Heh. We'll see how this goes. I'm going to face this group off against an earlier group of heroes né amoral monsters. Should be fun.
Anyway, I started them out as mortals (their idea) in podunk Hickville, on an island far to the west, but not far enough for the Wylldye to make things interesting. I led in like it was going to be a generic learning-the-systems game, and had one group break up a brawl, while the token Loner-But-Not-Really character was out hunting. Then he got to fight a generic monster from right out of the back of one of the books, and won by kiting it. Hooray!
That evening, they all met at the tavern to talk and learn about social combat. What fun! One of the characters hangs out on the docks instead, waiting for her brother's boat. It eventually arrives, and instead of her beloved brother, it's full of Way Too Many Pirates.
Way Too Many Pirates teach the party the rest of the combat system by beating everyone unconscious, burninating the village, and rounding up everyone's friends and killing or carting them off. I put Way Too Many on the boat, but I ended up only needing three, plus a leader to hang out and shoot back at Token Loner. They woke up solars.
Hamhanded? Yes, and contrived to boot, but it seems to be working so far. Two of the party have now independently decided that they hate pirates, and will kill them all. One of the others decided that in Exalted, you need to be paranoid all the time. That's... likely to be really helpful for me. Everyone else seems willing to go along with that. I had actually thought they would hang out and rebuild for a while instead, and need more raids before they fought back, so this seems to have taken off pretty well.
So far we have:
[*]Copper Orchid - Specializing in sorcery and not noticing the boat was full of Way Too Many Pirates
[*]Emerald Hammer - Specializing in being Really Big. Originally, he was going to name himself Funereal Emerald Hammer Lover, but that went away after everyone realized that "Funereal" sounds an awful lot like "Venereal"
[*]Quixotic Spring Rabbit - Specializing in being Not Quite As Really Big, but also totally gaybones for Emerald Hammer.
[*]Mumble Mumble - A Doctor specializing in Doctor!
[*]Ranger Brad, the Token Loner-But-Not-Really character. [/list]
Exalted!
Moderator: Moderators
Yesterday was Episode One of Good Intentions (I christened the previous session "episode zero"). A rousing good time was had by all, except those who died. But no PCs perished, so that went fine.
The circle was heading east in their tiny boat (with tiny crew) from last time. They saw a flotilla northeast of them, damaged and heading north, and a ship peeled off from it, heading west (perpendicular to them, but further north). They intercepted and hailed that ship, were told that the flotilla had sank the pirates and freed the captives, and was now on it's way north to Coral. The circle sent their tiny boat north to Coral, and hitched a ride with the ship, which was faster, but had to stop elsewhere first, for "an errand".
While aboard ship, they discover many things, most of them not useful. There are three characters who matter, all Dragon-blooded: Iron Paradise, the fire aspect, Soaring Mantis, the wood aspect, and Islesi Something the water aspect captain. Islesi has a hearthstone compass, which he is following back to a manse. The circle managed to go the entire trip without finding this out, and still hasn't. They do figure out that the man wearing a lot of green is a dragon-blood. The crew is mostly not very nice people (but also people who nominally fight pirates for a living, so that's par for the course either way). They also hear as much as I could make up about various sailors homes, families and love for their homeland. That wasn't in the session plan; my players were just very, very interested in the personal lives of the mooks.
Eventually, they decided that there was no more blood in that particular stone, and fast forwarded to arrival, three days later. Along the way, they passed a pirate ship going the opposite direction, but didn't interact with it. They arrived at a small island with what looked like a burned down town on one side of it (they haven't checked it out yet). It's stereotypically volcano shaped, and has a caldera in the middle with a collapsed wall. That leaves the monastery inside surrounded on three sides, but with a nice level hike up to it. The characters bluster their way ashore with the landing party, and all together head towards the monastery. When they get there, it has also been burned trashed. All the monks are dead, and the statues are smashed. The dragon blooded ad the mooks they brought with them spread out purposefully; the PCs wander around. Eventually, one of them notices that the monastery is a manse, and they start looking for its heartstone room. discovering that it's going to be in the chapel, Hammer heads there, and finds Mantis keeping watch, and some of the pedestals from the statues moved. Hammer tries to move the next pedestal, and is unsuccessful. Then Mantis asks him to stop messing with stuff. Hammer gathers the rest of the circle, then they try to move the pedestal all at once. Mantis grabs for hammer to stop them; Hammer attacks Mantis with a grab; Mantis uses Safety Among Enemies to redirect his attack at Rabbit; and it's pretty much all downhill from there. Fortunately, Mantis only had time for the grab and a single punch before he had to exit out the south door (more on that later). The circle immediately returns to molesting the architecture, levering up the pedestal. Underneath, they find a passage with an irate Islesi, who shoots Hammer with an elemental blast from an essence lens. I was worried about that, because it ended up being way more dice than I'd planned on, but Hammer had a perfect soak available. Islesi uses Safety Among Enemies a few more times, and bolts out the east door. Throughout, there has been no talking.
After that, it turns into a fairly normal solar vs. dragon-blood brawl: Mantis dies, and the other two flee. Islesi gets captured fast and dragged back to the chapel, where Hammer and Third Monsoon (previously "Mumble Mumble") barricade themselves in. The rest all chase Iron Paradise down to the ship, and catch him on the beach, where, in full view of the crew, Rabbit knocks him out. In an effort to improve the situation, all three row out to the ship, hem and haw, then tell a story remarkably similar to "a crazy demon did it". They are not very convincing. Their follow-up attempt ("your officers are all fine, and have decided that everyone should come ashore for a barbecue") is also not very convincing. However, they are willing to send people to get Iron paradise, who is in plain sight, unconscious and burning on the beach. Ranger Brad goes with them, and convinces them not to move him until he wakes up. Orchid also goes with them, and starts back toward the monastery. Rabbit remains on the ship. At this point, the five members of the circle are in four different locations, and that's where the session ends.
Awsomely, they realize that they have basically just beaten up/killed the people who offered them a ride, for being a little evasive. These were NPCs who had been going to feed them to sharks later; maybe I'll let the players in on that in a bit. For next session, I'm going to watch them try to climb out of the hole they've dug.
The circle was heading east in their tiny boat (with tiny crew) from last time. They saw a flotilla northeast of them, damaged and heading north, and a ship peeled off from it, heading west (perpendicular to them, but further north). They intercepted and hailed that ship, were told that the flotilla had sank the pirates and freed the captives, and was now on it's way north to Coral. The circle sent their tiny boat north to Coral, and hitched a ride with the ship, which was faster, but had to stop elsewhere first, for "an errand".
While aboard ship, they discover many things, most of them not useful. There are three characters who matter, all Dragon-blooded: Iron Paradise, the fire aspect, Soaring Mantis, the wood aspect, and Islesi Something the water aspect captain. Islesi has a hearthstone compass, which he is following back to a manse. The circle managed to go the entire trip without finding this out, and still hasn't. They do figure out that the man wearing a lot of green is a dragon-blood. The crew is mostly not very nice people (but also people who nominally fight pirates for a living, so that's par for the course either way). They also hear as much as I could make up about various sailors homes, families and love for their homeland. That wasn't in the session plan; my players were just very, very interested in the personal lives of the mooks.
Eventually, they decided that there was no more blood in that particular stone, and fast forwarded to arrival, three days later. Along the way, they passed a pirate ship going the opposite direction, but didn't interact with it. They arrived at a small island with what looked like a burned down town on one side of it (they haven't checked it out yet). It's stereotypically volcano shaped, and has a caldera in the middle with a collapsed wall. That leaves the monastery inside surrounded on three sides, but with a nice level hike up to it. The characters bluster their way ashore with the landing party, and all together head towards the monastery. When they get there, it has also been burned trashed. All the monks are dead, and the statues are smashed. The dragon blooded ad the mooks they brought with them spread out purposefully; the PCs wander around. Eventually, one of them notices that the monastery is a manse, and they start looking for its heartstone room. discovering that it's going to be in the chapel, Hammer heads there, and finds Mantis keeping watch, and some of the pedestals from the statues moved. Hammer tries to move the next pedestal, and is unsuccessful. Then Mantis asks him to stop messing with stuff. Hammer gathers the rest of the circle, then they try to move the pedestal all at once. Mantis grabs for hammer to stop them; Hammer attacks Mantis with a grab; Mantis uses Safety Among Enemies to redirect his attack at Rabbit; and it's pretty much all downhill from there. Fortunately, Mantis only had time for the grab and a single punch before he had to exit out the south door (more on that later). The circle immediately returns to molesting the architecture, levering up the pedestal. Underneath, they find a passage with an irate Islesi, who shoots Hammer with an elemental blast from an essence lens. I was worried about that, because it ended up being way more dice than I'd planned on, but Hammer had a perfect soak available. Islesi uses Safety Among Enemies a few more times, and bolts out the east door. Throughout, there has been no talking.
After that, it turns into a fairly normal solar vs. dragon-blood brawl: Mantis dies, and the other two flee. Islesi gets captured fast and dragged back to the chapel, where Hammer and Third Monsoon (previously "Mumble Mumble") barricade themselves in. The rest all chase Iron Paradise down to the ship, and catch him on the beach, where, in full view of the crew, Rabbit knocks him out. In an effort to improve the situation, all three row out to the ship, hem and haw, then tell a story remarkably similar to "a crazy demon did it". They are not very convincing. Their follow-up attempt ("your officers are all fine, and have decided that everyone should come ashore for a barbecue") is also not very convincing. However, they are willing to send people to get Iron paradise, who is in plain sight, unconscious and burning on the beach. Ranger Brad goes with them, and convinces them not to move him until he wakes up. Orchid also goes with them, and starts back toward the monastery. Rabbit remains on the ship. At this point, the five members of the circle are in four different locations, and that's where the session ends.
Awsomely, they realize that they have basically just beaten up/killed the people who offered them a ride, for being a little evasive. These were NPCs who had been going to feed them to sharks later; maybe I'll let the players in on that in a bit. For next session, I'm going to watch them try to climb out of the hole they've dug.
I'm finding your stories to be fairly enjoyable to read. The chance of me ever playing exalted is probably so small as to be effectively zero, but that doesn't mean they're not fun. And campaign stories are a bit on the rare side for this forum anyway.
Out beyond the hull, mucoid strings of non-baryonic matter streamed past like Christ's blood in the firmament.
Session 2: When in a Hole...
When we left our intrepid heroes, they had first attacked their hosts (on the grounds that Hammer failed at attacking him), and then split the party into as many pieces as possible.
Rabbit began on the ship, and stayed there for most of the session. He went back and forth between the demon story and the barbecue story, and rolled rather a lot of botches on each. Orchid was walking back to the manse, and was accosted by five of the remaining marines. They attempted to drag her off (as a hostage), but were only partly successful. She screamed, and they started trying to knock her out. Unfortunately for them, she still had Invulnerable Skin of Bronze active from last session. Their attack bonuses were significant, but she soaked everything. Hearing her scream, Hammer and Third Monsoon (who the party now calls "Doctor Murder" for his actions last session) quickly un-barricaded the chapel and emerged. Monsoon gutted one of the marines like a fish, and they all ran back to the dormitory. Monsoon, Hammer, and Orchid retreated back to the chapel and re-barricaded themselves in. Ranger Brad continued sitting on the beach trying to think of some reasonable explanation for their actions. Rabbit continued botching explanations to the crew. Everyone waits for a two hours.
Hammer tries to punch their Dragon Blood captive awake, resetting his "passed out" timer. Everyone fails perception checks. Time to go negotiate with the marines! They re-un-barricade the chapel and head over to the dorm. The marines are no longer there. If this is starting to seem a little Benny Hillish, that's because it is. Everyone fails perception checks again. Rabbit tries to stare down the crew, and botches. Everyone fails perception checks again. Rabbit notices by fiat that the crew have all gathered elsewhere, and there is an additional person there who is soaking wet (the marine who everyone repeatedly failed to notice swimming out to the ship). The marine yells (approximately) "get him". Rabbit tries social combatting them, and botches. They threaten Rabbit. Cut to the beach! The crew are oblivious, but Ranger Brad sees trouble brewing on the boat and attacks! Sailor is injured! Three sailors surround and threaten Brad, the other two grab the Fire Aspect and drag him toward the launch. Brad attacks the draggers! More minor injuries! Now we enter the learning part of the session: the grapple rules. The grapple rules take a long time, and there is much ineffectual pawing. Eventually, brad and one of the sailors have each taken two whole levels of bashing damage, and he's had enough. He wins control of the grapple, breaks free, and retreats (taking a point of limit, per his idiom). The sailors grab the dragon blood and the launch and row back to the ship. Meanwhile Rabbit, finding himself surrounded by a hojillion sailors (well, six anyway) surrenders. Brad meets the party from the chapel, and they all head down to the beach. The ship begins moving. A bosun comes below to interrogate Rabbit. Rabbit says nothing. Just then there is an explosion! Orchid, having regained essence, blows it all on some spell that explodes a mast. Chaos! The bosun leaves, and the ship begins moving more away with its two remaining masts.
The party (minus Rabbit) explores the town. It continues to be burned down. I add a pier and a sunken ship, concerned that otherwise they may actually maroon themselves. There is also a generic mystic's hut for similar reasons. Everyone fails a few more perception checks. The ship secretly sails around the island, comes close to shore, and picks up the marines. At this point, I'm trying to determine if anyone even knows that their hostage is alive. I can't think of anyone. Nonetheless, the ship sails out a few hundred yards away from them, anchors there, and waits. The party also waits, hoping their sole remaining bargaining chip is not in a coma. This time, they refrain from practicing percussive medicine, and after a few hours he wakes up. Also this time, they try talking first. After some questions and answers, the eclipse binds the party not to raise a hand against any of the crew, Islesi not to raise a hand against them, and to deliver them safely to Coral, and not to turn them over to authorities. They agree to return all his stuff too.
Break while I figure out where this can go next (I expected less Benny Hill, and then less capitulation). Rabbit respecs to social-fu.
They are unpopular on the ship for the next three and a half weeks. Monsoon gains a point of limit each week (his suggestion, and a fair one). After that, a nondescript sailor slips into one of their rooms and says that they need to get off the ship, they will be fed to sharks on arrival at Coral, and that they need to pay attention when there is a commotion tomorrow. They decide to leave immediately. Orchid has spent her time learning a spell that turns fruits into boats, so they send Ranger Brad to the galley to find a banana. The banana caper goes off without a hitch. They figure out someplace to go which isn't a necromancer kingdom, and begin the sneaking.
Above decks, there are a half dozen sailors on watch. They are not impressed by Plan:Bananaboat, but are very impressed with Rabbit's speech. If I recall correctly, it went: "whoa! Hey, whoa! Sometimes nature is just like 'whoa!', and you've gotta go with it. Whoa." Rabbit also gave several more speeches, all variations on that theme. Meanwhile, everyone else climbed down into the banana boat. Monsoon (né Dr. Murder) nearly attacked one of the watch, but thought better of it. The Jade Gull (did I mention that was the ship's name?) hauled around and followed them all the way to Muddy Reefs, an unimposing dock town.
When we left our intrepid heroes, they had first attacked their hosts (on the grounds that Hammer failed at attacking him), and then split the party into as many pieces as possible.
Rabbit began on the ship, and stayed there for most of the session. He went back and forth between the demon story and the barbecue story, and rolled rather a lot of botches on each. Orchid was walking back to the manse, and was accosted by five of the remaining marines. They attempted to drag her off (as a hostage), but were only partly successful. She screamed, and they started trying to knock her out. Unfortunately for them, she still had Invulnerable Skin of Bronze active from last session. Their attack bonuses were significant, but she soaked everything. Hearing her scream, Hammer and Third Monsoon (who the party now calls "Doctor Murder" for his actions last session) quickly un-barricaded the chapel and emerged. Monsoon gutted one of the marines like a fish, and they all ran back to the dormitory. Monsoon, Hammer, and Orchid retreated back to the chapel and re-barricaded themselves in. Ranger Brad continued sitting on the beach trying to think of some reasonable explanation for their actions. Rabbit continued botching explanations to the crew. Everyone waits for a two hours.
Hammer tries to punch their Dragon Blood captive awake, resetting his "passed out" timer. Everyone fails perception checks. Time to go negotiate with the marines! They re-un-barricade the chapel and head over to the dorm. The marines are no longer there. If this is starting to seem a little Benny Hillish, that's because it is. Everyone fails perception checks again. Rabbit tries to stare down the crew, and botches. Everyone fails perception checks again. Rabbit notices by fiat that the crew have all gathered elsewhere, and there is an additional person there who is soaking wet (the marine who everyone repeatedly failed to notice swimming out to the ship). The marine yells (approximately) "get him". Rabbit tries social combatting them, and botches. They threaten Rabbit. Cut to the beach! The crew are oblivious, but Ranger Brad sees trouble brewing on the boat and attacks! Sailor is injured! Three sailors surround and threaten Brad, the other two grab the Fire Aspect and drag him toward the launch. Brad attacks the draggers! More minor injuries! Now we enter the learning part of the session: the grapple rules. The grapple rules take a long time, and there is much ineffectual pawing. Eventually, brad and one of the sailors have each taken two whole levels of bashing damage, and he's had enough. He wins control of the grapple, breaks free, and retreats (taking a point of limit, per his idiom). The sailors grab the dragon blood and the launch and row back to the ship. Meanwhile Rabbit, finding himself surrounded by a hojillion sailors (well, six anyway) surrenders. Brad meets the party from the chapel, and they all head down to the beach. The ship begins moving. A bosun comes below to interrogate Rabbit. Rabbit says nothing. Just then there is an explosion! Orchid, having regained essence, blows it all on some spell that explodes a mast. Chaos! The bosun leaves, and the ship begins moving more away with its two remaining masts.
The party (minus Rabbit) explores the town. It continues to be burned down. I add a pier and a sunken ship, concerned that otherwise they may actually maroon themselves. There is also a generic mystic's hut for similar reasons. Everyone fails a few more perception checks. The ship secretly sails around the island, comes close to shore, and picks up the marines. At this point, I'm trying to determine if anyone even knows that their hostage is alive. I can't think of anyone. Nonetheless, the ship sails out a few hundred yards away from them, anchors there, and waits. The party also waits, hoping their sole remaining bargaining chip is not in a coma. This time, they refrain from practicing percussive medicine, and after a few hours he wakes up. Also this time, they try talking first. After some questions and answers, the eclipse binds the party not to raise a hand against any of the crew, Islesi not to raise a hand against them, and to deliver them safely to Coral, and not to turn them over to authorities. They agree to return all his stuff too.
Break while I figure out where this can go next (I expected less Benny Hill, and then less capitulation). Rabbit respecs to social-fu.
They are unpopular on the ship for the next three and a half weeks. Monsoon gains a point of limit each week (his suggestion, and a fair one). After that, a nondescript sailor slips into one of their rooms and says that they need to get off the ship, they will be fed to sharks on arrival at Coral, and that they need to pay attention when there is a commotion tomorrow. They decide to leave immediately. Orchid has spent her time learning a spell that turns fruits into boats, so they send Ranger Brad to the galley to find a banana. The banana caper goes off without a hitch. They figure out someplace to go which isn't a necromancer kingdom, and begin the sneaking.
Above decks, there are a half dozen sailors on watch. They are not impressed by Plan:Bananaboat, but are very impressed with Rabbit's speech. If I recall correctly, it went: "whoa! Hey, whoa! Sometimes nature is just like 'whoa!', and you've gotta go with it. Whoa." Rabbit also gave several more speeches, all variations on that theme. Meanwhile, everyone else climbed down into the banana boat. Monsoon (né Dr. Murder) nearly attacked one of the watch, but thought better of it. The Jade Gull (did I mention that was the ship's name?) hauled around and followed them all the way to Muddy Reefs, an unimposing dock town.
Last edited by fectin on Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Session 3: "Pirates? Pirates?! We Don't Need No Stinkin' Pirates!"
When we left our heroes, they had just pulled in to Muddy Reefs. As it was situated pretty much directly between three regional powers, I decided it was Tortuga, and described it as filled with pirates, privateers, inns, taverns, and brothels. When asked what they wanted to do, Monsoon and Orchid came up with nothing, Ranger Brad went drinking, Rabbit went to "save whores" and Hammer chose to be beaten with clubs. No, really. He wanted to train for a resistance charm, but expressed it as, "I get beaten with clubs for a few days". After the beatings, he went to a tavern and drank, listening for rumors. He heard some vague stuff about representatives from Coral and from Skullstone had each been there recently, spreading money around, and some details about the various factions on the island. I ask Rabbit how he is saving whores, and after some confusion, it turns out that "saving" means "chatting with". Not as in bringing them the Gospel according to Quixotic Spring Rabbit, but actually going around and making small talk with them.
Somewhere in here, they ask about whether the Jade Gull is still hanging out, whether it's blockading the harbor, etc. Yes it is, it's hailing some ships, not doing much else. Rabbit immediately proposes flinging flaming prostitutes at the ship. Ten minute discussion on how to do that. It ends when they realize that they're not actually sure what that accomplishes. Instead, they decide to leave Tortuga immediately! Oh, my poor prep work.
They scout around for a charterable boat, but decide instead to rehash the previous plan of having Orchid make a boat out of fruit. Specifically, they will wait for nightfall, climb over the mountains away from the city to get to the other side of the island, then burn enough essence to be visible for miles. Then, still burning like a beacon, they will pilot their mangoboat to an intermediate island, then on to Coral.
So off they go. Along the way, they fail several more perception checks, but eventually figure out that a couple of ships are following them. They reach the intermediate island around 6AM, see that it is growing giant grapes, and argue about how to scam the locals into believing they are legit. That discussion ends when they instead sprint through the giant grape fields to the other side of the island, find a beach and lay down to sleep.
Monsoon changes gender to a woman, so that they can celebrate her antics by playing 'Miss Murder".
After a full day of sleeping on the beach, they wake up and mangoboat toward Coral. More perception checks tell them that there are sharks in the water. Many, many sharks. They are approaching Coral from the secret military base side, so some triremes came out to intercept them. This time, their talking checks went much better, and they got off with directions to the harbor they are allowed to land at. Because Floral Ferry (the fruit-boat spell) only allows selecting a destination at casting time, they load into a whole new boat, and sail around.
At this point, we are way, way outside anything I had prepared, and near a major plot area much sooner than I had planned for. This session was going to be about diplomancying against deathknights in Muddy Reefs, and instead it's about finding captives in a place I have not planned out at all. So, everything slows down for a bit while I scramble for ideas.
(will post the rest later)
When we left our heroes, they had just pulled in to Muddy Reefs. As it was situated pretty much directly between three regional powers, I decided it was Tortuga, and described it as filled with pirates, privateers, inns, taverns, and brothels. When asked what they wanted to do, Monsoon and Orchid came up with nothing, Ranger Brad went drinking, Rabbit went to "save whores" and Hammer chose to be beaten with clubs. No, really. He wanted to train for a resistance charm, but expressed it as, "I get beaten with clubs for a few days". After the beatings, he went to a tavern and drank, listening for rumors. He heard some vague stuff about representatives from Coral and from Skullstone had each been there recently, spreading money around, and some details about the various factions on the island. I ask Rabbit how he is saving whores, and after some confusion, it turns out that "saving" means "chatting with". Not as in bringing them the Gospel according to Quixotic Spring Rabbit, but actually going around and making small talk with them.
Somewhere in here, they ask about whether the Jade Gull is still hanging out, whether it's blockading the harbor, etc. Yes it is, it's hailing some ships, not doing much else. Rabbit immediately proposes flinging flaming prostitutes at the ship. Ten minute discussion on how to do that. It ends when they realize that they're not actually sure what that accomplishes. Instead, they decide to leave Tortuga immediately! Oh, my poor prep work.
They scout around for a charterable boat, but decide instead to rehash the previous plan of having Orchid make a boat out of fruit. Specifically, they will wait for nightfall, climb over the mountains away from the city to get to the other side of the island, then burn enough essence to be visible for miles. Then, still burning like a beacon, they will pilot their mangoboat to an intermediate island, then on to Coral.
So off they go. Along the way, they fail several more perception checks, but eventually figure out that a couple of ships are following them. They reach the intermediate island around 6AM, see that it is growing giant grapes, and argue about how to scam the locals into believing they are legit. That discussion ends when they instead sprint through the giant grape fields to the other side of the island, find a beach and lay down to sleep.
Monsoon changes gender to a woman, so that they can celebrate her antics by playing 'Miss Murder".
After a full day of sleeping on the beach, they wake up and mangoboat toward Coral. More perception checks tell them that there are sharks in the water. Many, many sharks. They are approaching Coral from the secret military base side, so some triremes came out to intercept them. This time, their talking checks went much better, and they got off with directions to the harbor they are allowed to land at. Because Floral Ferry (the fruit-boat spell) only allows selecting a destination at casting time, they load into a whole new boat, and sail around.
At this point, we are way, way outside anything I had prepared, and near a major plot area much sooner than I had planned for. This session was going to be about diplomancying against deathknights in Muddy Reefs, and instead it's about finding captives in a place I have not planned out at all. So, everything slows down for a bit while I scramble for ideas.
(will post the rest later)
-
...You Lost Me
- Duke
- Posts: 1854
- Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:21 am
I'm liking it.
DSMatticus wrote:Again, look at this fucking map you moron. Take your finger and trace each country's coast, then trace its claim line. Even you - and I say that as someone who could not think less of your intelligence - should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other.
Kaelik wrote:I invented saying mean things about Tussock.
Session 3 continued, aka "make sure the villains have twirly mustaches"
The session continued after a short pause. The circle pulls up at a dock at about 6AM and gets off their mango. A customs official bustles over to deal with them; but they avoid all taxes and fees by feigning ignorance. This is greatly assisted by the sudden lack of mangoboat (per the spell, it disappears a few minutes after arriving). Hammer locates the nearest bar and explains that he is looking for his friends. The bartender is both tired and confused. Dismayed that J. Random Barkeep does not know the inner workings of the restricted military base, and also that there are very few other patrons at 6AM, Hammer returns to the group. At this point Rabbit gave me a nice hook when she (err, pronouns. Two players are crossplaying now. If I mix genders like I did here, it's because player and character do not match) remembers that she sent her boat on ahead, and it probably should be here by now. Rabbit asks the customs official about it. Her crew showed up without money, so it was impounded. After a brief bureaucracy- off (wherin the circle does not shine), it is being held for resources 3 in fines, duties, taxes, and "fines, duties, and taxes". Three of the circle can pay that much, but it would reduce purchasing power for whoever did it. So they ask if there are any odd jobs he needs done instead. To make this go better, Rabbit uses a charm to tell him everyone's motivation, in this case ambition and greed. "Sure," says the customs official. "I'm pretty sure this captain is a smuggler, and my boss the harbormaster is totally taking bribes. You should rough them up and bring them to the edge of the docks behind my office." "Cool" say the circle, and off they go, but not before getting many details on the harbormaster's butler.
After getting an inn, they track down Rabbit's crew. They are properly chastised for losing custody of the ship, and then just partying for a week. All is forgiven when it turns out that they have met Cathatk Gayman (the ship captain). He is a regular at the Pink Baboon. Rabbit seduces what kind of bar that will be, so dresses "like the male prostitute from Fable 3". No, I don't know why. After waiting for nightfall, they go to the Pink Baboon. On arrival, Hammer sends his dire wolf around to guard ghe back. Inside is a raging party. Rabbit says he has a package for Gayman, and they are directed to a corner with a half dozen people. They ask which is Gayman, and a woman answers. Shock! Confusion! The end of what was apparently a gay seduction plot! Instead, Rabbit tries to convince her to go out back. At last, a social roll is a success and out they go. Gammon goes first, sees the wolf, and punches it (what other options does she have?). The circle blanket beat her rather easily (mortal). They parade her through the streets, and drop her off with the crew to be looked after.
Then off to the harbormaster's house. I'm not sure why they asked so many questions about everything there, because they ended up just ringing the doorbel and punching out the butler. Then they tie up the harbormaster, and search for evidence of bribery. They find it.
That the harbormaster was corrupt was all the proof they need. They drag him back and hang out at the hotel until morning. Then they deliver them to the docks behind the customs officer's office. He thanks them, beaurocracies away all the fees and "fees", and hands them appropriate paperwork. then as they walk away, they hear two splashes.
The session continued after a short pause. The circle pulls up at a dock at about 6AM and gets off their mango. A customs official bustles over to deal with them; but they avoid all taxes and fees by feigning ignorance. This is greatly assisted by the sudden lack of mangoboat (per the spell, it disappears a few minutes after arriving). Hammer locates the nearest bar and explains that he is looking for his friends. The bartender is both tired and confused. Dismayed that J. Random Barkeep does not know the inner workings of the restricted military base, and also that there are very few other patrons at 6AM, Hammer returns to the group. At this point Rabbit gave me a nice hook when she (err, pronouns. Two players are crossplaying now. If I mix genders like I did here, it's because player and character do not match) remembers that she sent her boat on ahead, and it probably should be here by now. Rabbit asks the customs official about it. Her crew showed up without money, so it was impounded. After a brief bureaucracy- off (wherin the circle does not shine), it is being held for resources 3 in fines, duties, taxes, and "fines, duties, and taxes". Three of the circle can pay that much, but it would reduce purchasing power for whoever did it. So they ask if there are any odd jobs he needs done instead. To make this go better, Rabbit uses a charm to tell him everyone's motivation, in this case ambition and greed. "Sure," says the customs official. "I'm pretty sure this captain is a smuggler, and my boss the harbormaster is totally taking bribes. You should rough them up and bring them to the edge of the docks behind my office." "Cool" say the circle, and off they go, but not before getting many details on the harbormaster's butler.
After getting an inn, they track down Rabbit's crew. They are properly chastised for losing custody of the ship, and then just partying for a week. All is forgiven when it turns out that they have met Cathatk Gayman (the ship captain). He is a regular at the Pink Baboon. Rabbit seduces what kind of bar that will be, so dresses "like the male prostitute from Fable 3". No, I don't know why. After waiting for nightfall, they go to the Pink Baboon. On arrival, Hammer sends his dire wolf around to guard ghe back. Inside is a raging party. Rabbit says he has a package for Gayman, and they are directed to a corner with a half dozen people. They ask which is Gayman, and a woman answers. Shock! Confusion! The end of what was apparently a gay seduction plot! Instead, Rabbit tries to convince her to go out back. At last, a social roll is a success and out they go. Gammon goes first, sees the wolf, and punches it (what other options does she have?). The circle blanket beat her rather easily (mortal). They parade her through the streets, and drop her off with the crew to be looked after.
Then off to the harbormaster's house. I'm not sure why they asked so many questions about everything there, because they ended up just ringing the doorbel and punching out the butler. Then they tie up the harbormaster, and search for evidence of bribery. They find it.
That the harbormaster was corrupt was all the proof they need. They drag him back and hang out at the hotel until morning. Then they deliver them to the docks behind the customs officer's office. He thanks them, beaurocracies away all the fees and "fees", and hands them appropriate paperwork. then as they walk away, they hear two splashes.
Episode 4 "Swift Justice, done swiftly"
Half the party gets arrested for murders. The other half escapes. The jailed half gets bought out of prison by the Sea Lord because Exalted Tortuga has been taken over by Skullstone, and he needs them to go kick Skullstone out with maximum force. The other half are recruited by someone in a fancy mansion that they don't recognize to quietly influence Skullstone off of Tortuga, on the down low. He pays their murder fine to get them to agree.
Overall, not much happens. However, this sets up future wacky hijinks.
This time: Episode 5 "How I learned to stop worrying and love the zombie"
Just finished, but I have to wake up tomorrow. Update later
Half the party gets arrested for murders. The other half escapes. The jailed half gets bought out of prison by the Sea Lord because Exalted Tortuga has been taken over by Skullstone, and he needs them to go kick Skullstone out with maximum force. The other half are recruited by someone in a fancy mansion that they don't recognize to quietly influence Skullstone off of Tortuga, on the down low. He pays their murder fine to get them to agree.
Overall, not much happens. However, this sets up future wacky hijinks.
This time: Episode 5 "How I learned to stop worrying and love the zombie"
Just finished, but I have to wake up tomorrow. Update later
Last edited by fectin on Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm two sessions behind on these updates now; so here's the next one:
The party reconvened at their hotel, and discovered the slight discrepancy in their tasks (drive Skullstone off Muddy Reefs quietly vs. bloody their nose). So without further ado, they gleefully hopped into their ship and away they sailed.
After a week, they arrive at Muddy Reefs. After a brief interlude where they try to find someone to pay docking fees to and discover that absolutely everyone is willing to take their money, they scout the town and find it mostly unchanged, except for more paved roads and some scaffolding on the front of the Merchant Consortium building. Questioning a random bystander revealed that zombie work gangs showed up and started making civic improvements, and a bit after that, a woman showed up and started preaching. Emerald Hammer decides that Zenith Caste means Lawful Stupid paladin, and that he therefore hates the undead (which IMHO is like hating Nazis for having terrible fashion sense). So Third Monsoon takes him drinking instead (a plan with which nothing could go tragically wrong). Ranger Brad scouts the town and locates a couple work gangs, led by ghosts.
Orchid and Rabbit head for the Consortium building, and after a bit of futzing about, find the three most successful merchants: a jewler (Brilliant Parakeet), a gem broker (Stewed Rabbit), and a trans-shipper (Scarlet Orchard). With no further planning, they approach Brilliant Parakeet.
"We are to be wed!" proclaims Quixotic Spring Rabbit, while Copper Orchid looks shocked and confused. "We are deeply in love!" he continues. Stunned silence prevails. "We require a wedding ring! The largest of rings!"
"Aww, you're cute!" exclaims Parakeet. "I'll help you out."
"Excellent," replies Bunny. "So how about those zombies?"
They went into an impromptu social combat, and Parakeet burned a bunch of willpower and lost some points of intimacy toward Skullstone (which he had from having already been worked on by an Abyssal for a week). His arguments back stumped Bunny a couple times, because they are superficially plausible, but that exchange did not end with Bunny taking the helpful pamphlets (which is tragic, because I really wanted to turn one of them). After that, there was a bit more flirting, and Parakeet agreed to meet them at a bar later.
Onward to Stewed Rabbit. Once again, Bunny opens with "We are to be wed!" Stewed Rabbit does not care. He deals in gems. In volume. It's not like he's uninterested in selling them a diamond, but there's just no single stone he's going to get excited over.
Bunny bobbled, then recovered "...so we will need jewel-encrusted toilets. At least seven jewel-encrusted toilets. One with each kind of jewel."
That works fine as a reason for him to talk to them for a while, so they again immediately segue into "how 'bout them zombies?" this time goes better. The pro-zombie contingent (Stewed Rabbit) again offers plausible arguments, but his heart isn't in it (blew all his willpower resisting the abyssal conditioning. Good for him). They quickly hit a scene's worth of convincing, and again agree to meet at a bar later to further discuss Bunny's toilet needs.
Finally, Scarlet Orchard. Once again, "We are to be wed!" opens the discussion. The gem-encrusted toilets also make a reappearance. Now though, they are to be high quality toilets. The highest of quality! Scarlet Orchard might know where to get some high quality toilets, in exchange for exorbitant fees... Again though, the conversation immediately moves to zombies. This time though, Bunny is betrayed by the treacherous dice, and completely fails to make headway. So he end-runs the conversation and makes Orchard paranoid that zombies will "eat his tasty brain-meats". Hugely successful. He also agrees to meet them later at the bar.
Ranger Brad continued scouting about, gathering info on the work gangs. Hammer and Monsoon continue drinking. The party continues cracking wise about "Doctor Miss Murder's" murderous propensities, and Hammer's many illegitimate children.
Bunny and Orchid head to the bar. They spend a while longer pushing on the merchants' intimacies (losing willpower themselves) then Bunny takes Brilliant Parakeet upstairs to work on a different kind of intimacy.
Everyone waits for evening, when a woman apparently comes and preaches sermons about Skullstone. That happens, and she shows up. Everyone wanders over to listen, except Quixotic Spring Rabbit, who bursts through a second story window, then wanders over to listen quietly. After a few minutes, they start heckling. It has no effect whatsoever (combination of bad roles and a social-focused Abyssal). So they get bored, wander off, and kill one of the work gangs. With fire. It still takes way too long, but the session ends there.
The party reconvened at their hotel, and discovered the slight discrepancy in their tasks (drive Skullstone off Muddy Reefs quietly vs. bloody their nose). So without further ado, they gleefully hopped into their ship and away they sailed.
After a week, they arrive at Muddy Reefs. After a brief interlude where they try to find someone to pay docking fees to and discover that absolutely everyone is willing to take their money, they scout the town and find it mostly unchanged, except for more paved roads and some scaffolding on the front of the Merchant Consortium building. Questioning a random bystander revealed that zombie work gangs showed up and started making civic improvements, and a bit after that, a woman showed up and started preaching. Emerald Hammer decides that Zenith Caste means Lawful Stupid paladin, and that he therefore hates the undead (which IMHO is like hating Nazis for having terrible fashion sense). So Third Monsoon takes him drinking instead (a plan with which nothing could go tragically wrong). Ranger Brad scouts the town and locates a couple work gangs, led by ghosts.
Orchid and Rabbit head for the Consortium building, and after a bit of futzing about, find the three most successful merchants: a jewler (Brilliant Parakeet), a gem broker (Stewed Rabbit), and a trans-shipper (Scarlet Orchard). With no further planning, they approach Brilliant Parakeet.
"We are to be wed!" proclaims Quixotic Spring Rabbit, while Copper Orchid looks shocked and confused. "We are deeply in love!" he continues. Stunned silence prevails. "We require a wedding ring! The largest of rings!"
"Aww, you're cute!" exclaims Parakeet. "I'll help you out."
"Excellent," replies Bunny. "So how about those zombies?"
They went into an impromptu social combat, and Parakeet burned a bunch of willpower and lost some points of intimacy toward Skullstone (which he had from having already been worked on by an Abyssal for a week). His arguments back stumped Bunny a couple times, because they are superficially plausible, but that exchange did not end with Bunny taking the helpful pamphlets (which is tragic, because I really wanted to turn one of them). After that, there was a bit more flirting, and Parakeet agreed to meet them at a bar later.
Onward to Stewed Rabbit. Once again, Bunny opens with "We are to be wed!" Stewed Rabbit does not care. He deals in gems. In volume. It's not like he's uninterested in selling them a diamond, but there's just no single stone he's going to get excited over.
Bunny bobbled, then recovered "...so we will need jewel-encrusted toilets. At least seven jewel-encrusted toilets. One with each kind of jewel."
That works fine as a reason for him to talk to them for a while, so they again immediately segue into "how 'bout them zombies?" this time goes better. The pro-zombie contingent (Stewed Rabbit) again offers plausible arguments, but his heart isn't in it (blew all his willpower resisting the abyssal conditioning. Good for him). They quickly hit a scene's worth of convincing, and again agree to meet at a bar later to further discuss Bunny's toilet needs.
Finally, Scarlet Orchard. Once again, "We are to be wed!" opens the discussion. The gem-encrusted toilets also make a reappearance. Now though, they are to be high quality toilets. The highest of quality! Scarlet Orchard might know where to get some high quality toilets, in exchange for exorbitant fees... Again though, the conversation immediately moves to zombies. This time though, Bunny is betrayed by the treacherous dice, and completely fails to make headway. So he end-runs the conversation and makes Orchard paranoid that zombies will "eat his tasty brain-meats". Hugely successful. He also agrees to meet them later at the bar.
Ranger Brad continued scouting about, gathering info on the work gangs. Hammer and Monsoon continue drinking. The party continues cracking wise about "Doctor Miss Murder's" murderous propensities, and Hammer's many illegitimate children.
Bunny and Orchid head to the bar. They spend a while longer pushing on the merchants' intimacies (losing willpower themselves) then Bunny takes Brilliant Parakeet upstairs to work on a different kind of intimacy.
Everyone waits for evening, when a woman apparently comes and preaches sermons about Skullstone. That happens, and she shows up. Everyone wanders over to listen, except Quixotic Spring Rabbit, who bursts through a second story window, then wanders over to listen quietly. After a few minutes, they start heckling. It has no effect whatsoever (combination of bad roles and a social-focused Abyssal). So they get bored, wander off, and kill one of the work gangs. With fire. It still takes way too long, but the session ends there.
Episode Six: zombies with matches
This session had a fair amount of combat, so not much actually happened story-wise.
When we left our heroes, they had just slaughtered a civic-minded zombie work-gang, and in the process lit the low-income housing around them on fire. After some brief discussion, Ranger Brad went scouting, Hammer and Monsoon went to kill more zombies, and Orchid and Rabbit stayed to explain why they were standing in the middle of dead zombies and fire. When the mob arrived, they explained that the zombies had been playing with matches. Which went over really, really well. The next attempt "...so we should throw them off our island" went much less well. A retry also failed, so Rabbit settled for forming a bucket chain to put out a fire.
Hammer and Monsoon found a second gang to attack, and started tearing through them. Brad continued scouting, and eventually climbed a building to shoot into the fight.
Rabbit slipped away from the first fire and ran over to start another fire at the fight, then speechified again to the crowd that gathered there. Again, zombie pyromaniacs.
Hammer, Monsoon, and Orchid return to the Inn to sleep. Brad patrols. Rabbit goes to Brilliant Parakeet's opulent mansion to "sleep". The remaining zombies continue building a statue and a road.
The next morning, everyone wakes up to a gathering in front of the Merchants Consortium building. It's the preacher, with the zombies lined up in the square. She gives a very sad speech. Then they all march sadly into the water. One of the ghosts stops to sadly pat a kitten. The kitten is also sad.
Rabbit promptly hops up and gives and gives an inspiring shoulder-to-the-wheel speech., which basically undoes all the brainwashing the Abyssal had just finished.
The circle takes over Muddy Reefs, and the session ends there.
This session had a fair amount of combat, so not much actually happened story-wise.
When we left our heroes, they had just slaughtered a civic-minded zombie work-gang, and in the process lit the low-income housing around them on fire. After some brief discussion, Ranger Brad went scouting, Hammer and Monsoon went to kill more zombies, and Orchid and Rabbit stayed to explain why they were standing in the middle of dead zombies and fire. When the mob arrived, they explained that the zombies had been playing with matches. Which went over really, really well. The next attempt "...so we should throw them off our island" went much less well. A retry also failed, so Rabbit settled for forming a bucket chain to put out a fire.
Hammer and Monsoon found a second gang to attack, and started tearing through them. Brad continued scouting, and eventually climbed a building to shoot into the fight.
Rabbit slipped away from the first fire and ran over to start another fire at the fight, then speechified again to the crowd that gathered there. Again, zombie pyromaniacs.
Hammer, Monsoon, and Orchid return to the Inn to sleep. Brad patrols. Rabbit goes to Brilliant Parakeet's opulent mansion to "sleep". The remaining zombies continue building a statue and a road.
The next morning, everyone wakes up to a gathering in front of the Merchants Consortium building. It's the preacher, with the zombies lined up in the square. She gives a very sad speech. Then they all march sadly into the water. One of the ghosts stops to sadly pat a kitten. The kitten is also sad.
Rabbit promptly hops up and gives and gives an inspiring shoulder-to-the-wheel speech., which basically undoes all the brainwashing the Abyssal had just finished.
The circle takes over Muddy Reefs, and the session ends there.
Episode Seven: Unpunchable Problems Are The Worst
This episode jumps forward three months from the end of the last episode. Hammer has spent his time converting Muddy Reefs to his religion by drinking them under the table one at a time, then dressing them as monks while they're passed out, and imposed taxes to support this regime. Though unorthodox, this has been effective. Rabbit has set Brilliant Parakeet up as a sort of mayor of Muddy Reefs. Orchid went back to visit their home, and found it was largely rebuilt, and that people had been there asking about them. Third Monsoon discovered that if you offer enough money, fishermen will claim to be mercenaries, and also that fishermen do not make good mercenaries, and also that lemon-baked salmon is good. He was able to patch two of them up after though; that's similar to a good thing. He also wrote a threatening letter to the person who sprang him (back in episode 4, the not-so-mysterious lord who sprang them also agreed to look into where their friends had ended up). Ranger Brad went hunting.
So, three months later, they sprang into Rabbit's boat and sailed off for Coral to find out whether their benefactor had found their friends, and to punch him if he hadn't. They anchored offshore and sailed a banana in to avoid paying docking fees, then walked over to his house and tried to get in to see him, only to be told he was at a different estate, and wouldn't be back for a week. Rabbit got a room at a (female) whorehouse, and stayed inside for a week. Ironically, this was to stay chaste, due to now being in a committed relationship with a (male) NPC. Hammer and Brad went hunting. They eventually found a tyrant lizard (think T-Rex with spikes), but someone noticed it had a collar before they attacked, so they slipped away again, and, reasoning that they were likely on some sort of nature preserve, quietly went back to town. Orchid and Monsoon spent a bit figuring out about the town, and asked around about who this guy they're going after is anyway. It's really easy to find out, because he's a super-popular former Sea Lord, right out of the splatbook. They digress briefly to wonder why two different influential characters are both trying to use them, but don't pursue that line of questioning for long (it's not just hamhandedness; they each had fairly solid motivations). Even so, a week later, they show back up ready to beat up this guy unless he has solved all their problems.
This time, they don't have an appointment. Rabbit talks them in, but they're left cooling their heels for a while in a waiting room. Hammer goes and steals booze from the kitchen. Eventually Lord Girard has time to see them. He has found some of their friends, and will arrange for them to be delivered. Not good enough! They pressure him into telling where they are right now, then travel to that estate to demand their release. That turns out to be pretty easy, because their friends are working in the kitchen, where they have been employed ever since Girard found them, bought them, and emancipated them.
After transporting five of their friends (leaving one who wanted to stay) back to Rabbit's boat, the circle asks about their capture. they had been herded onto ships, then some of them got taken away. Then there was a fight, then they mostly got transferred to other ships. They headed northish for a while, and one of them who got too mouthy about his rights was pushed overboard to the sharks, so they didn't ask a lot more questions after that. Then most of them were taken and sold as slaves. Four of this group and the one who stayed behind had worked at some sort of textiles for sails, and one worked at building a seawall. Then they were bought by Lord Girard, emancipated, given jobs, and had been saving up. Orchid's brother was alive, but he and a few others had been separated from the main group shortly after they arrived at Coral (they speculated then that Orchid's brother was evil, and had led the pirates to the island originally. After all, they showed up in his boat).
Then the circle began investigating to find where everyone else was. They found an auction block where their friends had come through, and seduced their way into looking at those records, and found that three had been sold to some merchant, two to an innkeeper, and ten to the Sea Lord (which is about like selling property "to the crown"; it just means to the government). They tracked down the innkeeper first, and after some impressive bargaining, bought those two's freedom.
Then they figured out where government-purchased slaves went, and bluffed their way in there pretending to be investigators. It was a sort of clearing-house, where they brought people in and held them until sending them off to where that skillset was needed. They found two sets of records there, one a general set of receiving and transfer logs, and the other a detailed set of personnel records, organized by admittance date. Unfortunately, the detailed records from five to three months prior were missing; having been taken by an actual audit by the scary Coral auditors. Nonetheless, they determined that five men had been transferred to the department of public works, and five women to navy supply. I forget how, but they determined that the women had been transferred to sailmaking. After proclaiming their enthusiasm and love for sails to random sailors and wondering where sails come from, they eventually asked about sailmakers, and found a factory. They stared for a while, considering how to get in, then someone knocked on the door and asked to see inside. That may have been the wrong question, because they got a tour, and learned all about the history of sails. Eventually, someone described who they were looking for, and asked if anyone had seen them. Yes, they were here until two months ago, then had been bought by Lord Girard. They puzzled over that for a bit, then realized that the people they had already found had been working as sailmakers. Oops.
Backtracking, they went for the department of public works. One of those five, they had already found, leaving four more. They went around worksites asking after them, until they found a foreman who lied when he said he hadn't seen them. They intimidated him ("Are you aware of the homosexual agenda? No? Well, you're about to be.") into revealing that two of them had worked there until some men had shown up with paperwork to take them away, and had threatened his family if he talked about it. "Err, sorry about that."
Not much else this session. Some inconclusive attempts to track down the merchant, but he's from out of town and doesn't come through often.
I should have used the slavery parts to drive everyone's limit way up, but slavery is actually pretty awful, and dwelling on it too hard seemed like it would have made the game a bit too maudlin to actually be fun. Still there were some jumps; especially when they saw Two Snakes (the customs official who had played them earlier) up on the block.
This episode jumps forward three months from the end of the last episode. Hammer has spent his time converting Muddy Reefs to his religion by drinking them under the table one at a time, then dressing them as monks while they're passed out, and imposed taxes to support this regime. Though unorthodox, this has been effective. Rabbit has set Brilliant Parakeet up as a sort of mayor of Muddy Reefs. Orchid went back to visit their home, and found it was largely rebuilt, and that people had been there asking about them. Third Monsoon discovered that if you offer enough money, fishermen will claim to be mercenaries, and also that fishermen do not make good mercenaries, and also that lemon-baked salmon is good. He was able to patch two of them up after though; that's similar to a good thing. He also wrote a threatening letter to the person who sprang him (back in episode 4, the not-so-mysterious lord who sprang them also agreed to look into where their friends had ended up). Ranger Brad went hunting.
So, three months later, they sprang into Rabbit's boat and sailed off for Coral to find out whether their benefactor had found their friends, and to punch him if he hadn't. They anchored offshore and sailed a banana in to avoid paying docking fees, then walked over to his house and tried to get in to see him, only to be told he was at a different estate, and wouldn't be back for a week. Rabbit got a room at a (female) whorehouse, and stayed inside for a week. Ironically, this was to stay chaste, due to now being in a committed relationship with a (male) NPC. Hammer and Brad went hunting. They eventually found a tyrant lizard (think T-Rex with spikes), but someone noticed it had a collar before they attacked, so they slipped away again, and, reasoning that they were likely on some sort of nature preserve, quietly went back to town. Orchid and Monsoon spent a bit figuring out about the town, and asked around about who this guy they're going after is anyway. It's really easy to find out, because he's a super-popular former Sea Lord, right out of the splatbook. They digress briefly to wonder why two different influential characters are both trying to use them, but don't pursue that line of questioning for long (it's not just hamhandedness; they each had fairly solid motivations). Even so, a week later, they show back up ready to beat up this guy unless he has solved all their problems.
This time, they don't have an appointment. Rabbit talks them in, but they're left cooling their heels for a while in a waiting room. Hammer goes and steals booze from the kitchen. Eventually Lord Girard has time to see them. He has found some of their friends, and will arrange for them to be delivered. Not good enough! They pressure him into telling where they are right now, then travel to that estate to demand their release. That turns out to be pretty easy, because their friends are working in the kitchen, where they have been employed ever since Girard found them, bought them, and emancipated them.
After transporting five of their friends (leaving one who wanted to stay) back to Rabbit's boat, the circle asks about their capture. they had been herded onto ships, then some of them got taken away. Then there was a fight, then they mostly got transferred to other ships. They headed northish for a while, and one of them who got too mouthy about his rights was pushed overboard to the sharks, so they didn't ask a lot more questions after that. Then most of them were taken and sold as slaves. Four of this group and the one who stayed behind had worked at some sort of textiles for sails, and one worked at building a seawall. Then they were bought by Lord Girard, emancipated, given jobs, and had been saving up. Orchid's brother was alive, but he and a few others had been separated from the main group shortly after they arrived at Coral (they speculated then that Orchid's brother was evil, and had led the pirates to the island originally. After all, they showed up in his boat).
Then the circle began investigating to find where everyone else was. They found an auction block where their friends had come through, and seduced their way into looking at those records, and found that three had been sold to some merchant, two to an innkeeper, and ten to the Sea Lord (which is about like selling property "to the crown"; it just means to the government). They tracked down the innkeeper first, and after some impressive bargaining, bought those two's freedom.
Then they figured out where government-purchased slaves went, and bluffed their way in there pretending to be investigators. It was a sort of clearing-house, where they brought people in and held them until sending them off to where that skillset was needed. They found two sets of records there, one a general set of receiving and transfer logs, and the other a detailed set of personnel records, organized by admittance date. Unfortunately, the detailed records from five to three months prior were missing; having been taken by an actual audit by the scary Coral auditors. Nonetheless, they determined that five men had been transferred to the department of public works, and five women to navy supply. I forget how, but they determined that the women had been transferred to sailmaking. After proclaiming their enthusiasm and love for sails to random sailors and wondering where sails come from, they eventually asked about sailmakers, and found a factory. They stared for a while, considering how to get in, then someone knocked on the door and asked to see inside. That may have been the wrong question, because they got a tour, and learned all about the history of sails. Eventually, someone described who they were looking for, and asked if anyone had seen them. Yes, they were here until two months ago, then had been bought by Lord Girard. They puzzled over that for a bit, then realized that the people they had already found had been working as sailmakers. Oops.
Backtracking, they went for the department of public works. One of those five, they had already found, leaving four more. They went around worksites asking after them, until they found a foreman who lied when he said he hadn't seen them. They intimidated him ("Are you aware of the homosexual agenda? No? Well, you're about to be.") into revealing that two of them had worked there until some men had shown up with paperwork to take them away, and had threatened his family if he talked about it. "Err, sorry about that."
Not much else this session. Some inconclusive attempts to track down the merchant, but he's from out of town and doesn't come through often.
I should have used the slavery parts to drive everyone's limit way up, but slavery is actually pretty awful, and dwelling on it too hard seemed like it would have made the game a bit too maudlin to actually be fun. Still there were some jumps; especially when they saw Two Snakes (the customs official who had played them earlier) up on the block.
This was a couple weeks ago, so the details are a bit vague.
Episode Eight: Sometimes They Have Friends
After last episode, the circle shipped their rescued islanders back to Muddy Reefs, then paid someone to take them the rest of the way back. Meanwhile, Third Monsoon (né Murder) hung out at slave auctions waiting for the merchant from before to show back up. They had a name and a description for him, but the name was morally equivalent to "John Smith", (Jade Jade, IIRC) so they suspected it was not his real name. Hammer camped in a tent outside town because he is broke and takes limit for seeing slavery. Ranger Brad (whose player is out for the next few sessions) hung out for a while, then joined an expedition hunting the Brass Leviathan (roughly, a tiny version of Verne's Nautilus, including the grudge against the dominant empire. He will not be capturing it). Rabbit and Orchid shipped the islanders back to Muddy Reefs, which took three weeks. When they got back, the merchant still hadn't made an appearance, so they hung out a while longer.
A week later, someone matching the merchant's description comes by. He bids on three auctions, and overbids each time. There was not an obvious pattern (one indigent, one guy who flipped out and murdered his family, and one woman who tried loudly and unsuccessfully to incite a small revolution). Monsoon went up and politely talked to/threatened him, but he politely declined to help in any way, other than to say that he has already resold them, and will not say where or to whom. "Jade" then left with his clerk and his bodyguard.
There was a brief disagreement over where everyone else had said they were, but it ended with everyone else at a nearby hotel, except Hammer's wolf, who was now running to fetch everyone while Monsoon tailed Jade.
Jade headed towards a busy market, where his bodyguard split off, then to a bad neighborhood, then to a worse neighborhood where he ducks down a narrow alley. Monsoon follows not too long after, and is accosted by thugs! But the thugs are mooks, and fall basically immediately. Monsoon spends some time bandaging them up and giving medical advice, and discovers that the guard who split off hired them to detain whoever came through after Jade. Monsoon speeds through the alley and finds himself in a cul de sac where everyone is inexplicably selling lettuce, and worse, a commotion has broken out among the people who apparently desperately want lettuces. Monsoon struggles through this, but is slightly delayed, and when he gets to the exit, two things are obvious: it's the street he just walked up, and Jade is no longer in sight. She considers, then selects "back the way they came" as the most likely direction.
Barely a minute later, the rest of the circle comes barreling up the road. As is rapidly becoming traditional, all the players botch their spot checks and everyone rushes on past Monsoon. Fortunately the wolf, who they are following, does not botch, and they don't get very far past before screeching to a halt. After a brief data dump, they track Jade by asking various people if they saw him, and which way he went. They fall slightly farther behind, but are successful as far as the street of nice hotels before running out of people to ask. There are basically only three hotels nearby though, so it's not too bad. They go through them in order of closeness. The first hotel has a lobby and a snooty clerk. Enough threatening mixed with a little violence eventually reveals that Jade is not there. After they leave, someone takes off from the back door, and runs down the street. They do not recognize him. Careful following by (someone; I forget who) reveals that he is running to a guard barracks. The next hotel has a foyer instead, but still has a and they leave Monsoon and the wolf outside. Here, threatening has less immediate results, but does get a message sent to Jade. It also results in two people slipping out by the stables and running off. Monsoon recognizes this behavior as "calling the cops" from the previous example. As they are now on a timer, Hammer threatens to start kicking in doors. The concierge thinks this is funny, and tells them, "some of our guests don't like to be disturbed." Hammer re-threatens him, and he says that Jade is in a room on the third floor.
The circle heads up there, pushes their way in, and finds Jade has just served drinks to someone else in the room. Also in the room are two gorilla-looking things, who start moving towards them. Clearly, the correct solution is to punch them, which Hammer immediately does. Or rather, Hammer and everyone else roll initiative. Orchid recognizes the gorillas as Eremanthoi, or "blood apes". They are murder-demons. They get close to you, and then they murderize you. Also, they have Principle of Motion, because every spirit who is smarter than cabbage has Principle of Motion, because it is crazy-go-nuts good (Principle of Motion lets you pay a moderately steep cost and act many times. Also, you set it up up front, and act later, so the first one is basically free. Eremanthoi get to act seven times for everyone else's one action, though it's really only six free because the last action lines up another Principle of Motion. They start with one up, and they can do this about six times in a row before they need to go have a lie-down). This is roughly equivalent to throwing an unoptimized 8th level party against a pair of girallons with the additional ability to act 6x per round. Or rather, this is equivalent to that party walking into a closet with the girallons, picking a fight, and losing initiative. Fortunately, the murder-demons don't take them seriously for the first bit. This gives Orchid time to blow nearly half her essence on the demon banishing spell. That wipes the smirk right off of Someone Else's face, as he does a perfect spit-take, lights the room on fire, and reflexively casts Emerald Countermagic. All are sad.
Bunny is very, very quickly burning through his essence for charm-enhanced defenses, while not making much headway. He takes some fairly serious damage.
Meanwhile below, Monsoon sees a guard squad coming up the street. She and Howl (the wolf) decide, based on this and on the explosions from above, that it is time for them to be upstairs and take off that direction. A scant few more rounds have completely exhausted Bunny's essence and spare health, and Hammer interposes himself as the new tank. That goes okay, but is basically a slower attrition. Howl arrives, is briefly effective, then has half of his face ripped off. After that, he stays back. Fortunately, Monsoon arrives right after, and manages to destroy that ape.
Hammer (who has not yet invested in combos, and so must choose each round between offense and defense) gambles on an offensive charm, connects, and throws the remaining blood ape down the stairs. Orchid tries banishing it again and this time is successful. At this point all four of them have blown through most of their essence and are totemic (glowing like the sun).
They step forward to threaten Jade, but there is no need. He will tell them exactly where he last saw their friends. In fact, he would happily take them there and introduce them to the buyer! It would be his pleasure. They decline, but demand exact directions. He gives them exact directions, which are to a point in the middle of the ocean. Is he sure? Oh yes. Are they sure he can't give them a lift? Quite sure.
And with that, they leave, hurrying out the back door just as the watch arrives.
Episode Eight: Sometimes They Have Friends
After last episode, the circle shipped their rescued islanders back to Muddy Reefs, then paid someone to take them the rest of the way back. Meanwhile, Third Monsoon (né Murder) hung out at slave auctions waiting for the merchant from before to show back up. They had a name and a description for him, but the name was morally equivalent to "John Smith", (Jade Jade, IIRC) so they suspected it was not his real name. Hammer camped in a tent outside town because he is broke and takes limit for seeing slavery. Ranger Brad (whose player is out for the next few sessions) hung out for a while, then joined an expedition hunting the Brass Leviathan (roughly, a tiny version of Verne's Nautilus, including the grudge against the dominant empire. He will not be capturing it). Rabbit and Orchid shipped the islanders back to Muddy Reefs, which took three weeks. When they got back, the merchant still hadn't made an appearance, so they hung out a while longer.
A week later, someone matching the merchant's description comes by. He bids on three auctions, and overbids each time. There was not an obvious pattern (one indigent, one guy who flipped out and murdered his family, and one woman who tried loudly and unsuccessfully to incite a small revolution). Monsoon went up and politely talked to/threatened him, but he politely declined to help in any way, other than to say that he has already resold them, and will not say where or to whom. "Jade" then left with his clerk and his bodyguard.
There was a brief disagreement over where everyone else had said they were, but it ended with everyone else at a nearby hotel, except Hammer's wolf, who was now running to fetch everyone while Monsoon tailed Jade.
Jade headed towards a busy market, where his bodyguard split off, then to a bad neighborhood, then to a worse neighborhood where he ducks down a narrow alley. Monsoon follows not too long after, and is accosted by thugs! But the thugs are mooks, and fall basically immediately. Monsoon spends some time bandaging them up and giving medical advice, and discovers that the guard who split off hired them to detain whoever came through after Jade. Monsoon speeds through the alley and finds himself in a cul de sac where everyone is inexplicably selling lettuce, and worse, a commotion has broken out among the people who apparently desperately want lettuces. Monsoon struggles through this, but is slightly delayed, and when he gets to the exit, two things are obvious: it's the street he just walked up, and Jade is no longer in sight. She considers, then selects "back the way they came" as the most likely direction.
Barely a minute later, the rest of the circle comes barreling up the road. As is rapidly becoming traditional, all the players botch their spot checks and everyone rushes on past Monsoon. Fortunately the wolf, who they are following, does not botch, and they don't get very far past before screeching to a halt. After a brief data dump, they track Jade by asking various people if they saw him, and which way he went. They fall slightly farther behind, but are successful as far as the street of nice hotels before running out of people to ask. There are basically only three hotels nearby though, so it's not too bad. They go through them in order of closeness. The first hotel has a lobby and a snooty clerk. Enough threatening mixed with a little violence eventually reveals that Jade is not there. After they leave, someone takes off from the back door, and runs down the street. They do not recognize him. Careful following by (someone; I forget who) reveals that he is running to a guard barracks. The next hotel has a foyer instead, but still has a and they leave Monsoon and the wolf outside. Here, threatening has less immediate results, but does get a message sent to Jade. It also results in two people slipping out by the stables and running off. Monsoon recognizes this behavior as "calling the cops" from the previous example. As they are now on a timer, Hammer threatens to start kicking in doors. The concierge thinks this is funny, and tells them, "some of our guests don't like to be disturbed." Hammer re-threatens him, and he says that Jade is in a room on the third floor.
The circle heads up there, pushes their way in, and finds Jade has just served drinks to someone else in the room. Also in the room are two gorilla-looking things, who start moving towards them. Clearly, the correct solution is to punch them, which Hammer immediately does. Or rather, Hammer and everyone else roll initiative. Orchid recognizes the gorillas as Eremanthoi, or "blood apes". They are murder-demons. They get close to you, and then they murderize you. Also, they have Principle of Motion, because every spirit who is smarter than cabbage has Principle of Motion, because it is crazy-go-nuts good (Principle of Motion lets you pay a moderately steep cost and act many times. Also, you set it up up front, and act later, so the first one is basically free. Eremanthoi get to act seven times for everyone else's one action, though it's really only six free because the last action lines up another Principle of Motion. They start with one up, and they can do this about six times in a row before they need to go have a lie-down). This is roughly equivalent to throwing an unoptimized 8th level party against a pair of girallons with the additional ability to act 6x per round. Or rather, this is equivalent to that party walking into a closet with the girallons, picking a fight, and losing initiative. Fortunately, the murder-demons don't take them seriously for the first bit. This gives Orchid time to blow nearly half her essence on the demon banishing spell. That wipes the smirk right off of Someone Else's face, as he does a perfect spit-take, lights the room on fire, and reflexively casts Emerald Countermagic. All are sad.
Bunny is very, very quickly burning through his essence for charm-enhanced defenses, while not making much headway. He takes some fairly serious damage.
Meanwhile below, Monsoon sees a guard squad coming up the street. She and Howl (the wolf) decide, based on this and on the explosions from above, that it is time for them to be upstairs and take off that direction. A scant few more rounds have completely exhausted Bunny's essence and spare health, and Hammer interposes himself as the new tank. That goes okay, but is basically a slower attrition. Howl arrives, is briefly effective, then has half of his face ripped off. After that, he stays back. Fortunately, Monsoon arrives right after, and manages to destroy that ape.
Hammer (who has not yet invested in combos, and so must choose each round between offense and defense) gambles on an offensive charm, connects, and throws the remaining blood ape down the stairs. Orchid tries banishing it again and this time is successful. At this point all four of them have blown through most of their essence and are totemic (glowing like the sun).
They step forward to threaten Jade, but there is no need. He will tell them exactly where he last saw their friends. In fact, he would happily take them there and introduce them to the buyer! It would be his pleasure. They decline, but demand exact directions. He gives them exact directions, which are to a point in the middle of the ocean. Is he sure? Oh yes. Are they sure he can't give them a lift? Quite sure.
And with that, they leave, hurrying out the back door just as the watch arrives.
Last edited by fectin on Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
Episode Nine: F*** Fairies.
Having lit the hotel on fire and coated the walls with blood, our heroes decide that now might be a good time to leave. They slip downstairs and out the back before the guard arrive. Afterwards the head back to their hotel and heal up for a few days. Oddly, no-one comes looking for them.
Afterwards, they set sail in Rabbit's ship for the middle of the ocean. Miss Murder makes a cursory sail check to follow their directions, and gets a hojillion successes. That cuts a big chunk of time out of their non-timed journey, taking it from "I dunno. Two weeks?" to three quarters of "I dunno. Two weeks?"
Eventually they reach a becalmed area, about two miles across. They break out the oars and row towards the center, looking for a giant lotus blossom coming out of the ocean (part of the detailed instructions from the last session). The don't see it, but do find a tremendously thick carpet of normal-sized lotii, about twenty yards across.
In a fit of foresight, they do not respond by grounding the ship. Instead, Hammer carefully ties off and lowers himself down to the lotus carpet. He is hooge, and sinks through, ending up calf-deep in muck and chest deep in water. In the middle of the ocean. Bunny, who is wearing full plate, also sinks. Monsoon (né Murder) and Orchid are able to balance just fine on top of the lotuses.
They walk towards the middle of the field. Nothing happens. Eventually, Hammer finds some human remains (a skull). Monsoon leaps into pathology mode! Aside from where Hammer kicked it, it had a network of cracks, like the former owner had some head trauma. Unfortunately, that's not really a useful identifier, as a significant minority of people in pre-industrial societies have knocked their head on something. They look around for a bit, but don't find much. Hammer tries to investigate what's under the muck. He finds something that feels kind of like wood. He tries to punch though it, but to no effect (four feet underwater, and fairly high hardness). So he blows a charm on making it break, and does so.
The water begins rising. Almost exactly as though the ground were slowly sinking. Monsoon and Orchid make it back fine, walking on top of the lotuses. Rabbit is closer, and still makes it without trouble. Hammer has the farthest to go, and is nose deep for the last few feet. Eventually, he slogs his way through, and is hauled aboard. As they watch, the lotuses sink down out of sight. Bummer.
They stick around though, and a few minutes later, a giant lotus blossom slowly rises out of the waves, blooms, and reveals an extremely irate man, who yells at them, "What have you done to my garden?"
Who is he? He is Orderly, now back to the subject of his garden... They look around sheepishly, and point out that he has people buried there. He inquires if they can think of any nicer place to bury them. Who were they? They were helping him with his work. Has he seen (description of missing villagers, including Monsoon's brother, First Monsoon)? Why, yes; they are helping him too. Oh? What work does he do? He is attempting to cure a most debilitating condition.
You see, human passions inspire us to greatness, but when they run wild they inspire terrible things. He's trying to fix the terrible things half of that. Oh? Monsoon is a doctor too! Perhaps they could discuss methods? Yes, definitely! Please come down below with him!
The lotus is big enough for five. Including Howl, there are five of them, plus Orderly makes six. Someone will have to stay behind. While they are puzzling that over, he walks off the lotus and over to where the garden sank, and clucks over it.
Eventually, they decide to leave Rabbit up top, and load everyone else into the lotus. It sinks briskly for perhaps 15 minutes, then arrives at the floor of the ocean. There is some sort of reverse budding, then they are in a hallway. It is off-white, and everything is rounded off.
Rabbit begins sunning himself on deck.
They walk down the hallway for a bit, then turn right into something like a very nice cafeteria. There are several tables, and comfy chars. The ceiling is transparent, and shows the surrounding seafloor. Orderly talks excitedly with Monsoon throughout. He is very glad to meet a fellow medical professional. Hammer interrupts with being hungry, and suddenly there is a delicious buffet along the wall. He does not eat. Instead he goes exploring. Meanwhile, Orderly is explaining his methods to Monsoon. With her permission, he eats one of her virtues. All are surprised.
Rabbit's crew makes margaritas.
Hammer continues exploring, and discovers that space doesn't work right. he keeps going farther down the hallway, then turning right into the cafeteria. Eventually he discovers a secret door, forces it open, and realizes it is a secret entrance into the same cafeteria. Afterwards he sulks (justifiably).
Monsoon tries to negotiate for the return of the prisoners, but Orderly is not having that. His client expects results, and he is on a tight schedule and needs those assistants. Monsoon persuades him that perhaps they are replaceable. That may be true, but now they are trained and reinforced for his research. He would need several more assistants just to replace them now. Probably two for each of them. Of course, if they manage to bring him exalted, he could definitely do better than two for one... They remain studiously silent on that point.
Rabbit leads a conga line around the deck.
Monsoon explains that he is interested in the process Orderly describes. Could he examine the three villagers? Orderly replies, "Of course! Come right this way!" Then he sinks through the floor. Everyone else does not. Somewhat nonplussed, they hang out for a bit, hoping that he'll come back. A while later, he does, with the three villagers in tow. They are significantly larger than they were, and have developed a greyish tinge. They are also completely unconcerned with their surroundings. They answer questions, but don't react.
Bunny and the crew are singing show-tunes.
Below, they discuss their options. Hammer is concerned that killing Orderly may bring the place down around them. Third Monsoon asks if this is the case. Orderly professes to be unsure, and asks if he wanted to find out. He's curious too, but has been killed before and didn't enjoy it much. This does not reassure anyone.
Bunny and the crew have a siesta.
They convince Orderly that it may be worth getting observations on what happens to his assistants on release back into the world. He agrees that this is an interesting question, and eventually allows them to take First Monsoon with them, on the condition that they provide replacement(s) and that Monsoon provide some notes on his (downtime) soldier boosting drug experiments.
A semi-fond farewell is said, and they head back up to the surface. Once there and aboard, they send the notes back down in the lotus, and a wave swells, carrying them to the edge of the becalmed area.
Having lit the hotel on fire and coated the walls with blood, our heroes decide that now might be a good time to leave. They slip downstairs and out the back before the guard arrive. Afterwards the head back to their hotel and heal up for a few days. Oddly, no-one comes looking for them.
Afterwards, they set sail in Rabbit's ship for the middle of the ocean. Miss Murder makes a cursory sail check to follow their directions, and gets a hojillion successes. That cuts a big chunk of time out of their non-timed journey, taking it from "I dunno. Two weeks?" to three quarters of "I dunno. Two weeks?"
Eventually they reach a becalmed area, about two miles across. They break out the oars and row towards the center, looking for a giant lotus blossom coming out of the ocean (part of the detailed instructions from the last session). The don't see it, but do find a tremendously thick carpet of normal-sized lotii, about twenty yards across.
In a fit of foresight, they do not respond by grounding the ship. Instead, Hammer carefully ties off and lowers himself down to the lotus carpet. He is hooge, and sinks through, ending up calf-deep in muck and chest deep in water. In the middle of the ocean. Bunny, who is wearing full plate, also sinks. Monsoon (né Murder) and Orchid are able to balance just fine on top of the lotuses.
They walk towards the middle of the field. Nothing happens. Eventually, Hammer finds some human remains (a skull). Monsoon leaps into pathology mode! Aside from where Hammer kicked it, it had a network of cracks, like the former owner had some head trauma. Unfortunately, that's not really a useful identifier, as a significant minority of people in pre-industrial societies have knocked their head on something. They look around for a bit, but don't find much. Hammer tries to investigate what's under the muck. He finds something that feels kind of like wood. He tries to punch though it, but to no effect (four feet underwater, and fairly high hardness). So he blows a charm on making it break, and does so.
The water begins rising. Almost exactly as though the ground were slowly sinking. Monsoon and Orchid make it back fine, walking on top of the lotuses. Rabbit is closer, and still makes it without trouble. Hammer has the farthest to go, and is nose deep for the last few feet. Eventually, he slogs his way through, and is hauled aboard. As they watch, the lotuses sink down out of sight. Bummer.
They stick around though, and a few minutes later, a giant lotus blossom slowly rises out of the waves, blooms, and reveals an extremely irate man, who yells at them, "What have you done to my garden?"
Who is he? He is Orderly, now back to the subject of his garden... They look around sheepishly, and point out that he has people buried there. He inquires if they can think of any nicer place to bury them. Who were they? They were helping him with his work. Has he seen (description of missing villagers, including Monsoon's brother, First Monsoon)? Why, yes; they are helping him too. Oh? What work does he do? He is attempting to cure a most debilitating condition.
You see, human passions inspire us to greatness, but when they run wild they inspire terrible things. He's trying to fix the terrible things half of that. Oh? Monsoon is a doctor too! Perhaps they could discuss methods? Yes, definitely! Please come down below with him!
The lotus is big enough for five. Including Howl, there are five of them, plus Orderly makes six. Someone will have to stay behind. While they are puzzling that over, he walks off the lotus and over to where the garden sank, and clucks over it.
Eventually, they decide to leave Rabbit up top, and load everyone else into the lotus. It sinks briskly for perhaps 15 minutes, then arrives at the floor of the ocean. There is some sort of reverse budding, then they are in a hallway. It is off-white, and everything is rounded off.
Rabbit begins sunning himself on deck.
They walk down the hallway for a bit, then turn right into something like a very nice cafeteria. There are several tables, and comfy chars. The ceiling is transparent, and shows the surrounding seafloor. Orderly talks excitedly with Monsoon throughout. He is very glad to meet a fellow medical professional. Hammer interrupts with being hungry, and suddenly there is a delicious buffet along the wall. He does not eat. Instead he goes exploring. Meanwhile, Orderly is explaining his methods to Monsoon. With her permission, he eats one of her virtues. All are surprised.
Rabbit's crew makes margaritas.
Hammer continues exploring, and discovers that space doesn't work right. he keeps going farther down the hallway, then turning right into the cafeteria. Eventually he discovers a secret door, forces it open, and realizes it is a secret entrance into the same cafeteria. Afterwards he sulks (justifiably).
Monsoon tries to negotiate for the return of the prisoners, but Orderly is not having that. His client expects results, and he is on a tight schedule and needs those assistants. Monsoon persuades him that perhaps they are replaceable. That may be true, but now they are trained and reinforced for his research. He would need several more assistants just to replace them now. Probably two for each of them. Of course, if they manage to bring him exalted, he could definitely do better than two for one... They remain studiously silent on that point.
Rabbit leads a conga line around the deck.
Monsoon explains that he is interested in the process Orderly describes. Could he examine the three villagers? Orderly replies, "Of course! Come right this way!" Then he sinks through the floor. Everyone else does not. Somewhat nonplussed, they hang out for a bit, hoping that he'll come back. A while later, he does, with the three villagers in tow. They are significantly larger than they were, and have developed a greyish tinge. They are also completely unconcerned with their surroundings. They answer questions, but don't react.
Bunny and the crew are singing show-tunes.
Below, they discuss their options. Hammer is concerned that killing Orderly may bring the place down around them. Third Monsoon asks if this is the case. Orderly professes to be unsure, and asks if he wanted to find out. He's curious too, but has been killed before and didn't enjoy it much. This does not reassure anyone.
Bunny and the crew have a siesta.
They convince Orderly that it may be worth getting observations on what happens to his assistants on release back into the world. He agrees that this is an interesting question, and eventually allows them to take First Monsoon with them, on the condition that they provide replacement(s) and that Monsoon provide some notes on his (downtime) soldier boosting drug experiments.
A semi-fond farewell is said, and they head back up to the surface. Once there and aboard, they send the notes back down in the lotus, and a wave swells, carrying them to the edge of the becalmed area.
Last edited by fectin on Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Episode Ten: Exalted: Repercussions of Evil
Emerald Hammer waited. The lights above him blinked and sparked out of the air. There were pirates in the ocean. He didn't see them, but had expected them now for years. His warnings to Cernel Buny were not listenend to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway.
Hammer was a space marine for fourteen years. When he was young he watched the ships and he said to dad "I want to be on the ships daddy."
Dad said "No! You will BE KILL BY PIRATES"
There was a time when he believed him. Then as he got oldered he stopped. But now on the sailing ship dec of the ship he knew there were pirates.
"This is Buny" the radio crackered. "You must fight the pirats!"
So John gotted his soler hero form and blew up the wall.
"HE GOING TO KILL US" said the pirates
"I will shoot at him" said the captain and he fired the gun. Monsoon sorded at him and tried to cut him up. But then the rudder broke and they were trapped and not able to kill.
"No! I must kill the pirates" he shouted
The radio said "No, Hammer. You are the pirates"
And then Hammer was a zombie.
(the party bought hostages off some pirates to pay off Orderly. On the way home, they saw two ships in the distance, and attacked both. The crew of the first escaped on Rabbit's ship with their hostages and First Monsoon after disabling their rudder. Orchid exploded the masts, killing most of the escapees and most of Rabbit's crew. The live crew of the second ship escaped in a launch, while Hammer killed the zombie rowers. )
Emerald Hammer waited. The lights above him blinked and sparked out of the air. There were pirates in the ocean. He didn't see them, but had expected them now for years. His warnings to Cernel Buny were not listenend to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway.
Hammer was a space marine for fourteen years. When he was young he watched the ships and he said to dad "I want to be on the ships daddy."
Dad said "No! You will BE KILL BY PIRATES"
There was a time when he believed him. Then as he got oldered he stopped. But now on the sailing ship dec of the ship he knew there were pirates.
"This is Buny" the radio crackered. "You must fight the pirats!"
So John gotted his soler hero form and blew up the wall.
"HE GOING TO KILL US" said the pirates
"I will shoot at him" said the captain and he fired the gun. Monsoon sorded at him and tried to cut him up. But then the rudder broke and they were trapped and not able to kill.
"No! I must kill the pirates" he shouted
The radio said "No, Hammer. You are the pirates"
And then Hammer was a zombie.
(the party bought hostages off some pirates to pay off Orderly. On the way home, they saw two ships in the distance, and attacked both. The crew of the first escaped on Rabbit's ship with their hostages and First Monsoon after disabling their rudder. Orchid exploded the masts, killing most of the escapees and most of Rabbit's crew. The live crew of the second ship escaped in a launch, while Hammer killed the zombie rowers. )
Last edited by fectin on Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Episode Eleven: A Very Mouthy Gift Horse
This episode was originally going to introduce a new player, but that fell through last-minute. Instead, everything became super-mysterious for an episode. It helps that one of them works for a mysterious organization that they really know very little about.
The session opens with the party triumphantly limping back to Muddy Reefs, with their newly captured ship towing the hulk of the zombie-smuggling bireme. As they pull into the harbor, they see that some buildings have been damaged. After a brief flurry of assault planning, they ask someone what happened: an earthquake happened. Several weeks prior.
Hammer (who has been recruiting for the Adamant Order by way of drinking people under the table, dressing them in novice robes, and telling them they joined a religion when they wake up. So far there are five) goes off to find out why his "recruits" aren't helping with the remaining cleanup. He finds his tiny mission empty (though tidy). As Hammer is illiterate (side note: you have to put a dot in Lore to be able to read), he doesn't have records to look through for hints as to where they went.
Rabbit tries to go see Brilliant Parakeet, and finds that he is also gone! He left a message though, that he had gone to help one of his best clients out of some difficulties she had gotten into. He will likely be gone until the new player shows up.
They make arrangements to repair their new ship. They also try to have the zombie ship cleaned, but that goes poorly. Rabbit decides that stinky ships are dumb and scuttles it in the middle of a nearby reef.
After a little bit of investigation, they decide to head up to a quarry which Hammer's disciples had been using (I forget why they wanted to check there) and on the demesne (a site where you can build a Manse, which is an awesome house that gives you mechanical benefits) on the island. They find it changed: before it was more of a mine, now it's more of a large bowl with perfectly smooth sides. Also, there's a kind of marble in it that they hadn't found before. Orchid puts up All Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, and sees that the whole area is fluid, like the Wyld.
That's weird, but there doesn't seem to be much to do about it. Also, they discover, there is a nicely graveled path leading in the direction of the demesne, which is new. Without any more clues here, they set off along the path.
At about the halfway point, they are coming around a gentle bend and run into a column of animate blocks. They look very like modrons. Hammer stops them, but they are uninterested in interacting with him. When he won't let them past, they start building a new path around him. He, in turn, tries to loop their new path back around on itself. They take the opportunity to return to the original path and walk past. Mysteriously.
The circle gives up on the animate cubes and continues on toward the demesne. They pass several more columns, which also ignore them. On arriving, they see a major construction project underway. The foreman is happy to see them. His name is Bob (hey, I had about 15 minutes to completely re-prep). He is a brother in the same order as Hammer (the Builders), and is building a monastery for him, apparently in response to some messages Hammer had sent several sessions previously. He was assigned to this task, but this is pretty much what he does. Hammer's erstwhile recruits are helping. Bob is surprised that Hammer is surprised at anything going on. Bob happily accepts their help though.
There are a number of weird things that they discover about the situation:
- Areas of creation don't normally turn back into Wyld. Especially not in the middle of creation. Though that might explain a few other oddities:
- The animate blocks are quarrying stone by lifting it out of the ground, in pre-carved cubes
- There are various other kinds of marble in the quarry, not previously native to the region.
- There was an earthquake in an area not noted for earthquakes.
- The demesne is stronger than it was. That's not impossible normally, but it takes years of effort and landscaping.
- Bob's a bit...off too:
- He is hooge. Not quite as large as Hammer, but nearly.
- He works on building the monastery 24/7 for two months.
- His explanation for where the animate blocks came from is "out of the ground." As in, he brought plans with him, did some surveys, and the blocks came up out of the ground and started building.
- The blocks are building themselves into the monastery. That's convenient, but odd.
- The monastery has the same floor plan as the other two monasteries they've seen.
- The monastery is a manse.
- The manse goes up fast. Normally, a two dot manse would take four years to build. This took about 1/30 of that (Exalted years are weird and long).
- Unlike the other monasteries, which were built around trees, this one is built around a stone monolith.
Eventually, it's finished. Bob putters around town for a bit, then gets on a ship to somewhere else. A different guy from a different order arrives to help with administrivia.
Hammer sneaks down to the chapel one evening to pry up the dais supporting the statue of the Unconquered Sun. On the island from Episode One, there was a hearthstone room down there, but this one just has a shallow pit. Dr. Murder theorizes that the room grows as the hearthstone does, so it'll probably be there later. Time will tell how accurate this is.
And that's it. After angsting about whether to punch Bob all session, the circle now has their very own manse.
----
So, this session was a bit dick-wavey. I don't think it came off that way at the table, but I'm going to try to back off there for a while anyway. It did make them start questioning the Adamant Order a little though, which is good because it's a puppet organization for one of the real antagonists. Hammer's arc there should be interesting.
This episode was originally going to introduce a new player, but that fell through last-minute. Instead, everything became super-mysterious for an episode. It helps that one of them works for a mysterious organization that they really know very little about.
The session opens with the party triumphantly limping back to Muddy Reefs, with their newly captured ship towing the hulk of the zombie-smuggling bireme. As they pull into the harbor, they see that some buildings have been damaged. After a brief flurry of assault planning, they ask someone what happened: an earthquake happened. Several weeks prior.
Hammer (who has been recruiting for the Adamant Order by way of drinking people under the table, dressing them in novice robes, and telling them they joined a religion when they wake up. So far there are five) goes off to find out why his "recruits" aren't helping with the remaining cleanup. He finds his tiny mission empty (though tidy). As Hammer is illiterate (side note: you have to put a dot in Lore to be able to read), he doesn't have records to look through for hints as to where they went.
Rabbit tries to go see Brilliant Parakeet, and finds that he is also gone! He left a message though, that he had gone to help one of his best clients out of some difficulties she had gotten into. He will likely be gone until the new player shows up.
They make arrangements to repair their new ship. They also try to have the zombie ship cleaned, but that goes poorly. Rabbit decides that stinky ships are dumb and scuttles it in the middle of a nearby reef.
After a little bit of investigation, they decide to head up to a quarry which Hammer's disciples had been using (I forget why they wanted to check there) and on the demesne (a site where you can build a Manse, which is an awesome house that gives you mechanical benefits) on the island. They find it changed: before it was more of a mine, now it's more of a large bowl with perfectly smooth sides. Also, there's a kind of marble in it that they hadn't found before. Orchid puts up All Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight, and sees that the whole area is fluid, like the Wyld.
That's weird, but there doesn't seem to be much to do about it. Also, they discover, there is a nicely graveled path leading in the direction of the demesne, which is new. Without any more clues here, they set off along the path.
At about the halfway point, they are coming around a gentle bend and run into a column of animate blocks. They look very like modrons. Hammer stops them, but they are uninterested in interacting with him. When he won't let them past, they start building a new path around him. He, in turn, tries to loop their new path back around on itself. They take the opportunity to return to the original path and walk past. Mysteriously.
The circle gives up on the animate cubes and continues on toward the demesne. They pass several more columns, which also ignore them. On arriving, they see a major construction project underway. The foreman is happy to see them. His name is Bob (hey, I had about 15 minutes to completely re-prep). He is a brother in the same order as Hammer (the Builders), and is building a monastery for him, apparently in response to some messages Hammer had sent several sessions previously. He was assigned to this task, but this is pretty much what he does. Hammer's erstwhile recruits are helping. Bob is surprised that Hammer is surprised at anything going on. Bob happily accepts their help though.
There are a number of weird things that they discover about the situation:
- Areas of creation don't normally turn back into Wyld. Especially not in the middle of creation. Though that might explain a few other oddities:
- The animate blocks are quarrying stone by lifting it out of the ground, in pre-carved cubes
- There are various other kinds of marble in the quarry, not previously native to the region.
- There was an earthquake in an area not noted for earthquakes.
- The demesne is stronger than it was. That's not impossible normally, but it takes years of effort and landscaping.
- Bob's a bit...off too:
- He is hooge. Not quite as large as Hammer, but nearly.
- He works on building the monastery 24/7 for two months.
- His explanation for where the animate blocks came from is "out of the ground." As in, he brought plans with him, did some surveys, and the blocks came up out of the ground and started building.
- The blocks are building themselves into the monastery. That's convenient, but odd.
- The monastery has the same floor plan as the other two monasteries they've seen.
- The monastery is a manse.
- The manse goes up fast. Normally, a two dot manse would take four years to build. This took about 1/30 of that (Exalted years are weird and long).
- Unlike the other monasteries, which were built around trees, this one is built around a stone monolith.
Eventually, it's finished. Bob putters around town for a bit, then gets on a ship to somewhere else. A different guy from a different order arrives to help with administrivia.
Hammer sneaks down to the chapel one evening to pry up the dais supporting the statue of the Unconquered Sun. On the island from Episode One, there was a hearthstone room down there, but this one just has a shallow pit. Dr. Murder theorizes that the room grows as the hearthstone does, so it'll probably be there later. Time will tell how accurate this is.
And that's it. After angsting about whether to punch Bob all session, the circle now has their very own manse.
----
So, this session was a bit dick-wavey. I don't think it came off that way at the table, but I'm going to try to back off there for a while anyway. It did make them start questioning the Adamant Order a little though, which is good because it's a puppet organization for one of the real antagonists. Hammer's arc there should be interesting.
Last edited by fectin on Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Episode Twelve: Kicking Anthills
Having just received a manse and a small faction, the circle decides it is time to leave. Now they will get Coral navy uniforms and attack outlying Skullstone protectorates to try and force a war between Coral and Skullstone. First, they go into the street and hire the first thirty people they find to crew their ship. Then they sail toward Skullstone and land at an island near Skullstone's area of influence. The island produces pigs and cabbage, which takes most of the land area. It has an Adamant monastery and a tiny Skullstone church. It also supports a tiny harbor and equally tiny town. Ranger Brad scouts about a bit. The church is full of church things, and has a small rectory, with a single priest. They feel guilty about and sail off to a different tiny island just inside the Skullstone border. This one farms lettuce, tomatoes, and cows instead. It also has no monastery, but does have a civic center, lighthouse, and minilith monument.
Tiny island towns are basically all the same, no matter what the civilization's secret proclivities are. In the west, there aren't a lot of mid-size towns. Anywhere that supports one is either in a great location, so grows big (like Muddy Reefs), or is on a large island (which are all full-up nations).
The circle decides that this church is evil, so Orchid uses Flight of the Brilliant Raptor (i.e. fireball) on the support elements which Hammer points out. Then they run back to their boat. A ghost priest runs out and (unsuccessfully) tries to start a bucket chain.
The circle decides that they don't like burning tiny towns, and discusses their long term goals. They decide to form a Deliberative. After some Life of Brian references, they name it the Democratic Republic of People of Muddy Reefs (DERP!). Now, they can conscript people and tell them, "you got derped!"
There was also a strong movement to christen their ship 'Skullfucker'. This is a classy group.
Having burned a church and formed a new government, they decide that they would rather get the villagers from their home back and head off. After a little detective work, they find the ship their friends came to Coral on. Brad sneaks onto the navy base and aboard the ship. He doesn't find the logbook, but finds an uncompleted letter to someone in the Coral admiralty asking about a ship named The Rose's Thorn. He also finds the captain's diary, which he takes. The diary includes accounts of what happened to everyone. One person got tossed overboard for assaulting the crew, and three others (and a whole bunch of pirates) were fed to the sharks to satisfy some sort of debt. Six more were transferred to The Rose's Thorn, for reasons which are not recorded. He wrote as though he knew of it previously, but spent a while describing it like he hadn't seen it before.
Having just received a manse and a small faction, the circle decides it is time to leave. Now they will get Coral navy uniforms and attack outlying Skullstone protectorates to try and force a war between Coral and Skullstone. First, they go into the street and hire the first thirty people they find to crew their ship. Then they sail toward Skullstone and land at an island near Skullstone's area of influence. The island produces pigs and cabbage, which takes most of the land area. It has an Adamant monastery and a tiny Skullstone church. It also supports a tiny harbor and equally tiny town. Ranger Brad scouts about a bit. The church is full of church things, and has a small rectory, with a single priest. They feel guilty about and sail off to a different tiny island just inside the Skullstone border. This one farms lettuce, tomatoes, and cows instead. It also has no monastery, but does have a civic center, lighthouse, and minilith monument.
Tiny island towns are basically all the same, no matter what the civilization's secret proclivities are. In the west, there aren't a lot of mid-size towns. Anywhere that supports one is either in a great location, so grows big (like Muddy Reefs), or is on a large island (which are all full-up nations).
The circle decides that this church is evil, so Orchid uses Flight of the Brilliant Raptor (i.e. fireball) on the support elements which Hammer points out. Then they run back to their boat. A ghost priest runs out and (unsuccessfully) tries to start a bucket chain.
The circle decides that they don't like burning tiny towns, and discusses their long term goals. They decide to form a Deliberative. After some Life of Brian references, they name it the Democratic Republic of People of Muddy Reefs (DERP!). Now, they can conscript people and tell them, "you got derped!"
There was also a strong movement to christen their ship 'Skullfucker'. This is a classy group.
Having burned a church and formed a new government, they decide that they would rather get the villagers from their home back and head off. After a little detective work, they find the ship their friends came to Coral on. Brad sneaks onto the navy base and aboard the ship. He doesn't find the logbook, but finds an uncompleted letter to someone in the Coral admiralty asking about a ship named The Rose's Thorn. He also finds the captain's diary, which he takes. The diary includes accounts of what happened to everyone. One person got tossed overboard for assaulting the crew, and three others (and a whole bunch of pirates) were fed to the sharks to satisfy some sort of debt. Six more were transferred to The Rose's Thorn, for reasons which are not recorded. He wrote as though he knew of it previously, but spent a while describing it like he hadn't seen it before.
Last edited by fectin on Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Once again, this happened a couple weeks ago.
Episode Thirteen: A Most False Imposition
The Circle had previously retrieved a diary from the ship on which their countrymen had been brought to Coral, and had returned to their ship to study it. It included a description of The Rose's Thorn, a ship which the captain knew by reputation, but had not seen before. Third Monsoon recognised the description as following first age design principles, but was not able to determine if it was actually a first age vessel.
As they discuss the issues facing them, they hear a commotion from the other side of the harbor. Going up to the deck, they see a brawl breaking out in front of the Realm Emissaries' ship. They decide to stay out of this one, and turn to go back below. Animas flare, and a large section of masts disintegrated in an explosion near the brawl. Hammer begins running over with Howl, Rabbit and Brad follow shortly afterward. As they run closer, several more castings of Death of Obsidian Butterflies shred even more of the harbor.
Arriving at the foot of the pier, Hammer finds that what looked an attacking force is actually their erstwhile nemesis, Way Too Many Zombies. He picks up a crate and pushes all of the nearby ones further out onto the pier, but then more turn around, and it's suddenly an even match.
Coral's upstanding citizenry emerges drunkenly from waterfront taverns, and begins betting on who will win. Way Too Many Zombies is favored, but Hammer also has supporters. A few zombies break past Hammer's crate-based barricade, and Rabbit handles them. Third Monsoon runs for the Guard. Brad starts picking off zombies which are pushing against Hammer. Orchid remains on the ship.
Aboard the Realm ship, things are not going well. The fighting is now mostly confined to the aft deck, and there are three Terrestrials with animas burning. The air-aspect who has been casting Death of Obsidian Butterflies winds up for another, but right beforehand is struck hard in the head by a huge opponent. That opponent is immediately cut down himself by the fire-aspect behind him. A dark trireme has been rowing closer, and suddenly rams the rear of the Realm ship.
Things continue to go poorly for our heroes. Monsoon finds the Guard already running toward the harobor, and runs ahead of them toward the rest of the circle. Brad continues winnowing the zombies, Hammer continues grappling them, and Rabbit continues dealing with the ones which have slipped past. The crowd continues to grow. Orchid is safely away, and does not care.
Aboard the ship, the fighting reaches its peak. The previously downed air-aspect is tossed onto the trireme by a moderately large assailant in bright orange armor. The fire-aspect continues to be super-dangerous to everyone around him. The water-aspect has been kung-fuing everyones face, but then has a large bag dropped on her head, is punched repeatedly, then tossed onto the trireme also. The remaining attackers break off and jump to the trireme. It pulls away from the ship and starts rowing for open sea.
Most of the remaining zombies turn and walk off the pier, into the water. Hammer runs up the pier, to the realm ship. Monsoon arrives and tells Rabbit and Brad that the Guard is en route. All three sneak off back to their ship.
Hammer confronts the fire-aspect, who shouts at him to "stay dead." A brief fracas sends the fire aspect into limit break, and he chases Hammer until he leaps to another ship, then follows Howl through the city, burning.
Eventually everyone gets back to the ship. They sail off after the trireme, which is out of sight. Complicating matters, Brad has botched a roll, and is now sure that the trireme is homeported far to the south. They decide to sail due west anyway, towards Skullstone.
A day later, they haven't found the trireme and are at the outer edge of the territory which Skullstone claims. There is a flotilla there. They hail the flagship and pull up alongside to talk. The admiral is human, which is a little weird for Skullstone, but everyone is still willing to talk. He is not very forthcoming about what the fleet is doing in this area, other than that they are maintaining Skullstone's borders. He also asks whether they have information on who might be raiding in the area. The circle, of course, has no idea what he could be talking about (see last episode). Orchid also asks him about The Rose's Thorn. He knows of it, and says that it is a scary ghost ship! But don't worry, he'll keep her safe! They decide he probably has heard of it, but the rest is suspect. Rabbit gives him a tiny flag (which he has been doing for everyone he meets). The admiral asks for more tiny flags. Rabbit gives him more tiny flags.
Giving up on the fleet, they sail back to Skullstone. After hanging out in a tavern for a while, they learn some more information that I have forgotten. They also hang out in a Guard station for a while, listening to the fire-aspect harangue the officer in charge. Orchid asks him questions afterwards, and discovers that the circle is being sought as the culprits. Apparantly, Hammer is dead and they have his body. They also have good descriptions for Rabbit and for Howl, a decent description for Brad. Monsoon is described as wearing a crazy labcoat, and Orchid is dark haired and in heavy black armor.
Eventually, they decide to start spreading rumors about there being a Skullstone fleet massed on the border (which is true), hoping that someone important will listen. Sure enough, someone official-looking finds them after relatively few hours and invites them along. The route is familiar to Monsoon, Orchid, and Howl, and they soon arrive again at Lord Gerard's mansion.
Lord Gerard is surprised to see them, and not entirely happy. Nonetheless, he listens to their story about the fleet before asking why they thought kidnapping the Realm emissary again was a good idea. They work very hard to convince him that this is not so. He counters that all the dead zombies had tiny flags, which is a sure sign of Rabbit's presence. All are concerned. Hammer's presence makes a strong arguement that he is not actually dead in a morgue.
Gerard thries several times to send them on a wild goose chase to 'far to the east/south/away," but eventually agrees to see about getting the charges dropped if they bring back the emmisary. They ask him about The Rose's Thorn and he agrees to also tell them everything he knows about that, as long as they go away.
Episode Thirteen: A Most False Imposition
The Circle had previously retrieved a diary from the ship on which their countrymen had been brought to Coral, and had returned to their ship to study it. It included a description of The Rose's Thorn, a ship which the captain knew by reputation, but had not seen before. Third Monsoon recognised the description as following first age design principles, but was not able to determine if it was actually a first age vessel.
As they discuss the issues facing them, they hear a commotion from the other side of the harbor. Going up to the deck, they see a brawl breaking out in front of the Realm Emissaries' ship. They decide to stay out of this one, and turn to go back below. Animas flare, and a large section of masts disintegrated in an explosion near the brawl. Hammer begins running over with Howl, Rabbit and Brad follow shortly afterward. As they run closer, several more castings of Death of Obsidian Butterflies shred even more of the harbor.
Arriving at the foot of the pier, Hammer finds that what looked an attacking force is actually their erstwhile nemesis, Way Too Many Zombies. He picks up a crate and pushes all of the nearby ones further out onto the pier, but then more turn around, and it's suddenly an even match.
Coral's upstanding citizenry emerges drunkenly from waterfront taverns, and begins betting on who will win. Way Too Many Zombies is favored, but Hammer also has supporters. A few zombies break past Hammer's crate-based barricade, and Rabbit handles them. Third Monsoon runs for the Guard. Brad starts picking off zombies which are pushing against Hammer. Orchid remains on the ship.
Aboard the Realm ship, things are not going well. The fighting is now mostly confined to the aft deck, and there are three Terrestrials with animas burning. The air-aspect who has been casting Death of Obsidian Butterflies winds up for another, but right beforehand is struck hard in the head by a huge opponent. That opponent is immediately cut down himself by the fire-aspect behind him. A dark trireme has been rowing closer, and suddenly rams the rear of the Realm ship.
Things continue to go poorly for our heroes. Monsoon finds the Guard already running toward the harobor, and runs ahead of them toward the rest of the circle. Brad continues winnowing the zombies, Hammer continues grappling them, and Rabbit continues dealing with the ones which have slipped past. The crowd continues to grow. Orchid is safely away, and does not care.
Aboard the ship, the fighting reaches its peak. The previously downed air-aspect is tossed onto the trireme by a moderately large assailant in bright orange armor. The fire-aspect continues to be super-dangerous to everyone around him. The water-aspect has been kung-fuing everyones face, but then has a large bag dropped on her head, is punched repeatedly, then tossed onto the trireme also. The remaining attackers break off and jump to the trireme. It pulls away from the ship and starts rowing for open sea.
Most of the remaining zombies turn and walk off the pier, into the water. Hammer runs up the pier, to the realm ship. Monsoon arrives and tells Rabbit and Brad that the Guard is en route. All three sneak off back to their ship.
Hammer confronts the fire-aspect, who shouts at him to "stay dead." A brief fracas sends the fire aspect into limit break, and he chases Hammer until he leaps to another ship, then follows Howl through the city, burning.
Eventually everyone gets back to the ship. They sail off after the trireme, which is out of sight. Complicating matters, Brad has botched a roll, and is now sure that the trireme is homeported far to the south. They decide to sail due west anyway, towards Skullstone.
A day later, they haven't found the trireme and are at the outer edge of the territory which Skullstone claims. There is a flotilla there. They hail the flagship and pull up alongside to talk. The admiral is human, which is a little weird for Skullstone, but everyone is still willing to talk. He is not very forthcoming about what the fleet is doing in this area, other than that they are maintaining Skullstone's borders. He also asks whether they have information on who might be raiding in the area. The circle, of course, has no idea what he could be talking about (see last episode). Orchid also asks him about The Rose's Thorn. He knows of it, and says that it is a scary ghost ship! But don't worry, he'll keep her safe! They decide he probably has heard of it, but the rest is suspect. Rabbit gives him a tiny flag (which he has been doing for everyone he meets). The admiral asks for more tiny flags. Rabbit gives him more tiny flags.
Giving up on the fleet, they sail back to Skullstone. After hanging out in a tavern for a while, they learn some more information that I have forgotten. They also hang out in a Guard station for a while, listening to the fire-aspect harangue the officer in charge. Orchid asks him questions afterwards, and discovers that the circle is being sought as the culprits. Apparantly, Hammer is dead and they have his body. They also have good descriptions for Rabbit and for Howl, a decent description for Brad. Monsoon is described as wearing a crazy labcoat, and Orchid is dark haired and in heavy black armor.
Eventually, they decide to start spreading rumors about there being a Skullstone fleet massed on the border (which is true), hoping that someone important will listen. Sure enough, someone official-looking finds them after relatively few hours and invites them along. The route is familiar to Monsoon, Orchid, and Howl, and they soon arrive again at Lord Gerard's mansion.
Lord Gerard is surprised to see them, and not entirely happy. Nonetheless, he listens to their story about the fleet before asking why they thought kidnapping the Realm emissary again was a good idea. They work very hard to convince him that this is not so. He counters that all the dead zombies had tiny flags, which is a sure sign of Rabbit's presence. All are concerned. Hammer's presence makes a strong arguement that he is not actually dead in a morgue.
Gerard thries several times to send them on a wild goose chase to 'far to the east/south/away," but eventually agrees to see about getting the charges dropped if they bring back the emmisary. They ask him about The Rose's Thorn and he agrees to also tell them everything he knows about that, as long as they go away.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
Episode Fourteen: Soap Opera Treachery
Leaving their erstwhile benefactor, the circle heads due west, toward Stark's Reef: the most hospitable part of Skullstone. It's a sizable port half-covered by shadowlands (spooky places full of ghosts with undead/underworld themed mechanical effects. The entire Skullstone archipelago is lousy with them). They pay for a pilot to navigate them through the eponymous reef, and submit to customs inspection and some (surprisingly reasonable) docking fees. Then everyone heads for a bar to catch up on local gossip (except for Rabbit, whose player was out). They find, among other things, the following rumors:
* Ebon Siaka, local hero, has a new submarine, and just loves it.
* A ship tried to sneak in last night and foundered on the reef. Serves them right.
* A building was raided down the dock. It was a loud and impressive raid by the local black fleet garrison.
* Everyone loves the new plays. Opinions are divided as to which is best.
* A bunch of other stuff that I don't remember, because no-one dug into it.
After some discussion confirms that Siaka's submarine is probably not the same as The Rose's Thorn, they split up. Howl, Hammer, and the redshirt who insulted Monsoon's cooking go to investigate the wrecked ship; Orchid, Monsoon, and Brad go to the Halls of Bureaucracy ("The Ministry") to enquire after the ship which they are seeking. They enter the building, queue up, and are quickly at the front where they are cheerily directed to a different desk.
Meanwhile, Hammer & Co. are rowing out to the wreck in a launch; and occasionally dragging it across reef.
Team Monsoon enqueues in the much shorter line at the new desk, repeat their enquiry, and are led back to an office. They again repeat their inquiry, and a secretary is sent to find yet another person.
Howl spots zombies staggering about on the wreck as they get closer.
Yet Another Person arrives and is ghostly. He hears what's up, and conducts them to a conference room, asking them to wait there.
Hammer et al. are close enough now to see that the undead are moving stuff onto pallets.
Team Monsoon are cooling their heels for twenty minutes or so, then Brad begins investigating the conference room. It is simply furnished, but the furniture is sturdy. The walls are bare. The door is locked. Brad completely fails to unlock it, so goes back to waiting. They don't wait much longer before someone new comes in, looking police-ish and leaving a couple people outside the door. This person is not a ghost. They once again ask after the ship and their doppelgängers, but this time something new happens: he asks why. So Monsoon explains everything that's happened. The detective is thoughtful, then becomes much more helpful, and asks them to follow him. He leads them around the building to another, nicer conference room and asks them to wait there.
Howl and Hammer and Redshirt arrive at the partially submerged ship and prepare to attack the animate corpses. Suddenly, one turns to them and asks what they're doing there! Howl talks to him and discovers that this zombie crew has been hired to salvage whatever they can by the owner, Dirgeful Silk. The cargo was grain, and is mostly spoiled. Hammer asks if he can look around the captain's quarters. The ghost snickers and says "knock yourself out." The cabin is under about ten feet of water. Hammer solves this by holding his breath for a really long time. The ghost is surprised, but good to his word.
In the cabin, Hammer finds a sodden mass which was likely formerly a set of valuable charts and informative letters. Now, it is a sodden mass. He also finds a small pile of jade money fetched up against the wall. Because he was previously indigent, this is actually enough that he cares about it. Then he takes his wolf and redshirt and goes home.
Meanwhile, the gang is all back in the nicer, also locked conference room. After a somewhat longer wait, another new ex-person comes in. This one seems more upper level, though still dead. He does not ask them for their story again, and explains that regretfully, the ship they're looking for was raided early that morning for crimes against the state (which is not actually more descriptive than "crimes"). Also, they raided a warehouse, where all the people they are looking for were unfortunately killed, and all their documents were burned. So sad. They ask to see the bodies, and he readily agrees, leading them through the twisty passages and back outside, then to a different building. It's essentially a guard post, but with a proper morgue apparently. They are (again) asked to wait. This wait is short though, and the bureaucrat returns with a doctor of some sort, who conducts them to the morgue
Inside, the circle sees their own corpses. Some imitations are better than others: Orchid's is fairly close; Rabbit's resemblance depends on the orange armor and Mohawk; Hammer's is huge and robed, but the right skin tone (his is distinctive for the region); Brad's is completely unrelated except for the bow; Monsoon's has a mad-doctor lab coat and head mirror, neither of which Monsoon actually wears.
Monsoon points out that theses corpses are all Frankensteined together, but the doctor is unimpressed. He agrees and points out workmanship details on them.
Everyone is somewhat nonplussed. They investigate the ship, which is empty. They talk their way into the warehouse where their doubles were nominally killed, and find it mostly empty. There is a lofted area with offices, one of which has obviously had a fire (matching what they were told). Inside the office they discover what appears to have been a very localized desk fire. Brad investigates though, and discovers a false back to the drawer, full of shipping ledger. Someone has apparently been smuggling flour, and various other grains and grain products. Hammer recalls that the ship wrecked on the reefs was full of flour, so off they go to find the owner.
Dirgeful Silk, when they find him, is busy moving out of a mansion. They briefly attempt to blackmail him, but this ends when he points out that he has already been discovered and raided. Also, he knows absolutely nothing about the duplicates. Or about anything else useful.
Confused, they sail back to Coral.
Once back in Coral, they trot down to the Sea Lord's guard barracks, and blithely drop off their duplicates, politely pointing out that these are counterfeits. The guards are confused, but are also mooks, and unwilling to attack a group of solars. They nod and smile, and eventually the circle leaves for Muddy Reefs.
When they get there, the bureaucracy monk pulls Hammer aside and quietly shows him that the monastery is a manse. Quel surprise. The statues are a guardian force, and it has a farmer's stone. Yay, crops!
Not too long after, a letter arrives from Lord Gerard. It expresses uncertainty whether they have actually kidnapped a second set of Realm representatives, but it doesn't matter now: they need to either return them, or Coral will crush Muddy Reefs. The Realm has made a similar threat to Coral, so it's not really optional.
And on that high note, the session ends.
Leaving their erstwhile benefactor, the circle heads due west, toward Stark's Reef: the most hospitable part of Skullstone. It's a sizable port half-covered by shadowlands (spooky places full of ghosts with undead/underworld themed mechanical effects. The entire Skullstone archipelago is lousy with them). They pay for a pilot to navigate them through the eponymous reef, and submit to customs inspection and some (surprisingly reasonable) docking fees. Then everyone heads for a bar to catch up on local gossip (except for Rabbit, whose player was out). They find, among other things, the following rumors:
* Ebon Siaka, local hero, has a new submarine, and just loves it.
* A ship tried to sneak in last night and foundered on the reef. Serves them right.
* A building was raided down the dock. It was a loud and impressive raid by the local black fleet garrison.
* Everyone loves the new plays. Opinions are divided as to which is best.
* A bunch of other stuff that I don't remember, because no-one dug into it.
After some discussion confirms that Siaka's submarine is probably not the same as The Rose's Thorn, they split up. Howl, Hammer, and the redshirt who insulted Monsoon's cooking go to investigate the wrecked ship; Orchid, Monsoon, and Brad go to the Halls of Bureaucracy ("The Ministry") to enquire after the ship which they are seeking. They enter the building, queue up, and are quickly at the front where they are cheerily directed to a different desk.
Meanwhile, Hammer & Co. are rowing out to the wreck in a launch; and occasionally dragging it across reef.
Team Monsoon enqueues in the much shorter line at the new desk, repeat their enquiry, and are led back to an office. They again repeat their inquiry, and a secretary is sent to find yet another person.
Howl spots zombies staggering about on the wreck as they get closer.
Yet Another Person arrives and is ghostly. He hears what's up, and conducts them to a conference room, asking them to wait there.
Hammer et al. are close enough now to see that the undead are moving stuff onto pallets.
Team Monsoon are cooling their heels for twenty minutes or so, then Brad begins investigating the conference room. It is simply furnished, but the furniture is sturdy. The walls are bare. The door is locked. Brad completely fails to unlock it, so goes back to waiting. They don't wait much longer before someone new comes in, looking police-ish and leaving a couple people outside the door. This person is not a ghost. They once again ask after the ship and their doppelgängers, but this time something new happens: he asks why. So Monsoon explains everything that's happened. The detective is thoughtful, then becomes much more helpful, and asks them to follow him. He leads them around the building to another, nicer conference room and asks them to wait there.
Howl and Hammer and Redshirt arrive at the partially submerged ship and prepare to attack the animate corpses. Suddenly, one turns to them and asks what they're doing there! Howl talks to him and discovers that this zombie crew has been hired to salvage whatever they can by the owner, Dirgeful Silk. The cargo was grain, and is mostly spoiled. Hammer asks if he can look around the captain's quarters. The ghost snickers and says "knock yourself out." The cabin is under about ten feet of water. Hammer solves this by holding his breath for a really long time. The ghost is surprised, but good to his word.
In the cabin, Hammer finds a sodden mass which was likely formerly a set of valuable charts and informative letters. Now, it is a sodden mass. He also finds a small pile of jade money fetched up against the wall. Because he was previously indigent, this is actually enough that he cares about it. Then he takes his wolf and redshirt and goes home.
Meanwhile, the gang is all back in the nicer, also locked conference room. After a somewhat longer wait, another new ex-person comes in. This one seems more upper level, though still dead. He does not ask them for their story again, and explains that regretfully, the ship they're looking for was raided early that morning for crimes against the state (which is not actually more descriptive than "crimes"). Also, they raided a warehouse, where all the people they are looking for were unfortunately killed, and all their documents were burned. So sad. They ask to see the bodies, and he readily agrees, leading them through the twisty passages and back outside, then to a different building. It's essentially a guard post, but with a proper morgue apparently. They are (again) asked to wait. This wait is short though, and the bureaucrat returns with a doctor of some sort, who conducts them to the morgue
Inside, the circle sees their own corpses. Some imitations are better than others: Orchid's is fairly close; Rabbit's resemblance depends on the orange armor and Mohawk; Hammer's is huge and robed, but the right skin tone (his is distinctive for the region); Brad's is completely unrelated except for the bow; Monsoon's has a mad-doctor lab coat and head mirror, neither of which Monsoon actually wears.
Monsoon points out that theses corpses are all Frankensteined together, but the doctor is unimpressed. He agrees and points out workmanship details on them.
Everyone is somewhat nonplussed. They investigate the ship, which is empty. They talk their way into the warehouse where their doubles were nominally killed, and find it mostly empty. There is a lofted area with offices, one of which has obviously had a fire (matching what they were told). Inside the office they discover what appears to have been a very localized desk fire. Brad investigates though, and discovers a false back to the drawer, full of shipping ledger. Someone has apparently been smuggling flour, and various other grains and grain products. Hammer recalls that the ship wrecked on the reefs was full of flour, so off they go to find the owner.
Dirgeful Silk, when they find him, is busy moving out of a mansion. They briefly attempt to blackmail him, but this ends when he points out that he has already been discovered and raided. Also, he knows absolutely nothing about the duplicates. Or about anything else useful.
Confused, they sail back to Coral.
Once back in Coral, they trot down to the Sea Lord's guard barracks, and blithely drop off their duplicates, politely pointing out that these are counterfeits. The guards are confused, but are also mooks, and unwilling to attack a group of solars. They nod and smile, and eventually the circle leaves for Muddy Reefs.
When they get there, the bureaucracy monk pulls Hammer aside and quietly shows him that the monastery is a manse. Quel surprise. The statues are a guardian force, and it has a farmer's stone. Yay, crops!
Not too long after, a letter arrives from Lord Gerard. It expresses uncertainty whether they have actually kidnapped a second set of Realm representatives, but it doesn't matter now: they need to either return them, or Coral will crush Muddy Reefs. The Realm has made a similar threat to Coral, so it's not really optional.
And on that high note, the session ends.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to chime in with questions/suggestions/whatever, that's cool. The thread doesn't need to be a monologue (it's fine if it is, but this may soon take the TGD record for longest series of posts without a shouting match).
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.