Character Creation: D&D 4th

Yep, we're doing this today. 

BUT FIRST: I want you to back this Kickstarter. You back the KS, you get to see me make a D&D character. We're on the honor system, here. 

(Why back the KS? Because Liz' first game, Witch: Fated Souls was pretty damn inspired and I've been really looking forward to her next one. Because this game involves everyone having their own animal companion. Because it's good to support diverse game designers. Because "Angry Hamster" is a fantastic company name. Pick a reason.)

Anyway, on we go. 

The Game: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

The Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Degree of Familiarity: Almost none with this edition; I played it once not long after it came out and I wasn't impressed, but then I never am with D&D. 

Books Required: I think just the Player's Handbook to make a character. 

 

So, I bag on D&D a lot, because it's kinda boring, but I actually do like 4th ed more than the others. 4th gets some grief because it's arranged like an MMO or a board game, but like...yeah. That's what D&D is, it's a board game with some light roleplaying thrown in. Sure, I know that you roleplayed the shit out of your D&D game, but roleplaying isn't baked into the rules, it's all about the orcs or whatever, so a game edition that leans into that style of play is, I though, somewhat refreshing. Also my limited experience was that magic-users are actually worth the time it takes to make them in this edition. 

Character creation has nine stages, which the book tells me I can approach in any order. I'm fine with doing them as presented. 

There is literally no setting info in this book. None. Jeez.

Anyway, first up, I choose Race. Just going on the brief little descriptors in the character creation rundown, I like the look of Dragonborn, so I'm gonna go with that. 

Class is next, and I already know I want to make a Warlock. 

Ability scores are next, and y'know, a lot of times I make it hard on myself, but I'm feeling easy today so I'm gonna use the standard array. That means I get 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10 to divvy up. 

Well, I'm told that Constitution is useful for warlocks, so I'll put my 16 there. Having a feeble dragonborn doesn't make any sense, so I'll throw 14 into Strength and 12 into Dexterity. I'll put my 14 into Charisma, my 11 into Wisdom, and that leaves Intelligence as my dump stat at 10 (geez, two kinda slow characters in a row, I'll have to make a genius tomorrow). 

Guess I should add in the racial bonuses and stuff. OK, as a dragonborn, I get a bonus to Strength and Charisma. Groovy. That puts my scores to 15 and 16, respectively. Also means I get a +2 to History and +1 to Intimidate. 

Looking under the Warlock write-up, I get to pick an eldritch pact. I don't really want to be fey or infernal, but star pact sounds pretty cool. That means I get the dire radiance spell, and I get the Fate of the Void pact boon (if a creature dies under my curse, I get a bonus to actions. Brutal). 

OK, I kinda got lost for a minute here. I'm sure it tells me somewhere that I get two at-will powers and one each daily and encounter, but buggered if I can find where it says that. Oh, wait, now I see it, it's in a damn chart. Fucking D&D. Anyway, since I'm here, I'll take Witchfire as my encounter power, and Cure of the Dark Dream as my daily. 

Skills, I guess. I get four trained skills from list. I think I'll take Insight, Intimidate, Arcana (keys off of Intelligence but I feel like I should know something about magic) and Streetwise. And that's apparently it. Holy shit, that's so much simpler than 3rd. Also, I note that with my Charisma bonus, I am intimidating as fuck. 

Feats! Actually just one, so "foot", I guess. (Tee-hee.) Hmm. Mostly these are about combat (doy), so the Improved Fate of the Void is tempting. But actually, I think I'm gonna go with Skill Training and be trained in Bluff because it's in-concept. 

Next step is equipment...ugh. I do so hate shopping in RPGs. I'm gonna skip it. If I was actually going to play this guy I'd do it.

Fill in numbers. Hang on, I'll do that. Oh, wait, to figure out AC I have to know what type of armor. Let's say leather armor. I'm sure I have 25 gold lying around. 

So, beyond that, just the boring roleplaying stuff. You know, the stuff that good games put front and center (fight me). I need a name, and the book gives me a helpful smattering of dragonborn names, so I pick "Donaar," sounds appropriately fantasy-ish. The book says that dragonborn live about as long as humans, so we'll say Donaar is 23, because I want him to be in a "me" phase. His alignment is "unaligned," and I'll say that Donaar pays lip service to the ancient dragon god of his people, but really...

...really, Donaar is something of a con artist or a budding cult leader (I mean, he doesn't have followers, but still). He managed to half-ass his way through training as a warlock, charming and intimidating and bluffing as need be. He knows some magic, sure, but it's not like that's hard. Donaar is just out for number one.

Except...he is a warlock, and he's got a star pact. He's seen what lies beyond the stars in his dreams. He knows what the gods do when no one's looking, and he knows that the "ancient dragon god" that the dragonborn revere is a hell of a lot hungrier and darker than anyone knows. He's either going to need to buckle down and get serious about this "warlock" thing or take his training elsewhere before he blunders into something he really can't handle. 

Donaar is about 6'3" and 225lbs, about average for a dragonborn. His scales are rust-colored, darkening to a deep, old-blood red around his forearms and legs. His breath weapon is bright, white fire. Donaar looks a lot scarier than he actually is; he's got a cold, black-hole gaze in his eyes and a faraway, uncaring manner when he wants it. 

There ya go! 

Character Creation: TimeZero

How many goddamn blog posts are you gonna make today, Matt!?

AT LEAST ONE MORE.

The Game: TimeZero
The Publisher: GRAmel Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game in particular, but it's Savage Worlds, which I know pretty well
Books Required: The TimeZero book and the Savage Worlds core

 

OK, so! The central idea here is that folks work for the Timeguard, which travels through time to stop other time travelers from fucking up the continuum. This is a pretty...I don't want to say obvious setup, but like, if I said you worked for "Timeguard" and you were familiar with sci-fi at all, that's what you'd assume you did, right? But the setting info is pretty nicely put together, it's detailed enough to feel like you could jump right, and what I think is really cool is that the characters can come from any era. You just have to be not-famous and someone who doesn't have a lot of connections, so that you can just disappear.

With that in mind, I'm asked first to choose a Background. Having just watched the new Jumanji movie again, I'm kinda inspired by Nick Jonas' character, the rascal/pilot sort of fella. I don't necessarily want to make a pilot, but I do like his kinda rogue-like set of expertise (Michelle pointed out that when they're in the tunnels, he's the one telling the others how to avoid traps). The Background that's closest to is "Outlaw," but it's not like Background has a mechanical effect anyway.

Next up is Origin, which also doesn't have a direct mechanical effect, but is important - it's what era I'm from. I kinda want my character to have been supposed to be present (and killed) at some big famous disaster, but not to be famous himself. The Hindenburg is one possibility, but it was coming from Germany...actually, what the heck, I can make this work.

Brutus "Butch" Hagen was a small-time booze-runner and thug in the New York mafia. He made some money during the Prohibition years, but when the 18th Amendment was repealed, he found his prospects drying up (ironically), and his old bosses were largely either dead or in prison. He figured he was next - booze might be legal again but shooting people wasn't - so he figured he'd flee to Germany and live with his cousins there (the fact that he was fleeing to Germany in 1937 is perhaps evidence that Butch is not the most forward-thinking of cats, but never mind). Officially, Butch disappeared on May 6, 1937, but authorities of the time know he had a ticket to take the Hindenburg's return flight to Frankfurt. The thinking is that he either died when the thing crashed (in real life there was only one ground casualty, but hey) or that he fled the country via other means. He was never a big priority, so case closed.

Except that what really happened is that Butch got recruited to be a Timeguard. What the hell, beats shaking people down for protection money.

My race is "human", of course, so I get a free Edge. That's later, though. At present, let's do Attributes. Standard array, d4 in each plus 5 points to divvy up. I'm gonna leave Smarts at d4 (again, Butch is not the smartest of folks). I'll pump Agility, Spirit, and Vigor to d6 and Strength to d8; Butch is a pretty big guy.

Skills, then, I get 15 points. Driving, Fighting, Gambling, Guts, Intimidation, Shooting, Streetwise, Throwing...sounds good. Yeah, I'm gonna break my usual rule and eschew Notice. I'll bump them all to d6 except Gambling (he knows how, he's just not terribly good).

Hindrances, then, because (say with me, y'all!) derived traits go at the end! OK, I'm totally taking the Recruit Hindrance (I'm the new guy and that causes some problems for me). I'm gonna take Greedy (I mean, consider his life). And then I think I'll take Vengeful as a Major Hindrance. Business is business, but you make it personal and Butch is gonna cut you.

Right, then I get one free Edge. None of the Edges in the TimeZero book really make sense, so back to basics. Well, Brawny seems to fit, so there.

Now I get 4 points. This is something of a conundrum; I had planned on raising Agility and then putting up some of my Skills, but see, there's this thing called Hypnotraining - I pick an Edge and two Skills that I can swap out via hypnosis. It does not make sense for Brawny to be a hypnoedge, because like, I don't get smaller if I'm sent to a different time, so I really should blow two points and buy another Edge. Hrm.

OK, well, you know what, I'll take Berserk. Ties in with Vengeful; Butch kinda goes nuts if you hit him. That'll be a good Hypnoedge, too, so I don't have to use it all the time. And then with my other two points, I'll jack Fighting up to d8. I'll tag Fighting and Driving as my Hypnoskills; not every mission requires Butch to punch things, though not knowing how he finds deeply uncomfortable.

Derived traits, then: Charisma 0, Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6. Gear we skip because it's boring, and that's me done!

Movie #447: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a kinda-sorta sequel to 1995's Jumanji, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Alex Wolff, Ser'Derius Blain, Madison Iseman, and Morgan Turner. It's better than it has any right to be.

In 1996, Alex Vreeke (Mason Guccione) is given the Jumanji board game after his father finds it while jogging. He immediately discards it, so it turns itself into a video game cartridge. Playing it, naturally, sucks in Alex and then...

...cut to 20 years later. Alex has become a local urban legend, but the kids at the local high school have their own issues. Spencer (Wolff) is trying to get back together with his former buddy Fridge (Blain), Fridge is trying to bolster his grade by having Spencer write his papers, Bethany (Iseman) is coping with boyfriend troubles and being a phone-addict butthead, and Martha (Turner) is acting out by not participating in gym class. All four get sent to detention where they find the old video game console, choose characters and get sucked into...Jumanji.

Of course, when they emerge, they've taken the forms of their characters, so nerdy/fearful Spencer is now Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson), nerdy/abrasive Martha is now Ruby Roundhouse (Gillan), athletic/not-terribly-academic Fridge is now "Mouse" Finbar (Hart), and beautifuly/self-absorbed Bethany is now Prof. Sheldon Oberon (Black). The four must complete the game before losing all three of their lives in order to get home.

Which sounds like a pretty standard kids-movie set-up - it's really the same as the original, except that the action takes place in a video game so we don't have to worry about the cops and parents and people on the outside world getting rhino'd, so that's cool. Bobby Cannavale shows up to play Russel Van Pelt, an appropriately gross and menacing villain who's taken control of the beasts of Jumanji. Rhys Darby, who my family knows from Voltron, is the NPC guide that expositions them. All is well.

Except...holy shit, the performances. Jack Black is the absolutely standout, playing Bethany trapped in an unfamiliar body, and I want to note for a moment the absolutely fucking train wreck that setup could have been. Instead, no one ever refers to Bethany as a man. Not once. She says that she's "in the body of an overweight middle-aged man," and she responds with gleeful fascination to having a penis, but never once do any other characters make fun of her situation. Likewise, there's a moment in the movie where she has to give mouth-to-mouth to another (male) character (Nick Jonas playing Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonogh, the avatar that Alex chose when he entered the game). Instead of being played as "ew, gay," which is one hundred percent likely what would have happened if this movie had been made before the year 2000 (being generous), it's a tense moment that allows Bethany to be the hero.

Likewise, Fridge's experience is interesting. He's an athlete who's portrayed as having some trouble in school, but then his character in the game is a zoologist. He's obviously not used to being the guy who knows things, and he comes to embrace that by the end of the movie.

If I'm disappointed in anything, it's Martha. We get a little slice of life for the other three teens, but we don't see Martha until class is already in session, and we never really get a look at what she's about other than "nerd girl." Likewise, her arc never really goes anywhere except inasmuch as she admits to a mutual crush on Spencer, which is nicely handled, but I'd still like to see a little more about who she is when she's not mouthing off to gym teacher.

In general, though, the movie is funny, touching at points, and avoids the lazy, problematic shit that it very much could have done.

My grade: A
Rewatch value: High

Next up: Kong: Skull Island

Blades in the Dark: Scoundrels on a Train

I actually ran this game Monday night and I really should do write-ups the next day but Tuesday sucked and then Wednesday was worse, but today I feel a little more like myself again, so I suppose I should do some bloggin' before something else kicks me in the fucking teeth.

(I miss Livejournal.)

Anyway! Last time, the scoundrels learned about a score involving stealing "virgin" spirit bottles from a supply train coming into Gaddoc Station. Figuring this seemed like a pretty sweet gig, they got to work doing some intel.

They figured that the biggest payoff would be to hit the train before it hit the station, but that left them with the choice between trying to get to the train outside the spark-wall (which got a collective "fuuuuuuuuck that", and as an aside, I really like it when the setting is defined enough and the players are thinking enough like their characters that they recognize that something is a bad idea, even if it's profitable) and hitting it once it crosses the wall but before it gets to the station. The latter is objectively safer, but it gives them a very small window of space and time in which to act. Clearly they need an angle.

Delving into the particulars, they learn that it's the Ministry of Preservation and the Rail Jacks they're going to have to deal with. The Ministry is pretty tough and has a fleet of ships meant to guard cargo vessels at its disposal, and the Rail Jacks are armed guards on the train. The fleet, though, won't actually be at the river site where the train goes through; they're stationed at the docks. That means a distraction. The most efficient route to the site is past Ironhook Prison.

The scoundrels figure that their best bet to unloading the train is to stop it, but for that they need a sparkwright. Siren goes down to the docks and hires Bell, a sparkwright who worked on a Leviathan Hunter vessel. Bell is a decent enough chap, very dedicated and principled (not interested in killing folks for a few coin), but, like One-Eye, he's also a big fan of intoxicants. He meets up with the scoundrels to plan, and mentions that if there's a riot or an escape at Ironhook, the waters near the prison are closed to all boat traffic, including the Ministry's vessels. If those vessels had to get to Gaddoc and couldn't go through that section of the river, they'd have to go through the city (which they won't, because that would piss off the Gondoliers) or go around the city (which triples their response time because the waterways are narrower). There's the in.

Copper pays a visit to Ulf Ironbeard and talks him into starting a riot in the prison; he's got some boys still inside (Copper made friends with them when she was in last month). It costs her some Coin up front, but he agrees.

The scoundrels synch up their plan. Bell is going to shut off the power to the train just as the train passes through the spark-wall, and the riot at the prison starts. That should give the crew enough time to get onto the train and get the cargo out and onto their boat. Copper goes with Bell as a bodyguard.

We start out the score in kind of a bad situation, though. Bell and Copper enter the spark tower, but there are four guards right there. Copper, fortunately, is a badass, and can take them down - she drops the mechanical lighting apparatus on their heads and electrocutes them (non-fatally!). Unfortunately, doing so without injury stresses her out, and she takes Trauma. She's out for now.

The power goes out and spark-wall flickers, but remains up. The other three scoundrels hit the now-stationary train, as sirens go up in the distance at Ironhook - Ulf is as good as his word. One-Eye opens the hatch on the train as Rail Jacks jump out to see what's happening. She tosses a smoke bomb to cover Siren and Cage, and drops down...right between two Rail Jacks. She darts them with a sleeping drug and gets to work pouring drift oil around on the cargo crates.

Outside, Rail Jacks are pulled out weapons, but Siren flies down out of the smoke and beats two of them unconscious. Cage tries the same thing, but the Jacks are armored, and engage him, calling for backup. Siren strikes one with knives (non-fatally!) and draws her pistol on the other, ordering them to stand down. The train starts to lurch to life, but One-Eye hits the wheels with binding oil, locking it in place.

Cage jumps back on the train to hook up a pulley system to get the now-floating crates down to the boat. The crew gets to work, but there are boats approaching. They get the crates on and take off down the river, but the Ministry vehicles attack. One-Eye manages to lash down the cargo, and Siren tries to steer the ship but they take some hits. They fall back on alchemy again, tossing out a blackout potion to give them some cover. In flashback, we see that they've arrange with Copper's cousin Georg to store the stuff in his warehouse on the waterfront, so the crew pulls the ship in there.

A Ministry ship approaches and asks to see papers, which of course they have (forged, but hey). The Ministry dude isn't quite buying it, though, and starts to call for help. One-Eye hits him with a trance dart and Siren leads him back to his ship, kinda dazed, and the scoundrels fade away.

The downtime on this one is interesting - they come away with a pretty big score (20 Coin!), but they have a lot of people to pay off. They have to compensate Georg, Ulf, and Bell, and they also give a little Coin to the Gondoliers to try and smooth of their somewhat trouble relationship. They also wind up on the Ministry's shit list, and with some bad rep with the Rail Jacks, but for once they didn't kill anyone, so that helps. The Bluecoats pick up Georg for questioning, but he takes their abuse like a stand-up guy and doesn't roll on the crew, so the crew ends up with enough Coin to pursue their various interests, sock a little away for a rainy day, and outfit their boat as a cohort.

And in the background, the wheels of Doskovol keep turning...

Character Creation: 1001 Nights

I'm on spring break this week. I'm gonna try to do a character every day. If I can manage that, I'll be four weeks ahead of myself (remember I'm trying to do one character a week; right now I'm a couple behind).

As always, I'm happy to take requests. The list is here. For today, though:

The Game: 1001 Nights
The Publisher: Night Sky Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, I just read it.
Books Required: Just the one.

1001 Nights has some similarity to A Tragedy in Five Acts; it's about metanarrative, but also about the story of Scheherazade and the Arab culture in which that story happens. The game encourages tailoring the evening to fit the game and gives a bunch of suggestions about what kinds of food and drink would go with it. The opening to the game also includes this lovely sentiment:

Without meaning to wax poetic, learning about other cultures provides insight into our own, showing us what we take for granted and how it might be different. RPGs can present a way to gain that insight, and I think games like 1001 Nights (or New Fire, or Edhrigor, or even Cartel, if you think about it) can present some of that insight. And we could talk about the dangers of writing about a culture if you're not from that culture, or about the fact that white American dudes like me might find it easier to make up a culture than to cast a critical eye on their own, but we don't need to do that today.

Anywhichway, in making a character here we're making a Courtier, a character who at some point during the evening gets to be the GM (rather, the storyteller) and cast the other Courtiers as characters within a story. I like that idea a whole lot; I actually did something very much like this some years back when I ran a Deadlands Xmas special in which the PCs were listening to a Russian fable and took on roles within it.

Be that as it may, my first job here is to choose a general concept. There's a list, and one of the options is "the Falconer," which I really like, so that's my Courtier. Next up I need a name and a rough age. My falconer's name is Cassim, and he's a young man. I could give him a last name, but I don't think it's necessary. Oh, actually, I'll say he's called Cassim al-Walid (the newcomer) - the old falconer found him during a hunt and took him on as an apprentice.

Now I give my character "flesh," by putting down a sentence for each of five senses (hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch). These don't have to be the senses I engender; "hearing" could be something about how I hear or how I sound, f'rex.

Hearing: My voice cracks if I become angry or embarrassed
Sight: I am often staring at something miles away
Smell: The scent of fresh meat repulses me
Taste: My lips taste of honey
Touch: My fingers are light and deft

Next I'm to consider clothes. I think Cassim wears a red kaftan, though it's now fading a bit (it's old; his mentor gave it to him). He wears a thick leather glove on his right hand when he's training or working with the birds, and he wears a white taqiyah (working around birds, it's good to wear a hat).

Next I'd note down what I Envy about the other Courtiers, but it's just me so I'll skip that. My Ambition can key off an Envy, but it can also key off a sense, so I'll do that. Cassim's Ambition is to become respected, steady, and well-regarded - to speak with authority (that is, his voice doesn't crack anymore).

And for purposes of chargen, that seems to be it!

Character Creation: Cartel (Ashcan)

I'm cooking oxtails tonight, which is groovy, but they take a while and I got a late start, so I'ma make a quick character while they get tender.

The Game: Cartel (Ashcan version)
The Publisher: Magpie Games
Degree of Familiarity: I played it this past weekend at Breakout, and I'm pretty familiar with the PbtA system in general.
Books Required: Just the one.

Cartel, now Kickstarting and crushing it, as the kids say, is a Powered by the Apocalypse game of "Mexican Narcofiction."

This is a somewhat controversial decision - the author, Mark Diaz Truman, is of Mexican-American descent, but he's caught some flak for making this explicitly Mexican RPG about the drug cartels. And, like, fair enough - that's a controversial decision. Likewise, playing this game with a table full of white dudes (or at least, non-Mexican folks, which is what happened when I played at Breakout - several POC but no Hispanic or Latin folks, to my knowledge) runs afoul of questions of appropriately and sensitively portraying someone not of your own race. Put a different way, I have been playing horror games set in urban environments for a long, long time, and I've seen way too many folks put on a Speedy Gonzalez accent to play a Mexican "gangster" when they wouldn't ever dare try and speak AAVE to portray a black one. Also, there comes a question of glorification - when is it appropriate, if ever, to take a real situation in which people are suffering and dying and make entertainment of it?

I do not have answers to these questions. I am white as fuck, anyway, so I'm really not the one to be answering them . I do have some experience with putting out difficult subject matter and saying "here, roleplay this," but who knows how successful that's been (and it's about very different topics anyway).

But my general opinion is that games like this have a place, and PbtA is a good place for them, because those games are explicitly about a conversation. This subject matter is hard, yes, but that's not a reason to avoid it. It just means that safety mechanics, and focusing in on what the game is really about (to wit: it's violent, but it's not about violence in the way that, say, D&D is) are important.

With all of that in mind, I should make a fucking character and stop jabbering. I downloaded the Quickstart to get the awesome artwork on the playbooks, and now I gotta pick one.

Hmm. I played El Cocinero at Breakout, and that was OK (really, there were some issues with that game, but I think it was mostly down to the environment and the nature of one-shots and players who aren't familiar with PbtA). I think this time I would like El Halcón.

El halcón (the hawk) is the errand runner and guy who does stuff out on the street. I think I want to play a character not unlike Henry Hill at the beginning of Goodfellas (I know, wrong organized crime group, but bear with me) - he fell into service at a young age and he's really not old enough to understand the weight of his actions. I'm gonna name him Toño.

For his look, I pick tired eyes and street clothes. He's got a destitute lifestyle (for now!).

For stats, I'll add my extra one to Hustle. That puts me over to llaves (keys). I'll take Ambition (I mark XP when I get someone to give me a job that was supposed to go to someone else) and Naiveté (I mark XP when I enter a dangerous situation unprepared).

I can't really do los enlaces because that would require a group, so I'll skip it.

Moves: I get Hermano (I lead my little gang) and then two more. I'll take Vendedor (I can mark stress to make someone pick a different option in making a deal if they pick one I don't like) and Matador (I can fill my stress track to kill a motherfucker). Clever readers will notice this gives me multiple ways to fill my stress track, which will reward the kind of roleplaying I enjoy (better to burn out than fade away!).

Tu Pandilla: I have three loyal buddies that came up with me on the streets. They're named Azul, Nacho, and Lola. Of those three: Nacho is always ready to cheer me up when shit goes down, Azul is a dick but I don't seem to be able to get rid of him, and Lola is always ready to kick ass when need be.

I get two features for mi pandilla. Oh, this is easy. We're down to fight and we're down to party. I can roll on Hustle to get lost in a substance or to rough someone up if we all do it together. Shit, yeah.

But then I get two vulnerabilities. Well, addiction, obviously. And then I think I'll take turf war. That sounds like it falls in line with Toño's general vibe.

OK, then. Toño is tall, slim, and dirty, but he hates being dirty. It's just that water is expensive and he had a lot of brothers and sisters, and he never got to wash up as much as he wanted. As soon as he makes it, man, he's getting a house in that new section of town they're building, and he's getting one big-ass shower put in.

And that'll do it!

Promethean: Day Two in the Parp

It's "parp" now. It'll always be parp.

Last time, the throng got stuck at the parp while Enoch worked on the RV's engine. The rest of the throng collectively discovered that something that local spirits called the "All-Bane" had followed them there, and so they were understandably concerned about that bit. They went to Enoch to include him in the conversation (now that his player was back), and Grimm took him to see the weird-ass tree with the swiped-off Pilgrim Mark. Enoch studied and noted that it contained Flux and Pyros in almost equal measure, but zeroing in on either was impossible - the signature seemed to shift. It wasn't the work of a Centimanus (which Enoch would have recognized). Maybe a mage?

The Prometheans regrouped and talked a bit about it, and about their next moves. They made the connected between the mysterious "All-Bane" and Rock, the weird not-human guy that Enoch had spoken to some time back in the hotel. Matt figured that the guy he'd seen running through the woods might be Rock, but he hadn't gotten a good look.

They realized that Virgil was not among them, but they could feel him - he was just a little ways off. Matt followed him into the woods and found Virgil standing by a creek staring into the water, but there was a second set of footprints next to him. Matt asked about it, but Virgil was standoffish and reticent, and said he needed to be alone for a bit. Matt accepted this, but then dampened his Azoth and followed at a distance. He saw Virgil talking to a man sitting on a fallen tree, and the man encouraged Virgil to leave the throng behind. "They're much farther ahead than you," said the man. When they were done talking, the man collapsed in on himself and vanished.

Matt talked to Virgil, and Virgil told him that he needed to split from the throng for a while. Matt told him he was always welcome back and to send up a flare if he needed them, and Virgil walked off. The others had felt Matt's fire dampen, and since there's a bad history with that, everyone except Avalon went off to find him. They found him, and Matt told them what had happened, but it didn't go well - Matt didn't mention the strange man he'd seen talking to Virgil and the others assumed that Matt had told Virgil that it was OK to leave, and while they understood the impetus to be alone, they were upset that Virgil hadn't said goodbye. Some harsh words were exchanged, Enoch socked Matt in the head so Avalon wouldn't have to, and the throng split up.

In the meanwhile, though, Avalon had been hanging around outside the RV. A young man walked up and asked to play with her cats, and then when he touched one, its fur poofed up - much like when Skip does it. Avalon talked to him, and he dropped some fairly cryptic hints, making her figure him to be a qashmal. He said he didn't have a name and wasn't likely to need one; he would be recycled when he was done with this little mission. She said it was important to have a name - maybe he'd remember it. He told her that she wasn't Deviant-ing very well, and she said she knew, but she was having a hard time figuring it out. He said that the laws of humans weren't really something she had a lot of familiarity or connection to, but Prometheans had their own "laws" (norms, really) and maybe transgressing against those was better? She'd been told to avoid Ollie, for instance, after that whole debacle. Avalon agreed and thanked him, calling him "Milo." Milo collapsed in upon himself and vanished, and Avalon called Ollie (she got his voicemail and left a message).

Feather got back to the RV and talked to Avalon, and told her what had happened with Virgil. They tearfully talked about their experiences with throng members leaving and coming back - Feather said she hadn't been sad about Skip flying off the mountain or the throng splitting for a time or Grimm going off alone or even her time by herself, but she was sad for Virgil because she didn't really believe he wanted to be alone. In the midst of this conversation, they felt Virgil break the throng-bond.

Skip, meantime, went over to the playground to give Avalon and Feather some space (he's not great with people or emotions) and wound up talking to a little boy with a video game...who almost immediately implied himself to be a qashmal. He asked Skip what he was going now, where he was going on his Pilgrimage next, and Skip said he was going to go out among people and try Aurum. The qashmal said that he was apparently ahead of the curve, then, and collapsed in upon himself and vanished.

Matt went walking angrily in the woods. He found a set of footprints - big ones, boots - and followed them kind of half-heartedly. He found someone (far too small to be the one leaving the prints) waiting for him, carving an angel into a tree. He watched for a minute, and then laughed, saying that this was perhaps a bit on the nose, and the man spoke to him ("Finally!"). The man had cat's eyes, and Matt guessed he was the cat from before, which the man confirmed - it became clear that the man (or qashmal?) couldn't offer information so much as confirm it. They talked and the man confirmed that the thing that had been talking to Virgil was the "All-Bane," not a qashmal - he had been the qashmal but had been disrupted, and now was in this form and limited in what he could do. He led Matt through some questions and conclusions, notably that he was different in some way than the others, and that difference might hold the key to figuring out how to beat the All-Bane. At one point he offered information and his hand burst into flame as he wept - offering information directly cost him. He reminded Matt that he hadn't told Virgil to leave - that had been the All-Bane. When they were finished talked, the qashmal burned, collapsing forward and burning to ash.

Matt walked on, following the footprints, and found a makeshift hut. Inside, he found Lurch (his Azoth also dampened). They talked momentarily, and Lurch told him that he'd followed the Refinement of Phosphorus after finding an Athanor teaching it, but had failed to understand it and was losing hope. Matt realized that although he'd looked up to Lurch - regarded him as a creator and kind of parent - Lurch was hurting, confused, and lost, and Matt was in a much better place. In that he found his projectio milestone (Confront Lurch), and brought him back to meet the throng.

Feather, meantime, we in the RV, feeding the cats, and found herself talking to a man in a yarmulke who called himself Isaac. Feather expressed distrust - she used Heed the Call to take his Measure and found that instead of a Pilgrimage, he had the opposite of that, just a cold, dark pit instead of any relation to humanity. Isaac asked if he gave her some help achieving a milestone if that would help her trust him, and she agreed (it was more than most qashmallim did). He told her to think about her experiences with faith and community and apply them.

The Prometheans regrouped, and decided to find Virgil and make sure he wanted to be alone. Grimm tracked him through the woods, and they found him in the cardboard recycling dumpster outside a local Popeye's. He agreed that he didn't really want to be apart, but the man - the All-Bane - had convinced him. The throng took him back, and they bought a bunch of food and beer and went back to the RV. Feather gave a toast and said a prayer (achieving a milestone: lead a prayer...so Isaac's advice kinda panned out), and the throng ate, reunited. They offered Lurch to join, but he said he had some things to figure out. He wanted to talk to Grimm, for one, since Grimm had achieved a Role on Phosphorum.

More to come!