Sleeper, someone 
  who is still asleep to their own true nature, to try and 
  contend with forces beyond their comprehension 
  such as the Mythos of the Fisher King. Some days, 
  he thinks a part of him gave her the mirror so that 
  she would awaken as a Rift, work through her is-
  sues, and come back with a real chance to heal him.
  Knight was subjected to all manners of crude and inef-
  fective forms of therapy, including untested medication, 
  shock therapy, and even a lobotomy. She could have 
  frozen any of her medical staff solid but she held back, 
  using the therapy as a mythic form of self-mutilation, 
  an outlet for the hatred she felt toward herself. Broken 
  beyond repair, she spent the next few decades in the 
  depths of the asylum in solitary confinement. Her frozen 
  Mythos preserved her body, and she did not age.
  CHANGING POLARITY
  Due to the Mist, even the asylum eventually forgot 
  about Krystal Knight. When the torturing therapy 
  slowed down and then stopped, Knight’s self-abusive 
  outlet for her legendary hatefulness was gone, and so 
  her thoughts turned outward, as did her hate. Krystal 
  Knight began planning her revenge on the City that 
  her abuser, Corbin Payne, built. She would destroy it 
  in a blizzard of hatred, starting with Rifts, as they were 
  most like the person she hated the most: Herself.
  MENDING THE BROKEN
  It wasn’t hard for a Rift of Knight’s magnitude, so 
  supercharged with hate, to take over the asylum. She 
  froze solid her confinement cell door, killed some 
  guards and nurses, and tormented the now elderly 
  Esther Monahan for days before disposing of her too. 
  Then she forced everyone else in the asylum to accept 
  her as Esther Monahan or die, taking her place as the 
  head of the facility.
  Next, she turned to the psychiatric staff. By locking 
  them up in padded cells and forcing them to attend 
  “therapy” sessions with her, Dr. Knight convinced the 
  team of psychiatrists and psychologists that Rifthood 
  was a perversion. Since “healing” or “converting” 
  Rifthood was beyond their power, the therapists had to 
  come up with a different kind of “cure”. They devised a 
  type of therapy where they would reflect the disastrous 
  implications of being a Rift back to the patient, and let 
  the patient decide what to do. Imbued with Dr. Knight’s 
  powers, this usually ended in Rifts developing intense 
  feelings of hate, and eventually either seeking to hurt 
  themselves or hurt other Rifts.
  Reaching out to the mental health circles of the City, 
  Dr. Knight and her team published Sleeper-awakening 
  studies that Touched many of those who read them. 
  The therapists trained by her and her students formed 
  Mending the Broken, a professional organization of 
  awakened therapists who sought to “help” Rifts – by 
  influencing them to hurt themselves or others like 
  them. Mending the Broken gradually made a name for 
  themselves in the Rift underworld as a support pro-
  gram Rifts could turn to in a time of crisis, with a help-
  line, free sessions, and advertisements. They avoided 
  being connected to the dire outcome of their “therapy” 
  by subtly putting the blame on the victims and their 
  circumstances.
  A BLIZZARD IS COMING
  The efforts of Mending the Broken were only partially 
  successful; they were all too often thwarted by other 
  Rifts (perhaps recently by the crew, in Killing Her Softly 
  and Carnival of Machines). Fortunately for Krystal 
  Knight, she only needed a certain amount of hatred to 
  power her final attack on the City.
  While its owner was hospitalized, Aurora Glassworks 
  continued to be the City’s main glass provider for 
  construction. Almost every glass pane in the City had 
  a fraction of her mirror’s power, whose shards she had 
  molten in the company’s glass factories, and Krystal 
  could feel it. All she needed was enough hatred to 
  shatter all of the City’s windows at once, and the 
  magical icy shards would spread hatred everywhere, 
  creating a frenzied riot. Mending the Broken has just 
  about provided her with a sufficient emotional charge, 
  so she is about to unleash upon the City the loveless 
  winter she so craves.
  
  60   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  DEPTH 0: 
  THE HOOKS
  The crew may become involved in the case in the fol-
  lowing ways:
  • The crew may continue the investigation from 
  previous cases, Killing Her Softly and Carnival of 
  Machines, where the villains are both out-of-con-
  trol Rifts who came into contact with Mending the 
  Broken therapists. Whether or not the crew believes 
  their claims that their therapists drove them to 
  do harm, they may wish to investigate this lead by 
  locating Martha Ellis’ therapist Dr. Selma Perrin or 
  Maximillian Drake’s therapist Dr. Archibald Ten-
  nant. Both therapists operate their own private clin-
  ics which would be easy to find. The crew may also 
  investigate the Mending the Broken organization in 
  general (see private clinic).
  • Down-and-out lead characters or supporting cast 
  Rifts may seek the help of Mending the Broken. A 
  classic opening scene sets one or more lead character 
  in a Rift support group, talking about her prob-
  lems or listening to others with disdain. The support 
  group is run at a local community center or private 
  home basement by Harry Yang, a Sleeper starting to 
  be Touched by Krystal Knight’s new theories, who is 
  nevertheless still on the good side and truly wants 
  to help. Harry can refer a struggling lead or support 
  character to a full-fledged therapist, who invites 
  her to meet at their private clinic. Supporting cast 
  characters who see a Mending the Broken therapist 
  gradually become distraught or high strung, raising 
  the crew members’ concerns.
  A Mother  
    in Distress
  Mending the 
  Broken Private 
  Clinic
  The  
  Historical  
  Society
  Aurora  
  Glassworks
  The "Special" 
  Ward
  A Blizzard  
  of Hate
  Previous 
  Cases
  Supporting 
  Cast
  The Joneses' 
  Apartment
  The Asylum
  Golem Gone 
  Wrong
  Supervision 
  Meeting
  Name:  
   
   
   
  the iceberg
  Depht 3
  Depht 4 
  Depht 2
  Depht 1
  Depht 0
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  61 
  • Officer Das (see Killing Her Softly), if she becomes a 
  series regular, may be the one seeking help from a 
  therapist. Her particular powers may provide addi-
  tional protection from Mending the Broken’s insid-
  ious brainwashing techniques, so she can also serve 
  as a whistleblower, alerting the crew to what the 
  therapist organization is really up to.
  • If you are playing this case as a one-shot, or if you 
  want to add additional scenes, the crew can be called 
  to help with a domestic violence case which will 
  point them to Mending the Broken. Felicia Pema 
  Jones (Palden Lhamo, wrathful protector goddess of 
  Tibet and the Dalai Lamas) is a young Rift mother 
  who has become depressed and violent after giving 
  birth. Her husband, Jeff, either called social services 
  or the police for assistance with his wife, or, thinking 
  her possessed, asked around and reached the crew. 
  Following this lead has the crew starting at the Jone-
  ses’ apartment.
  DEPTH 1: 
  A CRY FOR HELP
   THE JONESES’ APARTMENT
  You can’t believe your bad luck when you 
  get caught in a torrential downpour just 
  outside the block-wide tenement where the 
  Joneses live. By the time you’re inside 
  their cramped apartment, you’re soaking 
  wet. Jeff Jones welcomes you and walks you 
  to the nursery, telling you about the 
  outbursts of anger that his wife, Feli-
  cia, has had since the birth of their 
  first child, Mira. He knocks on the door, 
  but there’s no answer. Through the key-
  hole you see a gloomy nursery room, ex-
  posed to the elements blowing through the 
  open window, by billowing, tattered cur-
  tains. Someone in the corner is singing a 
  hushed nursery rhyme.
  Felicia Pema Jones is one of Mending the Broken’s 
  many victims. Mother to three-months-old Mira, she 
  awakened shortly after childbirth as the Rift of Palden 
  Lhamo, the Tibetan tutelary goddess, possibly because 
  of her deep desire to protect her child and, for her, 
  protect all that is good in the world. Unfortunately, 
  Palden Lhamo can be a wrathful goddess who violently 
  attacks threats to those under her protection, includ-
  ing her own daughter, and Felicia didn’t know how to 
  handle that intensity of rage. When things got worse, 
  she turned to Mending the Broken and was referred to 
  Jungian therapist Dr. Drew Langstone.
  Naturally, things just got worse from there. Langstone 
  instilled destructive ideas in Felicia’s head, playing 
  on her Mythos’ history with infanticide; his endgame 
  was to get Felicia to kill her own daughter and commit 
  suicide (for everyone’s best interest, so he believes). 
  When the crew arrives, Felicia is on the verge of doing 
  just that – she has locked herself up in the nursery with 
  Mira and keeps shouting at Jeff to stay away. The crew 
  might be able to undo the damage done by Langstone 
  and gain Felicia’s help in chasing down the truth, but 
  first they have to save both mother and child.
  If Felicia does the unthinkable, she does so by throw-
  ing herself and/or her child through the nursery room 
  window, falling to a glass-riddled death, by way of the 
  broken glass motif (page xx).
  Jeff can bring the crew up to speed on Feli-
  cia’s mental health history. She was fine until 
  she gave birth to Mira. When Felicia’s rage out-
  bursts started, the couple tried to seek help but 
  Felicia didn’t feel the (Sleeper) therapist she 
  met with could help her. She later saw a poster 
  for Mending the Broken, called their helpline, 
  and was referred to Dr. Drew Langstone, who is 
  still her therapist.
  Jeff is frustrated that he can’t help Felicia 
  and worried sick for her and Mira’s safety. He 
  explains Felicia’s appearance and incredible 
  strength as side effects of the rage.
  While still enraged, Felicia may mumble 
  words that betray her inner conflict: she is 
  worried that her daughter may be a Rift too, 
  which is a ‘dirty, ugly thing’, and contemplat-
  ing hurting both herself and her daughter to 
  prevent it from happening.
  If Felicia is stabilized, she reports feeling safe 
  with Dr. Langstone, who can see and under-
  stand her abilities. She claims that she always 
  feels better after their sessions. However, 
  asking her to calmly reevaluate what was ac-
  tually communicated in those sessions makes 
  her realize it was he who poisoned her mind 
  against herself and her daughter.
  
  62   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  FELICIA yyy
  At first, Felicia appears to be a normal sleep-deprived 
  mother, dressed in loose and comfortable clothing, 
  with a mane of uncombed red hair. When she taps 
  into the power of Palden Lhamo, she takes on a horri-
  fying visage: her skin turns blue, her hair bursts into 
  flames, and a third eye opens on her forehead.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 5  /  RESTORE HER MIND 4  /  LOSE 
  HER MIND 4
  • Wrathful Goddess: When Felicia enters the scene, 
  give her raging-2.
  • Demonic Protection: When you advance towards 
  Felicia or baby Mira or take aim at them, you are 
  pushed back or out by an invisible force, forcing you 
  to first Take the Risk.
  • About to Snap: When lose-her-mind maxes out, Fe-
  licia hurts herself or baby Mira (Make Something 
  Horrible Happen).
   
  • Punch someone or push them with invisible force 
  (broken-arm-3 or broken-leg-3)
  • Place a ward on someone so they can’t approach 
  her, baby Mira, or the room (pushed-back-3)
  • Scare the hell out of someone with her demonic 
  visage (palpitating-2)
  • Freak out and get even more upset (giving herself 
  raging-2 or despaired-2)
   
  • Scream at anyone who tries to enter the nursery, 
  turning blue
  • Seethingly threaten someone not to come near her 
  daughter
   MENDING THE BROKEN  
          PRIVATE CLINIC
  You shudder when you walk into the 
  shrink’s office. Two comfy armchairs fac-
  ing one another make you visualize clients 
  spilling their guts over a hot beverage. 
  Trauma, betrayal, secrets, unspeakable 
  fantasies – these walls have heard it 
  all. What would you tell the therapist if 
  it were you in that chair? Dark thoughts 
  creep up in the back of your mind, remind-
  ing you how you fail, how you come short, 
  all the time and in every way. You feel 
  what all of the clients that came before 
  must have felt: broken beyond repair. The 
  difference is you don’t talk about it. May-
  be some things are better left buried.   
  Mending the Broken has many member practitioners 
  throughout the City. Each member runs their own 
  private clinic and gets referrals from the organization’s 
  helplines. Here are a few names the crew may come 
  across when looking for a Mending the Broken therapist.
  • Dr. Selma Perrin, who worked with Martha Ellis 
  (Killing Her Softly), is an expensive psychiatrist and 
  psychoanalyst working in a luxurious private practice 
  Downtown.
  • Dr. Archibald Tennant, who counseled Maximillian 
  Drake (Carnival of Machines), is a traditional psychia-
  trist with a clinic in the Old Quarter, who often mans 
  the organization’s helplines. 
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  63 
  • Dr. Drew Langstone, Felicia Jones’ Jungian thera-
  pist, has meetings in a clinic attached to his apart-
  ment in one of the Blue-Collar Residential neighbor-
  hoods.
  • Police Psychologist Dr. Tracy Wong helps law 
  enforcement personnel, meeting with them in their 
  local precincts. She is the one most likely to work 
  with Officer Das and has worked with security officer 
  Ruben Stone (see Golem Gone Wrong).
  • Life Coach and Nutritionist Augusta Summers 
  started out in Suburbia, but is gaining a growing 
  clientele in the City center.
  • Fr. Brian Kelly, a priest taking confession in a local 
  church.
  • Dr. Lauren White, a social welfare psychologist in 
  the slums.
  LOOKING FOR ADVICE
  If a PC seeks out a therapist as someone to talk to, play 
  out a part of the therapy session. This should be an 
  opportunity to give the PC a good deal of airtime and 
  let her bear her inner world: her conflicts, her ques-
  tions, her doubts, her pain. This sets the scene for the 
  upcoming conflicts with Dr. Krystal Knight (and 
  potentially the Fisher King).
  Mending the Broken therapists are extremely intelli-
  gent and wise, so if the PC doesn’t suspect the thera-
  pist or lets her guard down, play the therapist as the 
  ideal listener and confidant, someone the PC feels 
  they could really trust, someone who can see them 
  through the Mist and not judge them for who they are. 
  The therapist won’t impose her ideas on the PC, but 
  will instead listen for a while, humming, nodding, and 
  asking questions to keep the PC talking.
  When the PC asks for guidance, ask a deep open-ended 
  question such as “Do you feel that whatever it is inside 
  you is really a part of you?” or “Who do you think is 
  responsible for what happens to you?” The therapist 
  doesn’t need to talk about her views openly to infect 
  the PC with self-doubt and self-hatred – like the Devil’s 
  Mirror, it’s the way she reflects things back to the PC 
  that does the trick. After the PC leaves and has some 
  time to think about the session, activate the therapist’s 
  custom move Dark Thoughts. 
  LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
  If the crew comes looking for answers, they will be met 
  with resistance. First, the therapist will avoid them or 
  her receptionist will try to block them from going into 
  the therapy room. The local security guards or beat 
  cops may be alerted (MC Toolkit, page 148).
  If they do finally corner her, questioning the thera-
  pist directly proves tricky. Her custom move Hmmm 
  allows her to deflect questions and avoid being Investi-
  gated in a conversation. The protection provided by the 
  Hmmm technique goes deep into the therapist’s psyche, 
  and she can use this move even when being telepath-
  ically probed (her mind answers with a question). To 
  unlock the secrets in her mind, the crew must somehow 
  break it. If there are no mentalists, psychologists, or 
  psychics in the crew, finding one could be the subject 
  of another scene (see Saints and Psychics, page xx). 
  Furthermore, unless her mind is broken, the therapist 
  will not admit that Mending the Broken’s mission is to 
  hurt Rifts, and keeps excusing and explaining the orga-
  nizations’ positions; the truth can still be gleaned from 
  between her words, or lack thereof.
  The information below can also be obtained in 
  other ways: staking out and following the therapist, 
  breaking into her office, interviewing her past patients 
  or clients (see The Prison Visit sidebar), researching 
  Mending the Broken, etc.
  ABOUT MENDING THE BROKEN
  Mending the Broken is a therapist organiza-
  tion that seeks to influence Rifts. They claim 
  they want to help Rifts deal with their Rifthood 
  better.
  Officially, Mending the Broken “therapy” 
  is a form of “mirroring” that aims to show 
  the patient their life situation so they can 
  take responsibility over it. In actuality, this 
  twisted version of the technique only shows 
  the patient what is wrong, negative, or painful 
  about themselves and their Rifthood, causing 
  them to develop negative feelings towards their 
  Rifthood and driving them to take destructive 
  action towards themselves or other Rifts.
  The proponent of this theory is Dr. Esther 
  Monahan.
  ABOUT DR. ESTHER MONAHAN
  Dr. Monahan has been running the Municipal 
  Institute for the Criminally Insane (aka the 
  Asylum) for decades, and should be well above 
  ninety by now, but she never retired. She is 
  single and childless by choice, having dedicat-
  ed her life to her work.
  
  64   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  Research may yield some of her published 
  studies on the subject of Rifthood, a subject 
  she became passionate about only in recent 
  years. Treat a Rift who spends time reading 
  these publications as someone who has been to 
  a session with a Mending the Broken therapist, 
  activating Dark Thoughts.
  Due to her age, many of her records, such as 
  a birth certificate, are not in the system. Fur-
  ther information may be available (physically 
  or digitally) from the City’s Historical Society.
  ABOUT THE THERAPIST
  The therapist keeps files on her former pa-
  tients on a computer or in a file cabinet. The 
  records are consistent with what the crew al-
  ready knows about the victim(s), but studying 
  them also divulges something about the thera-
  pist’s disposition (see the clues below). This is 
  also a great way to reveal that another NPC (or 
  PC) is a victim of Mending the Broken, such as 
  Ruben Stone (Golem Gone Wrong).
  The therapist serves as a senior Mending the 
  Broken member or reports to senior members 
  at a weekly supervision meeting at the Old 
  Quarter University (or, if you wish to skip this 
  scene, directly at the Asylum).
  Probing the therapist’s psyche with mythical 
  means will reveal a deep-rooted hatred to-
  wards Rifthood itself and a firm belief that all 
  Rifts without exception are a perversion.
  Beyond the Mist, there is a symbolic glass 
  shard in the therapist’s frozen heart. It can be 
  traced back to the supervision meeting or the 
  Asylum.
  MENDING THE BROKEN THERAPIST yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 2  /  BREAK MIND 4  /  EXPOSE 4
  • Dark Thoughts: When you’ve had the time to con-
  sider everything you’ve talked about with the Ther-
  apist, take self-doubt-1 or bad-feeling-1 (each time 
  this move affects the same target, regardless of its 
  source, increase the tier of its status by one for that 
  target to anxious-2, despaired-3, self-hating-4, etc.).
  • Hmmm: When you Investigate a Therapist by ask-
  ing her questions or when you get aggressive with 
  her, she first gives you self-doubt-2 by humming and 
  asking a question, such as:
   » Hmmm. Why do you feel aggression is needed here?
   » Hmmm. Is this about me, or your father/mother?
   » Hmmm. Where does this need to know comes 
  from, do you think?
  • Sublimation Techniques: When the Therapist takes 
  a mental or emotional status, reduce its tier by 1.
  • Breathe Again: When exposed is maxed out, the 
  Therapist cannot use Dark Thoughts again on 
  anyone to whom she was exposed. When break mind 
  is maxed out, the Therapist cannot activate Hmmm 
  or Sublimation Techniques.
   
  • Raise poignant questions that make you doubt 
  yourself or feel bad about yourself (self-doubt or 
  bad-feeling, tier 1 or 2 as she sees fit)
  • Call security (Create a new Danger: Beat Cops / 
  Security Guards, MC Toolkit, page 148) and later, her 
  lawyer (Corporate Lawyer, MC Toolkit, page 142)
  • Analyze someone, accurately deducing their emo-
  tional situation (vulnerable-1)
  • Hypnotize someone, first holding their attention 
  and then slipping them subconscious commands 
  (hypnotized-2)
  • Escape through a back door (Deny Them Some-
  thing They Want)
   
  • Listen carefully to what you have to say
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  65 
  THE PRISON VISIT
  While gathering information about Mending the 
  Broken, the crew may need to compare notes with 
  some of their former enemies and Mending the 
  Broken victims, such as jazz singer Martha Ellis 
  (the Banshee) or mad scientist Maximillian Drake 
  (Hephaestus), or any other victim of the therapist 
  organization. For example, one of their enemies or 
  Nemeses could be found in one of the therapists’ 
  records, forcing them into an uneasy meeting.
  Depending on how things ended in their previous 
  encounters, the crew’s enemy may be in a physi-
  cal prison or in a spiritual one (such as Hell or the 
  Otherworld), and likely still holds a grudge for the 
  crew. Having had some time to think, away from the 
  malign influence of Mending the Broken, the enemy 
  could be softened or lonely, and ready to talk.
  The crew’s meeting with their old enemy could pro-
  vide a chance for the PCs to scratch at old wounds, 
  express their feelings, hash things out, and/or 
  discover a new perspective about past events. This 
  should be played as a roleplaying opportunity rather 
  than a challenge, so the rules are not required.
  Past enemies committed to the Asylum could 
  pose a great opportunity for a visit that starts with 
  roleplaying and ends with investigation or action, 
  but such NPCs remain deeply under the influence of 
  Mending the Broken.
   SUPERVISION MEETING
  The clickety-clack of fastidious shoes 
  on the marble floors echoes throughout 
  these grand halls, giving you a mild bout 
  of anxiety. You climb a spacious mar-
  ble staircase with a burgundy carpet to a 
  landing where several hallways meet. Fi-
  nally, opening a tall wooden double door, 
  carved with decorative engravings, you 
  interrupt a circle of distinguished, mid-
  dle-aged individuals deep in conversation. 
  They all hush at once, their eyes fixed on 
  you. “Can we help you?”
  Once a week, Dr. Selma Perrin and Dr. Archibald 
  Tennant (or any other therapists you dub as the el-
  ders) host a Mending the Broken supervision meeting 
  where therapists share their progress with their Rift 
  cases and receive advice from more experienced prac-
  titioners. The meeting takes place at the Old Quarter 
  University, in the never-ending ornate marble halls of 
  the Department of the Psyche.
  The crew may wish to come here for more answers, if 
  they didn’t get enough out of the first therapist they 
  encountered. They may also wish to execute a raid and 
  capture all or most of Mending the Broken’s therapists.
  Facing a handful (size factor 1) or a dozen (size factor 
  2) of Touched psychologists and psychiatrists may 
  sound easy, but it won’t be. The therapists can gang 
  up on one or two weak crew members and tear them 
  to pieces, analyzing their every weakness and laying 
  bare their secret pain (or close enough), even if the PCs 
  don’t speak it. Furthermore, the supervision group, 
  who often interview emotionally-volatile subjects here, 
  has a team of psychiatric nurses on standby in the 
  next room that can be summoned as soon as things get 
  out of hand (if you want to reduce the challenge for the 
  crew, Give Them A Fair Warning and let them try to 
  prevent the therapists from buzzing the nurses in).
  The therapist group members know the same clues 
  described under Mending the Broken Private Clinic, 
  which ultimately point to Dr. Monahan and the Asy-
  lum. However, if the crew manages to overcome the 
  group or secure one of the elders, you can reward them 
  with additional clues. If the crew are overpowered by 
  the therapists and nurses, they wake up as patients 
  confined to a padded room in the basement of the Asy-
  lum (see there, under Solitary Confinement).
  Some of the most experienced Mending the 
  Broken therapists know Dr. Monahan person-
  ally and actually helped formulate her theory. 
  The others have never met this genius, who 
  works behind closed doors at the Asylum.
  Breaking and then deeply probing the mind 
  of a senior therapist could reveal a fact that 
  the therapist is violently trying to repress: Dr. 
  Esther Monahan has been dead for years.
  
  66   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  ASYLUM NURSES yyy
  Mending the Broken nurses are especially tall and 
  muscular individuals, wearing the white uniforms 
  of the Municipal Institute for the Criminally Insane. 
  They don’t display any bedside manners or nursing 
  training; it almost seems like they are hired thugs 
  who recite prescripted nurses’ lines.
  Consider increasing the size factor of this Danger to 2 
  if the crew has more than four members or if many of 
  its members are strong combatants.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  CONVINCE 5
  • Collective: This collective has a few members and a 
  size factor of 1.
  • Mean: When the Nurse takes a social or emotional sta-
  tus that doesn’t make her meaner, reduce its tier by 1.
  • Abnormally Strong: When the Nurse takes a phys-
  ical harm or subdual status that can be avoided with 
  sheer strength or stamina, reduce its tier by 1.
  • It’s Nap Time: Once per scene per size factor, as a 
  hard move, one Nurse produces a single-shot tran-
  quilizer gun and fires it at an unruly patient, giving 
  them sedated-4.
   
  • Restrain manually or with a straight jacket (re-
  strained-3)
  • Inject a restrained patient with a powerful sedative 
  (convert a restrained status to sedated, keeping the 
  same tier)
  • Ignore a patient’s pleas (remove 2 tiers from any 
  convincing statuses)
   
  • Warn a patient to behave themselves, or else
  • Stand next to a restrained patient and pull out a 
  syringe, squirting some liquid out of it
   GOLEM GONE WRONG
  A panicked flux of bodies scuttles out of 
  the front doors of the department store, 
  screaming. Many of them, especially those 
  in the back, are covered with a thick lay-
  er of grey-brown mud. As they clear the 
  entrance, you spot a crawling puddle of 
  mud flowing down the aisles inside, knock-
  ing over mannequins and clothing racks 
  that sink into the floor like it was quick-
  sand. Over the commotion, you hear the 
  building screech and moan, and notice sev-
  eral cracks along the gable that are slow-
  ly expanding. You wonder what could cause 
  such devastation, when another scream is 
  heard from inside.
  Another victim of Mending the Broken, Ruben Stone 
  (The Golem of Prague), was overwhelmed by depres-
  sion and despair while at a department store in a mall. 
  His emotional state triggered his powers, and now he 
  is slowly turning the foundations of the mall into the 
  same material he’s made of: mud. Ruben is only half-
  aware of the impending implications of his actions, and 
  the half that is aware is so despaired, he’s willing to go 
  with the mall.
  If you’re running the game as a one-shot, this scene 
  provides the crew with a second Mending the Broken 
  victim. Otherwise, you can use it as an action scene to 
  up the cinematic beat when things are getting slow.
  The crew can be alerted to the scene by someone who 
  knows their reputation, a member of the supporting 
  cast caught in the mall, the police (possibly officers 
  Das and Quinn), or someone who knows Ruben. Crew 
  members could also coincidentally be in the mall when 
  the mayhem ensues.
  THE SITUATION AT HAND
  • Ruben Stone is sitting in what was once the de-
  partment store’s changing booths, oozing copious 
  amounts of magical gray-brown mud that slowly 
  turns inanimate matter to similar non-magical mud 
  (stone and sediments turn faster, followed by com-
  mon ores like iron and copper; dead organic matter, 
  like wood and clothing, takes a long time to decom-
  pose). The non-magical mud, however, facilitates the 
  flow of the magical stuff. Sleepers think Ruben is the 
  site of a burst sewer or cement pipe (the kind used by 
  builders) and only alert Sleepers notice a person in 
  the gush, who they think is trying to fix it.
  • There are many helpless bystanders still in the 
  mall, whether they are unaware of what’s happening, 
  were tangled or injured during the scurry out, or are 
  looking for someone or something.
  • The mud had eaten out the floors in places, creating 
  pools of sticky mud that functions like quicksand. 
  In other places, it has eaten at the foundations of 
  the mall building, making them sink unevenly, which 
  causes the entire structure to crack and break. 
  If the mud does not remit, the mall will collapse on 
  everyone still inside.
  Ruben Stone is the mall’s security guard. This 
  can be revealed by finding a witness who saw 
  Ruben entering the store, or by groping Ru-
  ben’s clothes through the mud and finding his 
  badge.
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  67 
  Ruben Stone is the mall’s security guard. This 
  can be revealed by finding a witness who saw 
  Ruben entering the store, or by groping Ru-
  ben’s clothes through the mud and finding his 
  badge.
  Ruben Stone was Dr. Tracy Wong’s patient, 
  as can be deduced from his phone calls log, the 
  therapist’s patient files, or his employee file in 
  the security company he works for.
  He is struggling with extreme depression and 
  suicidal thoughts, which is making his powers 
  act up, although he’s too dead inside to care.
  Beyond the Mist, the Golem of Prague has 
  three glowing Hebrew letters on his forehead, 
  תמא (e'met), meaning ‘truth’, but the rightmost 
  letter is fading, ultimately leaving just תמ 
  (met), meaning ‘dead’. Within the story of the 
  Golem, when it died, it turned from its human 
  form back to the mud it was made of.
  Beyond the Mist, also within the story of the 
  Golem, it was originally created by the Ma-
  haral of Prague to protect his community. This 
  fact can be linked to Ruben’s occupation and 
  may serve as a motivation to help him emerge 
  from his depression.
  If he is saved and probed about his sessions 
  with Dr. Tracy Wong, Ruben will recognize 
  that she deepened his depression by highlight-
  ing everything that went wrong with his life.
  MUDSLIDE MALL yyy
  COLLAPSE 4  /  CLEAR 5  /  HURT RUBEN 4  /  HELP 
  RUBEN 4
  • Regular Hero: For every person you get to safety 
  out of the Mudslide Mall, give the Mudslide Mall 
  cleared-1. When clear maxes out, there are no more 
  bystanders in the mall.
  • Collapse: When the collapse spectrum is maxed 
  out, the building collapses and everyone inside 
  takes buried-by-debris-5.
  • Suicidal: When you first speak to Ruben, give him 
  suicidal-4.
  • Made of Mud: When Ruben takes a physical harm 
  or subdual status that wouldn’t pulverize or contain 
  mud, reduce its tier by 3.
  • Mud Bomb: When hurt-Ruben maxes out, if he dies, 
  he explodes and Mudslide Mall takes collapse-3.
  • Cover someone in thick, heavy mud, or drag them 
  down into the puddle (stuck-in-mud-3)
  • Ruben strikes someone who is upsetting him, 
  throwing them back (winded-3) or sprays them with 
  mud (stuck-in-mud-3)
  • Ruben gets angry, erupting and spraying mud 
  everywhere (giving everyone around stuck-in-mud-3 
  and the Mudslide Mall collapse-1)
  • Cracks open on the supporting walls and ceiling 
  (Mudslide Mall takes collapse-2)
  • Reveal a new bystander who is stuck, injured, lost, 
  panicked, stealing, curious, etc.
  • Block the path with a new mudslide
  
  68   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  SAINTS AND PSYCHICS
  With so much mental and emotional energy going 
  around, the crew may wish to enlist other Rifts or 
  Sleeper professionals to help bear the psychic load. 
  Here are a few options.
  First, not all City therapists are evil Mending the 
  Broken psychos. Geraldine Granger (Sleeper) is one of 
  many kind-hearted mental health professionals who 
  truly want to help their clients. Geraldine knows all 
  about trauma and how to emerge from it, and she has 
  taken this journey both personally and as a guide many 
  times. If they can trust her, Rifts will feel she can relate 
  to them even without seeing their powers because ulti-
  mately their problems are human problems. 
  The challenge lies in convincing Geraldine that Mend-
  ing the Broken are villainous; Geraldine is more likely 
  to want to evaluate what’s wrong with the PCs lives 
  that makes them dream up imaginary psycho-villains.
  GERALDINE GRANGER
  Ally
  IDENTITY
  I’m listening.
  POWER TAGS
  great listener, trained psychologist, social worker, 
  caring for others, assertive words, positive affirmation, 
  City hospital patient database, private clinic, medical 
  services in the City, motivated by love
  WEAKNESS TAGS
  interrupt aggression, client confidentiality, cannot see 
  the supernatural, violent clients
  THEME IMPROVEMENT
   Confidant: When you spend downtime working 
  out your issues with Geraldine, if you are preparing 
  for your next activity, you get 5 Juice instead of 3; 
  if you are recovering from past activity, remove all 
  non-permanent psychological statuses.
  If the crew is looking for a Rift psychic powerhouse, 
  their best bet is with Rifts who work for the benign 
  Avatar Ganesha and her Thousand Helping Hands (see 
  Shadows & Showdowns). However, due to the nature 
  of this story arc, explained under Payne and Other 
  Avatars (page XX), Ganesha and her Rifts may be pre-
  vented from helping. That said, Ganesha and most of 
  her Rifts are helpful renegades by nature, and refusing 
  to give help would put them in a precarious position 
  with their Mythos. They will most likely try to wriggle 
  out of helping, but give in and play along if the crew is 
  persistent.
  Another alternative is the mystic-Rift-for-hire known 
  as the Thaumaturge (Gregori Rasputin, personal heal-
  er and mystic of the last tsar family of Russia), easily 
  reachable by streetwise Rifts who frequent the Indus-
  trial Zone. The Thaumaturge boasts impressive psychic 
  powers; he manipulates minds as deftly as he does 
  knives, and can heal, protect, deep probe, shut down, 
  and even wipe out multiple minds around him. 
  The oddball mystic-in-a-trenchcoat doesn’t work for 
  free. He will ask for a hefty sum, or a peculiar Relic, for 
  his services. Another issue is his questionable alle-
  giance; he’s not below saving his own skin and leaving 
  the crew to die if things get too dangerous.
  THE THAUMATURGE
  Ally
  IDENTITY
  Keep the money coming, and I’ll keep the bad dreams 
  away.
  POWER TAGS
  a powerful psychic, knife juggling, heal psychic trauma, 
  always gets paid, crush one’s mind, protective psychic 
  barrier, read thoughts and memories, trench coat, 
  underworld privateer, hypnotic gaze
  WEAKNESS TAGS
  turns his powers against me, this is above my pay-
  grade, disputable loyalties, displeased past clients
  THEME IMPROVEMENT
   Pay Up: Spend 2 points of Juice representing pay-
  ment to the Thaumaturge to recover all burnt tags 
  in this theme. Every time you activate this improve-
  ment, increase the cost by 1. 
   Psychic Powerhouse: When you Change the 
  Game with tags from this theme, your effect is auto-
  matically scaled up once.
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  69 
  DEPTH 2:  
  COOL RECEPTION
   THE ASYLUM
  As you ascend up the hill, the weather 
  takes a turn for the worse. Clouds hud-
  dle together like black sheep, and it gets 
  cold. Soon, the rain turns to slush, and 
  then to snowflakes, softly piling on your 
  car. Up above, between the ever-greens, 
  you see a menacing old manor, buried un-
  der the snow. As you approach the Munic-
  ipal Institute for the Criminally Insane, 
  lightning crackles behind it, lighting it 
  up like a fairytale ice castle.
  The Municipal Institute for the Criminally Insane, also 
  simply known as the Asylum, is a three-story red brick 
  building set on an isolated, wooded hill on the out-
  skirts of town, overlooking a peaceful suburb. As fitting 
  for her ‘palace’, the Asylum and everyone in it serve the 
  Snow Queen, Dr. Krystal Knight. Furthermore, those 
  who approach the Asylum find it’s snowing there, 
  although it may not look so from afar.
  The Asylum can be the setting for many different types 
  of scenes: the crew may come here to investigate, 
  apprehend Mending the Broken practitioners, mount a 
  heist to extract someone or find evidence, wake up as 
  locked-up patients, and so on.
  ARRIVING AT THE ASYLUM
  As a cinematic device, you can establish an atmosphere 
  of dread by causing the crew to crash or almost crash 
  their vehicle (or another mode of transportation) on 
  the way to the Asylum. Describe the car skidding on 
  black ice or a slippery road towards a tall and hardy 
  fir tree. The driver or other PCs can Take the Risk 
  to avoid an accident. If the car does crash, broken ice 
  shards and blood on the snow make for great visual 
  motifs. Either way, the PCs’ arrival at the Asylum starts 
  with an air of danger.
  THE PERIMETER
  The Asylum, designed to hold the “criminally insane”, 
  is effectively a prison. It is surrounded by a tall brick 
  wall topped with barbed wire with a single wrought-
  iron gate at the front and a small locked door in the 
  back by the woods. There are security cameras on the 
  perimeter wall. Behind it stretches a barren yard of 
  brown, wilted grass, covered in frost and snow.
  All entrances have sally ports (double door airlocks) 
  with cameras; anyone crossing must be buzzed in or 
  out remotely from the guard room. Forcing the doors 
  open raises the alarm but otherwise security systems 
  are outdated. PCs can cross these obstacles with a se-
  ries of Investigate, Sneak Around, and Take the Risk 
  moves. There are no security guards patrolling out in 
  the yard, but they do patrol inside (use the Asylum 
  Nurse Danger on page XX for both nurses and guards).
  THE FLOORPLAN
  The asylum building is U-shaped, with a smaller main 
  building at the center and two wings stretching in-
  wards along the sides of the perimeter.
  The main building holds the reception, administra-
  tive offices, guard barracks, and the guard room. The 
  security guards monitor the perimeter of the asylum, 
  and only deal with the patients in case one of them 
  tries to escape.
  The South Wing holds most of the miserable patients 
  who call this place a home, many of whom are far from 
  criminally-minded and suffering from mental health 
  conditions far worse than they had when they first ar-
  rived. Patients are kept in rooms that were once white, 
  clean, and pretty, designed not to look like the prison 
  cells they essentially are; the lock to each room’s door 
  is electrically controlled via the wing’s nurses room. 
  Otherwise, movement within this ward is less restrict-
  ed than elsewhere, but there are watchful-1 nurses 
  everywhere.
  The North Wing holds the hospital ward where ther-
  apeutic experimentation is conducted, and where the 
  most problematic cases are held in solitary confine-
  ment in the basement. This is also where the session 
  rooms are located, where Mending the Broken activity 
  takes place. The third, middle floor of this wing is 
  dedicated to the “Special” Ward, where the head of the 
  facility, Dr. Esther Monahan (aka Dr. Krystal Knight), 
  usually works.
  THE PATIENTS, THE STAFF, AND DR. MONAHAN
  The Asylum is manned by a receptionist, guards, 
  nurses, and the Mending the Broken psychiatrists and 
  psychologists. Everyone who works or is hospitalized at 
  the asylum knows Dr. Esther Monahan is the head of 
  the institute and chief psychiatrist here and, if Inves-
  tigated, are first revealed to be scared-to-death-3 of 
  her (limiting what the PCs can glean from them). When 
  asked to identify the head of the institute, they will 
  give conflicting reports:
  
  70   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  • Some have never seen her.
  • Some newly-hired staff or new patients who have seen 
  Dr. Knight are sure she is Dr. Monahan. They don’t 
  know her age, but estimate she’s in her late 40s.
  • Others, who worked or lived there longer, but have 
  never seen Dr. Knight, think Dr. Monahan must look 
  like an elderly woman close to a hundred years old 
  (how the real Dr. Monahan would look like today), 
  who nevertheless keeps working vigorously.
  • Those who know the full story (mostly Mending the 
  Broken elders) refer to Krystal Knight as Dr. Monah-
  an, but lie about her identity to help cover it up and 
  cover their hinds.
  • An old patient suffering from a delusion-inducing 
  condition may be telling the truth, but embellishes 
  the story to the point of losing credibility (I think 
  she’s a time traveller!).
  Dr. Monahan spends most of her time in the 
  Special Ward, on the third floor of the North 
  Wing. In fact, no one in the Asylum ever sees 
  her coming or going.
  SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 
  Dr. Knight doesn’t usually enjoy just killing her 
  enemies; she prefers to infect them with self- or 
  Rift-hatred and see how much damage they can 
  do. If any PCs and/or NPCs are hospitalized, they wake 
  up in the basement of the North Wing in separate but 
  adjacent padded solitary confinement cells, where the 
  temperature is slightly below freezing (giving them 
  freezing-1 every hour they spend there from the mo-
  ment they awaken). Particularly difficult patients find 
  themselves in a straitjacket (restrained-3), while those 
  who were sedated feel woozy-1 or have a headache-1. 
  Furthermore, all patients have no-legal-rights-5. They 
  cannot see or hear one another through the walls, ex-
  cept when the shutter on the door is open from outside 
  the cell. The cells have armored doors that are covered 
  with strange, reflective ice that can cause magic and 
  energy to rebound.
  The door to the last cell in the block is com-
  pletely frozen, encased in a block of ice. If it 
  can be opened, the frozen and mutilated body 
  of the real Dr. Monahan can be found inside. 
  Forensic analysis will show she died years ago.
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  71 
  THE OLD “PRISONER IN THE NEXT CELL” PLOY
  Krystal Knight may try to deceive the crew by 
  pretending to be an abused patient (it shouldn’t 
  be hard; she was one for many many years). She 
  locks herself up in a solitary confinement cell next 
  to them, leaving the shutter open so they can hear 
  her weep. As they escape, she begs them to set her 
  free; if they do, she pretends to be their ally or guide. 
  She presents herself by her real name. As a part of 
  her cover story, she may also inadvertently reveal 
  some accurate information about her past.
  Krystal Knight will try to get the crew to open up 
  and expose their hurts, gripes, and anger to her so 
  she can later fan them. As the crew spends more 
  and more time with her, she insidiously penetrates 
  their minds; for every scene or downtime in her 
  presence, choose one PC present and activate the 
  Dark Thoughts custom move against them (see 
  Mending the Broken Therapist, page XX).
  THE PATIENT FILES 
  Accessing the Asylum file system, whether it is a cabi-
  net or a hard drive, reveals the patient files.
  Every victim (“patient”) of Mending the Bro-
  ken is recorded here, including Martha Ellis 
  (Killing Her Softly), Maximillian Drake (Carnival 
  of Machines), Felicia Pema Jones, Ruben Stone, 
  and any other character, PC or NPC, who came 
  in contact with the organization. The files con-
  tain an analysis of the Rift’s life, Mythos, and 
  abilities.
  Dr. Krystal Knight’s file is here, but it’s bur-
  ied deep. It contains a picture of the woman 
  who many know today as Dr. Esther Monahan. 
  According to the file, Dr. Knight was admitted 
  by Dr. Monahan almost a century ago (about 
  80 years) after she had a “nervous breakdown”. 
  The file is overflowing with reports of the long 
  list of forced treatments she’s been through, 
  including experimental psychoactive drugs, 
  shock therapy, and a failed lobotomy.
  Dr. Krystal Knight’s file also contains a single 
  document indicating she was and remains the 
  majority shareholder of Aurora Glassworks, a 
  glass manufacturer.
  
  72   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  GRAHAM, THE HELP BOT
  If you’re playing in the Neon Noir (80s) or Dreary 
  Present, your crew may be accessing the Historical 
  Society’s database virtually. In this case, Graham is 
  a bot or a virtual assistant which activates when a 
  PC logs into the database. Any abilities he has apply 
  online and he can also crash any masking software 
  a hacker is using as a hard move (exposed-3). The 
  Gatekeeper Seal Squad he calls shows up at the 
  hacker’s physical location(s).
  PERTINENT HISTORICAL INFORMATION
  According to records, Dr. Monahan is 102 
  years old. There is only one other person relat-
  ed to the Asylum who is as old as Dr. Monahan: 
  a patient named Krystal Knight. There is no 
  death certificate for either of the ladies. There 
  is no evidence suggestive of tampering.
  Newspaper clippings from the early roaring 
  years of the City show that, before being hos-
  pitalized, Dr. Krystal Knight was a successful 
  psychiatrist for the rich-and-famous, who as-
  pired to use therapy as a way to heal the City’s 
  social troubles.
  Krystal Knight’s career ended when she had a 
  “nervous breakdown” and was committed to 
  the Asylum. That’s the last the world has heard 
  of her. There’s a newspaper picture of her lav-
  ish bathroom on the day she was committed, 
  showing a shattered mirror on the floor.
  Krystal Knight was and remains the majori-
  ty shareholder of Aurora Glassworks, a glass 
  manufacturer. Financial papers show she 
  received her shares as “payment for services 
  rendered” to Corbin Payne, the City’s legend-
  ary construction tycoon.
  If you are running Percival as an overarching 
  case and the crew started the case, they may 
  find information here that corresponds to the 
  clues in whatever act they are in at the mo-
  ment, especially newspaper clips about Corbin 
  Payne.
   THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
  Graham, a “fellow” in a three-piece suit 
  and a monocle, peers at you from over his 
  heavy, lacquered oak receptionist podium 
  and welcomes you to the City’s Historical 
  Society. You take a quick glance around: 
  the place looks like a labyrinthian li-
  brary, all decked out in traditional dark 
  wood furniture and red velvet upholstery. 
  The air here reeks of old books and moth-
  balls. The strange thing is there’s really 
  no one around but Graham. 
  The City’s Historical Society naturally resides in a fine 
  antique building in one of the Old Quarter’s less-
  er-known cobbled side streets. With its many books, 
  microfilms, newspaper archives, and more, it holds 
  vast information about the last century in the history 
  of the City; anything before that slides into the realm 
  of Mythos and while this library holds texts from that 
  era, they get fuzzier and stranger the further back they 
  go. The crew may arrive here at different stages of the 
  investigation, looking for clues about Dr. Monahan, Dr. 
  Knight, or someone else.
  The Historical Society is a Gatekeeper honeytrap 
  for curious Rifts. Sleepers don’t care about the factual 
  past; they go with the version that works for them. 
  Even Sleeper historians fiddle around with made-up 
  accounts concocted by the Mist. Someone who tru-
  ly wants to dig up the truth can only be a Rift, and a 
  dangerous one at that. Ideally, the Gatekeepers would 
  prefer to erase all of the information here perma-
  nently. However, their directive is to catch Rifts first, 
  destroy information about the true past second, and to 
  catch Rifts they need a bank of true knowledge to lure 
  them with (they tried a trap with fake knowledge and 
  it didn’t work; Rifts’ destinies and divinatory powers 
  simply didn’t point them there).
  The person posing as Graham (not his real name), the 
  representative and receptionist in the dress coat, is in 
  fact the Gatekeeper Sentry stationed here. His job is to 
  gauge whether visitors are stray Sleepers or Rifts and, in 
  the case of the latter, call in a squad to seal them. Once 
  a PC enters the building, it’s a question of who identifies 
  who first. As soon as a crew member spends a Clue on a 
  question too deep, it’s shrouding time.
  Whether or not the crew has a fight with the Gate-
  keepers, if they get away with any information on this 
  occasion, Gatekeeper Command will have quadrupled 
  the resources guarding the Historical Society, eliminat-
  ing any chance of any further information leaks, unless 
  the crew mounts a truly epic heist.
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  73 
  GRAHAM (GATEKEEPER SENTRY) yyy
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4
  • Sentry: Once per scene, when you first try to Con-
  vince or Sneak Around Graham, give him alert-2.
  • Wards of Revelation: When you try to use illusory, 
  deceptive, or mind-altering Mythos powers around 
  Graham, they fizzle out. You cannot invoke such tags 
  and all existing effects are stripped away.
  • Creepy Feeling: Whenever you try to Investigate to 
  learn more about Graham, you get a strange feeling 
  that he is impenetrable. Graham takes mysterious-2. 
  This status cannot exceed tier 4.
  • Explosive Shrouding Ward: Once per scene, as an 
  intrusion, everyone around Graham takes oblivious-5. 
  At his option, he may flee the scene.
  GATEKEEPER SEALS yyyy
  Gatekeeper Seals are near enough the scariest threat a 
  Rift could face. Armed head to toe with anti-Mythos gear 
  and trained by the best, this superb tactical team eats 
  Rifts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  The Seals’ trench coats, jackets, or vests protect them 
  from most Mythos powers. Only the most powerful 
  Mythos attacks can overwhelm the intense Mist field 
  this armor generates and even then only momentarily 
  (unless a PC can somehow generate a permanent overload 
  status). Instead of worrying about shrouding individuals, 
  each team usually carries at least one portable shroud-
  ing beacon to continuously wipe out the memories of all 
  around. They also carry powerful sealing wards that can 
  keep a defeated target out of trouble in the future. At 
  your option, a squad can also combine their forces to seal 
  Rifts permanently, turning them to Sleepers.
  HURT OR SUBDUE 4  /  OVERLOAD 6
  • Collective: This collective has a few members and a 
  size factor of 1.
  • Deploy: When Gatekeeper Seals enter the scene, give 
  them tactical-cover-2.
  • Mythosproof Garment:
   » Passive: When the Gatekeeper Seal takes a status 
  imposed by a Mythos power, replace its tag with 
  overload.
   » Active: As an intrusion, the Gatekeeper Seal can 
  take an overload status of any tier to give someone 
  activating Mythos powers against her a temporary 
  depowered status of the same tier.
   » Recharge: As a soft move (after a player move), the 
  Gatekeeper Seal removes all non-permanent overload 
  statuses.
   » Overloaded: When overload:6 is maxed out, the 
  coat’s Passive and Active defenses fail and can’t 
  be used momentarily. After the next player move, 
  remove all non-permanent overload statuses.
  • Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: When you engage 
  in close quarters combat with a Gatekeeper Seal, she 
  first hits you with one of her hard moves.
  • Portable Shrouding Beacon: As a soft move, all Rifts 
  around the Gatekeeper Seal take forgetting-1 and all 
  Sleepers and Rifts with no Mythos powers left take 
  oblivious-5.
  • Military Discipline: When a Gatekeeper Seal takes a 
  social or emotional status, reduce its tier by 2.
   
  • Fire a hail of anti-Mythos rounds or wards (zapped-3; 
  after Facing Danger, burn one Mythos tag for each 
  remaining tier of zapped and remove the status)
  • Switch to standard ammo, aiming to injure or kill (gun-
  shot-wound-3)
  • Use combat training to physically restrain or hurt a tar-
  get (broken-arm-3 or restrained-3) or slap a shrouding 
  ward on them (vague-memories-3)
  • Slap a Mist-seal on a defeated Rift (give sealed-5 to a 
  Rift who has a tier-5 combat status or no remaining 
  unburnt Mythos tags)
  • Regroup (remove up to 3 tiers of negative tactical status-
  es or give themselves a tier-2 tactical advantage status) 
  or call backup (increase its size factor by 1)
  • Retreat into the Mist (Deny Them Something They 
  Want)
   
  • Storm their targets out of a billowing wisp of Mist
  • Draw a glowing magical ward with their fingers
  • Take aim with a rune-inscribed assault rifle or shotgun
  • Defensive Shrouding: Once per scene, when you 
  attempt to influence Graham with Mythos powers, 
  the MC first burns two power tags you used in your 
  attack.
   
  • Regain his alertness (giving himself alert-2)
  • Call in a Gatekeeper Seals squad (create a new Dan-
  ger)
  • Shroud someone (vague-memories-3 or burn two 
  Mythos tags)
  • Fire a standard-issue pistol (gunshot-wound-3) or use 
  basic martial arts (hold-down-2 or bruise-2)
   
  • Smile wryly when someone tries to deceive him using 
  Mythos powers and fails
  • Calmly unbutton his cuffs and roll up his sleeves, 
  revealing Gatekeeper tattoos
  
  74   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  DEPTH 3:  
  THROWING STONES  
  AT A GLASS HOUSE
   AURORA GLASSWORKS
  Aurora Glassworks is the missing link between the 
  Asylum and Dr. Krystal Knight’s greater plot: to use the 
  dark magic she instilled in windows all over the City in 
  order to cover it in an emotional winter. The company 
  can be investigated in multiple locations: online, at 
  the City’s company registry, at their offices, employees’ 
  homes, etc.
  Aurora Glassworks is the only manufacturer of 
  construction glass in the City – it makes all the 
  window panes in the City.
  The company’s official stance on its major 
  shareholder, Dr. Krystal Knight, is that they 
  assume she died decades ago in the Asylum. 
  They blame the Asylum’s staff’s incompeten-
  cy and messy paperwork, possibly even cor-
  ruption, for the City not having her declared 
  officially dead. The company has been in a 
  long legal battle over this, but since most of its 
  executives have a clear conflict of interest, it 
  seems futile.
  If someone investigates the company’s facto-
  ries beyond the Mist, they can find a dormant 
  trace of the Devil’s Mirror in every window 
  pane they produce. Further investigation can 
  reveal the same dormant trace in every glass 
  pane in the City.
  An elderly retired company executive can 
  vaguely recount the day the shards of Krystal 
  Knight’s mirror were brought to the factory for 
  melting. He recalls the air was tense, everyone 
  was nervous, and employees started fights for 
  no reason, breaking glass in the process (he 
  still has a scar). The incident was followed by 
  a wave of employees quitting, divorcing their 
  spouses, getting involved in violence, or taking 
  their own lives.
  Based on the above, it can be deduced that Dr. 
  Knight has some kind of dormant magic in 
  the glass distributed all over town and that 
  she intends to activate it. An engineer could 
  theorize she could do so by means of a massive 
  shockwave or precise sound waves.
  The retired executive or old papertrail could 
  point to the company’s original factory, which 
  today stands abandoned. If the PCs investigate 
  the location, they notice shady dealings around 
  it, but inside the place is empty, except for an 
  old, out-of-use furnace. See Aurora Glassworks 
  under The Furnace.
   THE “SPECIAL” WARD
  The deserted third floor is a bluish vi-
  sion of winter everlasting. All the win-
  dows here are broken, the shards of their 
  shattered panes piled beneath them. Snow 
  drifts inside, mounting in small banks 
  against the frozen walls of the corridors 
  and halls. There is a strange hush all 
  around, but then you hear the crackle of 
  glass breaking underfoot. A ghastly bare-
  foot patient in nothing but a gown wanders 
  by, mumbling secretly, ignoring you. You 
  catch a glimpse of yourself on a piece of 
  broken glass jutting dangerously from the 
  window frame, and you hate what you see.
  The “Special” Ward is Dr. Krystal Knight’s villain lair 
  and a potential location for a showdown, whether with 
  Knight or between the PCs. It is a place of hate, espe-
  cially self-hate that finds an outlet in hurting oneself 
  or others like oneself.
  The ward’s main line of defense are the Snow 
  Queen’s Snowflakes, a host of emotionally-explosive 
  patients scattered around the ward who function as 
  human landmines. Snowflakes are patients who started 
  out as hopeful, happy-go-lucky individuals but were 
  betrayed by their loved ones or the circumstances to 
  the ruination of their dreams, and ended up here (re-
  flecting Knight’s own journey). Adjust the Snowflakes’ 
  size factor to account for the crew’s firepower as well 
  as how many Snowflakes are in the scene: a hallway 
  could have just a scattering of them (size factor 1) or be 
  full of them (size factor 2), while taking on the entire 
  ward could mean fighting off a blizzard of Snowflakes 
  (size factor 3).
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  75 
  Unless the crew intentionally cuts through to avoid the 
  effect, spending time in the ward activates the custom 
  move Dark Thoughts (see Mending the Broken Ther-
  apist Danger profile, page XX). As they walk through 
  the snowscape, PCs and their allies see themselves and 
  those close to them reflected in ice and glass, but the 
  images show them as despicable, pathetic, or malin-
  tending; only that which arouses hate is seen. Secret 
  gripes, hidden rivalries, and old grudges surface in 
  their minds. Ask each player to describe what his 
  character sees and how it affects her. 
  As a cinematic instrument, when the crew approach-
  es her treatment room, Dr. Krystal Knight’s voice can 
  be heard all around laughing hysterically or speaking 
  maliciously to the PCs (even if she is with them, still 
  pretending to be their ally).
  Beyond the Mist, this place is perfusing 
  hatred. The Devil’s Mirror symbolism is all 
  around, originating from where Krystal Knight 
  stands, but also showing frozen shards in the 
  hearts of those affected by her hate. Vague 
  images from her life echo here: receiving the 
  mirror, succumbing to self-loathing, smashing 
  the mirror, and her tormenting treatments at 
  the hands of Dr. Monahan.
  SNOWFLAKES y+
  Snowflakes are Dr. Krystal Knight’s human mines. 
  They just stand there or pace like zombies, captives of 
  their own minds and ignoring each other, but when an 
  intruder invades their space they blow up.
  RESTRAIN, KNOCK OUT, OR KILL 2  /  DEFUSE 3
  • Collective: This Danger can have a size factor 
  ranging from 0 (one Snowflake) to 3 (an entire floor 
  swarming with Snowflakes). Every size factor incre-
  ment increases the Snowflakes’ Danger Rating by y.
  • High-strung: When a Snowflake enters the scene, give 
  her high-strung-3. This status cannot exceed tier 4.
   
  • Scream (deafened-2), causing a chain reaction and 
  setting off a group of Snowflakes one size factor 
  larger (Complicate Things, Bigtime)
  • Experience a fit of rage and attack someone 
  (knocked-back-2, pinned-2), freeze someone with 
  her gaze (frozen-2), or go through an emotional 
  meltdown (sad-2, guilty-2) 
   
  • Notice an intruder, eyes widening
  KRYSTAL KNIGHT’S TREATMENT ROOM
  At the center of the third floor lies the room where 
  Krystal Knight was “treated” for decades. This is where 
  she relived her failure with Corbin Payne and her fail-
  ure in life in general, as she saw it, over and over and 
  over again, her pain developing into self-hatred the 
  likes of which only the Devil’s Mirror can engender. 
  Unless otherwise established, Dr. Krystal Knight is 
  here, either curled up in a corner and mumbling or 
  surveying the messy room authoritatively, pretending 
  to be Dr. Monahan. The room is a converted surgery 
  theater, tiled top to bottom and containing various 
  outdated “therapeutic” devices, such as an electric 
  shock rig and a bed with restraining straps; however, 
  the machinery and the bed are overturned, the tiles are 
  cracked or missing, and the place looks like someone 
  had a fit of rage here, many years ago. There are blood 
  stains here and there, and icicles cover the ceiling. On 
  one wall, a wide spectator window stands shattered, 
  providing plenty of glass and reflective surfaces for 
  visual motifs.
  If the subject is broached wisely, Dr. Knight 
  may reveal her entire history. Criminal pro-
  filing or Mythos abilities that reveal the past 
  can glean most of the important details from 
  Krystal, the treatment room, her attachment to 
  it, etc.
  If you are running Percival as an overarching 
  case, Krystal will reveal information corre-
  sponding to her role as the first, second, or 
  third Grail Knight to be encountered.
  CLUES ABOUT THE DOCTOR’S SCHEME
  If Dr. Knight is present, she is stalling the 
  crew. She obviously wants to hold them up to 
  prevent them from interfering with another, 
  more important plan she has.
  A closer look at the room shows this isn’t just 
  the site of past trauma – it’s a lab. Dr. Krystal 
  Knight was building something here, but what-
  ever it is, it’s gone.
  The shattered wall tiles, the overturned equip-
  ment, and the broken spectator window are all 
  evidence that a high-power, spherical, sonic 
  blast was emitted in the room.
  
  76   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  KRYSTAL KNIGHT yyyyy
  Krystal Knight looks like a woman in her late 40s. 
  Depending on the circumstances of her meeting with 
  the crew, she may appear as a patient in a straitjacket, 
  dishevelled and maniacal, or she could be in the role of 
  the therapist, in a dignified suit (although in the case 
  of the latter, this facade may quickly crack to reveal the 
  former). Sometimes her gaze is empty and numb, as if 
  she had taken all the pain she could have; other times, 
  it is a squall of arctic hate for everyone and everything.
  Maximum Danger Rating: As a Grail Knight, Krystal 
  is a formidable foe. Consider providing the players with 
  enough warnings about her nature before they face her 
  or, alternatively, reducing her challenge level. If they 
  haven’t done so yet, the crew may recruit psychologists 
  and psychics to help confront her. Multiple encounters 
  may be required to defeat this villain, some of which 
  may end badly for the crew.
  Compelling to Hate: Knight’s hate statuses are com-
  pelling effects. When a PC takes such a status, ask the 
  player what it makes his character want to do (presum-
  ably hurt herself or others). Any action to the contrary 
  treats the hate status as a negative status. At tier-5 the 
  character is compelled to take such actions, and at tier-
  6 the character is permanently consumed by hatred, 
  transforming into a villain or taking immediate action 
  to kill herself (player’s choice).
  Healing Krystal Knight: As with all the failed Grail 
  Knights, Krystal Knight bears a deep emotional wound 
  inflicted by the Fisher King, called the Dolorous Stroke, 
  represented by a tier-6 status. Only a Stop.Holding.
  Back move may affect this status: releasing Dr. Knight 
  from the effects of the Dolorous Stroke for one scene 
  requires a no-return sacrifice, while curing such a wound 
  altogether requires the ultimate sacrifice. Optionally, 
  you may allow a Dynamite! Change the Game move to 
  reduce the tier-6 status for the duration of a scene. 
  Ultimately, the solution to the Krystal Knight problem 
  should be narrative. If you’re playing the story arc, it 
  should point to Corbin Payne – if he gave the wound, 
  maybe he can cure it; if he is cured, maybe Krystal 
  Knight will be cured too; etc. If the crew cannot heal 
  her or destroy her yet, they may wish to contain her in 
  her shattered state somehow.
  SHATTER 6  /  SEDATE –  /  HEAL –
  • The Dolorous Stroke: When anyone tries to heal or 
  comfort Krystal Knight for the first time in the series, 
  give her the-Dolorous-Stroke-6. 
  • Awaken the Demons: When you make a move 
  around Krystal Knight, she first makes you remember 
  everything you loathe about yourself (self-hatred-4).
  • Mentally Impenetrable: When Krystal Knight takes 
  a social or emotional status, reduce its tier by 3.  
  • Pick up the Pieces: When Krystal Knight’s shatter:6 
  maxes out, she shatters into a million glass pieces. 
  Giver her reform:4. She can take reforming-1 as a soft 
  move. When reform:4 maxes out, remove all statuses 
  from reform and shatter.
   
  • Touch someone where it hurts the most with just a 
  stare, a word, or a sound (self-hatred-4)
  • Urge someone to hurt another (give a PC 3 Hurt 
  points against a fellow PC or hateful-3)
  • Make a poignant psychological observation that dis-
  arms someone of their mental defenses or overload 
  psychic defenses until they shatter (burn up to two 
  relevant tags or reduce the tier of a relevant status by 
  two)
  • If she’s done with someone or is threatened by them, 
  freeze their blood in their veins (frozen-5) or use glass 
  manipulation to cut them up (fatal-cut-5)
   
  • Switch between weeping, laughing hysterically, and 
  delivering a furious diatribe
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  77 
  DEPTH 4:  
  SHOVELING THE 
  HEART’S SNOW
   A BLIZZARD OF HATE
  The ambulance gallops down the main 
  street, its sirens blaring to warn drivers 
  to get out of its way. You follow in hot 
  pursuit, watching anxiously as the vehicle 
  in front of you makes a sharp turn on its 
  two left wheels, back doors flapping and 
  flailing to reveal a nurse bracing anoth-
  er siren-like contraption. You floor it, 
  racing to cut the ambulance off. Whatever 
  this thing in the back does, you need to 
  stop it from reaching the City.
  Whether they realize it during Dr. Knight’s final dra-
  matic speech or through piecing the evidence together, 
  sooner or later the PCs learn that Knight’s plans are 
  much greater than Mending the Broken. Using the 
  magical shards of the Devil’s Mirror, the doctor has 
  planted the seeds of hatred all over town, in the win-
  dow panes manufactured by Aurora Glassworks over 
  the years. Next, she intends to set off a sonic “bomb” 
  that will shatter all of those windows, activating their 
  dormant component and covering the City with a snow 
  that freezes not just the bones, but also the heart.
  THE BOMB
  Recently perfected by the doctor, the sonic bomb is a 
  device that emits a high-pitched scream loaded with 
  so much hatred, that it can shatter all the windows in 
  town, assuming it is set off close enough to the City 
  center. The contraption is the size and shape of an 
  outdated manual siren, and, by the time the crew finds 
  out, it is already being loaded to the back of the Asy-
  lum’s “mental health services” ambulance by a couple 
  of nurses. The ambulance then races towards the City; 
  if it is not stopped, the bomb will go off by itself when 
  it arrives within earshot of a major plaza Downtown.
  A SECOND BOMB?
  Depending on the tone of your campaign and the 
  crew’s success and failure so far, you may want to 
  have Krystal Knight plant a second bomb (or dozens 
  more bombs) elsewhere in the City. Even if the 
  crew disables one bomb, they have to go to greater 
  lengths if they are to save the entire City.
  
  78   |   CITY OF MIST − NIGHTS OF PAYNE TOWN
  SCREAM BOMB AMBULANCE yyy
  DECOMMISSION 5  /  CATCH 5  /  GET IN POSITION 3
  • Vehicle: When the nurses driving the Scream 
  Bomb Ambulance disembark, create a new Danger: 
  Asylum Nurses. This happens automatically when 
  decommission is maxed out, but the Nurses take 
  hurt-1.
  • Scream Bomb: When get-in-position maxes out, the 
  scream bomb goes off. 
   
  • Draw nearer and nearer to its target (getting-clos-
  er-1)
  • Take sharp turns and on the sidewalk to shake off 
  pursuers (remove 2 tiers from statuses on the catch 
  spectrum)
  • Clear a path for itself in traffic (remove up to three 
  traffic related tags or tiers)
  • Once per scene, fire a rocket launcher at vehicles in 
  pursuit (blown-up-4, vehicles nearby take dented-
  and-bent-2)
   
  • Accelerate, racing toward the City center
  IF THE BOMB GOES OFF
  When the sonic device goes off, a painful and shrill 
  scream fills the air all over the City. Everyone in the 
  immediate vicinity of the ambulance takes deafened-5. 
  More importantly, all the glass on the street or on 
  building exteriors in the City shatters into microscopic 
  snowflake-shaped shards, showering the City with a 
  blizzard of glass-made snow. Amplified by the Devil’s 
  Mirror magic, this snow quickly covers the City; this 
  Devil snow is freezing cold, but being made of glass 
  it doesn’t melt (unless exposed to the extreme heat 
  required to melt glass). Furthermore, coming in contact 
  with the snow or even feeling the cold it causes dis-
  torts people’s perception so that they see only what is 
  negative and ugly around them. This affects everyone 
  in the City, not just Rifts.
  How this affects the City is up to you. Two options are:
  • Harsh Winter of the Heart: The blizzard has an 
  ongoing effect over the City that continues through 
  the next cases you play. City folk become increasing-
  ly hateful, distrustful, and negative, making it hard 
  to conduct business and have relationships. Murder 
  and suicide rates go through the roof. The City itself 
  takes a-blizzard-of-hate-1 which affects actions relat-
  ed to human interactions and mobility in the City. At 
  the end of every downtime, increase the tier by 1.
  • All-Out Dog-Eat-Dog Mayhem: The blizzard is a 
  one-shot event that threatens to destroy the City. 
  Anyone who comes in contact with the snow instant-
  ly becomes a hate-filled maniac (hateful-4). Untreat-
  ed extended exposure makes this hate all-consuming 
  (tier 5) and then permanent (tier 6). Some may take 
  to the streets to kill their fellow citizens before they 
  are killed, while others will seek shelter only to find 
  they have their own self-hatred to contend with. 
  Within days, perhaps even hours, the City’s social 
  structures collapse.
  The PCs can reduce or remove the status in certain areas 
  of the City with a Dynamite! Change The Game move 
  with the large-scale effect option, but removing it from 
  the entire City requires a narrative solution, such as 
  convincing Krystal Knight to end the storm, recruiting a 
  small army of like-minded Rifts to work in tandem and 
  melt the mirror shards, or a Stop.Holding.Back move 
  with a no-return or ultimate sacrifice (MC’s call).
  
  BROKEN GLASS   |  79 
  AFTERMATH
  Here are a few questions to consider and points to 
  revisit when you wrap up this case:
  • Did the bomb go off or was the blizzard of hate 
  planned by Krystal Knight averted? If it did go off, 
  the City will have to cope with this traumatic event 
  in the weeks, months, or even years to come. If the 
  crisis was averted, does the crew gain reputation 
  among Sleepers or in the Rift underworld? Did they 
  discover that the Devil’s Mirror magic is infused into 
  glass all over town, and if so, how do they plan to 
  defuse it?
  • What was the end of Dr. Krystal Knight, the Grail 
  Knight? Was she killed, imprisoned, or shattered and 
  contained? Was she healed and now must honorably 
  face all the destruction and pain she has caused? Did 
  she escape or even win the battle, and now plans her 
  next move on the City from her lair? What will be her 
  part in the greater fight against Corbin Payne?
  • How did the crew and their supporting cast come out 
  of this intensely emotional episode (and sub-arc)? 
  Were relationships irreversibly damaged? Was this an 
  opportunity for crew members to work through their 
  issues? Did some of them embrace or reject their 
  Rifthood more than before?
  • What happened to the Mending the Broken victims 
  Felicia Pema Jones and Ruben Stone (as well as Mar-
  tha Ellis and Maximillian Drake)? Did they bounce 
  back and find their place as Rifts? Were they able to 
  cleanse their minds of the toxic thoughts instilled in 
  them by their hate-mongering therapists? Did some 
  of them try to confront their abuser or even seek 
  revenge?
  • How did the organization of Mending the Broken 
  come out of this? Is it still operating and deceiving 
  Rifts or did the crew make a point of shutting it 
  down? If they lost their boss, did Mending the Bro-
  ken practitioners disperse and revert back to Sleepers 
  or did they awaken independently? Did they find a 
  new Rift to keep them awake? What is their relation 
  to Rifts after all this?
  • And the Asylum – does it continue to operate? Is it 
  time to shut down this atrocious institute or mod-
  ernize it and turn it into an actual place of healing? 
  Or does the crew decide they need a new prison for 
  their unhinged villains?
  If you are playing through the story arc, this case 
  concludes the personal vein. With the red clues they 
  received in this case, the crew can advance to the next 
  act of Percival, the overarching case, and investigate 
  more of Corbin Payne (page XX). If you haven’t gone 
  through all the cases in the mystical or criminal veins, 
  move on to those.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/City of Mist (PbtA)/City of Mist - son of oak - Nights of Payne Town [Kickstarter Preview].pdf