Character Creation: Keltia

Last character of March. Tomorrow I'll do a character for a comedy game (but then maybe I'll do one for a Serious Indie Game and be all like APRIL FOOL no probably not). 

The Game: Keltia
The Publisher: Le 7ème Cercle, I guess? I know it used to be on the Cubicle 7 site, but now it's gone
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Keltia is from the same...universe? Set of games? as Yggdrasill, and I assume the systems are compatible (the Keltia book does spend some time talking about how to mesh them, I think). I remember finding Yggdrasill a lot more readable than Keltia. I don't know if it's because I'm more familiar with Norse myth than Welsh, and therefore the terminology doesn't make my eyes bloop over too much, but I spent a couple of nights reading the setting/history of Keltia before giving up and going right to the game stuff (which was much easier to read). 

Anyway. Keltia is set in the 5th century AD, and the book spends most of the setting talking about what is now Wales (doy). There's a supplement that gets into the Picts and the northern lands, which is what kind of interests me, but I don't have said book. I think I would like to make a magic-using character. That in mind, let's see what kinds of options I have.

OK, so basically I can be a druid, a mage, or a bard. I wanna be a mage. Mages are folks who don't have the schooling that druids do, so my character is someone who has the gift of magic and was taught by...whoever. I'm gonna say that my character is the youngest son of a farming/fishing family, and was taught magic by a strange old hermit that lives near the sea. I think that's a good enough start, so let's get going on this long chargen process.

Step One is concept, and I did that (it doesn't have to be terribly fleshed out yet). Step Two is archetype; I can pick one of the listed ones or make one up. I think the "mage" archetype is fine. 

Step Three is Characteristics, I get 19 points to divide up among the 9 of them. Minimum 1, maximum 4. Let's see, what does one use for magic? Instinct! Well, I'll put that at 4, then. I'll put my three Body traits at 3, how about? That leaves me 6 for the remaining 5 traits. Oy. Well, the pre-gens include a couple of characters with 1s in two characteristics, so I guess that's workable, but this would leave me with 1 in all three Mind traits and two of my Soul traits (well, one would be 2, but that's still pathetic). 

OK, I'll bust Vigor and Strength down to 2, which puts my total up to 8. I'll put 2s in Tenacity, Perception, Charisma, and Communication, and leave my Intellect at 1. The book also tells me to calculate scores for Body, Mind, and Soul by adding up the traits in each category (6, 5, and 8, respectively) but I don't see anyplace to write that. 

Well, anyway, moving on. Step Four is a shitload of secondary characteristics, which I'm just gonna calculate and write on the sheet, because like you care. 

Oh, Hit Points involve Body, Mind, and Soul. OK, then. Step Five: Gifts & Weaknesses! I have to take Blood of the Ancients as a Gift in order to use magic, so, um, there's that. I also can take a Weakness to get a second Gift, so let's have a look. I think we're taking a "young hero starting out on the journey" sort of approach, here, so Curious or Bold would both make sense. I think Curious is more in keeping with magic, so we'll go with that. For my second Gift, I believe I shall take Mountaineer. I said before the old hermit I trained with lived by the sea in a cave, but maybe the cave was up a cliff wall, too.

Step Six is Skills. I get 35 points, and my five privileged Skills cost 1-for-1, while others are 2-for-1. So what are my privileged Skills, anyway? Awen, Empathy, Knowledge (Divinities), a combat Skill of my choice, and Superstition. I can, of course, swap any of these out if I want. Let's see what the heck they mean. 

I think all of these are fine, except I'm gonna swap out Knowledge for Survival (more in keeping with my guy's upbringing). Skills max out at 7, which is the high end of "Competent." Let's arrange them thusly:

Awen 5
Superstition 2
Empathy 3
Survival 5
Throw 4
Athletics 1
Climbing 2
Dodge 1
Legends 1
Search 1
Swim 1
Traditions 1

(I take issue with including Dodge, Athletics, Climbing, and Swim as separate Skills, but whatever.)

Step Seven Furor Pool, which is higher for me because I'm a magicy dude. Vigor + Intellect + Instinct is 7, done and done.

Step Eight is Combat Feats and Spells. I get 12 points, but they cost 3 each, so why not just give me 4? I dunno. Ah, because they actually cost 3 per level, so you can buy more than level of a given one. Well, I'll take No Safe Place (allowing me to throw something at a target behind cover), and then use the other 9 points for spells. Oh, damn, I didn't print off page 2 of the sheet and I don't have the pdf for this game. Alas, I'll just have to write this stuff in the margins, I suppose.

I can't take Goddess, Healing, or Illusion spells, but anything else is fair game. I'll take three level-1 spells, as befitting my young mage. I'll take Blinding Light, Read Omens, and That Which is Hidden. That gives me an "offensive" spell (not that it does damage) and a couple of investigative type things, which I think is appropriate to the character and indicative of the kind of thing an old mysterious hermit might teach him. 

Step Nine is equipment and money. I get a d10 x 10 silver (rolled a 3, so 30), and I can have any weapon I'm skilled with. I'm skilled in Thrown, but I kinda picture him as mostly throwing rocks. Eh, I'll take a hatchet. He'd be loathe to actually throw it unless it were an emergency, though. I don't see anything else I want. Probably I should buy armor, but eh.

Step Ten is "finish everything off." I have Renown equal to my high Skill (5, for either Awen or Survival). I need a name, though. Handily, there's a list! I'll say my guy's name is Rhun, also called Bychan ("Junior," basically). Rhun is only 17, and makes his living with his family pulling salmon out of the river. His family doesn't fish the sea (his father always said it's a fool's profession, though he does like cockles), but Rhun loves to climb and the seaside cliffs are especially challenging. He climbed into the cave of a hermit known only as Moel, and was surprised when Moel told him he'd been expecting him. Moel taught him magic, and Rhun hasn't been as discreet as maybe he should - the folks who live near to his family have started coming to him for prophecy, and he's not quite sure he should be doing that yet...

Rhun is wiry and skinny, with his mother's dark eyes and his father's dark hair. He carries a wood hatchet, but doesn't think of it as a weapon. He's been prone to crawling or climbing to places he probably shouldn't since he was a wee lad, but he always manages to find something interesting or tasty when he does. Now, he figures that was probably his magical abilities expressing themselves.

That'll do it!

Chill: Another Sonuvabitchin Blackout

Which is actually a line from Creepshow, in a segment about bugs. I'm a genius. 

ANYWAY. Last time, our intrepid group of envoys were investigating a bunch of weirdness in a small Idaho neighborhood. Blackouts in which all electronics go out, hornets stinging people, break-ins, a murder a year ago and a custodian cutting off his own head with a chainsaw some 20 years ago. They had just learned, from their compatriot Father Will, that a police officer named Milton Hodges had been stung to death by hornets back in August 2011. (Father Will was out today; he got caught up doing diocese stuff. Likewise, Jordan got called away on a family matter, so it was just Blake, Jennifer, Samantha, and Willa.)

The envoys traipse back into Detective Jackson's office and ask about Hodges. He tells them that Hodges died of multiple hornet stings, but he isn't sure why Hodges was actually at the school that night. He'd heard reports that there was a scream and a gunshot, but doesn't know the particulars. Jennifer does some research and learns that Hodges left behind a wife (Lisa) and a daughter (Rina), as well as an older sister (Irene). They also do some checking into the neighborhood and find an active neighborhood watch, the most active of which is a fellow named Eric Hill.

They decide to split up - Willa and Jennifer (who drives in from the ranch) go to talk with Hill about the neighborhood and its history, while Samantha and Blake go to talk to Hodges' widow. They find his daughter sitting on the porch reading and try to talk with her about her father, but they don't get very far. It's the week of the anniversary of her father's death, and she was only 8 at the time - as far as she knows, he went for a walk and never came back. They give her Samantha's card and tell her to have her mother call them, but they don't expect much of a response.

Willa and Jennifer find Eric Hill in his yard and talk to him about the blackouts. He confirms that they happen in August, but isn't sure if it's every year. He also confirms that they affect things like cell phones, and has some very interesting theories about why that happens involving 5G, Obama, and chemtrails. He tells them that a couple of nights before Karen Welch was stabbed last year, someone kicked in the back door of Ryan and Sheryl Briggs and stole a branch saw. They weren't injured, but they didn't get a look at the intruder, either. 

Willa and Jennifer walk down the block and talk to Sheryl Briggs, and she confirms what Hill told them - they were getting ready for bed, there was a crash, the alarm went off but then suddenly died. Willa notes that the details are pretty consistent - it's always the first week of August, the same week Mr. Buck died, hornets tend to show up, and burglary involving a branch saw is common. What the heck does all this mean?

Samantha and Blake visit Irene Hodges, Milt's sister, and have a better time of it. She lets them in and they talk about Milt, and she says that when they found his body he had his gun in his hand and one round had been fired. There was never any good explanation for that, so the gun was left out of the report. She also tells them, in confidence, that Milt confessed some years ago that he'd actually found Mr. Buck's head the day he died. He saw it in the brush, it had rolled under a hornet's nest, and he'd been so freaked out that he froze up and didn't say anything. That, Irene guesses, is why he was back there in 2011. His daughter was about to start school at Pioneer, and Milt was trying to find the skull to report it. 

Samantha realizes that, unless someone picked up the skull, it's probably still there. The envoys meet up for dinner and share their info, and decide to go skull-hunting. They head to a Home Depot and buy some beekeeping outfits and look around the woods. It takes some time, but as the sun sets, they find a bracelet with some beads and charms on it. Samantha uses Postcognition and sees a teenage girl, dressed in black and with dyed black hair, looking around in the brush. She finds a human skulls, and whispers "holy shit, this is awesome" before putting it in her backpack and walking away into the park. She drops the bracelet, but doesn't notice.

Samantha reports this to the others, but then they notice some hornets buzzing around and hear twigs cracking in the nearby underbrush. They back up towards the path and watch, and see a humanoid figure moving in the trees. They film it on cell phones, but can't get a good look until it breaks the treeline and steps under the light near the school. It's wearing jeans, work boots, a torn-up t-shirt, work gloves...and it has a hornet's nest for a head. 

Samantha calls Detective Jackson and reports this, but makes the mistake of actually saying "a man with a hornet's nest for a head," and he hangs up. They send him some pictures, but don't get a response back.

It doesn't seem to notice them, and they follow it across the parking lot. It steps into the trees again, and Blake calls after it. The lights go out, and their cell phones die as well. They hear the local citizens yelling to each other from back doors ("here we go again!" "damn chemtrails!"), but then Jennifer hears a crash and a scream.

Following the sounds, they find a house with the back door smashed into. They investigate carefully, and eventually come to the garage, where they see the beehive-man standing over another man...with a wood ax buried in his chest. It yanks the ax out, and Blake activates Hidden Hand and tries to pull the ax out of his hand. He keeps his grip on it, though, and releases a swarm of hornets from his, erm, head. Fortunately, though, the envoys are wearing beekeeper outfits, so this doesn't bother them as much as it might. 

Willa activates Astral Attack on a trowel and hurls it at the hive, but misses. Jennifer runs in and uses Heal on the unfortunate fellow on the floor, saving his life. Samantha fishes around for her lighter and mace, and Blake telekinetically opens the garage door. The envoys are prepared for a fight...but the creature runs out the door and disappears into the neighborhood.

The envoys hear sirens, and the cops finally arrive. They take the man (Stanley Friedbach, the owner of the house) to the hospital, and very politely invite the envoys down to the station for a friendly chat.

Character Creation: Tales of the Magical West

Ah, spring break. Video games, movies, character creation, etc. Speaking of which:

The Game: Tales of the Magical West
The Publisher: Red Roberts
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I got this game from a bundle. The premise - wild west/magic/adventure sandbox sort of game - seems solid enough. I mean, I always get a little worried when TTRPGs start using video game terminology (like "sandbox"), but whatever. 

I gotta say, though, my first impression isn't helped by stuff like this:

I'm not talking about the content; that's fine, and I'm glad the author takes the time to address the shitshow that is American history. But like, holy shit, that editing (or lack thereof). It's like that going forward in the book, too, and it really took this game from "looks interesting" to "fuck it, just get me to chargen." 

Anyway, fuck it, let's get to chargen. Hang on, need to turn off Tori Amos, not really the right tone. OK.

I'm meant to start with a backstory, but the book says it'll walk me through a backstory if I don't have one. One of the suggestions (along with "tired sherrif", oy) is a mage-turned-bounty hunter, and I kinda dig that idea, a character that started off scholarly and became more grizzled and ruthless over time (not unlike King Schultz in Django Unchained, I guess). But I think I'll use the "walk me through" thing and see what it gets me.

OK, the first thing I do is pick an Upbringing, which then gives me a choice of one of two Specialties. I...don't see anyplace on the sheet for these. Oh, wait, there's a second page. Ok, then. I'll pick Magical Middle (I'm middle class in the magical world, whatever that means). I can choose between Mana Sensing and Persuasion. I think I'll take Mana Sensing. 

Now I pick two "Educations" and the attendant Specialties and Fighting Styles. I think I'll take Traditional Magical Training (and pick Magical Studies as the Specialty, Earth Magic as the Fighting Style) and Modern Military Training (Riding Specialty, Two-Handed Ranged Fighting Style). 

Next I take skills. This consists of adding a +1 to any Skill in which I have a Specialty. F'rex, I have Magical Studies, which is under Education (don't double up on terminology, doop-de-doo), meaning I get a +1 in Education. I also get those bonuses in Strength and Wisdom. I...guess Fighting Styles count here, too? If so, I'd also get the bonus in Awareness (but not for Earth Magic, since that's a Strength bonus and I already have one of those). There better be a damn example of chargen.

Next, Fighting Styles, I guess? Oh, geez.

Guess we know what this game is about.

I'm gonna wind up with three abilities in each Fighting Style, but they're not listed in this section, so I'm gonna keep going and fill them in later. Health is 1d6 + Constitution + 10 + level, I roll a 6 (no, really, I did), so I have 17 Health. Equipment...OK, I get stuff based on my Fighting Styles, and I get manastones likewise. 

OH THANK FUCKERY there's an example of chargen. One moment. 

Hey, this example character isn't too dissimilar to the one I'm making, at least in terms of the traits we chose. Anyway, no, we don't increase skills from Fighting Styles, just Specialties, good to know. 

OK, the rest of this is actually really easy. I just need to choose Fighting Style stuff and equipment. "See p. XX" would've been handy here. Anyway, Earth Magic. I pick a school from a list of five. There are a couple that I think are interesting, so I guess we should think about the character somewhat.

We'll say that my guy is named Clay Ryeman. Clay left home with a few dollars and some magical training to his name, and rather than pursuing his studies directly he joined the Army. He was deployed west and his unit took heavy losses fighting...I don't know, Mexico maybe, and Clay was wounded. He was discharged from the Army and everyone expected him to return home, since walking was now difficult, but he was perfectly able to ride and his riflery and earth magic skills gave him the opportunity to take on a different line of work - bounty hunting. 

Well, given all that, I'll take the Grounded School, since it supposedly lets me improve perception. Let's see. Indeed it does! I can sense vibrations and root myself to the earth, as well as channel the earth for more Mana. Okey-day. How about Two-Handed Ranged? Oh, Marksman School, thanks very much. 

As for Equipment, I'll take a rifle (doy) and three manastones - specifically, two Emerald and an Onyx. I'll dedicated 5 points of Mana to raise my Evade, too, why not. 

I think that's everything. Clay is in his late 20s but looks older. He's got blonde hair and scruff on his chin, blue eyes and wears a brown duster and hat. He also usually wears a bandana on his face to help filter the dust. He walks with a limp on his right leg, and prefers to ride (which also means he prefers to ride slow so as not to exhaust his horsey). His rifle is decorated with runes and sigils, but they don't actually mean anything (rather, they don't have any real effect), he just likes to let people think they do. Clay prefers not to use magic in stressful situations, although he has been considering trying to learn some Sand Magic...

That'll do it. Rather disappointing, this. It's got some potential. 

Atlantis: The Hidden Enemy

Back in the sandals, holdin' the sword. Wooo! Here's last time.

The heroes have left Joktan and sailed back across the Red Sea to Kush. They stop in Kashta and sell the Agony, using the money to clothe and equip their entourage of former slaves. From there, they start heading into Kush, walking the border between the desert and the grassy plains. 

The journey isn't necessarily uneventful. Back in Joktan, Thanos sees vultures feasting on a corpse, and sees this a dire portent of things to come. On the journey, Akala strikes up a conversation with one of the former slaves, a man named Turaku, who, like her, is from Mu. They talk about the home they've left and cannot return to, though neither discusses their reasons. Imani notices hawk symbols etched into rocks and trees as they travel, and realizes that an enemy of hers from Khemit, an owl-man named Cheech, is tracking them. She warns the others that he might swoop down on them at any moment (but he's probably too smart to attack them when they're all together).

As they're traveling through Kush, Thanos' jackal companion Thanatos sniffs the air, and Thanos follows suit. He smells smoke, and informs the others. Imani notes that they're downwind of the smell and wets a cloth to breathe through, and Akala flies up and searches for the fire. She finds it - a brushfire is raging out of control and headed straight for them from the west. 

Eithne tries to cast a spell to create a firebreak between them and the blaze, but the spell goes horribly awry and backfires as a blast of heat. It heats up their metal objects, and all of them have to quickly cast down their weapons (Akala also loses a bunch of very valuable jewelry). The horses rear up, and most of the characters keep them under control, but Akala loses control of Jago (her horse), and he carries her away into the desert. 

Imani rallies the entourage and gets them to run away from the fire. Eithne chokes on a bit of smoke, but they manage to get into the desert without much incident. Akala, who's finally manage to calm Jago down, sees that she's standing on a trail and waves the others over. Imani studies the trail and notes that caravans must use it, meaning it probably leads to a settlement. Since they're all thirsty and exhausted, they follow the trail.

It leads to a settlement built up around an oasis. Akala notes that the settlement has been built out over time, and oasis is in the center of the settlement. The heroes find a livery and board their horses, and ask the boy there where they might find lodging. "All of you?" he says, and Imani asks for a place to camp. He tells them they can camp outside the town anywhere they like (but he recommends the western side). Masamba offers to take the entourage there and set up camp, while the heroes can get rooms at the inn. 

They get to the inn and ask for water, wine, and food, in that order. The server brings them water that tastes oddly but pleasantly sweet, and is strangely filling. They ask, and the server says that the oasis water has always been like that - the locals of this settlement, called Deshdara, consider it a blessing from the gods. 

Thanos asks about the bazaar - it seemed a little sparse to him. The server tells them that Deshdara has grown a little too big for itself, and now it's experiencing some growing pains. She tells them that Ashmerata, the magistrate of the town, is working to make sure it grows in the ways it needs to and doesn't overtax the oasis. 

The heroes eat and then rent rooms, and collapse from exhaustion. 

The next morning, they go to the oasis. It's smaller than they expected, but they buy some of the water and take it out to their camp. From there, they decide to split up. Akala and Eithne go to meet Ashmerata, while Thanos and Imani go to the bazaar (Imani lost her mong in the fire and wants to buy a new weapon). 

Akala and Eithne wander around a bit, asking after the magistrate, and then learn that she's heading out to the camp at the edge of town. They go to meet her and find her talking with Masamba (who's glad to have Akala here to answer questions). Ashmerata is very hospitable, she just wanted to see who these people were. The heroes ask about the folks with slave brands they've seen, and Ashmerata says that they don't allow slavery here - some of the first folks to start building here were escaped slaves. Akala asks if she's not worried about Khemit coming to get them, and Ashmerata says that they're far enough into Kush that it would be a serious incident if Khemit tried. Eithne asks if there's a story about the oasis, and Ashmerata says there are several, but the one she likes is that it's blessed by Atargatis, the Mistress of the Desert, a goddess worshiped by the Turani.

They find a weapons dealer in the bazaar and Thanos buys a gladius; he's planning on becoming more proficient with a blade. Imani buys a replacement mong. The others catch up with them, and buy weapons as well - Eithne buys a kukri and Akala buys a pair of chakram. Re-armed, the heroes buy some bread and other foodstuffs and head out to camp to eat with their people. 

Next time, more of this pleasant diversion in Deshdara.

Cairn: Preexisting Frogs

Journey with to Cairn once again, hey nonny nonny. Here's last time.

The characters are at the Cider Mill Inn, and consolidate their knowledge. They know that some kind of metal implement was used to get into Meester Snufflestar's worm ranch, and there's only one blacksmith in Cairn: Clinket Sunwind, the groundhog. They also figure that, based on the mass of the worms, whoever stole them probably took them south from the Root, since going north would put them near the Citadel, which is always guarded. Clinket lives on the edge of town, right on the coast, next to a longhouse where the fishers live (mostly otters and beavers). They decide to head down there to look around. Ratatosk quaffs an alchemical draught to keep himself awake, and becomes a caffeinated squirrel. 

The characters get close to Clinket's house, and Russelet, with his sharp bat ears, hears low, quiet moans from his house - someone sounds in distress. Snootabur and Ratatosk go to the front door, Rumdiggle and Russelet go to the back. Snootabur knocks on the door and Ratatosk hears a faint "help me" from inside. They head in and find Clinket on the floor. His stomach is bloated and distended, and he's clearly in a lot of pain. He manages to gasp "roots" and Ratatosk find a plate of roots and other succulents (or rather, the scraps thereof) on his dinner table. He decides that the smartest thing to do would be to give Clinket some of his energy draught, but Snootabur suggests taking him back to Ratatosk's lab and maybe giving him an emetic. Ratatosk agrees, and Rumdiggle hoists the groundhog onto her back.

They pass by the Root, and find Knuckles, the badger, outside having a smoke. They pass him by and he asks after Clinket, and then goes into the Root (after a brief conversation with Russelet about playing darts). 

The characters arrive at Ratatosk's lab and he gives something to Clinket to make him barf (as well as a bucket). He then goes about analyzing the food scraps, and finds they've been brushed with a fine powder, some kind of dried and crumbled plant. Ratatosk can't recognize it, though - it's not alchemical - so he scampers over and wakes up Asta Ringrunner, his mentor. 

Asta identifies the poison as "lake toadstool." It's not actually a fungus, just a weird-looking plant that grows at the bottom of lakes and rivers. You don't see it in Cairn much because, other than making a really nasty poison, there's not much use for it and it doesn't keep its potency long. He tells Ratatosk that giving Clinket the energy potion would have killed him; what he needs is some milkwood tea. Ratatosk makes the tea, and slowly Clinket improves. 

Snootabur asks what happened, and who might have poisoned him, but he claims not to know. He says that Moriarty Sprit came and saw him today, but it was over a project and not unexpected. Other customers visited him as well. He seems pretty baffled until someone mentions lake toadstool, and then he chokes on his tea, but claims never to have heard of it. He doesn't respond to Knuckles being mentioned and doesn't seem afraid of him or Moriarty, but he's definitely hiding something.

Snootabur and Russelet decide to go back to Clinket's house to look around some more. Rumdiggle sings a song at Clinket's request, and tries to charm him into talking, but he stands firm and leaves the house. At his house, Snootabur finds two wooden cups with a dusting of powder on them, and takes them with so that Ratatosk can analyze it. She also finds his forge, and a huge book containing sketches and a running total of how much scrap metal he has (he has to work with scrap, it's not like there's an iron mine around here). She notes that the last page with any writing on it has been torn out, and the metal total on the previous page indicates a huge influx of material, probably quadruple what he already had. Someone gave him a shitload of metal and, presumably, commissioned the cutting implement used to get into the worm ranch.

They start heading back and an otter from the fishing longhouse calls out to them. He saw them carrying Clinket off and was concerned. They talk a bit, and the otter reveals that Clinket was in the habit of wandering around muttering when he was trying to figure out a challenging project. The otter chatted with him a little when he was doing that recently, and heard him talking about "making it fit his hands." Whatever he was making, he was making a handle to fit someone with fewer fingers than him (or an otter, for that matter). 

The characters reconvene and talk this over. The only Awakened creatures in Cairn that have fewer than five fingers are frogs and toads. A frog could easily swim to the bottom of the river and get the poison; toads aren't strong swimmers. They can burrow, however, which frogs really can't. Someone else has to be involved. Ratatosk remembers a frog druid she knows, by the name of Bryla Slipperskin, who keeps abreast of some of the seedier aspects of Cairn. They head up to her house and get there just as the sun is rising.

Bryla listens to their information and says that she has heard of someone who might be a suspect - a huge bullfrog named Brock (she doesn't know his last name). Brock is as big as Snootabur, really big for a frog, and he's a wizard. Wizards can cast spells to manipulate minds, among other things. Bryla has never actually met him and thought he lived in the Frogmire Marshes, a long ways north of Cairn...but nothing says he hasn't come to visit. 

Ratatosk notes that they're very close to the wizard's tower - might Brock be the unseen Mad Wizard? Snootabur suggests that the lighthouse south of town makes more sense - it's accessible by water, and reputed to be haunted. Russelet has heard gossip that one of the fisher's boats went missing recently, too.

Next time, we'll see where all this leads!

Character Creation: Home by Dark

Stranger things have happened.

The Game: Home by Dark
The Publisher: Protagonist Industries
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, pretty familiar with the genre
Books Required: Just the one

Home by Dark is a game in the so-called "kids on bikes" genre, that also includes RPGs like Tales from the Loop and, um, Kids on Bikes. It's a genre pretty firmly rooted in the films of the 80s and properties inspired by such (like Stranger Things), and so it hits a pretty nostalgic spot for me, as I'm sure is the case for a lot of Gen-Xers. 

Home by Dark is interesting in that it takes its setup pretty much directly from a seminal movie in the genre, in which a small band of kids have to care for an ugly alien with weird powers. I speak, of course, of Mac and Me. Wait, no. Meatballs II. No, hang on. That one episode of Futurama.

Eh, close enough.

Reading the game, the Fiasco influences are pretty obvious. In fact, as I was reading, I debated whether the game belongs on this list at all, since I typically exclude games that require a group to make characters. But I think I can make it work, and besides, I'm bored and I don't want to play Control all afternoon again. 

No character sheet for this game, either. Index cards only (again, Fiasco influence). I'll make a character as though I'm a fifth player in the example of game setup (so glad there is one, because reading the setup descriptions I really wasn't clear on it). 

So, everyone has two dice, either Hope or Responsibility. If you have two Hope, you're a younger kid. One of each, you're an older kid or a teen. Two Responsibility, you're an adult. The way this would work is that the group would put X of each die type in a pot (where X is the number of players) and then go round robin picking one die until they're all gone. As such, adding an extra player to the mix would add one of each die type. Assuming that the dice progression works like it does in the example, that would leave me with one of each, and that's fine. That makes me an older kid or teen. 

The overarching story here is that these folks discover a ghost in a building that's about to be demolished (I assume this is riffing on Capser, but I don't know). The ghost is our E.T., there's a ghostbuster type chasing it, sounds good. The other older kids are classmates. One is the babysitter of a younger kid. I think I want my character to be a latchkey kid, but one that doesn't have a great home to go to. Like, it's not terrible, he's not abused, there's always food for dinner, but snacks are scarce and their TV reception is for shit, so he usually wanders around the neighborhood and gets kicked out of stores until his parents get home from work. I'll say his name is Mason, he's 13, skinny, brown hair, but he buzzes it during the summer and just keeps a rat tail. 

OK, what next. I determine relationships. This involves futzing with seat order, but I'm sure I can figure it out. If I were sitting between the players of Diego (the older boy) and Denise (the teacher) I think I'd put my Responsibility die up against Diego's Hope die and my Hope die to Denise's Responsibility. As far as our actual relationships, we'll take the easy way out and say that Denise is Mason's teacher. For Diego, I'll say that he looks up Mason and kinda views him as a cooler older brother (Mason isn't actually that much older than Diego, but he's taller and knows the city better). 

Now I'd do character cards. I do one Hope and one Responsibility, and I've gotta pick characters for each of those. For Hope, I'll pick Angie (she's a kid, but she's older and so has a Responsibility die). I Mason might need to show her some of the cool things in the city that she misses by being, like, a responsible person. For my Responsibility card, I'll pick Diego. Dude is cool and all but he needs to slow down and think sometimes. 

A Fear and Insecurity, sure. The Insecurity is something that is embarrassing, but the person on my left (Denise) knows. I'll say that it's Mason's family is poor. For the Fear, which Diego gets to know, I'll say that Mason is afraid of dogs (he had a bad experience). 

Finally, I do an Asset and a Location. For the Asset, I'll say Camera. For the Location, I'll say Bridge (which would allow us to have a scene on or under it). 

And I think that's it, actually. May have to give this game a whirl at some point.

Atlantis: Bug Zapper - But Not How You'd Think

In this case, the bug zaps you. Here's last time.

The heroes camp in the desert in southwestern Joktan. The slaves - now free men - bed down as best they can, what with the gaping wounds that a bunch of them have, and the five heroes (four PCs plus Masamba) sit around the fire and talk.

Akala and Eithne realize where they've met - Yallock, nearly 15 years back. Akala also looks at a scarab carcass and considers what these beasties were really doing, and comes up with an explanation no one likes. The bugs can rip apart the bodies of anyone marked with the Khemit slave brand, and then reform those bodies somewhere else (say, back in the slave pits). 

Thanos opines that death would be preferable to returning to servitude in such a manner, and he and Eithne think about how to correct this. Eithne tried to remove the brands from a couple of slaves before, but she wasn't quite powerful enough to make it work. With Thanos' help, though...

They find a volunteer amongst the slaves (rather, choose one from the several who are willing) and combine their magic, removing the magic and then the disfigurement. The slave touches his now-smooth face and weeps with joy, waking the others slaves and proclaiming his loyalty to "the Liberators!" Eithne and Thanos decide to work a much bigger spell, removing the brands from all of the slaves present, including Thanos (he tears his away, however, in deference to his dark magic, leaving him more scarred than before). 

As everyone celebrates, they hear a slave scream. A huge millipede-like creature has come out of the dark, and is trying to drag the poor man away! The heroes leap into action!

Imani jumps forward and pins the creature to the ground with her spear. Masamba follows, jabbing at its face. Akala takes to the air, scouting the area around, and notices that the creature's antennae are crackling with electricity. She sees similar lights in the distance - this thing might hunt alone, but it's not the only one out there.

Eithne calls up a handful of fire and hurls it at the monster, and Thanos attempts to use magic to rip its exoskeleton open, but his spell fails him. The creature rears back and hurls lightning at Eithne and Thanos, singeing them a bit. Akala bounces her chakram off it, and Imani attempts to decapitate it with her mong, but it body-checks her and knocks her away. Masamba stabs it again and Eithne conjures a shield around herself and Thanos to repel lightning.

And a good thing, too! The beast blasts them again, but the shield stops the bolt. Thanos flings a white blast of fire at it, and Masamba stabs it again and yells to Imani, "You all right over there?"

"I'll dust myself off, don't you worry," she snorts, and charges the bug. She impales it on her horns, killing, and tosses it triumphantly into the sand. The slaves cheer, and Akala looks off into the desert, but sees nothing threatening. 

In the morning, the heroes consider their next move. Akala and Thanos feel that they have pretty much quit their mission for the Pharoah, so they don't feel compelled to go to Saba. Imani mentions that she really wants to topple the Queen of Gorgos and install her wife as ruler, there. Akala isn't crazy about fighting snakes, but maybe it's better if you know where the snakes are? 

The heroes decide to get back on their boat, sail back to Kashta, and then head through Kush to Nubia to deliver the black sand to the Mercenary Queen. But that will be their next adventure!

Movie #627: The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause is a Christmas comedy starring Tim Allen, David Krumholtz, Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold, Eric Lloyd, and Peter Boyle.

Scott Calvin (Allen) is a divorced toy company exec whose only character trait is "kind of a dick." He's apparently good at this job, but his relationship with his ex-wife Laura (Crewson) and her new husband Neal (Reinhold) is strained at best, mostly because he can't go two sentences without insulting someone, usually Neal. His son Charlie (Lloyd) loves his dad, but is pretty sour at having to spend Christmas with him - and why wouldn't he be? Scott is utterly unprepared for having his kiddo there for Xmas, and he really seems to be put out by the whole situation. 

(An aside: I actually teared up during this movie, not because the movie deserves it, but because it made me angry to see a dad with a young child being so unenthused about spending time with said child. I love the young men my kids are becoming, but I also really miss them being smaller. And I hate the incompetent dad trope. Anyway.)

But then Santa Claus lands on the roof with the stealth of a drunk hippo, Scott spots him and he falls off the roof and dies, and his body vanishes. A card in his pocket says to put on his suit and "the reindeer will know what to do," Scott does, the sleigh takes off, and Scott spends the night delivering presents and winds up at the North Pole. At this point, harried head elf Bernard (Krumholtz) drops the other shoe: By putting on the suit, Scott has agreed to become the new Santa Claus, giving up his old life forever. (See, it's the clause on the card and it's about Santa, get it?!)

The rest of the movie is Scott getting fat and physically becoming Santa, while his attitude wavers between Santa-like good cheer and his usual dickery. Finally Xmas rolls around again, he kidnaps Charlie and takes him Santa-ing, gets arrested, escapes with the help of elves, and reveals himself to the world (well, to Charlie's neighborhood) before flying off, to all a good night.

You know, the premise of this movie could have worked. As it is, it's not a terrible watch, and there are a couple of funny bits. The problem is Scott. Part of the issue is that Tim Allen is terrible at being sympathetic, but most of it is that Scott doesn't have any personality beyond "douchebag." I found myself thinking of Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, who's kind of a similar dude, but he at least had some obvious vice - he was horny, he was ambitious, and he was a pathological liar, but he obviously loved his son and tried to balance his home and work life. Scott, meanwhile, just...doesn't seem to care? He's just mean to his wife's husband for no reason (and, total aside, but what the fuck is up with Charlie's teacher not knowing what to call Neal? Did the word "stepfather" not exist in 1994?), but there's nothing there to balance it out except "wants his son to believe in Santa Claus." But, y'know, a reindeer farts, so, lol.

I have the usual complaints about a Santa Claus movie; if he leaves presents in houses (including big stuff - a kayak, toy trucks, a freaking puppy), then why isn't his existence common knowledge? This isn't usually a big deal, but the movie makes such a fuss about how adults don't believe in magic and how believing in something with no evidence is a good thing - but then there's plenty of evidence. 

Mostly, I think someone noticed the homophone "clause/Claus" and decided to make a whole movie around it, without really thinking anything through. No idea if the sequels improve anything.

My Grade: D+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Saw II

Character Creation: Bite Marks

Werewolves! Awwooo!

The Game: Bite Marks
The Publisher: Black Armada Games
Degree of Familiarity: Never played it, but I'm pretty familiar with both werewolves and PbtA games
Books Required: Just the one

Bite Marks is a game about playing werewolves and how the Pack dynamics work. I have to say, it's a pretty intriguing and focused concept. I also noticed, while reading it, how much Werewolf: The Apocalypse/Forsaken has influenced my thinking about werewolves in an RPG context, because there are a lot of things in Bite Marks that are different than in the WoD/CofD games, and my brain kept trying to tell me those things were "off". Which, of course, is nonsense, but hey, that's what decades of one outlook on a subject will get you, I suppose. 

At the end of the day, like a lot of PbtA games, I think it would be a lot of fun with the right group, which unfortunately is hard to find. This game, in particular (and much like Monsterhearts) requires players that will not only get into roleplaying intense scenes between their characters, but also intense scenes in which a player might have to submit to another player. I know from experience that for a lot of RPGers, that's a hard sell. 

But, regardless, let's make a wolfie. First thing I need to do is pick a skin. Seven choices, and I applaud the author for finding as much niche protection within "werewolf" as she did, especially without building a whole mythology to go with. Skin is basically about the character's role in the Pack, so do I wish to be the Cub (recently changed), the Prodigal (left and returning to the Pack), etc.? Hmm. I don't think I wish to the Prodigal. I know I don't want the Alpha. Perhaps the Cub? I think the Cub or the Howl (the Howl is a kind of spiritual guide to the Pack). 

Well, the Howl has a move that lets them eat a dead person to learn facts about the deceased, which is gross and fun. The Cub is more about being the kid brother to the Pack and fucking up while learning. I think if I were playing this game, I might gravitate toward the Cub, but since it's just me and since it's speaking to me a little more, I'll go with Howl. I have this idea that the Howl is a "born" werewolf rather than "bitten" werewolf, and maybe those are more rare or have to be the seventh son of a seventh son or whatever (this is stuff the group would decide in chargen). 

In any case: First we pick a name. Do I like any of the examples? Not especially. I think I'll name him Joseph Stubbe, after the Biblical dreamer and Peter Stumpf ("Stubbe" was one of the spellings of his name), a 16th century serial killer and alleged werewolf (again, would be interesting to tie in some mythology about Stumpf in a real game, and probably imply that a lot of the shit he confessed to while being tortured was made up, because jeez). 

So then I choose a look. I'll go with masc, red eyes, wiry, scarred skin, thick hair (brown). 

I choose three Heartbeats. Now, this is unfortunate - Heartbeats are never defined in the game. You mark a Path (XP, basically) when you play to them, but that's the only thing that's ever said about them. The seem to fill the role that conditions do in some other PbtA games. Anyway, I'll pick Secretive, Crusading and Enigmatic for Joseph. 

Stats! There are four with a pre-set value, and I get to add 1 wherever. Let's see. Teeth 1, Heart 2, Guts 0, Feral -1. Hmm. I think I'll put it in Feral and negate the penalty (Feral is used for act on instinct, the basic "act under pressure" type move, and I kinda wouldn't want to be shit at that). 

Right, now we pick two moves from the skin. I know I want speak with the dead, which lets me eat the flesh of the recently dead to ask questions about them. And then...Hmm. Do I wish to have prophecy or be able to speak with my Pack over great distances? Oh, wait, no, I'm Secretive, so I'll take Geas, which lets me tell a packmate a secret and then they have to use the disobey move if they want to reveal it. 

The rest of chargen concerns the Pack, so there's not much I can do with it unless I wish to talk to myself (which I don't), but I will answer the Packmates question:

We'll say that Joseph foresaw the death of Klaus, the younger brother of another packmate. Joseph didn't tell Klaus' sibling, because the vision was chaotic and Joseph wasn't sure of the circumstances. He planned to try and stop the death when it came around, rather than torture his packmate with the knowledge of his brother's impending death, but there was a big kerfuffle with another Pack and Klaus wound up getting torn apart. Since then, Joseph hasn't had any visions. 

I think that'll about do it, then. (I'm not scanning the second Skin sheet with the moves, because it'd just be those two moves circled and that's a waste of time. More so than...any of this, I suppose.)

Movie #626: Salt

Salt is an action/spy thriller starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Eijofor, August Diehl, and Daniel Olbrychski. It's written by Kurt Wimmer (whose track record is spotty to say the least) and directed by Phillip Noyce, which only registered with me because he also directed The Saint. 

Anyway! Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA super-spy who, after getting out of torture in North Korea in a spy swap, gets married to a very nice German scientist (Diehl) and is putting in for a desk job when a Russian defector named Orlov (Olbrychski) fingers her as a deep-cover Russian operative who's being activated to kill the Russian president. Salt flees, with her boss Ted (Schreiber) and counter-intelligence operative Peabody (Eijofor) in hot pursuit. She's looking for her husband, but instead of doing that directly, she does the job, killing the Russian president, because twist, she really is a Russian deep-cover op!

She hooks up with Orlov and the rest of her "class" from the Red Room deep-cover school, but they kill her husband in front of her, and so she kills them all, and then makes continues on with her mission, which is ultimately to nuke Mecca and start a war with "a billion Muslims" to destroy America. Oh, and Ted is also a Russian op. There's lots of them.

I remember liking this movie when I first saw it, and I dunno, the action sequences are decent, and Jolie, Schreiber, and Eijofor turn in solid performances. But, like, I dunno. This was good until we had Atomic Blonde. Salt just doesn't have a solid sense of style, and the fact that there are three different cuts of the movie on the DVD (one of which has an entirely different and overlong ending) indicates to me that they weren't entirely sure what they wanted to do, here. 

Plus, just on a story level, Salt has to beat the shit out of a lot of innocent people (or rather, cops and so on just doing their jobs). Some of them she shoots to incapacitate, and it's clear the movie is really stretching so she doesn't become the bad guy by killing everybody. But like, I have a hard time believing that the most expedient way to get what she wanted was this ridiculously elaborate plan to fake killing the Russian president (twist) with spider venom, after blowing him right through the floor of St. Bartholomew's in New York? 

The movie feels like it wants to be grounded, or at least have some sense of gravitas, but the action is over the top and yet stunted at the same time. It's fun to watch in the moment, at least until Salt's husband dies, and then it just gets uncomfortable and that's only about a third of the way in. Overall, it's kinda forgettable. 

My Grade: C-
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: The Santa Clause

Predation: Sebie Takes a Nap

Dinosaur vs. giant death-pig! This Friday on Syfy. 

Last time, the characters tore up a SATI lab and escaped into the wilds. Buffalo finds them a safe place halfway up a hill and hidden by foliage, and they camp for the night. Betty and Omaha sleep outside, however (Betty's too big and Omaha doesn't want to be without her).

In the morning, Betty wanders over to the tree and sticks her snoot into the underbrush, snuffling at something. Omaha asks what she found, and then what she found makes itself known - a ghasthound. 

Eep.

 

Omaha tells Betty to back up, but then a man emerges and tells the death-pig to calm down. He introduces himself as Galveston, and the ghasthound as Penny. He tells Omaha that he has some eggs he found and he's happy to share them with her (and her friends, since she cheerfully explains that there are a bunch more people hiding nearby), since he wouldn't be able to eat them all before they spoiled. Omaha goes and wakes everyone else up, and they head outside to see Galveston building a fire. 

Buffalo is naturally suspicious, particularly since ghasthounds aren't exactly trainable, but his observation of Penny shows that she's not as aggressive as is typical of her species, and she's well-trained. The tusks on the front of her head are also filed down, presumably to stop her goring people. Buffalo also notes that the eggs Galveston is cooking up are probably from an herbivore common to the river area, so it's conceivable that he found a nest today or yesterday. Galveston scrambles up the eggs and the characters dig in (except Buffalo, who's vegan). 

Galveston sees Tallahassee fiddling with her implants and asks about the process of getting them - his knee was injured by a dinosaur some time back and it aches in humidity now. She looks at the injury and says that he'd be better off getting the knee or the leg replaced, and briefly considers giving him a cypher she's carrying that would heal it, but holds onto it for now. 

Sebie, meanwhile, sneaks up and steals one of the packs Galveston is carrying. Penny notices this as the dakotaraptor sneaks away and charges, knocking the bag out of her mouth. Dakota calls Sebie off and Galveston calms Penny down, but a metal sphere rolls out of the bag and hits a root...and produces a hologram of Dakota. 

Dakota goes over and picks it up and reactivates it, and it shows the hologram of her again. A text crawl says "DAKOTA RUSHMORE...WANTED BY SATI...TRAVELS WITH DAKOTARAPTOR...1 SATI TOKEN". A moment later she disappears and similar information about Tallahassee comes up. 

They all turn to Galveston, who raises his hands and stays very polite (but does whistle for Penny to come to him). He says that yes, he's a bounty hunter, it's just a job, and he's not interested in trying to fight them all, so how about they just give him back his sphere and call it a day? Tallahassee examines the sphere and realizes it's basically a receiver for jobs; it would update automatically if taken close to a bigger town with a transmitter (like Kelaino). She doesn't want to give it back, and calls Buffalo over to confer. She considers offering Galveston the aforementioned cypher to "forget" that he saw them, but Buffalo doesn't think he can be trusted.

And then, Kevin realizes that someone is nearby in the trees watching them and scampers off to investigate/murder it. Tallahassee is distracted, and Galveston gives Penny a command. She charges at Tallahassee, but she dodges and Penny slams into a tree. Buffalo quickly uses his skills to soothe Penny and keep her from attacking, while Sebie leaps at Galveston. Galveston, however, throws a handful of powder in Sebie's face and she collapses. 

Dakota screams "Sebie!" and shoots Galveston with her laser pistol. It hits him in the chest and he curses and runs off into the brush. Omaha follows, thinking she'll track him, and then remembers once she gets into the brush that she's not Buffalo and has no idea how to track.

Meanwhile, Kevin finds the interloper - a woman in a tree, watching them. He jumps up and pulls her down, and starts snapping at her as Tallahassee runs up. Assuming this woman is with Galveston, she sculpts Kevin's claws and fangs to make the bigger, and Kevin bites the woman on the arm and wounds her. Tallahassee tries to get information out of her, but she becomes a bit hysterical and only says "stay on the path" over and over again. 

Dakota and Buffalo go to tend to Sebie; Buffalo determines that she's been drugged with the same spores they encounters in the Gridelin Wilds, but concentrated and processed (and she'll be fine in a few minutes). Betty goes loping after Omaha, but Omaha very nearly gets a face-full of spores herself. She manages to hold her breath just in time, though, and swings her staff at Galveston. "I liked you!"

Galveston blocks the shot, and Penny emerges from the brush, but Betty steps up behind Omaha. This isn't a fight anyone wants, so Galveston leaves, saying "be seeing you." 

Tallahassee pulls Kevin off the woman and her pet bambiraptor (Chitter) starts licking at her wounds. Now feeling bad, Tallahassee asks what she and her buddy want, but the woman has no idea who she meant ("whoops!"). The woman, Tentra, says that she was looking for Tallahassee and Dakota, because of what they did in Kelaino. She reveals a butterfly emblem on the sole of her boot - she's one of the Butterflies, an anti-SATI guerrilla organization. 

She offers the characters sanctuary, and assistance if they're going after SATI some more. The characters talk it over, and with the exception of Buffalo, they're all for a little help, especially at staying out of sight. They follow Tentra west, towards the mountains. On the way, Tallahassee fiddles with the sphere and finds that SATI is claiming they trashed a lab, destroyed tech, and killed a guard - only two of those things are true. 

Some hours later, Tentra tells them that the "safe house" is near, but she needs to go check and make sure all is cool.

All is not cool. She returns and reveals that she really shouldn't have brought them here (this is, like, their main hidden base). She offers to take them elsewhere, or to talk to the "Queen" about them, but that'll take some time. Tallahassee gives her one of the chips from the dead dude's heads and tells her that folks seem to have time-traveled back here, if that'll grease the wheels any. 

Tentra leaves, and the characters make camp. That night, a bunch of Butterflies approach, and a man tells them that they can enter the Chrysalis, but they'll need to be blindfolded and need to leave their dinosaurs out here. Omaha and Buffalo decline, but Tallahassee and Dakota agree, and they are blindfolded and taken behind a heavy door, underground.

Buffalo, meanwhile, tells Kevin to go hunt, knowing that he'll probably go after Tallahassee. Next time, we'll see what mischief results.

Character Creation: Prism

Finale of WandaVision isn't until tomorrow, so today I make a character. 

The Game: Prism
The Publisher: Little Wish Productions
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Prism is a diceless RPG nominally set in an aquatic world and about relationships. I say "nominally" because the setting is really sparse. 

To unpack that a little bit: The book starts with a kind of creation myth (cool), and then presents the idea that character creation and "session zero" should be a tea party (nice), which includes the notion of the players creating some of the mythology of the world. That's awesome, I thought, I love creating mythology and games that have the players do some of that creative work, hopefully the book presents an example or a framework...but no. The game presents chargen, rules, some world information but more in the vein of other characters than actual setting, and some quick info on running the game, but setting info is spread out in dribs and drabs. I'm not saying the game is unusable, far from it, I'm sure with the right group it would be a lot of fun. I just think it feels about half done, or maybe would benefit from a little more explicit instruction to the GM (and I beat this drum a lot, but an example of play would do wonders). 

With all of that said, let's make a character. First step is to pick a Realm, where the character was born or lives now or otherwise has loyalty to. Hmm. I like Rouge, and I like Violet. The Violet Realm is where the spirits of the dead and other such gothy things hang out, and I feel like I've done characters that are dark like that of late, so maybe I want to make someone who's more of a bon-vivant. Yeah, let's go with Rouge. Umm...doesn't seem to be a place to write this on the sheet. OK, then. My favored skill is Aptitude, anyway.

Now I pick a Template, which is on the sheet. Oh, wait, I'll bet Realm is meant to be written under Loyalty. Anyway, Template. Well, I definitely want either Primal or Guardian. Primals kind of double down on their Realm loyalty, while Guardians are described as people who have retired and then gone to protect others. I'm gonna go with Guardian, just because it kinda seems like an odd fit for Rouge and I like that. That means that my character gets big ol' red wings.

And now, Family! (See, this is what I mean by explicit instruction; I don't know what "Family" means in context here. "Realm" is pretty well explained, but what, in practice, is the difference between Template and Family? Mechanically they do exactly the same thing: give you a Trait.) 

Oh, OK. I want to be a Barbed Fish. They're bioluminescent, and can turn into a tiny sea creature (I'll say jellyfish, in my character's case). I picture my character having wings that look a bit like the "wings" of a ghost ray from Subnautica. 

Only, y'know, red.

Next, I pick a Vocation (not to harp on this, but didn't Template kinda cover some of that?). Well, Medic or Diplomat speak to me. I think I'll go with Diplomat. I wish there was a Vocation that let you heal others' emotional pain, because that's where I'd lean, I think. But I see my character as being kind of maintaining the space where people are taking risks, making sure no one gets too wrapped up or gets unsafe. So I guess Medic.

Cool, now Skills. There are six Skills in the game (let's hear it for static skill lists, like that a lot). I start with 3 in Aptitude because I'm from Rouge. I set Insight to +2 because of my Vocation. And now I'd establish a relationship with another character and we'd both set a relevant Skill to +2. Hmm. Seems like Etiquette would be something a Rouge sort of character would have (Barbed Fish are social creatures, too, actually), so let's say that another of the hypothetical characters is a stickler for social niceties, probably from the Blue Realm, and my character was an assistant or bodyguard or something before.

Now I set one of the remaining Skills to 0, and then the other two get +1. So what do I suck at? I've got Might, Survival, and Dexterity available. I think I'll run with the "former bodyguard" idea and say that Dexterity is my low Skill; being stealthy or agile was never as important as being aware and strong.

The next step would be relationships. I have to have at least one, and since I've established that I used to be a bodyguard for another character, I'll use that one. My former charge, Krea, is a Blue Realm character who has become infected by the Punishment (an in-setting disease that makes sufferers aggressive). My character knows that protecting her from disease wasn't really his remit, but still feels guilty about it (this might explain why he's a Medic, not a Brawler). I think my character feels neutral about the relationship (rather than explicitly happy or unhappy). 

And that's actually it! I'll say my character's name is Glynd. He's humanoid, and glows in deeper waters, especially his bright red wings. Glynd knows how to fight, but strongly prefers not to - he's seen Infected make things worse by being violent and he's gunshy about having that effect himself. Glynd is all for people following their passion, but has seen the value of making sure someone has a level head if everyone else is going to be chasing rabbits. Er, rabbit-fish. 

And that'll do it!

Slipstream: Treetop Funeral

First time in a while, here we go. 

Last time, the characters did some shopping and got set up for the funeral. This time, we open on them arriving at said funeral. The ceremony takes place on a huge treetop, with a pit hollowed out in the trunk. The pit is full of coals and fuel, and as the characters take their places, the priest lights it. He asks if anyone wants to say anything about the deceased, and Oola says that she didn't know him well, but will sing the traditional mourning song of her people. 

As the fires burns, the characters notice that there are bird-men in the trees around them, watching them. Zeenia makes eye contact with one and motions to him, saying that there's plenty of room on the treetop if he wants to come down to the funeral. He looks utterly floored by this, and flies over to another tree where he argues with several other black-winged bird-men. Iris nudges Sennet and points them out, and Sennet says they might be graverobbers ("Boy, are they going to be disappointed," says Iris). The whispered argument in the tree ends with the grave-robbers swooping down to attack, and the characters drawing their weapons to defend!

Zeena slices out the feathers from the graverobber attacking her, and he leaps across the gap to another tree to hide. Iris deftly takes on two of the ruffians with swords, and finally draws her pistol and blasts one right off the edge. Sennet takes a sword across the chest, but fights on, and Oola is badly injured and puts up her hands in surrender (the graverobbers try to take her money, but she doesn't have any). The leader of the graverobbers, realizing these people are a) not carrying much of value and b) more trouble than their worth, steals their skimmer and calls of his mates. But during the fight, he says something that the characters find troubling: "Don't kill the males!" 

The fight over, Oola patches everyone up. The characters realize that they don't have a way back to the city, so the priest (who ducked his head and stayed out of sight during the fight) offers to fly back and send help. Sennet warns them about the drop bears (they don't see very well, but they have a keen sense of smell and they're attracted by blood), and everyone tries to get a bit of wary sleep. Sennet and Iris talk a bit about the grave-robbers and the state of play on Avis, and he mentions that Prince Boolar, the eldest son of King Throx, has been taken by Queen Anthraxa. The weird bit is, though, that Throx doesn't seem to care. Sennet theorizes that his second son, Prince Craw, might have something to do with it...

A drop bear

In the morning, Sennet shows them the severed wing of the bird-man that Zeenia clipped last night - the drop bears got him. He points out that the priest isn't back yet and there's been no sign of help, meaning that he might not have made it back, either. Sennet tells them that if he has to fly back, it'll be late afternoon before anyone comes for them. Zeenia points out that she won't make it that long - she can't breathe in this atmosphere and her supply is running out. 

The characters decide to strike out for a nearby funeral tree (there are several in the general area). Oola carries Zeenia, Sennet flies, and Iris swings from vines (with some help from Sennet). They make it to the treetop and find a funeral in progress, attended by none other than Prince Craw. He is very solicitous and helpful, particularly when he learns that Zeenia is royalty, and has his valet fly them all back to the town. 

Over the next couple of days, as they wait for Zeenia's receiving tub to be completed, Iris and Sennet do a little inquiring. They learn that the ringleader of the graverobbers, Tiber, is a local thief and general scumbag - but he also left the fragment the morning after the fight. The priest never made it back to town, but they can't determine where that's because something happened to him or he was in on the plot. 

In any case, Iris figures that Prince Craw is a possible leader to finding out more about Queen Anthraxa. As Zeenia is in dire need of a vacation, they decide to head to the nearby fragment of Idunn, a planet covered in sandy islands and lovely shallow seas, and invite Prince Craw to join them...