Game 1 (8/26/06)

Game 1 (August 26th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Honey, who activated the Nuke?")

Attendees:
Alan, Terry, Joe, Jim, Jeff, Darren, and Mark (GM).

Notice the lack of character names. This is because virtually none of them stuck so far in my head. So I'm going to attempt to remember what people were playing almost entirely based on what miniature they were using (and what we were trying to represent with it). Let's see if I can remember any...

Mastovo (Darren), Mortal, Warrior - Former Smith/Craftsman, conscripted warrior, survivor of the campaign against the bull of the North... Henchman of...
Loric (Jim), Terrestrial, Earth Wizard, owner of the property at which this first adventure takes place.

Hiro (Jim), Mortal, Hunter of magical beasts... Henchman of...
Honshu (Darren), Terrestrial, Magistrate, Purveyor of Lightning and Judgement.

Reknar (Alan), Mortal, Ugly Barbarian - Victim of exalted combat that left him scarred.... Henchman of...
Titus (Jeff), Terrestrial, General, Youngest Dragon-blooded General of the past few hundred years; Supplier of Redshirts.

(Hey, so far so good! Let's see if I can remember any others... Doh! Nope. Drawing a blank on names.)

_____ (Terry), Female Mortal, Obsessive Compulsive Seneschal... Henchwoman of...
Che-Tal (Joe), Terrestrial, Morally bankrupt Slave-trader and Hedonist. (Okay, I cheated and asked Joe his names since I was e-mailing him anyway).

Ka-Rin (Joe), Female(?) Mortal, whose function I can't recall, and I *think* is the Henchperson of...
Izzimon (Alan), Terrestrial, Thief of Relics and Artifacts, Fantasy Indy Jones.

_____ (Jeff), Mortal, Immaculate Monk Trainee... Henchman of...
Gareth (Terry), Terrestrial, Immaculate Monk Mentor

WE BEGIN...
...Having ended a vacation of sorts. We'd done (off camera) some duties and our two groups (Mortals and Terrestrials) are holed up in our respective locations. The Terrestrials are in a Manse in the mountains, while the mortals are in a village. Both belong to Loric, Jim's character. The village is being overseen by Mastovo (deemed a Gito, for whateever that title translates to), my warrior, who is seeing to the entertainment of guests as we trade stories about places we've been and things we've done.

In the middle of Mastovo's storry about the campaign against the Bull of the North, the Headman (another official) comes to the room, interrupts, and apologizes profusely. He's brought a father and his son. The boy has been beaten for something by his father and the boy is crying. Seems he's done something horrendous and is having trouble saying what out of fear. When he goes to strike the boy again I (Mastovo) stop him and kneel down to speak to the boy (something that upsets the Headman). It's all I can do not to smack the dad, but that's a reflex, not a function of my compassion virtue (which is pretty average).

Turns out he had good reason. The boy was in the hills exploring, found a cave, went in and touched something and it began to glow. Seems it's a ball of some kind. As he left he heard some hissing growling sounds.

We gear up and go out to look. Can't report it to the masters unless we know what it is. Could be nothing. Though of course we, the players, know better.

Turns out there's a small cave and that inside are a number of scabby, disgusting, foxes. They come into attack and when one is soundly squashed, his blood sprays onto a guard and Reknar. The guard also gets bitten. Mastovo moves into the cave to get at some of them once a gap is made and he encounters the mama fox, who shoots its tongue out with great velocity. If it hits, it reels in its prey, since its legs are wrecked. Mastovo seems impressive as he parries shot after shot (Really just got lucky with Mark rolling badly) until one gets lucky and grabs him. He shrugs off the first but the second successful hit pulls him in. The team beat down the foxes. Those with Valorous intent actually rush the cave past the enemy when they spy Mastovo being reeled in.

When all is cleared we can see the room has two doors of brass, nicely made. In the center is a levitating globe of some sort that the arcane types can tell has a slight pulse to it. We haul the fox corpses out and burn them. The healer among us diagnoses some may have leprosy (those who missed a save roll).

The globe seems dangerous but nobody touches it. We finally decide to touch the door. The volunteer is Ka-Rin. Touching it bare-handed causes the door to open. Through the opening, Mastovo can see a pair of Earth-Elemental(ish) beings coming forward. We back up and Mastovo instructs the others to exit immediately as the room shakes with their steps. Seems they go back to their room and close the door when they enter the foyer with the glowing orb and don't find anyone.

We send word to the Terrestrials 3 miles away in the manse.

Upon arrival they diagnose that this is an old Anathema construct, as is the orb. The orb is an old boobytrap, an explosive device that is used to defend their lair as only strangers would touch it and trigger it. Now that it's live, it's a nuke of sorts, and it will blow in 24 hours from when it was touched. It is not moveable as it is anchored to reality in that very spot. Attempts to do so might go BOOM. So we decide that the only chance at a code would be within.

We enter and join battle with the two constructs. Seems our frontline fighters are Terry's Immaculate Monk (Sounds like a D&D spell, doesn't it?) and Titus (Jeff's general of a thousand ways-to-soak). Fearing that may not be enough up front, Joe's slavetrader steps up too. But it's plenty. They dish out lots of damage to the foes, as do Lightning Judge and Earth Mage (New this fall, on Fox!).

Two more doors. Beyond that are.... 3 Hideous Blood Apes! Very much like the blood apes who gave our solars fits! They're demons with a huge number of attacks. Jim blocks off one door and that forces them through the second door only. Frontliners do the smacky-smacky, Earth-man throws rocks, Judge electrocutes, and IndyJones does a disarm that ticks one off.

When they are taken down in far more efficient fashion than the Solars did, we look around and find another door.

Beyond the door is a fair folk, bound to the wall by a simple iron chain that is incredibly fine. Funny way to bind something. I mean wouldn't a real iron chain make more sense? He says his name is "Bound" and that he bids us welcome and then he waves his hands and creates a faerie feast.

Needless to say, Hedonist boy jumps right in. Reknar the barbarian does as well. Titus fails his roll and has some. They each suffer from a -1 to "Social Combat".

Well, this is the precursor to Social Combat, of course. The Faerie decides to convince us that it's in our best interest to let him go. We try to convince him it is in his best interest to give us the code to shutdown the orb-bomb.

Turns out he's much better at this than we are. After a number of turns of him gaining small ground, we try a "coordinated attack", all forcing our arguments at the same time in an attempt to dispose of his "Mental Defense Value". When this succeeds, he starts to lose Willpower and becomes fearful of a possible defeat and continued imprisonment. So he goes to the direct mental attack. This works on the same folks who were eating, who are now convinced that this the ONLY way to turn off the bomb is to free him.

This creates a couple of standoffs as those certain that he is the only means for saving the area edge in to free him while the rest threaten to kill him if they do make such an attempt. Che-Tal saves himself, sort of, by botch! He asks if he thinks this faerie is a greater danger than the bomb; A botch tells him yes. This causes him to stalk out as it makes no sense to create bigger danger. Mastovo can't convince them that we need to just evacuate the area (His real intent being really just to get folks to walk out so that we can discuss it out of earshot) but the convinced people stay.

Finally, one of our folks whose anima is flaring is close enough for the being to stand and move into his anima, destroying the fine chain that held him. But wait! There's an argument that if he advanced on them they would back up and it's not really fair (blah blah blah). So instead we finally come to a decision that we swear that if he gives us the code we'll free him.

He gives us the code, it stops the bomb. Che-Tal sticks to the letter of his word, attempting to kill the creature then free him. A fight breaks out and he's not much of a match for us outside of social combat.

The bomb is stopped and the Manse is saved. Our treasure: A suit of nice clothes that were left behind when elf-boy derezzed.


	Game 1 (August 26th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Honey, who activated the Nuke?")
Attendees: Alan, Terry, Joe, Jim, Jeff, Darren, and Mark (GM). Notice the lack of character names. This is because virtually none of them stuck so far in my head. So I'm going to attempt to remember what people were playing almost entirely based on what miniature they were using (and what we were trying to represent with it). Let's see if I can remember any... Mastovo (Darren), Mortal, Warrior - Former Smith/Craftsman, conscripted warrior, survivor of the campaign against the bull of the North... Henchman of... Loric (Jim), Terrestrial, Earth Wizard, owner of the property at which this first adventure takes place. Hiro (Jim), Mortal, Hunter of magical beasts... Henchman of... Honshu (Darren), Terrestrial, Magistrate, Purveyor of Lightning and Judgement. Reknar (Alan), Mortal, Ugly Barbarian - Victim of exalted combat that left him scarred.... Henchman of... Titus (Jeff), Terrestrial, General, Youngest Dragon-blooded General of the past few hundred years; Supplier of Redshirts. (Hey, so far so good! Let's see if I can remember any others... Doh! Nope. Drawing a blank on names.) _____ (Terry), Female Mortal, Obsessive Compulsive Seneschal... Henchwoman of... Che-Tal (Joe), Terrestrial, Morally bankrupt Slave-trader and Hedonist. (Okay, I cheated and asked Joe his names since I was e-mailing him anyway). Ka-Rin (Joe), Female(?) Mortal, whose function I can't recall, and I think is the Henchperson of... Izzimon (Alan), Terrestrial, Thief of Relics and Artifacts, Fantasy Indy Jones. _____ (Jeff), Mortal, Immaculate Monk Trainee... Henchman of... Gareth (Terry), Terrestrial, Immaculate Monk Mentor WE BEGIN... ...Having ended a vacation of sorts. We'd done (off camera) some duties and our two groups (Mortals and Terrestrials) are holed up in our respective locations. The Terrestrials are in a Manse in the mountains, while the mortals are in a village. Both belong to Loric, Jim's character. The village is being overseen by Mastovo (deemed a Gito, for whateever that title translates to), my warrior, who is seeing to the entertainment of guests as we trade stories about places we've been and things we've done. In the middle of Mastovo's storry about the campaign against the Bull of the North, the Headman (another official) comes to the room, interrupts, and apologizes profusely. He's brought a father and his son. The boy has been beaten for something by his father and the boy is crying. Seems he's done something horrendous and is having trouble saying what out of fear. When he goes to strike the boy again I (Mastovo) stop him and kneel down to speak to the boy (something that upsets the Headman). It's all I can do not to smack the dad, but that's a reflex, not a function of my compassion virtue (which is pretty average). Turns out he had good reason. The boy was in the hills exploring, found a cave, went in and touched something and it began to glow. Seems it's a ball of some kind. As he left he heard some hissing growling sounds. We gear up and go out to look. Can't report it to the masters unless we know what it is. Could be nothing. Though of course we, the players, know better. Turns out there's a small cave and that inside are a number of scabby, disgusting, foxes. They come into attack and when one is soundly squashed, his blood sprays onto a guard and Reknar. The guard also gets bitten. Mastovo moves into the cave to get at some of them once a gap is made and he encounters the mama fox, who shoots its tongue out with great velocity. If it hits, it reels in its prey, since its legs are wrecked. Mastovo seems impressive as he parries shot after shot (Really just got lucky with Mark rolling badly) until one gets lucky and grabs him. He shrugs off the first but the second successful hit pulls him in. The team beat down the foxes. Those with Valorous intent actually rush the cave past the enemy when they spy Mastovo being reeled in. When all is cleared we can see the room has two doors of brass, nicely made. In the center is a levitating globe of some sort that the arcane types can tell has a slight pulse to it. We haul the fox corpses out and burn them. The healer among us diagnoses some may have leprosy (those who missed a save roll). The globe seems dangerous but nobody touches it. We finally decide to touch the door. The volunteer is Ka-Rin. Touching it bare-handed causes the door to open. Through the opening, Mastovo can see a pair of Earth-Elemental(ish) beings coming forward. We back up and Mastovo instructs the others to exit immediately as the room shakes with their steps. Seems they go back to their room and close the door when they enter the foyer with the glowing orb and don't find anyone. We send word to the Terrestrials 3 miles away in the manse. Upon arrival they diagnose that this is an old Anathema construct, as is the orb. The orb is an old boobytrap, an explosive device that is used to defend their lair as only strangers would touch it and trigger it. Now that it's live, it's a nuke of sorts, and it will blow in 24 hours from when it was touched. It is not moveable as it is anchored to reality in that very spot. Attempts to do so might go BOOM. So we decide that the only chance at a code would be within. We enter and join battle with the two constructs. Seems our frontline fighters are Terry's Immaculate Monk (Sounds like a D&D spell, doesn't it?) and Titus (Jeff's general of a thousand ways-to-soak). Fearing that may not be enough up front, Joe's slavetrader steps up too. But it's plenty. They dish out lots of damage to the foes, as do Lightning Judge and Earth Mage (New this fall, on Fox!). Two more doors. Beyond that are.... 3 Hideous Blood Apes! Very much like the blood apes who gave our solars fits! They're demons with a huge number of attacks. Jim blocks off one door and that forces them through the second door only. Frontliners do the smacky-smacky, Earth-man throws rocks, Judge electrocutes, and IndyJones does a disarm that ticks one off. When they are taken down in far more efficient fashion than the Solars did, we look around and find another door. Beyond the door is a fair folk, bound to the wall by a simple iron chain that is incredibly fine. Funny way to bind something. I mean wouldn't a real iron chain make more sense? He says his name is "Bound" and that he bids us welcome and then he waves his hands and creates a faerie feast. Needless to say, Hedonist boy jumps right in. Reknar the barbarian does as well. Titus fails his roll and has some. They each suffer from a -1 to "Social Combat". Well, this is the precursor to Social Combat, of course. The Faerie decides to convince us that it's in our best interest to let him go. We try to convince him it is in his best interest to give us the code to shutdown the orb-bomb. Turns out he's much better at this than we are. After a number of turns of him gaining small ground, we try a "coordinated attack", all forcing our arguments at the same time in an attempt to dispose of his "Mental Defense Value". When this succeeds, he starts to lose Willpower and becomes fearful of a possible defeat and continued imprisonment. So he goes to the direct mental attack. This works on the same folks who were eating, who are now convinced that this the ONLY way to turn off the bomb is to free him. This creates a couple of standoffs as those certain that he is the only means for saving the area edge in to free him while the rest threaten to kill him if they do make such an attempt. Che-Tal saves himself, sort of, by botch! He asks if he thinks this faerie is a greater danger than the bomb; A botch tells him yes. This causes him to stalk out as it makes no sense to create bigger danger. Mastovo can't convince them that we need to just evacuate the area (His real intent being really just to get folks to walk out so that we can discuss it out of earshot) but the convinced people stay. Finally, one of our folks whose anima is flaring is close enough for the being to stand and move into his anima, destroying the fine chain that held him. But wait! There's an argument that if he advanced on them they would back up and it's not really fair (blah blah blah). So instead we finally come to a decision that we swear that if he gives us the code we'll free him. He gives us the code, it stops the bomb. Che-Tal sticks to the letter of his word, attempting to kill the creature then free him. A fight breaks out and he's not much of a match for us outside of social combat. The bomb is stopped and the Manse is saved. Our treasure: A suit of nice clothes that were left behind when elf-boy derezzed.