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Old 01-30-2019, 09:43 PM   #398
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

We were missing some folks at our latest session, so the party members of the players present focused on cutting deals and learning more about the part of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter in which they found themselves.
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Characters Present:

Dr. Henrietta "Indiana" Johnson -- A personable, age 29-and-holding Anthropologist who specializes in the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the American Desert Southwest. A Native of Apache Junction, AZ, "Indiana" is good with people and has been fascinated by American Indian religion and folklore since she was a child. Henrietta speaks Apache fluently, and not-so-secretly wishes archaeology could be more like Raiders of the Lost Ark and less like digging in a trench with a trowel and a toothbrush -- Played by Debbie S.

Dr. Arthur "A.J." Jamison -- a retired NASA scientist with a home in one of Moab's nicer canyon sub-developments, who volunteers for 4CSAR because he needs to do something to get out of the house. Considers himself responsible for Sunmi Jones, who is enough of a science-geek that the two of them can actually hold a conversation. -- Played by Anten S.

Aurelia R. Lockrin -- A young woman with a shady past who teaches History at Grand County High School (Home of the Red Devils!), and volunteers for 4CSAR because she's a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and likes the companionship. -- played by Bennie Rae P. (Not available)

Dr. Belody "Doc" Bascher -- a local veterinarian for both large and small animals, who frequently fixates on her job and uses 4CSAR as her primary social outlet. -- played by Samantha H.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. She recently lost the lower part of her left leg in a fight with a sorcerer from an opposing lodge, and now wears a high-tech prosthetic. A cynic about men, she is accompanied by "Grunt," the biggest, best-trained pit-bull anybody has ever seen (purchased as an ally, and a totally badass dog, even before it was possessed by what appears to be a benign “foo” spirit) -- played by Bernetta W. (Not available)

Claudia Abigail Tavulari, member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, and an old friend of Arthur Jamison’s. The team has been helping Arthur research the portal physics, on the sly. – Played by Tisa T. (Not available)

Stephen Mack, another member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, a former U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, and outdoors enthusiast. – Played by Jeff T. (Not available)

Frank Moses -- A former Marine who quit his job as a trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP). Moses formerly volunteered with 4CSAR and has an interest in Doc Bascher. Frank has spent the past several months living in the Dark Canyon base camp on the 1918 side of the portal. -played by Mike H.

NPCs Present

Jimmy Ehrland – A fugitive from the 1918 Colonia de Nova España, on the other side of the portal, he had fled from his vampire mistress, Doña Eva, only to find himself in a strange, alien world to which he must struggle to adapt.

Grunt: Beatrice's ally, a large pit-bull possessed by a protective "foo" spirit.

Hops About: An enthusiastically lethal nunnupi, a 6-inch tall fairy girl with black wings, pale skin and American Indian features. Currently dressed in the colors of the Unseelie Court, with a bow and knife, she frequently takes the form of a magpie four times the size of a normal bird and can go invisible.

Twirls Thrice: A laconic and lethal nunnupi with a dry sense of humor, also dressed in the cool colors of the Unseelie Court. Apparently the sister of Hops About, she bears similar weapons that can inflict elf-stroke, also appears as a large magpie, and can go invisible.

##

The crew of the Paradise spent the first day back in Boomgard (“Orchard’) hosing the feathers, blood, bird and bug bits from the decks and lattice, and patching up bits of the latter damaged by the fight with the swarming scavengers two days before.

After that A.J. (as well as Beatrice and Steven, in NPC-mode), focused on more substantive repairs as the rest of the Columbine Lodge began to explore the town. Boomgard’s town manager, Gustaaf vander Bijl, introduced himself to them early on, and basically gave them the run of the place.

Not that the town had much to interest the group, other than a better understanding of its basic construction. The town manager obviously relished the topic, and spent a fair amount of time answering their questions.

Van der Bijl said the town primarily earned its keep by providing services to the surrounding orchard communities, and he took them to a nearby patch of trees that formed part of the town to explain how that worked.

The town Boomgard consisted of a mixture of needle-leaf “evergreen” type of trees, as well as some broadleaf varieties. Van der Bijl said the needle-leaf trees used light more efficiently and recovered from damage better, and offered greater resistance to cold weather.

Mostly native to the cooler elevations, van der Bijl said, the needle leafs did well enough at the “zed-zed” layer, although they struggled down lower in the layers with the higher temperatures. That was mostly the realm of the broadleaf trees, the town manager explained, where they competed for the available light by spreading wide canopies.

The needle-leafs needed more pruning, but recovered from damage faster, the town manager said. In addition, the thicker growth of branches offered more shelter from winds, generally speaking. However, the town – and the surrounding orchards – made money from the broadleafs.

Once they’d reached a nearby orchard platform, the group understood. The people in the orbital realm had figured out how to graft fruit trees branches to the broadleaf trees.

Tropical fruits grew fairly well down lower, van der Bijl explained, althouygh not quite as productive as in the dimensions of Assiah. Additionally, the Esagila Guardians supplied grafts of temperate fruits – apples, peaches, pears, apricots, plums and cherries, that thrived on the broadleafs.

However, since most of the temperate fruits required cooler temperatures to trigger ripening, the orchard platforms actually migrated, van der Bijl explained.

They generally started on the “zed-zed” layer, he said, but when the grafts blossomed, the keepers carefully punctured some lifting-gas bladders so the platform spent a month or so sinking down about a hundred miles. Once there, the keepers dumped some ballast (usually, barrels of water) to hold it steady.

AT the warmer depth with the thicker and more humid air, the grafts fruited well and the broadleaf hosts quickly repaired the bladders and sprouted new ones. After four to six weeks, the orchard platform had recovered enough that it started to rise in altitude, on its own.

By the time the orchards reached “zed-zed” again, the grafted fruits usually had achieved fair growth. The orchard keepers (usually consisting of a single extended family or, in some cases, a larger clan) pruned out some weight and dumped a little more ballast.

That caused the trees to begin to rise to the cooler heights. In about eight weeks, the orchard keepers wanted them to rise 300 miles to the layer where the air pressure was about 70 percent of “zed-zed’s,” and the temperatures hovered at a crisp 40 degrees Farenheit (4.5 Celsius).

By then, the fruits had nearly ripened, and cargo dirigibles arrived for the harvest. The dirigibles took on as much as they could carry of the best produce and, remaining at the cooler altitudes so as to keep the fruit fresh, traveled rapidly to various markets.

Any fruits damaged or malformed remained with the orchard platform, where the keepers used them to make jams, jellies, ciders, wines, brandies and/or butters, depending on what the families knew best.

The loss of the mass of the harvested fruit taken by the dirigibles caused the orchard platforms to rise again, and they soon reached the freezing layers. The leaves on the grafted branches died away, as did the older foliage on the broadleaf floating trees. The bladders started to lose buoyancy slowly, as well.

At this point, the keepers deployed water-catcher tarps and shoveled snow into the barrels to regain ballast. That weight, combined with a rate of lifting-gas renewal that dropped below replacement levels, caused the orchards to begin to sink.

About two months later, they reached the layer about 200 miles up, where the temperatures averaged about 50 degrees or so, and the branches began to bud. By the time they sank to “zed-zed” again, the trees had achieved full canopies, again, and the blossoms started to appear.

At that point, van Bijl said, the keepers traded the preserves or beverages to Orchard in exchange for replacement supplies and, if the year had been good, some luxuries. The trips to town also marked the time when those who had achieved adulthood began to look around for potential partners to begin courting.

However, within a month or so, the whole cycle began again.

At that point, Doc Bascher began to ask about sources of animal proteins, and discovered that birds of all sorts filled that need, as did the meat of some of the larger insects, but that meat animals were too space-intensive.

Once she heard that, the veterinarian began to speculate about the market for red meat animals, if they managed to bring them through the portal, as well as what livestock might prove suitable.

At that point, Henrietta not-so-gently reminded the good doctor about what had happened the last time she’d tried to bring an animal through the portal. Embarrassed at the reminder of the murderous rampage perpetrated by her possessed pig, Doc Bascher dropped the topic – temporarily.

(continued...)
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"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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