Character Creation: A.C.: After Collapse

Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

The Game: A.C.: After Collapse
The Publisher: Shadow Fusion
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I've had this game in my PDF folder for a while. It's a post-apocalyptic RPG, and it's dry as a martini. With that said, it's clearly written with some skill and some love, but the writing, the layout, and so forth is just kinda dry. The in-universe is as detailed as it needs to be; basically the collapse happened because of AI going bananas, which feels timely. 

Where the game starts to lose me is its granularity. We're talking about "Upper Body Strength" vs "Lower Body Strength," and that kind of crunch in game design isn't generally what I like. But, with all that said, games fly or flop at the table, not with some dork making characters, so whatevs, let's make a Survivor.

Oh, also this character sheet is like six pages, which, like, come on.

I don't know how much concept I need to do; my character is basically "a Survivor" and the game is apparently mostly about exploration and well, survival, so that's cool. It's been 50 years since the Collapse, so let's say my character is 21 or so, meaning he was born well into this new hellish world. So let's say his name is Tee Albright. He figures it's really "T" and it's short for something, but his dad always called him "T" and then his dad was killed when he was 8. If he ever told Tee his full name, he's forgotten it. He never knew his mom. (Wow, he's a Disney princess waiting to happen.)

Gender and other details are chosen by the player. That's handy. Tee is male. He's skinny and probably undernourished, and he's got lots of nicks and scars on his hands from long years of learning how to [everything] in the post-apocalypse.

Now there's a whole section on age. It asks me to roll for the specific age within a category. Tee is a young adult, so 19 + 1d10. I roll a 5, so he's 24. That's fine. I get one Background Knowledge for every six years of age, and handily my age is divisible by six. I get four of them puppies. Likewise, I get one Basic Skill for every three years (so 8). And then I get to roll for Attributes, 1d6 per six years of age, so 4d6 for each attribute. Let's get cracking! Do I have to do them in order? Doesn't say. Let's assume not. 

Makes my eyes glaze over

So 10 Attributes. My 10 rolls are: 17, 17, 14, 7 (oof), 15, 10, 11, 14, 10, 14. Anything 12 or over gives me a positive modifier, so I actually do have a few good Attributes. Let's put my 17s into Manual Dexterity and Creativity. We'll put my 15 into Agility. 14s into Attractiveness (sigh), Empathy, and Willpower. 11 into Vigor, 10s into Upper and Lower Body Strength, and that leaves the 7 in Hardiness. 

OK, now to figure out modifiers and shit. I get no damage modifier, that's easy. 7d10 "hard points" = 36. Same thing with Vigor (10d10), so 73 (not bad). Not gonna keep typing out all the other modifiers because mostly they cook down to a +1 on things.

Movement speed, load limit (lol), and suchlike I'm gonna skip, because a) I don't care and b) there's no slot on the sheet (though maybe there's a 7th sheet I didn't print). 

Background Knowledge! Again, I get four of them (they're categories of knowledge, and there's a big long section about lost knowledge and obscure knowledge and so on). Let's think about Tee and what his dad might have had time to teach him, or what he'd have picked up on his own.

I want to take Agrarian (Dad taught him to homestead), Collapse (some history), Consumer (wtf), and PPE (seems important). 

Cool, then we do Basic Skills. I get 8 of them. Oh, fuck me, there are literally 100 of them. OK. Well, let's have a look. 

Agriculture
Archery
Basic Math
Botany
Bowyer
Camping
Concealment
Cooking I
Land Navigation
Larceny
Literacy
Ranching
Reconnaissance
Survival

That's 14, so I need to ditch 6 of them. Well, let's lose Ranching (probably didn't have enough time to really get to the skilled bits), Basic Math (because who the fuck puts a math skill in an RPG YAWWWWNNN), and Agriculture. And then let's have a look at the other skills for which ones don't make sense for Tee.

Ah, fuck. Basic Math is a prerequisite for Archery, and I really do want that, so I guess I gotta keep math. Need to ditch 4 skills. OK, Botany requires Intermediate Math, so that's going. Bowyer requires lots of Metalworking, so that's going. Concealment requires Literacy, what the hell. Weird. Anyway, Land Nav is out (also requires extra math). Ranching requires Agriculture (guess that makes sense), so that's out. And there's only space for six of these Skills on the sheet (not a very economical use of space), that's annoying. Anyway, I'm left with 

Basic Math
Archery
Camping
Larceny
Concealment
Literacy
Survival
Cooking I

So following this, the game goes into literally dozens of pages about IR trace, temp trace, and temperature tolerance and I have no idea if it has anything to do with character creation, because this game does that thing that I hate where chargen isn't self-contained, it's mushed over an indeterminate amount of the book. I think I'm done, because most of the sheets are filled out (other than equipment, and I usually skip that). So I think Tee is pretty much as done as possible. 

I think he'd be an interesting character, someone who was perhaps one his way (as a child) to being one kind of post-apocalypse character and then wound up as another because he lost his father, but we'll never know because this ain't the game for it. Now I gotta scan multiple character sheets because I always scan sheets and it'll bug me if I don't. Blah. 

Character Creation: Apocalypse World 2nd Ed

Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!

The Game: Apocalypse World 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Lumpley Games
Degree of Familiarity: A lot with PbtA games generally, but only occasional one-shots of the OG
Books Required: Just the one

One of these days maybe I'll run a longer game of this. I love post-apocalyptic RPGs, and one of the things I love most about them is the transformation of the familiar world into the "world after people" of the post-apocalypse. Not every PbtA game actually works long-term at the table, but I have to assume this one does, considering. 

Anyway, I backed this on Kickstarter and Kickstarter says I marked my physical copy received in February 2017, but buggered if I can find it. I have the PDF, though, so HERE WE GO. 

So the first thing we do is pick a playbook. Last time I did this (for 1st ed) I made a Brainer, this time I think I want to go a little more physical and gritty. Let's do a chopper.

We're meant to choose name, look, stats, moves, bike, gang, Hx. I'm probably gonna wind up skipping Hx since that's the part that requires other players, but otherwise, pretty simple. His name is Brian Meats. It's stenciled on his bike. It's supposed to say "Brain Meats" but the guy who made the stencil fucked it up. Whatever, close enough. 

For look, Brian is a man. He's wearing scrounged biker gear - he's wearing leathers but they've been patched and sewn together a lot. His face is rugged, narrow eyes, sturdy body. 

Stats involves picking an array rather than distribution. I want Brian to be good at aggression stuff, so I think I'll go Cool +2, Hard +2, Hot -1, Sharp 0, Weird -1. Lots of potential for XP. 

Moves! I get pack alpha and fucking thieves, and unlike a lot of other PbtA games I don't get more stuff, and that's easy. 

Bike! I start off with speed 0, handling 0, armor 0, massive 0, and then I apply stuff. So: I get to pick one or two strengths. I shall take aggressive and responsive. I get one or two looks, so I shall take vintage and massively chopped. Weakness! I'll take slow, just because it's not the first thing you think of when you think of a post-apoc bike warlord. And then I get to increase speed or handling; obviously handling. 

And now, gang. By default we've got about 15 violent bastards, but I get to pick two traits off a list. I shall bump numbers to around 30 and say that they're nomadic at heart, so the gang gets the mobile tag. And then I get one negative trait. I'll say that members come and go as they please, so we're vulnerable to desertion. That seems about right; Brian's good at getting them to do what he wants but he's not great at commanding ongoing loyalty. 

And that's actually it, because the last thing would be Hx and as mentioned that requires a group. I think Shea Whigham would play Brian in the movie. 

Character Creation: Sigmata

Can't stop the Signal, Mal. There, I said it once, it's out of my system, let's move on.

The Game: Sigmata: This Signal Kills Facsists
The Publisher: Land of NOP LLC
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

This is the same company (and the same game system) as Cryptomancer, although this game feels a lot stronger. Not necessarily mechanics-wise; it still has the same issue where you roll a pool of d10s and d6s but 1s cancel successes, which feels to me like it would lead to failure a lot of the time. But the setting is pretty awesome, and, sad to say, feels topical.

Basically McCarthy got elected president instead of getting reprimanded, led the US into some really disastrous wars, but more importantly focused the US on "internal threat" to the point that now the cops and the military have effectively merged (like for realsies, not what we have going on now where the cops are playing dress-up with APCs). So people are getting executed in the streets for "treason" (which is really loose), but there are some folks who are Receivers, who get cybernetic superpowers when they're exposed to the Signal. So the game is about spreading/activating said Signal. Oh, and it's set in 1986, so it's that level of tech.

The writing is really solid. There's a lot of fiction snippets, but they're evocative and snappy and help convey the world. The system breaks down different kinds of scenes - combat, evasion, and intrigue - and the book goes into a lot of detail about insurgency and methods (within the universe, obviously; it's not like it's a primer for real-world resistance because people in the real world can't throw trucks). So, like, game looks cool, let's make a character.

Oh, one minor complaint: the damn PDF isn't bookmarked. Robble robble.

Select a name. Receivers have real names, and they have handles in l33tsp3@k. My character's name is Marc Cannon. His handle is b00g3ym@n. He's got his reasons for that.

Define a surface. Marc is big (like, lorge), friendly, and manly. Like, runs the grill at the BBQ, hikes, camps, hunts, married, two kids (whether that's still his life remains to be seen). Thick arms, mostly bald, tried growing a mustache once but it made him look like a Bond henchman. 

Define a story. Marc is gay, and that's a big deal in-setting. He's only ever come out once (before joining the Resistance), and that was to his brother when they were in their 20s. His brother freaked the everloving fuck out and threatened to tell their parents if Marc ever "did anything gay." (Marc didn't know how to tell him that he'd been doing gay things for years at that point.) Marc chose his handle deliberately; he's the monster in the closet. 

Distribute 13 points among 4 core processors. Said processors are Aggression, Guile, Judgement, and Valor. Each one has to have at least 1 point, and nothing goes over 5. Let's see what the heck these means.

OK, so I think Marc needs high scores in Valor (physical strength, empathy) and Judgement (patience, situational awareness). Let's put 5 into Valor, 2 each into Aggression and Guile, and 3 into Judgement. 

Select 2 blades. Blades are cybernetic powers, and they're focused on one of the three major types of scenes (combat, evasion, intrigue). Let's see what would be good for Marc.

Well, I like Tracer Step, which lets me leave behind an after-image in combat. I also dig Liquid Cooling; if I take 10 exposure (which is what kills you), I can keep functioning into the next round. 

Select a subroutine configuration. More biomechanical powerz. I can take four Elementals, 2 Elementals and one Standalone, or 2 Standalones. I...don't know, actually. Let's have a look. I probably want to pick subroutines that key off of Valor, since I need to prime them before using and that requires a good roll. (You know, as I think about it, there are some similarities here to Demon: The Descent.)

OK, well, I want Wrecking Ball, which allows for amazing feats of strength (crashing through walls, leaping up buildings, stuff like that). That's a standalone, so I can take either 2 elementals or one more standalone. Elementals, I think, because I want Wall of Sound (does exactly that), and then I'll take Gremlin Uprising (I make electrical devices work for me).

Select an Ultimate Subroutine. These are like hugely powerful "I win" buttons. Oh, I gotta take Glitch Wraith, that's just badass. I can turn into a digitized spectral figure and anything I pass through gets displaced.

Select 1 Library. A library is a collection of skills, and I don't see it on the sheet? Oh, no, there it is! Let's see, I want Mimic. That focuses on disguise and improvisation, and I think it fits with Marc being used to masking.

Define 1 Memory. This is literally a memory, linked to a core processor, that I can invoke once a session to convert any failed (but not botched) roll to a success. I'm gonna say it was Marc's memory of coming out to his brother, and it's linked to Guile.

Define 3 Peripherals. These are gear or gadgets that are important to the character and that he's never without. So let's say his are: A set of brass knuckles a guy at a gay bar gave him one night (the guy said "trust in God, but keep these in your pocket"). These are linked to a tactic (which is a type of action), so I'll link the brass knuckles to Storm.

How about Marc's wedding ring? He is married, and he does love his wife, but "love" is a multi-faceted thing. And the wedding ring helps when he's trying to pass himself off as an upstanding citizen. I'll link it to Gel, obviously (adhering to the "normal" rules of society). 

And, finally, let's say Marc has a sturdy pair of boots. He keeps them oiled and in good condition, because you don't want blisters when you're hiking the trails or running from the fascists. I'll link the boots to Deny (good for kicking in doors to make noise). 

And that's it, kids. Marc is ready to pop out from under the Regime's bed and kill it, I guess. 

Movie #776: Barbie

Barbie is a fantasy/comedy based on the...doll? directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Kate MacKinnon, Arianna Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Will Ferrell, and lots of other beautiful men and women as various Barbies and Kens. 

Barbie (Robbie) lives in Barbieland with all the other Barbies (Rae, Dua Lipa, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, and many more), continually living her best day ever where women run the world and men pretty much just...beach. Her particular Ken (Gosling) tries to take a bigger role in her life, but the Kens are pretty much relegated to second class citizen, when they're considered at all. But then she starts having thoughts about death and she starts becoming more, well, realistic, developing cellulite and not being on tiptoes all the time, and the shaman-like Weird Barbie (MacKinnon) tells her that there's been a kind of rift in worlds caused by someone playing with her strangely, and she needs to go to the real world to sort that out.

(Side note: I love magical realism, and while I'm not sure this entirely qualifies, I really like the way that travel between these realms is portrayed - it's unusual, perhaps even dangerous, but it's not unheard of or even especially difficult. Many of the fantastical elements are depicted that way, and it's such a time-saver.)

Anyway, Barbie goes to the real world and discovers how we do things here, to wit, women aren't universally in charge and the patriarchy is alive and well. She further finds that the little girl she's looking for, Sasha (Greenblatt) hates her for the unrealistic standards she sets, but it was really Sasha's mother Gloria (Ferrera), a Mattel employee, who played with Barbie and instilled her existential crisis. 

And on top of all this, Ken, having learned about the patriarchy, returns to Barbieland and brainwashes the other Barbies into being pretty companions and helpers. Gloria gives an Oscar-clip speech about being a woman and how exhausting and contradictory it is, which winds up being the antidote to the brainwashing, and the Barbies retake control of Barbieland from the Kens by tricking them into jealously going to war with each other. Barbie, however, isn't interested in a happily ever after, and chooses to go become human. 

You know, this movie gets flak for being "about a doll", but it's actually a pretty involved plot. A lot of different arcs and actions take place, a lot of different conflicts get raised and resolved. It's not simple, is my point. I'm not remotely qualified to comment on the feminist themes of the movie, other than to say that I appreciate that the "resolution" isn't that the Kens now have equal voice in the Barbocracy, just that they have some voice. 

I will instead say that the writing and the acting are both fantastic. Robbie and Gosling both turn in amazing performances (whether you want to call Robbie's Oscar snub unjust is up to you, but I think the performance was definitely worth of a nom), as do Ferrera and MacKinnon. The humor lands (apart from Gloria's line about smallpox, which was perhaps a little tasteless), and a lot of it is subtler than you'd think. Cinematography, set design, costumes, all really impressive. Based on any metric you want to use, I think it deserves its Best Picture nom. Oh, and, of course, both Original Song noms. 

My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium-high 

Next up: The Evil

Character Creation: Warpland

If it were Xmas-themed, it'd be "Wrapland." Yeah, that's all I got.

The Game: Warpland
The Publisher: Exalted Funeral
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Warpland is a sword-and-sandals kind of game; basically the sky has a big hole in it, there are nations and tribes and so forth, and it's one of those games like Into the Odd where there are a bunch of random tables and some setting info but never any discussion about how the game might actually work. Which, again, I personally don't really need, but it always baffles me a little that there's no hand-holding at all. I guess the assumption is that you either come to this hobby through D&D or someone teaches you? 

Well, anyway, let's make a Warplander or whatever. (And to be clear: I think this game is pretty cool, and there's a story starter that I saw in a table that I liked so much that I jotted it down for a future one-shot.)

There's a table with backgrounds, and since I don't have a concept I shall roll a d20 there. I roll 11, which is "You were imprisoned for years in the dungeons of Citadel." Well, that's a start. Let's check out the book and see what it says about Citadel.

OK, so Citadel is the first city of this world, meaning it's big, it's crowded, and there's a lot going on. Sounds like getting locked up in a dungeon wouldn't be hard. I'm gonna say my guy got caught up in a sweep after a bar fight and just never let out, and he was never really told why - guards tended to just punch him if he tried to ask for help. Eventually a new sergeant-at-arms was appointed, he ran an audit of the dungeon, and no one could figure out what my dude was doing there, so they let him go. 

(Have I been doing "mysterious background, even to me" characters of late? I guess it was just the In Dark Alleys one.)

Anyway, now I pick a Personality Flaw and a Proverb. A Personality Flaw is basically a trouble Aspect; it's something I have to resist. A Proverb is words the character lives by. Let's say his Personality Flaw is Hot-Tempered, and his Proverb is "You are not free if chains exist."

I now get 8 points to split up into four Attributes. They each start at 5, which is considered "poor." Average is 7, so I can be Average across the board, but eh. Let's leave Lore at 5, put Wits to 6, put Agility up to 8, and put Might up to 9. 

Oh, wait, if I do that I don't get any Skills. But looking at them, they're all professional things, so it kinda fits not having any. OK, moving on, skipping Skills, what's next?

Roll on the Background Table...wait, that's how I started. Well, OK, I don't suspect the order is important. I get d6 x 10 copper (roll...40). 

I could roll to be a mutant, but I think I'll skip it - my guy was in the dungeon, he just got out, and now he's looking to put as much distance as possible between him and Citadel. 

His name is Oort. Oort is big, thick, muscular but his skin is gray and patchy. Most of his teeth have rotted away (too many years with no good nutrition, and he's wearing tattered skins and a pair of boots he stole (they're too small, but y'know, they were free). Next item on the list is to get a dagger or maybe just a nice, sharp stick, but he doesn't want to tempt fate by stealing something else if he can avoid it. 

I figure Oort would be pretty self-motivated, but if somebody needs muscle he could sell his services. He's looking to get the hell away and become a hermit or an ascetic or something. 

And that'll do it! 

Atlantis: When Gods Get Involved in Politics

Here we are in the Flying City of the Uluka once again.

The heroes continue their investigation of the death of Yog-Ulum, the Ahl-at-Rab companion of Allunga, who (like Akala) is campaigning to be King of the Skies. They sketch out a map of Allunga's home and find where everyone was last night, but don't find any suspects. They find, however, that the back door's latch has been broken, so someone got in that way. That back door leads into the kitchen and opens to the outside onto a platform with no other access, so whoever did this can fly. They find a small feather in the broken latch, suggesting this was an Uluka.

The characters split up. Imani and Jengo go to talk to Callimachus, while Akala and Eithne find Chizoba. Callimachus is at his campaign headquarters, abuzz with activity, and he makes time to talk with them (if briefly). He knows nothing about Yog-Ulum's death, he says, and claims that he was visiting a hospital last night at the time of the murder (recall that Callimachus has helped bring in Uluka with medical training to the Flying City). He says that folks there can vouch for him, and the heroes are welcome to ask around. Imani and Jengo consider this, but getting to the hospital without wings is difficult and Imani is not comfortable tempting gravity.

Meanwhile, Chizoba is doing a demonstration on her sorcery kits. She tells them, once they get her attention, that the kits don't possess enough raw power to kill someone, though of course they could be used as a kind of scaffolding to cast a particular spell (as Eithne did to bypass her usual difficulties with sensory magic). They ask her to come over and have a look at the crime scene, and she agrees, but it's going to have to wait till this evening.

Akala spends the rest of the day campaigning, and discovers that there are weird rumors spreading about her time in Dabba (while there, the heroes attempt to stop the Lotus Cult, but it was dug in too deep to root out at the time). No one is outright saying that Akala is somehow involved in lotus trafficking, but people are making weird grumblings about it, and she isn't sure where these rumors are coming from...

That evening, Chizoba...doesn't show. She sends a note saying she can't make it, and the heroes track her down; she's doing a Q&A and trying to defend her "fly over Vril pyramids to siphon energy" plan. Jengo points that doing this might bring them into conflict with whoever controls these pyramids, and Chizoba claims she chose the pyramids in question carefully, but the question does put her on the back foot a bit.

After the Q&A is done, she returns to Allunga's house and looks at the room and the feather. She casts her vision back in time, and sees an Uluka, but not one she recognizes. She casts an illusion and shows the characters, but the Uluka just looks...generic. Maybe some similarity to Akala's uncle Inkata? But not exactly. They suspect some magic might be involved, and Chizoba doesn't know from divine magic. 

Akala does, however, so she settles into prayer to Orunmila while the others take up guard positions. As they're watching, all of the Uluka in the household just...collapse. The heroes head inside, and Eithne sees a shadowy, wraith-like Uluka flying through walls. She gets to Akala and puts up a ward around her, and the shadowy figure turns and addresses them, briefly, before vanishing.

Akala does finish the prayer, and now armed with magic letting her be in the right place at the right time, lets instinct guide her. She winds up at the bar where she met her uncle yesterday. He's not there, but talking to the bartender, they learn that this bar is one of the few that serves snakes (as in, gives the Owl-people patrons snakes to eat; they're not native to the Flying City, obviously). Inkata is apparently a big fan. Imani buys a snake for Jengo and he eats it raw ("very crunchy! And wriggly!"), and the heroes speculate that maybe Inkata's predilection for ophidophagia might be relevant?

Akala asks around, and learns the Inkata always claims to have flown a good ways to get the bar, but he's not consistent as to where he's flying from. Trusting her instincts again, Akala takes the heroes toward one of the places Inkata has mentioned, a house high up in the city, accessible by rope bridges (and, of course, flight). The heroes are going to have a somewhat arduous time getting there, but perhaps Orunmila will guide them?

Character Creation: Mighty Tiny

Oh, rats! And also mice.

The Game: Mighty Tiny
The Publisher: Battlefield Press
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I haven't played this, but it feels familiar. Man's age has ended, and mice and rats have emerged from the rubble to do...pretty much exactly what humans did. They have technology roughly equivalent to post WWI, and the nations of Moustupa and Ratervia are inching towards war once again. Our characters are soldiers/diplomats/adventurers who are trying to find a way to bring peace, which is silly because that's the opposite of what soldiers do (squeak all that you can squeak, indeed). 

But anyway, it's a pretty quick little chargen process and I'd like to try and keep to my schedule, but that requires something that I can do today now that I'm done shopping and getting dinner for game tonight started. Pot roast, if you're interested. 

Chargen has a bullet-pointed step-by-step, but it's very long because the steps aren't really steps. F'rex:

It's like that all the way along. 

So anyway, our first step is Abilities, which are, as the graphic says, Strong, Clever, and Quick. I get 6 points to split up, but I can't go higher than 3 (so I'm basically limited to 2/2/2 or 3/2/1). Let's be generalist today, 2s across the board.

Now I pick if I'm a rat or a mouse. Umm...mouse! There's not a slot for race on this sheet because there's not a specific sheet for Mighty Tiny, just a general one for the OneDice Universal system, so boo on that. But anyway, as a mouse I get +1 to Clever.

Now we calculate Health, Defense, and Move. Health is Strength x (6), Defense is the higher of Strong or Quick (both 2 in my case), and Move is Quick x 10 (20).

Background! What social strata is my mousie from? Keeping with our "middle of the road" thing we have going on, let's be Middle Class. He's a modest mouse. 

Career! Just like it sounds. What's my mousie do for a job? Ooh, I'm gonna be a journalist. My mousie had a very cushy job and he liked it - he worked all the fluffy pieces. New high school gym getting built? He's the mouse who writes that copy. He is not suited to be an adventurer, but he's learning. I get Investigate 1 and Research 1. 

And now I get four more Skill points. I can only go as high as 2, and I don't think boosting either of my existing Skills makes sense. I'll take one point each in Trade, Sneaky, Negotiate, and Navigate. 

And now...well, now the book deviates from character creation for TWENTY GODDAMN PAGES to tell us all of the game systems, including the entire combat section, before dipping back into chargen to tell us that we start with 6 Stunt Points. Fucking hell, who thought that was a good idea? 

Anyway, equipment, but I'll skip that. All that's left is name and backstory!

Dartan Clover was born just late enough that he missed the last war, and while his family isn't wealthy, they're comfortable. He always wanted to work for a newspaper, but over time any journalistic zeal he had has been replaced by the desire to stay safe and comfortable.

And then his paper got a new editor, and this guy just hates Dartan. He's not sure why - something to do with his parents, he thinks? - but he started getting assignments that were complicated and just plain dangerous. And then one night he got very drunk and volunteered to go out into the wilderness with a group of explorers, as a kind of embedded reporter! He was terrified when he sobered up, but it's a little late to back out now. So, um, off we go!

Dartan is a brown-furred mouse with a twitchy pink nose and immaculate whiskers (his mother insisted). His dad gave him his old service revolver, although Dartan doesn't even know how to load the thing, much less fire it. 

That'll do it! Eek-eek!

Character Creation: Uprising

Les Miserables...but in space! (Not really. In the future, anyway.)

The Game: Uprising: The Dystopian Universe Roleplaying Game
The Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of Familiarity: None other than my general familiarity with Fate
Books Required: Just the one

Uprising is an RPG based on the card/social deduction games Resistance, Coup, and One Night Revolution, some of which I own but none of which I've played yet. It's Fate Core, kinda; it's been altered pretty heavily. To wit, it uses "means" and "ends" rather than skills or approaches. Aspect and the Fate point economy is pretty consistent, though. 

Uprising is also mission-focused, and includes a progression of scene types not too dissimilar from Blades in the Dark. It also includes betrayal mechanics, which I have mixed feelings about in RPGs. I'd be willing to give it a shot some time, I suppose. 

Well anyway, let's make a revolutionary!

Uprising takes place in Noveau Paris, but one apocalypse later. Supposedly the lands around the city (which has been pretty thoroughly Anglicized, to the point that they speak English with a few mispronounced French words) is irradiated, although that's probably just government propaganda. 

So we start off choosing a playsheet. There are three social classes: La Société, Les Citoyens, and Les Exilés. Upper crust, normal folks, and folks who live outside the city, respectively. Each of these has three playsheets within it. I think I'm gonna go with Les Exilés, because I like the The Armiger playsheet. 

The Armiger doesn't have the neural casing and mental AR capability of other characters, but has a bunch of cyber implants and is meant to be a tank. I think I want to play a character who got Murphy'd (as in, Murphy in Robocop) and got put back together with implants rather than choosing to get upgraded. That gives me a pretty strong motivation to burn this government down, especially if the gendarmes did it. His name is Umar. 

Umar was a citizen (citoyen), and while he was never exactly a loyal, line-toeing sort of fellow, he never really stepped out of line, either. And then one day he saw some gendarmes beating the shit out of this kid, maybe all of 14, and Umar jumped in shielded the boy and shoved one of the gendarmes back. He doesn't remember anything after that. 

What actually happened was that the gendarmes beat him to death, shattered both femurs, both arms, his jaw, most of his ribs. He lost a lung, his right eye, and suffered damage to most of his organs. They left him for dead, and so he would have been, but the kid he saved (the kid ran off while the gendarmes were beating on Umar, and he was the youngest brother of a doc in la Résistance. Said doc used a lot of resources keeping Umar alive, and the intention may have been to use Umar as a symbol or something. We'll see how that works out.

So now I answer five questions, which provide my Aspects. Groovy!

Why do you rely so heavily upon augmentations? Well, that's easy. Umar would be dead without them. He Needs These Augments to Live. 

What is your most disturbing physical feature? Probably the Assisted Organ System. Umar can't breathe, eat, or move on his own, and so the machinery that helps him do all that makes noise. He gurgles when he eats (and can eat whatever organic matter he can shove into the compartment in his stomach; he can eat normal food, though) and his breath has a weird, grinding noise to it.

Which augmentation is your favorite? The Pneumatic Leg Servos, allowing him to run and jump like an Olympian. Not worth getting his actual legs crushed to powder, but...well, maybe.

Who accepts you despite your intimidating presence? This would normally be a PC, but of course it's just me. We'll say that Tay, the kid that Umar saved, looks up to him and sometimes helps smooth introductions to new Résistance folks. Tay Sees Me as a Big Brother.

Why did you join la Résistance? Well, hell, Where Else Can I Go? I think Umar happily takes revenge on any gendarmes he can find, but that's not why he's here. This is literally the only place open to him anymore. (Which raises the question of whether he'd stay if he had anywhere else to go.)

Next step would be choose my Secret, but it's a whole process involving other players...well, actually, there are 12 of them, so I'll just roll a d12, how about. 2 gives me...Mole Hunter. Oh, that's perfect. Umar is tasked with rooting out traitors to la Résistance and squishing them. 

Moving on! We now choose the means spread (this would be like approaches in FAE or skills in Fate Core). There are three possible spreads, and I want the one that gives me Fight +3, so that's easy. Fight +3, Manipulate +1, Maneuver +2, Observe +2. 

Stunts! I get Friend of La Résistance to start because I'm an Exilé, and then I get to pick two more off the list. Ooh, there's a few that make sense. I think I want engine of destruction, letting me do more damage in a fight, and I'll take pariah, which lets me give other PCs a boost by calling attention to myself. Would I like to lower my refresh and pick a third? I think I would, because scary fits this character. 

And that's it for individual chargen! We'd build la Résistance and the government and on if I had a group, but since it's just me, I ain't doing that.

Umar is of partially Middle Eastern descent, so darker skin, black hair, brown eyes (well, eye, his right one is cybernetic). Some folks with augments are a bit more subtle, but Umar is not - his stuff is loud and overt, because the doc that did it had no time to be smooth about it. His midsection is covered in metal and plastic, his legs both have exoskeletal coverings and audible servos, and his right eye socket is mechanical. Umar doesn't breathe (he's got internal components that oxygenate his blood), which means his voice has a weird, flat tone to it. He also doesn't sigh, gasp, or do other exclamations that rely on breath, and you don't realize how weird that is until someone points it out.

Pugmire: The Dungeon Continues, Now With Boomer!

We continue our descent into the strange tunnels and rooms beneath the Ministry of Health in Port Matthew. But first, rewind a bit.

Boomer Pitbull wakes up after napping a couple of hours and finds that his limbs work again. He goes downstairs into No Quarter and has a bit of breakfast, and then goes in search of his people. He knows they were going to the Ministry of Health, so he heads there and just kind of wanders around for a bit until a cat stops him and asks who he's looking for.

It doesn't take much conversation for the cat to realize he's with the rest of the armed adventurers that went through here, so she shows him to the traboule that they took down into the dark. Boomer descends and lights a torch, and follows the same path his friends did - out of the first room following the blood trail - and then down the other hallways until he finds the room that contains a cookfire and the "BEWARE OF RATS" warning.

The next room is burnt to a crisp, so he figures they came through here. He calls out, and a ways up, the others hear him. 

Petunia Pibble leads the others down the hall and finds Boomer, and they fill him in on all that's happened (necromancy, traps, piles of severed heads). They go back into the hallway in which they were resting and Petunia sniffs carefully at the portcullis - she smelled magic this way and wants to know what it is. She determines it's really more Shepherd magic than Artisan, so she calls Peppa Papillon over to take a sniff.

Peppa confirms that there's something magical in the next room, but it's not inherently evil or Unseen (which doesn't mean it's not dangerous, of course). Boomer lifts up the portcullis at the east end of the hall (Dire Newfoundland helps; with the two of them it's pretty easy). The two big dogs (that'd be Dire and Boomer) enter the room and see two suits of armor, one in each far corner. Dire goes up to one and sniffs it ("is this my size?") and suddenly the armor wakes up and whacks him on the snoot with its flail.

Peppa stands in the back and flings blessing spells at the warriors, and Gelert Sausagedog combat-rolls into the room and strikes the animated armor. The other suit draws a sword and makes for Boomer, and Boomer lashes out with his hammer, noting that lightning crackles from the suit when he strikes it. Petunia tries to dispel the magic animating the armor, but it's too powerful, so she falls back on the reliable old standby of Magic Missile.

The dogs make fairly short work of the animated armor, but when the first suit is destroyed it lets off a burst of lightning that shocks them! They do not learn from this, however, beating the other one with hand weapons until it explodes, too. 

The dogs lick their wounds a little; Dire asks Peppa for some quick healing, and then they press on. The next room is...a very pleasant library! Petunia goes straight to the bookshelves and starts looking at titles, but Sausagedog realizes there's a cat sitting in a chair in front of a fire, reading. "Hello?"

The cat looks up and sizes up the characters, but apparently trusts them enough not to immediately see them as enemies. They engage in some tense conversation, and learn that her name is Capulet von Mau. She claims to have no idea who or where Buddy von Rex is, and confides to the characters that she (and probably the rats they saw earlier) are members of the Society of the Ebony Skull. Yes, they study necromancy, but it's all born out of a fascination with life, death, and the many subtle sub-grades of each. For examples, did they realize that Man sometimes referred to "unalive" as distinct from "kill" in some contexts, indicating there was a difference? 

During all this conversation, Sausagedog checks the door out of this room. It leads around a corner to a strangely natural-looking tunnel, with rock growths and a weird tongue-like lump on the floor...hang on a minute. Sausagedog backs away from the spelunking gullet and returns to his friends.

The dogs are naturally suspicious, especially when Capulet reveals that she created the animated armor. She's interested in whether the lightning charge worked (it did), but maybe a little disappointed it didn't do more damage. In they end, she agrees to lead them to the leader of the Society; maybe she has some idea about Buddy.

She leads them to the corner of the room and opens a traboule to the lower levels, and jumps in. The characters follow and she leads them down some long, twisty hallways, and then tells them to stop so she can go ahead and disarm some traps. The characters listen, but don't hear anything suspicious, and she comes back and leads them into a huge room with big stone blocks on the floor. It looks like a central meeting room...for a cult. 

(Oh, come on, they're necromancers and they call themselves "the Society of the Ebony Skull," it's pretty obvious they're a cult.)

Capulet tells them to stay put, and she'll go and get the leader. She heads off down a corridor, and the dogs all collectively get kind of a bad feeling. Sausagedog goes down the hallway that Capulet took, but it just leads off into the darkness. Sausagedog keeps going, and finds three dogs chained to the wall!

He approaches carefully, figuring they might be zombies, but they're alive, just dehydrated and weak. He frees them with the ring of keys the dogs got from the lower level and gives them a bit of water. They all have similar stories; they were minding their own business in Port Matthew, got drugged, and wound up here. Sausagedog brings them back to the central room and the dogs think about where to go next.

Dire is furious. He's not opposed to crime, but chaining people up and using them for necromancy fodder is just a bridge too far. He grabs his warhammer and swears vengeance and wrath. The dogs aren't opposed, but they also don't want to get overwhelmed or ambushed, and they're afraid if they try to take the prisoners up they might get lost or not be able to get back. In the end, they decide to keep exploring this level, but leave the prisoners behind in the central room. Peppa summons up a guardian of faith, figuring that if something attacks them, the guardian will at least buy the dogs time to get back.

The Pioneers head back down the hallway where Sausagedog found the prisoners, and it turns and twists more. They turn a corner and Petunia spots three skulls in the hallway. She casts Mage Paw to pick one up, and it starts to glow! Bony tentacle-like growths protrude, and it strikes at Sausagedog (the first one in line in this narrow corridor). Dire charges forward with his hammer, and Peppa summons up a Psychic Weapon (a stick!) to strike at the skulls, while Boomer flings his ax and Petunia hurls Magic Missiles. The skulls aren't easy to destroy with conventional weapons, and indeed, Peppa whacks one of them with the stick and only manages to bop it right back in front of her! The skulls try to chew their way into the dogs' heads, but Dire's is too fluffy and Peppa's too muddy (and they all made their CON saves). In the end, they destroy the skulls, and the creatures clatter to the floor.

Petunia is unable to identify what kind of creature these skulls might have come from, and Sausagedog has never read about them, either. The dogs press on, getting farther away from the exit and closer to...the Ebon Skull? Who knows?

Character Creation: In Dark Alleys

BUT HOW WIDE ARE THEY?!

(Context: Many years ago I was running Marvel Superheroes and during a fight scene, my brother asked how wide the alley in which the fight was taking place was, and we all kinda ribbed him about it for literally years afterwards because WHO CARES, but in retrospect what he wanted to know was probably "does my character have enough room or range to take a particular action." Anyway, "how wide is the alley" became synonymous with an inane and overly technical or crunchy rules questions for a long time, and my usual response to questions like that now is "what do you really want to know", since the underlying question is usually valid. Anyway.)

The Game: In Dark Alleys
The Publisher: Vajra Enterprises
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

 

I don't tend to love games from Vajra Enterprises, but it's a personal taste thing. I find them a little overwritten, but the truth of the matter is that, like Nightlife, there's a parallel universe in which the market share owned by WoD games went to Vajra's stuff instead. In Dark Alleys is an urban horror/fantasy game in which you play members of various supernatural secret societies with various magical powers. It reminds me, of course, of WoD, but a bit of Witch: Fated Souls (which is itself pretty reminiscent of WoD).

Anyway, my buddy Gus gave me a theme song:

So that's nice. 

Deep cut, huh? The song is pretty simple, though - it's about missing a former lover and looking back on the relationship with longing. I'll keep it in mind as I go through the chargen process.

Speaking of which:

Well, let's take Ms. Gibson's song to a kind of creepy place, and say that my character was just released from a psychiatric hospital. Rather, "released" is a strong word. He turned 21 and budget/insurance being what it is, they turned him loose. He's not dangerous. He just...doesn't have much idea what happened to him before going to the hospital. He knows he was in the hospital for 11 years, so he went there when he was 10. He knows that his kindergarten teacher's name was Miss Gemma. He knows that he used to have a fish tank in his room when he was little. He knows he had a dad and a mom. And then...things get blurry. He has vague memories, but they're a) dreamlike and unreliable and b) unpleasant, so as far as he knows he was a little kid, then something bad happened, then he lived in a hospital for 11 years, now he has an apartment and a job at a Wal-Mart or something. His name is Stewart Hudson.

I think that's a good enough start for concept, I'll let more flesh itself out as we go. Step Two is "psychodynamics." These are basically game-mechanic'd personality or mental traits. 10 is average, and the further from 10 you are in either direction, the less "normal" you are. If a psychodynamic trait is high, it'll give you insight but screw with rational thought. It's an interesting idea, let's see if I hate it. There are 8 of these and I get 80 points, so I could make Stewart pretty normal across the board, but let's face it, he ain't.

Not off to a great start, here:

I guess I'll put this at 10 because I don't really understand what it's trying to say. 

Ah, but the next one, Ego, is pretty well-explained, and Stewart's should be low, so I'll put it at 5.

Id seeks pleasure and avoids discomfort; I don't see Stewart as being especially abnormal here, so 10. 

Reptile (yes, there's a stat called Reptile) has to do with seeking the basics of life, and I feel like that's probably a higher one for Stewart, so I'll put it at 15.

Superego is about breaking (or not breaking) society's laws, and I think Stewart is so thoroughly institutionalized that this should be higher. Fuck it, I'll put it at 18.

Shadow is dark side and intrusive and destructive thought; this should also be higher for Stewart. I'll put it at 15.

Stranger and Thanatos are the last ones, and I only have 7 points left, so these are of necessity going to be low. Fortunately, low ratings in Stranger (which would indicate a reluctance to learn new things and discomfort with people who are different) and Thanatos (no particular interest in romanticizing death) are pretty appropriate, so let's say 3 and 4, respectively. 

Step Three! I do basically the same thing but with Attributes, and these work on a more traditional "higher is better" kind of arrangement. Still 80 points, 10 is average, there are 8, though. Here I'm much more tempted to make Stewart average across the board, but let's see. 

Actually, I'm mostly going to be average, but I'll bust Willpower and Charm down to 5 and put Strength and Endurance up to 15. Stewart's in good shape.

And then I have 12 points to split up between Health Attributes (Body, Blood, and Incapacity). I...don't see any reason not to just split the points up evenly.

Step Four is secret life (oooOOOoh). This is my supernatural splat, basically, and there are 11 to choose from. I can ditch a bunch right off the bat - I know I don't want to be an Androgyne because I'm not interesting in playing around with gender, and he doesn't work as an Animist, Cannibal, Hero, or Professional. Scribbler wouldn't be impossible, but it doesn't feel right. 

Actually I think Lost, Outcast, or Wonderlander would make the most sense, so let's look closer at those.

Lost is really cool. They're people who can travel across the world by getting lost (often while drunk), but I think it's not quite right for Stewart. I think he's not a drinker, and that being lost would be scary for him, not intriguing. Outcasts are people who see things and get labeled as crazy, while Wonderlanders are folks who actually went to their childhood playland for realsies. I think that given Stewart's history, and the whimsical nature of my theme song, I'll go with Wonderlander. As such, I get this stuff:

I also get a mandatory disadvantage called Playland Phenomena, in which Playland tries to get my attention (opens portals, animates toys, and suchlike).

Step Five: Day job. Wonderlander doesn't give me any restrictions, so is Retail Wage Slave an option?

Close enough!

Step Six: Skills! I have 100 points (good lord), and the costs are set by my Day Job and Secret Life. I can only buy the Supernatural Skills available to me, I can't go higher than 5 in anything, and Supernatural Skills are expensive so let's start there.

Hmm. I actually like Automatic Writing for Stewart but it's so damn expensive. I'll circle back to it.

Ooh, Imaginary Powers is pretty dope. I think that works for Stewart, too, because it'd fit in to the fact that he doesn't much remember Playland. I get two powers, I'll take Flying and Breathe Underwater. I'll just spend 10 and buy 1 level of this. 

Ah, shit Possession Trance is cool, too, but also expensive. Blargh. OK, I'm gonna blow 20 points on a point of Automatic Writing and call it good for Supernatural Skills. That gives me 70 for mundane ones.

Government 1 (6)
History: Local 1 (6)
Mnemonics 1 (6)
Sports 1 (7)
Aikido 1 (15)
Cooking 1 (5)
Visual Arts 1 (5)
Drug Resistance 1 (15)
Light Sleep 1 (7)

That puts me two points over, but I'm pretty sure I can take disadvantages.

Step Seven is Equipment, but eh. Stewart has a cell phone, a shitty apartment, and he's saving up for a fish tank. 

Step Eight is Bonus Characteristics. Let's see what the hell that means. Oh, yeah, one Bonus Point gives me three Skill Points, that's easy enough. Let's take a look.

Very...comprehensive, this list of disads. I could play a character with AIDS or a heroin addiction if I wanted. Um. Anyway, I'll take Institutionalized (technically Boring Customer Service isn't on the list of Day Jobs I can have with that disad, but that's stupid so I choose to override it). That gives me 4BP. I'll take Lonely (I start the game with no friends) for another 2, and Memory Gaps (1), Inexperienced: Urban (1), and Mental Health History (1). That gives me 9 total. Any more?

Fuck me, you can take "Pregnant" as a disad. And...OK, now.

FFS. Well, I'm gonna take it for Stewart because it fits and I want the point, but I'm not happy that it's in here (it's far from the worst one). That gives me 10BP. There are others I could take, but I think I'm good.

OK, so right off the bat I'll put one BP into Skills so I can pay off my debt. That does give me one left over, though. I'll put 2 more BP into Skills (which gives me 6 more points, 7 total) and take a second level of Sports, how about. That leaves me 7 BP. Any advantages I want? Well, sure, I'll take Drug Resistant (long years of drug cocktails) and Pain Experienced. I'll take Past Life Knowledge, too; seems to fit. That leaves me 1, so I'll take Ally: Co-Worker and say that Stewart's co-worker Callie will cover for him if he has to go do PC things (the advantage assumes she knows about the Secret Life, but Callie might just know that Stewart has some issues and feels bad for him).

And that's it, cats n' kittens. Stewart is fit and lean, with brown hair and a confused look much of the time. I didn't take Inexperienced: World because it's stupid (you don't know what a "police officer" is! Hur-dur), but Stewart is woefully unprepared to be out on his own. He does, however, understand workaday kinds of things, so as long as he doesn't get his schedule jerked around or something supernatural happens to start bringing back memories, he'll be fine. 

Epyllion: Capture the Flag

Back to Dragonia! Here's last time.

Our clutch is traveling across a hilly expanse, and up on a hill in front of them they see four dragons! (We reflected that in many RPGs this would be a real pants-shitting sort of occurrence.) The dragons swoop down to them, and they see that these dragons are raw-scaled drakes, just like them.

The first one to land is long, sinewy, and red-scaled. Dre introduces themself as Arloquoren, and then introduces the rest of dris clutch. Plum is colored deep purple and has huge, somewhat awkward wings but a boxy, stocky body. Tavi is light-blue and has a wooden cap on dris tail (because dre has a stinger and dre doesn't want to accidentally scratch anybody). Tavi also keeps dris hands folded in close to dris chest when flying; that's not relevant but everyone thought it was cute. Finally, Niche is grey-and-black, small, and low the ground. Dre doesn't have obvious wings, but when dre leaps into the air, skin flaps open and dre glides down the hill.

Arlo, clearly the voice of this clutch, challenges the characters to a game of Capture the Flag. Zeblek and OB have played before, but Stars and Toverinn haven't, so they go over the rules. They set up an arbitrary dividing line in the meadow, and each side takes a flag and hides it. The opposing team then has to get onto that side, find the flag, and get back to their own side with it to win - but if they get tagged, they get taken to dragon jail! ("Oh, no!" says Stars.) Magic is allowed, but you can't hide the flag entirely (like, no putting it under a big rock or sinking it into a lake). 

Stars points out that dre can't fly, so maybe it would be fair to have one of Arlo's team stay on the ground? Niche agrees (dre's fast anyway). 

The dragons agree, and break to their respective sides. Stars comes up with a brilliant plan - there are grackardinals in this area (beautiful red birds that are just absolute jerks). Dre suggests that Toverinn talk to one and have it take the flag to its nest - still visible but out of immediate sight. Toverinn finds one and bribes it with some berries, and the bird takes the flag and flies it up into a tree. 

The clutch takes up positions. Zeblek hangs out in the trees, directing his illusory duplicates. Stars, too, takes up a defensive position (dre isn't very fast or athletic, so probably that's best). Toverinn sneaks onto the opposing side, moving a bit and then vanishing (dre can disappear, but only when stationary), while OB sneaks from hiding spot to hiding spot. 

Unfortunately, OB doesn't notice that the big rock dre chose to hide behind is, in fact, Plum using magic to disguise themself, and Plum boops OB on the snoot and takes them to jail (it's a clearing with the word "JAIL" scratched into a tree). 

Meanwhile, back on the other side, Arlo swoops in and makes for the trees. Stars spots this, but then sees Niche scampering in and taking advantage of the chaos. Stars manages to tag Niche and put them in jail, and notices that Niche's paws are covered in creek mud. The flag might be near or in the creek!

Toverinn, meanwhile, sneaks in and rescues OB, and the two of them start heading back, but Toverinn gets tagged. Dre use dris time in jail to talk to a teedle (toad-beetle), who informs them that the flag is just a few hog-flies away (how else would a teedle measure distance?). When OB gets back to rescue them, Toverinn heads to the creek and finds the flag, and heads back to the line.

Tavi, however, is right on dris tail! Toverinn calls on the storm moon and pushes the flag over the line, and Zeblek grabs it. Winners!

The dragons get together and high five ("good game, good game"), but Arlo brings up that dre isn't sure if magic-ing the flag over the line counts. Did Toverinn cast the magic before or after dre got tagged? Toverinn is pretty sure that it happened almost simultaneously, and no one but Arlo really cares much about winning, so dre lets it go, but everyone decides that next time you have to carry the flag over the line.

They all decide to play another round, and instead of sticking with their respective clutches they decide that Stars and Niche are captains and pick teams. In practice, it winds up being just a swap between those two, though, because Niche picks OB, Toverinn, and Zeblek. They play another round, and then Arlo builds a fire and all of the dragons sit around it, chatting, telling stories, and so on. Tavi sings the Hummsinger's Song and plays dris little lyre, Plum recites a little poetry, and the clutches stare up at the moons together.

Next time, we'll here some dragon campfire tails tales!

Cairn: Into the Woods

Back to the village of Cairn, and the woods lovely, dark, and deep beyond. Here's last time.

The Traveling Knights want to nip this "oozy chipmunk" issue in the bud, so they gather up some supplies and head out of town, heading north into the Shady Forest. They decide to first pay a visit to Gene Stormwatch, a weasel who used to be an adventurer of some renown. He lives in the woods and keeps a garden (so he's a g-g-g-garden weasel). Fun fact: He's distantly related to the Ebonblood family. 

They Knights arrive and find Gene picking squash in his garden, and tell him about their experiences with the pika and the chipmunk that make the Stalker sick (rather, Ratatosk Longberry explains this and everyone else tries to keep up). Gene notes that he hasn't seen a lot of chipmunks this season, and the Knights worry that this might be a bigger problem than they thought. Ratatosk scampers off to try and catch a chipmunk to talk to, while the others talk with Gene. He shows them on a map where the Stalker pack has moved to (heading west). 

Ratatosk sets a snare for a chipmunk and runs up a tree to wait. He apparently baits it really well because a chipmunk steps in it, and Ratatosk runs out and calms the (understandably stressed) creature. He casts Speak with the Small and asks about what's going on with the chipmunks, and the little fella says that it's normal for daggerbeaks and stalkers and so forth to catch some. This season, though, it's been worse - there are creatures that smell of rot and blood, and they take chipmunks away. It's not in any one place, and it's not a creature that he recognizes. 

Ratatosk concentrates for a moment to try and find Unnatural stuff, feeling for icky stuff in the forest. But it's not stationary and it's not one thing, it's more like a mobile group of small Unnatural feelings. Ratatosk heads back toward the cabin to talk with the others, and puts the chipmunk in a backpack to keep him safe.

When they get within sight of the cottage, though, and see Gene, the chipmunk panics and runs ("oh, right, weasel"). Ratatosk explains what he learned to the others, and they decide to have Ratatosk call up a dryad. All of the Knights can talk to the dryad (as opposed to the chipmunk), so they sit under the tree where Ratatosk caught the chipmunk and he calls out the tree spirit.

The dryad emerges and sits on the forest floor with them, yawning a bit (it's autumn, so it's nearly time for dryads to sleep). The Knights ask what the dryad has seen or felt, and it says that there is a feeling the Shady Forest, something dark and Unnatural, and it's affecting a lot of the animals. She mentions that just recently, a group of gnolls died and were revived - dead, but walking! The Knights realize, after recalibrating their clocks to "tree", that she's talking about the attack of the Blood-Walkers a couple of years ago. She advises them that they might try and find the Stalker pack, as they will be more knowledgeable about animal dealings. Once things are dead, she as a dryad doesn't have much to do with them (and fungal spirits...are not friendly). 

The Knights decide to crash for the night and then in the morning track the Stalker pack. Gene cooks them dinner and they forage a bit for things to supplement. Rumdiggle Sunsong changes into a bear to sleep, and Russelet Leatherwind flits into a tree. Snootabur Shadowbough just curls up into a spiky little ball, as is the way of her people.

In the morning, the Knights head out (Snoot mentions to Gene that her mother lives on a farm nearby and likes having company). They head northwest, through the Shady Forest, and start tracking the pack. Russelet, of course, is an expert tracker, and he and Ratatosk check things from above while Rummy and Snoot walk along the forest floor. 

Soon enough, they see a pair of wolves flanking Rummy. Ratatosk calls down to her, and she promptly faints dead away (in the way of her people). Russ fires a couple of sleep arrows at one of the wolves, and it stumbles and starts wandering off. The other wolf breaks off and follows it, and Ratatosk casts Speak with the Small and talks with the wolves.

They address him as "food," which is a little off-putting, and he tries to get them to talk about the sick wolf and the chipmunk, but they're more concerned about why one of them is sleepy. Finally they agree to lead Ratatosk back to the leader of the pack so that she can answer the squirrel's questions. 

The pack-leader, though, is also more concerned about why food is talking to them. She does confirm that there was a chipmunk that was dead but walked, bled forever - she calls it "brackish." There's a bit of kerfuffle as Rummy takes bear form, the wolves smell the bear and the leader calls for a general evacuation, but eventually they learn that the wolf pack found a dead daggertusk on the banks of the river (they ate it, but no one got sick). The daggertusk was killed in a strange way. The wolves also reveal that the sick wolf was accepted back into the pack after the Knights helped her barf, so all's well there.

The Knights travel all through the day and reach the Swiftwater River as the sun sets. They can feel Unnatural energies as they approach the bend in the river, and Russ sees the tracks of a daggertusk - but walking on two legs. They decide they don't want to mess with this at night, so they fall back and make camp. Rummy, still in bear form, takes the first watch. 

As she's watching, she hears a whisper from the dark: "Bloody bones, bloody bones, rise ye up!" And someone starts walking through the woods towards them. She wakes the others as the creature comes through the trees - it's bipedal and nearly as tall as Rummy's ripper form, but all made of bones. Its skull is clearly a daggertusk, but the other bones are longer than they should be and it's got fingers. It emerges into the Knight's camp, and Snoot plants an arrow in its skull, cracking it down the middle. Horribly, the skull starts to bleed.

Russ fires more arrows, including an incendiary one, and the creature's blood catches fire and it bursts into flame. Ratatosk summons up a tree to animate and protect them, but the marksmen fire arrows and knock the thing to pieces. The bones collapse and melt into the ground through the puddle of blood, and all is quiet.

The Knights are too riled up to sleep, so they start trying to investigate a bit. Ratatosk mediates, trying to use his senses as a druid to pinpoint the source of the Disharmony, but it works too well. He feels the Disharmony from the river, but it grabs his consciousness and eats it. Ratatosk, now in Discord, panics, and has the tree turn and run ("NOPE NOPE NOPE"). 

Russelet flits after him, while Rummy and Snoot go check the riverbank. Rummy lets her instinct as a bear take over, snuffling and feeling around in the water, and finds an opening into the riverbank, about the size of a beaver's den. But when she puts a paw in, she feels the same horrifying Disharmony that Ratatosk did. It hits her so hard that it knocks the bear right out of her, the bear skin falls off and melts, and she's left standing there in her possum form as Ratatosk runs away in a tree.

There is powerful evil here, necromancy that the Knights have not seen, and they'll need to go into the den to understand it.

My Life With Master: Baron von Schuyler

One-shot! My Life With Master! 

Our titular Master is Baron Douglas von Schuyler, the owner of a big spooky castle overlooking the village of Lötz. The Baron is obsessed with immortality, and has developed ways to remove lifeforce from living beings. Used to be that he needed them to be kidnapped and brought to the castle, whereupon their lifeforce would be drained and the people left in a coma. Now, however, he's developed a way to simply put a personal item (freely given) into a jar and drain the lifeforce bit by bit. A secret society of immortals watches his progress, occasionally sending messages in strange and supernatural ways.

The Master has minions, of course:

• Frau Hüller is the head of the household, dedicated to the Baroness (the Baroness has succumbed to the same "sleeping sickness" as much of the village, or put another way, her soul is in a jar). Hüller always knows where everyone is in the house and one the grounds (except the master), but she gradually goes blind if she leaves.
• Crimes is a dangerous person. They are expert with knife, lockpick, and cudgel, and are responsible for doing violence and skullduggery on the Baron's behalf. Crimes can become invisible at will, but only to people - animals can see them normally. Crimes also cannot feel any sensation except pain.
• Gunter Gross is the Baron's mechanic. Short and sniveling, Gunter can fit into any aperture except one made of stone. When he tries to talk to people, he stammers and fumbles (unless he's known the person at least a year).
• Vaslav is the Baron's recruiter. He's tasked with going into the village and obtaining items to put in jars (which is actually an upgrade; used to be he had to bring back whole people). He can read people's auras to learn what they want, but only if they're alone. Vaslav is also overwhelmed by emotion whenever he hears music (except for hymns).

So on this particular day, Crimes is in his lair. Gunter is working on the soul-draining device. Frau Hüller is making sure the household runs smoothly, and Vaslav is playing solitaire, waiting for an order.

The Baron summons Hüller and tells her that the servants cleaning the room near his study are making far too much noise - go and shush them, and make sure they understand his displeasure. Hüller reschedules them and dresses them down for their loudness, and continues on. 

Gunter realizes that he can fix the machine without a particular part, and he needs a particular kind of metal to make the part. He finds Frau Hüller and informs her of the issue, and she tells him to have one of the stableboys hitch up the horses and head to the village. Gunter asks if he can take someone with him - he's not good at talking to people. Frau Hüller does not much care. 

Gunter goes down to the cellar to find Crimes, and passes Vaslav on the way. Vaslav decides to tag along, mostly because then he could drop in on Josef, the cobbler's son (Vaslav has a bit of a crush on him). Gunter finds Crimes in the basement - well, he doesn't see Crimes, but Crimes is there and agrees to come with. 

Vaslav heads out to the stable, but as he gets close he realizes the stable boy hitching the horses is whistling to himself. Overcome by emotion from the music, Vaslav stands there weeping, and suddenly feels the Baron behind him. The Baron hands him a paper sealed with wax, and tells him to open it when he gets to town. He wants a lifeforce-connection with the person indicated within. "And clean yourself up," he snaps. "Pathetic." Shaking with shame, Vaslav wipes away the tears.

The three of them mount the wagon. Crimes drives, invisible, meaning that the villagers see the strange carriage with no one at the reins (but their dogs are happy because Crimes tosses them treats). They pull up near the market and Vaslav hops out and dips into an alleyway to read the note. It says "Ivan the Collier." Vaslav knows him - the collier delivers coals to villages all over the place. Gunter is fascinated by him and his stories.

Gunter and Crimes disembark, and Gunter spots the telltale shock of red hair of the town tinker at his stall. Crimes, confirming that Gunter doesn't actually need him (he's known the tinker a long time, he can talk to him), goes off to the tavern. Gunter goes up to the tinker's stall and discovers, to his horror, that it's the tinker's son working here today, and Gunter's never spoken to him.

He tries to explain what he wants, but just stammers and mumbles and finally the tinker's son gets frustrated and ignores Gunter in favor of the blacksmith, who buys all of the tinker's scrap metal including the ingot Gunter needs. Gunter watches helplessly as the man walks off.

Meanwhile, Vaslav finds Ivan...in the tavern! (Meaning Crimes is watching, but Vaslav doesn't know that.) Vaslav strikes up a conversation, but he needs to get Ivan alone to read his aura and get a better sense of what he wants (to forge a connection, Ivan has to give Vaslav an object freely). He chats up Ivan and tells him that Maria was out washing clothes - Ivan shows interest (he's always been "interested" in Maria) and Vaslav invites him to go see if she's still there. On the way out, they bump into Gunter, and Ivan invites him along. Vaslav grumbles a little, but can't really say anything about it. Gunter takes the time to connect with Ivan a bit, getting him to talk about the "Rock Festival" in a village some miles away (it's a yearly festival centered around the weird rock formations near the village, you see). 

Once that's done, though, Gunter scampers back to the tavern and Ivan and Vaslav move along. Maria isn't out washing clothes today (of course, Vaslav made that up), but Vaslav offers to give Maria a token on Ivan's behalf - that handkerchief, perhaps? Ivan agrees, and Vaslav feels the connection made. His mission for the Master complete, Vaslav buys a couple of buns from the baker and goes to find Josef, sitting outside repairing a boot. He gives Josef one of the buns, hoping for some kind of affection reciprocity, but Josef just thanks him and gets back to work. 

Meanwhile, off camera, Crimes' brother Jeremy stands in the sewers (this village has sewer tunnels, don't think about it too hard) amidst bodies. Three corpses, all servants of the Baron, lay around him. Jeremy is just as twisted as his brother... 

As Vaslav is walking back towards the carriage, he sees some men standing around talking about "that creature in the castle". Realizing they're talking about his Master, Vaslav stops to listen, and the men demand to know what happened to Greta, Helmut, and Alicja. Vaslav has no idea who these people are, nor why they've vanished after going to work at the castle, and he gets away from the men before this gets uglier.

Gunter finds Crimes (with some difficulty) and explains what happened, and Crimes rolls his eyes and goes and steals the ingot (it's not hard, he's invisible). The three of them get back on the carriage and head for home.

Meanwhile, Frau Hüller spends some time with Marta, the scullery maid. She's training Marta for advancement, and sees her promise, which she tries to foment by being a bit strict. It seems to work, though. 

The others get back and Gunter takes his ingot up to his workshop to start melting it down. Vaslav, not wanting to go back in just yet, finds Anya, a little girl from the village who lives out this way and dances when she's alone - but always to music in her head. He approaches and smiles and asks to make her a crown of flowers, and perhaps comes on a little too strong, but she accepts it nervously.

The next morning, the Baron gathers the four of them and tells them that it's come to his attention that three servants have gone missing. Aside from the fact that this creates a hole in the staffing duties, if foul play has befallen them he wants revenge. He tasks them with finding out what happened and bringing the culprit, if any, to him alive (he wants their soul in a jar). Crimes has his suspicions, but the four of them head down to the laundry where Greta was working ("she's the one who always understarches the Baron's sheets," mutters Frau Hüller). They ask after her, and are told that yesterday she went to get more starch and never came back. "And did someone else go and get the starch, or do you have to do all this work again?" The laundry girls sheepishly start washing again.

The minions check out the supply closet, and Crimes easily determines what happens - someone grabbed Greta from behind and dragged her to the sewer drain. Something similar probably happened to the other two. Crimes, Vaslav, and Frau Hüller descend and follow the trail a ways, but Gunter heads back to tweak the machine. Crimes sends the other two home - he doesn't need them. 

He finds his brother in his home, creeps in invisibly, and chokes him out. Crimes doesn't have any particular regard for Jeremy, his loyalty is to the Baron. He drags Jeremy home through the tunnels and chains him up in the room to be drained. 

The Baron, meanwhile, finds Gunter and tells him to make adjustments to the machine - make this hurt. Gunter does, but tries to make it at least not as bad as it could be. Crimes brings in Jeremy and chains him up, and Jeremy begs to be released, but Crimes just laughs and leaves. Jeremy then turns his attention to Gunter and asks him to unchain him, let him go, he'll flee the village. Gunter, though, is much more frightened of the Baron than he is of whatever consequence to his soul might come from doing this, and starts to activate the machine.

Jeremy, however, is as deft as his brother, and managed to unhitch the chain from the wall. He clunks Gunter on the head with the manacle, knocking him out, and Gunter wakes up in a cell in town. "That's right," says Jeremy, "I caught him in the sewer with the bodies! He killed them and he chained me up and was going to kill me next!" The bailiff states his intent to get Gunter's side of the story, and Gunter's heart sinks. He can't defend himself, he can't even get a sentence out.

Crimes, meanwhile, goes back to town and drags the corpses through the tunnels to his friend Sigmund, t he undertaker ("friend" is a strong word; Sigmund is just willing to dispose of bodies for Crimes). Sigmund mentions that the killer was caught and is likely to be hanged tomorrow - Crimes says that's impossible, the killer is his brother and he knows where he is. Sigmund says no, he's some imbecile unable to speak, and he's locked up in the town gaol. Crimes, confused, goes to check, and finds a mob outside the gaol ready to hang somebody. The bailiff blocks the door and promises they'll hang this monster in the morning. 

Crimes distracts the crowd and sneaks inside, and finds Gunter locked in a cell with a bit Flintstone lump on the side of his head. He opens the cell and throws a cloak over Gunter, and shoves him out the door, telling him to run. Gunter panics and runs to his uncle Pytor's house. Pytor lets him in and gives him a place to stay for the night; he knows his nephew isn't a killer.

The next day, Vaslav is outside - feeling the need to stay away from the castle for just a bit - when he hears a loud CLUNK and the Baron yell for Gunter. Apparently the machine is on the fritz again. Vaslav hears the Master ring the service bell and he goes to find him, and the Baron tells Vaslav to find Gunter and get him here now.

Frau Hüller has gone into town to buy some supplies. Specifically, she's gone to buy meats from Hermann, the butcher. Frau Hüller has always had a particular regard for Hermann. Yes, he's married, it's not like that, but...

At any at rate, Crimes is in town. Upset that his brother escaped, he kidnaps a woman and tosses her in the back of Hüller's carriage. On the way back, Hüller hears the muffled cries and sees the woman (Crimes does her the courtesy of appearing). Hüller's is annoyed, but looks at this as providence, and asks the woman if she wants a job or not? Very confused, the woman agrees (the alternative seems much worse), so when they get back to the castle, Hüller takes on the woman as a scullery maid and promotes Marta to kitchen staff.

Vaslav goes to town to fetch Gunter; he figures where he is pretty easily. He drops in to the tavern first, and has a drink with Josef, but he can't ignore his job for long. He knocks on the door and Pytor lets him in (wordlessly; Pytor is mute), and Vaslav tells Gunter that the Baron wants him. Gunter is pretty convinced that the Baron might kill him, but he doesn't have the courage to say no. They head back to the castle.

At said castle, Crimes reports to the Baron that Jeremy escaped, and seems to have fled town. The Baron is angry, but then becomes pensive. "He is your brother? By blood?" Crimes confirms this. "Good. That will be all." Crimes leaves, puzzled.

When Gunter and Vaslav returns, Gunter goes to the Baron expecting to be chastised, but the Baron puts an arm on his shoulder. "I've had an epiphany," he says. "I want you to fix the machine so that a person might be the conduit by which we can drain lifeforce from other people." Gunter nods, relieved to not be in trouble, and gets to work.

The rest of the day passes more or less uneventfully; Hüller writes Hermann a note saying she enjoyed their chat yesterday and could she please have half a pound of chicken? When Gunter has finished and has installed a barrel in the machine to hold a person-conduit, the Baron calls Crimes to the machine. "Get in the barrel," he instructs him, and Crimes can only obey.

"Shut him in," the Baron tells Gunter, which Gunter does. They activate the machine, and Crimes, who can only feel pain, feels agony the likes of which he has never felt as his brother's lifeforce is siphon from who knows how far away through him. 

The Baron lights up in glee. "Perfect. Think of it, Gunter. Now we can use any person to siphon the life of anyone to whom they are connected - think of that butcher in town, what's his name, Hermann? He has nine children!" Gunter can only nod, perhaps a little sickened.

The Baron leaves, and the machine finishes. Gunter opens the lid to let Crimes out, and Crimes extends a hand for help. Gunter, somewhat foolishly, takes his hand, and Crimes tries to yank him into the barrel. Gunter yanks back at the last minute and closes the lid, and runs. He runs to the kitchen and explains to Frau Hüller what has happened, and Frau Hüller finally decides she has had enough. She cannot allow the Baron to take this next step, and what's more, she cannot allow Gunter to go on working the machine.

She brews a cup of tea laced with arsenic, but as she stands there, trying to work up the courage to give it to him, Vaslav arrives. Hearing what has happened, he decides to flee with Gunter, and the two of them head for the stables. Frau Hüller, knowing that the Master does not drink tea, coats a wine glass with the poison.

Crimes breaks out easily enough, though, and goes to find the Baron. "Master," he says, "Gunter has damaged the machine. I do not know why." The Baron looks out the window and sees Gunter and Vaslav at the stables, seeing Vaslav and Gunter saddling a horse. His face contorts into a scowl. "Bring Gunter back to me alive," he orders Crimes. "Kill Vaslav. I don't need him anymore."

Crimes vanishes and heads for the stables. Frau Hüller brings the poisoned wine goblet to the Master, who pours the wine and then sniffs it and frowns. "Frau Hüller," he says, "I believe this wine may be corked. Taste it." 

"Oh, Master," she says, "you know I have no nose for wine. I will get you another bottle." She does, but opens it, poisons it, and reseals it, hoping to fool the Baron. When he pours it, though, he sniffs it again. "Frau Hüller, do you really think I would not recognize the scent of arsenic?" She does not respond. "Do you have family, Frau Hüller?"

"You know I do not, sir."

"Then I don't need you for anything else," he says, and stands. She grabs a letter opener and tries to stab him in the kidney, but he grabs his cane and easily disarms her, planting the end of the cane on her throat.

Meanwhile, at the stables, Crimes appears behind Vaslav and cuts his throat. The wound is deep, but Vaslav clamps his hand over it to keep himself from bleeding out. He cannot help Gunter, though, and Crimes goes to incapacitate him, but Gunter flails out wildly with a metal stirrup and clocks Crimes on the head. He falls unconscious, and Gunter gets on a horse and leaves. 

Vaslav, however, spots the struggle upstairs through the window. Pushing himself through the blood loss, he makes it upstairs and tosses the heavy iron doorstop to Frau Hüller. She catches it, knocks the cane out of the way, and bashes the Master's head in. And then just for good measure, she stabs him in the kidney.

Vaslav, staring at his dead master, is overcome with guilt and shame. He moves his hand, falls over the Baron's body, and quietly bleeds to death.

Gunter flees to the town and stays with his uncle. Over time it becomes accepted that he was framed for the murders - he is a poor, gormless idiot, incapable of even forming a sentence. He becomes part of the town.

Frau Hüller tries to bring her lady the Baroness back to life by instilling her with her lifeforce. It works, but Frau Hüller has no idea what she's doing and in the process she is electrocuted by the machine and killed. The Baroness, who awakens to a horror show in the castle, gets the hell out of Lötz and heads for Vienna.

And Crimes takes up the mantle of Fear in the town, becoming the monster that he always wanted to be, an unseen killer and boogeyman living in the castle on the hill.