Last night we ran One of Us Will Die at Whimsy Cafe with five players! Our scenario was After The Fall, a tale that begins after the heroes have failed to stop the big bad evil guy's plan. The world has been changed for the worse and everyone knows whose fault it is. In this game, the villain and setting are chosen by the players. One player picked the Mythical Bronze Age and another player wanted the villain to be the Demiurge, Yaldabaoth and the big destructive plan was determined to be The Great Flood. In the final battle of the resistance against the Demiurge, they lost their leader, Joshua. (See where this is going?)

So we've got a Bronze Age myth in which the world has been destroyed by a derranged tyrannical creator god of Gnostic Christianity. For those unaware of the myth, it was believed by the Gnostics that the world was created by Yaldabaoth, a rogue being subserviant to a benevolent divine being that ruled the world after convincing the entire human population that he was the one true deity. It is believed that a divine being called the Christ came into the world to save humanity from the Demiurge in the name of his father.

Our heroes arrive in the town of Stillbright and are tasked Mayor Samwell to help him protect the town from invaders. After the Great Flood, the agents of Yaldabaoth have been grabbing parts of the world for themselves, ruling as tyrants over the humans. They are confronted by Freida, a several hundred year old nephilim who lost everything in the failed resistance, who resists the mayor's decision to call to the heroes for help. On the outskirts of town, the heroes are attacked by soldiers of Uriel, a minor archangel who is after Behemoth's treasure, the location of which is only known by Samwell who inherited it from his ancestor, Job. He intends to continue using the treasure to sustain the town free of the influence from the Demiurge's agents.

Left and right, our heroes are beset by judgement and blame by denizens of a world that was ruined by their failure. A merchant (The Monster) with the power to read people's desires is refused business at the market. A metalworker (The Fool), turned to alcoholism from survivor's guilt is refused service at the tavern. A swordsmaster (The Magician) and the leader's former bodyguard (The Oathtaker) are attacked while paying respects to their fallen friend whose death they blame themselves for, and a fallen queen (The Leader) has a heart to heart conversation with Samwell's wife and child about the difference between motherhood and queenship.

It is revealed that in the final battle against the demiurge, the swordsmaster was tricked into killing Joshua by impaling him on the throne of Eden, inadvertedly sacrificing him to the mad god and flooding the Earth completely.  The seige on the fortress of Eden is a complete failure. Billions are killed and entire civilizations are crushed under the weight of the flood including King Timon, an ally of the heroes. They only survive because they're able to board an ark built by the carpenter, Noah, as a last resort.

The next day, the heroes wake to find that Millie, a young girl and daughter of the Mayor has been abducted for ransom in exchange for the location of Behemoth's treasure. The mayor is pressured by a faction led by Freida to give into the demands. The heroes join in the argument but only end up at each other's throats, blaming each other now for the fall of the world. Eventually, our metalworker snaps out of his alcoholic stupor and reminds everyone that Joshua would have wanted them to help. The merchant confronts Freida and breaks through her demeanor, leading her to reaveal that she blames them for the death of her lifelong partner. Realizing her unfairness, she backs down and bursts into tears.

The party begins the walk to Uriel's encampment. Feigning betrayal, the swordsmaster hands his companions over to the archangel who leads them into the encampment. Once inside, a fight breaks out. The angels overwhelm the heroes who fight back with suicidal recklessness. The metalworker rushes to save the child and the former queen uses her magic to fight the archangel one on one.

Revealing himself to have faked his betrayal, the swordsmaster impales Uriel from behind, realizing that the blood of Joshua imbued into his sword created a weapon capable of killing higher divine beings. The resulting blast of divine energy shatters the weapon, resulting in the destruction of his body. He dies, satisfied at his redemption.

(Jin was an adventurer who correctly identified Dandy's metalworker character to be the Mark noticing that their redemption arc looked very much like it was leading to their death. As a result, his swordsman gets the big hero moment and the epic death scene.)

The group seemingly receives a vision from Joshua saying his final goodbyes to the group, telling them he is proud of all of them. He calls them by the names he called them during the resistance, Leviathan, Mammon, Beelzebub, Lilith and Lucifer and reveals to them that while their defiance of the demiurge will cause their names to be demonized by future generations, they know the truth and that they tried, and despite their failure, they made a difference.

The gates of the palisaide burst open as the townsfolk join the battle lead by Freida whose wings have grown back. Without their leader, the angels retreat to the heavens. The heroes return and are rewarded by the mayor.

In a new world, still ruled by the Demiurge, the heroes lead new lives as better people. They all remain friends, seeing each other from time to time, looking forward to the day that Joshua would inevitably return to the world.

So this adventure was about how no failure was final. Anyone can move forward no matter how far they fall as long as they've got breath still in them. It was all played out with the beautiful backdrop of a bronze age imagined by the players. Reference to Babylonic architechture, Ea Nasir and the Epic of Gilgamesh provided a lot of flavor to the story. Of course the biggest theme was the Old Testament and Gnosticism from which much of the story's lore came.

I think last night's session revealed a lot on how One of Us Will Die's games are very much player driven. I felt like I was just watching and facilitating while the players wove for me a tale of redemption and it was fun to see how each of their arcs developed on top of each other. Two of the players were veterans of the game who enjoyed it enough to want to play it several times so it's really good to know people who play the game want to return to it to try out different stories and other archetypes. The newbies took to the game very quickly, hardly having to ask any questions when creating their characters. Though part of me wonders how another Director would've handled this group. I was very lucky to have enough knowledge on the setting to be able to run it effectively.

Playtime for that entire story was only 2.5 hours, just about the length of an epic movie, which this session indeed felt like. I'll definitely want to run games at Whimsy again soon.