Mrs. Frieda's

Season 1

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 1 – Manny’s First Day

• Description: In a nutshell, Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home for Children (its official name) is a halfway home for children taken from abusive homes. Why has it gotten the reputation that it has? Because most of the children here responded to the abuse in their homes with abuse of their own. Everyone has their own reasons for being here, and most of them are never going to leave this place with a new family. While everyone has secrets to hide, some kids have worse secrets than others: Some kids have “special friends” that would freak out everyone in the city, and others are slowly transforming into eagles. Not everyone has these kinds of problems, mind you, but a few kids within this establishment do. Mrs. Frieda’s is about the life and times of these children.

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 2 – Let’s Go to the Movies!

• Description: It’s Sunday at the Halfway House, and that means two things: Some boring missionaries from the LDS Church are going to come and give a short service The rest of the day is fairly open to whatever you want to do  (LAZY SUNDAY!) The missionaries at the Troy Ward have just switched out recently, and the new guy appears to be vastly different from the previous ones.  That doesn’t mean that the kids are going to treat him any differently, though. Following a very unusual service, the kids decide what to do with their day.  It turns out that Emma just heard about a new movie coming out, and she’s gotta see it now.

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 3 – Family Home Evening

• Description: So, the kids screwed up yesterday.  They went to go see a movie that Mrs. Frieda specifically forbid and were spotted by. . . someone.  When they had to hoof it, though, George decided the best way to escape was to call his giant firebird and fly back to the house.  In any case, Frieda knew that they went to that movie, and found a suitable punishment:  Helping out at the local LDS Church. During the previous night, the kids were serenaded by their local pastor and missionary Elder Dane.  The kids see the opportunity to go clean the church as a way to find out more about this very strange man.  Meanwhile, everyone else proceeds to clean or set up the church in their own ways (sometimes ways that they’ve invented).

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 4 – Emma’s Birthday

• Description: It’s late July at the halfway house, which is about the same as any time in the summer, except for the forgotten fact that Emma Vaerbond will soon be thirteen.  Mrs. Frieda’s not really one for ceremony, and Emma’s never been exactly vocal about the special day, especially since her “special friend” always likes to celebrate the occasion in his own way.  This year is no different. Odyn, owed a promise of “playtime” with Emma, has made it happen. He’s whispering in a few ears, setting up a few birthday surprises, and doing his best to make sure Emma never forgets this day. Emma’s friends?  Well, they just happen to be excellent pawns.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 5 – The Urban Ninja

• Description: So, Sunday has rolled around again in the halfway home.  The kids are awakened again for more boring Sunday service, though following their experiences in the last week, they are eager to see who’s going to give the lesson.  Much to their surprise, they hear a familiar guitar being tuned up downstairs.  Elder Dane is, in fact, back. After the very unusual service, George hits Elder Dane with a bunch of questions, and Elder Dane offers to answer them at the Terje Haakonsen Skate Park later in the day.  If only the kids weren’t still grounded. . .
• Episode Time: 2:58:22

Mrs Frieda’s Session 6 – This is why we can’t have nice things!

• Description: Once again, the kids royally screwed things up on a Sunday.  After another service by a familiar missionary, the kids decided to meet up with him in the skate park to “talk.”  Apparently “talk” now means “steal a dude’s guitar and cheese it.”  The kids managed to get away, but they haven’t gotten the guitar back to the halfway house yet. In the course of the action, though, they kids made a new friend.  He goes by the name of Nele, and his past is a tad confusing.  He says a lot of stuff about being a super soldier, but seems to lack any knowledge of everyday things, such as soda and how to get a rag wet. Additionally, the UFO enthusiasts (still on the hunt for the bizarre flaming streak that shot out from the Cineplex a week ago) have seen related activity somewhere around the Halfway House.  Frieda brought in the police to scare them off, but they always seem to come back for more. Also, that new attendant seems more focused on his bitchin’ wristwatch than he does on any of the kids.  If you get too close to him, his alarm goes off and he has somewhere to be.  Weird, huh?
• Episode Time: 2:37:29

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 7 – Wherein Mrs. Frieda is Called ‘Fat’

• Description: The kids at Mrs. Frieda’s can’t seem to do anything right. Plans go awry, monsters get called out, buildings get scaled, and now the cops are all over the building. Then, they had a dream featuring the one and only Elder Dane. Simply put, things got real. The kids are awakened in the middle of the night by police officers. The investigation has begun. As they’ll quickly discover, there are several things hidden in the Halfway Home that do not want to be found. Friendships are broken and others solidified and new ones discovered as the kids scramble to make plans to deal with the sudden threat of Odyn. This is where we get the most players ever in a Mrs. Frieda’s Game.  This trend continues for a while.  If you notice a slowdown in plot, this is the reason (that and the fact that these games start happening really late at night).
• Episode Time: 2:19:17

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 8 – Here Come the Men in Black

• Description: Alt Title: “Spider Queen and the Quest for a Better Watch” It’s been a few days since that fateful night and things are still busy falling apart. The police investigation unearthed Jingles from the basement and drew out Ty Soren from his room. The pool of blood triggered some deep instincts inside of Manny and sent him into a rage. Emma’s turned into a distressed dame and has been using Scott to console herself. George has been trying to put together an alliance against the resident Eldritch Horror. The police investigation hasn’t found anything, and now there are new sheriffs in town. They’re dressed in black suits and black shades and have an unnerving interest in “special” kids.
• Episode Time: 2:41:07

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 9 – *Insert Rebecca Black Reference Here*

• Description: It’s 7AM on a Friday, and the kids are ready to get down. George has ostracized himself to the roof and his shiny new guitar, hoping that Condor will return. Scott and Emma have been growing closer as Emma recoups from her night of terror. The media circus outside of the Halfway Home has begun, drawn in by crazed reports of aliens and UFOs and the very real murder investigation. What’s on the agenda for today? Well Emma has a meeting with a fairly shady dude somewhere on the rough side of town. Everyone wants to come with her, so what could go wrong? It’s time for some partying, partying (YEAH!).
• Episode Time: 2:21:30

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 10 – Biting the Bullet

• Description: We’re back in the middle of the madness with the Frieda’s kids! A trap was sprung, a girl was kidnapped, a miniature super soldier fatally injured, and a giant Mayan god-bird appeared in the middle of the ghetto. Nele’s still got bullets in him, and it’s up to George, Jingles, Ty, and August to break him into Frieda’s kitchen and pull them out. Emma’s in the clutches of the MIB with only the hope of rescue from her eldritch horror and the extraordinary Eagle-Boy and Devil-Child. Things are pretty bad.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 11 – Chaos

• Description: Last time on Mrs. Frieda’s, things started bad and got much, much worse. The long-awaited showdown with the MIB ended with the Eldritch horror in tatters, bullets inside Manny, and a mini-nuclear bomb going off deep in the ghetto of Troy. On the plus side, Emma’s been rescued and Nele received medical attention. As the action recommences, the whole city is enraptured by the mushroom cloud hanging over the city. Now, it’s up to George and crew to try and race into the fray and save their friends. Can the kids find each other in the midst of a city falling to pieces?

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 12 – Camp LaFey

• Description: It’s finally time for the Frieda’s kids to get some R&R. What better place than a camping area deep in the woods outside of Troy? The kids are ready to go swimming, hiking, and generally just be kids, happy and safe. Of course, the camp holds some secrets. Creatures dwell here, ones that may not be quite so friendly to trespassing kids. Welcome to Camp LaFey, where absolutely anything can happen. Due to popular demand and also some scheduling conflicts, we’re gonna switch up the posting order on Frieda’s games and Road Trip games.  Frieda’s will be posted on Mondays, with Road Trip posted every other Friday.  If you want us to return to our old posting schedule, leave a comment below.

Mrs Frieda’s Session 13 – Wherein the Gang Goes Shopping

• Description: The kids have returned from their vacation, and the Halfway Home is safe once more. The city of Troy is busy recovering from the effects of a miniature nuclear bomb, but in the Halfway Home, love is in the air. In order to do their best to not deal with that problem, the kids are headed out to the Mall. First, they’ve gotta get some pocket money. Frieda has money, but how to get it? And once they have, who knows what awaits them out in the city?

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway House Session 14 – Going Deeper

• Description: The love triangle is in full bloom. Scott and Emma are going on a date to the movies (even if they both swear it’s not a date) tonight. After a series of hijinks at the house, (including Scott having to defend his woman from a weird mouth-breather, and the gang bathing Scott) they’re off into the city. Back at the house, Manny gets a phone call, and August begins experiencing some odd visitations. There’s someone who has a great deal of interest in him. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. . . Editor’s Note: This session is a wonderful example of a GM improvising a plot based on little notice. Side chatter and other fun stuff
• Episode Time: 2:42:35

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 15 – Ghost Stories

• Description: The love triangle is heating up. George has gotten wind of Emma and Scott’s date, and is on the warpath, trying to figure out how to win over the girl of his dreams. Emma gets a mysterious note attached to the scalpel she found at the Movie Theater last session. It is addressed to “O” from “Slash.” That night, the kids hear strange sounds on the roof. After an encounter with a strange young Asian girl on the rooftop, they’re led on a strange adventure to plunge the depths of the mystery below Frieda’s. Don’t listen to this one in the dark. Side chatter and other fun stuff
• Episode Time: 3:05:45

Mrs Frieda’s Session 16 – The Love Song of Dash Princely

• Description: It’s early morning on Friday and Frieda’s horrible, screeching voice is calling our protagonists to wake up, and get downstairs. It’s time to sign up for extra-curricular activities at school (since most of the kids would be prone to lighting fires, graffiti, and harassing the elderly if left to their own devices). After some extreme coercion to get Manny and Emma onto the bus, the kids are set off on the longest bus ride ever. A prank war ensues, Nele calls Emma fat, and George beats Manny in Rock Paper Scissors. (Also there’s a news report about some serial killer, but no one listens to it.) Important questions are raised during this session. Will Jingles ever get rid of creepy kid James? How many athletic teams can Nele be drafted for? Will George ever stop throwing Rock? And just who is this strange, constantly sparkling ladies-man named Dash Princely?

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 17 – Operation: Group Hug

• Description: It’s Sunday morning, as so often happens to the Frieda’s kids. All are awakened this time, however, not by Mrs. Frieda’s screeching, but by the sound of shearing metal, breaking plaster, and a loud thump onto the floor. In an unsurprising turn of events, Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home, built sometime between the 1800s and the 1940s, doesn’t have ducts capable of supporting the weight of a young commando. The kids are going to be moved out of their room, in order to not choke on the atmosphere in their room which has now become pure asbestos. In the meantime there is coffee to be ingested, love triangles to stretch to the breaking point, and Scott’s being moved into Butch’s room. To hang out. With Butch. And all of his friends. Alone. There’s no way for this to go badly.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 18 – Mall Rats

• Description: Operation Group Hug was a resounding success (except for August, he doesn’t count). The kids are moving into their temporary rooms, with emotions ranging from trepidation to annoyance. Emma is moving into the Rumourmongers’ room, and August secures their good behavior with the promise of a triple date with Donna, Daisy and Julie. There’s also a new attendant in the halfway home, and he’s up for taking the kids out to the mall. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 19 – A Pack of Wild Dogs

• Description: It’s a Thursday, and George smells terrible. He’s teamed up with Butch and crew to help fix the home (and secretly spy on Butch to find out exactly what he’s up to.) Unfortunately this means he’s been doing a lot of manual labor. Scott, rattled by his encounter at night with Butch and some strange hoodlums, has been keeping tabs on the young Mafioso.  Because Butch is indeed up to something, and our paranoid protagonists are going to find out what it is. What they find will change the fate of Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home forever.

Mrs Frieda’s Session 20 – “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird”

• Description: Big things happened last session to George, Emma, Scott, and Manny. This session (unfortunately) shows what happened to August during the events in the last session. It’s date night for August, and he’s got three oh so lovely rumor-smiths to take out to the movies. Nele is tagging along for some recon of the town. The Drunk and the Ugly is especially proud to present this session, namely as it shows the psychological break-down of a gaming group after a highly dramatic session.

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 21 – The Manhunt

• Description: After the showdown with Butch, Frieda’s is once again locked down by a police investigation. In the aftermath, George has gone missing. The kids go to look for him and only find Odyn in his shadow cat form. They learn from the eldritch horror that George has pulled a runner and taken off on the back of his Mayan God Bird. With the power check of Condor out of the picture, Odyn is free to play. He’s got the whole Halfway House to work in. It’s up to Emma and the rest of the kids to find George – and Condor – and bring him back before Odyn gets out of control.

Mrs Frieda’s Session 22 – Recovering the Satellites

• Description: After going into a fit of epileptic psychic backlash and nearly bringing Frieda’s crashing around down his ears, Ty wakes up in a hospital. It’s suspiciously quiet and empty as he makes his escape to return to the Halfway Home – it seems that Ty has someone watching over him. Meanwhile, for the first time in a long time, the kids enjoy a morning where nothing in the house is breaking, or exploding, or being terrifying. That is, until August gets a tip from his spider friends about the possible whereabouts of George. The manhunt will continue. In Condor’s absence, Odyn has been putting plans into motion. He is calling in favors and carefully setting up his dominoes. And now he’s ready to push them over.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 23 – The Lighter

• Description: The kids survived the apocalyptic showdown with Odyn. Through a combination of Ty’s psychic powers, Emma’s resolve, and some last-minute help from Elder Dane, Odyn has been pummeled and the majority of his power broken. George has been brought back to the Halfway Home (with some interesting new tattoos), and has recovered from the coma he fell into after Condor was possessed by Odyn. As soon as he wakes up, he tries to leave again. George, the kids discover, is on a mission from Thunderbird, the great god-bird of legend. A long time ago, he completed what he refers to as “The Trials,” and gained Condor. He’s going through them again: he showed up back in Troy in order to find something at his mother’s old house. The kids, however, having just gotten George back, aren’t keen to let him run off again. And while Odyn may have been beaten, there are still things going on behind the scenes. Things are still in motion.

Mrs Frieda’s Session 24 – The Fall of the House of Odyn

• Description: Emma is having a dream. A very lovely dream: she’s on the roof, in George’s arms, kissing him before he climbs onto the back of Condor. Instead of flying away again, however, instead of winging away from Emma once more, blood starts coming out of his eyes. And he starts laughing. Hard, loud laughter, both he and Condor laughing, before they melt into a dark shadow with green eyes. “Julie Williams,” it says. “8pm, Tuesday.” Then she wakes up, at 8am on a Tuesday morning. Manny is having a dream. It’s a very lovely dream: he’s in a classy restaurant, a mix between a 50s diner and a smoking lounge, and he’s gorging himself on an incredible array of steak. It’s almost easy for him to ignore the laughter in the background, the shadows moving in strange ways, and the fact that the steak has become human flesh, familiar, tattooed human flesh. It’s 8am on a Tuesday. Julie Williams is missing. A young girl named Emma has “gone on vacation.” Odyn’s final plan has begun. He’s called in the last of his favors, and a horrible ritual is in progress. Unless the kids find a way to stop him, it will claim the lives of Julie and little Emma, and one other, someone very close to Emma Vaerbond’s heart.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 25 – If Words Could Kill

• Description: Odyn has been defeated, but at a heavy cost. Julie Williams, chief rumorsmith and head popular girl, was lost inside the nightmare world Odyn created to trap Emma. Nele and Emma blasted their way in and recovered the little girl Emma, but Julie was consumed by Odyn. Emma and Nele survived, and through the combined efforts of all of the children, Odyn was destroyed. Now, the kids are standing in the aftermath. Julie is gone, and no one seems to notice that she is gone. It is only with the return of George, and Condor’s healing flesh, that there is the slightest chance to bring her back. And the love triangle, revitalized by George’s return, is stretching to the breaking point.

Mrs Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 26 – Summer’s Over

• Description: It’s the last day of summer. The sun is rising, birds are singing, and Emma wakes up to see someone’s head peering in the window. She blinks, and the head is gone. Instead, a sack is sitting on the windowsill. The bottom is moist and bloodstained. It’s filled with ripped shreds of bloody meat. Someone, it seems, has left a present for Manny. Nevertheless, there are other pressing concerns: doctor’s notes to get out of gym must be acquired, Julie Williams must be visited in the hospital, Uncle V’s coming by to treat Manny to a bass of his own, and even though no one remembered, Scott turned 13 last week. It’s the last day of summer and an awesome – if belated – birthday party must be organized. The last diem of summer must be carpe’d, at all costs. This episode features a musical outro by the talented Jonathan Coulton, from his “Thing A Week” album series.  You can check out more of his stuff at his website.

Season 2

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 27 – “If You Don’t Eat Your Meat. . .”

• Description: Welcome back to the city of Troy, home to monsters, devils, and the kids from Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home for Terrible Freakish Children. This session focuses on the part of the gang who are attending Madison Faire, Troy’s High School, for the first time. Home of the Fighting Minotaurs, chock full of bizarre teachers and mysterious lunch meat, the High School holds many surprises. New faces are introduced, old faces are back, and somebody auto-tunes a rabbit. Summer is over. It’s the first day of school, and it’s going to be one you can never forget.
• Episode Time: 4:05:05

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 28 – “You Can’t Have Any Pudding!”

• Description: And the Frieda’s Season Premiere continues with Part 2: Middle School. Spring Crescent is, on the surface, perfectly normal. Normal things happen, normal teachers conduct utterly normal classes, and no one gets sucked into a Lovecraftian alien’s spaceship. Secrets lurk below the surface, of course. Secrets that hide behind walls and coat closets, secrets that want to spread and steal and hurt. Emma, Scott, and Jingles are dropped directly into this tangled mess. Joined by the psychic girl Molly, who survived her own ghost story, our plucky Middle Schoolers will face down evil.
• Episode Time: 2:44:26

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 29 – After-School Special

• Description: The kids have survived their first day of school! Slightly weary, and more than slightly weirded out, they return home, ready for a relaxing afternoon of taking care of business. Nothing can go wrong now. Minus the fact that August’s been missing for two weeks. They’re not sure how they let that happen. Truancy officers have come to the Halfway House looking for him, and he’s not answering his door. August, you see, has started down a very strange path. It’s old, so old, and coated in spiderwebs. He’s not sure where it leads, but he knows that somewhere, the Spider Queen is waiting for him. She holds the key to his history, and his family, and the reasons why his body has begun to develop such frightening characteristics.
• Episode Time: 2:36:27

Mrs Frieda’s Session 30 – You Can’t Text on a Knife

• Description: It’s Saturday, and the kids finally have a day to themselves. School is HARD. Of course, a free day can’t go without an adventure… This one begins with a text message, and a beaten up coffee can. Inside, riches, and a note. This discovery will begin a treasure hunt that will crisscross Troy and lead the kids back into their own history. Someone, it seems, has been paying particularly close attention to what they’ve been doing this summer. It’s up to the kids to track down the mystery before whatever’s behind it decides to stop playing games.
• Episode Time: 2:26:26

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 31 – Trashing and Crashing

• Description: The treasure hunt led the kids all over the city, and then back home as the sun began to fade on the horizon. They’ve got a lead – Rebecca Black, the reporter. But before they can track it down, the kids are locked inside Frieda’s for the night. Their new friend, Tim Rodgers, has some things to reveal to them. And the next day, a side trip to the strangest junkyard in America must be made.
• Episode Time: 2:15:18

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 32 – I Hate Emoticons

• Description: The strange treasure hunt continues! The gang, having survived their experience in the junkyard, are off to pay a visit to Rebecca Black. In the meantime, August is contacted by the High School’s Janitor-Sorcerer, Cecil. The cryptic information broker takes him out to get pizza, and makes him a deal. He’ll help August get rid of Buibui, if August tracks down a certain redheaded Irish boy. It seems like a solid deal, until it quickly becomes clear that Brendan is linked to some very scary stuff. Shadows lurk in his past.
• Episode Time: 2:19:37

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 33 – Substance Abuse

• Description: Continuing with the longest Sunday ever, Manny’s got tickets to ride. Five tickets, to be specific, to ride a bus to the backstage of the craziest concert ever. Infernal Banshee’s in town, and they’re about to rock Troy’s face off. Unfortunately, they’re missing their lead guitarist/front man/Duke of Too-Cool-For-School: Uncle V. Can the kids get the show to go on, or will the Power of ROCK fail?
• Episode Time: 3:11:11

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 34 – A Perfect Day

• Description: Welcome to Mrs. Frieda’s State Home, where nothing weird has ever, or will ever happen. Scott Valle, middle schooler, has chosen to play hooky from school with his friend Manny in order to play with G.I. Joes. This is a Frieda’s without monsters. Without shadows, where nothing lurks in the corners and in the minds of its occupants, in a Troy not pitted and cratered by the effects of those monsters. This session was conducted with a parallel text roleplay, telling George and Emma’s story. While not critical to the plot of this session, it adds a nice bit of extra character development.  That story can be read here.
• Episode Time: 2:54:07

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 35 – Hoop and Stick Together!

• Description: After some intense sidetracking, both in the real world and in strange collective alternate-reality dreams, the kids are back on the trail of the Coffee Can Mystery. After watching the DVD obtained from Rebecca Black’s office, the gang treks into the ghetto, ready to face down just what exactly has been lobbing coffee cans full of expensive junk across the city. What’s in store is something they could never have expected. Forces are beginning to gather against the special children of Mrs. Frieda’s, and their emissaries have already arrived.
• Episode Time: 2:35:35

Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home Session 36 – Bad Reception

• Description: Following the closing of the “Case of the Mysteriously Launched Coffee Cans” with the discovery of a playful robot, life resumes at Spring Crescent and Madison Faire mostly unabated. Emma’s visit to Troy’s nightclub district did not go unreported, so she’s got a meeting with the school counselor. Dr. G is, to put it simply, a very understanding guy. This session was conducted with a parallel text roleplay, telling a story with Scott and Emma. While not critical to the plot of this session, it adds a nice bit of extra character development.  Those stories can be read here and here.
• Episode Time: 3:00:46

Mrs. Frieda’s Session 37 – Bad Reception

• Description: This session, we return to the mystery-wrapped enigma that is Spring Crescent. Emma, joined by the strange psychic girl Molly Weits, investigates around the school. They stumble upon a certain coat room door, and once opened, it leads directly into LeFay National Park. Will the girls press on into possible danger and uncover the source of the mystery?
• Episode Time: 1:57:47