Afraid of Encounters

Afraid of Play Reports - A Perfect Wife (Session 1 & 2)

Afraid of Play Reports is a series of blogposts where I write play reports of the campaign that I have finished or currently running. I name it that way because I keep on procrastinating on writing play reports. I will write my GM thoughts/comments in italic.

I've run A Perfect Wife from September - October for four sessions, with the finale right on Halloween, 2025. The adventure is a 44-page zine with art by Amanda Lee Franck (Vampire Cruise, Crush Depth Apparition) and Scrap World (Fire On The Velvet Horizon, Noofutura) and writing by Zedeck Siew (Lorn Song Of The Bachelor, Reach Of The Roach God). Published by Copy/Paste Co-op (ECO MOFOS, Lone Eons).

The premise:

DISAPPEARANCES

An inner-city neighbourhood, too ugly for gentrification. Evicted people who now live in rickety shacks, makeshift tents, and crumbling boarding houses have settled here. They were forced out by developers, law enforcements, and the government. But they have not escaped violence.

They work sweatshop sewing machines, or wipe sick off nightclub sinks. Their shifts are done at 3am. They stumble off in the dark. Often they do not get home.

The first disappearance was a year ago. Now it happens with vicious regularity, every fortnight. The neighbourhood is tense. Most agree the following precautions work:

For context, I ran the adventure using Liminal Horror. I changed the setting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Jakarta, Indonesia. I also changed some other elements like the refugees to victims of forced evictions by the government and real estate companies, to better fit the reality in Jakarta. We also used Bahasa Indonesia to immerse ourselves in the setting.

The investigators:

They were contacted by Sara (a friend/associate whom they knew from their past) to come to Kampung Damai, an urban village in the border of Central and North Jakarta.

First Session

It was Friday. They met her in front of Kampung Damai's wet market. It smelled of fish, meat, vegetables, and trash. Sara arrived late, a bag full of groceries in tow. She asked for help to find a missing person, Tedi. Him and his daughter, Yeyen, were victims of forced mass evictions, who were staying at the local community center.

Yeyen explained that his father had been missing since last Saturday. Tedi was in his 40s, with a missing finger on his left hand, a black cat tattoo on his right arm, and a teddy bear pendant that he wore (a gift from his daughter). Not wanting the young girl to be upset, they accepted.

Some of the investigators were unsure whether to take the job or not. They even suggested to go to the police, although Sara said that the police hadn't much of a help, just like irl. Sara didn't offer any payment, so I had to roleplay her desperation, and Yeyen's sadness, to melt their hearts.

Their first lead was a local shop that Tedi had frequented. The owner, old man Yat, was your stereotypical lewd Southeast Asian uncle in his 50s or 60s. It was a whole banter of dirty and raunchy jokes. Siti and Liany had to flirt with him by admiring the old man's tiger tattoo.

Eventually Yat told the investigators that Tedi loved to spend his time with sex workers from the nearby Club Fortune He suggested them to talk to Heri, the owner, and apparently the leader of the Black-Band, a gang whose members were victims of the forced mass eviction.

When they were traveling from one location to another, I rolled for random encounters. They encountered seven dogs and four puppies who were being fed rice and curry by passerby. These dogs would have another role later on.

Up until Club Fortune, the session had been really lighthearted. It was a breath of fresh air roleplaying in a setting that we're familiar with. It felt like real life. Real life banters. Real life jokes. Real life interactions. But I understand that the players might have thought "This doesn't feel like a horror adventure!" Well, but this feels like a modern Southeast Asian adventure. So I thought that the club would be a good place to ramp up the tension.

They arrived at Club Fortune at 5 PM. They knew that the club would be opened at 6 PM. But the men still went in anyway, while the women waited in the front with two of Jacky's goons. The door wasn't locked, and they were greeted by this flashy and tacky club, with lots of glass, pleather, and dangdut music. Safe to say they weren't welcome, as members of the Black-Band swarmed them. It was a standoff, but Jacky (and four of his goons), and Bule were in hostile territory.

The music stopped, as a tall figure with a combat shotgun walked down the stairs, and screaming "What is your business with the Black-Band!?". I ended the first session there.

Second Session

The second session picked up where they left off. The two who were outside were taken inside by the Black-Bands, and the whole group had to convince Heri to reveal what he knew about Tedi. Heri would only cooperate if the investigators cooperate first.

Throughout the discussion, Liany paid attention to the talismans that the Black-Bands were wearing. Due to her background, she knew that they served as some kind of protective charms that were passed down from generation to generation. Liany tried to memorize how it looked, in hopes that she could make some for the group.

Heri told them to find the leader of the 38, a rival gang who used to "rule" Kampung Damai. He also asked Jacky to send his goons home, if they wanted to gain his trust. Jacky accepted, which prompted Heri to reveal one part of information about Tedi, who preferred one specific woman who always wear red. In the end, they accepted, with their lead being a nearby park.

I felt that Jacky's goons would make things too easy for the investigation and if the investigators encountered anything dangerous. But at the same time, it made sense for Heri to not want them be around. For context, "mass organizations" in Indonesia are basically "legalized gangs".

The investigators took some time discussing what to do with this current development in their investigation. The women were worried about the fact that they were in too deep with criminal elements, while the men felt that there were no other choice.

It took a while for them to agree on what to do next, so night came. Bule saw a white owl perching on a roof at a t-junction near the park, the location where the 38 usually hung out. But Jacky was distracted when a sex worker, Yuni, approached him from the alleyway. He went followed her in hopes to gain information.

In the alleyway, Jacky asked Yuni if she knew about the woman in red from Fortune Club. He paid Yuni some bucks, and she revealed the woman's name, Sarah (with an H, different than the one who asked for their help), who only showed up during weekends. But things turned for the worse when they heard dogs whining. The same dogs who they saw during the day ran out of the alleyway in fear of something. And then, a baby's cry soon followed.

The other investigators went into the alleyway to drag Jacky out, but Jacky was confused. Yuni went in the other direction, deeper down the alley, where she unfortunately met her demise. The child's cry turned into a scream, as a bloodied claw snatched Yuni into the pile of trash.

This is where I asked the players to roll for Stress. Jacky and Liany also received Fallouts. They got a magical corruption that made a specific body part weaker. It was a ton of fun hearing the players' reactions and listening their descriptions on what happened to their characters.

The investigators regrouped at the parking lot of a convenience store. There, they tried to make sense of what happened. Liany eventually noticed an interesting sight, a shrine besides a florist stall. The shrine is a termite mound with a foot-tall figure, standing upon a tiger, with star on his forehead, dressed in rainbow colours. The florist is a transwoman, Shani.

Liany approached the shrine and asked questions about it to Shani, whom explained that the shrine originated from Club Fortune, which used to be a gay club known as Blue Baby. The club was never raided by the police throughout its existence, until it closed down due to financial issues and turned into Club Fortune.

Shani explained that Liany could pray for the blessing of the Prince Queen, the spirit whom the shrine belonged to. So she prayed, and her Fallout was cured.

The investigators felt that they should continue the investigation during the weekend, in hopes to find Sara the sex worker. That's where we ended the second session.

Afterthoughts

I loved running A Perfect Wife, and those first two sessions were perfect to set the stage on what's to come. I really enjoyed running it in a setting that I'm familiar with, and thankfully enough Zedeck was kind enough to approve of the changes that I made. I was a bit worried about the mundane start, because I was used to the Call of Cthulhu-style of investigation. But it was such a fun change of scenery. Also, the tension from the gang members and the horror from the baby got really elevated by the familiar setting.

I'll post the play report for the last two sessions as soon as possible!