Jorvik: A Land of Snow & Ice

Game Master DSXMachina

Yay for book reading! Now if Mahorf and DSX just read it, we can talk about Battle Ground.

Yeah. I think I'm going to have a lot to say, as of about halfway through (stayed up too late last night, plus over lunch).

Yeah, I read it all night, until 6 am. Luckily, I didn't have anything scheduled that day.

And DSX doesn't have it! D:

I will say that the lore in the books about the Tuatha and where they ended up does do a lot toward making Kenneth impossible - though I suppose the faith in Brigid as a Saint makes things a little better.

Besides which, the rulebooks tell us to embrace things that aren't in the books - like the possibility of a Vernal or Autumn court of Fae, for instance.

I think you've got a strong case for Kenneth simply because Jorvik is set in the UK, where the DF books are in the US. The Gaelic residents of the UK are, I believe, much closer to their 'pagan' roots than their descendants in the US. That, combined with the Oblivion War and the fight to maintain belief among mortals, makes an ancient goddess reaching out to a young Scot quite likely, even in the canon Dresdenverse.

Add that to DSX's openness to new things and the section from the rulebook you quoted, and Kenneth seems pretty solid to me.

Feel free to discuss it, I don't mind spoilers :D

As for Kenneth, I'm not adhering to the cosmology of the Dresden Universe, it's very Judeo-Christian. I'd much prefer a more mystical and fuzzy feeling to the Universe.

It's not really a spoiler, just that the Tuatha are called out as being precursors to the "modern" Sidhe - so not necessarily gods like Odin and the gang - and not really still around.

Then again, as Treppa said, Celtic gods might just not be so available to meddle in New World things -- and, also, Brigid's a bit different than say, Lugh, as she was co-opted into Christianity - and the island of Britain's named after her. ;)

Anyhow, no spoilers, but, wow. Really needed that short story at the end.

Yeah, that short story was a little touch of aloe on the burns. It helped.

I started reading it today, read 10 chapters during lunch. :)

I am a little over a third (little less than half) way through RIGHT now. I dont want to stop! :P

I have HAD to stop, several times, mostly because I was laughing so hard that I couldn't see for the tears in my eyes. ;)

Something about being in a life or death situation that just makes Dresden's inappropriate comments,... SO appropriate. And even funnier than they usually are.

There is something quotable on almost every page. But my favorite so far?,....

(MINOR spoiler-like thingy)

Pure. Comedy. Gold. :)

I dont want to read it too fast, cuz I want to enjoy it! (AND I have a lot of other stuff I want to do too!)

But I want to read it NOW!!!!
O_o

And I agree, Kenneth is fine as-is.

I (think) I've noticed that Butcher 'modifies' his own mythology as he goes. He has to, in order to pull off some of the things he's done.

SOME of it he can and has explained away as 'finding out more details' or being corrected on how he thought something worked, but I'm pretty sure I've noticed direct gear shifts in how some things worked between books. All in order to make the new book a good read of course, but it's still there.
:)

Eeep, apparently I'm running a 1-shot roll20 game on wednesday. Which should be daft fun, since it's set in the same world - except the players are a bit raucous.

And I'll have to create it without Treppa's help :O

Goooood luck! :)

OK.
I finished the book last night.

There are three or four points where I only had/have ONE response.

WTELFH?!?!?!?!?!?

I mean, I DID guess some things, (yay?) and was surprised by others, some pleasantly, some not, but, those 3-4 things,..... SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!

O_o

Only 3 or 4?

Actually, I'm curious as to what shocked you. A lot of the Big Things had big stompy hoofprints of foreshadowing all over them. Only Mab's last decree surprised me, though it was immediately offset by the

Oh, I guess

I guess Michael cussing up a storm was a shocker, but I totally agreed with him. Though I think some of the White Council shenanigans are

Eeep, apparently I'm running a 1-shot roll20 game on wednesday. Which should be daft fun, since it's set in the same world - except the players are a bit raucous.

And I'll have to create it without Treppa's help :O

Why is that? I can map like a mofo.

And we can be raucous. Totally.

I might take you up on that :P

I will give you a run down on the session afterwards :)

Sounds like it should be fun, DSX -- at least if you don't put too much pressure on yourself. ;)

Also, I highly recommend having a Treppassitant. ;)

I reread BG last night and was struck by how similar the fight among the Powers was to the fugue battle between Typhon and... was it the Steel General or the Prince Who Was a Thousand?... in Creatures of Light and Darkness. I think Butcher is a Zelazney fan, so the nod wouldn't be surprising.

Though I think some of the White Council shenanigans are ** spoiler omitted **

I'm not fully convinced - in part because of what Carlos said about the how and when of the vote. I'm not saying there aren't additional irons in the fire (I mean, we're talking about Wizards here, and even Harry's starting to learn perspective and the like), but that seemed a very important statement.

I'm certain Harry and Ebenezer knew it was inevitable and planned for it. But things between the two of them are pretty fraught - I can't believe the scene at the docks was a sham. So who knows how any contingency plans might play out?

Oh no, or, hrmm,... dangit.

Spoiler JUST in case I accidentally say more than I mean to! :P

Oh yeah, SOME had big, stompy hoofprints all over it, others,... not so much? Although it may be like that 'throw away' lightsabre line which turned out to be foreshadowing when I go back and look closer at previous books. :)

Totally loved Michael Carpenter cussing. Very approriate reaction I thought, showed how human he truly is. And immediate response afterwords. All just,... Michael. :)

....

.... You guys, I'm tearing up here.

... Youse are all awesome folks.

Likewise. :)

What she said. ;)

Ok, so if it's Ok I'll put some prep for my Wednesday game here, and we can all add to it and help flesh it out - whilst enhancing your/our world.

The 2 characters we have already are Mark & Jay, early 20 somethings with a minor power. They are basically slighty nefarious, like partying, having fun, drinking and being a bit wild.

So my idea for this 1-shot is they are out at a rave in an old barn, they'll be some heavies from Mr Brackenthwaite.
A drug dealer from Autumn a fey 'alchemist' in York.

They will end up at one of the stone circles, for some fun times.

I knew I had a stone circle map. When I found it, it was literally a stone circle, kind of like one of those giant Mayan calendar stones. >_<

I do, though, have a 'druidic circle' of standing stones if you like. I have a couple of stables, but not really a rave barn (still looking).

Oh wow.
I WAS gonna have Danny stumble back downstairs and be his usual (silly) self, once I realized Ken & Sal were still talking,... But Nope., cant interrupt THAT.
TOO deep!

(And yes. you should write greeting cards!) ;P

Are you kidding? It would be SO VERY Danny to interrupt that. :P

My thoughts exactly. ;)

Well I've just decided on the subtitle of my 1-shot. Jorvik: Raving Mad, which is great since this gives a theme, drugs, insanity and some trickster fey.

Oooh, they should go to a mushroom patch that turns out to be near the stone circle & explore there for the final encounter...

My other thought is to do a timeline for some heavy stuff that's happening and see how the group interacts with it. Rather than trying to create a storyline for them.

Well I've just decided on the subtitle of my 1-shot. Jorvik: Raving Mad, which is great since this gives a theme, drugs, insanity and some trickster fey.

Oooh, they should go to a mushroom patch that turns out to be near the stone circle & explore there for the final encounter...

I wrote a fairy circle monster for a publication that never was finished, if you want to look at it. It's kind of nasty and its PF, so might not work well with DF.

EDIT: Of course, it might work really well if you want to change it up a little to be able to introduce a new NPC.

Interesting, I'm thinking a few social encounters at the Rave/Barn... not sure how malignant the Fey creature should be. Possibly some sort of bargain could be wrought.

Since all of the players are newbies and I don't want too much combat.

Encounters at Barn

Ooh, no, you don't want my monster, then. It's more vicious. This sounds like some fun choices for your party boys.

Um,... at least now we know that Danny is a HAPPY drunk? ;P

Um,... at least now we know that Danny is a HAPPY drunk? ;P

That we do. :) Don't know if was quite expecting an arrival and exit all at once, but as Kenneth said, that did seem very... Danny. ;)

Interesting, I'm thinking a few social encounters at the Rave/Barn... not sure how malignant the Fey creature should be. Possibly some sort of bargain could be wrought.

Since all of the players are newbies and I don't want too much combat.

Encounters at Barn

PC's sister & her dance partner are going.

Open Bar.... so lots of fun possible

DJ is on a pedestal, maybe drinks too much. (Option for 1 PC to be an aspiring DJ)

Andrew and his artist pals are doing body painting to one side.

Drug dealer

Brackenthwaites thugs, know the barn that they are partying in, maybe trespassing and they cause some trouble.

All the while the Fey spirit from the stone circle is trying to cause trouble or/ stir up the emotions to feed off them....
...after a while some of the party-goers decide to head out to the circle to have some FUN!

Then the team have to decide whether and how to stop the Fey creature feeding off the debauching (& it probably wants to mess with time so it can feed for longer). Either through some direct conflict, wearing a mark of the Fey so it can feed through them...or promising a regular offering.

Sounds pretty cool -- one thought I had, that could be complication, and provide them with a quasi-ally and/or backup source of information/etc in case they miss something important would be that you could have a White Courter in there amongst the ravers, feeding (in the "few drops from everyone, isn't it wonderful the way party drugs make people want to touch each other" sort of way) -- and therefore being upset that something else is trying to feed.

Ooooh that's a cool idea. Granted only 1 of the players has read more than 4 of the series.

Unfortunately, 2 players dropped for tonight due to life (needing sleep & post surgery) So the game has been cancelled.

The good news is - as you wrap up this scene I'll move it on the next morning to the caravan park near Lindisfarne.

I've found that in my old age, I've increasingly built contingencies into my planning when it's necessary that a party gets to a certain place. Someone else who's mad about things telling them what's going on is an extreme example of that, but works nicely IC and is pretty useful for one-shots or other similar things when there's a time crunch.

And sorry to hear about that, DSX. Sucks to put in the design-time and work for something that goes nowhere - even when it's a smaller investment like a one-shot.

As for the scene, I think we're both at a fade-to-black place, and given that we've been outed, there's no need to have someone sneak to a different room in the morning - so all that to say, I think we'll be moving on shortly. ;)

Ooooh that's a cool idea. Granted only 1 of the players has read more than 4 of the series.

Unfortunately, 2 players dropped for tonight due to life (needing sleep & post surgery) So the game has been cancelled.

The good news is - as you wrap up this scene I'll move it on the next morning to the caravan park near Lindisfarne.

Bummer, DSX. Of course, I hadn't read any of it when I started, so it's doable.

How do you want to handle arms and armaments and body armor - should I make some checks for.. connections, maybe?

It would make sense to me that Sal picked up body armor for Kenneth and Danny on her latest illicit shopping trip. I could also see her thinking of getting some for Trip to use when he returns, since he was nearly cut in half on their London misadventure. That would give us a spare for Edwyn.

And she's always interested in things ballistic.

So the questions would be about 3 vests and 1 shotgun. I don't see her getting a sawed-off by default - those are huge no-nos in the US.

Sawed-offs are more of a homebrew kind of deal, yeah? <-- has no idea how guns work

Sorry about the lack of postage. I'll get something up before we transition to the next scene. :)

Can be, though there's a fairly brisk trade in them among unsavory types. I suppose with Sal's craftsmanship score and the tools in the garage, she might be able to do it, even though Treppa can't. :)

And no worries about posting - Romance was kind of hogging the spotlight for a while.

So either a Contacts or Resources roll from Primarilly Sal, but anyone else can help. The better the roll the better the armament. However definitely enough body armour for all, more the police stab vests than the heavier army bomb disposal suits, but some normal British Army surplus is definitely available - just tell me what you want based on discretion and bulkiness.

Shotguns, there will be a few options for smaller size shotguns with folding stocks.... for a sawn off one - we'll see the roll.

A few hand guns and carbines may be available, but there's unlikely to be too many semi-automatic weapons....not too many.

Equipment

OK, I've been backtracking and consolidating for gear.

Armor

Sal has an existing good Kevlar vest - better than a stab vest, so we've been calling it Armor 2. She's got the clothing to cover it because she had it forever. So Sal is set.

For the other three, my Contacts roll was only 0. My interim story was that I went arms shopping with Morien while she was around. She has resources 1 Resources: 4d3 - 8 + 1 ⇒ (1, 3, 3, 3) - 8 + 1 = 3 if you'll allow that help, DSX.

Stab vests look to be Armor 1 (counteracting knives at Wep 1).
Kevlar vests are generally Armor 2 (counteracting ordinary pistols at Wep 2).

Sounds like you guys can have your pick, though Edwyn might be stuck with a stab vest to go under his dress shirt and suit - unless he decides to dress down with looser clothing. ;)

Weapons

DSX, will the Craftsmanship 3 roll let Sal saw off a regular hunting shotgun? That would give Danny a Wep 3 gun (which terrifies me even ooc). It would remain in the bag along with ammo. (I also have +5 on guns, which includes gun knowledge, if that helps the modification.)

Sal will take her new kukri - it's more a hatchet than a knife, so I'd be inclined to make it wep 2, but it's no sword, either. Still, there's a reason gurkhas are so effective. :) The ka-bar will stay at home, making Sal slightly less illegal than before. DSX, can you let me know the weapon damage rating for hte kukri?

Sal's concealed pistol is wep 2 (generic backup pistol in ankle holster) and Desert Eagle in the shoulder hoster is wep 3 because it's a BFG. Rifle is wep 3. It'll stay in the bag unless we get set up before a battle.

Sal has the 5 holly berries imbued with holy fire, so... are those wep 2, like a pistol?

Equipment

A good pair of binoculars, bags for the gear, Sal's backpack and cell phone (always)... what else do we need?

Rope in case of prisoners?
First aid kit?
Camping gear?

Sal can probably make a stop at an outdoors store for things like that while Danny, Kenneth, and Edwyn are getting their gear.

Edwyn needs a pack (or carton?) of smokes, so I can finally stop mentioning that he's out of them. :P

A crossbow! I asked DSX about one years ago, and he said yes!

So the crossbow and bolts will go into the bag, too. That's much quieter than a sniper rifle, though it takes me out of the +5 guns skill and into the +2 weapons skill.

Edwyn can buy his own damned smokes and ride in his own car. :P

Each Berry's a weapon 1 on its own, but you can throw more than one together (three for a weapon 3, etc) -- but they're Righteous Flame that bypasses the catch on things with damage resistance.