Character Creation: Bones Deep

Sounds dirty, dunnit? It's not, though.

The Game: Bones Deep
The Publisher: Technical Grimoire
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: I think just the one, though I have a pdf of Troika! handy

 

In Bones Deep, you play a skeleton exploring the ocean. The idea is that once you die, your skeleton "hatches" and goes exploring, and the ocean's a great place for it because it's not like a skeleton needs air or food. The game is really goddamn weird, but perhaps less so than Troika! itself (which it's based on). 

I love deep sea stuff, and so this game was pretty enchanting to me right off. First thing we need to do is pick which kind of skeleton I want to be. Not species, more in terms of goals and dreams. Told you, it's weird. I think I will be a Keeper. That means I have sea creatures living in and around me, and I can command them if I can give them treats. 

OK, having picked that, I roll 1d3+3 for my starting Skill (again, not a skill, but a trait called Skill). Ugh, rolled a 1, so my Skill is only 4. 

2d6+12 for starting Stamina gives me 19. 1d6+6 for starting Luck gives me 10. 

And then I pick a Drive. There's one on the sheet (whenever you successfully command a creature you heal), but I dunno. I think I want to train and communicate more than command. So let's say whenever I figure out what a creature likes, I (and the creature) recover 1d6 Stamina and I get 1d6 Luck. 

My list of possessions says that two random creatures follow me as henchman, and wouldn't you know it, there are a bunch of creatures in this book, as well as a handy d66 table to roll on. So I roll...25 or 52 (I can read these either way) and 41 or 14. Let's see what that translates to.

25 is "dusky damselfish." 52 is "ripsaw catfish." 14 is "barreleye". 41 is "humboldt squid." 

Well, shit, I know I want the squid. His name is Ablert (yes, that's spelled right). Ablert wants to be friends with everything in the ocean. 

For the other fish frand, I'll take the dusky damselfish. Their name is Lyle. Lyle has a Scrappy-Doo type of personality (but less annoying), quite willing to pick a fight with something several times their size. I imagine Ablert has had to yank Lyle out of the jaws of a much bigger fish more than once. 

My skeleton's name is Chovy. Chovy has kelp growing from his arms and it's not uncommon for smaller fish to swim into his eyes if scared. Ablert often spends time wrapped around and through Chovy's ribs, but Lyle swims out ahead to make sure the way is clear. 

And that'll do it! Into the ocean!

Character Creation: Our Haunt

Love is kinda crazy with with a spooky little boy/girl like you...

The Game: Our Haunt
The Publisher: Possum Creek Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Our Haunt is a GM-less game where everyone plays ghosts, but it has this surreal and...I don't know, cozy? atmosphere to it. Things can get scary, but the game is really about living (so to speak) in a house with found family. 

I've been thinking lately about the OGL debacle, and, more specifically, how I keep seeing people posting on reddit and so on asking for game recommendations for something other than D&D. Setting aside that that's really not a useful criteria (it's like asking for a drink that isn't milk), you get takes like this:

Setting aside that I haven't actually seen people recommending more the esoteric games when folks say they're stepping out of D&D (mostly, in absence of other limiting factors, people recommend stuff like SWADE or Fate), it puts me in mind of the old adage that anyone kinkier than you is crazy and anyone less kinky than you is vanilla. Put another way, any game can be FishBlade to someone. To someone who only ever plays D&D, I'm sure a game like Chill, with its "tokens" and its emphasis on genre conventions and so on, might feel pretty fishy-bladey. To someone with more experience with not-D&D but very little with storygames, perhaps a game like Our Haunt would invoke the FishBlade comparison, seeing as how it's GM-less and diceless. 

What does all this mean? Not a lot. I've been reading Our Haunt and imagining how it might go at my table, and I think it'd work pretty well, actually. Though I suspect several of my players might fight over who gets to play the Cat.

First thing we do in making a ghosty-ghost is to pick a playbook. 

I have to say, I do like the playbooks here. When you're breaking down ghosts into categories it's very tempting to go by means of death or regret or legends of ghosts, and Our Haunt goes into some more original territory while still leaving room for classic takes. I think I shall pick the Faceless. There's something tragic and compelling about a ghost that doesn't have much of itself left; kinda makes the bits that do remain more precious and vivid. And, in my lower moments, I often think of myself as being fairly hollow, so it might be cathartic to play. 

I'm picturing my ghost as faceless, body-less, just an old, comfy button-down shirt that floats around. Cuffs are frayed, most of the buttons are gone, this thing has been worn and loved for years. 

First thing I do is choose a name. One of the ideas on the list is "A name of an object I found," and so I think I use the name of the label in the shirt - Carhart. 

Next we choose a look, or rather, 2-3 options off a list. Well, being just a shirt is "something else that shows how little of me remains," I think, though I also like "dark footprints and handprints left on the wall." No visible part of my human form anymore. 

What I remember - I need to choose two. Ooh, "smiling for the camera" jumps right out at me. I like "the sound of breaking glass," too. I have the thought that this person died suddenly and never quite learned how they died, but the sound of breaking glass might indicate something swift and/or violent. 

What I yearn for - just pick one. Oof, these are hardcore. I think that my ghost wants "to become someone again," but he'd never admit that. If asked, he's more likely to claim he wants to find his rest and cease to be, but the truth of the matter is that he wants to be included and seen. 

Bonds! I choose two. Ooh, "A Living Tarot reader who comforts me with the cards." I love Tarot, and I think it'd be fun to have a Living person that doesn't really know I'm there, but talks to me anyway (and probably assumes I'm not a ghost but some kind of ethereal being - she's in for a bit of a disappointment). Her name is Sammi. 

And then I'll also take "a mysterious person that speaks to me through a book that writes itself." I think the tone of the relationship is...not antagonistic, but not friendly, necessarily. Maybe more like the relationship between the Ancient Reptilian Brain and Harry Du Bois in Disco Elysium (speaking of games that evoke the FishBlade comparison). Carhart just calls it "the book," and doesn't know really if there's a person behind the words that appear or if the book is sentient or if it's a memory or Lord Voldemort or what. It's just nice to have someone to talk to. 

Relationships I'll skip because it's just me. 

Now, that's it for the ghost, but part of chargen is to pick a Room. Hmm. Any of them would work, but I kind of want something pretty mundane on the face of it, so I'll take the Parlor. I'm thinking of a living room, with a big picture window that can be used to see out to the yard and the street. I'm picturing too that the Parlor isn't usually entirely visible, but only starts to take form when you pay attention to it. Otherwise, it's just dark and shadowy corners, but it's there if you look. 

I pick two or three aesthetics here. I'll take "an old board game that plays itself again and again." If you take a piece off the board, the game gets annoyed with you, and apparently other entities in the house owe it favors because the house gets hostile until you give the piece back. It's not interested in playing with other people, thanks.

I'll take "a tarot deck containing a swarm of mismatched souls." That sounds sinister, so I think it's less human souls and more just that the Arcana on the cards might jump off the cards and interact. Strength chases her lion, the Emperor and the Empress are constantly bickering, and the Fool is always about to fall off something. 

I get to pick one or two unsolvable problems. I like "the ghost made of fear and spite that hides under the carpet and whispers terrible things." Up to now it's been pretty fantastical, but there's a real sense of loss and menace here, whether anyone wants to admit it. 

And that's it, actually. I think Carhart likes the parlor because there's only as much of the room there as there needs to be, and he relates to that. Also Sammi comes here to read the cards (she brings her own deck but sometimes her cards get mixed up with the living ones), and Carhart feels like he needs to shut the ghost in the carpet up when she does. 

Slipstream: Defeat on Dracos!

Exciting developments in pulp adventure! Here's last time.

Our heroes return to where they park their ship and find it gone. They haven't received any transmission from their crew, so something is wrong. Zeenia activates the ship's teleportation disc. It can't transport them to the ship, but she can at least use it to find the ship. They get on the rocket sled and zip off towards the coordinates, and Iris radios Genko to tell him what's happening. It is a decision she will live to regret. 

The heroes follow the ping out of the city and into the jungle. They spot a huge, ruined stone structure, covered in moss. Their ship is parked outside, and a contingent of Drascos, some 20 strong, are patrolling. In addition, they see a group of armed toughs, probably bounty hunters. Some are Dracos, but a couple are Raptor Men and one is a Pyrite (an alien made of living rock). They see their crew trapped under transparent forcefields. 

Zeenia turns invisible and surveys the scene, and then realizes that the trees are soft and spongy. She can probably ram her rocket sled right through them! She heads back to the sled, while Iris takes to the sky to get a good vantage point. Abbas tries to climb a tree, but the bark is, as mentioned, spongy, and he falls, landing near a Drascos guard. The guard shrieks a warning. Abbas pounces and punches the Drascos out, but the damage is done. 

The heroes have faced worse odds, of course, but then things get really bad. Genko zips up on a rocket scooter and Zeenia un-cloaks and calls to him. She tells him what's happening and has him get on her sled...and then she blacks out. 

A Dracos bounty hunter cocks an ear (?) and listens to a radio transmission, and then yells to the trees: "Iris Blue, daughter of Orchid Blue of the Daikini Valkyrie!" ("That's my line," growls Iris.) "Abbas of the Lion Men! Surrender or face a foe you can't hope to beat!"

And at this point, Genko emerges from the tree, with Zeenia, under his control. The heroes black out as well...

...and come to under one of the forcefield domes. Their gear has been stripped from them. They're wearing their spacesuits, but they spot Zeenia's "danger bling" on one of the bounty hunters. Another is carrying Abbas' big ol' rifle. Iris' glittery armored shirt is nowhere to be seen. The bounty hunters are gathered near the ship, talking, while the Drascos are rushing around attending to some unknown task. The heroes spot a rope-and-pulley system in front of the ruin, but no sense of what it's there for.

Genko is talking to the lead bounty hunter: "I'm not leaving Dracos again. This is my home! The only place I am safe!" 

The leader responds, "Fine, Genko. Just don't expect us to come back to give you a bigger cut of the reward." One of the Dracos yells something at him, calling him "Haresh", and he yells back "Hurry up and use the thing! We're not going to wait around for you!"

The heroes aren't sure what "the thing" they're referring to is. They don't see a controlling back for the forcefields, and no way out of this. Zeenia comes up with an ingenious plan, though. She strips off her suit, and begins to burrow into the moist, soft earth like a worm. She has to cope with being out of her suit and therefore not having her own atmo to breathe, but she's tough. Iris spreads her wings to block off Zeenia's escape, and the heroes wait.

Zeenia tunnels through the earth and comes up on the side of the ruin. She finds a crack in the stone and squelches through, and starts searching around for a way to turn off the forcefields. Outside, one of the guards notices that Zeenia isn't there anymore and informs the bounty hunters.

Haresh walks over and tells Iris and Abbas that they can either tell him where "the jellyfish" has gone, or he can have Genko mind-control them again. Iris keeps him talking, calling him out for being a coward, and he gently reminds her that bounty hunters generally avoid fighting if they can - it's not good for the payoff. 

Abbas says that if all they're interested in is money, maybe they can come to an arrangement? Haresh says that it's unlike to that they can come up with the money to cover the bounties, the money they'll get from selling their ship, and the money they'll get from selling off their gear ("I ain't selling this!" yells the one carrying Abbas' gun). At this point, some Drascos unload the sonic lance and put it on the pulley. They raise it up to the top of the ruin, and Iris wonders if they're trying to open it or drill past a locked door...

About now, Zeenia finds the wires that control the forcefields and yanks them out. The forcefields fall, stunning the crew momentarily but allowing the heroes to leap to battle!

Abbas wastes no time. He rushes Genko, smacking the slave controller from his head and slashing his face. Iris swoops in and catches it, and smashes it against a tree. Genko shrieks in rage, and the rest of the bounty hunters attack. Zeenia emerges from the ruin and slinks over to get her suit back, but doing so makes her visible. The Drascos shoot at her, and Haresh screams that they need the prisoners alive. He fires a small pistol at her, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

The crew, meanwhile, shakes off the cobwebs and leaps to action! Craw punches a Dracos guard and grabs his gun, and the others follow suit. Without their gear, though, they can't quite manage to overpower the armed and armored Drascos, and the heroes are, of course, highly outnumbered. 

A group of Drascos shoots Zeenia again, and one of them fells her with a well-placed blast. Iris swoops toward Haresh in anger, and he fires his weird little pistol at her. This time it works, and she crashes into Zeenia's inert body, unconscious. 

Abbas, facing off against two bounty hunters, seeing the crew losing their fight, and still armed only with his claws, knows he can't win this fight. He also knows, however, that he'll never get another chance Genko, and Genko probably tricked them into believing Anburn had betrayed him. He tears Genko's throat out, throws it to the ground, and raises his hands.

"Fair enough," says Haresh, and fires his stunner. Abbas passes out with blood on his claws. 

Next time, we'll see where our heroes end up!

Cairn: The (Band)Leader of the Army Below

Music! Dancing! Spiders! Rocks! All of the exciting action of Cairn! Here's last time. 

The Knights have made camp near the fountain that apparently dispenses dandelion wine, near a mysterious otherworldly opening to a Titan ruin. They realize that while they did try to activate the weird stone handprints around the fountain, they didn't bleed whilst doing so, and the bloodstain on the bat-print indicates maybe they should. Russelet Leatherwind slices his paw and does so, and the pit opens. The Knights can see into the ruin, and they are horrified.

They see dozens - maybe more - of Awakened hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in spider silk. Terrifying spidery creatures scuttle around the walls and floor, and Rumdiggle Sunsong feels something watching them hungrily. She relays this, and Russelet fires a burning arrow into the dark. He illuminates the cavern a bit, and it does seem like the shadow-spider creatures shy away from the light. 

The Knights ponder their options here. Ratatosk Longberry notes that he could make some alchemical powder that would repel Dire and Unnatural creatures, but he doesn't have enough to protect everyone. Maybe enough to put a ring around the pit, to keep anything from getting out? Snootabur Shadowbough fires a couple of burning arrows into the pit, creating a ring of light, and the Knights figure maybe they could lower themselves down there safely. For that, they'll need some supplies. Rummy and Ratatosk ride Oof, the daggertusk, back to town to gather stuff, while Snoot and Russ watch the pit.

Snoot spots someone watching them from a distance, and calls out. The watch turns out to be Bluecap, a druid that the Knights met on their first trip out this way. Bluecap, a meerkat, greets them warmly, but tells them that Redscale (the head druid) is worried about what's happening out here. They explain what's been happening and Bluecap relates what he remembers about the legend of the Ruin and the Army Below. To wit, that if someone takes on the mantle of leader, they give the Army form and can command them. He knows the fountain is important, too, but doesn't remember why (this is all very much in the realm of mythology, he explains, no one ever really knew that this was real). 

The others return, and they talk through their plans. In the end, they decide to try and learn a little more before descending into the dark. Bluecap will take Ratatosk and Rumdiggle, on Oof, back to Rock Circle and talk with Redscale. Russelet and Snootabur, being stealthy, will enter the Dead Forest and find the lair of the Spider-Queen. 

The first group arrives in Rock Circle just before sunrise. Oof gratefully laps up the water the druids give him, and Redscale greets Ratatosk and Rummy warmly. Ratatosk explains what's happening in his inimitable style, and Redscale tells him that the legend that Bluecap had related is more or less accurate. The Rock Circle druids are happy to help in whatever capacity they can, of course.

Meanwhile, Snoot and Russ track the Spider-Queen's children through the Dead Forest and arrive in a clearing completely covered with webs. There's a boulder in the clearing as well as some dead trees. Snoot clears some of the webs away from it, and they both consider that if trees have spirits (which they do), maybe rocks do too? Snootabur gets right up close to the rock and start cleaning it, and the rock grows a face, and then somehow pushes her back. She picks herself up and starts a conversation. The rock-spirit introduces itself as Oomatai, and is grumpy and bitter. It says that the Spider-Queen's children live her and run all over the place, but when the New Moon comes the Queen's new children will show them what "fast" really looks like. When Snootabur introduces herself, it rolls her name around for a while ("Snoooooooooooooooo"), and it's still doing that when a bird lands and starts talking to Snoot. 

How? Well, back at Rock Circle, Redscale had asked Rummy if they'd like him to check on the other Knights ("You can do that?"), and then cast a spell letting him send his mind through natural phenomena - animals, plants, water - across the land until he found them. Redscale gets an update from Snoot, and then tells her that gnomes (the spirits of rocks, just like "dryads" are the spirits of trees) are extremely wise. They're slow, however, and they don't make decisions or answer questions quickly. Best thing to do is be patient. 

Snoot remembers what Oomatai said about the new moon, and relays that Redscale. Redscales notes that there are three nights until the new moon, and passes this information along to Ratatosk and Rummy. The Knights aren't sure what all this means, but maybe they have some time before the spider-creatures start eating the townsfolk? They decide that, in the morning, Rummy and Ratatosk will ride for the fountain again (with Bluecap), and the other druids will set out on foot. Their magic will help them make the trip faster, but the Knights will still make much better time riding Oof.

Meanwhile, Russ and Snootabur will continue talking with Oomatai and seeing what he can teach them. Oomatai is difficult. He's grouchy and dislikes the Spider-Queen, yet talks about her children, their speed, and how they eat living creatures (which he refers to "hedgehogs," not quite able to figure out the difference between species). Snootabur continues talking with him about the passage of time, life, death, the cycle of life, and he eventually warms up a little and tells her that the Spider-Queen has become the leader of the Army Below.

The Army Below, he explains, is imprisoned by the Ruin but also by form, or rather the lack thereof. Whoever takes control of the Army can grant it a form and a purpose, and the Spider-Queen has turned the Army into spidery creatures. But they've taken all those "hedgehogs" (that is, the circus-folk and the villagers) prisoners, and on the New Moon they will become the Spider-Queens new children. Hybrids of Awakened and spiders, they will be able to survive in sunlight and will rampage across the land, feeding.

Oomatai isn't so worried about this - all hedgehogs die and become worm food, after all - but Snootabur explains why this is a bad thing. Oomatai falls back into contemplation, and Russ and Snoot head back to the fountain to talk with the others. They rig up a pulley system using nets from the circus, rope, and Oof as muscle, figuring they'll be able to pull people out of the pit. Snoot arrives and tells them what she's learned. They have two more nights. They need to get down there and save people.

Snoot decides to go back and speak with Oomatai more. Rummy cautions her - if they're going into the pit in the morning (about the time the druids should arrive, according to Bluecap) maybe she doesn't want to be out all night? But Snoot feels that she's getting somewhere with Oomatai and doesn't want to leave him. She goes back and finds him silent, and curls up by him to wait for dawn.

In the morning, the druids arrive. Snoot continues her conversation with Oomatai, and the gnome finally reveals that he was jealous of the Spider-Queen and her children, and he wants to be moved away from them. Snoot offers to have his boulder moved to a living forest, somewhere that "hedgehogs" might visit him. First, though, she and the Knights need to destroy the Spider-Queen, depriving the Army of form. Oomatai offers to help, creating a tunnel directly to the Queen. 

Snoot summons the others, and Oomatai emerges from the boulder and punches his way down into the earth. The tunnel emerges at a dais, and the gigantic Spider-Queen waits. She hisses and clicks, leaping to the attack, but the Traveling Knights are ready for her!

Russelet and Snootabur fire arrows at her, while Rumdiggle takes on the aspects of the ripper, the stripefang, and the gnasher and acts as bait, goading the Spider-Queen into attacking. Ratatosk leaps on the Spider-Queen's head and jams a flare into its eyes, the marksmen fire blazing arrows at it. The battle is long and difficult, but the Spider-Queen succumbs to the fire and lays burning.

But it's not over! The Army Below is once more deprived of form, and starts attacking the Awakened prisoners. The Knights run to help, but Snoot realizes that there's no way they're going to beat an army, just the four of them. Rumdiggle has a terrible idea - she strikes a note on her lute, quaffs a luck potion from Ratatosk, and becomes the Leader of the Army Below.

The shadow-creatures take on the forms of baby versions of all of Rummy's friends, and she sits them down for a singalong. The others quickly get the prisoners out, with the help of the druids and the rope-pulley system, and when they're all free Rummy leaves them, knowing that no one has the will to remain the Leader for long without Disharmony dragging them down.

With everyone free, Coleru Waxwing lands and thanks the Knights profusely. He introduces them to Plum, his wife, and Mella and Wish, his daughters. They had been taken by the spiders, he said, and he didn't dare explain the situation directly because he knew that the spiders would harm them if he did. But he left clues, knowing that the Traveling Knights could solve this! Rummy tries to be mad about this, but after all, it worked, so she can't really be upset.

The circus stays in Brandybuck Junction long enough for their injured to heal. Sumna tells the Knights that given this delay, they'll be lucky to get back by Marma's Day, but the Knights don't mind. The folks in Cairn will understand.

Chill: The Mirror Coke'd

So here we are back in Idaho. Current events there have taken on a very Chill-like vibe, and that's fucking horrifying. Let's get back into roleplaying games where the scary things are ghosts.

Our heroes are outside the murder house, and Detective Jackson has just driven away (rather, the ghost of Preston Murr has driven away whilst controlling Jackson's body). Vicki uses Clairvoyance to zero in on his car, and sees him driving up a nearby highway. "Jackson" looks in the rear-view mirror and straight into Vicki's eyes, and tells her to fuck off. He unbuckles his seatbelt and speeds up, and says "If I hit a telephone pole, I'll be fine. This guy won't, and I know you like him. FUCK OFF." Vicki takes the hit and terminates the discipline.

She tells the others what happened, and they all jump into the SUVs and head up Rte 26, since that was where Vicki saw the car. Jax, driving one of the cars, tries to catch up with Jackson's car and runs a red to do it, but gets himself under control before anything bad happens. Vicki calls the others and they talk through where the ghost might be going.

Thinking about where this road goes, the envoys note that it goes downtown - there's any number of possible destinations. Vicki recalls that the Boise police department's HQ is on this road, and since the ghost is possessing a cop, maybe it's going there? They head towards the station and Blake (driving the other car) circles the building, but the envoys don't see Jackson's car. He heads down the road and checks the parking lot of a nearby furniture store, and there's the car, parked in front of a broken window. 

They get up (and call the others over). Willa turns on Eyes of the Dead and peeks in the window. She sees Jackson walking toward the door, but the ghost is still puppeting him. Seeing her, the ghost spits Jackson out and snarls at Willa. She feels her bones start to ache, and the others see her hair go grey. She ages twenty years in a few seconds. Vicki, meanwhile, uses his Clairvoyance discipline to find the mirror. She sees the mirror wrapped in a tarp and leaning between two shelves, apparently in some kind of warehouse. Doesn't take a genius to figure out which one.

Detective Jackson shoulders through the door. He's bleeding from a wound in his arm, which Melanie starts to patch up. Blake, Zoe, Vicki, and Jax head into the furniture showcase room, and Vicki has enough time to see there's an office through a door on one wall before everything goes black. The envoys have been in this situation before, but they still don't have someone with protective disciplines with them, so they're kinda left flailing. Vicki heads toward the door, and Zoe follows, but misjudges the distance and bumps into Vicki and knocks her into the wall ("Dammit, Zoe!"). Willa, able to see the darkness but not see into it (because she's outside the room) calls out to the others to follow her voice back. 

Jax gets the bright idea to use Voice of the Dead to immobilize the ghost, but the ghost overpowers him and possesses him. He answers Willa ("I hear ya, I'm coming!") and heads out through the door, but Willa has Eyes of the Dead on and can see the ghost riding Jax around. She tries the same trick, figuring that she's skilled enough to succeed where he failed, but the same thing happens. Instead of possessing her, though, the ghost turns its aging power on her again. Her hair goes shock white, her hands get gnarled and arthritic, and her vision goes blurry. She vaguely sees Jax pull something out of his jacket pocket, and hears a loud SNOOORRTT sound. 

Meanwhile, in the building, Blake tries to turn on his phone for light. It doesn't work (of course), so he activates his Power Surge discipline to try and overpower the darkness, but that doesn't seem to help either. Zoe and Vicki find the doorknob, but it's locked. They start feeling their way around the room, and Melanie comes in and meets them halfway. 

Jax runs away, and the darkness falls. With the room visible again, Blake is able to come over to the office door and use Skeleton Key to open it. Detective Jackson reveals that Jax took a vial out of his jacket and snorted a whole bunch of coke, and then ran off. 

The envoys quickly react. Blake and Zoe enter the office door and from there into the warehouse. Vicki runs off after Jax, and Melanie helps Willa to follow. Jax comes to in the warehouse. His foot aches (there's a smash-in door behind him that explains why), and his heart is beating like a jackhammer. He's experienced this before; he's sucked down way too much powder and he's going to feel like shit when it wears off.

Vicki, Blake, and Zoe separately search for the mirror, and find it between two shelves in a corner of the warehouse. Vicki takes the tarp off and looks in, and sees Elle looking back. Elle reaches out and her fingers come out of the glass, but stop against the wire mesh that the ghost welded on. Vicki figures that the ghost probably doesn't want the mirror damaged, but she isn't sure if breaking it would hurt Elle.

At this point, everything goes dark again, and silent to boot. Blake and Vicki start moving toward the door, Vicki carrying the mirror, and Jax runs his hands through the outer edge of the dark and finds Vicki. She and Blake emerge, and Vicki asks where the ghost is. Willa, still old and decrepit but able to see ghosts, says that it doesn't seem to be here, but right on cue it bursts out of the dark and flies straight through Vicki. She shudders and falls, and Willa musters up all of the strength she has for an Astral Attack.

She lunges forward and smacks the ghost, not hard enough to do any lasting damage, but it's enough to disrupts its powers and keep it from possessing anyone. Jax takes the opportunity to use Voice of the Dead again to call the ghost into himself, and with the ghost trapped the darkness and silence fade. 

Willa tells the others to take the back off the mirror to get to the glass. Zoe rushes over with her trusty multi-tool, but her hands are shaking too badly to use it effectively. Blake finds some tools in the warehouse and removes the back of the mirror, and they take it out gently. Elle falls out of the mirror and grabs Vicki, sobbing. Willa questions the ghost - "What do you want?"

"Freedom," it replies.

"We could free you," says Willa, but the implication is clear, and not what the ghost wants. "Or we could put you back in the mirror."

"NO" screams the ghost and takes control of Jax, punching Willa right in the face. Melanie touches Jax and uses Disrupt, booting the ghost out of him, and Jax follows his coked-up instinct and smashes the mirror. 

The ghost lunges for Jax, howling, but becomes light and ephemeral just before it touches him. It vanishes into nothing, and the warehouse is quiet.

Vicki quickly cleans up the glass shards and dumps them in the trash. Detective Jackson hurriedly shoos everyone else but Elle and Vicki away, and helps them concoct a story about Vicki finding Elle in the warehouse and breaking in to free her. 

It'll probably take some finagling, but Jackson is able to keep the envoys from legal scrutiny. Zoe, Jax, and Melanie have successfully completed a case! 

Their next one isn't going to be long in coming, however.

Character Creation: Gods & Monsters

No, no one made an RPG out of the 1998 movie about James Whale (but...that movie co-starred Brendan Fraser, who is presently nominated for an Oscar for his performance in....THE WHALE!? Coincidence?). 

The Game: Gods & Monsters
The Publisher: Evil Hat
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular expression of Fate Accelerated
Books Required: I think just the one, actually

So Gods & Monsters is a mythic Fate game in which you're playing the primeval gods of creation (or whatever) and telling tales of morality, history, and so on but hopefully not leaning into your comfort zones so much that you lose control and become a monster. It's...interesting.

I bought the game because the premise made me very happy; I love games that give an inordinate amount of narrative power and agency to players, and being the god of [whatever] is very much up my street (see also Part-Time Gods and Demon: The Fallen). But those are both urban fantasy, and this takes a more Garden-of-Eden vibe to things. The other thing I was reminded of while read it was From Dust, actually.

The book, though, kind of lost me. The writing is a little dry for my taste, and could use a few more examples of the cool, juicy premise along the way. It lost me, but I think it got me back by the end. There's a structure and a progression to the game that I think is well thought-out, and I'd be interested in giving it a spin.

For today, however, let's do like all ancient civilizations and make up a god. My buddy Gus asked me to use this song as inspiration: 

Well, I don't want to make the god of high school bullies. I shall instead make a love god, but he's more the god of courtship, wooing, and seduction than actual love. Easily bored, fickle, not dishonest so much as poetic. That sounds like fun. His name is Avasarah. 

So, Aspects! As usual I need an high concept and a trouble Aspect. For high concept, I shall take God of Courtship, Seduction, and Wooing. Simple enough, and I've learned that while it's tempting to get cute with Aspects, at least the high concept should be easy to understand. For trouble, Avasarah is Easily Bored. 

And here we get into the phase trio. And this is odd - the book seems to think that Gods & Monsters is Fate Core, but it uses approaches like Accelerated. Weird. Anyway, it tell us that the phase trio is just like in Fate Core except for two things: First, these are gods so go big, and second...we're never told what the second thing is.

(I'm being catty, here. I suspect it's that all of the PCs are members of the same pantheon so treat them like family, but the text says "except for two things. First," and then never says "second," and that's a pet peeve for me. Moving on.)

OK, well, let's think about some myths that Avasarah might have been part of. They say that Avasarah's touch is so light that he once removed the blush from a maiden's cheek (that's probably a metaphor), and the sweat from young man's brow, without them noticing. The Lightest Touch sounds like a solid aspect. 

One story about Avasarah goes that he fell in love with the sun, and he wooed the sun from his celestial path with sweet words and caresses. The world went dark until the other gods found the two of them together and basically told them to get dressed and get back to work. The aspect is Tempted the Sun and Brought Darkness. 

Finally, Avasarah can always find The Right Words, whether to arouse passion or bring succor. 

Aspects done, then, moving along to approaches. Like Fate Accelerated, this uses six approaches, and conceptually they're pretty similar, though the names have changed. They're also arranged in three pairs: Bold/Subtle, Clever/Mighty, and Swift/Wise. Same spread as in FAE: one Good, two Fair, two Average, one Mediocre.

Well, I think I want Wise to be Mediocre. Just not Avasarah's thing. I'll put my Good into Bold, but I'll put a Fair into Subtle. I'll put my other Fair into Clever, and that leaves Average in Mighty and Swift. 

That also means that Bold, Clever, and Swift are ascendant, which figures into the whole "gods into monsters" thing in play.

Three refresh and three stunts. The book advises us to avoid stunts that add +2 to a given roll in favor of having the stunts allow godlike manipulation of the world, and I can get on board with that. 

Hmm. I want Avasarah to be basically immune to emotional manipulation. So let's say I have armor:2 against any attack that plays on emotions. 

Avasarah can make someone feel like they are the most important person in the world by paying attention to them. Let's say once per session he can place an Aspect on a lover (Favored of Avasarah or something like that). 

Finally, Avasarah can take away his favor and leave someone devastated. With nothing more than a sad, dismissive glance, he can do a weapon:2 emotional stress attack, provided he has previously shown favor to the target. 

And now we create the divine mantle. For chargen purposes, I have to link each of my ascendant approaches to one of my Aspects. It can be any of the five of them, so let's see. Bold should link to my high concept, I think that's pretty tied in to who Avasarah is. Clever should link to The Right Words, and Swift should link to Tempted the Sun and Brought Darkness. Easy-peasy. 

I start with a boon, too. This is basically a weaker stunt, but it would grow in play as the divine mantle changes. So let's phrase it this way: Because I am the god of wooing and seduction, I get a +1 bonus when I Cleverly Overcome when convincing someone to assist or lie with me. 

And then I get a geasa, which can either be a -1 penalty to do something, or a complete ban on doing something unless there's an Aspect that lets me do it. I'll say that Avasarah cannot raise his voice or his hands in anger unless he has placed an Aspect on the target by speaking gently or passionately to them. 

And that's basically it, actually. I picture Avasarah as a young man with brown skin, golden eyes, and thick, lustrous hair. His eyes have a timeless quality, though, and have a way of making you think that you're just as important as the god of love, because the god of love is watching you. I think Avasarah is mostly a naive kind of god, rather than being actually cruel or heartless, but holy shit, if he became a monster he'd be a terrifying emotional vampire type of thing.

Wicked Ones: Let's You & Them Fight

Once more into the war-torn lands wherein the dark god of cowardice and suffering, Crevice, giggles at his followers..

The wicked ones are embarking on their newest raid. They are trickery the Confraternity of the Three into attacking the Iron Reef, weakening both factions and hopefully taking some heat off of them. They're doing that by scattering some Light-God relics in strategic ways, and as we open, the denizens of the Sepulcher of Suffering have spread across the land doing just that.

Thudd takes some relics close to the Confraternity's camp and stashes them in a hollow, but plants evidence that implicates the Iron Reef. He does that by taking a tunic and doctoring it with dyes and stitching, and it works, but he accidentally lets an imp leave a slimy handprint on it. As he's finishing up at the hollow, he spots two novitiates lugging a cask of sacramental wine, and Thudd is just too fond of the drink not to indulge. He sneaks over, pokes a hole in the cask, and lays down in bliss. 

The novitiates spot him, but just kind of argue about what to do with him - he's an imp, but he's not hurting anyone and he's got an apron. Thudd gets up and tries to blunder off, but they catch him and search him. He says the only word he knows in Light Tongue ("MORE") and points at the cask, and the novitiates don't pursue him further. More fool them. Thudd fills his flask with wine, but realizes quickly that the mixture of sacramental wine and rotgut might have...strange effects.

Fnort, meanwhile, takes some Light Temple relics to Iron Reef, the intention being to get them into circulation. He dumps them out and hides, but a pair of do-gooders finds them and starts gathering them up. Fnort charges in and yells threats at these guys, but then looks around and sees a terrible omen. Nailed to the wall of the nearby inn (fashioned from the hull of a beached riverboat, as is most of the architecture in Iron Reef) is a hand holding five cards. Someone got caught cheating and paid for it. Fnort, a follower of the god of bad luck and convinced that anything bad that happens to him is a result of Zaheen's anger besides, flies into a paranoid rage, yanks the hand off the wall, and starts beating people with it. He goes from amusing snappy kobold to an actual threat in very short order, and the good burghers of Iron Reef waste no time in beating him to a pulp. Only because of his armor does he survive. 

Out in Bartertown, Baldruf is accompanying Queequaz the Querulous to visit Grüllups, the bullywog "Master Tormentor" of the settlement. Bartertown is a pretty rough place on the best of days (remember that this is the place that has a "corpse clock" of hanging bodies all around its border), and Grüllups is in the Square of Justice meting out the town's version of the law (to wit, if you have some gold to throw at Grüllups, you're probably not guilty). Queequaz and his posse wait patiently to get Grüllups' attention, and then explain the situation to him and ask him to start spreading the rumor that Light relics are getting sold by Iron Reef folks. Grüllups agrees, but asks what's in it for him - he wants a big cut of the loot. Queequaz shames him for looking to personal gain rather than service to Crevice (Grüllups is a worshiper, too, but he's not as serious about it as Queequaz) and everyone there starts jeering at the cowards, but Grüllups agrees to take a smaller cut.

A pair of gnolls start pointing at Baldruf and laughing, calling him out as a skinny-ass orc. Baldruf goes over and gets in their face, intending to talk smack and then pick their pocket (as befits a worshiper of Irion, the Elvish Dark God of Thievery and Baking) but the gnoll socks him and knocks him down before he gets more than a couple of words out. Queequaz and his acolytes run away (I mean, they worship the god of cowardice, it tracks), and Baldruf, not wanting to get into a fight with these guys, blows sneezing powder in their face and fucks off. They swear vengeance on him between sneezes.

The wicked ones return home (Baldruf stops by Iron Reef to scrape Fnort up and help him walk), and they divide up what little loot they were able to scrounge up. They also learn that the Confraternity attacked Iron Reef and while they weren't all wiped out, they did use up a lot of their resources and haven't been able to put any effort into their church. 

The wicked ones follow their own pursuits a bit. Thudd completes his retracto-claw and then spends some time reinforcing it.. His lunk-imps keep working on the false tunnel at the back of the entrance hall, but it's slow going to get it just right. 

Baldruf completes the dart trap in the slime pit, and tests it on a couple of imps. He also goes a little overboard in his worship of Irion and has the imps enter some paens to this god in the Sepulcher's scriptorium. 

Fnort starts building a reliquary off the ossuary, but it'll take some time.

Queequaz, having completed a ritual of gloom in the crevice, starts reaching deeper into the darkness in search of a nightmare creature. He plumbs the evil depths and bleeds for the project, sacrificing his unholy symbol in the process. He realizes he'll need a living sacrifice, too, though.

The constant meddling in this unearthly gloom darkens the skies and calls down a storm, though, and it floods the entrance hall. Fortunately, Thudd's on the case. He finds the hole that the ghoul made when it tunneled into the dungeon and widens it, knocking a precise hole in the wall to let the water escape. The ghoul's not thrilled, but he'll live. 

The imps in the dungeon take the initiative to knock tiny holes into the corners of the entrance hall, hoping to siphon off any forthcoming floods. This has the effect of making the whole place drafty, and killing any privacy since sound carries. 

Finally, the wicked ones plan their next raid. They're eventually planning to destroy the Confraternity once and for all, but in the meanwhile they want some prisoners. Prisoners are a great resource - Queequaz needs a sacrifice, sure, but they also have secrets, they can be used as bait or trade goods, and if all else fails they're delicious. The refugee camp up the road a few days - Ikae's Refuge - seems a good place to hit. 

Licking their chops, the wicked ones start making their preparations.