Just got back from Gen Con -- it was wonderful, exhausting, and everything else. This year actually made a big positive change in my world. I'm still processing it, and I'm very excited about the possibilities. Now back to our regularly scheduled game, joined in progress...
I'm happy to introduce Kyzin Gaz, shobad evolutionist. There's more to fill into his profile, but at least this is a start.
That was crazy -- great work, everyone! You'll have to remind me about the 'proteges plan'... it's the end of the semester, and my brain is focused on grading, grading, and more grading.
When I was a teen, my parents took me to hear them at Clowes Hall in Indy. It's a gorgeous venue on the Butler University campus
Near the end of the show, the mobile members of the band stood up and walked down the outside aisle of the hall, across the back, and up the opposite side, right back onto the stage. The more *cough* energetic audience members trailed along behind them. For once in my young life, I did the crazy thing and joined them. (My typical MO at the time was to play it safe, then regret the missed opportunities. I was cool, said no one ever about me.) But there I was, positioned almost center stage behind the band, laughing and clapping with the other crazy people who followed them onto the stage. It was awesome. I still have the LP I bought that night, signed by all the members who played. Almost the best concert ever -- topped only by an outdoor Manhattan Transfer concert about 10 years later. :D
”Are you the leader?” Lilly looks up from her lab long enough to roll her eyes. “Me? The leader? No.” Her tired, slightly impatient tone of voice takes on a decidedly snarky note. ”We take turns, ya see, tuh act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decisions of that officer must be ratified by the rest of the team.” She breathes in sharply, and her cheeks redden. The snark is gone, replaced with pure, livid rage. “What the stars d’ya think we are? Some kinda kill squad? We’re FOUR PEOPLE, okay? Four people trapped in a ruttin’ nightmare that canna end! We been lied to, shot at, tricked, shot at some more, bitten, infected, injected, lied to a LOT more, and now apparently framed for something by these reptoid asals." Her voice cracks. "An' we lost people along the way. Good people. People I... we... we all cared about. But we’re still alive, ya, an' we're tryin’ tuh stay that way. THAT’s what we’yare, okay?” The micro lab beeps.
Lilly reads the screen, and slowly, loudly exhales. Her shoulders begin to shake, and her eyes glisten. “He's real. All dirindi, no reptoid. Looks like we got'a new teammate. Or I guess an old one." She sniffles and her shoulders shake more. "One like Bree-” She buries her face in Rar'gul's side and sobs.
Wait... I just heard my name two times. (I know, summoning usually takes three times, but I'm a discount-oriented midwesterner.) Hey there, all! Supers stole the arrival thunder, but I'll second what he said. It'll be a blast seeing Thom in GM mode -- made all the better by getting to know y'all in the process. Like Supers, I'm fleshing out a character, but I should have it done in the next day or two. @Thom -- Should we build to level 7 or 8?
“A dinner? For us?” She squees. “This will be wonderful!” Nippostia breezes into the dinner in a silky forest green halter dress with rose quartz accents. Cascades of bright red curls frame her face, bringing out the emerald in her eyes. She stays close to Sovellis, knowing that public social events aren’t his preferred gatherings. She greets the dignitaries, smiles at the conversations, and occasionally laughs a little louder than is appropriate. As the dinner wraps up, she looks to her new -- and returning -- friends. “What a mission! We got the bad guy, saved the lovebirds, put down some monstrosities, and—” Nip suddenly leans forward and purses her lips into a playful frown. “Oh, no you don't... Switch, put that silverware back!”
Nippostia reaches back into her pack and gets the other set of restraints. “Here you go, but you probably don’t need both sets.” She points as she talks. “If you cuff the dominant upper arm to the weaker opposite lower arm, it throws off their coordination.” She pauses for a moment. “I read that in a study. Don’t make it weird. I mean, unless you want to…” She wiggles her eyebrows and winks.
Thak will look appropriately horrified at the prospect of piloting instead of supporting the team, but will bravely take the seat and do his best, even if he spends most of the time quietly repeating to himself, "I'm good enough, I'm clever enough, and doggone it, I fly like a leaf on the wind."
Same access error. :( Thanks for running! That was a blast. This one's unusual to play. That's one of the things I love about Society modules -- they share some basic plot beats, but they're not afraid to mix things up or throw curve balls at you. Nice job with the module itself and as our GM. It's always a pleasure!!
A two-day-belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! :D It was a great time here, with our youngest home from college for a few days and our oldest, his wife, and one of their cats joining us for a quick overnight stay. (The cat usually stays home with the others, but is on a medicated food right now so had to travel.) After they went home on Friday, we accidentally hosted a college game night for the youngest and their friends. It started as a 3:00 pm executive board meeting of the tabletop RPG club, but then we accumulated three more TTRPG club members and game night was suddenly a go! I turned in around 1:45 am, and I think the evening officially ended around 45 minutes after that, although I was mentally prepared to find them all still gathered around the table when I wandered out this morning at 9. :)
Lilly ducks as a spray of gravel tinks off her armor. “That shirren… wow. I can’t believe T’sorkel willingly got back into the cruiser with him.” She climbs into her cruiser and hits the start button. It purrs to life in time for her to hear John’s call on comms. “I’m right b’hind ya. Ah hope we can keep up with the hotshot!” She hits the gas and revs the engine hard, but goes nowhere. “Wha… oh geez.” Blushing hard, Lilly pushes the gear shift forward and joins the ragged procession. At least they didn’t see me forget to put the stupid thing into ‘drive’…
Saar bares his teeth in a very unsettling smile. “Hands up, Zatteh. Appropriate that my drow keepers called me degahr'hi dalhar because I made such trouble as a child. Guess I never lost the knack. Why do you want to run the town? And you still haven’t explained who the Mongers are. Speak.” He pauses to let the confession run out, then raises his gun in a cover position. “Let’s tie her up and take her back to the Sheriff. Sounds like he’s someone we can trust in the middle of all this. We'd better grab that controller, too.”
Ogilvy feels the history of this place resonate in him. So many stories… so many people… so much time… He closes his eyes and breathes deeply, a smile flooding his face. “This will be an adventure for sure. It will be good to work with you all and learn about this place. It's my first time here... I can't wait to explore the museum.” He turns to Ehu. “First Seeker, what do we know about the gala attendees? Should the displays mainly impress them, entertain them, or educate them? I always lean toward entertainment first, because you can slide in the education without them knowing.” Ogilvy’s eyes twinkle with mischievous energy. ”Well, I admit I don't know anything about setting up museum exhibits, but I'm sure we can handle that. But a gala is just my scene. We'll be sure to make an impression.” “I can help with the exhibits. I do a lot of freelance work for trade shows, and I spent some time in product marketing before that. I've got your back... although I'm not sure about a soft drink that also works as an explosive. That's a cool idea, but stil...”
John’s voice lights up the cruiser’s radio as Lilly pulls her vehicle into line. The banter she heard as a kid on the long-haul pilots’ channels echoes into her mind. The words and strange phrases meant something among the pilots, but she rarely understood. It was all mysterious fun... laughing as the voices argued about desserts and drinks at stations she’d never heard of and calling themselves colorful things like Damprock Nightmare and Chrome Diatha. She triggers the wheel-mounted mic switch and tries for a pithy reply. “Uh…,” she begins. Off to a great start there, hon. “You’re, um, five by five… and, uh… blowing my seals… uh, loose. This is…” Oh crap... name! You need a code name! You could be…um… little... oh, crap, no... uh... got it! ”This is Pointy Dee... in your back door.” Pointy Dee... the doc with all the needles... I like that. I should put that on my gear cases. A voice in her head interrupts her happy moment. ”My computer spirit told me that comm signals route through Terrapin Station. But if that's our best shot at getting off this rock, given what we've seen so far, we might not necessarily want them to know that we're coming.” She frowns at the warning from the Shirren the team just ‘adopted’. “Computer spirit?” ”Given what we’ve seen so far?” Who is this Shirren? What have we gotten ourselves into?
”There be about two hours before the base goes to meet ever-lasting glory and we get an audience with Pharasma.” “John’s correct about the time and the building exploding.” And they can insert their own deities into the Pharasma slot, but I’m not going there. “The control room seems our next best stop. After that, I’ll go back to the medical bay and see what healing goodies I can find there, then maybe do a quick search in this area before leaving.. There has to be some ground transportation here somewhere. But even with our time limit, I think we should spend a few minutes catching our breath. Right now, we’re in no condition to face anything or anyone we might find — or that might find us. There’s no point in running off t’uh safety only t’uh die on thuh trip.”
Her thoughts return to the base and the surrounding moon. Where are we going to find safety? C’mon, think Lillithbryne! What do you know about this place? She reaches back to her days of traveling in the family ship and the stories she heard of life on obscure Pact Worlds planets and moons. Tyrkalis… well, assuming we’re actually on Tyrkalis… but that makes the most sense given what we saw as we came here and with the maps that John found on Pike’s computer. There are mining camps… some prison camps… other small plants and processing facilities... we could find somewhere to meet… “Meet? Who would we meet?” Lilly says out loud. Something tugs at the corner of her mind. The memory of a pond floats through her mind for no apparent reason. She knows the place — she played there as a child during a brief planet-side stint. It was alive with fish jumping to catch insects, and crayfish and turtles that wandered and hid near the shoreline. It’s where she fell in love with studying life itself. Sometimes she’d catch a turtle and… Her eyes grow wide. “TURTLE! TURTLE!” she yells, and then turns to the group. “THE TURTLE PLACE!!” She waves her hands with excitement, squinches her face in concentration, and then words start spilling out. “The map that John found on Orvir’s computer. It showed a place called Turtle — um, Terrapin — Terrapin Station. It was labeled ‘emergency meeting point’. Remember? I’ll bet that’s where they’re headed or where they already are. Regardless, it sounds like a place we can get answers. We just have to get there.” “What do alla’ya think?” Lilly’s spirits rise, and so does her anger at thought of losing Breez. I hope you made it, hon… and if you didn’t, I’ll make them pay. And hurt.
We need to get T'sorkel into the room with everybody else, just like my favorite scene from The Marx Brother's classic Night at the Opera.
”Hold, Docc, I'll checkkk things out firrst. Makke surre you'rre safe.” Lilly heard Rar’gul speak but the emotions flashing through her head conjured a different voice… It seemed like he knew everything, way more than she’d ever know. And he taught her even when she was impatient or fussy or just hell to deal with. And sometimes the whole stupid thing just drove her nuts, like it would for pretty much any teenager. ”Use both hands on the las-ex just like we practiced, Lillithbryne. Stay on the tether. Don’t get ahead of yourself with that. Now, where’s your ‘six’?” ”It’s behind me, I need to watch behind me,” she said with the flattest tone possible to show, she hoped, that this was serious stuff and that she understood just how serious it was and that the lecture would end soon so she could go exploring NOW. “AND in front of you, AND below you, AND—” “YES! Watch my six with head on a swivel because my six is everywhere… I know the rhyme and what it means. Now can we PUHLEEEEASE explore this ship before scavengers show up?” She drew out the word extra-long because she knew he hated that, but she was in a mood and didn’t care who knew because, well, this-stuff-doesn’t-matter-so-let’s-get-on-with-exploring-the-ship-can-we-pl ease-now-huh?? He nodded and carefully slid through the hatchway first. Powered by a fit of smart-assed teenaged I’ll show you, she spun around and darted through behind him. A jagged bit of wreckage sliced through her tether. The motion propelled her forward where she bounced off a control panel, and found herself flying out of control, straight out of the ship toward an endless nothing. She screamed and flailed and spun — then his hand caught her boot and everything was mostly fine again. He pulled her back to deck and gave her that look, then smiled and reattached the tether. Her mind snaps back to the current moment, and she hears Rar’gul tell her that she’s important to this merry band of explorers and that he wants her to be safe. For a moment, that smart-ass I’ll show you side of her flares to life as Rar’gul moves past her, but drains away when she sees T’sorkel find his footing with John’s help, Beauregard check his weapons and then do that detective thing of his, and Galatea call for a comms check. I’m with friends. We watch out for each other. Nothing to prove to anyone. Just be and do my part. And get us out of here. She nods up at the Trox and holds her pistol ready. “Sounds good, Rar’gul. Lead the way. I’ve got your six.”
Apologies for the silence lately. Our county fair starts soon and my son has several 4-H project going in, plus he's the youth member of the county 4-H board. We’re all hands on deck for the next couple of weeks to wrap up his projects, double-check everything, make our regular pilgrimages across town to the fairgrounds for volunteer slots. Last night was food judging. He picked up his first award of the season — Reserve Champion — with a batch of Earl Grey ice cream. (Yes, that’s ice cream flavored with Earl Grey tea. It’s really wild stuff, but delicious.) I'll keep my posts timely, but they'll probably be shorter and more direct for a while. This mission is a blast so far!
The targeting display lights Thak’s fur as the crew’s onslaught tears into the drones. Then it suddenly glows bright as the self-destruct systems go off. “Whoa... didn't expect that. Someone doesn't want us to know who they are.” His fingers move deftly over the panel controls, engaging the ship’s digital eyes to probe the remains of the drones. "Scanning...
“Nothing much left to see out there, but there’s also no drift technology. Looks like these were dropped from a larger ship. We’ll need to keep our eyes open.”
@Yoromishtali -- I have a secret superpower: a 17yo son who reads the rule books in depth. @Chiaiese -- Starship combat seems like it should be easy but turns weirdly complicated sometimes. Drives me nuts. For gunnery, it's ranks (not total skill) plus dex, so your original math still holds. You're best in the Captain role here; Thak can take a gun with a +3. Changing the subject, I really like the way y'all put your stats in the character information. I reformatted mine this morning and discovered a couple of errors in my math from when I rebuilt Thak between games. Apparently adding small integers is hard.
Lilly looks over at John. ”I’ll second your vid game theory. It’s as good as anything." She blows out a breath. Maybe Zo!’s running it and we'll all be famous. And maybe I'm a unicorn.“ She punctuates the thought with a Halfling slang invective that seems to involve questionable activities with a wooden pole, a length of plastic wrap, three peppers, and a porcupine. After considering the device and listening to the conversation for a bit, she finally turns to T’sorkel. ”I like the listening idea. Try that and gather some information while we rest? Could you do that with this thing?“
{DING DONG} "I'll get it!" {Heads outside, gone a few moments, comes back with a big Amazon box} {Opens box and pulls out the packing slip. Reads it, then gives a double fist pump.} "Yes. YES! Good news, everybody! We just got a 10 pound bag of manure and an oscillating fan. Looks like things are about to get real in the game!"
Thak throws his shoulder against the door again, then looks up as Gath turns around to give the door another mighty shove. Yes! We’ll be on our way soon. I hope the kid’s overconfidence kicks in and he assumes that he’s lost us. We’ll catch up if hasn’t gotten too far ahead. “I am helping.” Gath forgoes his club and tries applying force on the opposite side from Locket. For a moment, bemusement flickers across Thak’s face, but it’s quickly replaced by earnest concern. “Uh, that’s the frame, Gath. Try here.” Thak taps the door slightly to one side of where Gath is pushing. NOW we’ll be on our way soon…
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