[AP] Celestial Ocean Chronicles: Finally started!

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

So yeah, I've finally started GMing Celestial Ocean. Frankly, I hoped to to do it a bit differently, but I'll get to that later.

The chronicle started with several ships - including, primarily, a large merchant ship, a warrior's transport ship carrying mercs to their destination, a messanger ship, another merchant ship, and a missionary/recruiter ship of the Kai - running before the great storm. Realizing that the storm is approaching fast, is big, and that there's no other place to hide from it, all the listed ships' captains decide to take refuge in a harbor on the island of Gaubiroe. Map here.

After all the docking procedures were finished, and proper permissions given, people began disembarking. Introducing the PCs:

• Toyoaki Yakaasta, played by Mike. An Oceanspawn Stargazer, played to the hilt - the second officer after the captain, complete with Shiphandling, Meteorology, Survival (Ocean), Navigation etc. In addition to the obvious mariner's skills, he's a bit of a rogue. Aaaand he's a beginner mage of the realm of Destiny (Skill 13, Realm level 2).
  He's an adherent of The Other Path; what's worse, he has a -15-Point Great Destiny of the bad sort (which I will reveal in due time).
• Denwizar, played by Lee (a new player; used to be Manul's SO). A Lith'ra'e Dragonslayer. Trained by a Master, Throwing Art, Main-Gauch, Karate and some support skills. Pretty impressive fighter compared to the rest of the party, but that's not all. While Denwizar is a merc, his real agenda is recruiting people into his culture - the Unchained. Denwizar is an anarchist fanatic of the quiet type, a well-intentioned extremist (e.g. is willing to use killing and torture, but won't harm people he considers innocent even if it is ultimately harmful to him). Admittedly, his social skills are mediocre, and his cultural familiarities lacking, for the objective he tries to acomplish.
• Larebdagul, played by Solid/Manul. A Hashrul Dragonslayer, but a different sort. First, it is Zeroed, and thus immune to any Destiny-based divinations. Secondly, the outward impression is that of a social plaything - Voice, Charisma +2, the standard Transcendent/Universal Appearance, Language Talent, Status, Compulsive Spending, Selfish . . .
  In truth, it is an assassin, complete with a retractable bone blade implant hidden in the feeder-limb, a Code of Honour, a Secret and an Extremely Hazardous Duty.

Awaiting comments. Continuation pending.

[vicky_molokh]

So, they disembark, and see that the rain is becoming stronger.
The captain's second is allowed to do whatever for a couple of days, as long as he reports regularly. The plaything hired its own ship for travel, and thus is free to go. The merc is allowed to spend 48 glass hours on the shore, then report without delay.

The sailor spent some time looking around the port, seeing a trimaran crewed by two people dock, undock after a short conversation, and leave the harbor. Though they didn't see it, the trimaran went back to the external/dry port, as it was performing shuttle function for the other merchant ship (which was not waterproof). Check the map to understand the paths. Also, unknown to the players, the trimaran held two NPCs who are going to play a major role in the first chapter (and probably the whole chronicle).

The playboy and the sailor go off in search of taverns/inns. Soon the find out that the only place to stay with a non-negative Status is a big inn called 'The Coliseum'. (Round, naturally. Has rooms on the second floor, with most windows looking into the inner garden. The first floor is mostly shops and several small tavern-rooms.)
The merc goes off wandering through the city, asking random people semi-random questions. Asking for directions and sightseeing spots was okay, but the question 'where are you from?' scared the citizen quite a bit.

Anyway, all at different times (starting with the merc) went to the Coliseum to rent rooms.

The merc went to the Coliseum's inner garden, and saw two people talking. One was just some sailor, while the other was a young, attractive Homuncula with an aura of a mage. The merc tried some small talk, found out that the girl was a traveller too, but had no objective in her travels. He decided that if he sees her again, he'll try his propaganda regarding anarchism.
Unknown to anybody, she is a mage of Life, a doctor, and a follower of The Other Path. Furthermore, she has already attained freedom from destiny, which may become important when she talks to the mage PC (which I think they will).

[vicky_molokh]

It was kinda surprising, but the next place Denwizar went to was a brothel. Well, that was an unexpected action from a female player at her first tabletop game.

Next place to visit was the so-called Hall of Politics. This was the place of voting (the island is an Athenian democracy), solving large-scale problems, and general record-keeping (which includes a library of sorts).

The merc spent some time trying to talk his way past the Hall's guard. The guard refused to allow a non-citizen to enter. At some point, he got a bit nervous, and called another guard just in case, but by then Denwizar was leaving.

At this point I should say that Lee obviously has trouble spending all the free time of a Lith'ra'e. Not needing to eat, drink or sleep, her character has quite a lot of free time. Of course, the other players think she just doesn't use it rationally enough, and that it's perfectly possible to fill up all this free time. But yes, finding something to do for a fighter when there isn't any fighting to be done is somewhat problematic. At lest he doesn't expressily need a job, because he doesn't need to spend money on food and bed.

Anyway, Denwizar went back to the Coliseum while the other two were already sleeping. Meanwhile . . .

[vicky_molokh]

Meanwhile, a series of unspeakable screams woke up the residents of the Coliseum, coming from the inner garden. As they went to the balconies to look, they saw an old man, dressed in dirty rags, with a walking staff.

It should be noted that Larebdagul, the plaything-rogue, immediately decided that this was a diversion, and locked the door, expecting some thief to enter the room in the meantime. I liked the way he idea so much that I decided to award him an extra CP (and I think that I'm going to use his idea at some point in the future). Sure, it wasn't plot-relevant, but it was an interesting display of player/character wit.
Anyway, Larebdagul merely listened what he could through the window.

The speech of the mad old man can be summarized by these phrases:

• You will all die with this island. What is destined will happen.
• You think your wits and wishes will save you? Fools!
• Look! Do you know what it is? [Points at the sky.]
• Nobody can cheat destiny forever. Yes, I know some of you will try, yeees. Bah!
• Do as ye will. Every story needs its 10 fools.

All this time, Toyoaki was looking for something to throw at the old man. He also wanted to cast Detect Destiny on him, but the range was too far for his skill level.

During the '10 fools' phrase, Denwizar has arrived, and decided to immediately enter the inner garden. Somehow Denwizar understood it that the old man called specifically him a fool, and demanded an explanation. The old man immediately agreed, declaring him #10, and started rambling incoherent stuff, staying vaguely on-topic, but started running away at Move 2 (he was lame). The merc followed and grabbed him, but that didn't make the dialogue any more meaningful.

The mage, Toyoaki, decided to run down into the inner garden, approach the two, and perform a destiny scan. Failing, he paid the 4 FP and gained nothing. At this point, Mike was somewhat frustrated that he was forced to lower his skill to 13 (from 18 or 16) and his level to 2 (from 3), but that was because he needed lots of other skills.

A guard entered the inner garden, and politely asked to the merc to let go the old man, and the old man to leave immediately or else. They let him go. After a short dialogue with the guard, the two PCs found out that the crazy man was an old homeless one, wandering around the island. The guard said that he sometimes does stuff like that, but nothing he says ever came true. And he didn't try so hard to wake up the sleeping folk before.

The mage went to sleep, while the merc, once again with too much free time, spent the next 14 hours caring for his weapons (but see below).

[vicky_molokh]

So, Toyoaki sleeps for the next 16 hours (he's on a 48-glasshour daycycle, like most of the city, BTW).

Larebdagul sleeps for 8 hours (he's on a 24), wakes up, eats breakfast, and exits the Colliseum. The already-familiar guard bids it good luck on his way whereever it's going and back again. Seconds after that, Larebdagul hears a thud and a short exhale, mistakeable for a grunt or moan. He turns around to see a piece of balcony (think 1'×1'×2' stone) has fallen onto the guard. He starts calling for help (but not doing anything!). Some other people arrive, including another guard. The guard takes away the piece of stone, revealing a semi-crushed skull, then turns the body to check the pulse, and only then declares him dead. The Hashrul explains how it happened, and promises to return in the next 8 glasshours.

In a few hours, Denwizar (and other residents of the Colliseum) is visited (1) by a cleric salesman selling lucky feathers which bring good luck and reduce the chance of accidentally being killed by an object falling from above and (2) by a Jieran girl inviting him to a ceremony of luck at the local temple of The Flow.

He reacted to the former by simply closing the door. The latter he met with two daggers held in one hand (not for throwing - "A fighter would know this grip is bullshhh, but she won't"), politely asked what she wants. When she said she's inviting people to the temple, and that for a mere coin she will write and draw the directions from the Coliseum to the temple, he gave her 3 coins. At first she was optimistic, thinking he wants to invite his friends. When he continued sharpening his daggers, and proceeded to stick one of them into the table (through one of the papers), she continued drawings in a hurry and promptly exited upon finishing.

Now, a few moments I was worried that Lee is playing him like a bully, eerily similar to my old friend Hämmer, but this seems to be an incomplete impression. For one, she's a militant atheist, and I think this has colored her roleplaying actions against the 'missionary'.

Anyway, this scene was the end of the Intro of the chronicles. I declared that the first chapter will be called Ten Little Negroes (as an ironic but inaccurate reference to a book by Agatha Christie and the movie based on it; and damn you, forum filter, for this is not the way the book was called), gave out a point of experience to everybody (+1 to Manul for the witty idea), and went on to discussing it.

Lee was surprised that she managed to understand most of the game - she had some troubles figuring it out from descriptions and even observations. Though a week ago, she was also pretty successful in understanding the combat gamemechs when we made a test fight. I think she'll learn most of it soon enough.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Molokh

(2) by a Jieran girl inviting him to a ceremony of luck at the local temple of The Flow.

He reacted to the former by simply closing the door. The latter he met with two daggers held in one hand (not for throwing - "A fighter would know this grip is bullshhh, but she won't"), politely asked what she wants. When she said she's inviting people to the temple, and that for a mere coin she will write and draw the directions from the Coliseum to the temple, he gave her 3 coins. At first she was optimistic, thinking he wants to invite his friends. When he continued sharpening his daggers, and proceeded to stick one of them into the table (through one of the papers), she continued drawings in a hurry and promptly exited upon finishing.

Now, a few moments I was worried that Lee is playing him like a bully, eerily similar to my old friend Hämmer, but this seems to be an incomplete impression. For one, she's a militant atheist, and I think this has colored her roleplaying actions against the 'missionary'. [snip]

Lee was surprised that she managed to understand most of the game - she had some troubles figuring it out from descriptions and even observations. Though a week ago, she was also pretty successful in understanding the combat gamemechs when we made a test fight. I think she'll learn most of it soon enough.

I may be reading your descriptions for the Lith'ra'e and the Unchained wrong, but IMHO she's already doing well and doesn't deserve to have her IC/OOC Separation Ability questioned yet.

To a fanatical Unchained, would a missionary proselytizing a ritualistic religion not appear as a (perhaps unwitting) trickster who wants to hoodwink the Unchained into a life of meaningless, harmful restrictions (even in the name of a benevolent-sounding goal such as "good luck," the most dangerously seductive type of this subversion)... At first she was beyond polite, with a "go away" hand-out greater than the amount asked, but then when the huckster persisted she escalated to an unambiguous threat without a display of anger or other negative emotions and drove her off nonviolently, if not gracefully (like a merc with poor social skills probably would).

Can't they be optimistically bemused about possibly needing to stab a relentless ideological enemy? ;)