Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a comedy directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin, John Candy, and then a bunch of people in bit parts including Ben Stein, Edie McClurg, Michael McKean, and Kevin Bacon. Mostly it's Martin & Candy, though.
Neal Page (Martin) is a somewhat uptight marketing exec trying to fly home to Chicago from New York a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Due to some weather-related mishaps, he winds up in Wichita along with fellow commuter Del Griffith (Candy), a somewhat boorish but very friendly shower curtain ring salesman.
(An aside: My father was a recruiter, and he liked to joke that if he could get someone's business card while on vacation, he could write the day off as a business expense. Once in the Dallas airport we met a fellow who sold inflatable palm trees and other novelties, including inflatable heart earrings. As such, I have less trouble believing Del's profession than I otherwise might.)
Anyway, the trip just gets harder - they're robbed of all their cash, all transportation conspires against them, they manage to rent a car but then set it on fire, but finally they make it back to Chicago where Neal learns that the loving wife that Del has been referring to actually died years ago; Del is not only a widower but effectively homeless.
I watched this movie a lot when I was younger; the dynamic between Neal and Del is kind of reminiscent of the dynamic between me and my best friend in high school (inasmuch as I wound up giving him a lot of the looks that Neal gives Del). Watching again, I was thinking about how later comedies of the same stripe, that is, comedies where the main character just gets pummeled by life (such as Meet the Parents) aren't as enjoyable to me. I think it's because, for the most part, it's not other people being shit to Neal and Del. There are exceptions, but in general the people around them aren't mean or taking advantage, they're just doing their jobs and trying to help as much as they have to (or in some cases more). Also, while both characters have their flaws, they're also both decent people. They're both family men, they're both loving husbands, and although Neal refers to spending too much time away from home, it's not like there's a subplot where he has to win back his family's love or anything. He wants to get home, they want him home, and while he learns something about tolerance and love in the process, it's not so heavy handed that it overcomes the movie.
Like a lot of such comedies, it leaves a lot of things unresolved (Del and Neal have left a trail of destruction across the Midwest, often with Neal's name attached), but that's not the important thing, here. The important thing is that they made it home and Del has someplace to be for the holidays. It's kind of heartwarming.
Oh, one other thing: Probably the most famous scene in the movie is the one where Del and Neal share a bed, but then wake up snuggling, then leap out of bed in disgust and start doing manly stretches and talk about sports in deep voices. And yeah, it's kind of homophobic, inasmuch as the joke is "lol they snuggled", but I dunno. I think the joke is just as much their response to that sudden intimacy. I think that if this movie were made today (because, like, for a late 80s comedy this bit is downright understated), it might be funny to have the more uptight Neal be the one who reacts and Del just kind of take it in stride, but who knows.
Anyway, funny movie.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Pleasantville
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Character Creation: vs. Pirates
I feel like making a character but I'm not feeling terribly focused, which is why I'm happy to have games like this.
The Game: vs. Pirates
The Publisher: Denagh Design
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, and "book" is generous
Like the other "vs" games, this one is off a pamphlet. As usual, the conceit is very simple and somewhat malleable: We're on the high seas in the Caribbean, we can be pirates, pirate hunters, etc. I like the sound of a pirate hunter, actually.
Name and Concept: My character is Luc Mureau, the son of a French sailor and a woman from Hispaniola. His parents were killed by pirates when he was a young man, and he's sworn revenge.
Health: 10 points, that's easy.
Stats: Swashbuckling and Parley, one gets 4 and one gets 6. These are basically fighting and not-fighting. I think Luc is more a fighter than not, so 6 in Swashbuckling.
Qualities: 1 or 2 Goods, and then a like number of Bads. I'll take Dirty Fighter because Luc fights to win, and Cunning (increasing my Parley to 5). That means I need two Bads, though. I'll take Landlubber (Luc's experience on ships is lacking), and Hunted (the pirate that killed my parents knows I'm gunning for him and he'd be happy to take me out first).
Gear: I get the usual pirate trappings (cutlass, bandana, boots, etc.) plus something special that no one else has. I'll say I have a crucifix that mom gave me that I wear on a chain around my neck (but I'll pull it off and pop it in me boot before a fight).
And that's it! Luc is light skinned, black hair, his father's blue eyes and his mother's radiant smile. His skin is oddly smooth and pristine (hasn't been to sea yet), and he's still finding his sea legs, but he's definitely hankering to put his cutlass into some pirate booty.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
One-Shot: Scum & Villainy
Last night, we played a li'l ol' one-shot of Scum & Villainy. Here's the story.
Our crew works a Stardancer ship called the Aurora (none of the crew likes that name particularly, but it was all they could agree on). They usually take jobs helping people get from place to place, often people who are traveling incognito or trying to escape from the watchful eye of the Hegemony.
The crew:
The contact her, and she tells them that she's got a line on a Nightspeaker in the area. Nightspeakers are scary-powerful practitioners of the Way (and largely responsible for hunting Dwoo's faith down and eating them). They usually wear masks, and Alanda wants this one's mask. She isn't willing to tell the characters why, but she is willing to pay handsomely. She figures that since they're not known for this kind of work, maybe they can zip in and zip out without the job leading back to them (or her). The Nightspeaker just put down on Baftoma, a world mined into oblivion by the Hegemony. The crew agrees, and sets out.
They decide they'll try to trick the Nightspeaker, using the goodwill that Stat engenders as a doctor. They'll try and get him to take off his mask, nick it, and run like hell (this is kind of the MO for the crew generally). They land on Baftoma (taking minor damage to the hull, which makes Gear grouchy), and head out towards the settlement where the Nightspeaker's ship has landed.
Stat sets up as a doctor and asks if anyone needs his services; settlers queue up because there's not really a lot of medical help here. Kit, meanwhile, pretends to be a surveyor and checks over the mining scaffolds, looking for the Nightspeaker and whatever might be valuable. Gear and Vapor check over the ship and determine that the damage is minimal, while Dwoo reaches out with the Way and tries to pinpoint the Nightspeaker. He feels something, but it's the mystic equivalent of staring into the void. The Nightspeaker has seen him.
Stat sees the Nightspeaker walk up to him (and the crowd parts). The Nightspeaker demands to know where the Bembat is, and Stat lies well, saying that he doesn't have any Bembat, and isn't it illegal now anyway? He convinces the Nightspeaker to follow him around a corner (on the implied promise of maybe selling him some Bembat), and Kit follows, trying to remain out of sight.
Dwoo crawls through some of the vents, trying to get the drop on the Nightspeaker, but his attention snaps upwards and he gestures to the vents, shaking them. Stat, figuring the jig is officially up, stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder with a syringe of drugs. The Nightspeaker intones one syllable, and all of them feel the void clawing at their minds. Everything goes black for a moment, and when their vision clears, the Nightspeaker is not there.
Dwoo reaches out with the Way again, and finds the Nightspeaker heading back to his ship. The characters start scrambling after him; Dwoo uses the Way to propel itself forward and winds up close enough to the Nightspeaker to engage. Dwoo threatens, and the Nightspeaker responds; Dwoo unsheathes his lightblade and attacks.
They fight, but neither can really land a solid blow. Stat rushes in and swings at the Nightspeaker; he blocks, but the exchange sets up Dwoo for an opening and it stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Gear and Vapor run past the melee and find the Nightspeaker's ship, which is pure black and glassy, and feels oddly soft and smooth to the touch. They manage to hack the security to get in, and find that the ship talks to them. Gear is used to being able to talk to machines, but this one can think. It tells them that if they don't tell their friends to stop attacking the Nightspeaker, it will pump the ship full of chlorine gas.
They relay this, but the battle doesn't stop. Dwoo telekinetically hurls a rock at the Nightspeaker, but it shatters on a force shield he's putting up. Stat pulls out some magnetic apparatus to try and dislodge the mask, but the Nightspeaker flings him away and into unconsciousness. The ship does indeed pump the cabin full of gas and it burns at their skin, but both Gear and Vapor have portable space suits that keep their lungs clear. They try to hack the ship to make it work, but can't, and Vapor shoots the control panel in frustration. Outside, Kit manages to rig up a device to wedge the door open, and despite nearly getting a facefull of gas in the process, frees Gear and Vapor.
Dwoo charges at the Nightspeaker, but at the last second slides under his legs and tosses a detonator into his face. The force field absorbs the worst of it, but his mask is dislodged. Vapor tosses her grappling hook to Gear, who quickly rigs a gas-powered gun and hands it to Kit. Kit fires it and snags the mask, and everyone runs like hell (so that part of the plan worked).
The Nightspeaker doesn't pursue them (being injured, after all), and they get back to their ship and zoom the hell back to the Cove to get paid. Alanda gives them their money, and they note that the back of the mask has markings that look like a star chart. They aren't sure exactly what Alanda is after, here, but what's the difference? They got paid, and they've got the Cred to fix their ship and keep it flying. Can't ask for more than that.
Our crew works a Stardancer ship called the Aurora (none of the crew likes that name particularly, but it was all they could agree on). They usually take jobs helping people get from place to place, often people who are traveling incognito or trying to escape from the watchful eye of the Hegemony.
The crew:
- Lyran Wolffe, aka Stat. Wolffe is the scion of House Krisnath, and was in line to be the heir, and then wound up disinherited, largely for being too progressive for the Hegemony types. His sister Ditha continually makes it impossible for him to rejoin the family, even if he wanted to. He's the Stitch.
- Dara Prednis, aka Vapor. Vapor is the child of colonists and grew up on a boring-ass farming world in the Iota system. She's in it for the thrill: she likes to gamble, likes to fly fast, and was thrown out (rather, gently encouraged to pursue other avenues) of the Starsmith's Guild. She's the Pilot.
- Oo'wu'd'woo'oo'oo, aka Dwoo. Dwoo is a xeno, a member of a race called the Bembat. The Bembat were only recently discovered (or maybe admitted) to be an intelligent race. Before that, they were considered a delicacy in polite society. Dwoo himself is an adherent of a Xeno cult worshiping the cosmos, and is proficient in the Way (and is therefore a Mystic).
- Kit. Kit probably has a legal name, but he doesn't know it. He grew up as a wanderer, moving from place to place and wound up selling himself and engaging in other criminal enterprises. Kit is gorgeous and knows it, and is something of a pleasure addict. He's a Scoundrel.
- Yola Black, aka Gear. Black is the ship's Mechanic. Machines talk to her, and so she keeps the machinery squeaky clean (herself, not so much). She grew up on a series of ships with her mechanic parents, until they kind of nudged her into finding her own work.
The contact her, and she tells them that she's got a line on a Nightspeaker in the area. Nightspeakers are scary-powerful practitioners of the Way (and largely responsible for hunting Dwoo's faith down and eating them). They usually wear masks, and Alanda wants this one's mask. She isn't willing to tell the characters why, but she is willing to pay handsomely. She figures that since they're not known for this kind of work, maybe they can zip in and zip out without the job leading back to them (or her). The Nightspeaker just put down on Baftoma, a world mined into oblivion by the Hegemony. The crew agrees, and sets out.
They decide they'll try to trick the Nightspeaker, using the goodwill that Stat engenders as a doctor. They'll try and get him to take off his mask, nick it, and run like hell (this is kind of the MO for the crew generally). They land on Baftoma (taking minor damage to the hull, which makes Gear grouchy), and head out towards the settlement where the Nightspeaker's ship has landed.
Stat sets up as a doctor and asks if anyone needs his services; settlers queue up because there's not really a lot of medical help here. Kit, meanwhile, pretends to be a surveyor and checks over the mining scaffolds, looking for the Nightspeaker and whatever might be valuable. Gear and Vapor check over the ship and determine that the damage is minimal, while Dwoo reaches out with the Way and tries to pinpoint the Nightspeaker. He feels something, but it's the mystic equivalent of staring into the void. The Nightspeaker has seen him.
Stat sees the Nightspeaker walk up to him (and the crowd parts). The Nightspeaker demands to know where the Bembat is, and Stat lies well, saying that he doesn't have any Bembat, and isn't it illegal now anyway? He convinces the Nightspeaker to follow him around a corner (on the implied promise of maybe selling him some Bembat), and Kit follows, trying to remain out of sight.
Dwoo crawls through some of the vents, trying to get the drop on the Nightspeaker, but his attention snaps upwards and he gestures to the vents, shaking them. Stat, figuring the jig is officially up, stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder with a syringe of drugs. The Nightspeaker intones one syllable, and all of them feel the void clawing at their minds. Everything goes black for a moment, and when their vision clears, the Nightspeaker is not there.
Dwoo reaches out with the Way again, and finds the Nightspeaker heading back to his ship. The characters start scrambling after him; Dwoo uses the Way to propel itself forward and winds up close enough to the Nightspeaker to engage. Dwoo threatens, and the Nightspeaker responds; Dwoo unsheathes his lightblade and attacks.
They fight, but neither can really land a solid blow. Stat rushes in and swings at the Nightspeaker; he blocks, but the exchange sets up Dwoo for an opening and it stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Gear and Vapor run past the melee and find the Nightspeaker's ship, which is pure black and glassy, and feels oddly soft and smooth to the touch. They manage to hack the security to get in, and find that the ship talks to them. Gear is used to being able to talk to machines, but this one can think. It tells them that if they don't tell their friends to stop attacking the Nightspeaker, it will pump the ship full of chlorine gas.
They relay this, but the battle doesn't stop. Dwoo telekinetically hurls a rock at the Nightspeaker, but it shatters on a force shield he's putting up. Stat pulls out some magnetic apparatus to try and dislodge the mask, but the Nightspeaker flings him away and into unconsciousness. The ship does indeed pump the cabin full of gas and it burns at their skin, but both Gear and Vapor have portable space suits that keep their lungs clear. They try to hack the ship to make it work, but can't, and Vapor shoots the control panel in frustration. Outside, Kit manages to rig up a device to wedge the door open, and despite nearly getting a facefull of gas in the process, frees Gear and Vapor.
Dwoo charges at the Nightspeaker, but at the last second slides under his legs and tosses a detonator into his face. The force field absorbs the worst of it, but his mask is dislodged. Vapor tosses her grappling hook to Gear, who quickly rigs a gas-powered gun and hands it to Kit. Kit fires it and snags the mask, and everyone runs like hell (so that part of the plan worked).
The Nightspeaker doesn't pursue them (being injured, after all), and they get back to their ship and zoom the hell back to the Cove to get paid. Alanda gives them their money, and they note that the back of the mask has markings that look like a star chart. They aren't sure exactly what Alanda is after, here, but what's the difference? They got paid, and they've got the Cred to fix their ship and keep it flying. Can't ask for more than that.
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Blue Rose: End of Season One
Last night we came to what I'm calling the end of the first season in Blue Rose; the characters have made it all the way to Aldis, turned over the Mask, and then discovered the next part of their quest.
Last time, the heroes fought some merrows and rescued Aleta from the bottom of Lake Vash. This time, as we open, Kisha has passed all her exams, and the city is preparing for the month-long celebration of the Festival of Service, during which nobles from all over Aldea come to the city. Also, on the first night of the festival, Midsummer's Night, new nobles are, well, ennobled, as Kisha hopes to be.
The characters are on duty the days before the festival, patrolling the Lake Ward, helping traffic, that sort of thing. Kisha sees Vistul, an instructor from the Academy of the Dance in Verdaunen. She looks good, but tired from travel and (probably) the stress of her colleague Memne getting arrested as a Shadow Dancer. Whirlpool winds up arbitrating a dispute between a Rezean noble and a rhy-horse about treatment of horses, imposing himself between them and getting them to listen to each other. Arlen sees an arriving noble from Garnet, traveling in a carriage and flanked by his entourage, and Dobbin notes that with this many people in Aldis, she's seeing more of the inequality and human unpleasantness that she was led to believe didn't exist here.
That night, the evening of Atholon 30, the night before the Festival begins, they're still patrolling (since all of them are going to be off duty tomorrow for Kisha's ceremony). As they're patrolling, Arlen sees a vision in his mind's eye of the Rose River rising up and turning to blood. They decide to head down toward the river, and indeed, they see a man standing over the body of a woman. The woman is bleeding from her neck, and the man turns to them with eyes glowing red and fangs dripping gore. They recognize him - Lord Ezrath, from Sundown.
Whirlpool acts as he does best, off the cuff, and calls up a gout of water from the river to knock Ezrath down. Dobbin and Pansy try to herd him away from the woman, and Kisha tries to talk him down, giving him a chance to surrender. Ezrath raises his hands and they glow with black fire, and Arlen casts Ward on him to disrupt his arcana. The fire does disappear, but his eyes also change back to normal and his fangs and the blood vanish, and he just looks afraid. The characters realize that this was an illusion...and then the "victim" stands up.
"The offer still stands," she says, in a voice that Whirlpool recognizes as the darkfiend that was recently in his head. "To both of you." And then the woman melts into shadow and oozes away.
Kisha tells Ezrath that he's committed no crime, and therefore can go free, but he says that he needs help. He confesses to the characters: he's a member of a society called the Broken Circle, and they look for ways to cheat death. He's been terrified of dying since he took part in a battle against the forces of the Shadow and saw what they were capable of, and since then the voice of Nettas, a darkfiend in service to Ulasta the Exarch of Envy, has been in his head. The characters take him to the Temple, and tell him that Corruption can be excised, it's just hard.
The next night, the characters all get dressed up and go to the ceremony. They see nobles and prospective nobles take the scepter and receive their titles, and some that take the scepter and see it cease glowing. Kisha approaches and takes the scepter, and sees herself escape from Kern, meet the others, and all of her adventures on the way to Aldis, until she stands here before the queen, the Scepter of the Blue Rose still glowing. Queen Jaellin names her Lady Kisha Lost, and the characters celebrate into the night.
The next day, they are summoned before the queen, and she waits for them with Professor Dorian Cal of the Royal College. He tells them that they can't destroy the Mask, not here. However, he's fairly sure that it can be destroyed, but they need to fulfill the condition that was place on the Ebban family. The family remains marked by Shadow until the Mad Seer tastes the cold sea's tears, and that means that the characters must go to the Leviathan's Teeth, a treacherous maze of jagged rocks and ruins, find Miriana's tomb, and there figure out how to destroy the Mask. If they're willing to undertake this quest, of course.
They all agree, and they begin preparation. Next time, they'll set sail!
Last time, the heroes fought some merrows and rescued Aleta from the bottom of Lake Vash. This time, as we open, Kisha has passed all her exams, and the city is preparing for the month-long celebration of the Festival of Service, during which nobles from all over Aldea come to the city. Also, on the first night of the festival, Midsummer's Night, new nobles are, well, ennobled, as Kisha hopes to be.
The characters are on duty the days before the festival, patrolling the Lake Ward, helping traffic, that sort of thing. Kisha sees Vistul, an instructor from the Academy of the Dance in Verdaunen. She looks good, but tired from travel and (probably) the stress of her colleague Memne getting arrested as a Shadow Dancer. Whirlpool winds up arbitrating a dispute between a Rezean noble and a rhy-horse about treatment of horses, imposing himself between them and getting them to listen to each other. Arlen sees an arriving noble from Garnet, traveling in a carriage and flanked by his entourage, and Dobbin notes that with this many people in Aldis, she's seeing more of the inequality and human unpleasantness that she was led to believe didn't exist here.
That night, the evening of Atholon 30, the night before the Festival begins, they're still patrolling (since all of them are going to be off duty tomorrow for Kisha's ceremony). As they're patrolling, Arlen sees a vision in his mind's eye of the Rose River rising up and turning to blood. They decide to head down toward the river, and indeed, they see a man standing over the body of a woman. The woman is bleeding from her neck, and the man turns to them with eyes glowing red and fangs dripping gore. They recognize him - Lord Ezrath, from Sundown.
Whirlpool acts as he does best, off the cuff, and calls up a gout of water from the river to knock Ezrath down. Dobbin and Pansy try to herd him away from the woman, and Kisha tries to talk him down, giving him a chance to surrender. Ezrath raises his hands and they glow with black fire, and Arlen casts Ward on him to disrupt his arcana. The fire does disappear, but his eyes also change back to normal and his fangs and the blood vanish, and he just looks afraid. The characters realize that this was an illusion...and then the "victim" stands up.
"The offer still stands," she says, in a voice that Whirlpool recognizes as the darkfiend that was recently in his head. "To both of you." And then the woman melts into shadow and oozes away.
Kisha tells Ezrath that he's committed no crime, and therefore can go free, but he says that he needs help. He confesses to the characters: he's a member of a society called the Broken Circle, and they look for ways to cheat death. He's been terrified of dying since he took part in a battle against the forces of the Shadow and saw what they were capable of, and since then the voice of Nettas, a darkfiend in service to Ulasta the Exarch of Envy, has been in his head. The characters take him to the Temple, and tell him that Corruption can be excised, it's just hard.
The next night, the characters all get dressed up and go to the ceremony. They see nobles and prospective nobles take the scepter and receive their titles, and some that take the scepter and see it cease glowing. Kisha approaches and takes the scepter, and sees herself escape from Kern, meet the others, and all of her adventures on the way to Aldis, until she stands here before the queen, the Scepter of the Blue Rose still glowing. Queen Jaellin names her Lady Kisha Lost, and the characters celebrate into the night.
The next day, they are summoned before the queen, and she waits for them with Professor Dorian Cal of the Royal College. He tells them that they can't destroy the Mask, not here. However, he's fairly sure that it can be destroyed, but they need to fulfill the condition that was place on the Ebban family. The family remains marked by Shadow until the Mad Seer tastes the cold sea's tears, and that means that the characters must go to the Leviathan's Teeth, a treacherous maze of jagged rocks and ruins, find Miriana's tomb, and there figure out how to destroy the Mask. If they're willing to undertake this quest, of course.
They all agree, and they begin preparation. Next time, they'll set sail!
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Character Creation: Small Things
Figure I may as well polish off Seven Wonders, while I'm at it.
The Game: Small Things
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press, in Seven Wonders
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Small Things is a game very much in the vein of Thimble or the setup I used waaaay back here for Dreaming Cities. You're playing little beings living in a house, taking care of the Big Things (people) that live there. The default setting is Britain between 1930 and 1950, and one of the listed inspirations is Wallace & Gromit, so that's fun.
In order to make my Small Thing (yes, the song is now in my head, well done) I would normally come up with the House and the Big Things. I'm gonna say that my Small Thing lives in an old country house, and that the family that lives there is an elderly couple taking care of their grandson (the implication here might be the parents are dead, gone, off to war, whatever, it's not really important from the Small Things' perspective).
(If I were actually playing this game there would be more time devoted to fleshing these things out, but for my purposes that's good enough.)
The first thing I need to do is figure out my Small Thing's core concept, what I'm best at and what my function is in the house. Since I live with someone who consistently misplaces her eyeglasses, my Small Thing is going to be the guardian of lost necessities. When the Big Things lose their glasses, medicine, keys, and other needful things, my Small Thing finds them and puts them back on the table or nightstand or whatever. He can't be arsed to chase after toys for the young Big Thing, though, as those things don't seem needful.
Now I make up two special abilities. One that's listed as an example is Hotter/Colder, which lets me know how close I am to a lost object, which seems pretty appropriate. And then I think I want something related to putting things back where they belong. Maybe I can throw inanimate objects many times my weight? Sure, I'll call it Caber Toss.
Next we'd ask each other questions about our respective Small Things from a list. I'll answer two, how about.
Is your Small Thing more attached to the House or the Family? Why? I think he's more attached to the Family. The House is nice and all, but it doesn't need anything.
What is your Small Thing afraid of? Starvation. He remembers winters when the food nearly ran out, how the elderly couple (not so elderly at the time) got thin and wasted away. They needed food, and he couldn't get it because they hadn't lost it, it just wasn't there.
And now we do appearance. Small Things don't necessarily look human (indeed, I don't think any of the described ones do). I think my Small Thing looks like an old pair of reading glasses. His moniker is Focal. I picture him as being gruff and businesslike, but encouraging - he's perfectly willing to help other Small Things do what they need to do, though he's more likely to grumble about it if it seems unnecessary.
And that's it, I think.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Character Creation: Scum & Villainy
Well, sure. This'll be quick.
The Game: Scum & Villainy
The Publisher: Off Guard Games, by way of Evil Hat
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played it, but I ran a very long game of Blades in the Dark, and this basically Blades in space
Books Required: Just the one
Scum and Villainy works on the same principles and systems as Blades, right down to doing jobs and having downtime and so on, but it sets the action in the Procyon Sector of space, consisting of four star systems, in which our space-scoundrels must contend with the Empire Alliance Hegemony. Yes, there are parts of it that are heavily derivative of Star Wars and Firefly, but that's fine. Presumably you're playing this game because you want to evoke parts of those properties, without actually going all the way and having to learn the lore.
As with Blades, there's lore here but it's pretty non-intrusive. And as with Blades, part of character creation would normally be crew creation (and, here, ship creation), but as it's just li'l ol' me, I'll just make my character and assume someone would hire him.
As such, I need to pick a role. I'm torn between Mystic and Stitch. Mystics get to muck about with the Force Way, and that means using fun artifacts and powers, but the Stitch is meant to be the moral compass of the crew and that sounds like something I'd enjoy. I'll think I'll do that.
My starting ability is I'm a doctor, not a... which allows me to roll my doctor rating instead of another one, which is awesome. I also get a special ability. Hmm. I'll take combat medic. I can spend special armor to resist a consequence while I'm doctoring someone, and I clear stress if I doctor someone in combat (note that I can't necessarily clear harm during action, but that's OK, lots of other reasons to doctor).
Now I pick a Heritage. I want something that lends itself to my combat medic prowess. I don't want to be a xeno (alien). I think spacer or colonist would make the most sense, since I just made a character who grew up in space for After the War, I'll do colonist. I get a detail, there, too, so I'll say my detail is one of the 77 survivors of M32. My character was part of a colonist party that was all but wiped out on a moon designated M32.
Background is next. I'll pick military. He joined the military after getting off M32 and was a combat medic for a while, but was discharged when it was discovered that he falsified his medical documentation. He only did that because the institution where he trained no longer existed and he couldn't prove his cred any other way, but the Hegemony wasn't interested. Dishonorably discharged combat medic.
Next up, action ratings. I start with doctor 2 (duh) and study 1. I'm meant to choose one that reflects heritage, one that reflects background, and then two anywhere. Well, I want a point in scramble (lots of that going on back on M32) and scrap (I was a soldier, after all). And then I'll take one in command (again, military training) and one in rig (you learn to improvise when you're in the shit).
Choose a friend and a rival from the list. Well, for my friend, I'll take Jackev. He's a former comrade-in-arms, and most of the "drugs" he sells are purely medicinal. He just sells them illegally. For my rival, I'll take Lynie, a hospital admin. My guy applied for a job at the hospital after getting discharged, and Lynie not only gave him the boot, but informed other hospitals in the system about him. Snitches get stitches, man.
Pick a vice. I want gambling. I see this guy as someone who's not given to vices that impaired his senses, but he's pretty superstitious and prone to confirmation bias. His particular poison is games of dice and cards. No online or video gambling, that shit's rigged.
Name, alias, look. OK. His name is Wyndam Zer, but he goes by Dice (I almost went with "Bones," as in "roll 'em", but then I caught myself). For look, I'll say that Dice wears the remnants of his uniform, but he's stripped it of any insignia or indicator, so you could only tell by the cut and the fabric that it's Hegemony issue.
Dice is what you might call "grizzled." He's not unfriendly and he's not grouchy, but he's been through some shit and he kind of feels like he got dealt a bum hand being on M32. He doesn't like to talk about what happened there, but I think that the 77 survivors can all detect one another - they recognize each other on sight. That would be a nifty plot point to have surface, I think.
That's it!
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Character Creation: Chill 1st Edition
Well, what the heck. Just ran Chill yesterday, might as well do this character.
The Game: Chill (1st Edition)
The Publisher: Pacesetter Ltd, now defunct
Degree of Familiarity: Lots with the property in general, but I don't think I've ever actually played or run this edition. I started with 2nd Ed.
Books Required: Just the one.
I've said before that Chill 2nd Ed is one of the most 90s things I've seen, both in terms of aesthetic and game design. Chill 1st Ed, as it happens, is pretty darned 80s. It's all written in first person, though I'm not entirely sure who's supposed to be the narrator. The Campaign Book (which contains stuff like chargen and rules and so on) has almost no information on the backstory or setting of the game, and really doesn't even talk much about how to run a horror game. The Horrors of the Unknown book (including in the boxed set, which is another thing that dates the game) talks about the monsters and gives us some flavor text, but as is common for games of the day, there's not much about what you really do at the table to bring across the themes/moods of the game.
Anyway, this edition of the game is somewhat pulpier than the later ones, which is fine; I personally prefer to play horror a little straighter, but that's not to say that this approach can't be cool. Let's kick this pig.
Well, I'm creating a SAVE envoy, as is usual for Chill games. We'll assume this takes place pre-1989, in case that becomes relevant.
Wow, all of this chargen is random. That's different. OK, then. Utilizing random.org, I get 28, 34, 73, 55, 69, 60, 68, 65. Overall that's not bad. What sort of fellow do I want to make, here? Interestingly, the book doesn't tell me to think about how my character learned about the Unknown or joined SAVE, but I'll probably do that anyway.
I think my character is something of a sad case. He lived in New York and had aspirations of striking it rich. He sold stolen goods, sold coke, sold whatever he could, but he could never quite crack into anything really lucrative, and he started sniffing a little too much of his own supply. And then one night he got a lead on a job - break into an office building, the folks there tend to leave cash, drugs, and other valuable stuff around. He wound up out on the street with $400 in his pocket and no idea what he'd seen in that office, but every time he tries to think about it he sees red light and smells something burning. SAVE recruited him shortly thereafter and he just kind of went with the flow, but he's pretty sure they're not telling him everything, and maybe that's OK. His name is Cyrus Liebach, but everyone calls him Cy.
OK, so now let's assign these traits. I'll put my low ones into Stamina and Agility; Cyrus isn't in great shape (too much coke, not enough veggies). I'll put my 55 into Luck, and my 69 into Perception. Personality definitely gets the 73, I'll stick the 60 into Agility, and that leaves 68 for Willpower and 65 for Dexterity. Sounds good.
My Unskilled Melee is (Strength + Agility)/2, which is 47, which isn't terrible.
Now, Skills. I roll a d10 (10!), and divide it in half, and that's how many skills points I get. 5. You kidding me? I can't take Master skills to start, only Student or Teacher (1 or 2 skill points, respectively). Wonder how stupidly granular the list is.
Well, combat skills are stupidly granular, but the professional skills aren't so bad. I mean, there are some big holes - nothing like streetwise or anything like that. I'll take Investigation, Lockpicking, Filching, Antiques, and Revolver at Student. And then I need to figure out my scores, which are Base + 15 in all cases, and the bases here are those crazy averages of basic abilities. I guess I chose my skills well; none of my scores are under 75.
Next, if my Perception is 60 or better (which it is) and my Willpower is 50 or better (which it is), I get to pick a discipline of the Art. Only three schools here (see, SAVE's understanding continues to improve, in 3rd Ed there are six). Well, of the disciplines available, I think Telepathic Empathy makes the most sense of Cyrus.
And that's pretty much it! Cyrus is 28. He's skinny and strung out, and has black hair and brown eyes. He's kind of faded out from his previous criminal life, but he doesn't have a whole lot on his resume so he's trying to push for work from SAVE, because at least they give you an expense account. He wears fake jewelry and track suits most of the time, and keeps a revolver in an ankle holster.
Chill: Bull in a China Shop, And We're the China
And last time, the envoys had battled the creature that was once Casey Lynch - now something called a draugr - and lost. They fell back and wound up at Felix Willis' ranch, and took stock.
Doing a little bit of digging, they put some pieces together. Lynch was last seen alive in a cornfield outside Lawen, OR, when the envoys ran him off the road (that was here). Lawen is about 60 miles south of where they are now, so Lynch apparently made his way north. Mohammed has been in Lynch's head enough to know that he's angry and paranoid, but the envoys aren't quite sure what it is he wants or what happened to him (or even when). They decide to sleep on it, and then go to the cornfield tomorrow and investigate. BB also contacts Willa Lane and arranges for her to meet them at the cornfield; BB is injured and figures he out to stay out of active duty for a bit.
The characters bed down at the ranch, and Jeanie, Mohammed, and BB have dreams. Mohammed dreams he's in uniform, guarding a door with Lynch. As he watches, some Army brass folks bring in a gurney with a bloodied body covered by a sheet. They hear screams from behind the door, and Lynch whispers, "see, they knew. They know about the monsters." Something slams against the door, and the last thing Mohammed remembers is Lynch screaming "I told you they knew!" before the door bursts outward.
BB and Jeanie, meanwhile, dream that they're back at the cornfield. They haul a body out of their trunk and set it on fire, but then look over and see Lynch staring at them. He turns and runs into the cornfield, and the body stands up and reaches for the envoys.
They all wake up, traumatized to a greater or lesser degree by their dreams. They head out to the cornfield and meet Willa, and look around. Jeanie finds a trail of broken stalks and follows it for a bit. It eventually ends, and she finds a shell casing from a pistol.
Samantha uses Postcognition to see what happened, and she sees Lynch running panicked through the field. He mutters "they knew" a few times, but is otherwise incoherent. He steps into a furrow and breaks his ankle, falls to ground, and starts to cry...and then puts his pistol under his chin.
Samantha reports all this back to the characters. Whether Lynch was being chased by something, or whether he just panicked, this is where he died. At this point Blake gets an email from Dylan with more information on draugr. SAVE doesn't have information on this creature specifically (creatures as depicted in folklore aren't great sources anyway, because folklore is never a complete match for reality), but Dylan does suspect that given everything they've said, this creature is undead, still using its own body. A report on undead creatures compiled by an envoy named Alex Prost mentions creatures that died and were never discovered or disposed of in a manner they felt disrespectful; Prost calls them "unhallowed." Unfortunately, killing them isn't easy or obvious - some of them need to be put to rest, while others can be killed by purifying or curative measures: salt, pure water, iron, silver.
The envoys note that the wind chimes they've been seeing around town are, at least in part, made of iron. They head back to the Bear Valley Store and talk with Lonny Patton, the owner and the fellow who makes the chimes. He says that his father was something of a hoarder and left a lot of crap around, including scrap metal, and Lonny's used that for crafts over the years. The envoys buy up a bunch of the wind chimes and fall back to Felix' ranch. Blake loads some shotgun shells with iron, some with tin, some with copper. Jeanie fills some baggies with rock salt and hands them out to the envoys, and loads her shotgun with the stuff as well. They pour some distilled water into squirt bottles, and then ponder their next move.
It occurs to the envoys that they kind of left Bob Houston without any good understanding of what was happening (though they did try), so Mohammed calls him...and gets no answer. Figuring that's not a good sign, they head over to his house, and at the back door they find that the wind chime is missing and his door is ajar. They creep in and head into the basement (they'd noticed through a small window that some of the furniture down there seemed to be overturned), and find that, indeed, the room is in disarray.
Willa finds hair and blood on the pedal of an overturned exercise bike, and Samantha pulls up a rug to reveal a pool of blood. Figuring that Bob is probably dead, Willa uses Voice of the Dead to talk to him. He's willing to talk (though he's clearly angry at Mohammed for not making the situation more clear), and tells them that something attacked him, threw him against the bike, and then he heard chewing sounds. As he speaks, he dips his finger in the blood and writes "STILL HERE" on the ground, with an arrow pointing down. The envoys notice this and figure that Lynch is in the floor. Willa dismisses Bob and Jeanie throws salt on the ground.
And indeed, suddenly there's a bull in the basement! Jeanie shoots it with rock salt, but the bull charges her and slams into her, throwing her aside. Willa activates Astral Attack and hurls a hand weight at its head, and it stops and shakes its noggin, looking confused. It turns and plows into her, but can't seem to change form, and Willa yells to everyone to fall back. They head upstairs and wait; Blake loads an iron shell into the shotgun and points it down the stairs. Lynch, now in human form, comes charging up, and Blake shoots him, knocking him back and putting a hole in his chest. The envoys have finally found something that can hurt him.
But Lynch isn't through. Everyone except Blake heads outside, and suddenly Blake can't see - everything in the house has gone dark. The folks outside can see in, and Willa notices a little white cat sneak out of the basement and walk behind Blake. She throws a doorstop from the porch at it and misses, but it turns to her and Blake follows to sound out. The envoys leave, falling back to the ranch, but a block away, both Jeanie (coming out of shock) and Blake need to stop and throw up. Jeanie is still concussed, but Blake just feels ill, and Mohammed starts feeling it, too.
They arrive at the ranch, and Willa notes that she's seen an illness like this before. The illness fades when the creature is destroyed, but that means the characters need to get busy, because both Mohammed and Blake are getting worse. BB uses Heal on Jeanie and Blake to make them functional again, and the envoys recruit Felix (who's also not feeling well - the pestilence is spreading) and head back to Bob's house.
When they get there, Mohammed uses Telepathic Empathy and detects Lynch's mind in the basement. The envoys start heading down the stairs, but then Lynch appears on the stairs behind them. Jeanie, fortunately, is ready (and has the Quicken discipline), and wheels around with her shotgun. She blows another hole in Lynch, but Lynch changes into his giant-man form and smashes the stairs, knocking the envoys to and fro.
They collapse into the basement, and then everything goes dark. Mohammed, who can still draw a bead on Lynch with his discipline, fires, but the other envoys are in the basement with no clear way to get up. Jeanie feels pressure on her chest, and then pain, but figures that means Lynch is in front of her and fires.
The darkness goes away, and Lynch is standing there in front of Jeanie with a knife in her chest...but a huge hole in his torso. He collapses into the basement, and Jeanie falls against the stairs. Felix (who'd been trying to put up a Sphere of Protection but couldn't manage) runs over to help him, and Mohammed empties the rest of his shotgun shells into Lynch's body.
Felix calls the police - they need medical attention for Jeanie. Willa and Blake leave, figuring Samantha and Mohammed, as a former FBI agent and a skilled liar, respectively, can talk to the police....but then Mohammed collapses, unconscious from the illness.
Sheriff Manny Wall arrives and demands to know what exactly is going on. He takes Samantha upstairs, they life-flight Jeanie away and put Mohammed in an ambulance to get fluids and oxygen, and Samantha tries to tell him that they acted in self-defense while looking for Lynch. Manny quickly points out the problems here - first, they were carrying shotguns, and second, what are they doing in Bob Houston's house?
Wall takes Samantha downstairs so she can explain things a little better, but they're met with a truly gruesome sight. Both of the deputies that were processing the scene are dead. One's neck is broken, and the other's head has been bashed against the wall. Lynch's body is gone. He's not dead after all.
"OK," says Wall desperately, "what the hell is going on here?"
Next time, we'll see what they tell him.
Doing a little bit of digging, they put some pieces together. Lynch was last seen alive in a cornfield outside Lawen, OR, when the envoys ran him off the road (that was here). Lawen is about 60 miles south of where they are now, so Lynch apparently made his way north. Mohammed has been in Lynch's head enough to know that he's angry and paranoid, but the envoys aren't quite sure what it is he wants or what happened to him (or even when). They decide to sleep on it, and then go to the cornfield tomorrow and investigate. BB also contacts Willa Lane and arranges for her to meet them at the cornfield; BB is injured and figures he out to stay out of active duty for a bit.
The characters bed down at the ranch, and Jeanie, Mohammed, and BB have dreams. Mohammed dreams he's in uniform, guarding a door with Lynch. As he watches, some Army brass folks bring in a gurney with a bloodied body covered by a sheet. They hear screams from behind the door, and Lynch whispers, "see, they knew. They know about the monsters." Something slams against the door, and the last thing Mohammed remembers is Lynch screaming "I told you they knew!" before the door bursts outward.
BB and Jeanie, meanwhile, dream that they're back at the cornfield. They haul a body out of their trunk and set it on fire, but then look over and see Lynch staring at them. He turns and runs into the cornfield, and the body stands up and reaches for the envoys.
They all wake up, traumatized to a greater or lesser degree by their dreams. They head out to the cornfield and meet Willa, and look around. Jeanie finds a trail of broken stalks and follows it for a bit. It eventually ends, and she finds a shell casing from a pistol.
Samantha uses Postcognition to see what happened, and she sees Lynch running panicked through the field. He mutters "they knew" a few times, but is otherwise incoherent. He steps into a furrow and breaks his ankle, falls to ground, and starts to cry...and then puts his pistol under his chin.
Samantha reports all this back to the characters. Whether Lynch was being chased by something, or whether he just panicked, this is where he died. At this point Blake gets an email from Dylan with more information on draugr. SAVE doesn't have information on this creature specifically (creatures as depicted in folklore aren't great sources anyway, because folklore is never a complete match for reality), but Dylan does suspect that given everything they've said, this creature is undead, still using its own body. A report on undead creatures compiled by an envoy named Alex Prost mentions creatures that died and were never discovered or disposed of in a manner they felt disrespectful; Prost calls them "unhallowed." Unfortunately, killing them isn't easy or obvious - some of them need to be put to rest, while others can be killed by purifying or curative measures: salt, pure water, iron, silver.
The envoys note that the wind chimes they've been seeing around town are, at least in part, made of iron. They head back to the Bear Valley Store and talk with Lonny Patton, the owner and the fellow who makes the chimes. He says that his father was something of a hoarder and left a lot of crap around, including scrap metal, and Lonny's used that for crafts over the years. The envoys buy up a bunch of the wind chimes and fall back to Felix' ranch. Blake loads some shotgun shells with iron, some with tin, some with copper. Jeanie fills some baggies with rock salt and hands them out to the envoys, and loads her shotgun with the stuff as well. They pour some distilled water into squirt bottles, and then ponder their next move.
It occurs to the envoys that they kind of left Bob Houston without any good understanding of what was happening (though they did try), so Mohammed calls him...and gets no answer. Figuring that's not a good sign, they head over to his house, and at the back door they find that the wind chime is missing and his door is ajar. They creep in and head into the basement (they'd noticed through a small window that some of the furniture down there seemed to be overturned), and find that, indeed, the room is in disarray.
Willa finds hair and blood on the pedal of an overturned exercise bike, and Samantha pulls up a rug to reveal a pool of blood. Figuring that Bob is probably dead, Willa uses Voice of the Dead to talk to him. He's willing to talk (though he's clearly angry at Mohammed for not making the situation more clear), and tells them that something attacked him, threw him against the bike, and then he heard chewing sounds. As he speaks, he dips his finger in the blood and writes "STILL HERE" on the ground, with an arrow pointing down. The envoys notice this and figure that Lynch is in the floor. Willa dismisses Bob and Jeanie throws salt on the ground.
And indeed, suddenly there's a bull in the basement! Jeanie shoots it with rock salt, but the bull charges her and slams into her, throwing her aside. Willa activates Astral Attack and hurls a hand weight at its head, and it stops and shakes its noggin, looking confused. It turns and plows into her, but can't seem to change form, and Willa yells to everyone to fall back. They head upstairs and wait; Blake loads an iron shell into the shotgun and points it down the stairs. Lynch, now in human form, comes charging up, and Blake shoots him, knocking him back and putting a hole in his chest. The envoys have finally found something that can hurt him.
But Lynch isn't through. Everyone except Blake heads outside, and suddenly Blake can't see - everything in the house has gone dark. The folks outside can see in, and Willa notices a little white cat sneak out of the basement and walk behind Blake. She throws a doorstop from the porch at it and misses, but it turns to her and Blake follows to sound out. The envoys leave, falling back to the ranch, but a block away, both Jeanie (coming out of shock) and Blake need to stop and throw up. Jeanie is still concussed, but Blake just feels ill, and Mohammed starts feeling it, too.
They arrive at the ranch, and Willa notes that she's seen an illness like this before. The illness fades when the creature is destroyed, but that means the characters need to get busy, because both Mohammed and Blake are getting worse. BB uses Heal on Jeanie and Blake to make them functional again, and the envoys recruit Felix (who's also not feeling well - the pestilence is spreading) and head back to Bob's house.
When they get there, Mohammed uses Telepathic Empathy and detects Lynch's mind in the basement. The envoys start heading down the stairs, but then Lynch appears on the stairs behind them. Jeanie, fortunately, is ready (and has the Quicken discipline), and wheels around with her shotgun. She blows another hole in Lynch, but Lynch changes into his giant-man form and smashes the stairs, knocking the envoys to and fro.
They collapse into the basement, and then everything goes dark. Mohammed, who can still draw a bead on Lynch with his discipline, fires, but the other envoys are in the basement with no clear way to get up. Jeanie feels pressure on her chest, and then pain, but figures that means Lynch is in front of her and fires.
The darkness goes away, and Lynch is standing there in front of Jeanie with a knife in her chest...but a huge hole in his torso. He collapses into the basement, and Jeanie falls against the stairs. Felix (who'd been trying to put up a Sphere of Protection but couldn't manage) runs over to help him, and Mohammed empties the rest of his shotgun shells into Lynch's body.
Felix calls the police - they need medical attention for Jeanie. Willa and Blake leave, figuring Samantha and Mohammed, as a former FBI agent and a skilled liar, respectively, can talk to the police....but then Mohammed collapses, unconscious from the illness.
Sheriff Manny Wall arrives and demands to know what exactly is going on. He takes Samantha upstairs, they life-flight Jeanie away and put Mohammed in an ambulance to get fluids and oxygen, and Samantha tries to tell him that they acted in self-defense while looking for Lynch. Manny quickly points out the problems here - first, they were carrying shotguns, and second, what are they doing in Bob Houston's house?
Wall takes Samantha downstairs so she can explain things a little better, but they're met with a truly gruesome sight. Both of the deputies that were processing the scene are dead. One's neck is broken, and the other's head has been bashed against the wall. Lynch's body is gone. He's not dead after all.
"OK," says Wall desperately, "what the hell is going on here?"
Next time, we'll see what they tell him.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Movie #543: Plan 9 From Outer Space
Plan 9 From Outer Space is...I mean, probably you know. It's a sci-fi train wreck starring Tor Johnson, Gregory Walcott, Vampira, Bela Lugosi, Dudley Manlove, John Breckinridge, Joanna Lee, Carl Anthony, Paul Marco, Mona McKinnon, and Lyle Talbot. It's directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr., and probably his most famous movie.
So...oy. Aliens are zipping around in flying saucers, trying to take over/destroy Earth because Earthlings are on a collision course to destroy the universe, because we developed explosives too fast. Two of them, Eros (Manlove, and I swear I'm not making up the fact that Dudley Manlove played Eros) and Tanna (Lee) are enacted a plan to [verb] Earth by beaming electrode-rays into the pinneal glands of the dead and raising them as ghouls or something. They do this first on a woman whose death kicks off the movie (Vampira), her husband (Lugosi) who dies in grief shortly thereafter, and a police inspector (Johnson) who gets ripped up by the two ghouls.
From there on out, it just kinda...goes. There's nothing resembling a coherent plot, the aliens' plans don't really make sense, and like, it's a Wood movie, so everyone speaks in these rambly, pseudo-philosophical expositions. Lugosi wanders around in his Dracula costume (this was the last footage ever shot of him, and Wood wanted to make a vampire picture but then Lugosi died, so he just rewrote the movie to fit what he had, kinda, and cast a body double who looked nothing like Lugosi because that's how Ed Wood rolls), and in the brief scenes where he gets to act, you can see the professional thespian that he used to be. It's kind of heartbreaking. Walcott is apparently supposed to be our hero, but he just kind of comes off as a meathead, and the aliens finally flee after the humans kill Eros and set the saucer on fire. The main plot (such as it is) is never resolved, so presumably the aliens are going to come back and destroy us all.
Plan 9 is considered one of the worst movies ever made, and like, it is, absolutely. Acting, effects, plot, dialog, it's all objectively terrible. And yet, there's a spark of love in everything. It's clearly a movie made by someone who loved what he was doing, and somehow that shows. I'd rather watch Plan 9 in all its joyous garbage than I would watch Lost in Translation, a much superior but much less watchable film. Pretty much what I've always said: enthusiasm goes a long way.
My Grade: F
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
So...oy. Aliens are zipping around in flying saucers, trying to take over/destroy Earth because Earthlings are on a collision course to destroy the universe, because we developed explosives too fast. Two of them, Eros (Manlove, and I swear I'm not making up the fact that Dudley Manlove played Eros) and Tanna (Lee) are enacted a plan to [verb] Earth by beaming electrode-rays into the pinneal glands of the dead and raising them as ghouls or something. They do this first on a woman whose death kicks off the movie (Vampira), her husband (Lugosi) who dies in grief shortly thereafter, and a police inspector (Johnson) who gets ripped up by the two ghouls.
From there on out, it just kinda...goes. There's nothing resembling a coherent plot, the aliens' plans don't really make sense, and like, it's a Wood movie, so everyone speaks in these rambly, pseudo-philosophical expositions. Lugosi wanders around in his Dracula costume (this was the last footage ever shot of him, and Wood wanted to make a vampire picture but then Lugosi died, so he just rewrote the movie to fit what he had, kinda, and cast a body double who looked nothing like Lugosi because that's how Ed Wood rolls), and in the brief scenes where he gets to act, you can see the professional thespian that he used to be. It's kind of heartbreaking. Walcott is apparently supposed to be our hero, but he just kind of comes off as a meathead, and the aliens finally flee after the humans kill Eros and set the saucer on fire. The main plot (such as it is) is never resolved, so presumably the aliens are going to come back and destroy us all.
Plan 9 is considered one of the worst movies ever made, and like, it is, absolutely. Acting, effects, plot, dialog, it's all objectively terrible. And yet, there's a spark of love in everything. It's clearly a movie made by someone who loved what he was doing, and somehow that shows. I'd rather watch Plan 9 in all its joyous garbage than I would watch Lost in Translation, a much superior but much less watchable film. Pretty much what I've always said: enthusiasm goes a long way.
My Grade: F
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Blue Rose: Merrows and Exams
Last time, our intrepid party was in a cavern at the bottom of Lake Vash, facing off against monsters to save Aleta, Whirlpool's friend/rival. I like it when I occasionally just begin a game session by saying "roll initiative." Feels like ice cream for breakfast.
Anyway, the battle was joined! The adventurers quickly find that these monsters, though slow and easy to hit, also have a lot of power behind their attacks and can suck up a ton of damage. They pound away at the heroes with bone clubs/spears, and Kisha quickly finds herself injured. She falls back and casts an illusions of herself to confuse them, which gives Arlen enough time to dart in and strike with his psychic weapon.
Whirlpool is strong enough to hold his own against these things, but their sheer ferocity finally gets the better of him and the merrow he's fighting runs him through. He falls, dying, and the merrow charges over to help fight "Kisha." Arlen moves to cast Cure on poor Whirlpool and save him (I should mention that through all this, Arlen also has to maintain his Light spell, because ain't no light down here).
Back in the fight, Whirlpool runs the merrow through with his trident, felling him and giving out a vengeful cry of triumph. Dobbin, who's been through a constant and intense fight with another merrow, finally finds an opening and sticks her sword under its arm, killing it. Arlen leaps into the fray and knocks the last merrow backwards, and Whirlpool follows up with a trident strike. The party has won, and Aleta is still alive.
Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him again. They've killed some merrows, but there are more, and sooner or later the darkfiend will have Whirlpool back. Whirlpool resists this taunt, and the characters head to the surface. Kisha loses her rhythm on the way up and nearly drowns, but Whirlpool pushes her up with Water Shaping and Solven pulls them all into a boat.
They're taken to an infirmary and treated for their wounds. Whirlpool apologizes to Aleta (who slugs him in the arm), and Ashera comes to visit and make good on her promise to sever the darkfiend's link to his mind. The darkfiend makes one last effort to tempt Whirlpool, telling him that there such wonders and sights he could see with the darkfiend's help, but Whirlpool responds, "I can find those on my own, or maybe I don't need to see what you can show me." And then the link breaks.
Over the next month, the characters go about their duties as Finest. Arlen visits the Academy of the Dance, Dobbin goes shopping and buys some armor for Pansy. She also tries to work on her bow, but winds up breaking it. Tessam tells her that maybe she tried to do something too complicated too soon, and she needs to learn the basics first.
Whirlpool goes around the sea-folk on Lake Vash and apologizes for what happened with Aleta. He also pens a written apology to her directly, which she accepts.
Kisha passes her final two exams (law and philosophy), and manages to come away with results that allow her to undergo the ceremony of the Scepter at Midsummer. She sends invitations to some of the folks she's met along the way, including Jocen, the judiciary in Verdaunen.
Next time, we'll see if she's worthy of being a noble.
Anyway, the battle was joined! The adventurers quickly find that these monsters, though slow and easy to hit, also have a lot of power behind their attacks and can suck up a ton of damage. They pound away at the heroes with bone clubs/spears, and Kisha quickly finds herself injured. She falls back and casts an illusions of herself to confuse them, which gives Arlen enough time to dart in and strike with his psychic weapon.
Whirlpool is strong enough to hold his own against these things, but their sheer ferocity finally gets the better of him and the merrow he's fighting runs him through. He falls, dying, and the merrow charges over to help fight "Kisha." Arlen moves to cast Cure on poor Whirlpool and save him (I should mention that through all this, Arlen also has to maintain his Light spell, because ain't no light down here).
Back in the fight, Whirlpool runs the merrow through with his trident, felling him and giving out a vengeful cry of triumph. Dobbin, who's been through a constant and intense fight with another merrow, finally finds an opening and sticks her sword under its arm, killing it. Arlen leaps into the fray and knocks the last merrow backwards, and Whirlpool follows up with a trident strike. The party has won, and Aleta is still alive.
Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him again. They've killed some merrows, but there are more, and sooner or later the darkfiend will have Whirlpool back. Whirlpool resists this taunt, and the characters head to the surface. Kisha loses her rhythm on the way up and nearly drowns, but Whirlpool pushes her up with Water Shaping and Solven pulls them all into a boat.
They're taken to an infirmary and treated for their wounds. Whirlpool apologizes to Aleta (who slugs him in the arm), and Ashera comes to visit and make good on her promise to sever the darkfiend's link to his mind. The darkfiend makes one last effort to tempt Whirlpool, telling him that there such wonders and sights he could see with the darkfiend's help, but Whirlpool responds, "I can find those on my own, or maybe I don't need to see what you can show me." And then the link breaks.
Over the next month, the characters go about their duties as Finest. Arlen visits the Academy of the Dance, Dobbin goes shopping and buys some armor for Pansy. She also tries to work on her bow, but winds up breaking it. Tessam tells her that maybe she tried to do something too complicated too soon, and she needs to learn the basics first.
Whirlpool goes around the sea-folk on Lake Vash and apologizes for what happened with Aleta. He also pens a written apology to her directly, which she accepts.
Kisha passes her final two exams (law and philosophy), and manages to come away with results that allow her to undergo the ceremony of the Scepter at Midsummer. She sends invitations to some of the folks she's met along the way, including Jocen, the judiciary in Verdaunen.
Next time, we'll see if she's worthy of being a noble.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Character Creation: Enemy Gods
Got some time before dinner.
The Game: Enemy Gods
The Publisher: John Wick Presents
Degree of Familiarity: None, just read it
Books Required: Just the one (rather, the Big Book of Little Games)
This is the last game in this book, as far as my chargen project goes, so that's exciting. Finally get to the take the little sticker off. This is also one of the better-realized games in the book, although it still relies a little too heavily on "make something up, but y'know, cool" than I'd like, but that's fine, tastes vary.
In this game, players play both a God and a Hero, chosen of a God...but not the one they're playing. As such, you've got to do things that make you interesting to your given God (and others in the pantheon, why not). The setting is Conan-esque, sword-and-sandals kind of fantasy.
The first step is design or choose a God to play, but I'm not actually going to do that, because there's not really any mechanical impact during this stage. It's more about building the pantheon, and since it's just me, I'm gonna go with what I know and say it's the Olympians (I did think about Norse, but eh, I like the Greeks better, plus it'll be consistent with some other characters I've made).
So, my Hero! First thing is Description, which isn't so much Description as History. Sure, why not. The arrangement here draws on the Hero's Journey as well as Lord Raglan's twenty-two heroic/mythic traits, but at the end of the day I need to describe my Hero's birth, call to adventure, transformation, and descent into the Underworld (symbolically or otherwise).
My character's name is Filippus. He was born to a centaur and a human father (I know, weird, but it's hardly the weirdest thing in Greek myth). When he was born human, the centaurs killed his father and exiled his mother, and she carried him across a blisteringly cold steppe to deliver him to his grandparents. She died of exhaustion at the end of the journey, and he was raised by his father's parents.
When Filippus was a teen, his uncle Aesop was called off to war, and he snuck away and followed. Filippus was caught by sentries near the soldier camp, and pressed into service. On the morning of his first battle, his uncle tied him to a tree with a bridle, and Filippus was still there at nightfall when the enemy, having slaughtered their foes, descended upon him. Before they could kill him, though, a great warhorse blocked their path, bit through the bridle, and carried him away. The horse carried him back to the steppe where his mother rode tirelessly, and Filippus saw the sacrifice that she made, that any mother makes for her child, saw the fury and the exertion that only a parent can muster. He and the horse wandered the steppe for months, met the strange and desperate nomads that crossed it, and learned to ride, shoot, and fight as they did.
Finally, he reached the other end of the steppe and met the centaurs that were his family. They saw him riding upon a horse and were initially incensed, but then recognized the horse as Arion, the horse-son of Poseidon. They agreed to welcome him as one of them if he could pass their trials, run, fight, and recite poetry as they did. It took him weeks and left him spent and bloody, but Filippus succeeded, and was welcomed by his mother's people at last.
Arion left again for the sea and Filippus made a sacrifice to Poseidon in thanks for granting him the favor of Arion's guidance. He then set out to cross the centaur's lands and find the ocean on the other side.
Cool. Now we do Backgrounds. I get 7 points for these; they're basically skills and professions. I can't set one higher than 4, though. I want Survivor of the Steppe at 4 (useful for riding and endurance like things) and Archer at 2. I'll also take Poet at 1.
Next, Devotions. I get 1 point in Devotion to every God represented by a PC, but of course that's just me, so I get Poseidon 1. Then I get 10 more points, but again, can't go above 4, except I can, because the example of chargen has 5 in their chosen God. I think what you mean is that you can't spend more than 4 of your 10 points on a single God, huh?
Anyway, 3 into Poseidon for a Devotion of 4. 3 into Hermes (I am swift!), 2 into Ares (I am fighty!), and 2 into Demeter (she seems pretty mom-focused).
Heroic Flaw! Lemme transcribe this sentence for you: "Achilles had the most famous Flaw in the world, Lancelot has his blind devotion, and Oedipus suffered from an entirely different kind of blindness (his Flaw is a dark secret from his past) and, of course, Achilles had the most famous Flaw of all." Editors, man.
Anyway, Filippus' Heroic Flaw is his refusal to bow before an unworthy master. He has a kind of unbroken stallion quality to him, and it manifests as stubbornness. That's going to get him into trouble one day.
I start with 2 points of Hubris, OK then.
And now we answer a bunch of fuckin' questions! Whee! (I actually do like this, but I'm not filling out the sheet by hand.)
- What social caste does the Hero come from? Uh, centaurs? I think he's basically an outsider or a nomad.
- Is he poor, rich, a landowner? Poor wanderer.
- Which of the five senses is most important to your Hero? Sight. He's used to flat plains and spotting trouble before it gets to him.
- How does your Hero feel about his parents? He never knew them, but he's heard stories about his mother and her majestic ride across the steppes, so he's got a kind of hero-worship thing for her. Not so much for dad.
- What are your Hero's favorite foods/drinks/clothes? I think Filippus enjoys grains and veggies. He'll eat meat, but he's not really a fan. For his money there's no better drink than fresh water from an icy spring, and he prefers to wear heavy furs and layers.
- Does your Hero hold any grudges or vendettas? Owe favors or boons? Obligations? The way he sees it, he discharged his obligation to Poseidon with the sacrifice, and that's gonna be a rude awakening some day. He used to hold a grudge against the centaurs who drove his mother out, but they've made peace.
- What kind of person is the Hero most attracted to? What kind of person drives him to fits of rage? Filippus likes travelers, storytellers, and people who can do back-breaking work. He doesn't trust soldiers (fighting is one thing, fighting for some other man's cause another) and he hates the greedy (gold is worthless).
- How does the Hero define "love"? Willingness to suffer and die for another's safety.
- If given the opportunity, would the Hero kill for profit? No. He'd kill to survive or protect, maybe to avenge, but profit is pretty crass.
- What is more important, to be feared or loved? Given Filippus' definition of "love," to be loved.
- Who does your Hero trust most? Why? He trusts his centaur family because they accepted him after he proved himself. He trusts Poseidon because the god helped him. He generally trusts horses.
- Which God does your Hero revere most? Least? Poseidon because the dude sent me a magic horse. I think Filippus just doesn't have a lot of use for Aphrodite.
- To whom does your Hero owe loyalty? The centaurs (they're family).
- What are some of your Hero's mannerisms? Filippus has a habit of clearing his throat when he's thinking, and stomping on the ground when he's impatient.
- What would be the most appropriate death for your Hero? Enduring some horrible trial to keep someone else safe, or participating in some John Henry-esque contest that kills him.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Character Creation: Aricebo
This is the one of the games I'm suggesting to my group, and it's the only one of the ones I'm suggesting that I haven't made a character for the project yet, so here we go.
The Game: Aricebo
The Publisher: Evil Hat Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this particular game, but it's Fate Core and I know that pretty well
Books Required: Aricebo and Fate Core, coincidentally
So, this mostly follows the chargen rules in Fate Core, with a few twists. But as usual, I need a High Concept Aspect to get started. Characters in Aricebo are kids in Puerto Rico, living in the titular city. I've worked with a lot of Puerto Rican kids in my career as an SLP, actually, so I kind of want to play one similar to some of the kiddos I've known (I actually did this once before, for Little Fears). I'll say my character is 13 years old, just got out of 8th grade in the US, and came back to Puerto Rico to visit family just before all the shit went down (power's out, etc.) and now he doesn't know if he and his mom can get back. He was born in Puerto Rico, but he's lived in the US for the past five years and kind of thinks of that as home. His name is Marco Fernandez.
Marco got straight As back in the US, and he was super interested in science and math. A lot of the other kids from Puerto Rico didn't like him and called him and nerd, but no one knows him here (he had friends before he moved, but they've all kind drifted away), so he's trying not to be nerdy. My High Concept is Closet Nerd.
Trouble, hmm. I don't want to make this about hiding his nerdery, because I think he's going to be generally bad at hiding it and it's gonna be more funny than anything. I think that the stress this is putting on his mother might be better. I'll say his Trouble is We Can't Get Home (that he thinks of the States as "home" is perhaps a secondary trouble).
And now I've two Aspects specific to this game: Parent/Guardian and Aspiration. For Parent, I'll take I Know Mama is Scared. That nicely encapsulates the notion that Marco's relationship with his mother is strong, but that their situation isn't ideal. For Aspiration, the Aspect is what Marco wants to be or could be. I'll call this one Prodigal Son. Being Puerto Rican is important to him, he just doesn't know why or how yet.
And now we do Skills, just like in the core book, in the pyramid. Well, what would I like for my Great Skill? Sounds like Lore might be the best for him, since it encompasses nerdy stuff.
For Good, I'll take Notice and Investigate. For Fair, I'll take Empathy, Athletics, and Rapport. And then for Average, Stealth, Physique, Will, and Provoke.
I get two free stunts and four refresh. I actually don't have a good idea what kind of stunts I want for Marco, so let's look in the core (there are a few in Aricebo, but none of them really seem appropriate for this character). Ooh, Eavesdropper is good for a kid. Oh, and then I've Read About That! is perfect for Marco.
I could spend refresh for a third stunt. Do I wish to do that? I do not think I do. I get an extra stress box for physical and mental for my Will and Physique Skills, though.
I'll say that Marco usually wears blue pants and white shirts (a lot of his clothes were school uniform), glasses, and has black hair and brown eyes. His hair is getting shaggy because his mom hasn't taken him for a haircut and he doesn't much care; he's also got a little peach fuzz on his lip and cheeks. He blushes easily when he's embarrassed or scared, and he tries to avoid sounding too nerdy, but he can't help talking about the books he's read.
And that's it! Man, Fate is easy.
Shadow of the Demon Lord: Apples and Darkness
Just finished up Shadow etc. Here we gooooo.
Last time, the party mixed it up with the Inquisition of the Holy Kingdom, but also a demon masquerading as an Inquisitor. They're now making their way to the city of Seven Spires to report, with Oballa, the spy they met last time, to Queen Moira. Genevieve goes on ahead, reporting to her superiors (her player was absent).
The party comes to an apple orchard outside the city of Seven Spires, and they see a very pleasant old lady beating a rug. She recognizes them, since the Holy Kingdom guards that were ahead of them apparently told the old lady about them, and asked her to give them food and shelter for the night. Veni is initially concerned, but is won over by the prospect of apples (cronch).
They pass the time until dinner in their ways; Dagmar combs and styles their beard, Veni eats apples and reads, and Bashir talks with Vidre, the farmer, and Mirra, his wife, about apply farming. Mayfly zips up into a tree and keeps watch, and notices a thicket where the trees have grown heavy and, well, thick. Mayfly tries to check it out, but the branches are too close and it's afraid to tear its wings. Mayfly does find canine tracks around the thicket, though.
That night, they sit down to dinner (pork chops with an apple sauce!) and Vidre says that some time back, something magical went haywife and made the trees grow up into that thicket. He's planning to cut it down when his workers come back for the picking season. As the characters eat, they realize they're feeling tired and sweaty. Vidre brings out some cider, and they all imbibe, but it makes Bashir even sicker. He realizes too late that this food isn't safe to eat, but isn't sure why.
The characters bed down in the barn (except Veni, who sleeps outside), and Bashir realizes his nose is bleeding. Mayfly heals him a bit, but he's still got the shakes.
After dark, Veni hears a bell, like something tripping an alarm, and then a snarl. He gets up and wakes the others, and they all run out just as three wolf-man creatures break from the brush and charge them.
Veni hits them with a spell to slow them, and Bashir just runs right up and cracks one in the head with his club. Oballa starts to sing, strengthening the group, and Dagmar wades in with their staff. Mayfly zips around healing friends, and the wolf-creatures snap and bite, but then a roar from the brush gets everyone's attention and a minotaur appears.
It winds up and throws a log, knocking Bashir on the head. Veni throws a spell of binding around it, but it charges right through, soaking up the damage, and crashes into Bashir, knocking him down. Veni throws a fiery blast spell, killing the wolf creatures and injuring the minotaur, and Oballa switches to casting magic to shock it. It charges again, knocking Dagmar and Veni down, and then spins. Mayfly fires a crossbow bolt into its head and it paws the ground, ready to charge, but Veni teleports the log the minotaur threw above its head, and it falls and drives the crossbow bolt into its brain, killing it.
The characters take a breath and regroup. Dagmar goes over to the brush to try and see where these things came from, but the ground is too torn up from the minotaur. Mayfly flits inside to see if Mirra and Vidre are OK. In the basement, Mayfly finds a rack of herbs and powders in glass containers, but they're labeled in a language that it can't read, so it zips upstairs to the kitchen and finds Mirra standing there. They talk a minute, and Mirra asks Mayfly's help to go and get Vidre.
Meanwhile, Veni wanders inside and goes to the basement, and casts Translate Anything to read the labels. They're all poisons - ingested, blade treatments, all kinds.
Upstairs, Mirra takes Mayfly into the bedroom and has it talk to Vidre, and then, when Mayfly isn't looking, stabs it. Mayfly falls and Mirra says "Kill it, quickly." Vidre throws a dagger and incapacitates the clockwork, but downstairs, Veni hears the thunk of the dagger in the floor, grabs a powder poison, and runs up. He throws the poison into the room and definitely gets their attention, and Mayfly throws itself out the window. Oballa sees this and starts tending to Mayfly, and Dagmar and Bashir go running in, but the two assassins roll under the bed and everyone hears a thump.
Bashir, seeing this, figures they've gone downstairs and runs there, while Veni and Dagmar follow through the poison (Dagmar laughs it off; dwarves are resistant to such things). In the basement, the assassins appear and stab at the characters. Bashir runs down the stairs and flings a magic acorn at Mirra, but Mirra throws a dagger into Bashir's stomach and drops him.
Dagmar faces off against Vidre and sustains some wounds, but jams their staff into Vidre's mouth and bashes his head against the wall, killing him. Oballa leans in and casts a Shock spell at Mirra, who retaliates by hurling a dagger into Oballa's neck, but at the point, Veni, also poisoned and wounded, manages to teleport behind Mirra and whack her with his staff, felling her.
The characters manage to pull Bashir and Veni back from the brink of death, and repair Mayfly. They find the weapons and armor of the guards they met last time (Bashir takes a mail shirt and Dagmar takes a sword), and they find some money in the place, but other than that they just find corpses buried in the orchard. Mirra confirms that they were hired to kill the characters, and work for the Cracked Mirror - the same organization that gives Genevieve her marching orders (and pamphlets).
The party needs to rest before heading into town. They're planning on bringing Mirra with them so she can face justice, so that'll be a fun trip.
Last time, the party mixed it up with the Inquisition of the Holy Kingdom, but also a demon masquerading as an Inquisitor. They're now making their way to the city of Seven Spires to report, with Oballa, the spy they met last time, to Queen Moira. Genevieve goes on ahead, reporting to her superiors (her player was absent).
The party comes to an apple orchard outside the city of Seven Spires, and they see a very pleasant old lady beating a rug. She recognizes them, since the Holy Kingdom guards that were ahead of them apparently told the old lady about them, and asked her to give them food and shelter for the night. Veni is initially concerned, but is won over by the prospect of apples (cronch).
They pass the time until dinner in their ways; Dagmar combs and styles their beard, Veni eats apples and reads, and Bashir talks with Vidre, the farmer, and Mirra, his wife, about apply farming. Mayfly zips up into a tree and keeps watch, and notices a thicket where the trees have grown heavy and, well, thick. Mayfly tries to check it out, but the branches are too close and it's afraid to tear its wings. Mayfly does find canine tracks around the thicket, though.
That night, they sit down to dinner (pork chops with an apple sauce!) and Vidre says that some time back, something magical went haywife and made the trees grow up into that thicket. He's planning to cut it down when his workers come back for the picking season. As the characters eat, they realize they're feeling tired and sweaty. Vidre brings out some cider, and they all imbibe, but it makes Bashir even sicker. He realizes too late that this food isn't safe to eat, but isn't sure why.
The characters bed down in the barn (except Veni, who sleeps outside), and Bashir realizes his nose is bleeding. Mayfly heals him a bit, but he's still got the shakes.
After dark, Veni hears a bell, like something tripping an alarm, and then a snarl. He gets up and wakes the others, and they all run out just as three wolf-man creatures break from the brush and charge them.
Veni hits them with a spell to slow them, and Bashir just runs right up and cracks one in the head with his club. Oballa starts to sing, strengthening the group, and Dagmar wades in with their staff. Mayfly zips around healing friends, and the wolf-creatures snap and bite, but then a roar from the brush gets everyone's attention and a minotaur appears.
It winds up and throws a log, knocking Bashir on the head. Veni throws a spell of binding around it, but it charges right through, soaking up the damage, and crashes into Bashir, knocking him down. Veni throws a fiery blast spell, killing the wolf creatures and injuring the minotaur, and Oballa switches to casting magic to shock it. It charges again, knocking Dagmar and Veni down, and then spins. Mayfly fires a crossbow bolt into its head and it paws the ground, ready to charge, but Veni teleports the log the minotaur threw above its head, and it falls and drives the crossbow bolt into its brain, killing it.
The characters take a breath and regroup. Dagmar goes over to the brush to try and see where these things came from, but the ground is too torn up from the minotaur. Mayfly flits inside to see if Mirra and Vidre are OK. In the basement, Mayfly finds a rack of herbs and powders in glass containers, but they're labeled in a language that it can't read, so it zips upstairs to the kitchen and finds Mirra standing there. They talk a minute, and Mirra asks Mayfly's help to go and get Vidre.
Meanwhile, Veni wanders inside and goes to the basement, and casts Translate Anything to read the labels. They're all poisons - ingested, blade treatments, all kinds.
Upstairs, Mirra takes Mayfly into the bedroom and has it talk to Vidre, and then, when Mayfly isn't looking, stabs it. Mayfly falls and Mirra says "Kill it, quickly." Vidre throws a dagger and incapacitates the clockwork, but downstairs, Veni hears the thunk of the dagger in the floor, grabs a powder poison, and runs up. He throws the poison into the room and definitely gets their attention, and Mayfly throws itself out the window. Oballa sees this and starts tending to Mayfly, and Dagmar and Bashir go running in, but the two assassins roll under the bed and everyone hears a thump.
Bashir, seeing this, figures they've gone downstairs and runs there, while Veni and Dagmar follow through the poison (Dagmar laughs it off; dwarves are resistant to such things). In the basement, the assassins appear and stab at the characters. Bashir runs down the stairs and flings a magic acorn at Mirra, but Mirra throws a dagger into Bashir's stomach and drops him.
Dagmar faces off against Vidre and sustains some wounds, but jams their staff into Vidre's mouth and bashes his head against the wall, killing him. Oballa leans in and casts a Shock spell at Mirra, who retaliates by hurling a dagger into Oballa's neck, but at the point, Veni, also poisoned and wounded, manages to teleport behind Mirra and whack her with his staff, felling her.
The characters manage to pull Bashir and Veni back from the brink of death, and repair Mayfly. They find the weapons and armor of the guards they met last time (Bashir takes a mail shirt and Dagmar takes a sword), and they find some money in the place, but other than that they just find corpses buried in the orchard. Mirra confirms that they were hired to kill the characters, and work for the Cracked Mirror - the same organization that gives Genevieve her marching orders (and pamphlets).
The party needs to rest before heading into town. They're planning on bringing Mirra with them so she can face justice, so that'll be a fun trip.
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Blue Rose: Fire and Water
Last night was Blue Rose. Let's kick this pig!
Last time, the heroes were adjusting to their lives in Aldis, and Whirlpool was wracked with guilt over apparently leaving a friend at the bottom of the lake to die. This time, all four of them are patrolling the High Ward, when Pansy perks up and signals danger and Whirlpool smells smoke.
They follow the noses, and wind up at a jeweler's shop that's engulfed in flames. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to snuff the flames, while Dobbin organizes a bucket brigade and Arlen rips open a water pipe to douse the fire. Kisha senses magic, and feels that while the fire itself isn't arcane, something in the shop is. She goes running in and finds a young man of about 13 surrounded by a ring of fire, but the fire doesn't seem to be spreading or hurting him.
The fire outside doused, the others rush in. The bucketeers toss water at the ring of fire, but it dodges, which is odd. Whirlpool uses Water Shaping to direct the water streaming in from pipes and splashes the oddly frisky fire, and it coalesces into a humanoid figure and says "Well, that was rude."
Meanwhile, the young man has run towards the back of the house, looking for his mother. Kisha hears a faint call for help behind a pile of debris. She and the bucket brigade remove the wreckage and Kisha finds the woman mostly unharmed, and gets her to safety.
Whirlpool talks to the fire elemental, who claims he was summoned and it's very misleading to summon a fire elemental if you don't want everything burned. Whirlpool agrees and apologizes, and the elemental vanishes. The boy, Izhae, murmurs that he loses control of his magic sometimes, and everyone kind of glances at Arlen.
Outside, the woman (whose name is Ashera) talks to the heroes and thanks them for their help. She takes Whirlpool aside and asks if he knows he's got a malign presence in his mind; he says he does, but isn't sure how to get rid of it. She offers to cast a spell to do so, and Arlen, watching them talk, has a vision. He sees Whirlpool with a murky, slimy halo that leads off in a tendril, and stretches to the bottom of the lake, into a system of caves. There, someone is chained to a wall while monsters lurk in the dark. The woman casts a spell and dispels the murk, but upon so doing, the monsters fall on the prisoner and eat them.
Arlen quickly interjects and relates the vision (and shares it with the others using Psychic Contact). They confer with Ashera, who says that she was going to cast a Mind Shaping spell to sever the link between Whirlpool and the darkfiend (this was actually originally discussed way back here, but the characters kind of forgot in all the excitement of time traveling, and the darkfiend has been mum). They figure that this might be a kind of hostage situation - sever the bond and the monsters kill Aleta (whom Whirlpool identifies as the prisoner).
They decide to go and rescue her, but that means they need a way for the non-sea-folk to get there. Whirlpool is aware of magic items called breathing pearls; take a breath, put one in your mouth, and you can hold that breath for an hour or so. Turns out Ashera has some, but only seven. The heroes take them and head to the lake.
Solven, the Rose Knight that Dobbin met a week or so back, joins them on the way and learns of their plan, and offers to watch Pansy while they're gone. They leave behind the gear that won't fare well in the water (Dobbin's bow, Kisha's staff) and dive in.
They make it to the bottom and Arlen summons light, and finds a cave entrance. They swim in and find that it widens and dips up into a tunnel system with enough room to walk and air to breathe, though it all smells like rotted fish. They find a room with shackles on the wall, some holding skeletons. Whirlpool realizes that they're all sea-folk, and some have been down here for a long time. The bones have been gnawed, though he can't tell by what.
Several tunnels lead out of the room, but Dobbin hears faint splashing from one, and finds blood at the entrance. They head down the tunnel, and Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him. "You'll come this far only to watch yourself fail, to watch your friends' flesh stripped and devoured, and I will feed on the guilt and shame you feel. You are a land-walker, a river runner. No sea-folk, you." Whirlpool relates this and the heroes move faster, and emerge into a cave filled knee-deep with water. Aleta is chained to a wall, bleeding from multiple bite wounds. As the heroes emerge, ogre-like creatures surface, some brandishing spears, all with awful webbed hands and snaggly sharp teeth.
The heroes draw their weapons.
Last time, the heroes were adjusting to their lives in Aldis, and Whirlpool was wracked with guilt over apparently leaving a friend at the bottom of the lake to die. This time, all four of them are patrolling the High Ward, when Pansy perks up and signals danger and Whirlpool smells smoke.
They follow the noses, and wind up at a jeweler's shop that's engulfed in flames. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to snuff the flames, while Dobbin organizes a bucket brigade and Arlen rips open a water pipe to douse the fire. Kisha senses magic, and feels that while the fire itself isn't arcane, something in the shop is. She goes running in and finds a young man of about 13 surrounded by a ring of fire, but the fire doesn't seem to be spreading or hurting him.
The fire outside doused, the others rush in. The bucketeers toss water at the ring of fire, but it dodges, which is odd. Whirlpool uses Water Shaping to direct the water streaming in from pipes and splashes the oddly frisky fire, and it coalesces into a humanoid figure and says "Well, that was rude."
Meanwhile, the young man has run towards the back of the house, looking for his mother. Kisha hears a faint call for help behind a pile of debris. She and the bucket brigade remove the wreckage and Kisha finds the woman mostly unharmed, and gets her to safety.
Whirlpool talks to the fire elemental, who claims he was summoned and it's very misleading to summon a fire elemental if you don't want everything burned. Whirlpool agrees and apologizes, and the elemental vanishes. The boy, Izhae, murmurs that he loses control of his magic sometimes, and everyone kind of glances at Arlen.
Outside, the woman (whose name is Ashera) talks to the heroes and thanks them for their help. She takes Whirlpool aside and asks if he knows he's got a malign presence in his mind; he says he does, but isn't sure how to get rid of it. She offers to cast a spell to do so, and Arlen, watching them talk, has a vision. He sees Whirlpool with a murky, slimy halo that leads off in a tendril, and stretches to the bottom of the lake, into a system of caves. There, someone is chained to a wall while monsters lurk in the dark. The woman casts a spell and dispels the murk, but upon so doing, the monsters fall on the prisoner and eat them.
Arlen quickly interjects and relates the vision (and shares it with the others using Psychic Contact). They confer with Ashera, who says that she was going to cast a Mind Shaping spell to sever the link between Whirlpool and the darkfiend (this was actually originally discussed way back here, but the characters kind of forgot in all the excitement of time traveling, and the darkfiend has been mum). They figure that this might be a kind of hostage situation - sever the bond and the monsters kill Aleta (whom Whirlpool identifies as the prisoner).
They decide to go and rescue her, but that means they need a way for the non-sea-folk to get there. Whirlpool is aware of magic items called breathing pearls; take a breath, put one in your mouth, and you can hold that breath for an hour or so. Turns out Ashera has some, but only seven. The heroes take them and head to the lake.
Solven, the Rose Knight that Dobbin met a week or so back, joins them on the way and learns of their plan, and offers to watch Pansy while they're gone. They leave behind the gear that won't fare well in the water (Dobbin's bow, Kisha's staff) and dive in.
They make it to the bottom and Arlen summons light, and finds a cave entrance. They swim in and find that it widens and dips up into a tunnel system with enough room to walk and air to breathe, though it all smells like rotted fish. They find a room with shackles on the wall, some holding skeletons. Whirlpool realizes that they're all sea-folk, and some have been down here for a long time. The bones have been gnawed, though he can't tell by what.
Several tunnels lead out of the room, but Dobbin hears faint splashing from one, and finds blood at the entrance. They head down the tunnel, and Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him. "You'll come this far only to watch yourself fail, to watch your friends' flesh stripped and devoured, and I will feed on the guilt and shame you feel. You are a land-walker, a river runner. No sea-folk, you." Whirlpool relates this and the heroes move faster, and emerge into a cave filled knee-deep with water. Aleta is chained to a wall, bleeding from multiple bite wounds. As the heroes emerge, ogre-like creatures surface, some brandishing spears, all with awful webbed hands and snaggly sharp teeth.
The heroes draw their weapons.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Character Creation: Fae Nightmares
I'm putting together a collection of games to pitch to my group that recently finished a Blades in the Dark campaign, and this was one of the ones I considered and rejected.
The Game: Fae Nightmares
The Publisher: Dark Smile Games
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this particular game, but I've got plenty of experience with Savage Worlds and urban fantasy in general
Books Required: Fae Nightmares and Savage Worlds
I backed this game on Kickstarter a long time ago. There were delivery issues: the estimated release date was May 2014 and I got my book in January 2019 (though I got the PDF before that). But hey, it got released, that's the important thing.
I have to say, though, reading it is a little disappointing. Not because the concept isn't solid - the general idea is that there's a war between the Fae going on and you're playing someone that starts human but gets progressively Fae-er as the game goes on, which is cool. I did find, reading it, that I wasn't hooked. The basic ideas are fun, but they don't have a lot of pop, and there was nothing that really caught my interest and said "ooh, run this." With that said, I did think things like "I could run this, with a little patching," so that's not bad.
(Also, there are five credited editors on this book but evidently none of them know the difference between "loose" and "lose," which is kind of a shame.)
Anyway, let's get to it. The game assumes I'm a member of the Court of Roses, which is at war with the Court of Blades (an aside: I really like that the game doesn't default to "Seelie" and "Unseelie"). I need to choose one of four Origins: Gifted, Changeling, Sighted, and Precious. I want to play a Gifted. They have a magical item that they won/stole/tricked from a faerie, and now they're stuck with it.
Last night Michelle and I watched a truly terrible movie called Wolvesbayne, written by someone who clearly has played a WoD game or two in his life (the phrase "a world of darkness" was used at least twice). I kind of want to play a character who stumbled into the supernatural much like Russell Bayne in that movie, but I think I can do better on the name.
So my character is Carlo Gates (that name literally came from a random generator and it's better than "Russell Bayne"). He's rich - he inherited some money from his father and then he invested in apartment buildings, which made him richer. He recently acquired a new building and was doing some work on it one evening (his buildings aren't exactly luxury, but he keeps everything up to code and he prides himself on being able to do a lot of home repair at least semi-competently) when a bunch of people arrived and went into the basement. He followed them down and one of them got in his face, and he said he owned the building. He heard the word "eclipse" being thrown around (in-setting, an "eclipse" is neutral ground), and he told them all to piss off. They left, and he shoved the last guy out the door, but his ring got caught on a chain around the guy's neck. The guy fell over and everyone gasped, and the guy looked back at Carlo and said "fine, keep it. Much joy may it bring you." Carlo realized he was holding the guy's chain in his hand.
Since then, Carlo's life has been...a little weird.
OK, good start. I begin with the standard 5 points to spend on basic stats, and I'm thinking Carlo's Smarts and Agility need to be his higher ones. I'll put two into Smarts (d8), one into Agility (d6), two into Spirit (d8), and that leaves Vigor and Strength at a d4, which is probably unwise, but maybe I'll be able to find points to raise them later.
15 points in Skills, and why aren't they on the sheet grr. Anyway. There's one new Skill (Trickery), and the rest are Savage Worlds standard. Well, I'll take Driving at d6, Gambling at d4, Intimidation at d6 (white man from town), Investigation at d6, Knowledge (Law) d4, Notice d8 (he's started pay attention more of late), Persuasion at d4, and Repair at d8. Note the complete lack of combat ability.
Next up, Hindrances n' shit. I have to take a Bane because I'm fae-adjacent. I'll take fire, meaning if I touch flame I'm Shaken and it does extra damage. Dunno, just seems appropriate for some reason. Bane is a Major Hindrance, but it comes from my Origin, so I guess it doesn't count against what I can take for more points. I'll take Can't Tell a Lie, because it feels punitive and that's appropriate. And then for my Minors, I'll take Greedy and Stubborn. Oh, wait, no, Can't Tell a Lie is Minor (that seems wrong). I'll drop Greedy, then, and I'll take Overconfident instead.
Now I get a free Edge (for being human, more or less) and I have four points to play with. Well, I know I want Rich. I also like Can't Fool a Trickster, which gives me a resistance to being tricked, but it requires Trickery d6, so I shall put two points there and then two points for the Edge. Good.
The next thing is my Gift. I get three powers, and I know I want Small Target and Subtle (it's hard to hit and hard to notice), and Last Breath (if it breaks, it explodes and does a bunch of damage, but not to me).
Derived stuff: My Pace is 6, Glamour and Charisma are both 0, Parry and Vigor are both 4 (that may be unwise). There's a slot on the sheet for Fae Lord, so I think that's the guy whose necklace I stole. His name is Amarlek, and I'm not his only Nightmare. The fact that he adopted me at all is a little weird, but he's encouraged me not to give up my mortal life, which makes some folks think that the has need of my money...or my properties.
Physically, Carlo is in his 30s, fit, slight paunch, short, neat beard, wire-rimmed glasses, and favors jeans and t-shirts, but keeps a button-down and a blazer in his car. He keeps the chain around his neck, usually tucked into his shirt. He's got blue eyes, but they've gotten steadily grayer since all this started going down.
And that's it!
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Marvel Heroic: Equality, Act Two, Issue 5
Special Giant-Sized Issue! (Not really.) Here's last time.
The heroes press on into the black site, the giant bees crawling around on the walls. Juno leads the way with her bracelet glowing, followed by Rift and Arcanix, and then Spore and Grimoire, while Inferno flies overhead (but keeps his heat low enough not to scorch the others' heads). They're in a tight corridor, gray floors, gray and taupe walls, red lettering on the signs.
Up ahead, a figure in blue darts across the corridor and slashes the walls with a blade, caving in the archway and dropping a pile of rubble. Juno activates her bracelet and creates a force shield, and Arcanix tries to do so behind them, but the bees mess up the sigils he puts on the wall. Spore phases into the rubble and tries to blow it apart with a spore-burst, but his spores aren't heavy enough.
Rift, however, opens a gate under the rubble and drops it, which clears it but also exposes Spore. Deton8 berates Spore, telling him that he's going to wind up picked apart by bees, and Spore tries to return the bluster but doesn't have the mastery of human nuance that he needs.
Grimoire teleports behind the villains and conjures smoke, immobilizing them. Rift opens a gate above them and drops the rubble on their heads, knocking Deton8 out, but the other two (Bleedout and Erosion) avoid the damage - Bleedout dodges and Erosion simply superheats his armor and lets the stuff melt into slag. Spore attacks again, sending a cloud of spores at them, and hears Erosion choke a bit, but Bleedout vanishes into the spores and then drops down from the ceiling and strikes at Rift.
Rift is ready, though, and another version of her reaches from a gate to block the shot. Juno reaches back and lets Spore congeal on her fist, over her shield, and then strikes, knocking Bleedout right the hell out. Erosion, now the only one of the Kutya left standing, advances and stabs Juno in the back. Inferno throws fire at him, but his armor simply absorbs it. Rift calls in a duplicate and hits him from in front and behind, but his armor burns off the duplicate's arm and she falls screaming into a rift.
Grimoire levitates Juno to him and magically binds her wounds as best he can. She tries to use her bracelet to heal herself, but the attempt just makes things worse, and she falls unconscious. Arcanix summons his power, stating that Erosion is indeed a worthy adversary, strikes, once again knocking him straight out of his armor.
The battle is over, but Juno is badly injured. Rift conjures an operating table and multiple assistants from the multiverse, and staunches the bleeding and gets Juno working again. Grimoire binds up the Kutya and offers to take them back to the prison - Arcanix looks worried a moment, but Grimoire says he's not going to line up with someone who'd stab a woman in the back.
The heroes regroup as best they can, and then notice that the bees have start buzzing. Something is happening, and they haven't seen the Multitude yet.
The heroes press on into the black site, the giant bees crawling around on the walls. Juno leads the way with her bracelet glowing, followed by Rift and Arcanix, and then Spore and Grimoire, while Inferno flies overhead (but keeps his heat low enough not to scorch the others' heads). They're in a tight corridor, gray floors, gray and taupe walls, red lettering on the signs.
Up ahead, a figure in blue darts across the corridor and slashes the walls with a blade, caving in the archway and dropping a pile of rubble. Juno activates her bracelet and creates a force shield, and Arcanix tries to do so behind them, but the bees mess up the sigils he puts on the wall. Spore phases into the rubble and tries to blow it apart with a spore-burst, but his spores aren't heavy enough.
Rift, however, opens a gate under the rubble and drops it, which clears it but also exposes Spore. Deton8 berates Spore, telling him that he's going to wind up picked apart by bees, and Spore tries to return the bluster but doesn't have the mastery of human nuance that he needs.
Grimoire teleports behind the villains and conjures smoke, immobilizing them. Rift opens a gate above them and drops the rubble on their heads, knocking Deton8 out, but the other two (Bleedout and Erosion) avoid the damage - Bleedout dodges and Erosion simply superheats his armor and lets the stuff melt into slag. Spore attacks again, sending a cloud of spores at them, and hears Erosion choke a bit, but Bleedout vanishes into the spores and then drops down from the ceiling and strikes at Rift.
Rift is ready, though, and another version of her reaches from a gate to block the shot. Juno reaches back and lets Spore congeal on her fist, over her shield, and then strikes, knocking Bleedout right the hell out. Erosion, now the only one of the Kutya left standing, advances and stabs Juno in the back. Inferno throws fire at him, but his armor simply absorbs it. Rift calls in a duplicate and hits him from in front and behind, but his armor burns off the duplicate's arm and she falls screaming into a rift.
Grimoire levitates Juno to him and magically binds her wounds as best he can. She tries to use her bracelet to heal herself, but the attempt just makes things worse, and she falls unconscious. Arcanix summons his power, stating that Erosion is indeed a worthy adversary, strikes, once again knocking him straight out of his armor.
The battle is over, but Juno is badly injured. Rift conjures an operating table and multiple assistants from the multiverse, and staunches the bleeding and gets Juno working again. Grimoire binds up the Kutya and offers to take them back to the prison - Arcanix looks worried a moment, but Grimoire says he's not going to line up with someone who'd stab a woman in the back.
The heroes regroup as best they can, and then notice that the bees have start buzzing. Something is happening, and they haven't seen the Multitude yet.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Character Creation: After the War
This makes two this week, if we don't count Sunday as the beginning of a new week, I suppose.
The Game: After the War
The Publisher: Genesis of Legend Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I played it at Metatopia some years back, though I don't know how close that version is to the published one. I've played Spark, which is kinda the base game engine
Books Required: Just the one.
After the War (I came back to New York, a-after the war...dammit, every time) is a sci-fi game about people moving on from the horror of war. Said war involves a memetic virus called the Song, and a counter-measure to that malicious earworm that turns people into monsters. Anyway, here we all are on Polvo, a little planet where people (and aliens) are trying to start over. I should mention that one of the races you can play is the Ursa, who are indeed bear-like, and they arrange themselves into quads, I think only because it allows a "four bears" pun.
Anyway, character creation. This consists of six Traits, two Beliefs, and a name. Simple enough.
My first Trait is my Origin, which can be Terran, Martian, Belter, or Alien. Let's see. I don't want to play an Alien, I don't think. I've been interested in more street-level, hardscrabble stories of late, so I'll go with Belter. I was raised in the asteroid belt, aboard a ship, and grew up in zero-G. Next step is one of the options, which in this context means what my background as a Belter really is. I'm drawn to either Transporters or Wanderers, either people who delivered stuff and correspondence or folks who were out in space searching for their own meaning. I'll go with the latter and just lean into the sadness today, why not.
Next, War Story, basically which phase of the war I was involved with. I want Overture, so my character was right there at the beginning. I like the idea of him being one of the people saying "hey, this is going to be a problem" and no one really listening because, like, whatever, he's a Belter, they're always saying crazy stuff. For my option here, I'll take Bashton's Children. I was on the USS Endeavour when it was overrun by the Song, and held out and escaped with a dozen other folks. I figure that his experience navigating zero-G might have come in handy for prepping an escape pod or something sci-fi like that, but I also think he doesn't talk it up. After all, any Belter knows how to do that shit in their sleep.
Next up, Profession. I definitely like Builder, and for the option, I'll take Salvager. It's not that he wants to live off-planet again, but working in low orbit feels familiar, and that's nice when everything else has been yanked away or ground to dust.
And now, Beliefs. I need two. They're meant to be philosophical and controversial, things that my character agrees with but could in theory change. Let's think.
My character is from the Belt, and he was used to getting looked down on and ignored because of his position. At some point he wound up on the Endeavour, and I think that applying for that gig was a matter of real risk for him, so it was a big validation when he got it. Getting out of battle with the Song alive should have been another validation, but I think he's got a lot of survivor's guilt bound up in that moment, which makes it interesting that he chose a pretty dangerous job one Polvo. I'm gonna say that his first Belief is People Are Only Honest in a Crisis; when things are dangerous, people show who they really are. For the second one, I'll say We Owe the Dead Nothing. Once you're gone, you're gone. Get rid of the body after stripping anything of value out. No graves, no funerals, remember the dead on your own time.
Last thing is a name, and a little title to go with it. I'll say his name is Art Cullenden, the Bone-Picker. Art is in his 40s, balding, with wide blue eyes and a weird resting face (almost looks like a sneer). He's got multiple Belter tattoos on his arms, and he's missing his left little finger (salvage accident). He's muscular and fit, and is accustomed to training because if you're strong in zero-G, you're really strong, and if you're strong in high gravity, at least you can walk. He always carries a tool kit and a sturdy leather bag in case he finds something worth taking.
And that's it!
The Strange: Terrible Black Oubliette
Alexa, play "Strange".
Last time, the characters got noshed by ghouls, met a Five-Headed Thing, and decided to explore a bit.
Edward, Roxanne, and Arnauld head to the House on the Hill. They enter the wrought-iron gate and ring the doorbell (which screams, of course), and find it answered by a small, shriveled person whose mouth has been sewn shut. They inquire about meeting Hazel Jenkins and the rooms for rent, and the creature shows them in. Hazel herself enters the room, and greets them graciously. She tells them rent is one candy per night, and the characters each pay up, if nervously. She has the creature escort them upstairs.
The characters are leery about entering a room by themselves, but they check out their accommodations and then split up: Arnauld stays upstairs and Edward and Roxanne head downstairs to talk with Hazel about witchcraft and whatnot. Hazel is very pleasant and chatty, but Roxanne is a spinner and adept at conversation. She realizes that Hazel is fishing, trying to learn more about them, and Roxanne is very careful to avoid revealing that they're not from Halloween. At this point, Hazel becomes less interested; Edward figures she doesn't find them interesting enough to lie to.
Upstairs, though, things get gruesome. Arnauld cuts the stitches on the servant's mouth, and he begs for help, claiming to be from Earth. Arnauld promises to help him, and tries to get more information out of him, but the poor guy has a hard time talking. And then his eyes widen and he yells says something that Arnauld doesn't quite understand...
Downstairs, a little black cat with human hands and feet instead of paws jumps up on Hazel's lap. She introduces it as Black Posie, her familiar, but then cocks her head and says that something has come to her attention. Roxanne, thinking quickly, uses her Enthrall power and keeps Hazel listening, while Arnauld, throwing caution to the wind, changes into his werewolf form, scoops up the unfortunate servant, and leaps out a damn window.
Edward and Roxanne slowly back toward the door. The Enthrall falls, and Hazel throws a spell at them to enslave them, but they both manage to shake it off and run for the gate. All three recursors clear the fence, but Hazel reminds them that she's not bound by this territory and she's perfectly free to come get them. Roxanne proposes a deal, and Hazel agrees to a challenge: If they can escape the grounds, she'll let them and her slave go. Edward proposes that she also let all enslaved recursors go, and Hazel smiles and says "Done."
She says they have until the clock in her house strikes thirteen, but they can start whenever they want. They decide to come back later, and head for Reaper's house to rest a bit.
Meanwhile, Carmen and Alex are trick-or-treating. They decide to head to some of the minor neighborhoods and see what those are like. They find a signpost pointing to the Pumpkin Patch and the Corn Maze, and spot a lonely bridge in the distance. Neither of them is sanguine about the maze, so they head to the Pumpkin Patch.
It's as advertised: A big pumpkin patch tended by goblins. At the far end is a pumpkin the size of a house, and when they approach, it turns, revealing a jack-o-lantern face. "I DON'T LIKE GOLEMS," it booms, glaring at Alex.
Carmen tries to talk to it a little, but seems pretty stuck on not liking golems, so they trick or treat and get some candy from the goblins, and then leave. They decide to head to the bridge, and find that it's a long, lonely thing that leads across a gorge filled with fog. They start on the bridge and presently hear hoofbeats behind them, and find they've been joined by a skeletal rider.
Carmen says "trick or treat," but the Rider notes that her candle is out - it's too windy on the bridge for a candle to stay lit. Carmen, knowing when not to push her luck, pays the bridge toll that the Rider asks, and then they keep walking. The Rider, once the toll is paid, is a pleasant enough fellow, and tells them that the Bridge doesn't get much traffic. It leads to the Forest Hills, but you can get there through the Hollows, too, and this way is expensive. Carmen asks about the mysterious James, and the Rider says that he's seen James multiple times - he always pays the toll, and seemed interested in exploring all of Halloween. In fact, the last time he saw James was crossing the Bridge into Forest Hills, but he never saw him return.
Back in town, Roxanne, Edward, and Arnauld rest at the cobbler's. Roxanne tries to understand what's happened to the servant they've "rescued," and realizes that his soul is missing, probably still kept in the House. He's already getting sick, and without it he'll die. They talk about strategy - they figure they could get into the house and then translate home, but they aren't sure they can take the stranded recursors with them. Roxanne figures they might be unable to translate home by themselves precisely because their souls are being kept hidden.
In the end, they decide they'll just have to play her game. They've already paid for a room, so Arnauld takes the servant and heads back to the House, heads up to his room, and, communicating in writing, has the servant write down everything he knows about the house and the grounds that might be of use.
Edward and Roxanne decide to look for cyphers. Edward feels something Strange in the pub, and in the lost and found they discover a syringe of red liquid that, Edward figures, would de-age anyone it was injected into. Roxanne notices Gomez Snake in the back of the room, and talks with him about Hazel and James. Snake says that if Roxanne can provide concrete proof that Hazel is responsible for the pumpkin golems, he'll tell her all about James.
Back in the woods, Carmen and Alex exit the bridge and enter the Forest Hills. They are almost immediately set upon by a coven of witches with blue circles smeared on their heads, the Blue Circle Coven. This coven, they're told, is made up of the remains of a prior coven and some castoffs from still others, and they get the sense that coven membership changes pretty regularly. Covens fall, form, argue and fight, and someone is always the Power of the Night for the Forest Hills, but it's never constant for too long. They talk about James and learn that he romanced several witches in various covens, and seemed to make things worse and more fractious while he was here.
They continue on their way and meet up with a member of the Rusted Knife Coven (the one that's presently the Power). Carmen asks about James again, and learns that he's interested in magic, particularly flesh- or skin-magic, which might be why he was focused on the Tattooed Woman. They head back into the Hollows, and meet up with Roxanne and Edward.
They talk a little about the challenge they've made, but still figure that having Alex anywhere near Hazel is unwise. Instead, Edward and Roxanne will continue this challenge and Carmen and Alex will go to the Midnight Circus and see if they can talk with the Tattooed Woman.
Edward and Roxanne head back to the House, and Hazel welcomes them (and brings Arnauld downstairs). She shows them a contract, which states that she can choose where in the house they start, they win if they escape the grounds before the clock strikes thirteen, and if they win they get to take enslaved recursors with them. She also states that neither she nor her familiar will interfere with their attempts to escape. Roxanne has her clarify that taking the recursors means their souls, too, and Hazel rewords it slightly.
The characters sign it: Arnauld as "Dusk," Edward as "Inkheart," and Roxanne as "Rowan." Hazel cackles, and they all disappear, waking up in pitch darkness.
Meanwhile, Carmen and Alex visit the Circus, and are admitted to see Her Inked Majesty. Carmen starts off trick-or-treating, and the Woman gives her candy, but then Carmen asks about James, and the Woman calls her out: If you're investigating, you're not trick-or-treating and you're in violation of the Vow of Begging. The Woman tells them that James is dangerous, and that he wanted something from her, some tattoo, but is reluctant to say which one. She also lays a curse on them: They're banished from the Circus until they solve the Corn Maze.
They're escorted out, and Carmen reflects that it could have been much worse. They decide to give the Corn Maze a go, though both of them are concerned.
Back in the oubliette (see, we got there), Roxanne puts on a pair of cypher glasses that allow her to see in the dark. This room has no obvious exits, and they all kind of kick themselves - if they're stuck here, they can't escape. Roxanne finds a trap door in the ceiling, and after multiple attempts, Arnauld in werewolf form manages to punch through it. They crawl out and find that they're in a basement, with stairs that lead up into a pantry. Arnauld starts gulping everything in the pantry, but Roxanne and Edward each manage to find a cypher before everything is broken (a jar of green paste and a funny pair of glasses, respectively). They leave the pantry and find themselves in the kitchen.
Back at the Corn Maze, Alex and Carmen see a sign saying WARNING: LOST IS LOST. They enter the maze, and realize that no matter where they are, they can see a scarecrow on a hill ("that's the Power here," muses Carmen). They have to spend several hours at it, but they manage to solve the maze, and when they're back at the beginning they find the Scarecrow waiting. He doesn't speak, but he has a little crow who speaks for him, and tells them that James also solved the maze ("How?" asks Carmen. "Quickly" says the crow). They also mention he wore a silver star inside his coat, a star in a circle. It didn't look right...just didn't "fit" with Halloween.
In the kitchen, the characters find an immense stew pot that smells yummy, but they've all heard what (and who) Hazel puts into that stew. Arnauld upends it, spilling it everything, and Hazel appears and throws fire at him. She misses, but the message is clear: She won't interfere if they're trying to escape, but they need to respect her house. She tells them to clean it up, and they do, though it takes some time.
When they're done, they leave through a door that Roxanne is sure was there all the time that seems to lead outside. But then they're through it, and the grass withers, and the door disappears behind them. A voice behind them chuckles, and when they mention that they're trying to get out and that Hazel can't interfere, he says that that doesn't apply to him: He pays for his room here.
"And who are you?" asks Edward. "Why," it replies, "I'm the Boogeyman."
Last time, the characters got noshed by ghouls, met a Five-Headed Thing, and decided to explore a bit.
Edward, Roxanne, and Arnauld head to the House on the Hill. They enter the wrought-iron gate and ring the doorbell (which screams, of course), and find it answered by a small, shriveled person whose mouth has been sewn shut. They inquire about meeting Hazel Jenkins and the rooms for rent, and the creature shows them in. Hazel herself enters the room, and greets them graciously. She tells them rent is one candy per night, and the characters each pay up, if nervously. She has the creature escort them upstairs.
The characters are leery about entering a room by themselves, but they check out their accommodations and then split up: Arnauld stays upstairs and Edward and Roxanne head downstairs to talk with Hazel about witchcraft and whatnot. Hazel is very pleasant and chatty, but Roxanne is a spinner and adept at conversation. She realizes that Hazel is fishing, trying to learn more about them, and Roxanne is very careful to avoid revealing that they're not from Halloween. At this point, Hazel becomes less interested; Edward figures she doesn't find them interesting enough to lie to.
Upstairs, though, things get gruesome. Arnauld cuts the stitches on the servant's mouth, and he begs for help, claiming to be from Earth. Arnauld promises to help him, and tries to get more information out of him, but the poor guy has a hard time talking. And then his eyes widen and he yells says something that Arnauld doesn't quite understand...
Downstairs, a little black cat with human hands and feet instead of paws jumps up on Hazel's lap. She introduces it as Black Posie, her familiar, but then cocks her head and says that something has come to her attention. Roxanne, thinking quickly, uses her Enthrall power and keeps Hazel listening, while Arnauld, throwing caution to the wind, changes into his werewolf form, scoops up the unfortunate servant, and leaps out a damn window.
Edward and Roxanne slowly back toward the door. The Enthrall falls, and Hazel throws a spell at them to enslave them, but they both manage to shake it off and run for the gate. All three recursors clear the fence, but Hazel reminds them that she's not bound by this territory and she's perfectly free to come get them. Roxanne proposes a deal, and Hazel agrees to a challenge: If they can escape the grounds, she'll let them and her slave go. Edward proposes that she also let all enslaved recursors go, and Hazel smiles and says "Done."
She says they have until the clock in her house strikes thirteen, but they can start whenever they want. They decide to come back later, and head for Reaper's house to rest a bit.
Meanwhile, Carmen and Alex are trick-or-treating. They decide to head to some of the minor neighborhoods and see what those are like. They find a signpost pointing to the Pumpkin Patch and the Corn Maze, and spot a lonely bridge in the distance. Neither of them is sanguine about the maze, so they head to the Pumpkin Patch.
It's as advertised: A big pumpkin patch tended by goblins. At the far end is a pumpkin the size of a house, and when they approach, it turns, revealing a jack-o-lantern face. "I DON'T LIKE GOLEMS," it booms, glaring at Alex.
Carmen tries to talk to it a little, but seems pretty stuck on not liking golems, so they trick or treat and get some candy from the goblins, and then leave. They decide to head to the bridge, and find that it's a long, lonely thing that leads across a gorge filled with fog. They start on the bridge and presently hear hoofbeats behind them, and find they've been joined by a skeletal rider.
Carmen says "trick or treat," but the Rider notes that her candle is out - it's too windy on the bridge for a candle to stay lit. Carmen, knowing when not to push her luck, pays the bridge toll that the Rider asks, and then they keep walking. The Rider, once the toll is paid, is a pleasant enough fellow, and tells them that the Bridge doesn't get much traffic. It leads to the Forest Hills, but you can get there through the Hollows, too, and this way is expensive. Carmen asks about the mysterious James, and the Rider says that he's seen James multiple times - he always pays the toll, and seemed interested in exploring all of Halloween. In fact, the last time he saw James was crossing the Bridge into Forest Hills, but he never saw him return.
Back in town, Roxanne, Edward, and Arnauld rest at the cobbler's. Roxanne tries to understand what's happened to the servant they've "rescued," and realizes that his soul is missing, probably still kept in the House. He's already getting sick, and without it he'll die. They talk about strategy - they figure they could get into the house and then translate home, but they aren't sure they can take the stranded recursors with them. Roxanne figures they might be unable to translate home by themselves precisely because their souls are being kept hidden.
In the end, they decide they'll just have to play her game. They've already paid for a room, so Arnauld takes the servant and heads back to the House, heads up to his room, and, communicating in writing, has the servant write down everything he knows about the house and the grounds that might be of use.
Edward and Roxanne decide to look for cyphers. Edward feels something Strange in the pub, and in the lost and found they discover a syringe of red liquid that, Edward figures, would de-age anyone it was injected into. Roxanne notices Gomez Snake in the back of the room, and talks with him about Hazel and James. Snake says that if Roxanne can provide concrete proof that Hazel is responsible for the pumpkin golems, he'll tell her all about James.
Back in the woods, Carmen and Alex exit the bridge and enter the Forest Hills. They are almost immediately set upon by a coven of witches with blue circles smeared on their heads, the Blue Circle Coven. This coven, they're told, is made up of the remains of a prior coven and some castoffs from still others, and they get the sense that coven membership changes pretty regularly. Covens fall, form, argue and fight, and someone is always the Power of the Night for the Forest Hills, but it's never constant for too long. They talk about James and learn that he romanced several witches in various covens, and seemed to make things worse and more fractious while he was here.
They continue on their way and meet up with a member of the Rusted Knife Coven (the one that's presently the Power). Carmen asks about James again, and learns that he's interested in magic, particularly flesh- or skin-magic, which might be why he was focused on the Tattooed Woman. They head back into the Hollows, and meet up with Roxanne and Edward.
They talk a little about the challenge they've made, but still figure that having Alex anywhere near Hazel is unwise. Instead, Edward and Roxanne will continue this challenge and Carmen and Alex will go to the Midnight Circus and see if they can talk with the Tattooed Woman.
Edward and Roxanne head back to the House, and Hazel welcomes them (and brings Arnauld downstairs). She shows them a contract, which states that she can choose where in the house they start, they win if they escape the grounds before the clock strikes thirteen, and if they win they get to take enslaved recursors with them. She also states that neither she nor her familiar will interfere with their attempts to escape. Roxanne has her clarify that taking the recursors means their souls, too, and Hazel rewords it slightly.
The characters sign it: Arnauld as "Dusk," Edward as "Inkheart," and Roxanne as "Rowan." Hazel cackles, and they all disappear, waking up in pitch darkness.
Meanwhile, Carmen and Alex visit the Circus, and are admitted to see Her Inked Majesty. Carmen starts off trick-or-treating, and the Woman gives her candy, but then Carmen asks about James, and the Woman calls her out: If you're investigating, you're not trick-or-treating and you're in violation of the Vow of Begging. The Woman tells them that James is dangerous, and that he wanted something from her, some tattoo, but is reluctant to say which one. She also lays a curse on them: They're banished from the Circus until they solve the Corn Maze.
They're escorted out, and Carmen reflects that it could have been much worse. They decide to give the Corn Maze a go, though both of them are concerned.
Back in the oubliette (see, we got there), Roxanne puts on a pair of cypher glasses that allow her to see in the dark. This room has no obvious exits, and they all kind of kick themselves - if they're stuck here, they can't escape. Roxanne finds a trap door in the ceiling, and after multiple attempts, Arnauld in werewolf form manages to punch through it. They crawl out and find that they're in a basement, with stairs that lead up into a pantry. Arnauld starts gulping everything in the pantry, but Roxanne and Edward each manage to find a cypher before everything is broken (a jar of green paste and a funny pair of glasses, respectively). They leave the pantry and find themselves in the kitchen.
Back at the Corn Maze, Alex and Carmen see a sign saying WARNING: LOST IS LOST. They enter the maze, and realize that no matter where they are, they can see a scarecrow on a hill ("that's the Power here," muses Carmen). They have to spend several hours at it, but they manage to solve the maze, and when they're back at the beginning they find the Scarecrow waiting. He doesn't speak, but he has a little crow who speaks for him, and tells them that James also solved the maze ("How?" asks Carmen. "Quickly" says the crow). They also mention he wore a silver star inside his coat, a star in a circle. It didn't look right...just didn't "fit" with Halloween.
In the kitchen, the characters find an immense stew pot that smells yummy, but they've all heard what (and who) Hazel puts into that stew. Arnauld upends it, spilling it everything, and Hazel appears and throws fire at him. She misses, but the message is clear: She won't interfere if they're trying to escape, but they need to respect her house. She tells them to clean it up, and they do, though it takes some time.
When they're done, they leave through a door that Roxanne is sure was there all the time that seems to lead outside. But then they're through it, and the grass withers, and the door disappears behind them. A voice behind them chuckles, and when they mention that they're trying to get out and that Hazel can't interfere, he says that that doesn't apply to him: He pays for his room here.
"And who are you?" asks Edward. "Why," it replies, "I'm the Boogeyman."
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