Campaign: Facets

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Henrietta asked about that particular term. The word was the same in both English and Dutch, she noted, but it didn’t make sense, given the context of the records the assistant helped her understand.

The assistant tried to evade the question for awhile, but Henrietta eventually weaseled it out of her. In the context of those early records, the assistant explained, a “grapple” consisted of a meeting between airships during which trade and commerce took place, outside the purview of the company market.

Essentially, the assistant said, two or more airships met at a location each of them knew, at a designated time. There, they lashed to one another so the crews could easily exchange all sorts of goods and services – including contraband of all sorts, and even company monopoly goods.

Company airships broke up the grapples if they found them, Henrietta learned, but they were notoriously hard to discover. Moreover, even if a company airship arrived, the black marketers immediately broke the grapple and rapidly fled in all directions.

While the company enforcement vessels might get one or two, the majority of the grappling vessels managed to escape, the assistant said.

Based on that description, Henrietta’s research made a lot more sense. As the company security forces pacified the area and integrated (or destroyed) independent settlements, the inhabitants resorted to the use of the more secure “grapples” to continue to engage in illicit trade.

References to such meetings continued through the most recent records in the archives, Henrietta discovered, which made it highly likely that such meetings still took place. If so, she surmised, then they formed the nexus of black market activity in company territory, and provided alternate sources of supply for settlements, outside the company trade network.

With that, the session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

A.J.: I’m not building, he’s building.
Frank: Who are you pointing at? Me?
A.J.: Yeah. You’re the labor, I’m management!

A.J.: Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.
GM (as Van Hoek): Thanks for the offer, and I’ll let you know.
Mike(OOC): Not if I kill you, first.
Anten(OOC):I’ve got a crossbow bolt with his name engraved on it.

Frank: They don’t have kids, they have minions!

A.J.: This is a very utilitarian society! It’s perfect!

A.J.: Do you remember the last animal you took through the portal?!
Doc Bascher: You tried to bring animals through, too!
A.J.: I got yelled at for doing it!
GM: By you!
Doc Bascher: But, did it work?
A.J.: It was bunnies. I put them in lead boxes. They died.
Doc Bascher: Bunnies are a great source of protein! We could seal them in, and put in some air-tanks!
A.J.: Now you’re saying this?
Doc Bascher: I’m a woman! I’m allowed to change my mind!

A.J. (discussing preparations for the trip to the forest for lumber): I have Deet. It’s not gonna work. I need the smoke-bombs….
Frank: I could build a flame-thrower!
GM: That’s exactly what Beatrice said.
A.J.: This plan is getting better and better, all the time....

##

[SionEwig]

A very good session there. While there seemed to be less action than some, I think it was very productive. The characters did manage to stay (mostly) out of trouble and found out a lot of information. It looks like goals were accomplished. Some good RPing by the players.

I do wonder how they are going to fully react to the moral dilemma that you have presented them. Now, I wouldn't have expected them to participate in the anti-poacher action and I can understand the reasoning to not oppose it. However, have they given any thought to their still doing business with a group that does conduct such action and the material that Henrietta discovered?

Hmmm, interesting times.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by SionEwig

A very good session there. While there seemed to be less action than some, I think it was very productive. The characters did manage to stay (mostly) out of trouble and found out a lot of information. It looks like goals were accomplished. Some good RPing by the players.

I do wonder how they are going to fully react to the moral dilemma that you have presented them. Now, I wouldn't have expected them to participate in the anti-poacher action and I can understand the reasoning to not oppose it. However, have they given any thought to their still doing business with a group that does conduct such action and the material that Henrietta discovered?

Hmmm, interesting times.

More action in the write-up I'll do this weekend.

"Bugs, Mr. Rico!"

The moral debate was actually pretty interesting, and both Mike (Frank) and Anten (A.J.) raised good points.

Anten definitely donned the "Devil's Advocate" chapeau, while Mike (I think) drew on the experience of his military service in Iraq.

I very definitely base the behavior of the companies on their historical counterparts, the various "India" companies. While I threw in some Objectivist vocabulary, they definitely don't operate according to even Rand's questionable definition of moral behavior.

Rather, some of those concepts easily loan themselves to grotesque misuse, and if someone wants something that appears to loan itself to ideological justification for an abusively hierarchical social order, Rand works really well for a Guilded-Age-type corporate entity.

Especially if criticisms and subsequent analyses are deliberately withheld, and the actions of the oligarchs are never subject to outside review by anyone -- including Objectivists.

[tshiggins]

Had a few more people, this time, so the group went out into the skies of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, and things got a little… sticky.

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.

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.

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.

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.

##

This session picked up immediately after the last one. We gave Steve, Claudia and Beatrice time to poke around Nieuw Haarlem a bit, and do some shopping in preparation for the trip out to secure the floating trees.

A.J. wanted to find some smoke grenades, so he could apply the lesson learned from the Groningen on the last trip. Since that seemed to be military equipment, he brought in Steven to poke around the local airship crew hangouts to see if he could get a line on some.

After a day or two of poking around, the former Marine pilot and sniper got a line on a shop that carried military gear and, upon investigation, found what at first glance resembled military surplus store transplanted from their own world. It had narrow canyons with walls of parkas and tarps and sleeping bags, backpacks tucked in odd corners, boots and shoes, and cords and lines of all sorts.

However, as Steven, A.J. and Jimmy (brought along as the only person with the Merchant skill) poked around, they discovered some notable differences. The store had no metal tent stakes, or cast iron cookware, and no firearms at all. The only metal implements they could see were cheap, lightweight mess kits, a few folding knives of decent quality and some bits and bobs.

As A.J. and Jimmy looked around, Steven engaged the proprietor in conversation and managed to get him to admit that he might have some military-grade smoke grenades normally reserved for corporate security uses.

After a prolonged bout of delicate negotations, the group paid $950 in local company scrip for three tear gas grenades, three red smoke grenades (normally reserved), and four each of blue and orange. The group also looked around for some parachute cords and heavy-duty elastic bands for possible future use, and kicked around a few ideas about items to build in the future.

Once they’d done all the shopping, stowed everything in the Paradise and Beatrice and A.J. finished putting up the netting to make it more difficult for scavengers to wriggle through the gaps in the lattice, the airship was about ready to go.

Henrietta rejoined the group from her extended exploration of the archives, and the Paradise departed on the fifth day in the company of two large dirigibles flown by De Bos Hautbedrijf.

Anika de Bos had told the group that a large gap appeared in the cloud wall in the opposite direction of the fountain of life, so the three airships put that astern and set out on a voyage de Bos said would take about 24 hours.

True to her word, about 18 hours later the group lightning flicker amongst clouds rising on either side in the far distance, with towers of floating vegetation between them and the storms. However, the area through which they flew had only drifting reefs of clouds through which floated tufts of plants of all sorts -- meadows in the mists.

Soon enough, the group became aware of a loud droning sound and soon saw (with a mix of delight and consternation) giant bees buzzing busily through a vast field of floating brush with bright blossoms the size of large Persian rugs.

Claudia definitely moved toward consternation when she saw a bee with a body the size of a large coffee table (and a stinger at least a foot long), and legs packed with pollen, touch down on the top of the Paradise. It began to lick at the sugars and starches that had collected, there, as the airship flew through the sepia nutrient fall from the cold heights at the top of the fountain of life.

The bee didn’t stay long, however, and soon hummed back toward the flowers. At about that time, Anika de Bos flashed a signal and asked if the group might want to search out the hive and possibly load up on honey.

After a quick discussion, the group decided they’d prefer to save that for another day, and Claudia signaled de Bos with the decision. About six hours later, the group saw another cloud wall rising before them, from which extended mists and rain that floated through a forest that extended out of sight in all directions – including above and below.

As the three airships approached and passed through outlying patches of floating trunks, de Bos signaled that she wanted to come alongside for a shouted conference. Claudia relayed the message, and about 20 minutes later her airship drew close.

De Bos shouted that maneuvers through the fringe of the floating forest could prove tricky, and she wanted to take a 10-hour break, first, to give her crew time to get some rest and some hot food. A.J. agreed that seemed perfectly reasonable and knocked together a hot meal, after which the group divided into watches, with one person up in the crows’ nest and one down in the gondola.

The rest periods passed quietly enough until it came time for Claudia and Beatrice’s turn. Claudia took her regular post up in the crows’ nest while Beatrice thumped around the gondola, occasionally going out on deck to peep through the lattice work.

About halfway through the watch, Claudia happened to glance up at a passing shadow and saw a bird. The strange environment and lack of references made it difficult for the former NASA physicist to grasp the size of the approaching avian, but as it got closer she began to shout warnings through the speaking tube.

The reason for her warning became apparent when the vast gray and gold raptor with four-foot talons swept through the formation and began to wheel in a circle as it eyed the three airships from a distance. It came as no surprise to anyone when de Bos’ airship flashed out a quick message: “R-O-C.”

Beatrice rousted everybody, slung her .30-06 and, after briefly considering a climb using the handholds on the outside of the envelope of the Paradise, decided that was too risky with her prosthetic leg. She started to climb up the internal ladder between the airbags, toward the hatch that opened into the plexiglass canopy of the crows nest.

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

As Beatrice began her climb, Claudia saw the roc climb to well above the formation, fold its wings and, with a loud shriek, dive toward de Bos’ airship.

The shotgunners in the open crows’ nest on top of the other airship began to fire hysterically at the swooping avian, but Claudia didn’t see that it had much effect. At last moment, the roc flared its 80-foot wingspan, swept across the top of the dirigible, lashed out a talon and then dove away with a screaming gunman clutched in one foot, pierced through.

Down in the gondola, Steven grabbed for his rifle, but couldn’t bring it to bear by the time the roc had glided high enough that his shot was blocked by the envelope of the Paradise, overhead.

Up in the damaged plexiglass crows’ nest, Claudia watched as the roc flipped the struggling man upwards and then bite him him in half with its beak. It swallowed down half, and then swooped after the other half and ate it, too.

As the roc began to wing its way back upwards, Claudia opened the trap door and shouted for Beatrice to hurry up!

Beatrice had almost reached the top of the ladder when Claudia saw the roc reach its altitude, wheel around and start to look for more prey. As Beatrice scrambled through the hatch, Claudia saw the rocs head turn as it spotted the movement.

Claudia scrambled down the hatch as Beatrice quickly readied the .30-06. The former helicopter mechanic found a firing port in the plexiglass and began to aim as the roc started to stoop towards them.

The rifle cracked as the roc shrieked and extended its talons. Beatrice saw feathers puff from her shot but the roc kept coming. She gave a quick hop, brought her heels together, clasped her rifle to her chest and plunged through the hatch as the giant raptor’s talons smashed into the plexiglass and threw shards across the top of the dirigible (critical Dodge!).

Beatrice’s boots hit the rungs as she wedged herself to a halt so she wouldn’t hit Claudia and knock the physicist down the ladder. She then hoisted herself up so her head and shoulders stuck out of the hatch, and looked around for the wounded raptor.

Spotting it quickly, Beatrice took a few seconds to aim, and then put a second large-caliber bullet into the giant bird. Shrieking in pain, the critically-wounded predator’s wings flopped and it began to fall. Down below, A.J. and the rest of the group in the cabin saw the roc begin a long, spinning tumble into the endless depths of sky.

Up above, two large magpies landed next to Beatrice and, in a twinkle, transformed into Hops About and Twirls Thrice, who had added orange and rusty red stirge feathers as accessories to their winter-colored garb.

The second nunnupi observed that it had been a good fight. Beatrice – still wired a bit tight from the combat-- was in no mood to deal with fairy antics and reacted badly. Amused, the two nunnupi transformed back into magpies and dove after the dying roc.

Beatrice and Claudia clambered back up on top of the Paradise to survey the damage. The roc had smashed about a third of it into shards, and pieces lay scattered around – along with three pin-feathers about four feet long. Claudia gathered those up, and then noticed signal flashes from Anika de Bos’ airship.

De Bos sent a message asking if they needed assistance, and Claudia quickly flashed back a negative. De Bos signaled she wanted to pull alongside the Paradise and Claudia shouted through the speaking-tube to relay the message.

After the flurry of messages ended, the three crews settled back to get what rest they could for the remainder of the down-time. As the time neared its end, everybody got cleaned up and grabbed snacks, and then de Bos signaled for another quick conference.

The lumber boss said she’d prefer to take the lead in her slightly more agile dirigible, while the Red Rocks Lodge airship hung back a bit ready to offer support, followed at a bit of a distance by her heavy cargo airship.

A.J. agreed to the plan, and the three airships set out to slowly scout along the edges of the floating forest.

After about an hour, several members of the crew spotted one large patch of floating trees that looked a bit odd. As they got closer, de Bos signaled that it looked as if it were infested with spiders.

Henrietta had read that arachnids came in all sizes, in this realm, and as they drew closer she saw that reports of the largest sized had not been exaggerated. A roughly circular section of the floating forest about 400 yards across had a number of vast spiderwebs interlaced with the branches, with the branches.

De Bos pulled alongside, again, and said that if the Red Rocks Lodge felt they could handle the situation, the ability to bring back such a sizable harvest of spider silk would make for a nice bonus profit.

After a quick confab, during which A.J. noted that the presence of large spiders made it highly unlikely the floating grove would have swarms of stirges or other smaller creatures. Since those had proven pretty hazardous, the last time, the engineer said he’d much prefer to deal with fewer numbers of larger creatures.

At that point, Beatrice demonstrated a heretofore unknown fear of spiders. She disagreed with the whole plan, and voted to keep looking until they found a different patch – preferably an empty one, but anything would be better than giant, poisonous creatures that just didn’t move right.

However, A.J.’s argument won the day, and he began to move the airship towards the designated floating grove.

Beatrice then noted that her prosthetic leg made it pretty tough for her to scramble along floating tree trunks. As such, she said she’d stay aboard the Paradise to provide high cover with her scoped rifle.

The rest of the group couldn’t find any flaw in that particular argument and agreed readily enough. A.J. would stay aboard to pilot the airship, as would Claudia, so she could provide any assistance needed.

(Also, nobody wanted Claudia fighting fanged horrors with only screams of terror and a bola).

The two De Bos Hautbedrijf airships hung back as the Paradise moved in. As they got closer to the canopy, they began to note movement in the canopy, and Steven decided to try to flush the arachnids with the tear gas grenades.

A.J. noted that the mostly calm wind seemed to blow from the direction of the cloud wall back toward the direction of the Fountain of Life, so he maneuvered the airship so it approached the patch from upwind.

Once the Paradise reached a good spot, Steven pulled the pin, opened a gate in the lattice, and tossed the grenade. It fell down into the canopy, and the group waited for the nasty chemical to do its work.

Nothing happened. The tear gas grenade was a dud.

Frustrated, Steven tried the other two, only to have them fail, also. Much profanity commenced, given how much they’d paid, and the group decided the proprietor of the military surplus shop most certainly deserved a return visit.

Steven decided to try the smoke grenades, and had better luck. The thick chemical smoke soon permeated the patch and, at several points, dozens of giant spiders climbed up out of the canopy.

Most of them promptly spun parachute webs and drifted off in the direction of De Bos’ airships. For her part, de Bos simply had the dirigibles dump some ballast and rise out of their way.

Eventually, the spiders stopped popping out of the trees and the smoke dissipated, so the group decided to head into the grove on foot to clear out any remaining giant arachnids.

After a quick discussion, everybody figured the thick tangle of branches probably made rifles inadvisable, although Steven took his. However, all the characters who had 12-guage shotguns took those, instead, including Doc Bascher, Frank and Jimmy.

Doc Bascher noted that she’d picked up several boxes of slugs and handed those out to everyone. The “away team” donned parachutes, as well, and then rappelled down into the thicket.

Steven took the lead, followed by Aurelia with her bow, Doc Bascher with a shotgun, and then Jimmy with his shotgun. Frank with his shotgun took up tail-end-Charlie with Henrietta and her pistol in front of him.

They eventually reached the heart the grove, where thick spiderwebs bound the canopy together tightly. From above, A.J. realized the spiders actually increased the buoyancy of the thick clump of trees, in this way, because it trapped more heat from the rising thermals.

Moving along the horizontal floating trunks proved something of a challenge. While the large diameter of the trunks meant the top would have been plenty wide enough to walk along, the branches that extended up vertically meant the team had to ease their way around to either side of those.

As such, the group took it slow and careful, and nobody moved more than about half-speed as they got close to the heart of the thicket. The group kept their weapon straps around their shoulders, but lengthened them out enough to allow use of the firearms without unslinging them.

There, the web-reinforced canopy blocked much of the light, which meant the branches from the trunks floating below competed fiercely for what came through the gaps. The combination of rising branches from the trees along which they moved, and those that rose from the trees below, made for very limited visibility in the copse.

A.J. maneuvered the Paradise to where he, Beatrice and Claudia had the best view, and then pulled out his crossbow to help provide cover.

The “away team” moved along a particularly long bole toward the center of the grove, when they heard Claudia shout a warning about movement headed toward them.

Up in front, Steve took some effective shots at approaching beasts, but then one with a body the size of a minivan leapt out of the broad-leaf canopy right above Doc Bascher and Aurelia.

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Doc Bascher and Jimmy reflexively blew holes through it mid-leap, but the momentum caused its body to smash into the veterinarian and the former high school teacher.

Aurelia rolled with the impact, but it knocked her off the tree. Managing to avoid stun, the acrobatic Aurelia tucked in and then grabbed at the roots growing down from the trunk. She managed to grab a couple of thick ones not far from where they extended from the trunk, and hung on as her feet dangled above the trees below, gaps of empty sky showing between them.

Doc Bascher lacked Aurelia’s trained grace, and her fingernails scrabbled at the trunk as her feet went out from under her and she felt herself going over the side. A bit panicky, she shouted for help and Jimmy quickly leaned down and grabbed a wrist with one hand as he hung on to a branch with the other.

Aurelia started to climb back up without assistance as Jimmy pulled Doc Bascher up higher on the tree bole. Up in front, Steven decided to scout ahead, while behind Frank and Henrietta (unwilling to hop to another floating tree as the growth from below would limit their ability to see the rest of the group – and vice-versa) waited for the ladies to get their feet back under them.

The former art history teacher regained her feet on the top of the trunk just as Frank realized the spiders used thick web-strands slung high in the branches as quick travel-routes from one tree to another. Frank took careful aim at the thick branch that anchored one near him, blew it to pieces and watched the top end of it swing away as it dangled from the end of thick silk cable.

For her part, Aurelia climbed up a branch near her, pulled out a machete, and started to hack at the tough strand anchored, there.

Up ahead, Steven heard Claudia shout warnings, again, and he quickly spotted several large bugs vectoring in on him from about 11 o’clock high and 1 o’clock high. He quickly shot those two, killing the second one just as the third bug Claudia didn’t spot appeared above him from 3 o’clock.

Steven snap-shotted that giant arachnid as it started to leap, only to have it smash into him just as the other had done to Doc Bascher and Aurelia.

The former Marine pilot did a backwards swan-dive off the tree into a cluster of branches from a tree below. Also avoiding stun, he too managed to grab some handholds (really good HT rolls to avoid stun, and good DX rolls by everyone when they needed them…), and found himself dangling from the ends of some swaying branches.

Right about then, Claudia shouted a warning that another spider was coming up on the back of the party from below and to the right, and Henrietta went prone to try to spot it as Frank stepped across the gap to the tree that held the rest of the party.

(That was a crit fail on Claudia’s perception roll, and it took Henrietta out of the fight.)

About then, from above, he heard Beatrice’s rifle crack, and a couple of seconds later heard the unmistakable “thwack” of A.J.’s crossbow discharge. Apparently, they’d spotted more spiders in-bound.

The former Utah state patrol officer eased his way around Jimmy and Doc Bascher, and made it past the branch Aurelia had climbed without problems. He hastily took a coil of rope from around his shoulder tossed it toward Steven, but it flew too far away for Steven to grab.

As Frank started to coil the rope for a second try, Steven realized the spiders had anchored a travel web within reach. Taking a chance, he grabbed at it, and discovered it was just sticky enough to provide a perfect grip, and quite strong.

He hoisted himself up so he had both arms over it, just as a sling from the Paradise appeared right next to him. Claudia had lowered it using the geared manual winch, after A.J. nudged the airship into position.

Steven managed to get both arms through the sling, and then Claudia raised him up enough so he could get back on the trunk with the rest of the group.

By then, Henrietta had decided Claudia was seeing things, and had joined the rest of the group up by Steven.

That fight was the high-point of the session. After that, spiders came at them only one or two at a time, and the group rapidly exterminated those that remained in the patch.

As the fight wound down, A.J. realized the spiders could only survive (even in the Orbital Realm of Jupiter) if their tissues were drenched in Decanic energies. As such, their organs likely would make excellent components for appropriate magical spells.

Inspired by the news, Doc Bascher pulled out a long scalpel and began to enthusiastically carve up the bodies of the five or so spiders that hadn’t taken the Long Fall when the party killed them. She wound up with several large bottles of spider venom, some spinnerets and eyes packed in salt, and a few dozen spider-eggs comparable in size to those of ostriches.

Once the group declared the floating copse cleared, de Bos’ lumberjacks moved in and began to process the patch. They spent several days gathering as much of the tough, light and durable spider silk as the three airships could handle, and A.J. actually had several large balls of silk lashed to the outside of the gondola, in addition to what they’d packed in the hold.

Eventually, they got all they could, and de Bos’ crew managed to find eight young, but mature, trees in good shape close enough to the edge of the patch they could untangle and tow out.

The crew lashed them together in two groups of four trees, each, and ran hawsers to the large airships of the lumber company.

The three airships worked their way out of the edge of the forest and pointed their noses toward home, and that’s where the session ended.

Funny Quotes

(The group discusses possible enhancements to the airship Paradise, given how dangerous travel can be in the Orbital Realm of Jupiter.)
Frank: Hey! We could launch a Tomahawk missile from our deck-mounted trebuchet!

(A bit later.)
Claudia: We could totally build a ballista! That’s a much better idea than a trebuchet!

(The group questions whether A.J.’s plan to netting to the lattice might impact visibility, or make it too difficult to get in and out of the airship.)
A.J.: I don’t care. I’m in an enclosed cabin. Nothing can get to me.

A.J. We could get a length of rope and put a couple of grenades on each end, and Claudia could throw it at them. She has that skill!

Beatrice (shows a picture on her character sheet’s impressive equipment list): I got a slingshot.
A.J.: Great. You’re on guard.
Beatrice: Why? Me?
A.J.: ‘Cause you’ve got the slingshot.
Beatrice: I’ve also got a gun!
A.J.: You can shoot a teargas grenade from a slingshot.
Beatrice: Oooh! You have to provide all the information!

(I found their troubles immensely entertaining….)
Steven: We have to get into the woods to fight the bugs, and fight the bugs to get the wood!
GM: Welcome to the schadenfreude of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter.

Mike(OOC): It takes the blood of 398 humans, rendered down, to get the iron needed for a longsword.
GM: It amazes me you know that.

(The roc attacks.)
Doc Bascher: It has talons the size of your torso!

Beatrice: You need to call the boss and tell him we’re okay, up here.
Claudia: Or I could scream and run.

Hops About: That was cool.
Beatrice: Get lost!

Beatrice: I never get out of my body armor. I just occasionally Febreeze the inside of it.

(The group plans how best to clear out the spiders, and who wants to enter the grove for a recon-in-force.)
Doc Bascher: I do, but I really don’t.

Beatrice (repeated several times during the discussion): This is so stupid!

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

. . . Steven decided to try to flush the arachnids with the tear gas grenades.

This is the first mention of tear gas. Were they bought at the military surplus store?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Mike(OOC): It takes the blood of 398 humans, rendered down, to get the iron needed for a longsword.
GM: It amazes me you know that.

Does it, though?

Each human has 3-4 grams in their body, total, but not all of that will be in the blood. Also, few extraction methods can be 100% efficient, even if we're talking some serious blood magic and evil alchemy.

And depending on how you're making the sword, you are very likely losing some of the iron to the forging process. How much, I don't know, but it can easily be a significant fraction of the total.

This means that a bloodmetal sword can easily represent thousands of sacrificed victims, really. Especially if any significant number of the sacrifices were children.

This came up in my current game. According to... uh, someone who should know, with whom one of the PCs had a... communion of sorts, still secret to the other PCs, about the mysterious glowing saber that Teddy Smith said looked like it was made by Atlantean priest refugees in a pre-historic Iron Age kingdom in Africa, long lost to history*, the 1 kg blade required the sacrifice of 666 people. Obviously. No more, no less.

*If it's lost to history, how can Teddy Smith identify the tell tale glyphs and artistic flourishes of post-Atlantean survivor states? I wish I could say that he has Hidden Lore covering this, but no, it's Archaelogy and Delusions.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by johndallman

This is the first mention of tear gas. Were they bought at the military surplus store?

Oops. Yeah. That was an oversight. I added it in.

They were duds. Critical failure on Jimmy's "Merchant" skill roll.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Does it, though?

Each human has 3-4 grams in their body, total, but not all of that will be in the blood. Also, few extraction methods can be 100% efficient, even if we're talking some serious blood magic and evil alchemy.

And depending on how you're making the sword, you are very likely losing some of the iron to the forging process. How much, I don't know, but it can easily be a significant fraction of the total.

This means that a bloodmetal sword can easily represent thousands of sacrificed victims, really. Especially if any significant number of the sacrifices were children.

This came up in my current game. According to... uh, someone who should know, with whom one of the PCs had a... communion of sorts, still secret to the other PCs, about the mysterious glowing saber that Teddy Smith said looked like it was made by Atlantean priest refugees in a pre-historic Iron Age kingdom in Africa, long lost to history*, the 1 kg blade required the sacrifice of 666 people. Obviously. No more, no less.

*If it's lost to history, how can Teddy Smith identify the tell tale glyphs and artistic flourishes of post-Atlantean survivor states? I wish I could say that he has Hidden Lore covering this, but no, it's Archaelogy and Delusions.

Okay, it amazes me that you know this.... :)