Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!
Characters
Monster Mess – A One-Shot Party Adventure
Find the character sheets and rules at: One-Shot.JenEric-Designs.ca
Description
You are a teen who needs to do community service and have been placed on super-cleanup duty. Westmeath has had a rash of monster attacks and although they don’t leave any biological matter (thankfully) they do make a mess of the city. You are assigned to deal with a mess in the downtown core after a group of flying monkeys attack.
The adventure should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on the Party.
Setting
Westmeath, Canada’s fourth largest city, is the tech hub of North America. It’s also one of the most crime-ridden cities, fueled by prominent gangs and corporate espionage. It is also a place where magic, aliens, and technology meet.
It’s June 2003 and the party is assigned to clean up the Hedy Lamarr Memorial Park in downtown after a group of flying monkeys destroyed the advanced WiFi transmitter installed in the park.
Suggested Backgrounds
The players can be anything they want, but here are some fun choices for their background:
Aetherborn: Beings created with magic and the human imagination. They are copies of sentient people from mythology or pop culture.
Alien: From all over the galaxy, Aliens have innate powers; mostly combat, but a few royals can heal.
Human: Humans are the most adaptable and scariest creatures in the universe.
Suggested Reasons for Community Service
Petty Crime: You did it and you got caught but let’s be fair it’s not that bad.
Parental Privilege: You did something bad but because of your last name or family fortune you got off easy.
University Admission: You really want to get into that university program and the best way is to have way too many extra credit activities along with your high grades.
High School Credit: It was this or parenting and there was no way you were going to carry a bag of flour around like it was a baby.
Fought Back: They started it, you ended it but you were the one who got in trouble.
Mistaken Identity: It wasn’t you but no one believes it.
Story
Part 1: Cleaning the park
The officer who’s in charge of the group gives them their cleaning tools and then tells them to clean up the park. He then leaves to find “decent coffee”.
The park is set between three large buildings and is a perfect square. The walls of the building have been painted in murals dedicated to women scientists. In the center of the park is a four-metre tall statue of Hedy Lamarr. There is a swing set, several trees, a slide, and a destroyed plot that must have been a flower garden.
The park is filthy, covered in shards of glass, metal, and more garbage than the players have ever seen.
Let the players talk amongst themselves. With a Luck or Mind check of 3, they find pieces of the WiFi transmitter with DoorTech logos on it. With a Mind of 4 they recognize the tech as not being human design.
Have the players all do a Mind check and have the highest remember that the statue used to be a hologram and not a large brass statue.
Part 2: Gang encounter
As they are cleaning, a group of men in purple jackets come by and start heckling them. They are a local gang called the Blue Bloods. If one of the players has done something criminally impressive, they try to recruit them. There are the same amount of gang members as players.
The gang members are aggressive in their taunts and recruitment. Either way they are looking for a fight. The players can avoid a fight by bluffing that they’ll join, intimidating, or outsmarting them. Have the players role against the gang members’ Luck.
Part 3: Strange noises and a big red button
After the gang members leave, their chaperone comes back and berates them for how little they’ve done before leaving for more coffee.
A Luck, Body, or Mind of 2 will have them finding a large button hiding in the mural of Hedy Lamarr. There are weird squeaks and chirps coming from behind the mural. If they press it, it opens a large door that leads to a staircase going down.
Part 4: Monkeys in the secret room
If the players choose not to go into the secret area or even hit the button, have 3-5 Flying Monkeys come out of the door as they go back to cleaning.
If they decided to explore, they will find a secret surveillance lab. A Mind or Luck 2 will have them realize that Door Tech has found a way to use WiFi to map and surveil areas, which was why they’d installed the large WiFi transmitter.
There is a door at the other side of the lab that seems to be a weapons cache.
As they decide to leave the room, 3-5 flying monkeys fly in from outside and attack.
Part 5: Statue
Once the players have fought the monkeys, have the police officer return and offer them a donut. It will heal 2 health.
If they tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe them, if they don’t, he sits on a swing and starts to eat a donut.
Just as the players are finishing up the park cleaning, they find an inscription at the base of the statue that says, “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” It’s attributed to Hedy Lamarr and once they’ve read it, the statue comes to life and tries to kill them. The police officer faints.
The statue disappears after it’s defeated.
Conclusion
After they’ve defeated the statue, three military vehicles with the DoorTech logo show up and interrogate the players. A luck or mind 3 will be enough to bluff that they haven’t seen anything. The police officer wakes up and helps the players get away from the DoorTech security teams.
If the players go to the police about the underground they are dismissed as making stuff up. If they go back, the button is gone. Have the players be visited, together or separately, by either the Blue Bloods or DoorTech with offers of scholarships, recruitment, internships, or something else the player(s) would want.
If the players have cruised through the adventure, you can have them visited by the local superhero team of the Phantom and the Wraith. The heroes believe them and want to know more. They promise to get to the bottom of it.
Opponents
Blue Bloods | Flying Monkey | Statue | |
Health | 5 | 2 | 6 |
Defence | 5 | 5 | 6 |
Body | 3 | 0 | 4 |
Mind | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Luck | 3 | 3 | 4 |
Abilities | Brass Knuckles 2 Stun Gun 2 | Bite 2 Scratch 1 | Giant fist 2 Explode Electronic 2 |
Read More about Westmeath in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
The week before Kennedy and Jason’s wedding is busy. There are cake tastings, dress fittings, a formal ball, and, as their superhero personas the Phantom and the Wraith, fighting monsters.
These behemoths are destructive, smell like snack food, and are only after one thing: Door Tech Industries technology.
Adding to the chaos are their friends and families; Jason’s grandmother has returned after having been missing for half a century, Kennedy’s mom is dead-set on keeping things traditional, and Jason’s best friend is kidnapped before the rehearsal.
Kennedy and Jason just want to get married, preferably before the next monster attack.
The second book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.
Similar books to Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!
Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests Puzzle
There’s this site that allows for any picture to be transformed into a digital puzzle. For free. And you can play for free.
I used it for the cover of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers (see that puzzle here) and Crushing It (see that puzzle here)
And now, here is the puzzle for Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!
Tropes of “Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests”
Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!
Introducing Main Characters
When we’re writing, it helps to have a basic visual for the characters, before adding characteristics that then change them (either slightly or drastically). Sometimes it’s quite easy to find your dream cast, other times its next to impossible.
In Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests, we were able to reuse a lot of the characters from Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers (with one notable exception – spoilers!). You can check them out here (link to secondary characters part 1, with parts 2 & 3 links at the bottom of the page).
Kennedy Fairfield
Age: 22
Date of Birth: July 11, 1980
Appearance: Long blonde hair, green eyes, tall, white
Job: Agricultural Scientist at the Westmeath Agricultural Research Cooperative (Westmeath ARC). AKA the Wraith, a vigilante who glows with an unearthly green light and seen with the Phantom since September 2002
Family: mother and father Lilah and Gerard Fairfield live on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario; grandmother Denise Lake lives in Baker, Ontario
Siblings: Older brother Phillip, married and has one son (just shy of 2 years old); twin older sisters Eliza and MacKenzie; younger brother Tommy
Jason Johnson
Age: 26
Date of Birth: November 8, 1976
Appearance: Shaggy dark hair, hazel eyes, tall, golden brown skin
Job: Owner and operator of a pizza restaurant The Hawaiian. Co-head of the Oldtown Council. AKA the Westmeath Phantom, a vigilante with the power to manipulate and control shadows
Parents: Hammond and Monique Johnson, both deceased.
Family: Younger sister Zoe is married to Gabrielle and they have one daughter Brooke (just shy of 2 years old); grandmother Kathryn Johnson
Tommy Fairfield
Age: 15
Date of Birth: May 11, 1988
Appearance: Short blond hair, green eyes, tall, white
Grade: 9
Favourite class: Math or Science or Music
Family: mother and father Lilah and Gerard Fairfield live on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario; grandmother Denise Lake lives in Baker, Ontario
Siblings: Older brother Phillip, married and has one son (just shy of 2 years old); twin older sisters Eliza and MacKenzie; older sister Kennedy, who is engaged to Jason Johnson and lives in Westmeath.
Carter Batudev
Age: 15
Date of Birth: March 5, 1988
Appearance: Curly brown hair, grey eyes, tall, bronze skin
Grade: 9
Favourite class: Science
Parents: Sam and William Batudev own a bakery in Westmeath, Ontario
Siblings: None
Veronica Giles
Age: 26
Date of Birth: Unknown
Appearance: Short and pale, with shoulder length chocolate wavy brown hair, large eyes, heart shaped face, and pointy chin; has an air of innocence
Job: Engineer at Door Tech in Westmeath
Family: Her uncle is Reverend Patrick Mitchel, the reverend of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Anglican Church in Westmeath
Connection to Protagonists: Jason’s best friend and the Phantom’s ‘Person in the Chair’
Catch up on their first adventure:
Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
and find out what Tommy and Carter got up to in the spin-off Crushing It
You can find bonus content for both books here!
Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!
Introducing Secondary Characters Part 2/2
These are a few of the secondary characters in Crushing It.
This is the Oldtown High School team
Elyse Garrido
Age: 14
Appearance: Wavy brown hair, blue eyes, short, tan skin
Grade: 9
Favourite class: Math
Siblings: Older sister Rachel (seen here)
Lauryn
Age: 15
Appearance: Black hair, brown eyes, medium height, Black
Grade: 10
Favourite class: Science
Alicia
Age: 16
Appearance: Long wavy black hair, brown eyes, medium height, brown skin
Grade: 11
Favourite class: Music
George
Age: 17
Appearance: Black hair (in corn rows in this book), brown eyes, tall, muscled, Black
Grade: 12
Favourite class: Computer Science
Adrien
Age: 18
Appearance: Light brown hair, blue eyes, tall, white, Jewish
Grade: 13
Favourite class: Chemistry
Siblings: Older sister Gabrielle (Jason’s sister-in-law)
Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version
Introducing Secondary Characters Part 1/2
These are a few of the secondary characters in Crushing It.
This is the Parry Sound High School team
Faith Roi
Age: 14
Appearance: Long black hair, dark brown eyes, short, lightly tanned skin, Indigenous
Grade: 9
Favourite class: Science
Siblings: Older brother Basil (friend of Kennedy’s). They are both members of Wasauksing First Nation
Sabrina
Age: 15
Appearance: Long brown hair, short, white
Grade: 10
Favourite class: Computer Science
Naomi
Age: 16
Appearance: Black curly hair (ringlets), medium height, white
Grade: 11
Favourite class: Physics
Bryan
Age: 17
Appearance: Light brown hair, medium height, white
Grade: 12
Favourite class: Biology
Chris
Age: 18
Appearance: Blond shaggy hair, tall, white
Grade: 13
Favourite class: Physics
Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version
Crushing It Book Mood Board
I had fun looking for pictures that made me think of the book Crushing It.
And I thought, why not share it with you?
Summary
After an epic grounding for some bad decisions with even worse friends, Tommy is lucky to even go to the Door Tech March Break camp. There, he crosses paths with Carter Batudev, and chemistry isn’t just for the classroom. With love and a renewed interest in STEM, Tommy returns home to Parry Sound, where, to the relief of his parents, he makes better friends, and joins the STEM club.
When the club goes to the province-wide competition in Toronto, he’s reunited with Carter, whose team is also competing. Thus ensues a wild long weekend full of romance, hijinks, STEM, and singing.
Includes a novelette from Carter’s POV at the dinner theatre show Knights of Everdome.
The first book in the Lucky in Love series.
Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version
Carter Mood Board
I had fun looking for pictures that made me think of the secondary protagonist of Crushing It, Carter Batudev.
And I thought, why not share it with you?
Carter Batudev
Age: 15
Date of Birth: March 5, 1988
Appearance: Curly brown hair, grey eyes, tall, bronze skin
Grade: 9
Favourite class: Science
Parents: Sam and William Batudev own a bakery in Westmeath, Ontario
Siblings: None
Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version