Campaign: Facets

[dcarson]

You can buy non sparking tools for places where sparks are bad like oil rigs. “Non-sparking”, “spark reduced”, “spark-resistant” or “spark-proof” tools are names given to tools made of metals such as brass, bronze, Monel metal (copper-nickel alloy), copper-aluminum alloys (aluminum bronze), or copper-beryllium alloys (beryllium bronze). The Monel would still maybe a problem but the others sound magic and fae safe.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by dcarson

You can buy non sparking tools for places where sparks are bad like oil rigs. “Non-sparking”, “spark reduced”, “spark-resistant” or “spark-proof” tools are names given to tools made of metals such as brass, bronze, Monel metal (copper-nickel alloy), copper-aluminum alloys (aluminum bronze), or copper-beryllium alloys (beryllium bronze). The Monel would still maybe a problem but the others sound magic and fae safe.

This matches my thinking pretty closely, and here is what the party has discovered, thus far.

I use the 36 Decans as described in G: Cabal, but have replaced the ferrous metals in the tables on page 59 with ones that work, symbolically, but don't correspond with a different decan.

In all cases, I've replaced iron with vanadium, and steel with titanium.

Vanadium is hard and silvery-gray in color as an ore, but oxidizes to a deep red, so it was a good replacement. When refined, it's fairly hard, ductile steel-blue metal. Symbolically, it works for Mars and Aries.

When not alloyed, Titanium is as strong as many types of steel, and is a lustrous metal with a silver color. Again, it works symbolically for Pisces -- better than steel, in my opinion.

The party has discovered that the decanic energies that comprise lead are so tightly and inextricably bound that the metal is, in effect, wholly inert and dead to magics. It can't take enchantments, allows no decanic energies (including surges) to penetrate it, and effectively blocks any magics that don't produce gross physical effects.

A mage can melt a lump of lead with a sufficiently hot version of "Flame Jet" or "Fireball", but it's the heat the magic produces that does the job, and not the magic, itself. Casting "Heat Metal" on a lead lump won't do anything.

By contrast, ferrous metals seem to disrupt decanic energies, and produce chaotic side effects. Attempts to enchant iron or steel implements seldom turn out as expected, the metal seems to "ground out" decanic forces much of the time, and occasionally the outcomes are catastrophic failures (at least, for the implement someone tries to enchant).

Magical engines, therefore, must consist of metals or other substances, frequently alloys, that don't include iron or steel or lead.

Bronze is the traditional choice, and A.J.'s player, Anten, has as a long-term goal a disciplined investigation into which metals and alloys work best for what types of enchantments. However, he hasn't gotten to it, yet.

The group's research into Oliver McShane's library (and consultation with other mages) confirms that iron and steel seem particularly harmful to fairies. As such, Doc Bascher, Beatrice and Frank have acquired shotgun shells with steel shot, "just in case."

As for what the Fae might value, the group hasn't looked into that, yet. Since they peruse this thread, reasonably frequently, I'll send private mail to anyone who asks.

Icelander, you'll get one, shortly.

[SionEwig]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

<SNIP>

As for what the Fae might value, the group hasn't looked into that, yet. Since they peruse this thread, reasonably frequently, I'll send private mail to anyone who asks.

Icelander, you'll get one, shortly.

Yeah, send me one also. I'll be curious as to your thoughts.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I use the 36 Decans as described in G: Cabal, but have replaced the ferrous metals in the tables on page 59 with ones that work, symbolically, but don't correspond with a different decan.

Ah, I see.

I somehow didn't think of poring over 3e books in search of more detailed lists of decanic modifiers than Thaumatology contains. Although I suppose Thaumatology mentions the decanic correspondances of some metals, so maybe the bulk of the information has indeed carried over.

I'm interested, as you are, how metals interact with rituals and enchantments, but I also have a goal of making the weaknesses of various ultraterrestials and monsters as diverse as I can.

So, while iron is indeed a fatal weakness for the fae, I'm considering what kind of other materials can affect supernatural creatures in similar ways.

Ash and salt are traditional banes of spirits. Iron also works for some manifested spirits, as does silver, gold and other precious metals. I also feature specific spirits that possess dead bodies and can be driven out by staking the heart with hawthorn or ritually mutilating the body combined with some specific exorcism/cleansing rites.

Technically, of course, any kind of manifested or possessing spirit can be rendered incorporeal again with sufficient trauma to the host body, whether that is a mystical construct or a convenient vessel taken over. In most cases, however, I want esoteric substances or materials tailored to the specific type of spirit to be more effective than simply Moar Dakka. Hence, hollow-cavity slugs filled with salt or ash, monolithic pure iron bullets, jacketed gold bullets, steel shot, silver-core bimetal bullets, etc.

I want to feature other ultraterrestials than the fae and such otherworldly beings might not share the traditional fey weakness for iron. I'm not sure whether every mystical being has an Achilles' Heel of some sort, but I'm leaning toward there being some substances that are very dangerous to them in the vast majority of cases. After all, all sorts of things are toxic to humans and we aren't even supernatural beings with unnatural powers.

I've been thinking whether copper bullets are a sovereign medicine against any particular kind of supernatural. If copper is a direct analogue to iron for these purposes, i.e. alloys have proportional effects, anything that is deathly vulnerable to copper would have been fairly easily slain by humans at TL1 and by prepared humans at any TL.

I wonder if there is any class of mythological or legendary beings that were perceived as deathly unbeatable foes by Stone Age people, but as foes that warriors could defeat in the Bronze Age. Faeries fit kind of neatly into the murky depths before written sources in most Indo-European societies, conveniently the time before we had steel weapons and tools. But what mythical beings did Neolithic man fear that his bronze-armed successors could slay with impunity?

Originally Posted by tshiggins

In all cases, I've replaced iron with vanadium, and steel with titanium.

Vanadium is hard and silvery-gray in color as an ore, but oxidizes to a deep red, so it was a good replacement. When refined, it's fairly hard, ductile steel-blue metal. Symbolically, it works for Mars and Aries.

When not alloyed, Titanium is as strong as many types of steel, and is a lustrous metal with a silver color. Again, it works symbolically for Pisces -- better than steel, in my opinion.

That both sounds good.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The party has discovered that the decanic energies that comprise lead are so tightly and inextricably bound that the metal is, in effect, wholly inert and dead to magics. It can't take enchantments, allows no decanic energies (including surges) to penetrate it, and effectively blocks any magics that don't produce gross physical effects.

A mage can melt a lump of lead with a sufficiently hot version of "Flame Jet" or "Fireball", but it's the heat the magic produces that does the job, and not the magic, itself. Casting "Heat Metal" on a lead lump won't do anything.

What does this mean for protective spells meant to ward a target from attacks?

Would a spell that diverted missiles so that they missed more often prove ineffective against sling ovoids of lead and many modern bullets?

Originally Posted by tshiggins

By contrast, ferrous metals seem to disrupt decanic energies, and produce chaotic side effects. Attempts to enchant iron or steel implements seldom turn out as expected, the metal seems to "ground out" decanic forces much of the time, and occasionally the outcomes are catastrophic failures (at least, for the implement someone tries to enchant).

I do want iron to be somewhat useful in resisting magic, by grounding out the energies, but against anything other than fae magic, this is a slight bonus, not a reliable protection.

Against a fae spellcaster, however, a warrior in full steel harness wielding a steel sword will be all but impervious to the Fair Folk magic, as well as neutralizing much of their special senses and otherworldly grace, causing pain and distraction and horrible wounds on merely a touch.

The Fair Folk have a very good reason not to want to visit Earth any longer and to guard the pathways to their realms with predatory zeal against anyone who'd bring iron into them.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Magical engines, therefore, must consist of metals or other substances, frequently alloys, that don't include iron or steel or lead.

I thought about making iron very resistant to magic, but I'm afraid that the temptations of enchanted blades proved to much for me and I was unwilling to make it impossible (or all but impossible) to enchant good steel blades, especially heirloom knives and swords that had been in a character's family for centuries.

So, bronze blades are at a least +1 to enchant relative to iron or steel alloy blades of the same age and mystical connection to the caster, but that doesn't make iron impossible to enchant. And your great-great-grandfather's Civil War saber of decent steel is generally going to be easier to enchant than a newly made bronze blade with no special connection to you.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Bronze is the traditional choice, and A.J.'s player, Anten, has as a long-term goal a disciplined investigation into which metals and alloys work best for what types of enchantments. However, he hasn't gotten to it, yet.

I also want various once-living materials to be favorable for the right kinds of magic, so that it's cheaper, in terms of time required, to enchant the kind of gear that Stone Age people might want.

If someone is willing to give up the quality and convenience of modern manufacturing, it does yield some magical benefits (though probably not enough to make up for not having TL8 technology). At the very least, amulets, fetishes and the like will often be made from natural materials or objects found during vision quests and the like, not mass-market plastic or, for that matter, from metals, unless that is a requirement for the task.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The group's research into Oliver McShane's library (and consultation with other mages) confirms that iron and steel seem particularly harmful to fairies. As such, Doc Bascher, Beatrice and Frank have acquired shotgun shells with steel shot, "just in case."

Unless the steel shot goes through any kind of armour 'because it's fey', note that any kind of steel shot for use on waterfowl will be spectacularly useless against a foe wearing bronze armour. Probably even leather or linen armour would stop it at anything other than 'muzzle almost in contact' ranges.

If they weren't in the US, I'd suggest surplus 'AK-type' 7.62x39mm M43 ammunition, which is generally steel-cored and about 40% iron by weight. It might be possible to legally acquire old batches of military surplus in the US at gun shows or online auction sites, batches imported before the specific ban on importation and the ATF ruling that it was 'armor-piercing handgun ammunition'.

There's also surplus M2 AP rounds for the .30-06, perfectly legal in the US, and the bullets can be reloaded into anything for personal use, including .308 Winchester and .300 Winchester Magnum. Approximately 50% iron by weight and a hell of a lot better at killing folks than steel birdshot.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

As for what the Fae might value, the group hasn't looked into that, yet. Since they peruse this thread, reasonably frequently, I'll send private mail to anyone who asks.

Icelander, you'll get one, shortly.

Thanks for that.

[tshiggins]

We held another session of Facets recently, which started out as a bookkeeping session, but then the group decided to take things on the road – as if the Orbital Realm of Jupiter had roads….

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. (not available this time)

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 this time)

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 group held off on doing anything more to investigate the black market in the area of Nieuw Haarlem, and focused on getting their homes built. Once that was done, they unpacked the library from the bottom of the hold of the Paradise, and then set up their sacred spaces.

At that point, they hunkered down and spent a couple of months studying new spell lists to prepare for the exploratory mission to find the gate to the 1711 world they needed to reach. Once that was done, they renewed their hanged spells and began to plan the trip.

A.J. noted the vast distances of the orbital realm meant they’d likely need to make several trips to scout the route and possibly establish supply caches along the way.

It also meant they’d spend a great deal of time away from the platform and the homes they’d just painstakingly built. Rather than leave its face to random chance, A.J. recommended they have Jimmy remain behind as their local representative, to conduct business on their behalf, and keep an eye on things.

Jimmy proved amenable to the idea. While certainly alien from the wilds of northern Nueva España where he grew up, the Orbital Realm of Jupiter was, nonetheless, easier to understand for him than the complexities of the 2015 home of the rest of the group.

In addition, his own world lay just on the other side of the nearby portal, and he had every reason to think he could travel through, from time to time, if he really wanted or needed to do so.

(Since Henrietta was the diplomat character who had negotiated the arrangement with Nieuw Haarlem, Debbie agreed to purchase Jimmy as a reliable Ally for her, with my permission. This seemed an interesting step in the character’s development, and a good way to “shelve” him, as he’d have limited utility in the next major plot arc, anyway.)

A.J. then spent the next several weeks working on some more schematics to make sure Jimmy (who had professional-level skills in Merchant, by now) could operate on solid financial footing. He completed a plan for a biplane, a radio transmitter and a washing-machine, all based on technology that existed in the 1919 world.

(Crit success for the biplane, and solid successes for the others).

Most of the rest of the group spent their time studying new spell books on their own, or with Henrietta’s assistance. Henrietta spent her time teaching, rather than learning anything new, herself.

During their downtime, the group worked on their houses. Doc Bascher got her clinic set up, and Beatrice and A.J., the shared workshop space. Frank periodically sampled some of the OudBruin Kola and practiced playing the bongos, so he could thump out the theme to Miami Vice (in tribute to its active ingredient).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEjXPY9jOx8

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Eventually, everybody had learned all the spells they thought they had time for, and prepped the Paradise for its initial foray. Henrietta took the amulet JoCat had given Aurelia, concentrated, and cast a “Seeker” spell, to locate the gate to the world from which it came.

An instant later, she had a direction – generally opposite from the direction they’d taken to fight the scythe trees, and at a significantly lower altitude.

The group climbed aboard the airship and A.J. took a look at the incomplete charts he’d received. Between them and the direction indicated by Henrietta’s spell lay a gateway from the Elemental Plane of Air. A.J. had learned that freezing wind came howling out of those portals at hurricane speed, and no airship could get within a 800-900 miles of one.

That meant he had either skirt around to the right, or backtrack a bit and go around to the other side of the Fountain Life.

Since he knew that winds mostly flowed toward the fountains, A.J. decided he didn’t want to try to go around the Fountain. A bad storm might blow them into it, and then the thermals would tear the Paradise apart. So, he elected to take the long way around to the right of the direction they needed to go (and lamented the utter lack of magnetic fields in the orbital realm).

The first leg of the direction they chose took them parallel to the route they’d taken past the giant bees, although hundreds of miles away from there. After a very long “day” of travel, they stopped at the small community of Fleur, to rest and refuel.

The next “day” they headed toward a platform cluster marked as “Windtree,” at the edge of a forest close to where the winds from the gateway to the Elemental Plane of Air dissipated enough to allow for normal travel. The charts indicated it lay on the edge of another mist-shrouded floating forest.

The early part of the day’s trip went well enough, but while still a few hours out, Claudia spotted a cloud of flyers swooping and swirling in the distance. She called down the warning, and A.J. adjusted his course to try to avoid them.

For the most part, he succeeded, but as the Paradise made its way around the end, a group of what appeared to be the giant, acid-spitting locust-type bugs split off and came hard at the airship.

Steven took the helm, while A.J. and Aurelia took their bows below decks to cover the small openings, there – Aurelia in the forward cabin and A.J. with his crossbow in the main hold.

Henrietta took her 9mm up to the crows nest (with its replaced plexiglass protective bubble) to cover Claudia. That left Frank, Doc Basher, Beatrice and Grunt to guard the main deck with shotguns (and teeth).

The group held off the first couple of waves with minimal difficulty. Beatrice cast a spell to protect Grunt, so he managed to dodge spits of acid without difficulty. The bugs did try to chew through the trellis, but most of the damage to the protective wooden slats came from a few of Doc Bascher's shotgun blasts.

Each of the group took spits of acid during the fight, but most of the caustic saliva spattered on jackets or (in Beatrice’s case) hit the ballistic plates in their vests.

Below deck, things didn’t go quite so well. A.J. one-shotted the few targets he had with his high-tech crossbow, but one of Aurelia’s bugs got lucky. A narrow stream of caustic spittle hit her left leg just above the knee, drilled through the skin and sprayed acid into the cartilage between her kneecap and the joint.

Aurelia went white from the excruciating pain and collapsed to the deck, tried to pick herself up again, and felt the knee fail completely as the bug started to scramble through the narrow portal into the cabin.

Hearing her shouts, A.J. clambered in from the hold as Doc Bascher, who heard Aurelia shout for a “Medic!” made her way down from above.

A.J. managed to put his crossbow bolt through the bug and knock it backwards out of the portal, where it began its Long Fall. Beatrice arrived about then, checked Aurelia’s knee, and declared she needed to pull the kneecap to see what the acid had done, underneath.

Right about then, the group heard the pop of Henrietta’s 9mm from above. A quick query through the speaking tube revealed she’d put two rounds in the torso of one bug, and then splattered its head.

The body still lay on top of the airship envelope, the archaeologist reported, if Doc Bascher wanted to come up and take a look.

The veterinarian/people-doctor begged off for the moment, and put Aurelia under anesthesia. Once the injured woman went out, Doc Bascher cut through the skin and carefully pulled up the kneecap to reveal a stinking mess.

The acid from the bug had eaten away most of the cartilage of Aurelia’s knee, reducing it to a stinking, gelatinous mass. Doc Bascher carefully scrapped it all out, cleaned the bone of the kneecap and used some saline to flush out the joint.

After that was all done, she carefully replaced the kneecap, sutured the skin, and then hit Aurelia’s knee with a Major Healing spell. Within two hours, Aurelia could walk normally – the suture marks nothing but old white scars.

With that, Doc Bascher cleaned her knives and clamps, grabbed a hacksaw, rolled it all up, and then took the long climb up to the top the envelop.

Once up there, she cheerfully cut into the cadaver of the bug Henrietta shot, and found it disturbingly similar the guts of much smaller insects – albeit with some cavities. The veterinarian speculated that the cavities might enhance airflow to the bug’s innards.

However, she didn’t think the cavities would be enough, and Henrietta speculated that (as with other creatures they’d seen), decanic energies must somehow play a role in its metabolic processes.

The archaeologist’s hypothesis received some possible validation when Doc Bascher peeled back the carapace on its tail to see a sizable “mud vein,” surrounded by firm white flesh.

That looked an awful lot like the tail of a crawfish, to her, and (on a whim) A.J. decided to cook some up. One successful “Cooking” roll later, he produced some thick filets with a texture similar to best swordfish, and a rich flavor similar to a cross between that fish and the finest prawns.

The group dug into the unexpectedly delightful meal, and soon felt both rested and refreshed. The cooked bug-tail had even freshened their breath.

A.J. and Henrietta thought the flesh of the tail of these giant bugs might make for a good spell component, for healing spells of all sorts, and A.J. set some of the raw flesh aside to see how it kept.

Several hours later, the airship docked at Windtree and, once the crew had secured everything and exchanged niceties with the locals nobs, A.J. checked the bug tail cuts, again, only to find out they’d gone bad. Apparently, he needed to cook them up, right away, or try to figure out a preservation method.

With that, the session ended.

Funny Quotes

(A bug spits on Beatrice.)
Beatrice: Damn! That didn’t even hurt!

(Henrietta puts three rounds in a bug, the last a crit to the head.)
Beatrice: At least she’s not shooting us, any more.

(A.J. cooks up some bug-tail, with unexpected results.)
A.J.: We could use this instead of chicken, in chicken soup!

##

[SionEwig]

Sounds like a good session. Good planning and work on the players part.

The group held off the first couple of waves with minimal difficulty. Beatrice cast a spell to protect Grunt, so he managed to dodge spits of acid without difficulty. The bugs did try to chew through the trellis, but most of the damage to the protective wooden slats came from

Most of the damage came from what?

A narrow stream of caustic spittle hit her left leg just above the knee, drilled through the skin and sprayed acid into the cartilage between her kneecap and the joint.

Just ouch, very much so. ;-)

(Henrietta puts three rounds in a bug, the last a crit to the head.)
Beatrice: At least she’s not shooting us, any more.

I can appreciate this one.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by SionEwig

Sounds like a good session. Good planning and work on the players part.

Most of the damage came from what?

(SNIP)

.

Musta got interrupted in mid-sentence.

Fixed it, now. :)

[tshiggins]

We finally held our latest session of Facets after a long hiatus – people get busy around here, in the Spring, and that includes having babies. The sister of one of our players was expecting a new member of the family, so their mother came into town. Needing a break from sitting around in the hospital, Bennie Rae’s mom, Char, decided to play as a guest.

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.

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.

Amanda Gagnier: A professional airship crewmember and native of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, hired as a guide as the Paradise neared the borders of territory controlled by the Nieuw Haarlem company. -Played by guest Char W.


NPCs Present

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 party decided to spend a day or so at Windtree (or Windboom, in Dutch), their latest stop, and check out the small community.

The main floating tree platform appeared to have about 400 people, and they learned the area had a number of smaller communities that held about that many more.

Located on the edge of a floating tree forest, on the main windstream toward New Wollaston at the edge of the portal gale around the gateway to the Elemental Plane of Air, the community saw a fair amount of transient traffic. However, while it had a few amenities for travelers, the local economy seemed to depend mostly on lumber, lifting gas, paper, fiber and other forest products; as well as some cycling orchards.

Aurelia and Frank quickly located the one bar (of two in town) that primarily catered to transients and they, Beatrice and A.J. decided to stop in. Frank asked about OudBruin Kola and, discovering they had some, ordered a cool glass. Aurelia and Beatrice nursed a beer, each, as did A.J., who asked the bartender if he knew of anyone in the area who had made the next leg of the trip.

The bartender didn’t know of any, but a woman in her 30s sitting down the bar, a few seats away, said she’d made the trip a number of times on different airships.

A.J. sat down to have a conversation with the woman, who introduced herself as Amanda Gagnier. She said the windstream current remained strong for a fair distance ahead, but that navigation through the area could be a bit “tricky” due to the proximity to the edges of the portal gale.

The cold air from the Elemental Plane of Air dropped the temperature throughout the area, she said, which created turbulence and misty conditions that reduced visibility, and generated fairly frequent storms.

The former NASA engineer began to ask for greater detail, and Frank and Aurelia noted that Gagnier seemed to have shifted to something of a “hard sell” in an attempt to win a position on the Paradise. Growing somewhat suspicious, they decided to watch the interview more closely.

After a bit, Frank and Aurelia agreed that, while Gagnier seemed to mostly stick to the truth, she definitely seemed to be exaggerating her credentials (at least a bit), and definitely wasn’t telling them everything about herself.

Suspicious but not wholly opposed, the pair decided not to voice objections when A.J. agreed to hire Gagnier as a temporary crew member for the next several stops, for a wage of $100 USD in 1919 silver currency. Gagnier agreed, because the metal currency would mean a premium conversion rate into New Haarlem Compagnie script.

A.J. told her to report to the Paradise in nine hours, to help prepare for the ship’s departure. Gagnier agreed readily enough, and headed for her flop to get some rest and pack up her limited belongings.

Arthur and Beatrice headed back to the ship, but Aurelia and Frank decided to stick around a little longer. Aurelia began to chat with the bartender, and asked if he knew anything about Gagnier. The bartender cocked an eyebrow at her and sardonically observed that while he didn’t know a lot, he certainly knew more about Gagnier than he did about Aurelia.

Aurelia backed off a bit, and acknowledged the accuracy of the statement. With that, the bartender relaxed, too -- especially when Aurelia slipped him a sawbuck.

The barman acknowledged that, while he didn’t know Gagnier all that well, he’d seen her in the bar on a number of occasions, where she stopped in for some beer and some poker. What he’d heard on those visits seemed to match the story she’d told A.J. – she worked as a contract crewman on airships that traveled around the area.

Based on what little he knew, the bartender said, Gagnier seemed to do her job well enough, but hadn’t really stood out that much as superbly competent or anything.

Mollified by what they’d learned, Aurelia and Frank headed back to the ship to get ready for the next day’s departure.

Gagnier showed up at the foot of the gangplank to the Paradise about eight hours later, and spent a few moments puzzling over the odd symbol on the rudder at the back of the airship. To her, it looked like a distorted and jagged letter “M” in rust-red paint on a bright blue field.

Soon enough, though, A.J. welcomed her aboard. He found a place below, between some cargo shelves, where she could stow her duffle-bag and sling her hammock.

After that, they headed up to the main deck, where Steve saw her for the first time and inquired about her presence. A.J., Aurelia, Beatrice and Frank explained, and A.J. asked Frank to supervise her. Moses agreed, then A.J. and Beatrice showed Amanda around the airship and introduced her to Claudia.

Claudia headed up to the crows nest to take her post as the Paradise cast off. Amanda told A.J. he should stick to the windstream, which blew slow but steady in the area. However, she said the last remnants of cold air from the portal gale merged into the windstream as a cross-breeze, and that would tend to blow the ship to the right.

Combined with the relatively limited visibility due to the condensation caused by the cold air from the gale, a crew that didn’t pay attention could find itself in trouble, Amanda said, as the unsettled air often spawned storms.

The crew settled into the journey, making for the next settlement down the windstream, a place called Batavia. The journey started out well enough, and after about four hours Aurelia decided to check on Claudia.

She climbed up the safety ladder through the center of the envelope, between the gasbags and popped open the hatch. There, she found Claudia immersed in a notebook, sketching schematics of machine or other, and paying absolutely no attention to the skies around the Paradise.

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Aurelia asked Claudia what she thought she was doing, took a quick look around, and immediately saw a roc circling overhead. Rel shouted a warning as she scrambled out of the hatch, and Claudia squeaked an alarm as she scrambled toward the hatch.

Aurelia managed to get her bow unslung and an arrow nocked as the vast raptor started its stoop. She held fired at the last second, and the arrow plunged into its breast as the roc’s talons extended toward Aurelia inside the plexiglass “hamster ball” around the crows nest.

The roc shrieked as its talons slammed into the plexiglass dome. The material starred with cracks but didn’t break. Steve, who manned the helm at the time, felt the impact through the controls as the others heard it, and he yelled through the speaking-tube to find out what was going on.

Claudia shouted out the basics as she started to search for the rungs of the ladder with her toes, Steve called out the alarm, and tried to get put the Paradise into evasive maneuvers, only to be stymied by the slow reaction time of the huge gasbag above his head. Frank went for his shotgun, Beatrice decided to grab Steve’s sniper rifle from the rack in the bridge and A.J., down below, went for the window of the bow cabin with his crossbow.

Before any of them could get a shot off, the roc was too far away and had started to vanish into the mists.

By that time, a panicky Claudia had started to climb down the ladder. Just as her head dropped below the hatchway, she lost her grip, fell about 10 feet, and then managed to grab a rung. That stopped her fall, but she felt the bones in a couple of fingers snap.

Whimpering in pain, the portly and rather uncoordinated physicist tried to continue the climb down, made it a few more feet, and then fell again. She managed to catch herself, again, wrenched a shoulder out of its socket when she caught a rung, made it a bit further before she fell for the last time and thudded to the top of gondola. Fortunately, that didn't do much harm and the pain from the lumps merged into her general misery.

Once Claudia had cleared the ladder, and since she didn’t have a weapon that could possibly help, Amanda started up the ladder in case she might be needed up there. Meanwhile the rest of the group prepared to take shots once the bird reappeared.

It did exactly that just as Amanda made it to the top of the ladder. Aurelia spotted it above the dirigible and directly astern, just as it folded its wings and started its second dive.

Aurelia picked an aperture with a clear view aft, took careful aim at where the heart of the avian should be, and released at the last moment. The arrow’s fletching disappeared into the feathers directly above the heart, the roc gave a dying shriek and its body slammed into the top of the dirigible where it skidded to a halt and balanced precariously.

(Near-max damage on an impaling attack to the vitals. 😊 )

Realizing its value as a source of spell components, Aurelia shouted for some ropes to be sent up, and Amanda slid back down the ladder to grab some. She returned shortly as Aurelia told Steve to keep the dirigible as steady as possible.

The two women cracked the doorway in the side of the bubble and ran out onto the top of the dirigible. Amanda took it slow and clipped the carabiners on her safety harness to the secure rings as she moved toward the head of the dead creature. However, Aurelia the acrobat dashed to the stern before tying herself off.

The pair then spent the next 30 minutes, or so, securing the body of the roc to the top of the dirigible as best they could, while Steve held the airship steady and dumped a lot of ballast.

Once they’d gotten it secured, Doc Bascher came up to help and, between them, the three women decapitated the creature (Aurelia wanted to preserve the skull and mount it as a figure-head on the gondola) and began to pluck the long, strong feathers. A.J. cracked open the books in Oliver McShane’s library down in the hold, and found that the bones would also serve as powerful components for ritual magicks.

The group spent much of the next day plucking, flensing, sawing and packing away, and the body of the roc grew increasingly tattered. Steve did the lions’ share of the navigation, as A.J. consulted the books and passed snippets of information along to those dissecting the cadaver.

After a long day of bloody work, the members of the group involved, including A.J., cleaned themselves up and decided to get some rest. A.J. slung his hammock in a narrow aisle, down in what would have been the gondola’s engine room had it remained a boat, but which now served as cargo space and tight crew quarters.

Several hours later, Arthur jolted awake as his shoulder hit a trunk on a shelf, and heard thunder rolling outside the gondola. He made his way to a hatch to the main deck, looked around, and saw that Steve had flown the Paradise into a storm.

Up at the helm, Steve soon realized the extra mass of the cadaver of the roc, unbalanced as it was, made his navigation much more difficult. The extra mass had shifted the center of gravity so far upwards that it had introduced a dangerous sway into the airship.

Steve rapidly explained this to Aurelia and Amanda, and the two women went up top to cut loose the body of the great bird. A.J. soon joined the group on the helm and, after a brief discussion, he and Beatrice decided to climb into the envelope and make their way to the engines.

Up top, Aurelia and Amanda walked out into the wind and the driving rain, and crossed the sort distance to the hawsers that held the body of the roc in place. Aurelia pulled out a machete she’s borrowed from Beatrice, as Amanda worked her way down the port side to chop at the lines, there.

As Amanda cut her way through the first hawser, the wing of the dead rock flopped free. However, Amanda found that the wing might have been protecting the Paradise because, as the wing flopped free, the professional crew-person felt through her feet the sharp crack as one of the aluminum girders snapped.

Gagnier shouted a warning to Aurelia and, a few moments later, Aurelia felt another strut break within the envelope beneath her feet.

Inside the envelope, Beatrice and A.J. heard the cannon-shot sounds of the breaking struts. A.J. elected to stay with the engines, as Beatrice began to clamber up the narrow spaces between the gasbags and the envelope, searching for the broken girders.

Above, Aurelia and Amanda finally completed cutting the cadaver loose, and saw it slip off the top of the envelope and damage the starboard side elevator as it fell free.

Amanda and Aurelia worked their way back to the hatch, and Aurelia went to the base of the ladder. Amanda worked her way to Beatrice, and the two women began to work to patch the struts as best they could.

Beatrice wired the two ends of a broken strut together, and then the two women levered the cable binding to pull them into alignment. Beatrice then quickly drove rivets to bind the aluminum girders together as a temporary patch, reinforced with the coiled wire.

The two managed to get the first two struts patched in such a way, and as they searched for the third Amanda noticed the gasbags weren’t made of either floating tree bladders, or the even better ones carefully extracted from cloud rays. They were, in fact, made of something she’d never seen before.

On the third strut, Beatrice and Amanda struggled to pull the two ends into alignment. As they just about had it right, the aluminum girder suddenly snapped free and tore into Beatrice’s gut like a dull knife into the belly of a trout. It then sprang free, spraying blood across the translucent airbag.

Amanda crawled toward the injured woman as Beatrice fought to resist the shock. As Amanda started to tear Beatrice’s shirt away so she could assess the injury, she heard the clearly hallucinating woman shout, “Georgie Porgie.”

Assuming that the pain had caused Beatrice to hallucinate, Amanda tore the shirt open, and then gawped in amazement as she saw the ragged, bleeding tear close up and seal itself. Within seconds, only an angry red scar remained.

Beatrice told her to help try to fix the girder, again, and Amanda focused on the task at hand. Within a few minutes they had that patch done, as well.

They then slid down the side of the gasbag, bracing themselves against the girders that held the canvas envelop rigid, until they reached the catwalk that led to the engines, where Aurelia helped them reach safely.

Given what she’d seen, the disturbed Amanda had some tough questions. She learned that the members of the Red Rocks Lodge were all mages, whose minds had been faceted by multiple trips to different realms. Amanda realized she’d never heard of a greater concentration of magic users in one place.

With A.J.’s help, Steven finally got the Paradise back into the windstream, only to have a cross-breeze from the storm wrench it into a twist that broke a fourth strut. However, the crew got that repaired with little difficulty, and Steven continued to fly in what he thought was the direction of Batavia.

(continued....)