Slipstream: Bar Fight!

Gotta happen in every Savage Worlds game, I think. Here's last time.

Our heroes (Zeenia, Iris, and Abbas, plus Gruff and Hwoot) are having a relaxing drink and listening to some live music in a bar on the fragment of Barter, when a Psiclops runs in being pursued by a couple of bounty hunters! The place is pretty packed, and while the heroes aren't really worried about the bounty hunters (they have, after all, faced far worse), they don't want any innocent bystanders getting hurt.

Indeed, the people in the bar start to panic and run around. Abbas and Gruff run across the bar, Gruff block the bounty hunters from getting a clear shot at the Psiclops, and Abbas slashing at one of them with his claws. He misses, and the bounty hunter slashes back with this vibro-knife, but no one lands a blow.

Meanwhile, Iris and Hwoot stand up and start to try and direct the crowd. Zeenia turns invisible and makes her way behind the bounty hunters, like a silent and deadly...jellyfish monster. She winds up sneaking up on one of them almost undetected and stabs him repeatedly with her danger bling.

The other one doesn't notice; he climbs on a table to take a shot at the Psiclops. Said Psiclops is under a table being blocked by the massive wings of Iris and Hwoot. The Psiclops waggles his fingers and the air in front of them distorts a little. When the bounty hunter takes his shot, it bounces off some invisible field. Iris nods, impressed.

The hunter slides off the back of the table and lands on the floor. Abbas leaps at him and misses, landing deftly on the other side of the table. The hunter flings a grenade, but doesn't live long enough to see it explode - Abbas pounces on him and tears him apart. 

Hwoot pulls the Psiclops behind the bar. Iris is caught in the blast radius, but it's just a stun grenade and by now the threat is over. She shakes it off, and the heroes help the bartender clean up before heading back to their ship with the Psiclops.

He introduces himself as Kelmellilee, an engineer of his people. The Psiclops race has been scattered across the Slipstream, thanks to Anathraxa (he spits, Abbas spits, Iris spits, Zeenia...makes a bubble in her helmet), but he has a secret. He was working on a very special ship - the Nightwing. It's powered by psionic energy, meaning that with a crew of skilled Psiclops (or any psionic, actually), it can go faster and hit harder than a ship its size normally could. 

The heroes ask if he would be interested in joining their alliance, and he says that if they can help him get the Nightwing off of the fragment of Psidonia (now taken over by Anathraxa's forces), he can use his powers to find other Psiclops and probably even put together some support for their fleet. All he asks is that when Anathraxa is defeated that his people get their home back. The heroes agree, and they head towards Psidonia. 

Well, not directly. As they're heading toward the Graviton Wave, they suddenly remember that they had agreed to take the head of one XK27, a Robot-Man, to Mechanos to get a new body. But then they all got captured and the head got left behind on Dracos. No bother, they'll just make a small detour! 

As they're flying through the edge of the graveyard, though, they spot an asteroid with a ship's ass sticking out of it. It looks like a large ship slammed into the asteroid and the front half got smushed. They figure it's worth checking out, so they put on their tethers and pop over. They find a bunch of bins of raw ore - too much to take it all with them, but they can take a couple of bins and it'll be good trade fodder. 

Back on the Darkwing, they head across the Wave toward Dracos. 

They land and take the rocket-sled (Zeenia, Iris, Gruff, and Abbas) across town to Genko's lair. Entering, they look around for the head, but the door locks behind them and a recording of Genko informs them that they're all dead! ("No, we're not," says Zeenia.) Poison gas starts to fill the room, and Iris gets a little affected, but they find the head and Zeenia smashes through the wall without any hesitation. They talk about going back in to loot the place, but Abbas wisely points out that there might be more booby traps. No need to get greedy. Back to the Darkwing, then, and on to Mechanos!

En route they get hit by a meteor shower, but some careful and stylish piloting by Iris avoids any real damage to the ship. They touch down on Mechanos and bring the head to a repair facility, where Zeenia lays out a lot of Slips for a recharge. When XK27 is online again, they talk to him about getting a new body (which they wind up trading the bins of ore for), and asking if he's still interested in joining the crew. He is, and like all Robot Men he's a skilled mechanic, as well as being an experienced bounty hunter. The Technocrats attach his new body and they all head back to the ship, setting a course for Psidonia!

This trip doesn't go as smoothly; they get swept up by a Graviton Surge and carried down the Wave a bit. When they finally do break out, they drift a bit while they recalibrate the engines, and Iris notices an incoming asteroid just in time to dip the ship beneath it. They swoop toward Psidonia, and into the atmosphere. They can see the cities of Psidonia, and they are bombed to hell.

"This was my home," says Kelmellilee. "Hopefully it can be again."

The heroes offer comfort, but it is short lived! An Anathraxan warship comes blazing out of the clouds, heat rays firing at the Darkwing!

Character Creation: First Responders

Haven't done a Cypher character in a while, and in honor of their crowdfunding thingie ending, let's do one.

The Game: First Responders
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this particular game, but I know Cypher pretty well
Books Required: First Responders and Cypher System Core

First Responders is interesting; it has players take on the role of, well, first responders, and frames the conflicts as against disasters or other such impending doom. As such, when you're fighting a fire you're literally fighting a fire -  it has hit points and everything. Some things, like floods, you can't fight, all you can do is escape or mitigate damage. I really like the approach the game takes.

Now, would it be fun to play? I don't know. I suspect the answer is, as is often the case, that with the right group it would be. The game was written in the midst of the pandemic and I can see the inspiration there, and a lot of attention is paid to helping the players establish verisimilitude rather than accuracy. I think it's gonna have to go on the one-shot list. 

For today, let's make a character. I really love the idea of dogs (and other animals, but mostly dogs) being trained to find and rescue people, so I'm gonna make a dog handler. As is normal for Cypher, this is going to expressed as "I'm a adjective noun that verbs," so let's see what makes the most sense. First Responders adds a new type to the game ("type" being the "noun" bit of that sentence), which is "responder," and does mention that often everyone will be that type. I think it makes the most sense here, too. Ah, but what is my descriptor? 

Well, doing some quick internet searching, it turns out that being a SAR dog handler is often a volunteer position. I think my guy made it a career, but fell into it. He dropped out of college because he couldn't deal with the reading (probably undiagnosed dyslexia or something similar) and wound up volunteering at a dog rescue while working various odd jobs and hiking for fun. One of his co-workers was a SAR handler, he recommended him, and eventually he wound up working for SAVER (the fictional in-universe organization). 

Cool, but that doesn't tell me a descriptor. How about Impulsive? (Maybe it was ADHD, not dyslexia.) That gives me an inability in tasks that require patience or discipline, but I think that's a deficit we could make up with skills. 

And I already know the focus I want: Controls Beasts. So I'm an impulsive responder that controls beasts. I get Might 9, Speed 9 (+2 from my descriptor, so 11), and Intellect 10. I get to pick where to put my Edge, so I'll put it in Might, I think that's appropriate. Effort 1, 2 cyphers at a time, cool, cool. 

Now the fun stuff: I get to pick four Responder special abilities. Skimming the list I already know I want Skilled Searcher, which makes me trained in my choice of two skills from a list. I shall take tracking and rescuing. And actually I'll take that one again, so I'm trained in searching and navigation as well. 

Oh, I think I should take Here to Help (people see the doggo and know I'm, well, here to help). And I'll take Wilderness Explorer (I ignore penalties because of natural features like long grass or brambles and such). 

And now on to focus, which is Controls Beasts. My "beast" is a black Lab named Obie. Obie's not a purebred, but you wouldn't know it to look at him. He looks very intense until he starts panting and then he just looks goofy. 

My character, meanwhile, is named Jared Wiese. He's in his late 20s now. Rugged build, blue eyes, brown hair (hairline's receding, life's like that). He used to wear a flattop but his hair's too think now, so he just keeps a loose buzz. 

That about does it, actually. I always forget how quick Cypher characters are to make.

Cairn: Touch the Scary Worm

The year draws to a close (in the game, I mean), and here we are!

The circus wends its way south from Brandybuck Junction, and through the Frogmire Marshes, where Ratatosk Longberry is delighted to harvest some marsh mallow. The characters meet a frog fisherman named Woodborn Brightriver (they meet him when Oof steps in his fishing pool, but they get it all sorted), who warns them that floods are coming. The circus diverts west and they wind up close to the Highpeak Mountains, and have the pleasure of seeing the Falls of Fire (a waterfall that lights up red when the sun hits it at the autumnal equinox).

Through all of that, the Traveling Knights persevere. They're each looking forward to getting home; Snootabur Shadowbough wants to get back to her worm farm and check in with Festa Lovegood (who is keeping the farm going). Ratatosk wants to show Ripark the worms that he found and rearrange all his stashes and caches. Russelet Leatherwind wants to talk with Juffin Longbottom and catch up on gossip. Rumdiggle Sunsong wants to nap, but she's also looking forward to catching up with Sarafina Bushytail. 

The circus gets to the Swiftwater River and the Knights realize they're just about home. They see beavers and otters in the river waving them on, and as they get closer Keeble Brownberry and Juffin Longbottom come out to meet them. They tell the characters that they've just made it - tomorrow is Marma's Day!

A brief aside: Marma's Day is the last day of the harvest. The children of Cairn dress up in scary costumes and chase "Marma" out of town. Getting to play Marma is an honor, and whoever does it typically takes off the costume and then comes back into town and tells a story about seeing Marma run away from Cairn. Traditionally, the person weaves in whatever problems Cairn has had for the past year to the story about Marma running out of town. All of the characters love Marma's Day - they love the cider, the roasted grubs (well, Snoot does), the caramel-covered...well, everything. 

Keeble asks if any of the Knights would like to be Marma this year, and Rummy enthusiastically volunteers. Russ, Snoot, and Ratatosk all chip in their talents to help with the costume, but it's late and that's tomorrow. The characters get some sleep, and the next day, Rummy sleeps in while the others get to work.

Russ uses bowstring to fashion fur and whiskers. Snoot makes a dragon mask out of paper. Ratatosk, as usual, goes all-out and makes some big wings that fold out when strings are pulled. When Rummy wakes up they help her get dressed and test everything out, and then everyone relaxes and enjoys the day. Sumna Stormriver has given the circus-folk the next couple of days off, but her brother Dirk has set up the games booths anyway. The kids of Cairn scamper around having a grand old time, and the autumn day dwindles quickly. 

Come evening, everyone gathers at the town hall (there's a big banner saying "WELCOME HOME TRAVELING KNIGHTS" on it). Keeble gives the traditional "look out! The Marma!" speech, and then unleashes Rummy! She runs around scaring the kids and then being chased, while Snootabur helps wrangle the young'uns and keep everyone more or less together. They chase Rummy out of town on the north end of Cairn, near the Cider Mill Inn, and she ditches the costume and comes back into town and performs her new song, "Marma." 

The party ramps up, everyone drinks cider, and the Knights do a bar crawl starting at the Cider Mill, working down to the Brookflower, to the Root, and then back up to the Brookflower. The three bars have very different vibes; the Cider Mill is where the kids are hanging out and playing games, the Brookflower is a more rowdy and adult crowd ("PLAY JA-JA DING DONG"), and the Root is rougher and seedier. 

Rummy is very drunk, and is singing with Sarafina Bushytail. Russelet does some three-card monte style shuffling, while Ratatosk corners someone and talks to them about fish-buttons. Keeble Brownberry, the Lord Mayor, finds Snootabur and congratulates her and the Knights on their clever idea to an extra Marma pop up to scare the kids.

Trouble is, Snoot has no idea what he's talking about. Keeble is a little too drunk for her to press the issue, so she finds Russelet. He puts on his bat-ears and listens to some gossip, and he does hear people talk about these extra Marmas. Adults seem to think it was a clever thing the Knights did, while the kids are talking about it in spooky "one of them was the real Marma" kinds of terms. Nothing sinister, though. Russelet flits up into the trees and talks with his sentries, but none of them have seen anything. He does a little tracking, but there's been so much foot traffic because of the Marma's Day festivities that he can't tell if anything's amiss.

The next day, the Knights continue getting acclimated to their town. Snootabur talks with Eliza Grayhair, the mouse that unofficially runs the marketplace. She says she saw one of the extra Marmas - far too small to have been Rummy, and quite agile. She saw it run away and leap off of a market stand. Snoot and Russ investigate, but all they find is a shattered clay cider bottle (non-alcoholic). Eliza mentions, too, that Sarafina Bushytail came to her early in the morning looking for blueberries. Blueberries are comfort food for her; she needed it because something chased her all the way home last night!

The Knights figure this might be a prank, but they decide they need to go talk to Sarafina this evening, just to make sure...

Character Creation: Ouroboros OSR

Got a few hours before folks get here for a Psi*Run one-shot, needed something quick, and this puppy's only 24 pages. 

The Game: Ouroboros OSR
The Publisher: Sean Smith
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

As is probably obvious from the title, this is an OSR game, which this particular game says stands for "Old School Rhetoric." My stance on OSR is softening of late, as I'm coming to suspect that there are things as a GM here that I might appreciate. But the fans, oh the fans.

Well, anyway, this ain't the time for that. Let's see what this game is about. Part of my issue with OSR games is that they kind of blur together for me, the fantasy ones especially. There's this very back-of-the-napkin feel to them. If a highly produced RPG is a movie and more art-focused games are live theater, OSR seems like improv at a party. 

The only setting information in the book is this:

Which I have to admit is evocative as hell. Doesn't really pass the Chupp Test, though. Oh, the magic system, such as it is, you could also call setting because the idea is that you "learn" spells by jamming them into your brain and they only leave when they're cast. Again, some cool ideas, but it's more an improv prompt than a game system. 

Well, whatever, let's make a character. We start off rolling 2d6 for Skill, Stamina, and Luck. 4 Skill (ugh), 10 Stamina (nooice!), 7 Luck (average!). 

For each stat I have below 10 (i.e., two of them), I pick an area of specialization, expressed by a verb. Since Stamina is my high trait, I shall say I'm good at enduring, and I'd like a little flavor, so I'll say I'm good at uncovering. 

I start with 2d6x15 gold (roll...120), and since there's not much else to do than shop, I shall shop. 

OK, 10 for light armor because medium is too spendy. 10 for a melee weapon - let's say a sword, just to keep it basic. I want a shield, too, so that's another 10. 

I picture this guy as a spelunker/delver sort of person, so bedroll (1gp), backpack (2 gp), grappling hook (2gp), rope (1 gp), whetstone (1 gp), caltrops (1 gp - good to scatter behind you, bad to forget you scattered behind you), cured rations (1 gp), tinderbox (1 gp), 12 torches (1 gp), and that'll do it, bored now. 

And now a "why do you do this?" question. I could roll, but one of the options is "you want to see the subterranean sights. What must you see before you die?" and I like that. 

So let's say that Fridu, for 'tis his name, grew up hearing stories about the Cavern of Sighs, a deep cave that spoke, sighed, sang, or moaned in ecstasy (depends who's telling the story and who their audience is). The Cavern supposedly has treasure in the form of wisdom for those prepared to spend enough time there, and Fridu wants to see - rather, hear - it once in his life. Moan-ward, ho! 

Fridu is short, stocky, and hairy, and he's been mistaken for a dwarf more than once. It's all good, dwarves are solid folk. He's got brown, wiry hair and grubby hands, and he's very big on making sure you've got an escape route and that nothing's gonna sneak up behind you. I think he'd enthusiastically join a delving party - safety in numbers and all - but he'd have no patience for any lone wolf/loose cannon types. 

That's it!  No sheet, so:

Name: Fridu
Stats: Skill 4, Stamina 10, Luck 7
Specializations: Enduring, Uncovering
Stuff: Sword, shield, light armor, backpack, bedroll, rope, grappling hook, caltrops, torches, tinderbox, whetstone, cured rations

Character Creation: Savage Sisters

When I set my 2023 goal of 10 characters a month, I didn't factor in the idea of getting wholly sucked into a video game (Midnight Suns, if you're interested). But I'm still gonna persevere! 

The Game: Savage Sisters
The Publisher: 9th Level Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Got this game in a bundle, it's nice and short, but I admit I picked it because I knew that the default was female characters and my buddy Gus gave me this song:

So I looked for games that had female characters as written. I think, however, that it's not necessarily a good fit, because the song is about systemic misogyny and being treated differently or preciously because of one's gender, and that's not really what Savage Sisters is about. So in a way, it winds up being a perfect theme song, because it's challenging! 

So! Savage Sisters has an interesting meta-narrative in that the characters play the titular Savage Sisters, but those are heroes and mythical figures of old, and the story told within the game is being told by the Grandmother (GM) to a group of younger folks around the fire. The role of GM passes between the players, which is a feature I'm not always fond of, but I can see it working here. In any case, the first thing we'd do is create our "Sodal", our band of Savage Sisters. That's done collaboratively, but of course it's just me. We start off by choosing a Lar, a kind of totem spirit for the Sodal. There's a list of six, or you can make your own, but I'm cool rolling. Reindeer. Ooh, I like it. I'm meant to name the Lar, so let's call him Mjall, the Swift Reindeer.

I see my character as not being part of the same culture as the rest of the Sisters. She was a city girl, growing up in a glittering marble place built around the hot springs in this frozen land. The City of Steam (so called because steam and hot water are routed into every household) is patriarchal in nature. Women are prized members of society, at least on paper, but in truth they're treated as beautiful ornaments. Soliciting a woman's opinion is something you do as a joke, which sometimes puts women in the position of court jesters, able to speak truth to power because nothing they say is meant to be taken seriously.

But in any case, my character was the daughter of a very rich and prominent family, and was "revered" and "treasured" and called "the Jewel" or "the Sapphire" (because of her eyes). She was almost never left alone, and would almost certainly have been married off to someone that she didn't much care about, but then one day she got a little ahead of her retinue on the outskirts of town and Mjall appeared to her and knelt down.

She climbed on the reindeer's back, and it took her away into the woods, running at breakneck speed until the cold sucked her breath and the trees cut her face, and it deposited her near the Sisters who became her Sodal. And she never went back, because she knew if she did, she'd be just a girl.

Cool, good start. What next? Normally we'd pick the elemental type of magic our Lar uses, and then the rules and customs of our Sodal, but it's just me so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on that. I will name the Sodal, though - they're called the Walkers on the Snow.

Gotta pick a name for my Sister. Clearly this is a name that her Sodal gave her after Mjall took her away; they call her Coretmjall (Mjall's Gift), or Coret, From Beyond the Forest. 

So next I pick my role in the Sodal, based on how Coret solves her problems. I think she solves her problems with Strength and Heart, which makes her the Shield & Axe. 

Normally I would pick relationships with other members of my Sodal, but it's just me, so I'll actually leave it there!

Coretmjall is strong and firece; I think of her as a debutante who became X-23. She still has those deep blue eyes, but her flawless skin has become marked by trees and branches, her nails are ragged from digging into bark for kindling and grubs to eat, and her lightweight, perfectly tailored clothes have given way to the furs that the Walkers on the Snow wear. She talks when she chooses to, and she relishes the ability to say what she means and not be concerned whether it's taken the wrong way or not. 

That'll do it! 

Atlantis: Day Four of Wayeb

After a bit of hiatus, back to Gorgos!

Our heroes have, after killing Apep, the massive serpent guardian of Queen Uzoma of Gorgos, fallen back to the leech-farm they visited earlier in the day. They pause outside and Imani goes in. Sounds of chaos and violence ensue, and the leech-farm is theirs. 

The heroes spend the rest of the night fortifying their position. Eithne casts and delays a spell that will create a hill and a trench around the front of the building, and Thanos rigs up a system to flood that trench with leech-filled water. Imani rallies the slaves of the leech-farm and convinces them to take up arms - no mean feat, considering how cowed and degraded the men of this country are. Akala searches the farm manager's quarters and finds no indication that the palace knows where they are, so that's good, at least.

The next morning, Thanos summons up a boar rat and everyone else digs in, awaiting a siege. About noon, a lone runner approaches the building, and the characters recognize him as one of the slaves that carted them around yesterday (and that they cured of that horrible leech-rash). Heaving in exhaustion, having run all the way from Ogara, he informs the heroes that a contingent of sorcerers from the Dardanus Institute have arrived on Gorgos seeking answers for an "act of war." 

Thanos, himself a former student at the Institute, figures that if this were actually a verifiable act of war, Dardanus would have just retaliated. They do, after all, have a lot of magic on their side. The slave informs them that the contingent is waiting to meet with Queen Uzoma (she is in prayer today). The heroes talk this out amongst themselves, and Imani decides that she really would like to know what's going on - this could very well concern them, even if they don't understand how.

Imani, Thanos, and a group of slaves trudge to Ogara and into the palace. They are met by very confused guards, who have been ordered to confine Imani to quarters if she returns, but Imani asks if they really want to do that? The guards do not, and show her to the Dardanus folks.

The four instructors are, as all senior members at the Institute, sexless, hairless, and completely devoid of pigment. Imani introduces herself and Thanos, and they talk about what happened. The mages show Imani the incident - a group of students suddenly heard discordant chimes in the air, and then buildings near them just collapsed. One of the mages suspects a Jinn, but the others poo-poo the idea ("haven't seen a Jinn in years"). 

Imani tries to dodge the question of whether she knows what happened (she knows Eithne's magic when she hears it), and steers the conversation to the nation of Gorgos and the impending regime change. Over the course of the conversation, the mages of Dardanus come to believe that Imani, with the assistance of Queen Nyavinghi and an uprising from within Gorgos, could depose Uzoma and take over. If that happens, would she be willing to enter into some treaties with Dardanus? Treaties involving non-aggression, military alliance, and non-interference with their government? Imani agrees, and the mages decide that they will help the characters by thwarting magic from Gorgos, but not provide direct military assistance (it'll be easier to keep their involvement secret that way, which means if the heroes lose they're not exposed). 

This agreement made, Imani and Thanos move to leave. They are initially blocked by a contingent of guards, but Imani threatens her way past them, and they head back to the leech-farm. They explain the situation to Akala and Eithne, and settle in to await the war in the dawn.

As they're talking, one of the slaves interrupts them and tells them that a patrol of Gorgons is riding their way. Next session, we'll see how the heroes handle this...

Pugmire: Mushroom Pizza in my Lungs

And today we return to the exciting canid world of Pugmire! There's a Kickstarter going for the new edition, which if I thought would be fulfilled while this campaign was still going I'd back (jk, OPP doesn't get my money). 

ANYWAY. Recall that our doggie heroes were in the Underneath, in a particularly smelly cavern. They just fought off a handful of zombies, and continue on into the cavern, thinking that there might be further evil within. And lo! They find that the ground slopes away into a basin, and in the basin, dozens of zombified people. Cats, rats, dogs, all milling around, groaning and growling, trying to get up the side of the basin. 

Gelert Sausagedog peers out into the gloom and spots a strange device - a shiny metal frame with multiple metal balls on wires, clicking against each other endlessly. It's sitting in the middle of a big black spot, almost like a canker. Sausagedog recognizes this thing as an "executive toy," an artifact of Man, but clearly this one is corrupted. 

Peppa Papillion casts Sacred Flame at it and it lights up, but remains clicking, the zombies start making for the characters. Sausagedog throws one of his bottles-of-fire at them, while Dire Newfoundland throws a torch and Petunia Pibble casts a web spell to gum a bunch of them up. Peppa throws another Sacred Flame spell, but the zombies keep coming. Petunia hits the toy with a Web spell and it falls silent. The zombies collapse.

Sausagedog climbs down into the basin and nimbly dodges between the zombies, making his way to the toy. Dire follows, though much less gracefully. Sausagedog tries to silence the device, but two of the balls click together and several of the zombies get up. Sausagedog quickly smashes the toy, and the undead collapse. The balls roll away, and Dire picks one up and pockets it, unnoticed. 

Boomer Pitbull slides down into the basin and, together with Sausagedog and Dire, loot the bodies check for clues. They find a bunch of plastic coins, as well as some magic items and useful tools. Boomer finds a maul that's still very much in working order, while Sausagedog finds a masterwork ax - perfectly balanced and still sharp! They find a pair of boots and a pair of gloves, and Peppa checks them over. She determines that the boots are magical, and would silence the footfalls of the wearer. The dogs initially offer them to Sausagedog, the one of their party most likely to be sneaky, but he passes them on to Boomer. After all, Sausagedog is already sneaky.

Peppa notes that the gloves have an arrow sigil burned into them, and guesses they might protect the wearer from projectiles. Dire takes them. The dogs also find a wand with intricate metal workings around the top. Petunia guesses this is a magical wand-weapon of some kind, probably firing projectiles rather than elemental magic, but until she attunes it she isn't sure. 

Sausagedog leaves the others to this discussion and presses on, reaching the other end of the basin. He climbs up and out, and on the other side sees that the walls appear to be peeling a bit. Underneath this...membrane?...he spots support beams. He scrapes one and sees that while it's sturdy and hard, it's also porous, almost like...bone.

Sausagedog backs up and gathers the others ("We need to go. Out. Now."). He recognizes this as a "spelunking gullet," a living tunnel that hunts the Underneath. This one is obviously dead, but they still don't want to be here. They quickly leave through the mouth (this all puts the "stalactite and stalagmite" formations at the front of the cave in perspective, huh?), and Petunia writes "BEWARE! SPELUNKING GULLET!" on one of the teeth before the party heads on down the next tunnel.

Said tunnel is dry and dusty. Petunia pokes at the wall and gets a face-full of spores for her trouble. Choking, she reminds everyone to put on their face coverings, and the pack heads deeper.

They arrive at a big chamber. On the far end is a line of shattered black glass, the remains of the wall imprisoning the demon Cordyceps. Luigi Husky and Luca Mutt stand near it, over the thrashing body of Amelia Fold (Luigi's second in command). The cat's form is twisted and stalks of fungus occasionally emerge from her mouth. 

Luigi spots the characters and snarls "Kill 'em, Luca!" Sausagedog slips into the shadows, and Boomer charges forward. Luigi spins his weird chain-sword and slices Boomer up, and then Dire raises his weapon and challenges Luigi to a duel, one-on-one.

Luigi accepts. Peppa moves steadily toward Amelia, focusing on saving her from the demon. Petunia stands back, ready to throw magic, as does Luca.

Dire strikes, but Luigi parries and cuts him open. Dire strikes again, but Luigi is far too fast. He mocks Dire and cuts him again, laughing ruefully. Dire makes one final strike and hits Luigi, spinning him around, but he lashes out with the chain-sword and fells Dire. 

Luigi steps up for the kill, but Boomer has had enough. He flies into a rage and hefts his newly acquired maul, and charges into battle. 

Peppa runs over to Amelia and starts throwing down spells, trying to force the demon out. All she can do is revive Amelia a bit, and the cat keeps fighting. Sausagedog appears from the shadows and strikes at Luca, who responds by casting a spell and making the floor under Sausagedog greasy and slippery. Sausagedog loses his footing and tumbles to the ground.

Luigi tries to fight off Boomer, but his skills as a duelist do him little good against such a fierce and chonky foe. Boomer strikes with his maul and snaps Luigi's neck. Dire drags himself back from near death ("I'm not dying today!"), but sees that his enemy is already dead.  

Peppa casts Sacred Flame at the demon, worried that it might burn Amelia, too, but ready to the take the chance. It works - the demon tears itself out of Amelia's body and takes semi-corporeal form. It spews spores in Peppa's face, and she chokes and coughs, but remains ready to help.

Petunia hits Luca with an acid arrow, and then with a series of magic missiles. Unsteady and hurting, Luca hurls a fireball. The explosion knocks the dogs back, and Petunia and Dire collapses, ears ringing. Petunia shakes it off, but the damage is more than Dire can handle and he's fighting for his life. Peppa runs to him and casts a spell to save him, but in so doing leaves the demon behind.

Sausagedog takes the opportunity to roll out of the way and into the shadows, and then strikes Luca with his new axe. Luca falls dead, and now only the demon remains. Boomer and Dire charge in to attack, and the demon spits a cloud of spores at them. It then charges past them and runs straight at Peppa, shrieking, "I will grow my spores in your organs, Acolyte of Man!" It bursts into spores as it reaches her, and flows into her, beginning the possession. 

The dogs stare in horror, and Petunia realizes that they need someone who knows about the demon to help drive it out. They wake Amelia and ask how to beat it, and she sees that Luigi has fallen. Torn between her love for her boss and gratitude for Peppa saving her life, she agrees to help - if they tell her who killed Luigi. Everyone looks at Boomer, too tired and wrecked to exhibit any guile, and Amelia hisses in rage. 

But she's as good as her word - sunlight, she says, will destroy the demon, if they can get Peppa above-ground before the possession is complete. Dire hefts Peppa onto his shoulder and runs, and Sausagedog follows. As they exit the cavern, Petunia and Boomer hear the unmistakable metal-on-metal slide of a sword being unsheathed.

Amelia draws her hooked swords and snarls at Boomer, intending to kill him in vengeance for Luigi. Boomer squares himself and says that she's welcome to try, but she has no idea what he's capable of if he unleashes his rage. Amelia coughs and spits out blood, and sheathes her swords. Swearing revenge, she flees. 

Meanwhile, Dire runs forward, barrelling past the weird spiny mollusks, running to the opening leading to the surface, and out into the sun. Peppa twists and coughs, but the demon remains entrenched and Peppa is too weak to fight it off. The locals slam their doors and run away from trouble, but Sausagedog remembers that his friend Brother Darius, a Shepherd, runs a shelter near here. They run to the building and Dire kicks in the door, demanding his help, and Darius runs outside and casts a spell to oust the demon.

Cordyceps tears itself out of Peppa's body, but is now stuck in the cleansing sunlight. Shrieking in horror, it evaporates, and Peppa slowly stabilizes.

A few days later, as the Pioneers convalesce at Darius' shelter (which Sausagedog and Peppa have donated their plastic to improving), a large black dog that looks a lot like Dire comes to visit. He introduces himself as Alex Newfoundland, Dire's brother, and tells him that the Riverwall Mafia has largely fallen apart. There's a power struggle going on, but Amelia Fold doesn't seem to be part of it. She's gone to ground, but is looking for revenge on "the mutt that killed Luigi." Dire might be off the hook, but Boomer has a whole new problem.

For now, though, the dogs get a bit of rest. Who knows what challenges they may face next?

Character Creation: SHARP

Every now and again I pick up a game that utterly breaks my flow. Sometimes that's because, like Red Markets, I get so invested that I have to finish reading and digesting it. And then sometimes...

The Game: SHARP
The Publisher: Tidavar Farkas
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Generic RPG systems confuse me some. I shouldn't say that; I understand their appeal. I just don't understand this one. It's supposedly a blend of WaRP (from Over the Edge), Gumshoe, and Forged in the Dark, but reading through it, I don't see a lot of the strengths of those systems reflected. But I admit that some of the problem is that if you're going to write a generic system without the "hook" of a compelling setting you need to make it accessible as heck. SWADE manages this, as does Cypher, in my opinion. This game, not so much.

There aren't any sample settings in the book, so I waffled over whether to even include it, but what the hell, I read it. And again, it broke my flow because instead of what I had going (read a book, make a character, flow seamlessly into the next book) I read SHARP and kinda spent a few days going "sure, I could make a character, but wouldn't I rather do literally anything else?" At least I got some dishes done. So if I don't do it, there's some sunk cost going on. Let's move along.

Character creation, the book tells us, proceeds in five simple steps. First step is consult with the GM, which is fine, but not applicable for me. However, the text does give me a jumping off point for a character:

So there's my setting, which leads us to step two: concept and name. I don't know why, but I'm finding the notion of "clockwork" more interesting than steampunk, so I want to lean into that for my character. Let's say my character, one Norton Bowers, was the scion of a noble house who insisted on going to war (see: Ralph Fiennes' son in The King's Man) and then wound up getting his legs blown off. His mother, a woman of great wealth and means, dumped a lot of money into having Norton fitted with cool clockwork legs. They work well enough, and if they're properly wound he can run and jump with nigh-Olympian prowess. 

Step three is race, which for purposes of this setting isn't a choice at all, so ol' Norton's a human.

Traits! Here's where the rubber meets the road. I get 8 positive traits and 2 negative traits. They can be basically anything, but unlike a lot of similar games, I'm encouraged to theme a lot of them around one particular aspect of the character. That is, "athletic" is far too broad, but I might take "weight lifter," "rugby enthusiast", that kind of thing.

That in mind, I want a few traits to reflect my clockwork legs. So I'll take: 

Clockwork Legs
Amazing Jumps
Kick in a wall
Lightning Fast in Short Bursts

I want some traits to reflect his background, too, so I'll take:

Child of Wealth & Privilege
Decorated War Hero
Steadfast in the Face of Danger
Conversational Polyglot (that is, he can hold his own in a few languages, but is by no means fluent and probably not very literate in any but English)

For my negative traits, I'll take:

Legs Have to be Wound (I'm picturing this as a laborious process, requiring either special tools or a lot of elbow grease)
Dreams of the War 

Step five is motivations. I get three of them. Obviously King & Country is one, and Make Mother Proud is another. I kind of want something with a little bite, too, so let's introduce some survivor's guilt and make his last motivation I must be worthy of my survival. 

And that's it, actually! I think Norton is in his 30s now, always smartly dressed, mustache neatly waxed, and much more comfortable in the upper class circles of his family than in the lower class circles of his comrades-in-arms. That's not because he thinks he's better or he looks down on them, but rather because being around such folks reminds him of the dirtier parts of the war, that ended with him crawling out of a ditch with his legs half gone. 

I actually really like this character, the game's just a bit of a slog. 

Wicked Ones: Imp Burrito & Sweaty Horse

Today the Wicked Ones return to Ikae's Refuge, as the first part of their convoluted plan to make the land a better worse place for all mankind!

The monsters sneak to Ikae's Refuge and prepare to set the guardhouse on fire as a nice, subtle opening gambit. Problem is, the Refuge has set up patrols of armed dudes (can't think why) one of which includes a ranger that spots Baldruf hiding in the shadows. He calls an alarm and the other patrols rush over, and fires an arrow at the orc. Baldruf hits the dirt and Queequaz the Querulous and his acolytes summon up some gloom to cover them.

Meanwhile, Thudd gets on his two-wheel and rides into the cluster of tents, intending to smash into one of the patrols, but hits a gopher hole and flies off. Fnort, likewise, charges into the tents snarling and causing hoopla. Some of the guards advance on Fnort with murder in their eye, but Baldruf sneaks up behind them and notes that one of these men is the bartender that nearly cracked his leg with his club. He blows sneezing powder in their faces and then punches the bartender, knocking him down and out.

Down by the guardhouse, Queequaz uses some of the roots and plants from his sack of poisons n' such to set the building ablaze, and, thanks to some heavy drinking that was happening there last night, it goes up like a roman candle. One of the patrols includes a dude carrying the symbol of Ubu, God of Authority, and he chastises the goblins and dispels their gloom. Queequaz reaches into the darkness of one of the guards' minds and terrifies him, but the patrols advance.

Up in the tents, Thudd plays a game of cat-and-mouse, dipping in to strike at the patrolmen and then dodging back before they can stab him. Fnort finds a horse and lashes a board to it, and then smacks it on the butt, sending it running through the tents while he howls like a maniac. But then one of the men makes a clicking sound and the horse stops short. Fnort flies forward and bonks his nose on the horse's muscular butt, but will not be deterred! He jumps up, propels himself off the horse, and crashes into the guards, taking one of them out! 

Baldruf slips into the shadows and runs to defile the shrine that the Refuge has set up to Ikae. Queequaz and his acolytes join in, chanting incantations to Crevice. The scout spots the goblins and shoots an arrow at Queequaz, and the goblin grabs Baldruf and moves him into the path of the arrow. It sticks in Baldruf's armor and Baldruf just adds this to mental list. 

The Wicked Ones realize, though, that they need the citizens of the Refuge to feel that they can best defeat the monsters by calling on the Confraternity. Baldruf waits for the guard with the symbol of Ubu to try and drive him back, and flees, hissing and cowering. Queequaz and his minions follow suit, except for them it's not really an act. It works pretty well - the patrol catches one of the goblins and beat it to death, and Queequaz hopes that the little fucker suffers in the name of Crevice.

Thudd finds himself in front of the horse. He's lost his two-wheel (the men smashed it), but he's still got a bottle of Outburst Draught. He splashes it in the horse's face, and the horse succumbs to its basest instinct, which is to fucking flee. It crashes through tents, running, and Thudd doubles over laughing. His timing is good; an arrow flies right over his head, and he disappears into the tents.

Fnort goes to flee, and crashes through a tent, but winds up with a bunch of personal effects stuck to him and crashes into the woods like the world's stupidest ghost. The men charge after him and move to kill him, but he backs up against a rock to defend himself. Thudd whips up a distraction device from the scattered pieces of his two-wheel, but all that does is put the guards' attention on him. They charge at him and he wraps himself up in a tent, blunting their blows but immobilizing himself.

Fnort to the rescue! He bursts through the defenders, grabs the Thudd-burrito, slings it onto his back and runs for the woods, all the while making a terrible whine/howl noise. The Wicked Ones have escaped and the citizens of the Refuge realize that these terrible creatures are afraid of Ubu - they must ask for help from the paladins of the Confraternity of the Three!

The plan has succeeded, and the Wicked Ones fade into the night to await their attack on the Confraternity's camp...

Slipstream: The B-Team

It's gonna be fun on a bun...in space!

Recall that last time, our heroes had their asses thoroughly kicked by the bounty hunter team known as Crocodilis (in fairness, that happened in large part because they use a slave-controller helmet and took their gear away). The heroes - Zeenia, Abbas, and Iris Blue - are loaded into a converted Dracos dragon-ship and taken away. Meanwhile, their crew - first mate Hwoot, Bird-Man warrior Craw, on-board mechanical Chirrp, guns-akimbo Rill, holy warrior of Nivek Kk-Kree-Chek, and Zeenia's sidekick and medic Gruff - is still locked in forcefield prisons with the Drascosians use their ship's sonic lance for who-knows-what.

Whatever they're doing, they finish it and release the crew. Craw and Gruff converse with the Drascos foreman and clear a few things up. To wit, when the heroes interfered in an assassination attempt way back here, they took the side of King Ssoriss...who is actually a toady of Anathraxa. If the Drascosians of House Telepathicus had known the heroes' real agenda, they probably wouldn't have helped out Crocodilis. Ah, well.

The Dracosians agree to give the crew the Darkwing back, including their gear and sonic lance. They also tell them that Crocodilis is heading to Barter, where they are going to hand over the heroes to Anathraxa's people. Iris Blue is to be executed on site, Abbas to be declawed and defanged, and Zeenia dried out to immobilize her and then taken to Anathraxa. 

The crew takes off in the Darkwing and rides the Slipstream Wave at maximum speed to the Graveyard. Hwoot expertly navigates it and they arrive on Barter. Craw and Gruff spot the port where Anathraxa collects her taxes - that's probably where Crocodilis is going to make the trade. They circle the city, careful to avoid notice (Barter Town has a great deal of ship traffic so this isn't too hard) until the spot the ship. 

They land nearby, but Rill, Craw, Gruff, and Kk-Kree-Chek disembark and fly into the hanger where Crocodilis is getting out of their ship. They swoop to the attack! Haresh, the Drascosian leader of Crocodilis, yells "Ugh, where'd you come from? Kill them!" His flunkies leap to combat!

The crew of the Darkwing seems outnumbered, but what's this? Hwoot and Chirrp fly in, evening the odds! Gruff fells the Pyrite bounty hunter with his mighty claws, and Rill fires his twin ray guns (well, until they both short out - the player was rolling a lot of 1s). Haresh draws a bead and fires on Craw, dropping him but not killing him, and he takes cover behind the corpse of the Pyrite and shoots down a bounty hunter. Rill and Chirrp are nearly slain by the bounty hunters, but quick actions from Gruff and Kk-Kree-Chek (before he himself takes a serious hit) keep them alive. In particular, one of the Raptor Men leaps on Chirrp and rends him open, but Kk-Kree-Chek, having taken Zeenia's weapons off the body of a bounty hunter, skitters up behind him and ends him with two quick stabs. 

Haresh and one remaining bounty hunter realize the fight is lost, and flee. The crew rescues the heroes from the ship and everyone heads back to the Darkwing, but Rill and Chirrp are too badly injured to engage in spaceflight for a few days. Zeenia pays off some people in Barter Town to keep the ship hidden, and the heroes rest a bit. But they get restless, and the three of them - plus Hwoot and Gruff - head out to a bar for a drink.

They're barely into their cups when the door flies open and a strange-looking alien totters in. He's barrel-shaped and has two stubby arms, a single round eye, and is yelling in terror. Abbas recognizes him as a Psiclops, a race of people that Anathraxa's minions scattered to the Slipstream, probably because they're all psychic. And sure enough, two Earthling hunters burst in after the Psiclops, brandishing weapons and yelling "DIE PSI-SCUM!"

The heroes leap to his defense. These hunters have picked the wrong bar.

Chill: Awooo!

Here we are in scenic Boise. Here's last time, not that that's related too much, since this is a new case. 

It's July 31st, 2020 (and recall that in our Chill game, the pandemic wasn't a thing, so it's more or less a normal Friday in late July). The envoys are all doing their various things: Jordan is on a date with a firefighter (a friend-of-a-friend), and they're getting out of seeing Birds of Prey. Jax is exploring an abandoned strip mall that's supposedly haunted. Melanie is finishing up an AA meeting. Willa is at the ranch playing Among Us. Zoe and Dylan are both on the Boise State campus (Dylan is trying to get his lesson plans for the fall done, and Zoe is doing her Twitch stream). 

Zoe and Dylan both get a text alert saying that the campus is on lockdown - there's an active shooter. Dylan texts the dean and asks for information, and gets an (obviously copy-pasted) reply to the effect of "not a big deal, no threat, just stay put, should be over quick." Zoe barricades her door and prepares to fight. Back at the ranch, Darnell leans in and tells Willa about the alert; she keeps an ear out but doesn't have much else to do. 

A few minutes later, the campus alert texts "all clear." Dylan leaves his office and follows the flashing lights to Friendship Bridge, which crosses over the Boise River on campus. He sees an ambulance, a bunch of police, and the coroner's van. He also sees a young man sitting on the back of the ambulance being interviewed by the cops - he recognizes the guy as one of the frat boys involved in the xaxog case some years back. He goes over to talk to him (the police are finishing up) and activates his newly acquired Telepathic Empathy discipline, which jogs his memory: the guy's name is Jason Drake.

Jason tells him that he was walking towards the bridge on the footpath when a big freaking wolf came out of the brush. He thought that the wolf had blood on its muzzle. He drew his gun (he has a CCW permit) and shot it, and it ran back into the trees. That gunshot was what tripped the lockdown, but no one was actually hurt.

Well, no one was shot, anyway. Turns out there's a body down in the river, and the police are fishing it out now. Drake doesn't know who that is, and he didn't see the body.

Dylan knows when something hinky is happening, and after all, his brother is a werewolf (last seen here). He texts a bunch of the envoys (coincidentally the ones the players are controlling this case!). Jordan cuts her date short, but arranges to meet him for brunch the next morning. Willa grabs an SUV and heads for campus, and Zoe, already in her car and getting ready to head home, gets out and walks back toward Friendship Bridge. Dylan, while waiting, walks to the brush where Drake indicated he shot the wolf and finds a blood splatter and a trail of paw-prints. The wolf that left these prints is missing a toe on its left front leg. That's Alex, his brother, all right.

Dylan follows the tracks in the woods a little ways, but doesn't get farther away than 100 yards or so. He meets up with Zoe and explains the situation, and she uses her Postcognition discipline to see the wolf. The encounter goes down just about as described - the wolf appears, blood all over its snout, and spots Drake. It snarls and flattens its ears, bracing to run at him, and he shoots it. It turns and runs, and that's all Zoe gets. Dylan looks down the hill and sees a girl's body on a stretcher and the police processing the scene. He manages to keep his dinner down (Dylan has something of a weak stomach), and it's clear that the girl has been torn open pretty badly.

Jax and Melanie arrive and meet up with the others, and Jordan gets there shortly after. No one is keen to go traipsing into the woods after this thing, but Dylan isn't about to let this go - this is why he's in SAVE, after all. They wait for Willa, and Willa, as usual, lends a voice of experience. Maybe she can call up the spirit of the dead girl - if the death is recent, it doesn't matter if she hasn't become a ghost. She sits on a bench near the bridge and uses Voice of the Dead, and the girl's spirit slams into her like a subway train. 

She talks to the girl briefly, and learns her name (Emma Whitman). Emma just remembers walking across the bridge when the wolf tackled and bit her, dragging her into the woods. Willa gently explains that Emma has died, and Emma passes on gracefully. No information about whether there's any reason she was killed, though - wrong place, wrong time?

The envoys follow the wolf tracks into the woods, and about 500 yards away, they just stop. They don't change into human tracks, they don't change direction, they just vanish. Zoe looks back again, and she sees the wolf walking along, and then it just vanishes. No puff of smoke, no fanfare, just kind of folds in on itself. Zoe senses the Unknown and tries to delve a little more, and she realizes with horror that its master called it home. She relays this to the others, but no one has any idea who or what such a creature's "master" might be.

The envoys decide to head back to the ranch to do some research. Zoe gets on a video call with a couple of her internet nerd monster enthusiasts, while Melanie just hits the virtual books about werewolves. Jordan walks the ranch's perimeter and checks the locks and the panic room, and Willa starts making go-bags for the envoys, since this case feels like it has the potential to get unpleasant. Melanie, in addition to the old stories about werewolves, silver bullets, wolfsbane, and suchlike, also finds local stories about the "Wolf that Won't Die," a kind of urban legend popular with the hunter/hiker/outdoorsman set in this part of the country. The Wolf supposedly shows up periodically in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and when people shoot it, it just turns and goes way. Maybe it's related? But this creature has been sighted since the 1980s, and Alex Reeves only disappeared a few years ago.

Zoe and her people delve into the notion that a werewolf might have a "master." There are legends about people selling their souls to Satan for such power, sure, or being cursed by wizards or demons or whatever. The Wolf that Won't Die shows up in their research as well, and it gets even weirder.

See, there are verified sightings of the Wolf, incidents that Zoe and her people can nail down with names, dates, and so on. And every single person that has reported seeing the Wolf is dead. They don't all die of the same thing - suicide, murder, car accident, even malaria, for crying out loud. They don't die a specific amount of time after seeing the creature; in some cases it's been months. 

Zoe brings this to Dylan's attention, and he does a little checking. The other guy that was with him and his brother when they were attacked by a wolf, all those years ago, is dead. He drove off the road into a pole, and the official cause was mechanical failure. That means that Dylan is the only person that the envoys know of who has seen the Wolf that Won't Die and lived (unless you count Alex, who might not technically be dead, but he's not at all well). 

Willa, meanwhile, asks Darnell about wolfsbane - is it something you cook with? Darnell tells her that wolfsbane, or aconitum, to use its official name, grows wild around here. He looked it up last time the HQ dealt with a "werewolf." It's toxic, though, so they need to be careful. He says that it'd be better to look for it in the morning; hard to see at night. 

The envoys decide to get some sleep. Zoe dreams, and sees herself and a bunch of other envoys walking in the prairie around the ranch. She finds silver bullets in the blooms of purple flowers, but she also sees the other envoys vanishing, one by one, yanked into the brush or doubling over in pain. She runs and the wolves chase her, growling and snarling that they want her to join the pack. She yells something at them - a phrase that doesn't mean a thing to her - but it stops them and they stand confused, giving her time to grab the silver bullet-flowers.

She wakes with a start in the morning and runs to find Dylan. Dylan hasn't slept much and is already in the kitchen. Zoe excitedly tells him her dream and tries, in vain, to remember the phrase that she heard. She knows it wasn't English (or Turkish, for that matter), and is pretty sure she'd know it if she heard it again. 

Jordan and Willa go out and pick some aconitum flowers (Jordan also digs one up and plants it in a pot), and then she gets dolled up and heads out for her brunch date at the fire station ("He cooks." "HAWT."). The others slowly wake up and start going about their mornings, but then Darnell gets their attention and turns on the news. Seems the body of a young man has been found dead behind a self-storage facility about three miles from campus. The body has been dead a couple of days, but it looks like the man was killed by a wolf. 

The envoys head out to investigate (except Zoe, who stays behind to do more research). By the time they get there, the cops have cleared out, and all that remains is yellow tape. They search the area and find a gap in the fence behind the facility, and fur and blood caught in the chain link. It looks like the wolf grabbed the victim, killed him, and then pulled him through the fence to hide the body. Jax uses Postcognition to verify this, but screws it up and sees a barrage of violent and confusing imagery. He stumbles off and does a bump to steady himself, but learns nothing of use.

At this point one of the employees of the storage facility finds them and chases them out. He confirms that the cameras back here do work, so maybe they caught what happened? The envoys don't ask him, however, they just fall back to the ranch.

Zoe, meanwhile, does some digging into SAVEPoint and learns, much as Dylan did years ago, that SAVE classifies lycanthropes in a few different ways: inherent, infective, astral, and inflicted. Dylan calls to update her and realizes that when he did this research, "inflicted" wasn't there. Zoe checks the changelog and sees that "The_Den" added this information a few months ago. The Den is the nickname for the Lykos Project, a SAVE facility in Maine that studies lycanthropes. Zoe gives them a call, and schedules a video call with one Gabriel MacNamara for later in the day.

Jumping ahead to that call ("Anybody heard from Jordan?" "No, but that might just mean the 'brunch' went well."), the envoys chat with Gabe about werewolves. He tells them that "inflicted" is a classification that SAVE has only started using recently. Basically it's people who have been cursed with lycanthropy by a more-powerful creature, such as a magical lycanthrope. 

Zoe points out that this type isn't mentioned in SAVEPoint. Gabe says that's true, mostly because of lack of data. Magical lycanthropes are very powerful creatures of the Unknown that can turn into animals, but that's almost incidental. The Den has no information on how to kill them, and run-ins with them tend to end with dead envoys. 

Gabe, an experienced prescient dreamer himself, also tells Zoe that the phrase she used might be an actual phrase, a symbol, or something she needs to figure out by learning more about the "master" in question. In any case, he asks that the envoys keep in touch. If they all get slaughtered in the next couple of nights, he wants to be able to send a follow-up team. 

With that cheery thought in mind, the envoys start considering their next move...

Character Creation: Briar & Bramble

Cute fuzzy animals! No, not Cairn!

The Game: Briar & Bramble
The Publisher: Drunk Wizard
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but I've read Watership Down and I've played lots of PbtA games
Books Required: Just the one

Briar & Bramble is a PbtA game involving a community of animals and the trials and hardships they face trying to keep it together. It hits some of the same notes as Cairn, except that these animals aren't uplifted or anthropomorphic, except inasmuch as they talk to each other and they're sapient. No walking around or wearing clothes or having cities, though, it's very much "real animals in the English countryside" kind of thing.

All of that in mind, let's make a character. I really like the playbooks in this game - one of them is a dog that ran away from humans and joined the Community (and has a move called "The Goodest Boy in Town"), another one is "the Flock", which lets you place a group of animals all working together. That's the one I keep coming back to, so I'm gonna do that. 

Oh, the first thing I need to do is come up with a concept. So I want my "flock" to be a bunch of rabbits, and the basic concept here is that they're the hoi polloi, the silent majority, the vox hopuli of the Community, if you like. Said bunnies make up the bulk of the Community membership, which I think in play would let the other PCs really shine as [whatever their roles would be], but have the Community itself have some direct representation. 

I get to choose a tag for the Community, either Collective or Large. I'm gonna pick Large, because I don't mind if the Community has a leader or not. 

I get a 10-clock for my harm (crunch all you want), and I get +2 Sense and then +1, 0, and -1 for my other stats. Let's see. I'll put the -1 into Fierce, since I'm bunnies. +1 into Reflex (again, bunnies), and 0 in Social. 

I get the one of us move to start, which allows me to assimilate more rabbits into my "flock" and heal Harm that way (it's not very easy, though). I get one more move to pick. Ooh, I'm gonna take sacrificial lamb. If someone in the Community takes harm, I can take the harm instead (basically whatever would attack the squirrel eats a rabbit instead). That's kind of dark, but I think it's in concept. 

And that's actually it, because the other part of chargen would be assigning relationships and it's just me. I think the Vox Hopuli would talk to other members by chittering amongst themselves and then shoving a rabbit to the front to speak nervously to the others. Mostly they're a bunch of brown-and-white bunnies, though. 

Blue Rose: Attack of the Deflated Volleyballs

Today we started a new Blue Rose game! We are in the village of Ray'fin, south of Amber Bay, in the water, so you know what that means! Fish!

Ahem. Meet the characters:

• Greeni: Greeni is a rhy-bo, a dumbo octopus. The rhy-bo take care of a particular section of the Reef, keeping the coral safe and healthy. They don't have names, but are designated by their jobs. Greeni takes care of the green coral. 
• Gali: Gali is a rhy-fen (dolphin). She's deeply connected to her pod and was the one who introduced Greeni to the village of Rayfin. 
• Makala: A sea-folk warrior, she's a liaison to the town of Amber Bay and a protector of the reef and Ray'fin. She also saved the life of Adad's little sister when she wandered too far from home. 
• Adad: A sea-folk warrior. Adad practices meditative magic, more inward focused and intent on self-control and improvement than affecting the outside. He also has a very big family - three parents, a bunch of siblings, and a small but growing collection of niblings. 

The children of the Ray'fin have, of late, become lethargic. Not to the point that anyone is thinking there's an illness running rampant, but enough that it's noticeable. Adad swims out to the Reef to ask Greeni if she's seen anything weird or concerning of late.

And indeed, some of the coral seems to have a kind of mold on it. Adad casts Second Sight and notes that while it's not overtly magical, at least not powerfully so, it does have a kind of "off" vibe to it. He and Greeni swim further down the Reef to where the coral turns teal, and speak to Teali, the rhy-bo that protects that section. 

Teali says that she's tried to clean off the mold and points out a hole in the rock that seems to be just full of the stuff. She also seems tired and bleary, more than a bit run down. Greeni and Adad decide to swim up to the surface and look for Gali - Adad is curious to know if the rhy-fen pod have noticed anything.

Up on the surface, Makala and Gali meet with Thyria, the matriarch of Amber Bay, and talk about trading and contact between their people (Gali dances and entertains the children). Adad and Greeni surface and call to Gali, and Makala joins them out of curiosity. 

They dive back down and check out the mold. No one has seen anything like this before, and all of them are concerned by it. Adad and Makala use their special abilities (that is, thumbs) to scoop some up in a shell and take it back to the surface for study. Adad discovers that the stuff sizzles in sunlight - a sure sign of Corruption. Greeni casts a Cure spell on it and it shrieks and turns to dust. That might destroy it, but who knows what effect that shriek (with its psychic and sonic components) might have on the Reef.

The characters dive back down and talk to Teali again, and realize that she's on the verge of a breakdown. Cleaning the Reef and trying to fight back the mold is clearly taking a toll. They decide to descend a bit more, and trying to find a cave entrance or something that might lead to more of the stuff, maybe an origin point.

The four of them descend into a part of the Reef past a drop-off, and Greeni bumps into a section of coral that's been chewed on and cracked off. Adad knows what did this - coral crushers, and there's a school of them swimming this way!

The horrible little fish are sort of similar to piranha, but larger and more...squishy. There's an especially large one directing the others, and they immediately make for Greeni and start biting (rhy-bo are especially delicious). Greeni spews a bunch of ink and swims away to hide, and the crushers turn their attention to Adad, who enhances himself magically and starts punchin' some fish! Gali and Makala, much more skilled as combatants, strike fish, and between the four of them, they manage to kill the alpha crusher and most of the smaller ones. It takes a toll, though, and Greeni spends some time casting some healing spells. Adad casts Body Control and stops himself from bleeding (there are bigger fish down here than coral crushers, and the characters have no desire to meet one), and the characters gingerly pick their way deeper.

They find another drop-off, leading into a ravine, and the mold definitely gets thicker and stronger there. They decide to return to the surface, resupply, and head back down when they're up to par.

Next time, we'll see what awaits them in Ray'fin!

Character Creation: Metroville

Can't all be A material.

The Game: Metroville
The Publisher: Tyler Elliott
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I love superheroes, and I love supers RPGs, but there are a lot of them and some of them are pretty bottom-of-the-barrel. I don't mean to say that Metroville is a bad game - "good" and "bad" aren't useful descriptors and besides, RPGs live or die by their at-the-table experience, for me. I just mean that Metroville utterly fails, at any level, to make me want to run or indeed finish reading it.

Some of this is the artwork. Appreciation for art is subjective, of course, but the interior art for the book looks like something an 8th grade art student could have drawn. It's all black and white, which is fine but this is a supers game, which means that the lack of color stands out. 

But even beyond that, there's a surprising lack of...care, I guess? to the game. There's an example of play (yay!), it's got accompanying illustration (also yay!), but the characters don't have names. Behold:

Like, if you're going to make a game where people use their real names but run around in tights, OK, but there's no setting per se and it just feels very slapdash. Like, "you know how this works, it's an RPG, get to it!" And that approach, putting pressure on the table to already know the basics, can work if you're bringing something interesting to the game, but there are so many supers RPGs that not only explain themselves better but have better production values and better systems, and more support, so what are we doing here?

Also, and this is just a nitpick, I guess: The example of character creation (yay!) wavers back and forth between past and present tense. Very weird.

So let's make a character, how about. We start with character themes, which is just another way to say "concept." 

Oh, this is cute. The section on the fillable sheet (yay!) that says "hero name" isn't fillable (boo). 

Well, anyway, I kind of feel like making an angsty character, but leaning into the "woe is me" teen angst. Actually I think I might lean more towards early 20s, because that's another great source of unbridled, stupid passion, plus you can drink. My character's name is Winter Worthy (his parents were apparently big AJR fans), and he emphatically does not like his name; he goes by Dub (short for Double-U, he refuses to be called "Dubya," and yes his middle starts with W as well. When he's drunk he's fond of saying "I'm a web page lol!"). 

Anyway, I see Dub as getting super powers in a freak accident, and I want his superhero name to be Sleet, so maybe something rain/cold/gray related? Let's move on to the next step. Next step is Origin, which I've already decided will be "Experiment or Accident." 

Next we do Attributes. We have Body, Agility, Mind, Willpower, and Charisma, or BAMWC for short (named after the famed comic artist and spelunker Arthur Bamwc, obviously). I start with 2 in each, and then five more points I can use to bump 'em. 

Well, not to be too predictable, but I picture Sleet as more agile than strong, so I'll raise Agility twice, Mind once, Willpower once. I get a Maximum Stamina of 7, too (I guess I could have raised that, but eh). 

Powers! And...look at this.

 Gobbledy-gook. What do you mean, you get a major power and then...another major power? Why wouldn't you take two major powers? What's this "-5 traits but it really means +5 traits" shit? I can kinda see what they're saying, I think, but it's so weirdly phrased.

OK, so, there are only five "minor" powers, and they're meant to be things that don't change or improve, but they're totally just powers that are arbitrarily put there. One of them is invisibility, for crying out loud, which I think I want. 

But I know I get one Major Super Power, so let's pick that. It can be Mental or Physical, although "shapeshift into an animal" is mental, which is pretty mental. I'll take Control Weather. There are lines on the sheet but I don't know what I'd put under there. Anyway, I'll take Invisibility as my other choice.

Next are a couple more traits, and the book says that Origin determines them, but that's not at all true. Armor (misspelled as "armour," which I think is French for "love," guys) is 0 by default, and Awareness is dependent on Mind and any mental/danger sense based Talents, so I'll come back to that after...

Talents! I get 3 points in General Talents and 2 in Unique Talents, which means I need to think about Sleet's backstory a little. I think Dub comes from a very comfortable suburban family, and secretly feels really bad that he can just be happier, but he feels really angry and miserable all the time. One night, leaving a bar with some of his friends, he slipped and fell down an embankment and wound up in a ditch covered in (he thought) freezing water. His buddies were about to go after him, but then some governmental types showed up and shooed them away, and looked for Dub, but just couldn't see him. Dub learned over the next few weeks that he could control localized weather patterns, and especially excels at lowering the temperature and calling rain. He's working up to snow.

OK, sure. So for General Talents, I'm thinking Swimming, Driving a Car, and Human Nature, all at +1. For Unique Talents, I'll take Dramatic Poetry and Guitar Playing, also +1. 

Traits! OMG, this is just...look, it's an ad/disad system. You want it to balance out. Most times you don't start with any points, some Origins (including mine) start with a few. So basically I start with 5 free points in traits, meaning I can buy 5 points' worth without taking negative traits. Fucking GURPS did this in 1986, for chrissakes. 

So why is this:

...a thing that exists?

Anyway. Good lord, most of these are super powers. Well, fuck it. I'll take Earth Sense, which lets me sense things through the earth (a-doy), I'll take Athletic, and I'll take Cool, Calm, Collected (although in Sleet's case it's more like "disaffected" or "dissociated"). 

Awesome, nothing left but the details. Well, Dub is of average height and build, and he knows he's not going to be punching anyone out anytime soon, but he's quite capable of turning invisible and knocking bad guys off their pins with gusts of wind or making them step in puddles and slip (surprisingly effective!). Sleet wears a white-and-grey outfit with a full face mask, as he finds it easier to make that invisible. 

That's it. Ah, well, they can't all be Wildsea. 

Wicked Ones: Burn the Baguettes!

How'reyanow, goodnyou, here's last time.

Our heroes protagonists have made their way to Ikae's Refuge, a camp set up in the northern part of the region, not far from the dwarven stronghold of Stonefell. They wait until the cover of darkness, surround the place, and strike! Unfortunately, the denizens of the Refuge, and specifically a cleric of B'eni, the God of Charity, spots them first. The cleric yells a warning and throws magic up into the air, bringing light to the whole camp!

Queequaz the Querulous can't have that, so he incants and calls upon his acolytes/backup dancers to join him, praying to Crevice to cancel the light spell. It works, but it takes a minute (Crevice is often busy). Thudd races across the camp on his brand new prototype device called a "two-wheel," towards the bakery. He crashes into the trees near it, and falls off laughing like a maniac.

Baldruf, as ever, is a little more subtle. He creeps into town and slips into the window of the inn. He notices as he does so that there's a storehouse across the way, with a wheelbarrow of goods just sitting there. That's definitely ripe for the plucking, but the inn looks interesting, too. Once he's in, though, he finds himself confronted with alert, pissed-off burghers. The bartender grabs a big ol' club off the wall and the men make for Baldruf. He holds out his crossbow and rasps two of the only words he knows in Light Tongue ("GIVE GOLD"), but they apparently don't know what this device is so they don't know to be afraid of it. They rush him, but he slips through them and into the back of the inn.

Fnort, as ever, is about as subtle as a sock full of rocks. He and his kobold minions charge into the living tents and grab a couple of smaller humans, incapacitate them, and yank them back into the trees. Fnort sends his minions to take these sorry sods back to the Sepulcher, and goes looking for more heads to bust.

And indeed, the cleric of B'eni is right there. Fnort charges across the camp...and nearly gets felled by an arrow. It misses him, but he doesn't see where it came from, and figures the cleric is as likely a source as any (does the cleric have a bow? No. Was he facing Fnort? No. It's fine, just go with it). Fnort charges in and swings his sock o' rocks at the cleric, as Queequaz and his minions defecate and desecrate the prayer circle. The cleric bellows in outrage and calls up a spell to force Queequaz and his minions into supplication.

Queequaz, of course, ain't having it and reverses the spell, sending the cleric to his knees in pain. The cleric casts another spell and sends Fnort and the minions stumbling back. Queequaz maintains his footing, however. 

Thudd gets up from the heap he landed in and tries to smash through the wall of the bakery, but it proves a little too sturdy. The baker comes charging out with a peel and tries to brain the imp, but Thudd is too nimble. He jumps into the window of the bakery, knocking down shelves of ingredients and setting sparks flying off the over. The baker charges in and tries to push Thudd into the fire, but Thudd is again nimble and flees up the roof. Realizing that his tail is on fire, he pats it out and manages to set the whole roof ablaze. 

Baldruf, still being pursued by the mob, runs out of the inn and tries to distract them with a caltrop throw. They aren't fool, and Baldruf turns around and charges straight through them. The bartender swings his club, but Baldruf leaps over it and takes advantage of the chaos to disappear. He sneaks around to the door of the storehouse - it's locked, but it's a simple lock and he picks it easily. Inside, he finds a real prize: A cask of dwarven ale, marked with the seal of Stonefell. 

Back at the prayer circle, Fnot sees the guard with the bow advancing. He puffs himself up and tries to look scary, and then spins his sock o' rocks and flings it. He...misses, and the sock hits the ground and bursts. But hey, Fnort doesn't get an arrow to the eye, so small victories. 

Baldruf hefts the cask and carries it out to the wheelbarrow, as Thudd jumps up and down on the roof and squeaks "FIRE! FIRE!" (But in Dark Tongue.) This acts as exactly the sort of distraction Baldruf needs, and he pushes the wheelbarrow with the dwarven ale right out of town. Thudd jumps down and gets on his two-wheel and pedals like crazy (but does grab a baked confection on the way). Fnort and Queequaz beat the cleric into unconsciousness and Fnort hefts him up to his shoulders, and Queequaz slashes the ankles of a couple of his acolytes to act as bait for the town guard so they can flee. 

The monsters arrive back at the Sepulcher of Suffering, and they count up their loot. Baldruf finds something curious - an arrow wrapped in leathers. It looks like an ordinary arrow for a longbow, but when he takes his attention off it, it becomes a bolt for his crossbow! Clearly this is a magical item, and Baldruf holds onto it. He also fills a skin with fine dwarven ale for later use.

Speaking of ale, Thudd gets very drunk and stomps around the dungeon, and winds up breaking the bone lock leading toward the guard post. Baldruf takes some time and fixes it, but grumbles to himself that he's going to get Thudd for wasting his time.

The other monsters have their own pursuits. Queequaz and his minions sacrifice the cleric as part of their ritual to someone up a nightmare creature. Thudd finishes his two-wheel and starts mounting a ram to the front. He also has his minions keep working on the trick wall behind the altar. Fnort arranges things in the new reliquary (it's not quite done yet), and goes to visit Gral, his ghoul buddy.

Gral is a ghoul of the East Front, and is generally willing to trade things for meat. Fnort brings along some choice chunks of cleric (waste not, want not), and Gral happily trades him a flail that the ghouls took off some unfortunate but delicious traveler. Fnort heads back to the Sepulcher to practice.

The imps of the Sepulcher, seeing that Fnort is putting things in the new room, decide to help. This, of course, means that the Wicked Ones are going to be finding stuff they really need turning up in the reliquary for a while...

They start planning their next move. It's finally time, they decide, to finish off the Confraternity of the Three. They have a plan. They're going to trick Ikae's Refuge into calling for the Confraternity's help. When the Confraternity responds, they'll ambush their camp and burn their church! It's foolproof!

Well, we'll see, won't we?