Cairn: Like a Ripe Pumpkin

Ah, springtime in Cairn. Here's last time.

It's a lovely spring evening in Cairn, and the Traveling Knights are hanging out at the Cider Mill Inn. Rumdiggle Sunsong is talking with Sarafina Bushytail about lyrics. Rummy's songs tend to be more topical and immediate, while Sarafina's are about classical poems and older stories. 

Russelet Leatherwind is playing darts with some of the other patrons of the bar, and maybe picking their pockets a little, just for fun (obviously he doesn't keep anything he pinches). 

Ratatosk Longberry is just vibin', dancing to the music, and chomping on a bowl of acorns (which Allyere Lovegood refills when he's not looking). 

Snootbur Shadowbough is, after probably too many glasses of cider, explaining her plan for an amphitheater to Mayor Keeble Brownberry using forks, bowls, saltshakers, and whatever else is handy. 

And then CRASH! A sugar glider slams through the front window, rolls along the floor, lands against the bar, and passes the heck out. Russelet rushes to the bar to get a sugary drink (he knows that sugar gliders burn through sugar so quickly that sometimes they just...fall asleep), and Rummy checks to see if the poor guy is injured. He's cut up a little, but once he laps up the honey water that Russ serves him, he comes to. 

"It's coming!" he shrieks. "It's coming! Coming to eat us!" The Knights ask him to clarify, and he gasps, "the Bloodwalker!"

None of the characters have ever heard of a "Bloodwalker," but it doesn't sound good, and Smyrna Flutterwind, the glider, continues talking. It's huge, he says, and walks on two legs. It's got a snout like a ripper, but hooked claws. And it grabs people and bites off their heads to drink the blood!

This is all sending the good citizens of Cairn into quite the tizzy, so Keeble and the Knights take Smyrna into a back room to talk further. Smyrna reveals that he's from Sweetthorn Roost, a treetop village east of Cairn (mostly squirrels, sugar gliders, and bats). He was out looking for greenfruit and got lost, and then the Bloodwalker started chasing him. He lost it before the Swiftwater River, but then he realized he was close to Cairn and probably wouldn't make it home, so he dropped into the Cider Mill Inn (literally) to warn them - the Bloodwalker is headed their way!

The Knights don't waste any time. They load up their gear, and Keeble calls out the guard to shore up defenses. The Knights head east, and cross the river. They pause at the entrance to the woods, and Russ listens carefully. In the distance, he hears something big moving in the trees, cracking branches and so on. Ratatosk feels something horrible and bloody out that way. This might be it.

Russ sets up a net trap, while Rummy calls on her various totems to increase in size and power. Snoot and Ratatosk scamper off to find the thing and lure it. And find it they do!

It's hunched over at the base of a tree, digging. It's bipedal, a sickly grey color, and seems to be wearing a shirt. It's got fur, though, and when it turns around (hearing Snoot yell "Hey, you!"), it's got a muzzle much like a ripper. It sees Snootabur and bares its horrible teeth, lunging at her. She misjudges how fast it is, and it picks her up. She instinctively rolls into a ball and her quills poke its flesh, but it doesn't seem to care. 

Ratatosk jumps down from the tree he's in, lands on the monster's snout, and throws sneezing powder, but misjudges and gets a snootful himself (fortunately he knows how to breathe through it). Snootabur unfurls and deftly leaps through the thing's grasp, but it grabs Ratatosk by the tail. He bats it with his staff, but it won't let go. 

Russ, hearing the commotion, flutters over and finds a solid perch. Horrified by the creature though he is, he fires arrow after arrow at it. Some find their marks well, piercing eyes and nose, others miss. Snootabur, likewise, takes shots at the creature, but it doesn't bleed, just oozes black sludge. 

Rummy, realizing that the original plan has failed, charges in and swings at the Bloodwalker's legs, trying to knock it down. It keeps its feet, leans down and chomps on Rummy, picking her up and shaking her. Ratatosk, not getting anywhere by smacking the thing's hand, casts Thornsting. The thorns spring up and piercing the monster, just as Russelet shoots it in the hand. It drops Rummy and Ratatosk, and Rummy strikes its legs just right, knocking it to the ground. Ratatosk flings sleeping draught into its mouth, but no effect! He realizes that this creature has neither blood nor breath - it's undead.

Snootabur lights an arrow and fires, striking it in the head. Its head swells and pops like a ripe pumpkin, spilling black sludge, and the Knights step back to catch their breath. 

Investigating the corpse, the Knights are unable to identify whatever this was before it was animated, but they're very sure that it was dead recently. Ratatosk knows about necromancy - it's a form of magic that the Primal Powers abhor, the practice of reanimating dead flesh. They decide to burn the body and fall back to the river. 

As they're preparing the pyre, Rummy hears more crashing and cracking in the woods. The set the fire and retreat, but Russelet flits off to investigate. At the riverbank, as the sun rises, Snootabur helps the others get clean, and then Ratatosk leads them in a ritual to greet the dawn and Rummy leads them in a chorus of "Yeet the Noodle." Their spirits raised a bit, they wait for Russelet to return.

He does, and reports that he's found two more of these loathsome monsters. They're sitting at the bottom of trees in the clearing where they killed the other one (which is now full of smoke - not much chance of forest fire with the woods as damp as they are). They appear dormant; perhaps they sleep by day?

The Knights decide to head back into the woods and burn these monsters before they wake. Of course, that assumes that they are unable to awaken during the day...

Character Creation: Mythender

TAKE THAT, GOD.

The Game: Mythender
The Publisher: Ryan Macklin
Degree of Familiarity: None, just read it
Books Required: Just the one

This is a game I've been excited to read for a while, because I really like the premise. Basically, you're a super-powerful being called a Mythender, and you and your fellow Mythenders get together and kill - nay, End - more powerful Myths. That would be gods and their retinue of spirits, monsters, and so forth. 

The tone of the game is very much over the top action, and that can be SQUIDDLEY-DOO electric guitar or it can be a more somber, O Fortuna kind of ambiance. My reservations about the game are kinda similar to the ones I have about games like Blood Red Sands - the system is involved and it's important, and I don't know if I have enough players that would dig it. With that said, I did have an interesting idea about setting the Mythic World in the modern age and having the "Gods" in question be billionaires, so that'd be kinda fun. 

For purposes of this project, though, I shall assume Mythic Norden, the default setting, wherein Mythenders would be going after Thor and his ilk. So let's get going! 

First off, I need to choose a Heart, Past, and Fate. Heart is kind of an archetype, but really focuses on what the character values. Past is exactly that, and Fate is what kind of God this particular Mythender is Fated to become if (when) they embrace too much Mythic power and become what they despise most. Hmm. I've had bone marrow on my mind lately (don't ask me how my brain fuckin' works, at least I haven't been suicidal), possibly because there's a monster in GURPS Creatures of the Night called a marrowfiend that I've always liked and I thought about using it in my next Chill game. But I seem to recall there's a story about someone suckin' the marrow from the leg of one of Thor's goats...ah-ha, yes indeed!

So my Mythender is called Thjalfi (there are more accurate ways to spell that, but whatever). In mythology, Thjalfi (and his sister) were peasants who hosted Thor for a night, and then got pressed into service after sucking the marrow of one of his goats' legs. As far as Heart goes, I'm thinking either Warrior or Tempest. Physical might and skill or magic and sacrifice? Hmm. I'm not sure, I'll leave that sit for a moment.

Past, again, I find myself with a split decision: Child or Apostate? I think I'll go Apostate, and say that Thjalfi was indeed pressed into Thor's service before becoming a Mythender. 

For Fate, I think I'll say that Thjalfi is going to become a God of Judgment. He feels that it was profoundly unfair that he and his sister became thralls after they cracked the bone of a goat that Thor had slaughtered for their dinner (jerk). 

I think I'll go Warrior, actually. Moving on!

And now, Weapons! I get three Weapons, from the categories of Intrinsic, Relic, and Companion. I can't have all three of one type, but I can have 2/1 or 1/1/1. I want something representing the marrow I sucked from the goat (it just never sounds less weird, no matter how often I type it), so I'll say Strength and Resilience Absorbed from Thor's Goats. That's Intrinsic, of course. Ooh, kinda want my sister to be part of this. She doesn't have much of a presence in the myth, so I'll lean into that and say Röskva, my sister, silent as a shadow. And then I kinda want something feral and hungry. How about my insatiable appetite for marrow? Intrinsic as well, obviously. 

Now for Forms. My Mortal Form is, well, what I look like now, as a mortal (more or less). So I'll say that Thjalfi appears as a young man, lean and quick, blond as sunlight and hungry as winter. 

That's Mortal Form, and now we move into fate. I need to decide on my Personal Blight (the way I change the world when I'm around), as well as my Form as I get more and more Mythic. 

Well, for Personal Blight, I want people to feel starving, but smell cooking meat. For my Paragon Form, I'll say I appear as an emaciated man with his bones visible under his skin. In Supernatural Form, I appear as a crackling skeleton loosely covered with skin, oozing marrow. And finally, in Godly Form, I appear as an immense goat made of human bones, whose eyes are pure hunger. 

Judgement's Powers over Mortals and the Land...hmm. Thjalfi isn't really a Judge type of god, it's Judgment in a spiteful, "you broke the letter of the law now get fucked" kind of way. I'll say that his Fate allows him to make any action, word, or place taboo or forbidden, worthy of divine judgment. 

And that's actually pretty much it. I have a Storm Rating of 3, and everything else (that is, Bonds) would require a group, which I don't have. So that's Thajlfi, ready to kill Thor and suck the marrow from his bones. No way that goes wrong. 

Movie #669: Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings is yet another MCU movie (more! gimme more!), starring Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Meng'er Zhang, Ben Kingsley, Fala Chen, and Florian Munteanu.

Xu Wenwu (Leung) is the owner of the mystical(?) ten rings, which allow him to do some kinda mid-tier supernatural/superpowery stuff, but also to live forever, which is kinda the bigger deal. He forms the Ten Rings and does some unspecified but very much worldwide crime, until the 90s when he goes searching for the mystical village of Ta Lo, finds a magical kung fu woman named Li (Chen) guarding it, and they fall in love through the power of martial arts in a scene that wouldn't have been too out of place in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 

He takes her back to his home on Earth, puts away his rings, and they raise two children: Shang-Chi (Liu) and Xialing (Zhang), and everything is great until his old enemies stop by and murder Li, and then Wenwu is, as John Wick says, thinkin' he's back.

But this movie isn't really about him, it's about Shang-Chi, happily living in San Fransisco as a valet, hanging with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina), until a maniac with a lightsaber for a hand (Munteanu) attacks him for his pendant, and he has to go in search of his sister. 

Shang-Chi is not exactly a character that many casual superhero fans would know. Hell, I'm pretty knowledgeable about superhero lore, up to a point, and I'd never heard of him. But that's actually good, it allows the MCU to fold in some new characters and mythology without running afoul of, for example, people whining because Thor Ragnorak didn't faithfully adapt Planet Hulk. As with Iron Man way back in 2008, though, all of this hinges on the movie coming together.

And I think it does! Simu Liu is a wonderful break from dour or hyper-principled characters, and when he confronts his past, it actually means something because he hasn't been keeping it close all these years. Likewise, I enjoy that he's out of his depth but by no means unable to handle himself. Katy is fun comic relief, but also there for Shang-Chi and also makes herself useful during crunch time (and, yes, you can get persnickety about how she placed a shot perfectly after just learning to shoot, but look, it was a huge target and she only had to hit once). Xialing is continually undervalued and overlooked, even to the point that she never really gets a proper confrontation with her father, and I hope that's something that comes up when we see these characters again. Wenwu is a great villain, and while his motives in this particular caper are understandable, it's never hard to forget that he's a criminal and a warlord (although, granted, his fearsome Ten Rings could have been painted as a little more brutal - he's got a dude with a blade for a hand and he never gets to kill anyone, for crying out loud).

It's not a perfect film; the third act battle between color-coded armies seems a little...I dunno, on the nose? And I like that it doesn't go on any longer than it needs to before the Lovecraftian horror pops out and they pretty much all realize they're toast if they don't work together. It rings a little false that Wenwu is punching his way into the Dark Gate and gross little demons are wriggling out and he never bothers to look up and see what the screeching is about. But these are the kinds of niggles that only come to mind because we're 20-some films into this universe. 

There are few deleted scenes I wish had made it in, particularly one where Trevor Slattery (Kingsley) mentions that he feels like he's the Fool to Wenwu's Lear. In general, though, I feel like this is an injection of new blood into the MCU that works, and I'm excited to see these folks pop up again.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: The Shawshank Redemption

Character Creation: All for One

Like many folks who were young in the 90s, any mention of the Musketeers or "all for one" makes me think of a) Tim Curry and b) this song.

The Game: All for One: Régime Diabolique
The Publisher: Triple Ace Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, some with the underlying system
Books Required: Just the one

All For One is, as the name might imply, an RPG set during 17th Century France when the Musketeers were swashing their buckles all over the place. In the setting, demons are alive and well and living in various people in the higher echelons of the Church and the nobility (I mean, duh), and so you're playing a Musketeer who's not only, like, a Musketeer, but one who is or soon will be dealing with supernatural shit. 

All for One uses Ubiquity, same system as Hollow Earth Expedition and Desolation. It's notable in that it's a dice pool system where the number of sides on the dice don't matter, since you're just looking for evens. Also, you can "take the average" rather than rolling - that is, say you've got eight dice in your pool. You can roll them and get anywhere from zero to eight successes, or take the average (four successes) and, if that beats the roll's Difficulty, you're good to go. I remember the system going pretty smoothly in play once the players figure that out, and also how to use Style points. 

Anywhichway, let's make a Musketeer. 

First step, we pick an Archetype. Mind, an Archetype is nothing more than a loose concept for the character, and it doesn't mean a thing mechanically. I had an idea about making a horse trainer, though, and that's still rattling around in my head. Yeah, I'll say my character, Rémy (I'll give him a last name later), comes from a family of soldiers and horse trainers, and so serving the King is tradition. Of course, he's the first of the family to join the Musketeers since, um, it's 1636 and the Guard was just formed like 14 years ago.

Well, anyway, I guess "solider" is the closest Archetype in the ones listed, though again, I could just as easily write "horse trainer" and call it a day.

Step Two: Motivation. Why does Rémy do what he does? I think it's somewhere between Duty and Family Tradition. Let's call it Duty.

Step Three: Attributes! I get 15 points, they're assigned one-for-one (not all for one), and there are 6 of 'em. Let's see. Clearly Rémy needs a decent Charisma since that's what gets paired with Animal Handling, and I'm thinking Body should be fairly decent, too. I'll put 4 each into those, leaving me 7 more. Wait, that's maybe too much. How about 3 into Charisma and 4 into Body. That gives me 8 remaining, which means the other four Attributes are at 2, which is average. I think that's OK, I can probably make up any deficits with Skills. 

Step Four: Secondary Attributes. Size is 0 (human-sized), Move is Strength + Dexterity, or 4 in my case. Perception is Intelligence + Willpower (also 4), Passive Defense is 4, Active Defense is 2 (kinda better off just getting hit and hoping for the best), Stun is 4, and Health is Body + Willpower + Size, or 6. 

Step Five: Skillz. I get 15 points, also one-for-one (and all for love), and I can't go higher than five levels at chargen. I can, however, purchase specializations, which I probably will. Oh, and, I get level 0 in Firearms, Melee, Ride, and one other Skill of my choice. Level 0 just means I've had some training, so I can use the base Attribute to use the Skill in question rather than taking a penalty. Buying a 0-level up to 1 point costs half a point (out of my 15), so that's nice, it's a little price break on these Skills. I'll say my fourth 0-level is Animal Handling, then.

OK! I want to put 4 into Animal Handling with a Specialization in Horses (no place on the sheet to write Specializations, boo, bad sheet design). That's actually only 4 points, because I pay half a point to go from 0 to 1, three points to get to 4, and then another half point for the Specialization. 11 points left!

Well, clearly Ride needs to be good, so I'll put 3.5 points there for a rating of 4. I'll put half a point into Firearms for a rating of 1 (not Rémy's strong point), which means I've spent 7. I'll buy Archery up to 2 and take a Specialization in Nets (not sure why that's under Archery but whatever). 9.5. I'll spend 3 into Athletics; pricey but worth it. 12.5 spent. How about 1 into Medicine and .5 for a Veterinary Specialization, which takes me to 15 spent.

Talents and Resources! I get Followers and Rank at level 0 for free, and then I can pick a Talent or a Resource. I suspect I will want a Talent. There are a few dealing with riding, but most of them are combat-related and I don't think Rémy necessarily has a lot of direct experience stabbing people from horses (frankly if he did his Melee would be higher). So I'll take Evasive Rider, which allows me to use my Ride rating as Defense in certain conditions.

Flaw! I can take a Flaw if I wish, and I do. I'll take Aloof, which gives me a -2 to social situations with people. I think that Rémy isn't distant or cold per se; he likes people just fine. He's just better with horses. 

And, finally, I get 15 experience to spend. Hmm. I kinda feel like I should have some more Skills? I'll put six points into buying 2 points of Survival. I'll spend six more and buy two points of Brawl, and then I have 3 remaining, so I'll buy a Specialization in Brawl (Grappling). 

That's all the numbers, now for the finishing touchés (as they say in French).

OK, then. Rémy Fournier is a recent recruit to the Musketeers. He's skilled with horses, an expert rider and horse trainer, and can perform some basic medical treatments on a wounded horse (that is, shoot them) if need be. He's got chestnut hair and rosy cheeks, but he's losing his boyish looks and getting more rugged day by day (some of it is that his facial hair is coming in darker). Rémy takes his duty as a Musketeer very seriously, and hopes that one day the King will ride one of his horses - that would be something special! 

I think I'd start playing Rémy with him having no real knowledge of the supernatural just so he can freak the fuck out when demons arrive, but I also think he'd rise to the occasion of leading scared or wounded troops on a desperate ride to safety later on. 

Et voila.

Movie #668: Eternals

Eternals is an MCU movie directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, and Bill Skarsgard. 

Forever ago, the Celestials created sent a bunch of super-weirdos to Earth to protect humanity, or so they say. Said weirdos are the Eternals, a group of immortal (rather, unaging) beings with superpowers who are there to kill Deviants and prevent them from eating everyone. Supposedly, the last ones died off in the 1500s and so the Eternals have been kinda moving around human society for 500 years, not really interfering in big ways, waiting for their boss Arishem (David Kaye) to let them go home to Olympia (their home planet, not the city in Washington). 

Except twist, there is no Olympia. Eternals were created not to shepherd or protect humanity, but just keep them breeding long enough to reach a certain population, whereupon the entire planet hatches and a new Celestial is born! 

All of that is really high-level stuff, however. The real meat of the movie is the interaction between the characters. Sersi (Chan) and Ikaris (Madden) were lovers for millennia, but he left when he learned what their real purpose on Earth was, knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep it from Sersi and that truth would shatter her. Thena (Jolie) is afflicted with a kind of dementia that causes her to attack the others occasionally, and so Gilgamesh (Lee) stays with her to protect her from herself. Druig (Keoghan) loves humanity but hates violence, and possesses the power to prevent it, but doing it involves mind control. Sprite (McHugh) is in love with Ikaris, and has the body of a young teenager...forever. 

And that's only half the main characters. 

Eternals has the dubious distinction of being the only MCU movie that has a "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While I don't necessarily put stock in reviews as an indicator of a movie's quality, I do think it's interesting that this is the one that didn't click with people (I mean, hell, Thor: The Dark World has 65%, while Eternals is stuck at 45%). I've been trying to put my finger on why, because I personally really like the movie. And I think it's a combination of things.

For one thing, it's really crowded. There are literally 11 of the titular Eternals, and none of them are characters that the MCU has depicted before so we have to be introduced to all of them. They've been around for more than 7000 years, which means there is a lot of history to go through. There's also a lot of MCU history and while the movie doesn't get bogged down in that, it does need to address the big questions (notably, "where the fuck these people been?"). And then there's the whole "the Earth is an egg" thing, which personally I think should have been a bigger deal. 

Also, it's a different tone than other MCU movies. Honestly, I think what Zhao and company were going for was the same kind of iconic, mythological take on superheroes that Zack Snyder tried (and failed) to achieve in some of the DCEU movies. The Eternals are a pantheon - they've even taken the roles of gods in human history - and that means that they fit into the world and its history different than, say, Thor, who also took the role of a god but had a childhood and development. There's some real nuance, there, and honestly I think the movie deals with it pretty well.

Partially that's because the performers are damn talented. The emotional turns don't get met with a quip or stony silence, they get met with tears and lashing out and real reactions. The major antagonist of Eternals isn't the power-stealing Deviant, Kro (Skarsgard), it's Ikaris, but he's only the antagonist because most of the other Eternals turn their backs on their mission. The movie is Shakespearean, even operatic, in its scope, and I think that MCU fans didn't always get on with that.

Of course, it's also the MCU movie that has two men kissing, a diverse cast of mostly non-white people, a Deaf superhero, and a sex scene (OMG! it's actually very tame, though), so who knows, maybe it's all shitheads bombing the reviews. I don't know. I think Eternals has a lot to recommend it, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the characters again. I also think it should have been a series, to give the characters a little more room to breathe. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium 

Next up: Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings

Atlantis: Another Night, Another Fight for Liberty

Here we are back in the land of Khem, as you might remember from last time.

The heroes wander in the desert like Moses, and as night falls they spot bonfires in the distance. As they get closer, they see multiple fires; Akala takes to the air and sees that there are four of them in total. The fires mark the corners of a big slave compound surrounding a marble quarry, and the slaves are lined up around the fires getting bowls of slop doled out. There's a larger building at the south end of the compound, probably the living quarters of the overseers. 

Akala lands and tells the characters this, and the consensus is, unsurprisingly, time to set this shit on fire and free the slaves. They start sneaking around the eastern edge, and Akala takes off again, as she's much stealthier in the air. But then someone shoots her with an arrow. 

She looks over and sees another Uluka nocking a second arrow. She whips her chakram at him and knocks him back a bit. The others start heading over towards where Akala attacked; at this point the slaves haven't really noticed anything amiss. Eithne shapeshifts into a viper and slithers towards the overseer building, figuring the others can sort this out and join her.

Akala swoops down and tackles her assailant, knocking him into the quarry. She grabs him by the neck-feathers and demands to know what is going on...but she recognizes him. His name is Cheech, an owl-man from the Hawk Legion who's been hunting Imani for a long time now (he was first mentioned back here). Cheech leans back and allows them both to drop into the quarry, and Akala doesn't feel like playing chicken. She lets go and they both swoop.

The other characters aren't idle, though - a band of mercenaries, all Andamen, attack, focusing on Imani. One of them, a Taurean, charges at her and rams her with his horns, but Thanos dips in and stabs him, pulling his focus away from Imani. The other four assassins appear and stab her, though, and then Cheech shoots her with an arrow. She rallies and stands up, giving a speech about how Andamen shouldn't be working for slavers and against each other...but though they pause, they don't lay down arms.

Meanwhile, Eithne gets to the other end of the compound, takes on her true form, and calls up fire. She sets the overseer house ablaze and the roof goes up immediately, and four people come charging out: A human in leathers (and clearly not a combatant); two Nemeans, a man and a woman, both obviously quite combat capable; and an Ahl-At-Rab. 

Akala takes the skies and yells to the slaves to throw off their chains, and they start murmuring amongst themselves - she's got enough fame that some of these unfortunate folks recognize her. The Ahl-At-Rab casts a spell and summons up a huge cloud of cipher scarabs from the quarry, forming them into a shield to protect himself and his fellows from the slaves. 

Eithne casts again, causing fire to leap out and engulf the human and the male Nemean. The human screams and runs, and the Nemean rolls on the group to put the fire out. The female Nemean, though, leaps down to Eithne's ledge in the quarry and slashes her open with a wicked double-edged blade. As her lifeblood drains away, Eithne casts another spell and causes the ground beneath the Nemean to slope, dropping her into the quarry. 

Back on the battlefield, Imani lops off one of her assailants' heads, and Thanos throws all of his power behind a fire spell and incinerates the other four. They start heading for the other end of the compound, but the Saurian diabolist gestures and sends the scarabs out to attack the slaves. Thanos belches up a cloud of smoke that causes the cipher scarabs' pinchers to fall off, allowing the slaves to burn and crush them. The male Nemean leaps into the quarry after the female, but Eithne collapses, bleeding...and changing.

Akala flies up and hurls her chakrams at the Saurian, but they glance off his harmlessly. Thanos calls up an immense jackal head and it bites at the guy, and he pauses, and then melts into the sand. The heroes find Eithne and Akala starts patching her up, and Thanos peeks into the quarry and sees the male Nemean cradling the female's head in his hands. "Help me," he growls.

Thanos ponders, but agrees, and helps them get to the surface. Akala checks the woman over and confirms that she's going to live, and the male offers his paw. "Jengo," he says, and then points to the woman. "Iset, my wife."

He looks to the others and says that he won't apologize for being a warrior, but that he bears them no ill will or hostility. Imani tells him he needs to get a better job, and he concedes that Khem has gotten weird lately. The heroes spread out and start getting the wounded whatever attention they need, and they learn that recently, a large number of slaves from here were sent to Haru-Seti, the holy city. The slaves that were sent, though, were the elderly, the infirm, and the unruly. That, the heroes realize, can't be good.

They get some rest, and in the morning the slaves offer them the pasty gruel they eat - it's not much, but it's what they have. The heroes gratefully accept, except that for Eithne, this doesn't look like food. She can't even stomach it. She goes looking around to see what does look like food, and horribly, she winds up at the building where the wounded are kept. The only thing that seems to make her hungry is fresh blood. Apparently, her near-death experience changed her more than she realized...

Character Creation: Cuticorium

I've got 250+ games on my "make a character for this" list, and I'm adding new ones all the time as games come in on Kickstarter or I buy bundles or whatever. I don't have any particular method or order for picking which ones to do. Mostly it comes down to a) I'm trying to get at least 6 a month in, b) I try to do games I have in PDF more often because I have so many more of them (again, bundles), and c) I try to strike some kind of balance between games I'm really interested in reading, games I actively do not want to touch, and games that I don't care about one way or the other. 

Most of the time, when I pick a game, I'll ask my friends on Discord to pick one off the list or pick a letter or whatever. And then sometimes I'll get a yen to do a horror game, or a PbtA game, or I'll feel like I've got the mental fortitude to do a game I might find mildly triggering. 

This particular game, however, I picked because the little green sticker I put on my game books to indicate I haven't done a character yet just won't stay on. So that's your occasional peek into my brain. OOOOOH SCARY. 

The Game: Cuticorium
The Publisher: usducktape
Degree of Familiarity: None; it's kinda PbtA, but mostly not
Books Required: Just the one

 

In Cuticorium, you play a bug living in the titular settlement. The longer bugs stay here, the more intelligent and empathetic they get. In fact, while you're there, you can't actually harm other bugs (which keeps the spiders from eating everyone, so that's handy). "Bug" here is used in the colloquial rather than scientific sense, as characters can be all kinds of creepy-crawlies. 

I said before that it's kinda PbtA. Taking into account that PbtA is more a design philosophy than a system, Cuticorium uses moves and has a fail/partial success/full success breakdown, but there's no real variation in the moves. The currency in Cuticorium is Webs - you have Webs on others, on locations, and on yourself, and those self-applied Webs also act as your health (as in, you run out, you panic and if you roll a 1 during Panic, you dead). All of the moves have different flavor text (very slightly different, in some cases) but mechanically they all do basically the same thing: They shift Webs around. 

Anyway, that's not a complaint or a recommendation, just a thing. I remember while reading the book feeling like it has a lot of potential but feels a little thin. Although the artwork is goddamn fantastic, so that's cool. Let's make a bug!

No character creation step-by-step, no character creation example, boo. I mean, it's simple enough, but without the instruction I always feel like I'm probably missing something. F'rex, the book says there are three main types of bug (predator, plant-eater, and decomposer), so I figured that might be like a playbook, but those types aren't mentioned again after they're first introduced. 

Well, anyway, I wanna play a dragonfly because I love them. My dragonfly's name is Zhoum (after the noise it makes when a dragonfly divebombs - ZHOOME!). I get two Features, and obviously one of them needs to be Wings (as an aside, Features restrict the kinds of moves other bugs can make on you, which is cool, except it does seem like a lot to keep track of).

Now, I can pick whatever Features I want, whether or not any real-life bug has this combination, and I want Zhome to be a showy daredevil, so I'm gonna take Stridulation as my second one. That allows me to make music with my body, which I think Zhome does by zooming and dipping through the air (so he's kind of a living kazoo, I guess). 

I need a Desire and a Shame, both born of the self-awareness that comes with entering Cuticorium. I feel like Zhome's desire needs to be related to recognition or fame. I think I'll say it's "to be a famous hero," which is nicely broad. As for his Shame, dragonflies are vicious fuckers, so I'll say Zhome ate larvae, tadpoles, and any other helpless infants he could find on the outside. 

(Aaaaaand there's no slot for these on the character sheet. Must not be that important!)

Anything else? Oh, yeah, starting Webs. I start with 3 on myself (which I only verified by first watching a review video of the game, and then downloading the plaintext version because the goddamn PDF isn't searchable). I would technically get 1 Web on whatever location we start in, but y'know. What about possessions? There's a slot for it. Nope, not mentioned in the book. 

Oh, wait, Panic Move! When in a Panic, this is the only move I can make. Well, I think Panic probably makes my daredevil aggressive, so I think either Challenge or Scar are the best bets. I think I'll go with Challenge.

And that's pretty much it! It's a shame, I like this game and it's gorgeous, but I don't know if it's complete enough to be worth my while to put out as an option to my groups.