We returned, this week, to The Magic Circle by Jason Morningstar, in which we play the supernatural monsters living in the titular cul-de-sac. There are four of us. Ylda the writer is a werewolf who lives in #25 with her werewolf husband and two children. Zaragoza the injury attorney lives at the corner of the Circle and Joy Lane, from where he watches the whole neighborhood. Vedette Rasep is a former psychic whose soul is trapped inside a doll and who gets around by controlling the mind and body of whomever “owns” the doll. She lives at # 17 and makes a good living selling doll clothes for dolls and people on Etsy. Finally is Townes the golden retriever, who lives with a family with three children at # 26 and became super-intelligent after having been abducted by aliens. Townes leads our monthly council meetings.

Our first meeting is at Vedette’s house, although she fails to provide much edible for the group. Ylda begins the meeting by lamenting the teenagers hanging out in the forest and seriously interfering with her and Hordlak’s werewolf activities. She suggests we need a better youth center to keep them occupied elsewhere. Vedette thinks we should make them sick, or make one disappear, to ward off the others. Townes proposes the community build a skate park over in the undeveloped expansion lot. Ylda says she can speak to the other parents at school about where else the kids might go and gauge interest in a skate park. Townes agrees to follow the kids into the woods and see what they’re up to.

Zaragoza is irate about all the geese in the neighborhood and their droppings everywhere. Someone mentions geese love water; if there was a larger body of water nearby, perhaps they would simply leave. Zaragoza agrees to talk to the developer, who he knows from his legal work, about building a skate park and a water feature.

Townes brings the meeting around to the major problem facing the community: the recent disappearance of normal folks. He reveals that the father of his family has gone missing, and learns so has the friend of one of Ylda’s children. Zaragoza mentions that if a dozen people disappear, we can demand the state investigate rather than relying on the local police. We worry that state police might bring too much scrutiny to the area. Vedette suggests we publicize the disappearances, putting up flyers and signs, to scare folks into staying home and keeping their kids at home. It would help with the teens in the woods and maybe cut down on the vanishings. Along with these flyers, she will be putting up signs throughout the neighborhood directing people to her house because delivery people, who she depends on for her business, keep getting the addresses mixed up.

At our next meeting, Townes reports that the kids are out there being rebellious teens: smoking, drinking, littering, etc. Ylda says that the parents at the school are excited by the skate park idea, and Zaragoza says the developer is too. He won’t build a water feature to occupy the geese, but the skate park promises to be a big hit. We discuss whether and how Ylda’s family could hunt and drive off the geese, since the water idea fell through.

When we get back to the issue of the disappearances, Townes says he feels he must take direct action and plans on running away to begin searching for the vanished people. Vedette is concerned about him going alone and insists on accompanying him. Her psychic powers could be useful in finding and following clues, she says. Likewise, Ylda says that she can come to use her wolf-senses to get the scent and lead a chase. Zaragoza mentions he could release a bottled soul and ask them about the vanished, but makes no promise to do so. In the end, we all agree to meet the next morning after breakfast at Townes’ house to examine the family’s recovered car, then to follow the clues wherever they lead.

This is where we close the neighborhood meeting, and end our session. Could the disappearances be caused by a rival demon of Zaragoza, or aliens like those who took Townes, or some as yet unknown threat?

Our game this week is The Magic Circle by Jason Morningstar from the Bully Pulpit Patreon in which we play supernatural neighbors living in a suburban cul-de-sac, working to better our community while keeping our true nature secret. Shelley is a mermaid who works in a day care and whose tail disappears when she’s completely dried out. Soma is a sleep demon who works at the sleep clinic. Gil is a creature from the Black Lagoon who works from home as a computer programmer and wears a rubber mask when he has to leave the house. Graves is an angel sent to Earth to help children who works as a school counselor. Ratsep is an enchanted GI Joe doll who runs his own business and who suffers from doll arthritis and digits occasionally fall off. Hudspeth is an android and dentist who can easily pass for human.

At the first meeting of our Monster Neighborhood Watch, we agreed to hold a second Halloween parade since the kids enjoyed the costumes in the first one so much. Ratsep agreed to collect the dues from the neighbors to pay for the annual snow plow fees, Hudseth secured help in getting rid of the wasp nest that had sprung up in the center of our community, and Shelley asked everyone to keep an eye out for her lost seashell keychain. The major topic of discussion was the abyss of utter blackness that had opened up in the house between Shelley and Hudseth. The hole seemed to be emanating screams and howls. Graves will reach out to a landscaper to get a quote to fill it in, while Shelley will ask her sister the witch if her magic can figure out what it is. Soma agrees to swim in the hole to determine if it’s a portal to a nether realm.

Next month, at our second meeting, we recap the success of the second Halloween parade and get an update from Ratsep on the due collections. There is a long discussion about limiting religious Christmas decorations, since they cause Soma literal pain and make it so he cannot pass the decorated house. Graves is the only one planning a nativity, and he agrees to keep it up for only a week as a compromise. Gil wants to talk about how the water taste has changed, and how rancid it has become. Some of us haven’t noticed, but we all agree to file complaints with the water company to get them to come out and test it. We fear the water may have been contaminated by the abyss. Shelley tells us that magic had no effect upon the hole, and Graves says the contractor who came to give a quote fell into the abyss and never returned. Soma entered the portal and determined that it’s the souls of the damned leaking into our reality. We argue for a bit over whether what to do. We eventually decide we must determine why they are damned to be able to release their souls and seal the breach. Hudspeth will, via an ouija board, walk them through a spiritual history health questionnaire to seek clues.

Finally, at our next meeting, Ratsep fails to materialize, apparently having absconded with the snow plow collection, and the water inspection has yet to be completed after being delayed by the holidays. As for the abyss, it seems they were all eaten by some sort of monster, a hellhound perhaps. Graves consults with his employers and determines the best way to set the karmic ledger to balance is for the teenagers who (accidentally) opened the portal through their call to demonic forces to make another appeal, this time to celestial ones. We all agree to get the kids into the right situation to have them appeal to the heavens for help, in hopes this will close the interdimensional rift.