Scenario
Putting Them Together
- Amanda was there, looking for Buffy: this took place after the season where she appeared to die and then return to life, and the Watchers (both Buffy’s Watchers and the Immortals’ Watchers, who are one and the same organization) want her to find out whether the Slayer was now also an Immortal. (She wasn’t.)
- David Banner was working as a janitor at the hotel because it was convenient.
- Dr. Jonathan Chase was delivering a lecture at a police training seminar.
- Phoebe Halliwell was in Los Angeles, looking for the five people who are in her visions.
- Nick Knight was there attending a police training seminar, replacing his late partner.
- Buffy Summers was at the big hotel near Disneyland, where she was supposed to spend time over the summer with her father, only to see him have to back out at the last minute.
Phoebe Halliwell recognized everyone from her visions and managed to talk them into listening to her. She said they will be involved with something to do with something she doesn’t quite understand, happening at Disneyland. That’s when Buffy told about her encounter earlier that afternoon, when she went to board one of the rides and two teenagers ran into the car before her, cutting her off, then she noted they didn’t emerge before her, but several minutes after. They decide to check out Disneyland but not until after sundown. During that time, players had time for some individual time for their characters:
- Amanda was sensing another Immortal but not close enough to make an identification.
- Buffy realized Nick was a vampire but wasn’t too concerned about it.
- Nick calls back to Toronto to talk with LaCroix, the vampire who created him, and is warned about the West Coast vampires (“they run with demons”) and about the Slayer.
- Phoebe called home and Piper answered (for which the player was very relieved) and they talked for a while but Phoebe hung up when she could hear Prudence calling out to find out who was on the phone.
Doing What Needed To Be Done
The six went into Disneyland after dark and made their way eventually to Space Mountain, the place that seemed to fit Phoebe’s visions. Inside the ride they found a large area, but before they could explore it, something invaded their minds and suddenly they were in the middle of something they each feared. Each character needed to overcome that fear to escape.
- Amanda was forced to fight Duncan McCloud: he told her “This is how we knew this was going to end.” (She was actually fighting another Immortal under the illusion of Duncan: she eventually discovered the ruse when she realized the sword he was using wasn’t the same as in the illusion.)
- David Banner found himself transformed as the Hulk, having killed someone in his rage.
- Dr. Chase found himself trapped in his animal form, in a cage, unable to return to human form, with his friends outside the cage staring at him in pity.
- Nick Knight found himself holding the lifeless body of Natalie Lambert, whom he tried turning into a vampire, without success. (Phoebe’s precognition was showing him his future.)
- Phoebe Halliwell was seeing the marker for her dead sister Prudence, who would later die in the series. (Her precognition was showing her the future.)
- Buffy was seeing her own tombstone, which read “She Saved the World. A Lot.”
When they all broke through their fears, the discovered the source of the terrors.
Walt Disney.
Walt Disney’s brain.
His brain was preserved after his death, to help guide the company, but was eventually ignored and forgotten through the company transitions. In his loneliness he developed psychic powers (and of course all disembodied brains develop psychic powers, don’t they?) and started kidnapping visitors at Disneyland to feed from their psychic energy, particularly fear.
Notes
When it was all over, the person who played Nick Knight thanked me for the opportunity the play the character. It turned out that his mother worked second shift and would get home just about when the series was first run, in the “Crimetime after Primetime” slot late at night, and they would watch the series together. That made my convention.
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