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Old 08-08-2018, 10:53 PM   #361
tshiggins
 
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

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Originally Posted by SionEwig View Post
Sounds like this was quite a fun session (and a very productive one too). Looks like they have learned at least some from their mistakes earlier, what with the prepping proper gear for the trip(s) and study. Nice to see that they are capable of being diplomatic. Two thumbs up.
Yeah, it was nice to see them try to think ahead, at least a little bit. There was one little weird spot during the session, though.

For a brief instant, early on, they thought since the Empire State Building hadn't been constructed yet, they could just shoot through the portal, freely, and continue on their way.

Anten, whose character remained back on the Paradise, was trying hard to bite his tongue and not say anything. If they'd decided to return based on that information, he would have had to have A.J. proceed on that misunderstanding.

Fortunately, Aurelia was with them and, even in NPC mode, she still has her Eidetic Memory advantage. So, when they thought to ask her if they'd forgotten anything, I was able to speak through her and remind them that they wanted to operate based on the assumption that somebody controlled the portal, since somebody always controlled the portals, and they just hadn't figured out who, yet.

That got them back on track, and when Claudia and Henrietta teamed up on the Research, they were able to figure out the actual situation.

Sometimes, the three weeks or so between sessions can be a long time, especially if some of the people couldn't make it to the previous game, and that was Mike and Samantha, in this case.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 08-08-2018 at 10:57 PM.
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Old 08-09-2018, 01:00 AM   #362
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
Sometimes, the three weeks or so between sessions can be a long time, especially if some of the people couldn't make it to the previous game, and that was Mike and Samantha, in this case.
Also something I learned a long time ago: Not everyone delves into character as deeply as some of us.


What I mean is, I remember all the little things that come up in game, in my character's life, as well as I remember all the little things that come up in real life.

Probably better truth be told, as I have some level of eidetic memory for conversations and things I've hand written... and game is just one long conversation with occasional note taking by hand.
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:14 PM   #363
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

We held the latest session of facets, recently, and the group picked up right where the last session left off. This proved to be another long information dump -- which is something that just happens, when people go into a completely new and different universe!

##

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. (Not available, this time.)

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 1919 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. (NOTE: The nunnupi were out of the game for awhile, so I misremembered the name. This is correct, and not “Circles Thrice.”)

##

Safely in her private compartment on the local service train headed west out of Manhattan, Henrietta pulled out her hand-held radio and began to try to reach A.J., Steven and Jimmy, who had been drifting slowly toward the Atlantic from Pennsylvania, for two days.

For the most part, the trio had maintained altitude, used the engines only for minimal station-keeping once they neared the ocean, and generally enjoyed the greater room available due to the absence of most of the group.

A.J. had slung a hammock in the rear gondola and beep of the radio woke him from a light doze. He told Jimmy to answer it, and the two bickered amiably about who should stir themselves cross the five feet or so to reach the device, as it began to beep more insistently.

Eventually, A.J. said, “Fine!”, rolled out of the hammock, grabbed the radio, and then flopped back down where he was before. After Henrietta told him the “Away Team” had made the needed contacts and gotten clearance to use the gateway to the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, however, A.J. got up and pulled himself through the keel access tunnel to the forward gondola.

A startled Steven jerked awake as A.J. lowered himself through the access port, and then pulled out a set of binoculars to help spot landmarks they could use to guide Henrietta to an open field not far from an isolated train platform. From an altitude of 10,000 feet that wasn’t too difficult, especially since inland New Jersey in 1919 wasn’t nearly as populated as the coast, and the archaeologist had used her cell-phone camera to take a few pictures of local maps while she’d been at the library (good Navigation rolls by Anten and Debbie, both).

A somewhat surprised and slightly disgruntled train conductor helped the “Away Team” debark and unload their bags at the Morris Plains platform, about 80 minutes west of Manhattan, in the middle of New Jersey farm country. The group hoisted up their heavy bags and started to hoof it west into the setting sun.

They reached the pick-up point (an open pasture) before it got fully dark, and the Paradise hovered about 30 feet up in the calm evening air as Jimmy lowered the cable from the winch of the rear gondola. The luggage went first, followed by the crew.

Claudia almost fell, again, but Jimmy lowered her down and Aurelia helped adjust the physicist’s harness. Everybody else made it up to the airship without problems.

Once everything and everyone was aboard and secured, Steven raised the airship back up to 10,000 feet, and the group got some rest. The next evening, A.J. put them over Weehawken, began to pump the helium quickly into the tanks to lower their altitude, and pointed the nose east-southeast.

The former NASA engineer and pilot used the bright lights of the galas at the Waldorf and the Astoria hotels to guide him, pulled the throttles back to glide through the night sky nearly silently, and the Paradise plunged through the portal at about 8 p.m. on September 23, 1919.

In an instant they went from full dark, in the evening sky of New York, to daylight. It took a few seconds for everybody’s eyes to adjust, and then they blinked in astonishment.

In the past, when they’d traveled between worlds and remained long enough that it could make a difference, the time and date had always been the same. Even in the Astral Plane of Yetzirah, where they’d only spent a few minutes, the time had seemed to match the afternoon hour in Denver.

Now, however, the windows of the gondolas let what appeared to be the light of a fairly overcast day. The gasbag blocked their view straight up, but from what they could see out at an angle, the sky seemed to have a thick layer of cirrus clouds very high up that glowed milky white.

Closer at hand, a green cloud streaked with bright blue light and flashing with occasional lightning rose like a wall across the sky. Around them, they saw a vast, open sky streaked with white and gray clouds, and a very thin and faint yellowish mist gave everything a pale sepia tone.

Aft of the Paradise, the sky showed no sign of the presence of the portal, but the crew hadn’t expected any. According to Henrietta’s research, the portals only appeared to those with mage sight or who could detect magic (she had spells that could do both), or through the use of spells to identify dimensional gateways (which Sunmi could cast, had she been present).

A.J. cautiously opened a window, a took a look below them, and saw nothing but more sky, with clouds that grew darker gray the further down he gazed, until everything vanished into a haze of gray and tan.

Despite that, and somewhat unexpectedly, the gravity seemed quite normal (based on what Henrietta had researched, A.J. wasn’t sure this world would have any, at all), and the barometer showed 29.92 inHg (inches of mercury)/1013 mbar. That indicated an air pressure of 14.7 psi, equivalent to sea level.

The thermometer registered 60 degrees Farenheit (15.5 degrees C), a bit cooler than the early New York evening on the other side of the portal.

Inside the gondola, Henrietta had taken a look at the compass to get a bearing on the vast green cloud, only to find it (to her consternation) swinging idly in random circles. Apparently, this world had no magnetic field and, if the sky remained overcast constantly, they couldn’t see any stars, either.

This made navigation highly problematic, to say the least, and left them at a loss. However, A.J. had felt a slight breeze blowing toward the distant wall of green cloud, which was at least something.

(continued...)
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:16 PM   #364
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(...continued)

Right about then, the two nunnipi in magpie form fluttered down from somewhere above, and perched on the sill of the open window. They immediately transformed to their faerie forms, and Hops About told Doc Bascher that “something interesting” was happening above the airship.

The two then flew away, up out of sight without any further explanation.

The rest of the group glared at the veterinarian for a moment, until Aurelia gave a heavy sigh, pulled a safety harness out of an equipment bin at the back of the gondola, and strapped it on. Once she had the harness secured, she pulled herself up into the keel tunnel, and then into the dirigible’s envelope.

Aurelia used the narrow internal ladders to reach the catwalk that led to the engine mounts, opened the small hatch, there, and clipped her safety lines to rings outside. She pulled herself out to the rungs that led to the top of the envelope and carefully began to climb.

Once she was close enough to the top that she felt fairly safe, Aurelia glanced around and saw Hops About and Twirls Thrice sitting with their ankles crossed, elbows propped on their raised knees, looking up into the sky.

She followed their gaze, and saw a slender, dagger-shaped vessel of shiny metal, with four large fins at the stern painted bright orange with some design. The ship hung about 200 feet above them and slightly behind, without wings, gasbags or vectored jets.

She couldn’t see the propellers very well at this distance and angle, but the two she identified see didn’t seem to be rotating very fast. Aurelia also noted that five tubes of some sort seemed to extend from each side, but couldn’t make them out any better.

Aurelia immediately shouted down the sighting to the others, and yelled that from her vantage it vaguely resembled a submarine with two large elevator fins and two large rudder fins. Right about then, a blinking light near the front caught her attention, and she realized the mystery airship had started to signal with Morse code.

The former high school art teacher didn’t know Morse code but had a perfect memory, so she waited until the message had repeated itself. Aurelia assumed someone on the other craft was watching her, and she quickly climbed back down to the aft gondola where Claudia was staying.

Once there, she grabbed a notebook and jotted down the pattern of dots and dashes. While Claudia translated it, Aurelia found one of the propane signal lanterns A.J. had rigged up, and clipped it to the back of her harness.

By then, Claudia had deciphered the message, which read, “S-H-O-W N-O W-E-A-P-O-N-S A-S W-E C-O-M-E A-L-O-N-G-S-I-D-E.” Claudia wrote out a simple response of, “OK” (“--- -.-“) which she figured Aurelia could transmit without difficulty. Then, Claudia crawled through the keel access tunnel to reach the forward gondola, where she reported the message and her response.

Meanwhile, Aurelia clambered back topside, and carefully used the signal lantern to send the response. As soon as she did so, she heard engines roar to life on the unidentified craft, and then watched as the nose dipped down and it began to fly toward the Paradise.

Aurelia watched long enough to identify the symbols painted on the ailerons and rudders as bright green tulips on a bright orange field. Hops About pointed up and said she could see something very much higher, but couldn’t make it out. Aurelia looked for it through a pair of binoculars, and eventually spotted a tiny round dot very high above.

Aurelia began to climb back down as the nunnupi watched the approaching craft with interest. Once she reached the keel access tunnel, Aurelia heard Frank (who had apparently gone aft) say they’d been smart to comply with its request, since the approaching craft could kill them any time it wanted.

Rather alarmed, Aurelia scrambled down into the aft gondola and looked outside to see the tulip ship had appeared and begun to slowly approach from about 50 feet back and slightly below. From this angle, she could see two sets of twin M2 .50 caliber machine-guns mounted on the bow and stern.

Behind each of the twin mounts Frank pointed out a metal tube angled upwards, which he said were 60 mm mortars, fore and aft. Additionally, the five barrels sticking out of gun hatches on each side appeared to be 60 mm breech-loading recoilless rifles.

In all, the craft appeared to be 90 feet long and about 24 feet wide at the middle, with a polished metal hull that resembled aluminum, and a wooden deck. The deck had plenty of metal tread plates beneath the deck weapons and what appeared to be high-traffic areas, also.

A low wooden and metal superstructure with sizeable windows stood on the deck in the middle of the craft, and on the bow was painted the name, Groningen in black letters. At least a dozen crew moved around the deck and the twin-.50s fore and aft swiveled to track them as the aircraft pulled alongside. At about 50 feet out the airship came to a stop.

After a couple of minutes of looking them over carefully, the commanders of the other ship must have been satisfied, because suddenly the barrels of the recoilless rifles got pulled inside and the gun hatches shut, while the heavy machineguns went back to fixed positions, barrels pointed fore and aft.

A uniformed man appeared from inside the superstructure, and shouted through a speaking horn for them to follow, and flasher blinked out the same message. Claudia flashed back an acknowledgement, and watched as the four engines at the back of the Groningen gimballed to angle the propellers up.

This caused the stern of the craft to dip downwards, and once the bow was pointed up at about 15 degrees, the engines straightened out and roared as they throttled up. The Groningen began to climb under power, but A.J. decided he didn’t want to use any of fuel in their nearly dry tanks.

Instead, he opened the valves on the helium tanks to flood the gasbag, and the Paradise began to rise. As it did so, A.J. kept an eye on the barometer, which hardly budged from 29.92 inHg, throughout the rise, which he reckoned (based on the rate of climb) had to comprise a three-mile gain in “altitude.”.

The former NASA engineer found this quite disconcerting, as an increase in altitude of three miles would put them at least a thousand feet above the highest of Colorado’s mountains, and should have dropped the air pressure to a bit less than 8.3 psi, or about 16.8 inHg. Instead, the mercury in the barometer had moved so slightly that A.J. couldn’t really be sure it moved, at all.

Eventually, the Groningen once again dropped below the edge of the gasbag and, within moments, the group got its first good look at the “tiny dot” Aurelia had spotted from below.

About a quarter-mile head of them, with the green cloud off to their right, the group saw a round floating platform with a town built on top of it. Stubby, irregular wooden extensions that resembled docks extended out from the central circle like the broken teeth of a wooden gear, and atop most of them A.J. saw airship mooring masts.

Additionally, a number of what appeared to be semi-permanent floating platforms suspended beneath gasbags of various shapes and sizes floated out from the central deck, attached with a somewhat chaotic looking web of rope bridges of various lengths, widths and apparent structural integrity.

A.J. also noted a few larger suspended platforms a bit further from the central town structure, not connected directly but keeping station with an odd combination of lateen sails and propellers, or attaching to other platforms that were, themselves, tied to the town.

All of them swayed gently in the slight breeze flowing toward the green cloud, and the smoke from the various chimneys bent gently in that direction.

After a few moments, A.J. saw a light on top of one of the mooring towers flash, and Claudia confirmed that as the one they should use. A.J. fired up the engines and closed in slowly, flying mostly on fumes and the last dregs of fuel in the tanks.

By the time the Paradise reached the tower, A.J. doubted he had enough fuel to start up the engines, again.

As the tower crew secured the airship, Henrietta looked down at the dock and saw a man in a uniform with a clipboard, and figured that had to be a customs official. Once the ground crew had secured the Paradise, it hovered just a few feet off the dock and party was able to hop down without any trouble.

The man approached and, in fact, introduced himself as a custom’s officer for the town of Nieuw Haarlem. In English with a marked Dutch accent, the man asked if they had anything to declare. Henrietta asked what sorts of things they needed to declare, and the man replied anything they wished to bring into the town to trade, and they’d have to pay a 20 percent import duty.

Henrietta replied that seemed rather steep, and while they might want to trade, they wished to explore the town first to see what might sell.

The official said that happened fairly regularly, and as long as nothing undeclared came off their airship, they shouldn’t have any trouble. He then pointed back up the dock toward the Custom’s Office, and said they should come and find him when they decided to unload goods.

(continued....)
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:18 PM   #365
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(...continued)

In the meantime, he said, two guards would remain posted at the end of the dock, and would stop them from bringing anything in until it had cleared customs. Also, the custom’s officer informed them that all firearms were forbidden, inside the city, and that any damage to any flotation device carried harsh penalties.

The group asked for a good place to stay, and the man pointed them in the direction of the Nieuw Haarlem Inn, and then bid them goodbye. A.J., Steven and Jimmy had been stuck on the dirigible for a long time, by this point, so the group decided to grab some jackets and check out the town.

The dock led to a narrow street, about 15 feet wide, that led around the circumference of the central platform. On the far side stood a group of tall wooden structures the group soon identified as warehouses.

The group thought the layout resembled some they’d seen just inland of the docks on many of the islands of the Caribbean, although those storage structures were usually made of stone, and not wood. Narrow alleys lay between the buildings, and when they took one, the group emerged on what was clearly the main avenue that led around the platform.

Across the 20-foot wide avenue rose brightly-painted wooden buildings, five or six stories tall with commercial establishments of all sorts at street level. The floor above appeared to house offices (based on the printing in the windows), with apartments condominiums on the upper floors.

The street didn’t seem particularly crowded, and consisted of pedestrians, primarily, although some had pushcarts or towed small wagons that resembled rickshaws.

The group noted that a number of the shops seemed closed, and looked to either side. To the right, as the street curved out of sight, they spotted a wooden structure that had been stained to bring out the natural grain of the wood, rather than painted as with the other buildings.

The group walked that way, and within a couple of minutes, saw a rather ornate wooden building with a large clock-face about 30 feet up. The clock read a few minutes after 9 o’clock, and several of the group checked their mechanical watches. Those showed the same time, which meant the town clock matched what the time should be in New York.

Apparently, this town kept the same time as Manhattan, but unlike that city, it remained daylight. Given that information, the group wondered if night ever fell on this world (as it turned out, it never got dark).

The building had two large flags hanging on poles extended up at a 45 degree angle from above its large double doors. Both flags had bright orange fields, and one had a bright green tulip and the other had a bright blue.

Each of the flags had four letters in the corners – the one with the green tulip had G-N-A-C, while the one with the blue tulip read, G-N-H-C.

Two uniformed guards flanked the door on either side. Their uniforms had bright orange epaulets with blue tulips, and they carried what Frank immediately identified as M4 carbines with optical scopes.

The former Utah State Trooper also noted that none of the pedestrians on the main avenue appeared to carry any weapons, at all. The group concluded that this must be the town administration center, located conveniently close to the mooring tower to which they’d been directed.

The group decided not to stick around and made their way back toward the Nieuw Haarlem Inn. They found it about a third if the way around, and went inside.

A young woman with a Dutch accent greeted them, acknowledged the place did have some nice rooms available, and signed the group in to four of the nicer ones. A quick discussion of exchange rates revealed that this place used dollars, and that Nieuw Haarlem dollars traded at one for two, with the 1919 U.S. currency they’d brought with them ($2 US = $1 NH).

That also meant the rooms cost as much as the nice suites they’d rented at the hotel in New York and, while nice, weren’t nearly as good as those.

Once they’d secured their luggage, the group made their way to the bar and restaurant to find out what was on the menu. The place was mostly empty, and they found a couple of tables very quickly.

The menu showed some fairly expensive items that mostly seemed to consist of poultry of one sort or another, as well as various odd-looking vegetable dishes. They ordered several different things, and a waitress brought them out a basket of flat bread and a bottle of oil.

A.J. tried the bread and realized it was made not of wheat flower, but rather of some sort of finely-ground nut flour. Also, the table had no butter (the oil apparently served as a substitute), nor did it have any shakers of salt.

The food, when it came, tasted okay, and was certainly filling, but seemed rather bland to palates accustomed to spicy Tex-Mex or the Southwestern Cuisine of the Four Corners region of the United States. Some of the drinks tasted pretty good, though, and Aurelia made her way to the bar to ask about them.

There, she struck up a conversation with the bartender, Adam, who seemed to appreciate the company of such an exotic stranger, so Aurelia pumped him for all the information she could get.

Adam said the two different flags reflected the ownership and power structure of Nieuw Haarlem. The town belonged wholly to the Nieuw Haarlem Corporation, which in Dutch translated to the Geoctroyeerde Nieuw Haarlem Compagnie – GNHC (Patented New Haarlem Company).

However, the bartender explained that the Patented Nieuw Amsterdam Company (Geoctroyeerde Nieuw Amsterdam Compagnie – GNAC) had staked the New Haarlem Company with most of its startup capital, and as such owned 55 percent of the stock.

The New Amsterdam Company also controlled a portal to the most advanced Manhattan known, and had a huge city completely enclosed in what sounded like a geodesic tensegrity sphere 4000 yards in diameter.

Based on his description, Aurelia concluded New Amsterdam’s portal led to their own world of 2015, in which the Esagila Guardians owned the Empire State Building and kept the secret of the existence of magic (and magical gateways) with lethal discipline. As such, it probably meant the New Amsterdam Company exercised a monopoly on access to the most advanced technology available.

Adam said the New Haarlem Company owned outright the 150-yard platform and the docks that extended from it, as well as everything constructed on the deck. As such, most of the hoteliers actually leased the structure from the company, which took a cut of the gross. The company similarly leased space to the other residents and businesses, but retained ownership.

That said, Adam noted this inn was actually owned outright by the company, and that meant he worked for the GNHC, directly.

In response to Aurelia’s queries, the bartender said the New Harlem Company also exercised a monopoly on the purchase and sale of lifting gases and biofuel. Any supplies of either had to be sold to the company, and only the company made them available for purchase.

Aurelia asked where they came from, and Adam replied that the Orbital Realm of Jupiter had any number of large patches of floating vegetation. That included large forests of floating trees with thick canopies, held aloft by bladders that held a mix of helium (mostly) as well as some hydrogen, both of which were relatively abundant in the atmosphere.

The trees usually started out as seeds held aloft by thistles, Adam explained, and floated around until they found a patch of sky dense with water vapor. At that point, the thistles began to absorb water, CO2 and other nutrients, and quickly produced a bladder and leaves.

That caused the seed to flip upside down, and the thistle became a diaphanous root suspended from the bottom of the twig that held the bladder and leaves.

The trunk of the tree actually then grew sideways, and extended branches with leaves and bladders upwards, while the roots extended downward and resembled an increasingly fine curtain that filtered water and nutrients. The trees grew quite large, Adam said, and based on his description, Aurelia realized they probably matched sequoia trees in size

Other vegetation included mats or vast, tightly clustered spheres of vegetation of all sorts, held aloft by some mixture of biological parachutes, parasails and buoyant bladders. The bartender said the floating forests sometimes held settlements, but people seldom lived in the vegetation mats, which didn’t grow as solidly.

However, both usually acted as habitats for local fauna – mostly insects (sometimes very large ones) and birds. Adam said that, in addition to lifting gas, fuel and wood, the vegetation provided food, oils, and fiber of all sorts, as well as most of the other items that supported life in the Orbital Realm.

Some of the most dangerous creatures provided the most valuable goods (especially the large spiders), Adam added, and any number of hunters earned a decent living hunting them and harvesting what they produced. Most of those resources came into the floating cities as raw materials, and skilled laborers converted them to useful items for sale in the local shops and boutiques, or in restaurants and bars.

(continued...)
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:20 PM   #366
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(...continued)

Aurelia thanked Adam for all his time and information, and left briefly to return to the Paradise. She returned with a five-pound back of iodized salt (properly declared) and an MRE, and presented them to Adam to thank him for the information.

With that, the party decided to turn in for the night, and visit some of the shops and markets, the next day.

The next morning, Aurelia, Henrietta, Doc Bascher and Frank decided to check the markets and try to get a handle on the local economy. For his part, A.J. decided to find out what he could about fuel and an additional fuel tank, as well as how navigation worked in a place without either stars or a magnetic field.

Jimmy, plus Beatrice and Grunt (in NPC mode) stayed behind to keep an eye on the Paradise.

The quartet soon started to pick up some interesting tidbits. Firstly, they learned the Orbital Realm of Jupiter had no native grasses nor any substitutes. The “area producer” that served as the bases of the ecosystem consisted of algae of various types, as well as the molds, yeasts and bacteria.

Those were fed upon by insects of all sorts, which (in turn) fed larger predators – especially birds. Most of the vegetation reproduced through spores, budding, seeds (with thistle-roots, as Adam described) or nuts held aloft with bladders. None of the native trees produced fleshy fruits, they learned.

Since the world had grasses, it also had no native grains – no rice, no wheat, no barley, no maize. Moreover, all salt and minerals came from plants and animals, which pulled them from the dust suspended in the atmosphere.

They learned the atmosphere grew denser, with greater dust and water vapor (as well as heat and gravity) the deeper down one descended, while the air grew colder and thinner, and the gravity less, the higher one climbed. Moreover, the atmosphere extended both deeper and higher than the one on Earth, where outer space started at about 60 miles up.

The platform upon which they currently stood hovered at the altitude where gravity and atmospheric pressure both matched sea-level in the multitude of Earths in the material realm of Assiah, Aurelia learned. Most people lived at this level, referred to generally as Z-0, or Zed-Zero, or Zed-Zed.

Generally speaking, heat, gravity and atmospheric pressure changed very slowly, in the realm, and a “zed-level” consisted of a layer of atmosphere about 100 miles deep. The air became too hot and too dense for most people at about “zed minus 7,” or 700 miles below them, while it became too thin and cold about 700 miles above.

Even then, people needed protective gear of one sort or another at the extreme ends of that 1500-mile band of sky. However, they learned that very few people had any reason to travel up to the cold, thin heights.

That wasn’t the case, with the depths. Down there, in the hot, dense, damp and dust-laden layers, the algae and the native life that fed upon it (and each other) grew abundantly, and could be harvested.

Though rewarding, the work rated as both difficult and dangerous. In addition to the predators, at least some of the algae and bacteria that thrived in the heat and humidity found human lungs quite hospitable, and those who stayed down there too long (or didn’t have filter masks) usually contracted pneumonia of some sort.

Fortunately, descent into the steamy depths wasn’t the only option. Periodically, hot-spots flared deep down, and sent huge columns of cloud higher into the sky – hundreds or thousands of miles.

Most people referred to these cloud-columns as “Fountains of Life,” which described them, accurately. The column with all the hot, moist air at the center allowed the algae and other forms of life usually found in the depths to prosper at higher altitudes – including those humans found comfortable.

The vast green cloud visible in the distance marked the edge of one such Fountain of Life. In fact, the wall marked the edge of a protuberance that extended more than 150 miles from the central column, which rose several hundred more miles into the air. At the top, it was cold and thin enough to kill much of the algae and other nutrients, and the prevailing winds at the top pushed them hundreds of miles leeward, where the remnants fell as a nutrient rich mist or rain.

In fact, that “nutrient fall” explained the sepia tone mist in which they fond themselves. Nieuw Haarlem floated to the leeward of those upper atmosphere winds, and therefore hovered in the midst of the nutrient fall.

That constant fall of starches, sugars and other nutrients made the area particularly rich in plant and animal life – so much so the area had remained pretty well travelled and lightly settled for a number of generations. The discovery of a gateway to a Manhattan, right in the middle of the nutrient fall, created a bright future for the people of Nieuw Haarlem.

Once they’d learned what they could based on the common knowledge of people they met on the streets, the types of goods available in the shops and restaurants started to make sense. Poultry, nuts and seeds formed the basis of the menu, along with what Doc Bascher said was likely the very nutritious “seaweed soup” (actually algae strands) from the night before.

Nobody except perhaps the very wealthy had access to red meat or any other products from grazing animals (no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese), nor did anyone have access to grain flour. The lack of abundant salt made for food that tasted rather bland to their palates, and Doc Bascher wondered how everybody got enough iodine.

However, fiber seemed quite abundant (as did wood, clearly…), and some of the shops featured silk garments that matched any they’d seen in exclusive boutiques in 1919 Manhattan. Aurelia got the willies, though, when she learned that most of the silk came from the webs of the giant spiders that lived in the floating forests or vegetation mats.

At one point, Doc Bascher poked her nose into a shop marked “Artsenijbereidkunde,” which proved to be a pharmacy. There, she saw antibiotics sold over the counter and, upon inquiry, learned bacterial infections posed the greatest local risk to health. Doc Bascher deduced their presence in the nutrient fall probably caused that, and immediately planned to get everybody a shot of antibiotics, ASAP.

In addition to learning about the local markets, Aurelia also checked into the power structure of Nieuw Amsterdam, and learned the local society fell into distinct classes, although with some social mobility.

At the top of the heap lay those who owned stock in the patented companies – either the GNHC or the GNAC. Many of them served as corporate officers, and stock options seemed to be part of the compensation for those who rose sufficiently high in corporate ranks.

Those employed directly by the two large companies comprised the second highest class. Steadily employment with good pay, and the opportunity to eventually rise to the point where they could enjoy stock options, gave them enviable positions in New Haarlem society.

Next came those who owned private companies that enjoyed vendor contracts with either of the two main corporations. The owners of these successful firms, of all sizes, supplied the natural resources, as well as other goods and services, desired by the primary companies.

The fourth class consisted of those employed by the vendor firms, and that group formed the vast majority of the population, followed by small businessmen and contractors (and their employees) who worked with the vendor firms – the next lowest class.

Based on that, Aurelia asked about those whose existence didn’t depend work with the GNHC or the GNAC, either directly or indirectly, and was told that no such people existed in company territory. Those who didn’t work for the company, or supply the company, had no place in the regions controlled by the company.

Aurelia also learned the area featured nothing most people in her world would recognize as a “government.” The two patented companies and their contractors provided all services to those who could pay, and the only safety nets appeared in the form of savings and investments. Many of the vendor firms were publicly held, and had shares available in the active (and rather volatile) local exchange.

For her part, Aurelia found all of this at least somewhat disturbing, as it seemed to suggest that perhaps a small, but significant, strain of almost Objectivist thinking flowed through the culture. Perhaps not that philosophy as originally proposed, but rather as an ideological justification for the exclusion of those deemed undesirable by the companies.

It was certain that the companies seemed to exercise monopolies on the use of force, as well as the commodities (fuel and gases used for bouyancy) most critical to life.

Given her background, Aurelia also made discrete inquiries about law and punishment. Most crimes concerned infringements on health, safety and property, and most punishment consisted of fines, periods of labor, or some combination of both.

To no one’s surprise, she discovered that those in the highest class – the shareholders – exercised the greatest privileges and immunities.

However, the worst crimes – for murder or endangering the structural integrity of buoyant structures – had as their punishment what was euphemistically referred to as, “The Long Fall.” Basically, those convicted of such crimes got pushed over the edge of the platform or out of an airship.

At that point, Aurelia asked if the GNAC or the GNHC controlled all the known portals, and breathed a sigh of relief to learn they did not. In addition to Nieuw Haarlem, the Nieuw Amsterdam company controlled a couple of others, and laid firm claim to all the territory between each.

(continued...)
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MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:21 PM   #367
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

However, the GNAC regularly traded with a place called New Wollaston, which controlled a portal that opened to a reality in which the current year had reached the 1940s. Apparently, witches controlled New Wollaston, they had discovered the portal independently, and owned the land on the Manhattan that lay beneath it.

Moreover, while New Amsterdam could create airships such as the Groningen, New Wollaston created the largest, most advanced and most reliable traditional dirigibles powered by fuel oil engines. Aurelia learned it lay some distance away, in the opposite direction from Nieuw Amsterdam.

That meant Nieuw Haarlem would likely prosper from its position between them even more than it did, already, once the Knickerbockers got control of the land beneath the portal in the 1919 world, and built a sufficiently large tower to ease transportation between the two realms.

Over on the other side of the platform, A.J. located the shipyard docks, refueling stations and gas suppliers. He discovered that refits and upgrades to airships formed the majority of the business, and discovered most fuel tanks consisted of light resinous polymers instead of rare and precious metals.

Apparently, the algae and some plants produced long-chain hydrocarbons, which the companies used to produce not only biofuels, but also light-weight structures and containers. A.J. priced a few 120-gallon tanks, which would double the cruising range of the Paradise to greater than 1,500 miles – more, if they kept the speeds below 40 mph.

As A.J. discussed prices for fuel, fuel-tanks and other refits, he also tried to find out how the Groningen operated and more about the platform that held Nieuw Haarlem. It turned out both relied on the same magical phenomenon, which was imported from an entirely different realm.

In addition to the four pure elemental realms – Earth, Air, Fire and Water, there also existed “demi-elemental” planes that combined aspects of two of those – even those that, philosophically, should stand in opposition to one another. One such demi-elemental realm, sometimes called “Thunder” but usually referred to locals as “Archipelago,” consisted of an endless sky, similar to the Orbital Realm of Jupiter.

However, that realm featured sometimes-massive floating islands, which the realm of Jupiter did not. The islands formed from accretions of dust and other particles around a central item, called an “arkenstone.” The arkenstones exerted a magical gravity-field, A.J. learned, in which heavier particles collected around the outside of the stone, itself.

The particles grew steadily less dense, the further out (somehow, the heaviest “migrated” to the arkenstone), and eventually formed spherical islands of minerals floating in the sky of the demi-elemental realm.

The arkenstones had another property, though, and that took place when they came in close proximity to one other. When the minerals spheres of two stones touched, the magical gravity fields merged and formed a cylinder with the combined area of both.

But when the spheres of three minerals touched, the magical gravity field changed fundamentally. In the plane defined by the three arkenstones, the magical gravity flattened out. The circumference of the sphere squared itself and formed a flat plane of that new radius.

As long as any additional arkenstones remained in that same plane, connecting them via minerals to the other stones caused their magical gravity fields to flatten out in the same way.

Since any connection by minerals would do, the metals that formed the shell around the arkenstones were usually stripped away, smelted and then formed into beams. The engineers formed the beams into frameworks, into which they embedded the arkenstones.

Once connected, the gravity fields flattened out, and skewed toward one another. The area of the fields never altered, but the position of the arkenstones in the metal framework determined the shape of the gravity plane.

The plane drew equally on either side, so the fields canceled out each other, and that meant those standing on the platforms felt the prevailing gravity of the surrounding environment.

The platforms that held the cities were formed of planes constructed of the most massive arkenstones that could be hauled using airship engines. Combinations of smaller arkenstones were used to create vessels such as the Groningen, which consisted of five arkenstones that formed the main structure, plus two more in a line below that formed the “keel” and gave the airship volume.

The arkenstones, as a general rule, tended to remain anchored in position once set, despite the local gravity, and only constant external force of sufficient power could get them to move. Gentle breezes couldn’t move the platform that held Nieuw Haarlem, and it would take massive engines or huge sails (or both) to shift its position.

However, the seven arkenstones that formed the Groningen were much smaller, so the four engines of that ship could move it quite easily. That said, it tended to come to a rest when the engines turned off, and it didn’t really have any buoyancy, as did regular airships.

Without functional engines or large sails, arkenstone airships simply didn’t move horizontally, although the addition of large gasbags could shift them vertically.

In the past, the only way to reach the demi-elemental realm of Earth and Air required a trip through the skies of the Pearl Bright Ocean to reach one of the widely distributed portals. However, sufficiently powerful and knowledgeable mages could create magical gateways that led there, directly.

Communities with such mages could then dispatch mining expeditions to retrieve the arkenstones and any other useful minerals collected by them. Arkenstone mining constituted a hugely lucrative trade, A.J. learned, since it was hard to reach them; the most valuable took a lot of work to extract from the center of a huge globe of earth and minerals; and hauling them back took a lot of time and energy.

While A.J. did learn a lot about ships and structures, his search for charts or maps didn’t go nearly so well. The former NASA engineer learned that most people navigated from one major feature (especially cloud-columns) to another, or simply followed fairly consistent prevailing wind-currents. The “rivers of wind,” combined with area knowledge allowed most people to travel to nearest trading centers, which is all most of them needed, anyway.

As for longer journeys, the corporations severely restricted access to the information required, and made charts available as needed to employees and vital vendors. They made no effort to restrict anyone from making their own charts (such restrictions would be futile, anyway), but never made company navigational information available to anybody without good financial reasons.

It was during his inquiry about charts that A.J. slowly began to understand the scope of the problem faced by the Red Rocks Lodge (aka the Friends of Olivia Lodge). In essence, the Orbital Realm of Jupiter was so named only because the presence of the gargantuan gas giant in the skies of Assiah correlated to the opening of the portals between the two realities.

Initially, A.J. had thought the name might describe the nature of this reality more closely. After all, the planet Jupiter could hold nearly 1,300 Earths, and that seemed large enough to match the description Henrietta found in Oliver McShane’s library.

That didn’t even come close. One of the airship engineers pointed out that Assiah held an infinite number of material worlds, and every single one of them that had a Manhattan held a portal that opened, here. In essence, the Orbital Realm of Jupiter was a magical universe that consisted of an infinite sky, where human beings had discovered only the most minute fraction of the total number of portals.

In fact, A.J. soon recognized, there was no guarantee that anybody had yet discovered the portal to the specific 1711 world he needed to reach. Or, if they had, it might lie far outside any range the Paradise could ever achieve – even if he could find the way.

By then, the clocks indicated time for lunch, so the group got back together at the Inn and compared notes. Frank listened carefully to A.J.’s information, and the implications began to unfold in his mind.

Frank said the use of portals such as the one they first discovered, which led from one dimension to another in the Material Realm of Assiah, could compare to travel by surface streets and avenues, from one particular neighborhood to another – useful, but slow going.

By comparison, because it connected to many, many portals to material realms (and other places), the Orbital Realm of Jupiter functioned almost as a “superhighway.” Those who knew how to navigate from one portal to the next, Frank said, could freely travel between any number of dimensions, and enjoy the vast wealth achievable from careful interdimensional trade.

Moreover, those who controlled the “on-ramps” (the portals, themselves) enjoyed all the good things wealth allowed – especially, power.

(continued...)
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"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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Old 09-21-2018, 07:21 PM   #368
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

At that point, the discussion turned to how best to gain the funds and information needed to get where they needed to go. In the longer term, Doc Bascher said they needed to form their own corporation and get approved as vendors to the GNHC, at least, and the GNAC, if at all possible.

The deal they’d already struck with the Knickerbockers had started them down that path, already, she noted, and created for them the possibility of eventually buying into the GNHC.

In the near-term, the group decided to offer some of the Wal-Mart spices they’d brought with them as trade goods, and perhaps some more MREs. Even though it might prove their most valuable commodity, Henrietta objected to the sale of any of the 5 lb. bags of iodized salt they’d brought, given its utility against hostile spirits.

The group hadn’t brought much ironmongery with them, other than the weapons they’d need in the 1711 world. Axe-heads and sledge-hammers weighed too much. The group also decided to focus on spending greenbacks instead of metal coins, even though the latter would get much better exchange rates, because the numismatic value of the 1919 coins was so much higher in their own world.

With that, the group decided to stop by the GNHC/GNAC offices and make inquiries about how to become approved vendors. After a short walk that took them about a third of the way around the outer main avenue, they found themselves on the polished wooden floor, in front of an information desk.

The young man behind the desk seemed to know them by sight, and welcomed them warmly to the offices and asked how he could assist them. Aurelia said they’d like to speak to someone about becoming vendors, and find out more about import duties.

The clerk smiled and said that wouldn’t be necessary. Someone named Gerda Jonckers had left an invitation to join her for a luncheon in her offices the day after they got settled in, he said, and asked if tomorrow would work for their schedule?

Aurelia cautiously replied that it might, but asked who Ms. Jonckers might be. The young man apologized and said he’d forgotten his manners, and neglected to consider the fact they’d arrived in town so recently.

Gerda Jonckers served as director of the Geoctroyeerde Nieuw Haarlem Compagnie, which (in their parlance) made her the CEO of the corporation -- and therefore the woman in charge of the the entire town and all GNHC activities that took place, there.

Aurelia blinked at the response, took a moment to let the implications sink in, and then said the group would gladly meet with Ms. Jonckers for lunch, the next day. However, once the group left the building, she freaked out a bit.

After all, Aurelia noted that the last time she got invited to a "friendly meeting" with an alpha-personality business-woman, she got mind-controlled; a deadly firefight broke out in close proximity to Denver International Airport; the cops came pouring in and almost captured or shot everybody; and the group found itself in a brutal feud with a more powerful and experienced lodge of magical practitioners.

With that, the information-heavy session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

(The group discusses the decision to abandon the name, “Friends of Olivia Lodge” because of its unfortunate acronym.)
Doc Bascher: I’m sure there are other people who have more creative names for us. I would, if I were them.

(Claudia almost falls. Again.)
Aurelia: This is totally a “five-year-old getting dressed in the kitchen” moment.

A.J.: It’s not like we haven’t gone in without a plan, before.

Frank: It’s the starship Tuliprise! We’ve got two ogres and bloodsuckers guarding our portal, so fair’s fair.
Aurelia: Their ogres win.

(The nunnipi flutter down in magpie form, inform the group that something is above their airship, and fly away again.)
A.J.: Shoulda put a crow’s nest, up there….

Aurelia: I love helping people!

Aurelia: The big, bad corporation is always evil!

(The group discusses what to give Adam, the bartender, for helping them with good information.)
Doc Bascher: I’m totally okay with giving him all of the Spam.

Bennie Rae (OOC): Adam is Rel’s new pet! Maybe if I feed him enough, I can buy him! I mean, with points….

##
__________________
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MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.

Last edited by tshiggins; 09-21-2018 at 07:25 PM.
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Old 09-22-2018, 02:00 AM   #369
evileeyore
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

So... did they find out how to find their way back to their portal? Or do they already have rituals to home in on portals?
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Old 09-22-2018, 04:40 AM   #370
johndallman
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
But when the spheres of three minerals touched, the magical gravity field changed fundamentally. In the plane defined by the three arkenstones, the magical gravity flattened out. The circumference of the sphere squared itself and formed a flat plane of that new radius.
Oooo … what's the fundamental magical unit of length?

Last edited by johndallman; 09-22-2018 at 04:50 AM. Reason: Figured out one of my questions, left the other in the hope of an answer
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