Game 2 (9/9/06)

Game 2 (September 9th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Survivor: Rome")

Attendees:

Loric (Terrestrial) and Hiro (mortal) ...............Jim
Titus (Terrestrial) and Botanides (mortal).......Jeff
Che-Tal (Terrestrial) and Ka-Rin (mortal)........Joe
Lilly (Terrestrial) and ______ (mortal)............Michele
Honshu (Terrestrial) and Mastovo (mortal)......Darren
150 slaves, 100 terrestrials, two healers, and an angry x-girlfriend.....Mark

In the city's capital, it seems we've found a new location and made it trendy. It's a tea house in one of the middling sections. Our mortals are on our way there when...

The characters hear a rush of water coming down the street. Most of us fall over, except for the dextrous Hiro and his dog when the wall of water slams into us. It finally settles and recedes a bit and we find that in the midst of the low-point in the street is an opaque green egg. A seahorse rides across the small low water and taps the egg with it's strangely prehensile hooves (which have finger-like digits) and the egg opens. From this emerges a blue-green skinned woman, quite obviously terrestrial in origin. She surveys the group, who have taken up the approrpriate groveling positions, and at lasts spies Hiro. She approaches and asks if he is the charge of Honshu. She is Lady Pelleps ______ (I don't remember her given name), a former 'associate' of Honshu. She starts to mildly try and interrogate Hiro about Honshu's latest girlfriend, one Lady Sasha. Hiro does a masterful job of dodging the questions in a way that will not offend her and she ultimately departs, unsatisfied with her answers. The mortals are happy she leaves.

We reach the teahouse and begin planning for an upcoming festival. It falls on the minions to be sure that the needs of their masters are accounted for at the party and that they are made to look good (Clothing, their food and drink, gifts given, etc.) The party is a 7-day long celebration of the 350th birthday of Cathak Cainan, one of the most powerful of the house Cathak. It will take place at a level 5 Manse that is home of Cainan. All of Rome will be there, debauching.

Well, except the Tepets. Turns out they are in such disfavor that they are not invited. (Except Alan's guy, who it seems couldnt' make it anyway.) If you are not invited to the event then you are in great disfavor.

While Alan lost an opportunity to perhaps save some face for his house (if he elected to and even cared), Terry made out by not showing up; Had he attended the party he likely would have fallen prey to his immaculate code not to indulge and therefore lost face among the hedonists. But I'm getting ahead...

First we have an uprising. It seems that during the planning stages among our mortals and the relaxing of our terrestrials on the roof, the slaves in the local pens have decided to riot. They've been set in motion by someone unknown. We relax and wait. Sure enough, the masses are encroaching. Military boy Titus has his troops on hand; 5 groups of 5. ("fangs" these detachments be called.) Well, soon rolling down the streets are some groups of 30 or so slaves, equipped with whatever they could grab, including the cobblestones from the streets themselves. We happy psuedo-Romans proceed to sit in the sun and watch the carnage below. There is even some betting taking place.

Titus' troops run into a few snags but do a job on the hordes of slaves. But while this is taking place, a second detachment appears from near the TeaHouse. At this point we decide that since they are lead by a mortal "hero" and as they are rushing our establishment, we shall engage them. We call our own mortals up to the roof, and Loric uses his abilities to put up a wall, cutting the troops nearly in half. Lilly uses her many arms to fire arrows into the mobs, trying to pluck their commanders, while Honshu throws a few fairly ineffective lightning bolts.

When they at last rush the house they find that Loric has sealed up the stairway in stone, and once inside, he seals up the windows in stone, creating a lovely jail cell. The hero manages to leap out the window and hide, but is spotted by Lilly. It doesn't take very long before he is destroyed between a minor shocking by Honshu and a major burning by Che-Tal.

We abandon the place in favor of more pleasant surroundings.

It is decided that the captured slaves are forfeit because those responsible for their upkeep let them riot and escape (So sayeth Magistrate Honshu) and so we decide to use them as part of a gladiatorial event that shall be a gift to Cathak Cainan.

The party happens. Now it turns out that unless you are the most socially skilled individual on the planet, you are lieky to dread these events. At the same time, you have to attend or lose social face that you will need to get things you need. So, we go, grit our teeth, and imbibe.

We had to make temperance rolls for Food, Drink, and Drugs. Any one of these would be a negative socially to decline, but would be a negative to overdo. But it's all so good. Well, we do our best to negotiate this minefield without too many blunders, but there are plenty bigger problems coming.

We have to do social combat to repel lesser people requesting favors of us. We have to do social combat to seek information. we have to do social combat to repel requests from those higher up. Most of us fail at least one of these and are thereby given some future obligation to endure. In some cases it's a matter of having to help someone out with a problem as yet unspecified by the GM, in other cases it's obligating resources, hearth stones, or other things to a particular cause.

In short, we all got hosed in one way or another.

When we start making rolls to gain favor, Loric manages to get an experience break on something he wants. Honshu blows his attempt to garner a veto on use of his hearthstones. Titus tries for more resources for his troops, I believe not having much luck. Che-Tal, having a high breeding, is forbidden to do the very sort of things that he loves to do most with, shall we say, "little Che-Tal"; But through the proper shmoozing he may have procured himself the rights to a little bit of "free play". And last but not least, Lilly just wanted someone to smack around, and so she earned herself a slave to entertain herself in sadistic and cruel ways during the party.

As the evenind winds down, and the bigger presents are given out, the crowd dwindles and begins to find other things to do. We, for whatever reason, remain behind in the main chamber of Cathak Cainan, and are present when the following occurs:

A demon appears and bids happy birthday to Cainan from the Bull of the North. He then unveils his own present, which seems to be hordes of demons and the like, including something resembling demogorgon and something resembling a balrog. And combat is soon to be joined...


	Game 2 (September 9th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Survivor: Rome")
Attendees: Loric (Terrestrial) and Hiro (mortal) ...............Jim Titus (Terrestrial) and Botanides (mortal).......Jeff Che-Tal (Terrestrial) and Ka-Rin (mortal)........Joe Lilly (Terrestrial) and ______ (mortal)............Michele Honshu (Terrestrial) and Mastovo (mortal)......Darren 150 slaves, 100 terrestrials, two healers, and an angry x-girlfriend.....Mark In the city's capital, it seems we've found a new location and made it trendy. It's a tea house in one of the middling sections. Our mortals are on our way there when... The characters hear a rush of water coming down the street. Most of us fall over, except for the dextrous Hiro and his dog when the wall of water slams into us. It finally settles and recedes a bit and we find that in the midst of the low-point in the street is an opaque green egg. A seahorse rides across the small low water and taps the egg with it's strangely prehensile hooves (which have finger-like digits) and the egg opens. From this emerges a blue-green skinned woman, quite obviously terrestrial in origin. She surveys the group, who have taken up the approrpriate groveling positions, and at lasts spies Hiro. She approaches and asks if he is the charge of Honshu. She is Lady Pelleps ______ (I don't remember her given name), a former 'associate' of Honshu. She starts to mildly try and interrogate Hiro about Honshu's latest girlfriend, one Lady Sasha. Hiro does a masterful job of dodging the questions in a way that will not offend her and she ultimately departs, unsatisfied with her answers. The mortals are happy she leaves. We reach the teahouse and begin planning for an upcoming festival. It falls on the minions to be sure that the needs of their masters are accounted for at the party and that they are made to look good (Clothing, their food and drink, gifts given, etc.) The party is a 7-day long celebration of the 350th birthday of Cathak Cainan, one of the most powerful of the house Cathak. It will take place at a level 5 Manse that is home of Cainan. All of Rome will be there, debauching. Well, except the Tepets. Turns out they are in such disfavor that they are not invited. (Except Alan's guy, who it seems couldnt' make it anyway.) If you are not invited to the event then you are in great disfavor. While Alan lost an opportunity to perhaps save some face for his house (if he elected to and even cared), Terry made out by not showing up; Had he attended the party he likely would have fallen prey to his immaculate code not to indulge and therefore lost face among the hedonists. But I'm getting ahead... First we have an uprising. It seems that during the planning stages among our mortals and the relaxing of our terrestrials on the roof, the slaves in the local pens have decided to riot. They've been set in motion by someone unknown. We relax and wait. Sure enough, the masses are encroaching. Military boy Titus has his troops on hand; 5 groups of 5. ("fangs" these detachments be called.) Well, soon rolling down the streets are some groups of 30 or so slaves, equipped with whatever they could grab, including the cobblestones from the streets themselves. We happy psuedo-Romans proceed to sit in the sun and watch the carnage below. There is even some betting taking place. Titus' troops run into a few snags but do a job on the hordes of slaves. But while this is taking place, a second detachment appears from near the TeaHouse. At this point we decide that since they are lead by a mortal "hero" and as they are rushing our establishment, we shall engage them. We call our own mortals up to the roof, and Loric uses his abilities to put up a wall, cutting the troops nearly in half. Lilly uses her many arms to fire arrows into the mobs, trying to pluck their commanders, while Honshu throws a few fairly ineffective lightning bolts. When they at last rush the house they find that Loric has sealed up the stairway in stone, and once inside, he seals up the windows in stone, creating a lovely jail cell. The hero manages to leap out the window and hide, but is spotted by Lilly. It doesn't take very long before he is destroyed between a minor shocking by Honshu and a major burning by Che-Tal. We abandon the place in favor of more pleasant surroundings. It is decided that the captured slaves are forfeit because those responsible for their upkeep let them riot and escape (So sayeth Magistrate Honshu) and so we decide to use them as part of a gladiatorial event that shall be a gift to Cathak Cainan. The party happens. Now it turns out that unless you are the most socially skilled individual on the planet, you are lieky to dread these events. At the same time, you have to attend or lose social face that you will need to get things you need. So, we go, grit our teeth, and imbibe. We had to make temperance rolls for Food, Drink, and Drugs. Any one of these would be a negative socially to decline, but would be a negative to overdo. But it's all so good. Well, we do our best to negotiate this minefield without too many blunders, but there are plenty bigger problems coming. We have to do social combat to repel lesser people requesting favors of us. We have to do social combat to seek information. we have to do social combat to repel requests from those higher up. Most of us fail at least one of these and are thereby given some future obligation to endure. In some cases it's a matter of having to help someone out with a problem as yet unspecified by the GM, in other cases it's obligating resources, hearth stones, or other things to a particular cause. In short, we all got hosed in one way or another. When we start making rolls to gain favor, Loric manages to get an experience break on something he wants. Honshu blows his attempt to garner a veto on use of his hearthstones. Titus tries for more resources for his troops, I believe not having much luck. Che-Tal, having a high breeding, is forbidden to do the very sort of things that he loves to do most with, shall we say, "little Che-Tal"; But through the proper shmoozing he may have procured himself the rights to a little bit of "free play". And last but not least, Lilly just wanted someone to smack around, and so she earned herself a slave to entertain herself in sadistic and cruel ways during the party. As the evenind winds down, and the bigger presents are given out, the crowd dwindles and begins to find other things to do. We, for whatever reason, remain behind in the main chamber of Cathak Cainan, and are present when the following occurs: A demon appears and bids happy birthday to Cainan from the Bull of the North. He then unveils his own present, which seems to be hordes of demons and the like, including something resembling demogorgon and something resembling a balrog. And combat is soon to be joined...