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Old 07-08-2021, 12:08 AM   #581
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

This session picked up right where the last one left off.
Also, the list of PCs has gotten shorter, again. Jeff and Tisa’s responsibilities as parents pretty much preclude active participation in the campaign.

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. -- 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.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. 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.

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

Millicent “Millie” Brown – A member of the Columbine Lodge of Denver, and descendant of the Unsinkable Margaret “Molly” Brown. Currently an apprentice of the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes, seconded out to the members of the Red Rocks Lodge. Owner of a large, well-trained Savannah Cat, named Apophis. – Played by Kaitlynn S. (Not available, this time.)


NPCs Present

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fergus O’Neil – A pirate and rascal who had the misfortune to cross the Red Rocks Lodge, and the worse judgement to try to rob them when they took passage on his ship across the Irish Sea in the late winter of 1712. However, against all common sense, the party (well, A.J….) decided to adopt him as a flunky after they saved his life from his own crew.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari – A former 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.

##

The disciplined crew of the Skandzian frigate went defensive, as soon as the officer called for parlay, and they backed away slowly. The officer continued toward the stern and A.J. flew nearer to the man.

The officer said Red Rocks Lodge mages had killed his superiors, as well as the “specialist,” who had brought them their orders, so he’d willingly consider the mission a failure, take the ship and his remaining crew, and return to Skandzian waters.

A.J., in return, flatly demanded the officer order his men to lay down arms in unconditional surrender, and he promised to let them live. However, A.J. stated the ship was forfeit and, if the officers and remaining crew wished to dispute the matter, he and his colleagues would kill them all.

Right about then, two additional officers emerged from below decks – a large, burly man and the icy blonde who had dueled with Aurelia until each forced the other to retreat. The three officers quickly palavered, and the larger man offered to duel A.J. – with the winner to keep the frigate.

The middle-aged former NASA physicist readily agreed to the fight, and the crew quickly cleared off the large stern hatch-combing to act as the dueling space.

The icy blonde officer dashed below-decks, and returned within a few moments with a pair of spiked hand-axes, and tossed them to the huge officer, who had removed his tunic to reveal a massively-muscled chest.

Meanwhile, A.J. doffed his heavy crossbow and extra gear, but retained his ballistic armor (as nobody had told him he should take it off…). The crew gathered around the edges of the hatch-cover as A.J.’s companions moved to the stern-castle railing to watch the show.

A.J. lightly touched down on the hatch-cover and waited expectantly, ceramic machete at the ready.

The officer expertly twirled the axes a couple of times, skipped toward A.J., howled and charged, as A.J. tried a feint.

However, the officer ignored the feint by ignoring his own defenses, and brought one axe down from above and the other up from below, aimed at the engineer’s crotch.

The high axe came in with death on its point (critical hit!) but A.J. turned it aside at the last instant (critical parry!) and side-stepped the second axe (successful dodge of the regular hit). He then slashed out with the machete, and took off the head of the berserker.

(Quickest duel ever.)

The effortless execution stunned the Skandzan crew to silence, and the lead officer offered his sword to A.J., who took it. The officer then ordered his men to cease resistance, and go below to the gun deck. They did so as the blonde female officer led the way.

The remaining officer said the duelist had been the ship’s priest, and if Odin had saw fit to grant the victory to A.J., then so be it. However, he asked that he and his crew be put ashore at the nearest coast, rather than be taken back to whatever port the victors planned to take the ship.

A.J. agreed to this readily enough, as he didn’t want the hassle of dealing with several hundred hostile sailors for the next couple of weeks. He also gave the hand-axes to the officer, saying they should return to the family of the priest.

The officer expressed appreciation for the honor shown, and promised to see it done. With that, he went below, as well, and A.J. gated in a prize crew from the Airgead Spraeala to help sail the vessel.

As they began to arrive, the party struck the colors and raised a flag with the logo of the Red Rocks Lodge. They then used a bottle of booze to re-christen the ship, “Enterprise,” and in so completing the ritual took formal ownership of the vessel as Capt. Bohannan looked on.

The group then went down the officer’s cabins in the stern and cleared out the belongings of the former owners, stashing it in the forecastle cabins after searching it for valuables. They also went down into the bilge to see if they could figure out why the ship moved so quickly.

Once they dropped down through the hatch on the lower deck, they immediately saw the reason for the ship’s amazing performance.

Attached to the keel by power rods, they saw a large elemental binding matrix similar to those they’d seen in Atlantis, but of slightly different design. Based on the types of gems used in the 20 facets of the orichalcum framework, they saw that it likely held a water elemental strong enough to drive the ship at nearly double its normal speed.

They also found that, unlike every bilge they’d ever seen or herd of, the water sloshing in the bottom of this ship seemed crystal-clear, and surmised it was a byproduct of the presence of the elemental, bound though it happened to be.

(continued...)
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Old 07-08-2021, 12:09 AM   #582
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

Once the cabins were cleared and the vessel formally theirs by right of victory and ritual renaming, A.J. opened a portal back to 1712 London, and the group spent the next several hours bringing the items they needed to consecrate the cabins as sacred spaces.

As the group had learned, sacred spaces in the Pearl Bright Ocean (appropriately) could be consecrated aboard large ships, in addition to properly owned land dwellings.

The group planned to retain ownership of the Enterprise until they’d returned to the Elder Isles and took control of their new airship. At that point, they’d transfer the vessel over to Morgance Bohannan, and then consecrate new sacred spaces in the large cabins within the envelope of the large dirigible, the construction of which Claudia and Amanda had remained behind to oversee.

Once he learned of this plan, Fergus almost lost his mind. The lividly angry former(?) pirate could not believe the group planned to get rid of such a superb and capable vessel.

The crew of the Enterprise turned the bow to the north and, despite unfavorable winds, caught sight of the coast of the Gulf of Congo by the middle of the next day. Cloaked in thick jungle and laced with rivers that rushed rapidly from the high ground that rose quicky to the north, the coast seemed most inhospitable.

The party called the Skandzan officers to the deck and told him to pick a spot. He took a few moments to consider his options, and then pointed to one of the larger estuaries within sight of the ship.

The group permitted the Skandzans to retain side-arms and the personal gear from their sea-chests, but ordered them to leave behind the muskets racked below-decks. The Skandzans agreed, A.J. opened a portal from the deck of the ship to the shore of the estuary, and the defeated crew tromped through.

Once they’d all debarked, the prize crew turned the Enterprise “southwest” to join the Airgead Spraeala, waiting in the distance. The two ships then began to make their way toward the cape that marked the end of the gulf.

The winds remained northerly long enough for the two ships to reach the cape reasonably quickly, as that meant they blew straight in from the starboard.

However, that proved problematic as, once the ships reached the cape and needed to head north, the winds stubbornly refused to shift. As such, Capt. Bohannan kept the two ships closer to shore, so as to take advantage of the shifting shore winds in the morning and evening, even though that kept them in shallower seas than she would’ve preferred.

A week after the fight for the Enterprise, a steady rain began to fall and, even though the temperatures remained pleasant enough this far south, Capt. Bohannan let them know that autumn had arrived in northerly waters. The crews of both ships took advantage of the steady downpour and warm temperatures to bring out all their clothing and other gear, and wash out all of the salt from the sea-spray.

The next day, about mid-day (and still raining), one of the marines in the forward fighting top called an alarm, and the group rushed over to the starboard railing to see a giant crab swimming up at them from the bottom.

A couple of the marines shot it through the shell with muskets and the crew snagged it with some hooks on the ends of ropes. They chopped off the legs and huge pincers (even the smaller one was several feet long…) and tossed the rest overboard, and the cook spent the rest of the day steaming the meat for dinner.

The rain continued as the ships made their way north, and the temperature began to cool.

In the chilly and wet wee hours of the morning, three nights later, Beatrice and Fergus had the watch, shortly after relieving Aurelia and Frank. Beatrice stood atop the foc’sle deck, and the grumbling Fergus positioned on the stern castle, both of them peering forward and aft, into the dark, rainy night.

Suddenly, a panicked shout from the mid-mast fighting top jerked their attention around to midships, where they saw -- clambering over the railings on both sides -- humanoid creatures that, for all the world, looked like something from the Black Lagoon, only with larger teeth and claws.
https://i.redd.it/eo9ivhdduoc21.png

The few crew on watch yelped in fear, retreated to the middle of the deck and prepared to fight. Beatrice and Fergus snatched out weapons and ran toward the ladders to help, pausing only to fire at the dark, scaly attackers.

As they closed, Beatrice and Fergus watched in horror as the nightmarish sea-creatures sprang forward and began to lash into the sailors with teeth and claws. Two of the beasts reached the mainmast quickly and began climb up, as well, and the marines fired down into their upturned faces.

Two others charged toward the sterncastle where Fergus stood waiting, and he calmly shot one down, drew his cutlass, and pulled out his second flintlock pistol. At the stern, Beatrice shot one through with her musket, and then saw two sailors go down, flesh lashed to bleeding ribbons, while a third had much of his neck torn out.

Right about then, A.J. appeared on the deck, triggered a Hawk Flight spell, and put a bolt in one of the beasts clambering down the ladder to the port-side of the aft hatch-cover, to get to the gun deck. It died just after it bashed the door open, and a second creature moved ot take advantage of the opening, but stumbled over the body of its brother monster.

Meanwhile, the marine on watch in the fighting top shot one of the beasts in the face, and the wheeled around to bring his second barrel to bear on the one climbing up the other side of the mast.

Aft of the mast, Henrietta emerged from the stern-cabin hatch and saw two other fish-things clambering up to the stern-deck railing to attack Fergus. She slammed one in in the knee with her staff, and watched the triggered Ice Dagger take off its leg.

Fergus went all-out defensive as the third fish-best attacked with its claws, parried both, and and the keen blade of the cutlass crippled both of its hands. The hissing and crippled beast backed away and ran toward the railing, to return to the dark sea.

Several of the clawed fish-men picked up the unconscious (or dead) bodies and began to try to reach the railing, also, as Beatrice closed and A.J. began to cock his crossbow. The rest of the group – alerted by the musketry – rushed out of their cabins and onto the gun-deck, where the crewmen were starting to wake up and tumble out of their hammocks.

Several more of the scaly creatures made it down the ladders to the doors to the gun-deck and began to pound on the starboard-side secured hatchway. Aurelia and Frank rushed to defend the open hatchway on the port side, while Steve took the starboard door, and yelled for Millie, who had paused to trigger some defensive spells, to hurry up.

Over on the port side, Aurelia and Frank double-teamed the monster that tried to crawl over its buddy and, with some effort, put it down. Millie and Apophis arrived on the starboard side as that door burst in and, seeing what she face, Millie shouted for the closing crewmen to stand back.

Steven and the crewmen hastily withdrew and Millie triggered a "Mass Sleep," and several of the fish-things dropped. She pulled out her rapier, told Apophis to keep back, and closed to finish off some monsters.

Just then, about six of the creatures outside the range of MIllie's spell ripped off the cover of the aft cargo-hatch, and looked down at the frightened sailors and four party members, below.

With that, we ran out of time and the session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

NPC Officer: Parlay!
Beatrice: F*****’ babies!

(A.J. efficiently executes the priest-officer in the duel.)
Beatrice: That was awesome! That was so awesome! Put your weapons down!

(Fergus learns the group plans to give up the newly-christened Enterprise, and promptly voices his displeasure, in no uncertain terms.)
Henrietta: Oh, Fergus! Stuff a sock in that potty-mouth!

(Once the duel ends, the players catch Bennie Rae up on the events of the previous session – including how Ragan kept Aurelia in the fight, even though she started getting fireballed.)
Bernetta (OOC): We’re all throwing Ragan under the bus, on this one, right?
Bennie Rae (OOC): It’ll be real entertaining, the next time Ragan and I are in the same room, together.

(The marool – monstrous fish-men – attack.)
Aurelia: I leave the deck for 20 minutes…!

##
__________________
--
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.
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Old 08-07-2021, 01:12 PM   #583
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Another session that picked up right where the last one left off.
We join the group in the middle of a brutal combat.

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. -- 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.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. 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.

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

Millicent “Millie” Brown – A member of the Columbine Lodge of Denver, and descendant of the Unsinkable Margaret “Molly” Brown. Currently an apprentice of the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes, seconded out to the members of the Red Rocks Lodge. Owner of a large, well-trained Savannah Cat, named Apophis. – Played by Kaitlynn S. (Not available, this time.)


NPCs Present

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fergus O’Neil – A pirate and rascal who had the misfortune to cross the Red Rocks Lodge, and the worse judgement to try to rob them when they took passage on his ship across the Irish Sea in the late winter of 1712. However, against all common sense, the party (well, A.J….) decided to adopt him as a flunky after they saved his life from his own crew.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari – A former 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.

##

The sudden appearance of fish-things in the open hatchway above caught the group below, by surprise. With a hissing shriek, the monsters leapt to the deck below and began to slash at the party members as the crewmen, told by Millie to stay back, hesitated for a moment.

Up on the deck, an alarmed Henrietta dashed toward the open hatchway, as behind her Doc Bascher emerged from the stern-castle cabin hatch and nearly cut a fish-monster in half with a shotgun blast.

Down below, and over on the left, Frank and Aurelia found themselves engaged by two new creatures, just as they finished off the last one trying to crawl through the (suddenly superfluous) ladder hatch. In the middle, Steve drew his pistol as a creature landed in front of him, but Millie (with a chain hauberk and an Armor spell, but lacking the ballistic vest of the others) found herself in a fight for her life.

Frank’s creature landed two solid blows, but the former Utah State Trooper’s ballistic inserts kept the claws away from him. A swearing and seriously stressed Aurelia drew her small-sword as the second creature landed one blow, but she twisted away from the second and promptly dropped her sword, but her ballistic vest saved her, as well.

Steven shot his creature and seriously wounded it, but the fish-thing kept coming. The fourth beast landed on Millie, managed to get a claw into her despite the mail and magic, and smashed her to the deck.

In desperation, Millie triggered a second, “Peaceful Sleep” and the creature on top of her slumped unconscious – as did the one in front of Steven, and the one on Aurelia. As did Aurelia, herself.

And then creature that had hold of Frank’s vest, just outside the range of the spell, tore most of his neck out with its teeth. His lifeblood sprayed across the bulkhead to his left, and then splashed across the deck.

Frank Moses, former Utah State Trooper and inactive U.S. Marine, died instantly, triggered healing spells unable to bring life back to his savaged flesh.

Henrietta landed just behind the creature on Frank’s body as Aurelia’s “Awaken” spell went off and brought her back to consciousness and she fumbled for her sword. Millie rolled the unconscious creature off her, and rose to a knee as the crew closed in with cutlasses, knives, barrel-hooks and belaying pins.

Henrietta’s magically-enhanced staff slammed into the fish-thing trying to lift Frank’s body, and it whirled to facer her as Aurelia vaulted to her feet, smallsword back in her hand. Steven finished off his monster with a gunshot that woke Aurelia’s attacker, while Aurelia woke hers with a stab.

Millie also woke her own beast with a deep rapier thrust, and the crew started to slash and bash at it.

Henrietta effortlessly fended off the bloody monster’s attack with her swirling staff, almost fell on her ass with a fumbled attack of her own, and then killed it with the help of A.J., who landed on the deck beside her. Steven and Aurelia took out the second, prone, monster, as it slashed at the former art teacher’s legs.

Between the panicked slashes of the crew, a yowling Apophis and a few careful sword-thrusts, the one on the starboard side soon went down, as well. Up above, a couple more badly wounded Marool fish-men made it across the railing before Beatrice, Doc Bascher and Fergus could finish them.

In the end, only five of the 28 attacking Marool made it back to the sea.
But they’d killed three crewmen, plus Frank Moses, and inflicted terrible injuries on a dozen more.

A.J. opened a portal between the decks of the Enterprise and the Airgead Spraeala, and Alexios came through to help Doc Bascher with the wounded.

Morgance Bohannan came through right after and, after a quick inspection, expressed her condolences for the loss of Frank. However, she said that, had the Red Rocks Lodge mages not been aboard the Enterprise, the marool might have slain the entire prize crew.

By the time the crew had cleared away the blood, dumped the bodies of the marool overboard, and secured the aft hatchway, once again, the night had given way to gray light and steady rain. However, the wind shifted around to portside aft, and the sails of both ships bellied out to take advantage of the broad reach.

Soon, white foam flew from the bow wave, above the slate-gray sea as rain continued to beat steadily on the deck, but the ships made good time. The crew of the longer Enterprise reefed her sails, a bit, to keep her about a mile behind the Airgead Spraeala.

At the end of the day, Bohannan signaled that the ships had drawn far enough away from the area of the fight with the marool swarm, and funeral rites commenced.

Only one body of a slain crewman remained, as the marool had taken two others over the side with them. By dusk, the weighted bodies of Frank Moses and the crewman had been consigned to the dark, endless waters of the Pearl Bright Ocean, as the skies wept steadily.

The wind stayed favorable for the next four days and the ships made good time, although the skies remained overcast and rainy. Then, a storm blew in from the north and both ships tossed sea-anchors to point their bows at the waves.

(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]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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Old 08-07-2021, 01:13 PM   #584
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

They rode out the two days of the gale, well enough, but then had to resort to slow tacks as the wind remained northerly. Two days after the gale ended, watchmen on both ships called attention to the landward waters to the starboard side.

Almost every member of the Red Rocks Lodge was out and about in the watery afternoon light, and rushed tot the railing, only to see a cornucopia of capricorns, capering in the waves. Delighted, the group remained outside in the steady rain to watch for awhile, only to see the polished helmet of a triton emerge from the waves, at the side of the ship.

The triton made a few gestures, and a voice rang loud and clear, asking in Greek to speak to the commanding officer. The officer in charge – the first mate from the Airgead Spraeala directed the triton to speak to Capt. Bohannan on the ship ahead.

The triton thanked him and the helmet dipped back below the waves, and a curious A.J. peter-panned up to that ship to find out more about the situation.

Shortly after he’d arrived and told the watch officer about the approaching triton, the helmet appeared below the starboard side stern railing, and Capt. Bohannan returned a polite greeting.

The triton said he and three others needed to take more than 300 capricorns to Atlantis for sale, and asked if they might accompany the two ships, were that also their destination, given that the need to tack made for slow progress, anyway. In exchange, he and the three others would check the bottoms of the hulls and dispense with any parasites or barnacles that might have started to encrust them.

Bohannan agreed to the bargain, readily enough, and asked why the normally self-sufficient finned sea-folk would make such a request. The triton replied they’d seen signs of a large swarm of marool about a week back, and preferred to not try to take on the deadly creatures without help, should the monsters taste a trace of the large heard of capricorns.

A.J. then told the triton about the savage battle that had taken place, and the triton agreed that seemed to be the same group. He noted the creatures sometimes schooled up into large raiding groups to migrate south, as winter chilled the waters further north.

Shaking his head at how the Pearl Bright Ocean seemed to go out of its way to emulate the oceanographic and atmospheric patterns of a spherical world, A.J. thanked the triton for the observation, gave Bohannan a nod, and flew back to the deck of the Enterprise.

The presence of the frolicking sea-goats and the triton “shepherds” lightened the mood of the sailors considerably, as they were considered “lucky,” and the slow voyage north continued. The sailors’ views received validation, a few days later, when a triton breached alongside the frigate, and said the shepherds had spotted a “Hide,” trying to slip aboard.

Upon inquiry, the triton described it as a camouflaged sea-predator, which turned out to bear similarities to the airborne, “lurker” that had snuck aboard the group’s airship in the Orbital Realm of Jupiter. The members of the group who had gathered near the railing to hear the story (everybody in the Red Rocks Lodge had learned Greek years before…) thanked the triton for the pest-control.

The triton replied with a compliment about the power of the magics coursing quietly through the keel of the Enterprise, which the magical folk had quicky detected. The group exchanged some chit-chat with the triton, for a bit, and then the slow journey continued.

However, the trip soon neared its end, as they drew near Atlantis a couple of days later. The tritons drove the capricorns ahead, to reach the livestock nets around the outer harbor, to the right.

A pilot-boat arrived shortly thereafter, with some alert Atlantean officials who asked some pointed questions about the obviously-Skandan frigate flying Elder Isles flags. The group and Capt. Bohannan quicky explained the situation and, both surprised and somewhat pleased, the harbor security gave way to a couple of pilots, who steered both ships to waiting docks.

Within a few hours of their arrival, a detachment of Atlantean naval officers arrived and requested permission to board the Enterprise. A.J. granted it and the group asked if they might examine the Skandzan warship.

After a quick palaver, the Red Rocks Lodge members agreed, and the Atlanteans took a quick, but thorough, tour. Along the way, they explained the Skandzan League had a few of these “special assignment” ships, used for all sorts of nefarious deeds.

While not as sophisticated as the Atlantean bronze warships, the Skandzan frigate did provide some useful intelligence about the design, the naval inspectors said, as they’d seldom had the chance to look at one in such good condition. They did note that the Skandzans did seem to use similar methods as Atlantis to tie the water elemental matrix to the keel, but that was hardly surprising, as similar needs frequently resulted in similar solutions.

During the tour, the officers noted the presence of the scratches and gouges left by the marool, and whistled in appreciation about how nasty that fight must have been. However, within a couple of hours, the Atlantean officers thanked the group and took their leave, and the Red Rocks Lodge members settled in for the night, aboard the Enterprise.

The group spend the next several days doing business in Atlantis. They sold off the one full matrix for the sweet deal arranged during the last visit, as well as the smallest full matrix. That left them with one sizeable full matrix, a second empty one, a small pile of silver, and a larger one of gold.

They promptly spend a chunk of that change on five orichalcum ingots that weighed five pounds, each, plus some additional ingots of the ornamental copper/orichalcum alloy. Aurelia picked up her completed invisibility cloak, and the rest secured the blades made from the gladius-fish spikes they’d left on consignment, the month before.

The group also picked up some new clothing to replace the claw-tattered combat gear, as well as a few, nicer outfits and some bits and bobs. After that, they waited for the weather to clear up and give them more favorable winds, for the much shorter voyage back to the Elder Isles.

That came a couple of days later, and within the week the two ships made harbor at Avallon, where the Enterprise drew even more attention than it had, in Atlantis.

With that, the session wound down with some bookkeeping and other activities, the most relevant of which will get reported, next time.

##

Funny Quotes

GM: When last we left our protagonists, conditions were rainy and violent!
Bennie Rae: It’s been rainy and violent, a lot.
Bernetta: You say that, and I see that scene from Aquaman.

Steve: I have the worst idea in the history of bad ideas!

(Aurelia drops her sword after rolling a critical failure.)
Aurelia (OOC): That’s the worst, most embarrassing result! I would rather have shot someone!
Beatrice (OOC, to Steve): She would rather have shot you! Everybody’s going to read this, and laugh! Especially you, Norwegian boy!
GM: He’s Icelandic. He’s even called, “Icelander.”
Beatrice: I know, but I always think of him as, “Norwegian boy,” in my head.

(Millie’s sleep spell catches Aurelia, who slumps to the deck with the equally unconscious monstrous attacker on top of her.)
A.J.: I guess the good news is, she’s under partial cover, now….

Aurelia (Wakes up from Millie’s Peaceful Sleep spell): You are in so much trouble, right now!

GM: Aurelia is in melee combat, and that means she’s whining.
Aurelia: I hate this s***!

(The final monster gets killed and the deck is clear.}
Beatrice: Ew! Ew! This was yucky! Pass out the rum!

##
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Old 10-05-2021, 10:14 PM   #585
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

So, we had a good summer, here in Colorado.

This state is one of the more sane ones in the country, currently, so they managed to lift a fair number of COVID-19 restrictions. That meant we actually got some camping in and, between weekends spent in the mountains and other real-life events for the different families who play, we didn’t have a session between early July and early September.

So, with our next session rapidly approaching, I figure I need to get this write-up done. It featured a fair bit of bookkeeping, in the beginning, but then things got moving.

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. -- 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.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. 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.

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

Millicent “Millie” Brown – A member of the Columbine Lodge of Denver, and descendant of the Unsinkable Margaret “Molly” Brown. Currently an apprentice of the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes, seconded out to the members of the Red Rocks Lodge. Owner of a large, well-trained Savannah Cat, named Apophis. – Played by Kaitlynn S. (Not available, this time.)


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.

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.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari – A former 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.

##

As noted, the last time, the group ended the last session – and started this one – with some serious changes that required a bit of management.

Upon the group’s return from Atlantis, they made contact with the Avallon Charitable Aid Society. As soon as they made contact with the cheerful Anna, they turned over the elemental binding matrix in keeping with the accommodation they’d made with that organization.

That left them with two more filled, and they then went to the Wainwright Airship yards and delivered the final trade for their new airship, dubbed by Beatrice (with the approval of the rest of the group), as the, Lady McShane

The envelope of the new airship stretched more than 170 yards from bow to stern, and 20 yards in diameter, at its widest. The Wainwrights had used the best quality goldbeater’s skin for the lifting cells, filled with magically-created helium as a lifting gas.

The outer envelope around the aluminium frame consisted of several thick layers of rough Fonswhaff silk, and four propellers extended from the back, located about a quarter of the way forward from the stern, just in front of the massive elevators and ailerons.

The gondola started just aft of the forward hemisphere, and extended to about 60 yards down the keel, which ran along (and supported)_its ceiling. While the gondola of the first airship “acquired” by the group hung below the envelope, this airship integrated this structure, cleanly, with the rest of the ship.
http://www.denvergurps.com/forum/ind...tach=582;image

The gondola held the command deck at the front, with a “ready room” office immediately aft. A fighting space with arbelests rigged to fire out and down appeared after that, and then an access chamber with a ramp that lowered to allow easy access for both cargo and passengers.

The ramp space held two more arbalests at the rear, with the door to the spacious captain’s quarters in the bulkhead between them. A.J. had a suite of rooms that opened to yet another fighting chamber aft of that.

Aft of that second fighting chamber lay a chamber with a circular stairway going up into the envelope, and then a large hatchway in the floor with a crane at the side. The crane had a number of fixtures, including an elevator cage. At the stern of the gondola lay the head.

The spiral stairway opened up into the envelope, proper, which held the cabins of the rest of the members of the Red Rocks Lodge, plus a library, galley, dining room and gathering place (dubbed “Ten Forward”) with a huge window that peered out the bottom side of the nose of the ship.

While not nearly so opulent as the fixtures on the Hindenburg or other luxury airships of the 1930s of their own world, the accommodations definitely skewed toward the “comfortable.” Amanda and Claudia had also laid in an extensive larder, and the ship could also hold tons of additional cargo.

The suites of the members of the lodge proved quite comfortable, with one chamber specifically set aside to hold their sacred spaces. Unlike the various planes of Assiah, the Material Plane, sufficiently large, comfortable and sturdy vehicles could hold sacred spaces in the Pearl Bright Ocean, and the Lady McShane certainly qualified.

The group “oohed” and “aahed” as they visited the completed ship, for the first time, while a tremendously pleased Amanda and Claudi, beaming bright smiles, gave them the tour and showed each member their suites.

Once they took possession of the dirigible, A.J. took the filled elemental matrix up into the engine room in the envelope, above the passenger deck. Claudia installed it in the lattice-work heart of the ship, and A.J. and Steven began to learn the controls.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to their cabins and opened their stasis boxes. The items each had stashed in them, in early 18th Century London lay within, and they began to create their sacred spaces.

After a couple of days of this, the group headed back to Athelstane’s estate, and used the Gate of Thoth, there, to return to Sir Isaac Newton’s London, where they removed most of their belongings (save the heavy furniture and other items) from their townhome. Loading all of that gear on a riverboat hired for the purpose, they then took everything back down to Avallon, and moved it aboard the airship.

A.J. and Henrietta also took the opportunity to peruse the grimoires they’d found on the captured Skandzan vessel, and discovered some information about how to modify their existing spells to make them affect greater masses, or last longer. This pleased everyone, very much, as the original library of Oliver McShane’s, recovered by them years previously, had hinted at some principles that underlay the interaction of Decanic energies that comprised spell casting.

The books seemed to refer to thaumaturgical ideas taught by the Atlanteans. The group had heard rumors to that effect, from Athelstane, and the books seemed to confirm the notion.

After about a week of settling in, and taking a few cautious test-flights to familiarize A.J. and Steven with the handling and Claudia’s automation efforts, the group was ready to head out.

At that point, they learned that Amanda Gagnier had entered into something of a relationship with Athelstane, and wished to remain behind and become his apprentice in the lodge of the Invisible College.

The group had also turned the “Enterprise” over to Morgance Bohannan, as agreed, and she promptly renamed it the Fáinleog Farraige, or “Sea Swallow,” due the swiftness by which she sailed with the water elemental matrix bound to her keel. As with the Atlanteans, members of the imperial navy asked for permission to inspect the prize, which Bohannan readily granted.

(continued...)
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Old 10-05-2021, 10:17 PM   #586
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Fergus O’Neil announced he had decided to take an apprenticeship with Alexios, and join the Airgead Spraeala (which Bohannan had also retained), as an officer. He wished to sail the seas of the Pearl Bright Ocean the rest of his days.

For their part, Doc Basher and Claudia decided to take positions as the ship’s doctor and chief engineer (respectively) of the Lady McShane, and took responsibility for taking care of the ship. While they would agree to fight to defend it, if needed, the death of Frank Moses had affected both, deeply, and they said they no longer wished to take unwarranted risks.

(Basically, the status of Claudia and Doc Basher has officially shifted to “NPC,” and they’ll no longer appear as active characters in the group. We also took the opportunity to shift Amanda and Fergus out of the party, in a way that made sense, narratively. The group did a lot of “cleanup” this session – which we sorely needed. This campaign starts its seventh year, now, and a lot has changed in people’s lives.)
Once the group had gotten everything sorted and completed the shakeout flights, they decided to head south for one final go at the portal to the Elemental Plane of Air. They had two binding matrices left to fill, and they wanted one to use as trade, and a second to install as a redundant “engine and powerplant” for the Lady McShane.

So, early one morning as the sun rose, the pale gray dirigible rose out of the golden mists shrouding Avallon into a pale blue sky. A.J., at the helm, pointed her south, angled the nose upwards and spent several hours climbing to an altitude of 50 miles – far higher than would have been possible, in their own world, and well above any storms in this one.

Still breathing comfortably, but grateful for the heating system rigged by Claudia and Amanda, A.J. turned the dirigible south as the rest of the group headed toward the galley to make brunch. They then settled in for the comfortable – and far safer – flight past Atlantis to the Bight of Africa.

A.J. and Stephen kept to a comfortable air-speed of 60 mph, or so, but enjoyed following winds for the entire week of the trip and reached the vicinity of the portal above Africa before the “new dirigible” smell had time to wear off.

Stephen and A.J. took the Lady McShane to within 100 miles of the portal, high above them, but didn’t want to risk getting any closer. Even in the absence of air elementals, bitterly cold wind howled from the portal and layered the sky with ice-crystal clouds, high above, and any sizeable elemental would simply tear the airship apart.

They set up the ship for station-keeping and then turned the helm over to Claudia and her automated systems. The group had spent the past day re-working the set of pre-cast spells they had triggered and ready to go for what they hoped would be their final trip to the portal.

The first part of the endeavor went well enough. Aurelia and A.J. used Hawk Flight to get to within about 50 miles of the porta, and then set up the force wall, and weather and atmosphere domes as usual.

Stephen, Beatrice, Millie and Henrietta then joined via a portal cast by A.J., and Beatrice tried something new. She’d re-worked her created air elemental to give it more speed and intelligence (but less resilience), and then sent it through the portal to lure a wild elemental of the appropriate size for capture.

A bit later, the tiny elemental (dubbed, “George” by Beatrice) zipped out of the portal and whistled toward them, with an elemental just a bit too large to capture. Still, it wasn’t terribly difficult to capture, so the group decided to take control of it, since they knew the magic that held George together wouldn’t last.

With two elementals now under her control, Beatrice sent both back through the portal to find another. About an hour later, not long before the first spell expired, the pair came zooming back, with an elemental twice the size of the second, in hot pursuit.

As it got closer, they saw it overtake George and promptly eat the little whirlwind of energy. It then came after the captured wild elemental, which got it close enough to the group that Henrietta was able to undermine its will, Millie read its mind and found its name, and then Beatrice grabbed it, too.

She then sent both of the stronger elementals (dubbed “Windy” and “Burt”) back through the portal to herd to them a couple of the appropriate sizes.

A couple of hours passed, and A.J. and Stephen had to renew their spells, but then the two captured elementals came screaming out with a lightning-clad cyclone in hot pursut.

The group reacted in consternation as the spinning catastrophe headed straight for them, and Millie and Henrietta prepared themselves. As the not-so-miniature tornado slammed into the Atmosphere and Weather Domes, and began to try to break them down, Millie and Henrietta tried to knock down its will and then read its mind to secure its identity, as they had in the past.

However, this powerhouse proved to possess a monstrous will, and both spells failed. Stephen reported that the elemental had started to hammer his domes really hard and he feared they wouldn’t stand, much longer.

A.J. cast a portal to give them an escape route, but feared that, even surrounded as they were by clouds, the elemental might sense the presence of the Lady McShane – which the creature could easy shred to tatters.

With that, Millie switched to “Plan B” and tried to put the beast to sleep and that, amazingly, worked like a charm. (Anten rolled a “7” for Millie because Kaitlynn couldn’t attend – not quite a critical – and the monster didn’t make by enough to resist, even with its high Will score).

Henrietta managed to knock down the will of the sleeping elemental, and then try something new. Although it had given her ethical qualms, the former archaeologist had prepared a couple of “Enslave” spells in case of just such an emergency, and now seemed the time to try it.

Henrietta triggered the carefully-prepared spell with its key phrase, and felt it bite into the mind of the sleeping elemental. Somewhat to her astonishment, the elemental’s powerful will proved unable to resist and she found she had a tornado at her command.

Jubilantly, she ordered the elemental awake, and then sent her powerful minion back through the portal to seek appropriate targets. Beatrice sent Burt and Windy along, as well.

After that, things went a little better, but the hunt took hours and hours. A.J. and Stephen had to renew their spells, and Henrietta kept getting flashes, through her mind-link to the elemental of hunts that kept turning up creatures of inappropriate sizes.

Henrietta saw Burt get eaten by a stronger elemental, which her creature then consumed, while others fled before the cyclone monster. At one point the two returned one small enough (“Ernie”) to fit inside the lesser of the two binding matrices; and Beatrice promptly grabbed it and stuffed it inside.

Late in the day, the group found itself targeted by two more incredibly powerful elementals and, with a combination of planning and good rolls, they managed to capture both – one of which was even larger than the enslaved beast Henrietta held.

About an hour later, they got the last of the creatures they needed – but then realized they had three serious problems.

As long as Henrietta kept two powerful creatures enslaved, then the need to hold those spells interfered with her ability to cast any others (effectively, each “spell up” gave her a penalty of -1 to each subsequent spell roll). However, should she drop the “Enslave” spells, the howling-mad elementals would promptly turn on her and do everything possible to tear her to pieces.

Additonally, the “control” spell that allowed Beatrice to keep the third, in check, would soon run out.

After a fair bit of discussion, Beatrice once again sent her “controlled” creature through the gate with orders to keep going directly away, as fast as possible. Henrietta then ordered her two elementals through the gate and told them to keep flying, as fast as possible, for as long as possible.

The group then hastily returned to the Lady McShane via A.J.’s portal. He and then Stephen then took the second full elemental matrix and integrated it into the power system that operated the dirigible.

A.J. then pointed the nose of the powerful dirigible northeast to take them over the thin strip of Africa that existed in this world, and poured on the coal to get them as far away from the portal, as possible.

Henrietta kept herself going for as long as she could and, with the help of caffeine spiced with a healthy dollop of terror, managed to stay steady for about 10 hours. Then, mind heavy with fatigue and the portal more than 800 miles behind them, she dropped both spells and then collapsed into her bunk.

It must have worked, because Henrietta didn’t wake up dead, the following afternoon.

By the middle of the following day, with the savannah of the Sahara rolling beneath the airship, the waters of this world’s version of the Mediterranean Sea appeared out of the early evening haze, ahead. Within a few hours, the crew of the Lady McShane saw the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria appear in the distance, with no less than eight huge pyramids located further south.

A.J. began to lose altitude on approach and, as they got closer, the crew in the “Ten Forward” lounge peered through the large window as this world’s Alexandria, Egypt, took shape below them. The white-washed buildings of the city sprawled for a dozen miles along the coast, but the two harbors, with Pharos, itself, painted a brilliant white with blue trim, at the western end, proved easy to spot as the lighthouse glowed against the wine-dark sea.

(continued...)
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Old 10-05-2021, 10:20 PM   #587
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(...continued)

Lake Mareotis, which separated much of the city from the bulk of the African coast in ancient times on their world, retained its full size on this one, and A.J. and Stephen spotted the airship field on the southeast shore, opposite the city proper. Unaware of the landing protocols (if any…) the two decided to take it slow and kind of “wing it,” as they maneuvered the airship over the water and turned the nose toward the mooring towers that lined the shore.
That seemed to work out okay (or, at least, nobody shot at them…) and they soon hovered near one of the empty towers. A ground-crew of several hundred grabbed the hawsers as Stephen dropped them, and gently pulled the dirigible down and tied it off.

They then pushed the tower back along its rails until the tail of the Lady McShane hovered above huge iron cleats, and they used additional lines to secure the the back end of the airship to those and pulled it down to within 10 feet of the airfield.

At that point, the rest of the crew lowered the ramp and it crunched into the gravel, below. They then made their way down, led by an eager Millie, Apophis right at her heels. Henrietta greeted the customs agents, below and negotiated docking fees, while the rest of the group gazed around with interest.

They quickly spotted something they didn’t know to expect. The livery of the officials, and the flags around the field, showed the sunburst of the Macedonian royal house of Argead, above four dark blue elephants abreast in a quadriga formation as if drawing the sunburst as a chariot, all on a field of apple green.

Millie quickly deduced the meaning of the symbol and quietly informed the group that *this* world’s Egypt apparently remained under the control of those who traced their lineage to the House of Ptolomey, the Macedonian general who wound up in possession Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great.

The group digested this bit of information as Henrietta completed the negotiation of the docking fees. By then, the portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire had closed and evening had set in, so the group decided to remain on the airship until morning.

The evening passed quietly enough, and the next morning the group set out on a specific errand.

In the research they’d done about the voyage, ahead, they’d found very little in the way of actual directions – and no reliable maps, at all – to indicate the location of the last known lands in the Pearl Bright Ocean to the east. They knew the great island of Lanka was the last place visited by ships that traded with the Elder Isles and Atlantis, and that happened only seldom.

Henrietta and Millie hoped that a visit to the Great Library of Alexandria – which apparently still existed, in this realm – would allow them to find resources to give them a better idea of how to reach Lanka. Hopefully, once there, the group could then learn of lands that lay even further east -- or at least get a better idea of the length of the journey needed to reach the Great Malestrom.

Meanwhile, A.J. wanted to check on possible cargoes to take to Lanka, so they’d have the valuables needed to negotiate for any information attainable, there.

So, Henrietta, Millie, Beatrice and Aurelia wended their way through the city streets, where Millie’s knowledge of Egyptian, in particular, and Henrietta’s mastery of languages, in general, served them well. Soon, they found themselves outside a massive pile of white-washed stone structures that didn’t match any of the best guesses about the appearance of the exterior of the Great Library.
https://gizmodo.com/the-great-librar...get-1442659066

However, they did note that the neighborhood certainly had a “scholarly” feel, as they noted people bustling about with books and scrolls, or sitting on benches or steps deep in earnest discussion. One set of large doors, in particular, drew their attention and, upon entry they found themselves in a large and well-appointed atrium with a polished marble floor.

Within a few moments, a young woman with curly dark hair approached and identified herself as, “Lauren,” a clerk with the library, and asked if she could assist them. Henrietta replied that they sought any available information about the distant land of Lanka – the more reliable, the better, with maps, if possible.

Lauren led them deep into the shelves on a winding path, and chattered away with small-talk. The conversation seemed innocuous enough, but then Aurelia and Henrietta both realized Lauren had rather adroitly steered it in such a way as to find out as much as she could about them, and their origin.

The group stuck to their story that they hailed from an obscure colony in the western lands across the Atlantean Ocean, and they’d taken up work as wandering scholars and merchant-adventurers. Lauren seemed to accept the story, willingly enough, although she did ask them about life in their homeland, which forced Henrietta to make up a few tales, on the fly.

Eventually, the group reached the shelves that had travelogues (and Aurelia realized Lauren had taken a roundabout route to give more time for her inquiries…), and Lauren showed them the proper section.

The ladies perused the options available and found them to consist of biographies and travelogues that reminded them, a bit, of the works of Marco Polo – as related to someone who had added in some rather “dramatized” details to spice things up, a bit. A bit annoyed, although hardly surprised, Henrietta asked if the library might have better sources, or even some maps.

A bit flabbergasted, Lauren informed them they had yet to enter the Great Library, proper. These outer buildings held reading rooms, classrooms and even an agora that sold the books printed by the library for public consumption.

This section was part of that agora marketplace, Lauren continued, and the travelogues, here, were those made available by the library for public purchase. While the main stacks almost certainly held better information, Lauren explained, only members of the library in good standing could access those.

The group took a moment to digest that, and Aurelia asked what it would take to join the library. Lauren replied that the board of governors preferred to see applications from scholars of good standing and reputation, although anyone who made significant contributions to the library collection would receive favorable consideration.

Rather annoyed, although hardly surprised, Henrietta and Millie picked out three travelogues that seemed less “creative” than most, and perhaps provided useful information about landmarks and sailing directions for the journey east. They paid Lauren for the volumes, and then the chipper woman once again led them on a circuitous path to the exit, this time gently pumping them for information about the reasons for their desire to visit Lanka.

As all that went on, A.J. put his Classical Greek language skills to use in the bazaars near the harbors. As he listened carefully to the calls of those hawking this good or that, he soon found himself near the part of the market that sold goods from points east.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the area featured aromatic spices, tea leaves and silks, as well as exotic paraphernalia that reminded A.J., a bit, of artifacts from ancient India. He took the opportunity to lay in some spices for the galley, while he learned as much as he could about the origin of his purchases.

The former NASA scientist learned the trip to Lanka took the few ships that made the trip many weeks, but usually proved quite lucrative. The Lankans didn’t seem to lack for much, although they valued gold and silver (relatively rare in the Pearl Bright Ocean) as much as anyone, and paid a premium price for Atlantean goods – especially orichalcum.

Once he’d established a good rapport, A.J. eased the conversation around to the availability of maps to the distant land, which usually elicited blinks of polite disbelief. No ship captain or owner would ever sell maps or navigational information for lucrative markets to anyone they didn’t personally know, and most simply passed such valuable intelligence to family members, upon retirement.

Others sometimes sold such documents to the Great Library, A.J. learned, but those were never made available to the public, afterwards.

Eventually, A.J. made his way back to the Lady McShane and, as he started to stow his purchases in the pantry, he heard Henrietta and her group tramping up the ramp lowered by Claudia. He sat down and compared notes, and the group narrowed their options.

A.J. noted that a trip to the 1712 world permit the group to secure volumes of knowledge the Great Library didn’t possess. However, their experience with the breech loader rifles made him hesitant to bring such new knowledge to the Pearl Bright Ocean, as it seemed to draw entire too much attention to them.

Alternatively, Aurelia noted that she hadn’t paid any midnight visits to anywhere interesting in a really long time, and it might be fun to make an informal withdrawal from the library stacks.

That seemed somewhat risky, and A.J. said he’d thought of a safer way. During his talks with the merchants, he’d learned that two ships in the eastern Great Harbor had visited Lanka in the past and, as such, likely had maps and navigational charts hidden somewhere in the captains’ quarters.

It would be a lot safer to lift those charts, A.J. noted, than it would be to try to steal from the Great Library.

(continued...)
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Old 10-05-2021, 10:20 PM   #588
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(...continued)

The next day, the group decided to at least find out which ships in the harbor brought cargo from Lanka, and headed up to the docks of the Eastern Harbor. After checking around, a bit, they identified three vessels, and did some initial perusal to identify the officers.

As they did so, they saw one group from the largest ships debark, and then go into a nice inn, nearby. The group decided to follow along and, once inside, Henrietta approached the distinguished captain, who had an olive complexion and gray-flecked ebony-black hair, to inquire about the trip.

The conversation went swimmingly and the man identified himself as a Captain Tindol, of Persia, and he seemed to find the archaeologist/adventurer quite attractive. The two agreed to meet again, for dinner, and then the two groups took their leave of one another.

Henrietta noted that, at the least, this created an opportunity to get Tindol off his ship and out of his cabin, for awhile. The others noted that it had probably been quite a long voyage for the captain – and an even longer one for Henrietta – so the time could prove quite protracted, should she so wish.

Flustered, Henrietta said she had no intention of doing anything other than engaging the man long enough for a nice dinner, and that should Aurelia decide to try for the man’s maps and navigational documents, she’d have only a very limited time to secure them.

With that, the session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

GM: It’s still got that, “new dirigible smell.”

Beatrice: We’re gonna need more ammo! Just so you know, we’ve only got 40 exploding rounds (for the arbalests).
A.J.: I wanna get some Greek Fire bolts for my crossbow, too; plus some that can deliver drugs.

(Beatrice puts together a list of watches.)
Aurelia: Who else would be up between midnight and 4 a.m.?
Beatrice: Millie. She’s a teenager.
GM: She’s not a teenager. She’s in her early 20s. She’s a college graduate!

(Henrietta uses her first Enslave spell, and Debbie gives an evil laugh when she rolls well.)
GM: She has not, in any way, grown arrogant with the power at her command!
Debbie (OOC): Henrietta has spoken!

(All the female characters head to the Great Library of Alexandria.)
Aurelia: We’re having a chick day!

(The ladies pass through a market and see slaves on the block.)
Aurelia: Can I go free all the slaves? Could we do that?
Beatrice: No, Khaleesi, you can’t do that.
Anten (OOC): Did you just tell ‘Rel what she couldn’t do?
Bennie (OOC): That’s always a fun game.

(Paging through the books about Lanka purchased at the Great Library.)
Beatrice: Legendary realm of the demon-king, Raranra….
Aurelia: There’s a demon-king? We’re gonna kill a demon-king?!
Beatrice: Cool your jets! We’re supposed to go to the Maelstrom!
Aurelia: I have some aggression I need to work out.
Beatrice: Get into a bar fight!
Aurelia: I suck at close combat.

(Henrietta stumbles into an unexpected tryst with a handsome, distinguished Persian captain.)
Beatrice: Wear the boobie-dress!
Aurelia: Will you stop trying to whore out your companions?!
Beatrice: Take Millie and make her wear the boobie dress!
A.J.: That’s not the skill I was thinking of….
Aurelia: Why don’t you wear the boobie dress?
Beatrice: You know how terrible I am at this flirting stuff!

Aurelia: I don’t dispute that stealing from the ships would probably be easier. It would probably be boring. But, breaking into the Library of Alexandria?! That would be so much more satisfying!
(Aurelia goes on a rant detailing all the equipment, skills and spells she could use to accomplish the task. A.J. just covers his eyes.)

##
__________________
--
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.
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Old 11-06-2021, 06:41 PM   #589
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

October was pretty busy, for everybody, but our next session rapidly approaches. Time to get this write-up out there, for everybody.

Henrietta took front and center, this time, as Bennie Rae couldn’t make the session. That meant more of a femme fatale confidence game, with a fair amount of trickery, instead of a straight-up heist.

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. -- 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, this time.)

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. 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.)

Stephen Mack, another member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, a former U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, and outdoors enthusiast. – Played by Ragan S.

Millicent “Millie” Brown – A member of the Columbine Lodge of Denver, and descendant of the Unsinkable Margaret “Molly” Brown. Currently an apprentice of the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes, seconded out to the members of the Red Rocks Lodge. Owner of a large, well-trained Savannah Cat, named Apophis. – Played by Kaitlynn S.


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 laconically 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.

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.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari – A former 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.

##

As the group continued to make plans for Henrietta’s (hopefully) distracting date with the Persian merchant, Capt. Tindol, Aurelia disappeared to go case the Great Library and see if she could figure out a way to slip inside for a bit of unauthorized book-borrowing.

Given that the best thief in the group had decided to check out a more challenging opportunity (and her player couldn’t make the session…), the remaining members of the team needed to get a little creative.

They rapidly determined they couldn’t hope to slip aboard Tindol’s ship undetected, the way Aurelia could, and that meant they had to use their time with the captain more creatively.

So, they perused the grimoires available to them, and hatched a plan based on a bit of seduction and a lot of magical mind manipulation. However, since none of the group had the complete skillset needed to pull of the confidence game part of the caper, they had to divide up the effort.

Henrietta, obviously, had to take point with the captain, as he’d expressed interest in the former archaeologist, and she also had the conversation skills to keep the main engaged (as it were…) and learn something about him, the old-fashioned way.

As for getting on to the ship and into the captain’s cabin to get a look at the charts, they knew they’d have to use magical disguises of some sort to go aboard, since none of them could do the sneaky second-story work as Aurelia could.

Instead, they needed to walk on board as if they belonged; get to the captain’s cabin; find and copy his maps and journals; leave again, and then roofie Tindol and implant false memories of a very memorable evening with the alluring Henrietta.

However, while Henrietta had considerable skill at gleaning information from research, and could generally get along pretty well with people, she had only limited spycraft (i.e., “none”) and, as such, the way she usually “talked her way” past people involved hitting them with a stick until they couldn’t move.

That meant she couldn’t be the one to impersonate the captain, and that left Millie – the child of a traditional Cabal lodge who had started to learn about deception and subterfuge as a toddler – to assume the role of the captain.

Fortunately, Millie also knew the spells to copy documents, so that made her a shoo-in for the job, anyway.

A.J. lacked the Acting skill, also, as did Steve, but somebody had secure the exit path and act as backup, if things when pear-shaped. So, they tentatively agreed to assign Beatrice to accompany Henrietta as a bodyguard/chaperone for the first part of the evening.

They also planned to use Mille and (possibly) Steve to infiltrate the ship, and keep A.J. in reserve, because his ability to teleport could get him anywhere, instantly. Meanwhile, Doc Basher and Claudia would remain in the dirigible and keep an eye on things.

Tentative planning completed (at least, as much as they could manage, up front), the group headed to their respective sacred spaces to prep the spells they’d need. A.J. loaded up on mental and teleporting spells, Henrietta and Millie went for mind reading and other spells to glean information, Beatrice went for general mayhem and destruction, and Steven went for some disguises.

By then, the time for Henrietta to depart for her date had arrived, and she and Beatrice set off in a hired coach.

The two of them reached the nice inn suggested by Capt. Tindol, earlier, and they arrived to find both Tindol and his first mate waiting. Apparently, Tindol didn’t meet people he didn’t know in foreign ports without backup, either – and he’d also (optimistically) picked the dining room of the inn where he had a room.

The foursome initially sat together, but then when things looked to be going well enough, between Tindol and Henrietta, Beatrice and the mate moved off.

The charming Persian made small talk, at first, but eventually wanted to know more about the former archaeologist. Detecting that Henrietta was momentarily at a loss, A.J. (eavesdropping with a telepathy spell…) quickly suggested she stick to the story they’d concocted about being merchant-adventurers from the lands to the west, across the Atlantean Ocean.

Henrietta went with that, and managed to get through that bit, but then turned the tables adroitly and asked about Tindol’s background and travels.

Tindol replied that he’d grown up in a merchant family in Persia, had taken to sea as a boy, and worked his way up through the family trade until he’d earned the right to command his own ship. He proved somewhat evasive about his exact trading routes (not surprisingly), but did acknowledge he had recently returned from a run out to the mystical island of Lanka, far to what would be the “East” in this reality.

Eventually, Henrietta moved things along and the two headed up to Tindol’s room. Once there, Henrietta put him out with a Sleep spell, and Millie slipped up from the back stairs, as well.

The two of them used spells to read the Persian captain’s mind, and learned the location of his charts and journals, as well as the normal protocols used to get aboard the ship – including the one that said local women were never permitted aboard.

At that point, they also realized no one knew the Persian dialect needed to communicate with the rest of the crew.

That meant they had to bundle Tindol downstairs, put him in a coach and get him back to the docks on Lake Mareotis. This they managed with minimal difficulty (the mate who had accompanied Tindol had taken his leave of Beatrice, and then headed out in search of his own fun, once the captain took Henrietta upstairs), and soon made it back to the Lady McShane.

(continued...)
__________________
--
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.
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Old 11-06-2021, 06:49 PM   #590
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

Aware of the situation via his mind link, A.J. had already entered his sacred space to get things ready, as Doc Basher roofied Tindol (with real Rohypnol, not magic) to keep him sedated and to assure retrograde amnesia. A.J. then cast Borrow Skill for Steven and Millie, and the two of them used the “hung” spell to draw the knowledge of the language directly from the Persian captain.

That put them on a tight timeline, so Steven and Millie grabbed the captain’s keys, and headed out immediately. They made their way across the lake and through town, to reach the eastern civilian, “Great Harbor.”

There, they found the pier at which the ship was docked, triggered their “Alter Body” and “Alter Voice” spells, and took on the forms and faces of Tindol and the mate.

This gave them no more than 10 minutes to get in and out, so they walked out to the foot of the gangplank and requested permission to come aboard, with the correct protocol, in Persian.

Millie had impersonated Tindol quite well (good roll on Acting), so that was granted, and she and Steven went aboard. She strode purposefully toward the stern as Steven quickly explained Henrietta had unexpectedly introduced Tindol to some potentially lucrative trading partners during dinner, and the captain needed stuff from the cabin to work the deal.

The story seemed to mollify the curiosity of the watch officer, and Steven joined Millie in the cabin. She had already pulled out one of the desk drawers and, as Steven shut the door behind him, she reached inside the space to trigger the switch that opened the door to the secret compartment in the floor below the kneehole of the desk.

Millie quickly pulled out the rolled charts and journals, sorted through them, found the map she needed and cast the “Copy” spell. Steven, meanwhile, scanned through the journals to find the one with the most recent entries.

Once he’d found that one, they made copies of the last 10 pages, or so, and then carefully returned the originals to the secret compartment.

With time running short (I used a timer for this bit to add a bit of dramatic tension…), the two of them hurried off the ship, only to reach the end of their 10 minutes as they hit the dock. Steven quickly triggered a Fog Cloud, and a Portal, and the two vanished from the dock – leaving the two crew members who noticed quite confused and somewhat alarmed, but not really sure what they’d just seen.

Back on the Lady McShane, Henrietta had begun to implant false memories into Tindol’s mind. She kept intact the memory of the dinner, but inserted a quick trip back to the dining room just after they’d left, supposedly because she saw someone she knew.

That turned into the conversation about the “trading deal” and the quick trip back to the ship, followed by another tentative talk about trade in some spices in exchange for some sort of “valuable antiquities.” After that, Henrietta added in some very pleasant memories in which the evening ended in entirely too much wine, as well as a dim memory of her departure from the room in predawn light.

Steven, Beatrice and Henrietta then got a different cab and ferry, made their way back to the inn, and carried the captain back upstairs as the bemused (and completely unsurprised) late-night staffers cleaning up the place watched without comment. Once they got Tindol undressed and in bed, Henrietta gave him a kiss on the forehead to match the dim memory, and the group took their leave.

The team made their way back to Lady McShane, where A.J. had started to go over the copied maps and journal pages.

The journals referred to the port city of Kelaniya on the southwest coast of large, roughly triangular island formed by three large peaks. Most of the land seemed to lie on a high plateau that lay between the peaks, at the top of a significant escarpment, with Kelaniya the only place with a harbor suitable for regular merchant shipping.

The capitol city, Lankapura, supposedly lay near the center of the plateau, but it was closed to outsiders by order of the, “Naga Lords of Lanka,” as Tindol’s notes called them. The journal also mentioned some minor harassment from the “Rakshasa constabulary,” who apparently didn’t like outsiders, much.

The combination of daily records with heading and weather information, combined with the charts, told A.J. what he needed to know. Lanka apparently lay at the center of a sizeable archipelago, the largest of which didn’t even come close to the size of the huge, mountainous main island.

That matched up with the travelogues they’d purchased legitimately at the Great Library, earlier, which noted that Lanka had a number of “vassal realms” located nearby.

With that, the group decided they’d quit while they were ahead, and planned to depart Alexandria as soon as Aurelia made her way back from her own nocturnal caper.

Capt. Tindol’s false memories wouldn’t hold up, for very long, and they wanted to be well away before the Persian realized he’d been the target of a confidence game.

That ended the session.

Funny Quotes

(The group discusses various ways to get information about Lanka, from a variety of sources, using methods that ranged from subtle to violently unsubtle.)
Steve: I won’t ask the obvious question, because the answer is, “Probably not.” Did we learn our lesson?

(The group decides on getting what they needed from Capt. Tindol.)
A.J.: We need to figure out a way to bend him to our will. Don’t be evil, just bend him to our will.
Millie(disappointed): Ohhh….

(Henrietta expresses confidence in her aptitude for the whole, “will bending” thing….)
Henrietta: I am woman!
Ragan(OOC}: I hope he gets a minus from that, alone.
GM: This whole thing reminds me of the movie, Sneakers.

(Kaitlynn, a young teenage girl in real life, makes happy noises as she reads Mind Control spell descriptions.)
GM: I would like to say, for the record, that Kaitlynn’s enjoying this spell list entirely too much.
(Ragan, Kaitlynn’s father, puts his hands over his ears.)

A.J.: I have Telepathy, so I don’t need a radio.
Henrietta: You just want to listen in on my date!

(Plan A – have someone disguised as the captain come back aboard with Henrietta and Millie.)
Henrietta: The crew would be so impressed if the captain came back with two women!

(Plan B - Steve comes aboard the Persian vessel, disguised as Henrietta, accompanied by Millie, disguised as Capt. Tindol.)
GM: So, the best part of this, from my point of view, is that you’re making Steve wear the boobie dress!

(Plan C – Have someone slip the captain a mickey, rather than use magic, and then get him up the stairs.)
A.J.: “I put it in both, as I am immune to iocaine powder!”

(During the meal, the conversation turns to how customs differ between Persia and the “Western Lands,” and Tindol mentions that in Persia, most marriages are arranged between families.)
Kaitlynn(OOC): Wow. That’s a lot less pressure. Stupid, but a lot less pressure.

##
__________________
--
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.
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