Slipstream: Walkin' in the Spiderwebs

One of my players asked if I had any spider-ish minis, and I don't (largely because most of the minis I use for RPGs are HeroClix). I should get some, though, because we do seem to wind up squishing spiders a lot. Anyway, here's Wonderwall last time.

Our heroes arrive at the forest fragment of Arachnea, and spot an Angeli Scout Ship that has crashed on a narrow ridge. They have to land a good half mile away and walk back to discover that the ship is on the edge of a very high cliff, leading down into darkness. They examine the ship and discover that no one is aboard, and there's a big hole in the side. Iris surmises that the ship bounced around in the trees before coming to rest on the ridge, and Oola finds footprints outside the ship. They don't seem to lead anywhere, though - did these folks come out of the ship and fall off the ledge? 

They search the ship but don't find anything of interest ("Wait, is there actually an Investigation Skill?", asked the players of Veteran characters), and head back out, planning to find another approach to their search for Rezzal Yowlin. But as they do, they are suddenly covered in webbing! A group of Spider-Men attacks, swarming at them from the trees and the top of the ship. 

Oola and Iris are quickly overwhelmed, covered in webbing and paralyzed by the spiders' venom. One grabs Oola and pulls her down the cliff into the dark, but Zeenia covers Iris with her gelatinous body and fights the spiders off as best she can. She kills many of them, but eventually is worn down by sheer numbers and captured. 

The heroes awaken in a cave, and pull their way out of the web cocoons. About a dozen other prisoners are likewise waking up, and one of them is a Lupine - probably Yowlin. The characters talk to him and he confirms who he is, but also says that the God-Queen of the Spiders is going to come back and eat them all, and only by hiding and staying out of her way can they be safe.

Hiding and letting other people get eaten, however, isn't how the heroes roll. The place is littered with debris, and Oola realizes that they could build some short-range rocket sleds out of it. They rally the other aliens and get to work, completing three sleds and nearly finishing a fourth when the place starts shaking.

Some of the aliens keep working on the sled as the heroes ready their weapons, and a handful of the other aliens join them. Spider-Men skitter in and attack! Oola conjures up darkness, and Iris and Zeenia attack, and their newfound allies hold the line as best as they can. They defeat the Spider-Men, but several of them are trapped in webs and one is paralyzed when the sled is complete. The heroes cut the unfortunates free and everyone gets on the sleds - the heroes and Rezzal take one and speed off as the gigantic legs of the God-Queen burst into the cavern.

Iris pilots the sled around the legs, and gets clipped at one point, but manages to keep control. She blasts off into the Arachnean night and they manage to get back to the ship just as the sled's batteries start to die. They take off into the Slipstream, and as things calm down, they ask Rezzal what he knows about the Barrier.

He explains that he was captured by Primals at one point, and overhead them talking about their next tour on Radios (Radios being a fragment behind the Barrier). He learned that a Warship called the Achilles picks up slaves at the fragment of Vitin, and then flies through the Barrier. If the heroes were to capture the Achilles, they can just ride it through on autopilot. Based on the schedule that the Primals discussed, the heroes have about three weeks before the Achilles winds up back at Vitin. 

Twoot tells the characters that he needs to go back to Avia and report to King Throx, and Rezzal asks them to drop him off there, too (they make rocketships there; a space jockey like him should be able to find work). They set off on the long trip across the Slipstream back to Avia.

Character Creation: HPL Academy (SW)

Last character of February!

The Game: H. P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy (Savage Worlds)
The Publisher: Third Eye Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this particular game, but I've run quite a few SW games
Books Required: HPL Prep and some version of the Savage Worlds core rules

As I mentioned here, when I did a character for the PDQ version of this game, I like the setting and I like the tone. If I were gonna run it, which system would I use? Probably either Pip or Savage Worlds, but I dunno. Anyway! 

First up, I'd choose race, but all HPLPA characters are considered human. That means I get an extra edge, and I think in contrast to my PDQ character for this setting, I'll make a character who's a bit more outwardly monstrous, but is still a fairly nice kid, all things considered. Gonna wind up taking the Hybrid edge, I believe.

Attributes! Standard dealie for Savage Worlds. I'll pump Strength up to d8, jack Spirit, Agility, and Strength to d6, and leave Smarts at d4 (but I'm probably gonna spend points later and raise my Strength). 

Skills! I get 4 points to spend on Hobbies and a d4 in Eldritch Lore, in addition to the usual 15. Let's see. I want to be able to squelch around quietly, so d6 in Stealth. Definitely a d6 in Fighting. I'm squamous, so d6 in Swimming. Need a d6 in Intimidation. Tracking makes sense, so I'll put a d4 there. Notice is always a good idea, so there's another d4. Actually I think I'll save the other 5 and see if my Hybrid needs any other Skills. 

So now we're into Edges (and I realize as I was reading this that this game is built on the Adventure Edition of SW, which has these "core skills" rules that I don't like, so I'm kinda eliding that and going by SWED rules, FIGHT ME). I'll use my free Edge to buy Hybrid, which gives me a d6 in Mutation and bumps my Eldritch Lore to d6. It also gives me a free bump in an Attribute, so I'll knock Strength up to d8.

I also get a Trait, which is an inhuman power kind of thing, but also gives me a Tell. I think I Stretching, giving me the ability to do a Plastic Man. It also makes my character's flesh moist, squishy, and smell faintly of asphalt. 

So, Hindrances! I get Ugly as part of being a Hybrid. I'll take Clueless, and I'll take Quirk (he constantly inflates his cheeks and makes weird frog noises). And I'll take a minor Phobia of birds (THEY KNOW SOMETHING). 

That gives me four "points" to throw around. I'll spend two and buy Smarts up to d6 (with the Clueless Hindrance, I feel like that covers his lack of smart-ness without having a low Smarts). Another Edge, perhaps? Ooh, how about Fast Healer.

And then I still have 5 Skill points, so I'll put a d6 into Boating, spend 2 points to boost Eldritch Lore to d8, and the last one to boost Mutation to d8. Oh, wait, I get 4 points in Hobby Skills, too. Um. D6 in Fishing and a d6 in Swamp Stomp.

Derived Traits! Toughness is 6, Parry is 5, Pace is 6, Sanity is 6 (4 + half my Spirit die -1 because my Eldritch Lore is a d8), Charisma is 0.

Just need a name and stuff, then! (Skipping gear, yawn.) His name is Macadam Beaufort, but folks call him "Beau." He's a little less visible than some Hybrids, but he still has to cover up and continually mop his brow (and his pits, and his...well, everything) because he's always a little damp. He's got dirty blonde hair that closely resembles a mop and bright, green eyes that are too big for his face - some teachers say he's got the "Innsmouth Look," but he doesn't know what that means. 

That'll do 'er!

Character Creation: Bastion

No, not the colorful video game, but the Afrocentric Sword and Sorcery RPG!

The Game: Bastion
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Bastion and the Mythic d6 core

Bastion is one of the settings for Mythic d6, and in contrast to the setting included in the core (for which I made a character here), it's a kind of tragic fantasy setting. The world is dying, the last human city is Bastion, and the PCs are "Fihankra", people who have dedicated their lives to going outside the walls and protecting the city, even though that's basically a death sentence. I like the idea of the game, so let's see how easy chargen is!

Starting characters are equal to level 3 in the Mythic d6 book, which I seem to recall is the basic default...ah, yes, default starting level for heroes, and gives you 125 creation points. However, Bastion tells me:

So clearly I need to pick a Profession Template first? Let's see. OK, Professions are one thing, Archetypes are another (and are from the Mythic d6 book), and then Bastion has various races, too. The character sheets have Archetype stuff filled in, so I really need to pick that first and then print the sheet off (ssiiiiiingiiiiinnnnng, "why ain't there an example of chargen, hidely ho"). 

Well, I think I'll do what I often do when I'm faced with a setting I don't know well, and pick some random bit of the setting chapter to inspire a character.

Ooh, OK. In the poor section of Bastion, called the Hedge, there's a shadowy thorn-bush kind of thing that the Umbari (shadow-people) are tending. I'll make a character who was part of the sect doing the gardening, and has been sent out to recover some botanical necessity - maybe a bee or a bat that can pollinate the shadow-bush! That's cool. That decides my race (Umbari) but not my Archetype. Let's see. 

Scholar seems the obvious choice, although Rogue works, too. I think I'll go Rogue, actually. So I need to pick a Profession template next. Hmm. The Sikaotu are interesting (scouts), but I think that pairing this character concept with a priest (Nyame Dua) is a nice twist. Means I can bless others, which might not have been my first choice of powers for this character, but I can roll with it. 

So then I get this array:

And then from Race, I get a couple of special abilities: Dark Sight (just like it sounds) and Into the Void (step into a shadow, pop out of another, dope). Race also gives me minimums and maximums for my Attributes: 

Ooh, Sigil! These give me temporary powers when I spend Hero Points. I want Asase Ye Duru:

So, I suppose now we spend 93 additional points on stuff, which includes Attributes. I have to buy  my REF up to 3D, but everything else is min 1. Let's see here. Each D is 4 points, meaning I have to spent 12 right off the bat for REF. 

Well, seems like Knowledge should be decent for my rogue gardener/priest. Physique will also make my shadow-powers more versatile. If I put Coordination at 2D (average), Knowledge at 4D, Perception at 3D, Physique at 4D, Presence at 1D (secretive, whispery) and Reflexes at 4D, that means I've spent 72 of my 93, leaving me 21 points. I think that's OK. 

Skills, meanwhile, cost 1-for-1, or 4-for-1 for specialties. I can't go over 3 in a Skill or 2 ranks in a Specialty at chargen, and of course I have a few Skills going in already, including Influence twice? Wtf? It's not like Influence needs to be specified. Maybe the second one is supposed to be Intuition? Yeah, probably. Let's assume that. 

I'll keep most of my given Skills where they are, but I want to raise Investigation and Willpower to 3, which costs me 3 more points. Other Skills? Well, probably I should have some fighting, so, um, Fighting at 2D. I think Know-How at 2D, too. Athletics 2D, Resistance 3D, Movement 2D, how many is that? 14. I think that's probably good, and leaves me with 8 points.

Oh, wait, forgot Sneak. Better put 2D there. That leaves me 6 points. I'll spend one more and break it down into pips and add one each to Intuition, Movement, and Scholar. 5 points remaining, and I'll buy an Advantage (which lets me add 3D to a roll once per session when it's applicable). Shadow Gardener, I think, would let me add dice when I'm dealing with magical plants or other scary nature-things.

Disadvantages, then! Five dice to distribute, and we need one Relationship, one Internal and one External. (Once again, the character sheet says "Personal" instead of "Relationship," but eh.) 

So, Relationships are people that can complicate things for my character. I definitely want a Disadvantage related to my dedication to the shadow-bush, but I don't know if it should go here or External (that is, is the Disad about the secret society or the quest itself?). I think it should be the quest, actually, so the relationship needs to be something else. I'll say there's a rich guy in Bastion who really hates the Umbari (he believes they're trying to rebuild their intangible shadow-realm, and in fairness, he's right), and he's able to make trouble for my guy. His name is Bediako. I'll put 2 dice in there.

I'll put one die into Bitter (Internal), and then my other two into Secret Mission (External), and that's that.

Derived stuff: Physique Damage is 2, BDV is 2, Passive Defense is 2, Corruption Threshold is 4. Normally we'd design our Company, but it's just me, so none of that, babe.

Just a name left, and there's actually naming conventions. Assume that he was born under the black moon, on Yawoada, and that means his first name is Tumyaw, his given name is Xoese (it means "Believe"), and his surname is Damte (named after the head of the Shadow Gardeners, let's say). 

Xoese, like all Umbari, has black skin and is forever shrouded in darkness. He has silver tattoos on his arms, forehead, and hands, and he wears a hood, so typically you'd just see the glimmer of the tats from underneath it. He's bitter over the loss of his people's homeland, the incoming destruction of the world, and the idea that he has to go out in the world and look for a freakin' bee.

That'll do it!

Chill: Slippery Sasquatch

End of a case, here's last time.

So, earlier in the day, Beth Anne decides to hang back rather than go into the caves with the others, in order to keep Jaworsky from fucking with them. She goes for a walk in the woods and deliberately sticks to the main trails. She talks with Jaworsky and he repeats his offer to help with the Copycat, if Beth Anne gives him info on Vicki. She refuses, and the two of them talk a bit about their relationship. Jaworsky admits that he wasn't planning on being connected to Beth Anne for this long, but isn't sure why it's happened. He also mentions that he prefers working with children's fears than adults - children's fears are simple and elemental, while adults tend to be afraid for other people or fear things that are complex and event-based. SAVE envoys, though, they have interesting fears...

Jaworsky leaves, and Beth Anne nearly steps off a ledge. She recovers in time, and looks around to realize she has no idea where she is. She somehow managed to walk off the trail and into the park.

It takes her hours to find her way back to the Kuna Caves (and her car, and her phone). When she gets there, the other envoys have left. She heads back to the ranch and tells Darnell to let them know that she's avoiding using her phone because Jaworsky seems to mess with it, and goes up to a room to work on homework. And then she dozes off (lots of walking!).

She wakes up some hours later and goes downstairs, and finds the others about to head back out to the caves and try and kill the "sasquatch." They've all taken xanax in an attempt to avoid feeding the creature, since they figure it gets nourished from fear. Unfortunately Emily has had a reaction to the drug and is pretty much out for the count (read: her player couldn't make it). The envoys load up and head back to the caves.

They get there shortly after midnight, and as they approach they see that everyone is in a tizzy again. Sgt. Davis sees them and runs up, and informs them that Alex, the paramedic that was with the team earlier, apparently went into the cave and then started screaming. They've held the scene, but they were about to go in. The characters go to the mouth of the cave and, indeed, hear screams of pain from the dark. They head in, following the sound, and before long spot Alex with his arm stuck into a hole in the rock. 

As they approach, they hear hideous crunching sounds. Dylan raises a Sphere of Protection and they pull Alex out. His arm is gruesomely wounded - gobbets of flesh torn out and three of his fingers are mangled. BB uses Heal and improves the wound somewhat, while Vicki uses Calm and settles Alex down. Dylan drops the Sphere, and Alex immediately tries to put his arm back in the hole (the envoys stop him). They start heading back, but then everything goes dark. 

Vicki grabs Alex' shirt and starts feeling along the wall. They hear Sgt. Davis' voice and follow it, but then the lights return and they realize they've been led in the wrong direction. The sasquatch grabs BB and bites his shoulder; BB swings on it but it's gone before the blow lands. It leaps out again and grabs Melinda, biting her, but Beth Anne gets a shot off and it roars in pain. Dylan starts the circle, hoping to trap it,  but it grabs him by the back of the neck and tries to pull him into the dark. BB shoots it and it drops him, and everything goes quiet.

"It's leaving," says Jaworsky in Beth Anne's head. "Still happy to tell you how to lure it, but you don't have long. And then it'll go on to some other town and mimic some other killer." The envoys put their heads together and think about luring it through fear of the sasquatch, since it's obviously created a fairly strong link, but they can't quite think of how to make that happen. Vicki uses Clairvoyance and spots the thing outside, changing from sasquatch back to the white, featureless Copycat. They run back out and look for it, but they don't know where to search. The Copycat is gone. 

The envoys take what victory they can - they've got data to share on SAVEpoint, and they've driven the creature away, at least. Not every case is a total victory.

Character Creation: Cyberpunk 2020 2nd Edition

February is almost over, but I can still get my six games in! Here we go!

The Game: Cyberpunk 2020 2nd Edition
The Publisher: R. Talsorian Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, really. I made a character named Cricket many years ago, and I remember playing him once or twice
Books Required: Just the one

Cyberpunk 2020 is really the second edition of the eponymous game, although the PDF I have is from the third printing, which is really the second edition with some incorporated errata. In any event, it's set in the distant year of, erm, two years ago, but like, we all know how cyberpunk works. People incorporate tech into their bodies and there's a Humanity stat that measures how much of your "soul" or whatever that eats up, the whole shebang is very shiny and chrome, and although it talks a lot about being emblematic of the 2000s, it comes off as crazily 90s. Which makes sense, since it was published in 1990. 

Well, all of that in mind, it has lifepaths, which of course makes me happy. I don't have a theme song yet, though I might before I finish, so let's just start off the process and see where we end up. 

We start by generating statistics. Now, I don't normally dig on rolling stats, but what the heck. I need to roll 9 d10s, reroll anything less than 3, and then assign them to my nine stats. Just a moment. 

All right, we have: 10, 4, 8, 7, 6, 3, 4, 5, 5. Erm. OK, then. I think rather than assign them right away, I'll start the lifepath process and assign as I go. 

To start off, we roll 3 d10s to determine personal aesthetic. I get 10, 8, 9 (sure, now I roll high), which translates to bag lady chic, short and neat hair, and weird contact lenses. Sure, sounds fine. Next, ethnicity: I get Pacific Islander. I speak streetslang, but also a native language, which is...let's say Indonesian (I am not going to fall down a linguistic rabbit hole, here, although I definitely hear the linguistic rabbits calling). 

At this point, my buddy Gus has chosen a theme song for me:

 That's "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" by The Spin Doctors.

OK, then. Moving along. I roll for family ranking (urban homeless). Rolling on parents, however, takes me to SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOUR PARENTS (there's a flow chart, y'all). I grew up on the street and never had parents. Rockin'. I go to family status, which indicates that my family is in danger, and takes me to family tragedy. That gives me: family exiled or otherwise driven from home. Cool. 

Childhood environment - I thought we established I was a homeless orphan? Oh, wait, this is literally where. In the heart of the Combat Zone, well, shit, my guy can't catch a break! Rolling on siblings, I roll a 9, but that means I'm an only child. Cool, breezing right over to Motivations! 

Personality trait: Stable and serious. Valued person: Public figure. (Oh, shit, am I making Travis Bickle?) Thing I value most: Vengeance. How I feel about people: People are untrustworthy, don't depend on them (I like that, actually). Valued possession: A toy. 

And now we're over to life events! I get one event for every year after 16, and I roll 2d6+16 to determine my age. I roll 7, which makes me 23, and gives me 7 life events. Awesome, on we go!

17: No event
18: Friends & Enemies. Made a friend! Female. She's an old enemy. I'll say that she was the one responsible for exiling my family to the Combat Zone. How'd we become friends? I dunno, I think she was on the receiving end of the same shit I got, and we wound up commiserating. Strange bedfellows.
19: Romantic involvement. OH SNAP. I'm gonna invoke my right to choose results and say that my relationship with the above-mentioned woman turn romantic, and then an old vendetta came between us.
20: Friends & Enemies. A new friend! We met through a common interest. I'll back-burner that for the moment.
21: Big Problems, Big Wins. Oof, took a hit. I'm hunted by a corporation, a big, national one. I would roll on the "what are you gonna do about it" table but I think make them pay is really the only answer.
22: Big Problems, Big Wins. Ooh, a win this time! I find a teacher! I can either add +1 to any INT based skill or begin a new one at +2.
23: Friends & Enemies. I made a new (male) friend, again through a common interest. 

So now we do Skills, and for that I need to pick a Role. Hmm. Nomad appeals, but it's really focused on moving around, and I see this guy, god help me, as more of a Taxi Driver kind of person - he's got a space in the city. Maybe Solo? Ooh, what about Media? I like that. Kind of a guerrilla reporter, not the kind of guy doing interviews between two ferns but the guy out there taking vids and getting tear-gassed. 

OK, so Skills, then. I get 40 points to divvy up into my career skills, which are: Credibility, Awareness/Notice, Composition, Education, Persuasion, Human Perception, Social, Streetwise, Photo & Film, Interview. 

Well, 3 into Credibility (I can convince people of minor scandals; that's all I want for now, he's young). Streetwise 6, Human Perception 5, Interview 5, Social 2, Persuasion 4, Awareness/Notice 5, Composition 4, Education 2, Photo & Film 4. That's 40!

And then I get pickup skills equal to my REF + INT, which means I need to assign my stats (10, 4, 8, 7, 6, 3, 4, 5, 5). Well, the average for one of these stats is about 5, so I've got a few that are on the low side and a couple that are high. So where would I like to suck? I think Tech makes a good dump stat for my guy. I'll put my 3 there. I'll put my 4s into Empathy and Movement. I'll put my 5s into Attractiveness and Luck. That leaves me 10, 7, 8, 6. I'll put my 6 into Body, my 7 into Cool, my 8 into Reflexes and that leaves my 10 in Intellect. 

That means I have 18 pickup Skill points. I feel like I'd better take some combat skills. I'll put 3 into Athletics, Brawling 4, Handgun 2, Melee 4. That's 13, so 5 left. 2 Stealth, 2 Resist Torture/Drugs, and 1 into Hide/Evade. I'll also put my +1 from my teacher into that.

I make 1000 euro a month, and I start with 2000. At this point I would normally go shopping, but eh. I'd probably buy a pistol of some kind, and whatever gear I'd need for being a Media. Cyber-wise, I want color-changing contacts and scratchers (little finger claws). Definitely an audio/video recorder implant, too. 

So with all that in mind, let's flesh this dude out. His name is Yuda. He has no memory of his parents, and only vague memories of living in a shelter or something before getting booted out onto the street. He lived on a rundown block and made his living by doing odd jobs and petty crime, but then a corporate douchebag named Tyger Tame came in and "cleaned up the streets." What that actually meant was that he hired Solos to sweep in and chase everyone on the block out, and the place got leveled the next day. Some of the folks there died, some got pushed out. Yuda got pushed out, into the Combat Zone. 

One of the Solos who had done some of the dirty work, a woman named Nur, wound up getting shoved out here, too. The two of them had a fling, but it really didn't work out, largely because Nur got hired back and decided all the shit she put up with was worth it for a paycheck. 

Out in the Zone, Yuda also met up with a couple of fellas from back on the block. One was Shai, a guy that had managed to get in tight with some local activists. Together, Shai and Yuda made life difficulty for Tyger Tame, and wound up on his radar (and his corporation's). They spent a year running, and met up with an older man named Soleh, who taught them the finer arts of hiding in plain sight. 

Yuda, Shai, and Soleh are all interested in staying the hell away from Tyger Tame and his flunkies, but Shai and Soleh want to escape. Yuda wants to see Tyger Tame burn, along with Nur, and anyone else who destroyed the only home he ever knew. But shooting people like that doesn't really accomplish much, so Yuda is trying another path - humiliate them. Find out what they hate, and turn them into that. Make them into jokes. Get their pictures made into memes. 

And then maybe shoot them. 

Yuda dresses like a street person, but he keeps his hair short and neat (it's easy to change clothes, it's harder to change hairstyles). His contact implants were his first real personal expenditure; he always hated how boring brown his eyes were, and now if he wants them to be white, or purple, or whatever, they just are! He has a cup-and-ball toy that he found when he was a kid, and he fiddles with it when he needs to pass time. 

That's it!

Board Game: Trivial Pursuit: Millennium Edition

Beware the Terrible Trivium. 

The Game: Trivial Pursuit: Millennium Edition
The Publisher: Hasbro
Time: 2-3 hours
Players: Me, Michelle, Amanda, Toasty

Game Play: Simple enough; everyone has a pie that holds six slices. You roll the die, more your little pie as indicated (any direction you want!) and when you land on a colored space, you answer a trivia question corresponding to said color. Answer it right, you go again. Answer a question on one of the six "hub" spots, you get a little pie slice. Complete your pie and then answer one more question in the center space, you win! 

Opinions: Not much element of strategy here, really. You're kind of at the mercy of the die as far as where to move, but there are a bunch of "Roll Again" spaces so it's less random than it could be. The questions themselves vary widely in how specific and minute the information is, and of course if the topic isn't something you know about you're not likely to get it. Green questions are "sports & leisure", and a lot of the are of the "who played 8th base for the Wombats in 840 BC?" ilk, which of course doesn't mean a thing to me. But missing a question doesn't set you back horribly, and the questions in every category have a broad enough base that you can usually find something to answer. 

Some questions are outdated, since this edition is from 2000. Sometimes they just get something wrong, but that's pretty rare. Basically it all comes down to whether you like trivia games, and I do, so there.

Keep? Yep

Cairn: The Bredencour Homestead

Autumn in the city of Cairn. The crinkle of fallen leaves, the crisp air...and the TREETOP VIOLENCE. Here's last time.

The Knights are all about their various tasks in Cairn. Ratatosk Longberry is gathering nuts and mushrooms to store for the coming winter. Russelet Leatherwind is weaving spider silk into nets to attach to his arrows. Rumdiggle Sunsong is teaching her new pet, a garter snake named Arthur, to do some tricks. And Snootabur Shadowbough is working on her new house. 

A mouse comes scampering up and asks her to come to talk to someone called Hester Woodfolly at the Office of Assessment, at the Town Hall. Snootabur asks what's going on, and the mouse doesn't know, exactly - something to do with mapping? Snootabur excitedly cleans herself up and runs off with the mouse (her hobby is cartography), and is shown to a cluttered office with a bespectacled rat behind a desk. 

The rat, Hester, tells Snootabur that she was going through some old archives and found a request from a squirrel named Peplen Bredencour for some materials to build a homestead in the woods west of town. The request was signed by the (then) Lord Mayor of Cairn, but Hester hasn't found any follow-up so she's not sure if the homestead was ever built, if anyone is living there, etc. She asks Snootabur and the Traveling Knights to go out there, map the area, and check to see if anyone's still there.

Snootabur, of course, is thrilled. She runs off and checks in with the other three, they prepare for travel, and by that afternoon they're on the road!

They arrive in the wooded area, and discover that there's no Favored traffic - animal tracks, sure, they see trails from daggertusks and stripefangs. Rumdiggle spots a stripefang den up a ways and points it out, but reminds the Knights that if they leave them alone, they won't bother anyone. 

Snootabur spots a tree with notches in the side; squirrels in and around Cairn sometimes put such notches in trunks so that Favored can climb them more easily. The Knights climb up (well, three of them do, while Russelet flies up), and they realized that the homestead consists of several smaller trees connected via branch bridges to a central oak with a huge trunk. Russelet does a lap and notes that the smaller trees have buildings, too. He also realizes that within the trees comprising the homestead, he hears no activity - no birds, no animals. Very strange.

Ratatosk knocks on the door, and it swings open. He checks the parlor, but there's no one hear. The Knights continue to explore, and they find the corpse of a squirrel in a bed. Rummy goes looking for a kitchen, spots a skeletal foot under a table, looks at the body, and passes out.

The others hear the thud and come to investigate. What shocked her was that the body in the kitchen is decapitated. Russelet looks a little closer and realizes that something crushed the poor squirrel's shoulders and chewed off its head. He can't figure out what would have done it - no animal he can think of kills like this.

Ratatosk has a brilliant idea - he casts a spell and calls up the dryad that lives in the tree. The dryad appears, but she looks weak and keeps flaking sawdust. Ratatosk asks what happened and she tells them that if they want to know, they need to look further into the tree. She points down a hall and then crumbles away. 

"Well, that was ominous," says Ratatosk. The Knights keep looking, and find more bodies in some of the bedrooms. They finally reach a large door, locked and barricaded from the inside. Russelet picks the lock and Rumdiggle pries it open with her staff. 

The room is a storeroom, with stacks of planks and beams. Also eight squirrel corpses, scattered through the room. The door at the far end has been smashed in, and beyond it is the trunk of the tree. Rather, the center of the tree, and a hole leading down. Russelet echolocates and gets a sense of how far down it goes, while Snootabur searches the room and finds a diary. 

The diary mostly details the construction of the homestead and hewing wood from the trunk; Peplen (the diary's author and head of the household) mentions not taking too much so as not to harm the dryad. The last entry, however, is much darker:

"We dug into the tree trunk in order to use the materials to build out the homestead. We expected to find grubs to feed our friends the bats, and golden sap, and ants. Instead we found death. The hodag, the horrible Unnatural beast, crawled up in the dead of night and killed several of us in our beds. It blocks the exits so we cannot flee to the open air, and even now we hear its claws on the door. I fear I shall not live to see the sun again, but I ask the Bright Ones, should any Favored read these words, slay the hodag and reclaim my homestead. -Peplen Bredencour, Squirrel"

Russelet spots something skitter up the inside of the tree. He fires a couple of net arrows to prevent it coming back down, and flies down the shaft. He winds up in a nest - dead leaves, twigs, and bones. He feels the chill of the Unnatural run down his spine.

Snootabur and Ratatosk stand near the opening talking to Russelet, while Rumdiggle is at the back of the room. She hears something coming up behind her and whips around, calling on the power (if not the size) of the ripper. She finds herself face a horrible spikey beast: the hodag. 

Rumdiggle passes out, but the others hear. Russelet flies up the shaft again, but the others don't wait. Snootabur rolls up into a ball and slams into the hodag, knocking it back away from Rummy. Ratatosk leaps forward and smacks it with his staff. The hodag hisses and readies its claws, but Russelet is faster. He shoots it in the stomach, and the creature bleeds horrible sticky black blood. Ratatosk strikes it again, and cracks its skull. It falls dead, and the Knights take a breath. 

Snootabur wakes Rumdiggle up ("what happened?"). Rumdiggle drags the hodag's corpse out to the branch and dumps it to the forest floor. She notice that the sky has turned black, and she wraps her tail around the branch just as lightning splits the sky and the downpour starts. She scampers back in to the others, as the tree starts to sway.

Character Creation: Ki Khanga

Before Into the Motherlands, before Bastion, before Orun, there was Ki Khanga. Kind of.

The Game: Ki Khanga: Sword & Soul Roleplaying Game
The Publisher: MVmedia LLC
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Ki Khanga was Kickstarted way back in 2016. I remember vaguely think that they sent a lot of updates, but who knows, that was a lifetime ago. In any case, the game was billed as "sword and soul" fantasy, Africa-inspired epic fantasy RPG. It's written by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade, both novelists, I think, and the goal behind the RPG is great. The execution isn't awful, and if that sounds like damning with faint praise, well, fair enough.

Having now read through the book, it reads like someone's first attempt at an RPG if they got their hands on about $13,000 to make it. The layout is plain black text on plain white pages, there's very little artwork (but what there is of it is good, I have to say, and the cover is dope). The game system is a lot like blackjack - you draw cards based on what trait you're using and total them and try not to bust out. The setting reads like a Legends of the Five Rings approach to Africa, that is, you're playing in not-really-Africa, which is fine. 

But the writing doesn't really hook me. Some of it is the visuals of it; it looks like a very old-school RPG like Bushido or something and my brain just slides off the page. Some of it is that apart from the non-European inspirations, it's just a fantasy game, and we have so many of those (as opposed to Orun, which not only makes an African inspired RPG but marries the mechanics to the themes, etc.). And then there's little niggles like the fact that there's no character sheet, and one of the examples uses a character called "Princess Fine Mama Jama." Like, is that the intended tone for the game?

Ultimately I'm glad I backed it because more games like it need to exist, I just wish I wanted to play it. But let's make a character, sheetless, it seems. 

Characters are built with 120 points of Ase. Is there any reasons they have to have a title? Could they just be "points?" I'm just picking nits, here. 

Well, I love point-buy systems almost as much as I love lifepaths, so that's cool. I do need some kind of concept, though. I shall turn to the setting chapter and pick a land of origin to kickstart my heart brain.

OK, now this is weird. The various nations each get little write-ups in the setting chapter, including major towns, languages, religion, exports, and so on. One of them is called Matamba, and the exports are listed as gold and slaves. But then the overview text tells us that Matamba is ruled by women, the men of the country take care of the kiddos and teach the girls to fight, but abusing men is strictly taboo. Women from other countries go here to be safe. So...slaves are an export? 

Not having a PDF also kinda sucks, because there's a lot of terminology before you even get into the place names, and there's no index. 

OK, well, let's say my dude is from Kenja (it's the only place you can see lions, not at all like Norwaj). Kenja is mostly savanna, and includes market towns but no real cities. It's getting invaded from neighboring countries a lot. Let's assume my character grew up moving around a lot, maybe from a family of hunters following the herds. Heck, I'll say that his family is known as the Walking Lions, since they live in close proximity to lion prides and never get attacked (I mean, not never, but less often than you'd think). 

Seven basic abilities: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Intellect, Wisdom, Presence. They run 1-12, 4-5 is average, and buying scores costs 2 of my Ase per rank. 

Well, as a hunter, I think I'd want Endurance high. Probably Dexterity and/or Agility, but I need to figure out the difference. Ah, OK, same as Chill: Agility is full-body control and Dexterity is more precision and hand-eye coordination. Putting all 7 of these to 5 would cost...70 of my 120. Is that viable? Let's do this, I'll put Strength, Agility, and Endurance at 5. I'll put Intellect and Presence at 4, and I'll put Wisdom and Dexterity at 7. That means I've spent 74. 

Now we do a bunch of derived traits, which I can raise directly with Ase, but I don't know if it's cost-effective. First up is Fighting. I take the average of Agility and Wisdom, and the average of Dexterity and Intellect, and compare them on a chart. Agility (5) + Wisdom (7)/2 is 6, and Dexterity (7) + Intellect (4) is 5.5, round up to 6. 6 is considered Gifted, and on the chart, two Gifteds make a 6. Moving on!

Using similar charts, we find that Health is 7, Will is 8, Wealth is 4 (meaning I have 20 Equipment Points). 

Skills! These cost 1 Ase per rank, and I have 46 remaining. Let's see. I want:

Animal Empathy
Balance
Climb
Handle Animal
Hide
Jump
Knowledge: Nature
Listen
Move Silently
Spot
Survival

11 Skills, meaning even taking 3 in each would eat most of my remaining points. Let's put 2 into each (leaving me 24 points), and then maybe I'll come back if I have extra points. 

Talents! These are just bonuses to certain actions, and they're cheap! I'll take:

Animal Affinity
Improved Initiative (hey, think someone was familiar with D&D and no other games?)
Stealthy
Track

20 points remaining, and we're into Effects. These are special powers, apparently. Hmm. I actually would like a "doesn't get attacked by predators" kind of thing, but not enough to fiddle with a complicated system. Let's see. Ooh, I could summon a lion. Kinda like that idea. Do I have the points? I do! I need at least 8 to summon a lion, so I'll dump 8 here and I have 12 remaining. (Incidentally, I think I can actually summon any animal up to my limit in size, and there's no system for taking a limitation, so we'll just say that his family can summon lions and probably can also summon other animals, but choose not to. Maybe they promised a lion spirit they wouldn't.)

With my 12 remaining points, I'll bump my Skills up to 3 and then take one more point in Survival. 

Now I need finishing touches, including name, description, Motivation, and Complication. Looking at a list of Kenyan names, I find Gatimu, which means "a spear," if the list is to be believed. We'll say that my character was born immediately following a raid from one of the aforementioned neighboring countries. His parents were separated in the chaos, and his mother gave birth holding onto a spear for support that had stuck in a tree. Gatimu still has the spear. 

Gatimu is sinewy, lean, and fast. He runs on the balls of his feet, and bares his teeth before he strikes. He's quite capable of throwing a spear, but actually prefers shorter weapons so he can get in close. He has a scar on his right shoulder where a zebra (or something; I assume there are zebras) kicked him on his first hunt. 

Motivation! It would be tempting to make Gatimu interested in protecting his home from invaders, but like, he was a baby when that happened and I think it's more interesting to say that his family kept moving after that and managed to stay away from that kind of conflict. No, I think Gatimu wants to truly gain the power of the Pride and become a lion in truth. He's not sure entirely what that might mean, however.

His Complication is Responsibility. He's now the eldest child in his family and his parents rely on him to lead hunts. They also feel like he should be given them grandkids sometime soon...

And that's it! I like the character; I might play someone like him if I ever get to play Atlantis. 

Name: Gatimu
Motivation: Apotheosis
Complication: Responsibility
Abilities: Strength 5, Endurance 5, Agility 5, Dexterity 7, Intellect 4, Wisdom 7, Presence 4
Traits: Fighting 6, Health 7, Will 8, Wealth 4
Skills: Animal Empathy 3, Balance 3, Climb 3, Handle Animal 3, Hide 3, Jump 3, Knowledge: Nature 3, Listen 3, Move Silently 3, Spot 3, Survival 4
Talents: Animal Affinity, Improved Initiative, Stealthy, Track
Effects: Summon Animal 8

Character Creation: Scion: Origin

 Sure, why not, gotta do it eventually. 

The Game: Scion: Origin
The Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I played it one year at Metatopia in the Before Times
Books Required: Just the one

Ah, Scion. It's a game where you play the children of incarnate gods. (You mean like American Gods? Yes, exactly like that.) 

The first edition of Scion was released waaaaaay back in 2007. I was originally going to work on it, and then I didn't because I was (in theory) working on a game independently that was too similar in concept, and then that never happened, obviously, and then Scion changed developers (Mike Lee to John Chambers) and eventually was published. And like...it was OK. Conceptually fun, but the fun stuff was buried under in-character prose going on and on, and the mechanics were late-stage Storyteller/Exalted 1st ed, so like, not great, but serviceable. 

And then we got this 2nd Ed, and I have to say, in terms of read- and playability, it's a vast improvement. The setting chapter is as long as it needs to be and it's not written in-character, so I can follow it without close reading, and it's followed immediately by a whole chapter explaining the mechanics, which is structurally a good idea. 

However, reading the mechanics, I do wonder if it'd be too much for my groups. That's no indictment of the game, just that I think there might be too many moving parts. Also, I worry that it might fall into the same pit as 7th Sea, that is, every roll is a heavy narrative load on someone, usually the GM. All of that said, I love the progression from Origin to Hero to Demigod to God (although I only own the first two books and unless they blow me away or my players are really keen to play it I'm not real likely to give Onyx Path more money). Well, anyway, let's make a character and see what happens. 

So, in Origin, we're making pre-Visitation Scions. That is, children of divine beings who haven't gotten the memo yet, as it were. The book also refers to other things you can play, but does it really support that? I don't know and I don't feel like sussing it out right now; I'm making a baby Scion anyway. 

Right, so, Concept. Erm. You know, I think it might be easier for me to pick my parent first, so let's look at the pantheons. Oh, I think I'll be a child of Persephone. There's a lot I like about her myth, and about the way it's been reinterpreted over the years, but for purposes of this character I want to play someone who's been split between two worlds most of his life. I'll say that his parents divorced when he was very small and he lived with dad for half the year, and mom for the other half. I don't know exactly where each of them live yet, but I know I want the environments to be very different, both physically and socially. 

That's backstory, though, where's this guy now? I think he runs a foster home in [city]. He's not the only adult there, of course (I'll figure out who else in a bit, here, maybe a spouse or a partner), but he's made basically a full-time job of taking care of kids who aren't steady. His goal isn't necessarily to give them stability forever, as much as teach them to cope with the chaos.

Now I need Deeds: Short-term and long-term. There's also a group Deed, but as I ain't got no group, I'll skip it. For my short-term, it should be something I could achieve in a session. I'll say there's a kiddo at the foster home named Jaxson who doesn't talk. He can, but he had a really rough go of it before coming to the house. Short-term: Help Jaxson regain his voice. 

Long-term...hmm. I think "find a home" is probably a little too vague. How about "Bring my parents together?" I'll say that his parents, in addition to separating, have kind of lost track of him and so bringing them together would require finding them and then convincing them to meet up. 

Now I get three Paths: Origin, Role, and Society/Pantheon. These remind me a lot of Aspects. My Origin Path needs to be about formative events, and clearly the biggest is that my guy was Split Between His Parents. Role Path refers to kinda what he's doing now, so how about Full-Time Foster Dad. And then his Pantheon is the Theoi, but he doesn't know that yet. His last Path will be All Roads Lead to the Underworld, because he's gonna wind up getting in touch with the death-y stuff eventually. 

I get three Skills as "asset Skills" for each Path. Let's see. For Origin, I take Culture (had to learn about two different cultures), Integrity, and Subterfuge. For his Role, Leadership seems obvious. I'll also take Academics to reflect learning about various legal issues involved with fostering, and Athletics because looking after this many kids will keep you moving. And then for Pantheon, I get Empathy and Persuasion, but then one more of my choice. Hmm. As much as I'd like to take a combat skill, I think Occult is most indicative of that Path's place in his life. 

Well, I was hoping to get through chargen without everything coming to a grinding halt, but lol no. Each path gives you connections (groups or people you can call in for help). There's a system for it, but I'm not sure how much is defined at chargen because the six helpful starting characters don't have connections filled in and the example of chargen running through the section doesn't do that bit. Wtf, guys. 

OK, I'm gonna skip it. I can't tell what if anything I'd need to decide now and it looks like maybe it's something that would change session by session? Moving on. Skills.

I need to prioritize my Paths, much like the Physical/Social/Mental split that WW/OPP games typically have. Ok, I think the Origin is probably the most important, followed by Role, then Pantheon. I get three dots in each of my Origin Skills, two in Role, one in Pantheon. Okey-doke. I also get Specialties in my three Skills with three dots, so um, I'll take Code-Switching in Culture, Smile & Nod in Integrity, and Hidden Motives in Subterfuge. 

Attributes! More prioritization. Physical/Mental/Social, but then also approaches (Force, Finesse, Resilience). Well, I think his split is Mental/Social/Physical (he's very in his own head most of the time). I get a 6/4/2 split, but then 2 free dots in each one in my Favored Approach, which I'm thinking is Finesse. So effectively I get 3 dots each in Cunning, Dexterity, and Manipulation. 

In Physical, I'll put a dot each into Might and Stamina for a score of 2 each. For Social, I'll put one into Presence and the other three into Composure. And then over in Mental, I'll put two into each one, which gives me three dots in Intellect and Resolve but 5 in Cunning. 

Calling and Knacks! Persephone gives me the options of Judge, Leader, and Liminal as Callings. I think the latter is pretty clearly my choice. And then I get one Knack, and holy shit, Experienced Traveler is exactly what I want. On we go!

Finishing touches! My Defense is...um, not that simple. I'm meant to note the dice pool I use when taking a defensive action. Well, what pool is that? Ugh. 

Movement is Dexterity + Athletics, anyway, so that's 5. Oh, wait! I get more shit that was tucked away in a hidden paragraph that I um, didn't read! I get 5 points of Skills, one extra Attribute dot, and either two more Knacks or four points of Birthrights, which aren't in this book. OK, well, for the Skills, I'll put two into Empathy and give myself the Specialty "Children", and then split the others into Close Combat, Survival, and Technology. 

The Attribute dot I will put into Manipulation. 

And then...hmm. Even if I felt like figuring out how Birthrights would work for pre-Visitation characters, which I don't, I don't really think any of them are appropriate. I'll just take two more Knacks - let's say Complete Privacy and Unobtrusive Visitor. I can only have one active at a time anyway. 

And that's basically it, but for the the details and name and stuff. Let's see. His name is Ronald Mallory. He's now in his early 30s, and hasn't seen Lou (his father) or Petra (his mother) in nearly a decade. He's not aware that his real mother is Persephone, of course, and how he came to live with the Mallory family is probably a weird story in and of itself. Ronald is an only child, but his father had multiple brothers and sisters who all lived relatively close, so for half the year Ronald lived with Dad and never went a day without seeing at least a handful of cousins. The other half of the year, he lived with his mother, and was homeschooled. He barely saw anyone except the help (Mom was, and is, extremely wealthy), and having a social life would have required convincing his mother to let him out of the house without an ankle bracelet, so it wasn't really worth the trouble. 

For all of that, Ronald is pretty balanced. He blends in to new situations and places almost effortlessly, and he picks up not only languages, but slang and regional humor, within a day. He can put people at ease quickly, but at the same time, they don't usually remember much about him. And that's fine. Ronald isn't looking to be remembered, he's looking for...huh. Well, probably he'll know it if he sees it. 

Ronald is tall, but not so tall as to invite comment. He's pale, but not unhealthy. He's got blue eyes and a gentle voice, and he's the kind of person that little kids wave at. 

Pugmire: Tomb, Tomb, Tomby-Tomby-Tomb

The one-shot has become a chronicle! This is the way. 

It's another lovely day in Pugmire, and as the late afternoon sun casts long shadows in Riverwall, Petunia Pibble, Peppa Papillion, Dire Newfoundland, Gelert Sausagedog (it's pronounced "sa-SAJ-dog"), and Boomer Pitbull are hanging around in Granny Sue's Pub. 

Petunia introduces Gelert to Peppa, and Dire finishes his soup and wanders over to join them. He nods to Boomer - they know each other from around the way and the criminal life. As the dogs are chatting, a stiff-looking Shepherd in a crisp guard's uniform walks in. He approaches Petunia and quietly informs her that Fiona Corgi of the Royal Pioneers would like to speak with her, and she's encouraged to bring any of her "motley pack of friends." 

Petunia invites the others, and they head across town, through the Southgate district and into Westwall, past the Royal Library and the Church of St. Anna and up to the Pioneers' Guild. They are met inside by Fiona Corgi, who takes them into a conference room and asks if they'd be interested in looking into another cat-related matter. Peppa and Petunia readily agree, and the others are amenable, too, so Fiona elaborates: a moggie named One-Eye Molly has disappeared. She's been known to the police, but that isn't why they're looking for her. Rumor has it she was investigating a cache of masterwork items, but then she never came back to Pugmire. Fiona asks the characters to find her and report back, and the characters agree. 

They head back toward Riverwall and discuss their approach. They decide to look in on Mr. Meow, a cat who runs a groomer's shop. He's known to be quite well-informed about goings on in the district. Dire gets his fur done there, so he, Boomer, and Peppa go to talk to Mr. Meow. Petunia and Gelert, meanwhile, head back to Granny Sue's to ask around there. 

Mr. Meow is happy to them and looks hopefully at Peppa (who is perpetually dirty). She's not interested in being clean, just in information about Molly. Meow tells them that Molly left town looking for some kind of tomb, but that a dog named Derry Lurcher was looking for her as well. Dire knows Lurcher as a mercenary and a thug. Meow says that he also hates cats, and Meow had to kick him out when he got too insulting. 

Meanwhile, Petunia and Gelert talk with Sue Weimaraner. She hasn't seen Molly around recently, either, but knows that she left town without so much as a packed lunch. The characters ask Sue to let them know if anyone hears from Molly, and leave to go hook back up with the others.

They nearly get to Mr. Meow's when they see a crowd forming. Inside the shop, a cat rushes in to where Meow is meeting with the dogs and tells him there's something happening outside. The characters rush out and see five hooded figures carrying torches. One of them hurls the torch into the middle of the street and screeches "You must be destroyed in the name of the Monarchies!" As her hood falls away, the characters recognize Molly - but she's mangled and corpse-like. The other four hooded figures are likewise zombie cats. 

Boomer and Dire rush to battle. Dire cleaves one of the cats in half with a swipe of his greatsword, but is quickly overwhelmed by the zombies and beaten to the ground. Gelert dives in and strikes with his staff, but the blunt weapon does little good against the undead. Peppa casts Sacred Flame on one of them, and Petunia strikes with magic, but the cats are on the verge of killing Dire.

Petunia races into the middle of the cats and calls up her Thunderwave spell, knocking everyone around and flattening a couple of the zombies. This turns the tide of battle! Peppa darts in and heals Dire with her magic, and Dire stands and lops off a zombie's head. 

The battle won, the dogs pull themselves together. The zombies crumble to dust, and a quick search of their robes reveals nothing (though Dire does gather up their rusty swords to sell as scrap metal). The dogs remember a dog in a green hood standing at the edge of the crowd, who darted away when the fight was over. That, they guess, was Derry Lurcher. If he was controlling the zombies, that's a whole level of evil they weren't expecting. 

They heard whispers of "cat necromancy" from dogs nearby, as Mr. Meow tries to calm them. They decide to go and do some research at the Royal Library tomorrow, and retire to their homes to get some rest. 

On the morrow, they split up once again. Boomer, Peppa, and Dire head back to Mr. Meow to ask if he saw anything they might have missed. Petunia goes to the guardhouse to ask about Molly's past, and Gelert heads to the library. 

Mr. Meow doesn't have much else to tell them, but does confirm from their description that the dog in the green hood was Lurcher. Boomer expresses a bit of suspicion in Meow's attempts to downplay the notion of cat necromancy, but Meow points out that if sentiment turns too hard against cats, that's bad for business (and, like, him). Dire pays for Peppa to get cleaned, and Mr. Meow manages to comb out the dirt clods. It takes some time.

At the police station, Petunia speaks to an inquisitor named Ruby Labrador. Ruby tells her that if Derry was controlling the zombies, the magic would have ended if he got too far away. That kind of magic is almost always Unseen in nature, though, and she isn't aware of Derry even having any magic ability. Of course, he also hasn't checked in with his mercenary company in weeks. 

Across town at the library, Gelert talks to an old Pug librarian. He learns that the map led to the secret tomb of King Vinsen Pug, the first King of Pugmire. He is now buried in the palace, but he died before it was finished and was interred in a secret tomb on the northern plains. The map to the tomb was recently entrusted to a member of the Pug family, but that dog was attacked by cats and the map lost. Derry Lurcher, though, forced the Pug to draw a reproduction of the map from his notes. Gelert asks politely if he might make another, and the Pug obliges.

The characters reconvene and decide to go looking for the tomb. The prepare for travel, and spend two days on the road, but then they find a place in the hills where the ground has been dug and excavated. A heavy stone door sits slightly ajar, and Dire pulls it open, allowing them ingress. They find smashed furniture and smelly, coagulated blood - apparently zombies fought here, too. 

Behind an ancient, decaying tapestry, they find a hidden door. Dire yanks it open to find a storeroom, full of old decaying crates. But in the center of the room, a weapon rack with a shining longsword and shield! Dire races in, heedless of danger, and notices the blind dire rats too late.

Petunia charges in after him and smacks a rat with her staff. It turns to lunge at the source of the attack, but the others tackle Dire and start chewing on him. Gelert slides into the rats and slashes open a rat, and Boomer runs in and whacks another with his ax. Peppa calls up magic and shields Petunia, and Petunia runs into the middle of the rats and unleashes the Thunderwave again. She kills two of the rats and knocks the last one against a wall, and it barely has time to pull itself to its feet before Boomer strikes it dead.

Dire pulls himself up to standing and starts to bandage himself. Peppa dresses him down - he's only got himself to blame for running headlong into the dark like that. Petunia examines the sword and shield - they smell faintly of magic, and the characters surmise that these heirlooms are enchanted enough that they don't rust or decay. Recognizing the importance of these relics to the Pug family, the wrap the weapons in Petunia's cloak and continue their exploration. 

Up a flight of stairs, they find a large room with an intricate stone carving in the middle. There they find Derry Lurcher, pacing around cursing to himself, and found unmoving zombies standing vigil. The dogs ready themselves, and Peppa calls up Sacred Fire, scorching Derry. Petunia realizes that he is possessed and informs the others, and Dire charges into battle, striking with his greatsword. Gelert tries to draw the zombies' notice, but they obey their master and attack, slashing at the dogs and felling Dire once again.

Boomer strikes Derry, but sustains wounds himself. The characters brace for a pitched battle against their more dangerous zombies, but Gelert moves behind Derry and stabs him through the heart. The zombies crumble to dust, and Derry retches and dies, spitting up a cloud of black mist. 

The dogs recoil, all except Peppa, who burns it with Sacred Fire. The demon flees, and the tomb is quiet again. 

The dogs rest for the night, and then head back to Pugmire. They are given audience with King Puckington Pug, who thanks them profusely for returning this irreplaceable bit of history. In gratitude, he pardons any crimes that the characters may have committed ("they never proved anything," mutters Gelert), and leaves them in the capable paws of his daughter Yosha. 

Yosha brings them to Fiona Corgi, who offers them membership in the Royal Pioneers. Petunia immediately accepts, while Dire asks what's in it for him. Fiona invites them to join her at the Guild House tomorrow, and they'll discuss it.

Character Creation: Harlem Unbound

I'd love to say that I picked this game to do in February because it's Black History Month, but the truth of the matter is that I asked my friends to choose a game off my list and my gf chose this one. With that said, since it is Black History Month, maybe I'll do games from Black creators in February. (My goal this year is six characters a month.)

The Game: Harlem Unbound
The Publisher: Darker Hue Studios
Degree of Familiarity: Well, that's kind of a special case
Books Required: Just the one, for my purposes

Harlem Unbound is a Mythos game, and it's really a supplement for both Trail of Cthulhu (kind of, it's got all the relevant rules in it so it's really a standalone GUMSHOE game, I guess) and Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. I do not own the latter, so I'm gonna make a character for the GUMSHOE variant. 

Harlem Unbound is basically a Mythos investigation game set during the Harlem Renaissance, and if you're a white American like me, you might not know much about the period. The book therefore gives you a lot of history and context for the period it's describing the kinds of stories it's meant to evoke, and if anything I think it could have gone a little harder with the Mythos stuff, but honestly it's easier to find info on how to run a Lovecraft-inspired RPG than to run one dealing with racial tension and the Black American experience. Harlem Unbound was nominated for (and won) a bunch of Ennies back in 2018, and deservedly so. 

Anyway, let's make a character! The book asks me to consider what my life was like before being shattered by some Cthulhoid horror. Having just played a very long game of Arkham Horror the other day, I think I shall take a bit of inspiration and make a photographer. I think my character was inspired by the work of James Van Der Zee (where's his fuckin' biopic, his life sounds really interesting) to start clicking pictures. He procured a camera at a young age (gift from a relative, maybe?) and kinda learned as he went, and tried to make some money selling snaps to newspapers and so on - those that would buy from him. He wound up taking gigs as he could, and one day he showed up to an apartment that was decidedly seedy, figuring he was going to take some candid shots of someone's wife or girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever. Turned out that a weedy fellow named Horace wanted him to take some pictures of some weird-looking shit floating in jars, things that looked like fish or crabs or...fish-crabs. My guy took the pictures and was figuring this was all carnival mermaid kind of shit, and one of the things in the jar moved. 

Horace paid him in advance, which was good because when he went to deliver the prints the apartment was empty and no one would even admit that Horace had ever lived there. He still has those prints.

Good start! A little more personal data. His name is Reynold Baker (but call him "Ray"). He was born in Memphis in 1905, but his mother moved to New York when he was still a toddler, so for all intents and purposes he's a New Yorker. He's skinny and wears pants that are too big with black suspenders, an overcoat that he found on a park bench, and a hat that blew off somebody's head and bounced down the street. He really did try to find who lost it, but no luck. 

Investigative abilities! Figuring, as usual, that any game I played in would have at least 5 players, I get 12 points. Let's put 2 in Photography right off the bat. One in Art History, one in Library Use, one each in Assess Honesty, Bargain, Inspiration, and Renaissance. Four left. Art, Chemistry, Craft, and...hmm. I'll put one in Cop Talk. Figure that Ray has wound up taking pictures at crime scenes (hey, they sell), so he's learned a little about how cops work. 

General abilities! I get 60 points, as is the custom. Let's see, which ones do I want ratings in at all? Athletics, Conceal, Disguise, Fleeing, Preparedness, Scuffling, Sense Trouble, Shadowing, and Stealth are all good choices. That's 9 different abilities without considering Sanity, Health, or Stability. I only get 3 Sanity and 2 Health and Stability to start, which ain't much. Let's put 1 into Health (again, skinny, and hasn't got much in him if things get violent) and 2 each into Sanity and Stability. 55 more points. 

Well, 6 into Athletics and Fleeing. 5 into Conceal, 5 into Scuffling, 8 into Shadowing, 5 into Stealth. 5 into Preparedness and Sense Trouble. 10 more. I'll put 4 into Disguise (he knows how, but not especially well), and I'll split the last 6 up evenly between Conceal, Scuffling, and Sense Trouble. 

That's pretty much it, I think. Oh, wait, I could give him a Drive (though there's no place on the sheet for it, grr). Actually, I think his "Drive" would be kinda bad luck - he finds himself in these situations and his brain says "take pictures" rather than "run screaming." When he thinks back on things later, sometimes he realizes that running and screaming would have been smarter, but here we are. 

And that'll do it!

Atlantis: Spiders, Yum!

Tonight was Atlantis! Yay! Here's last time.

The heroes spend a week in the Dabban countryside, resting and lying low. They talk a bit about what they need to do and whether they should stay in Dabba or head to Khem (as was their original plan). Thanos notes that he's not going anywhere until he finds Thanatos, his dog, but Thanatos finds them the next morning. They decide to head down the mountainside, buy some new weapons and armor (since they're not likely to get their old stuff back), and then decide what to do from there.

They enter the outer ring of Cyrene and immediately note that the people aren't the blissed, contented folk they saw before, but rather twitchy and obviously in pain. Withdrawal from the enchanted lotus flower is setting in, apparently. They find a merchant who sells them masks (since they're far too easily identifiable), and as night falls, they head into the center of Cyrene to continue shopping.

They replace their weapons, with a bit of haggling, and Akala and Thanos buy leather vests. Imani commissions a set of armor, but the vendor says it'll be a couple of days. They head for an inn to bed down, but then they see an albatross swooping in.

Eithne notes that the great seabird has flashing green eyes, marking it as a fellow Jinn. It lands and assumes its natural form, and she recognizes him as her cousin, Arcill. Arcill tells her that his father (Eithne's uncle/husband and sworn enemy) is in Khem. He entered the country just before the borders closed, and now a great sandstorm is brewing (Eithne's uncle is known to be a powerful sorcerer with an affinity for storms). 

Arcill leaves them, and Eithne relays this to the others. She tells them that they need to head to Khem, that her uncle might be imprisoned or might be in some way responsible for the barrier, but either way he's not going to be happy to see her. They decide to wait until Imani's armor is done, and then get on a boat.

The heroes head off in search of that inn, and they note that the Gallu are being a lot more aggressive than before. Instead of standing around passively, they're loping around the streets almost as if they're hunting, and they're threatening and in some cases grabbing and shaking citizens.

Imani, never one to suffer such behavior gladly, gets up in a Gallu's face. She smells its breath and chokes - cloyingly sweet, and then a blast of rancid garbage - and it punches her in the face. She punches it right back and smashes its nose like a ripe fig, and black blood oozes down its face. Two more Gallu move in, and Eithne and Thanos call upon their magic.

Eithne summons a dagger of ice and hurls it into a Gallu's heart, and Thanos snarls at the other and makes his eyes explode. Both of the Gallu collapse dead, and Akala calls out to the bystanders and points out that the Gallu aren't immortal, and the citizens don't have to be fearful. The citizens are grateful and impressed, but they also beg for lotus. The heroes try to tell them that they don't need the drugs and they can kick the habit - but then they all feel a little tickle in their mouths, nose, or ears. And then they all spit up masses of spiders. 

A priest of Tanit steps up behind the and tells the citizenry that Tanit will take care of them, the lotus will flow again, they must only be patient and not listen to these lies. Eithne conjures a ward against the spiders and cleans them off, and the heroes tell the bystanders that any goddess that would silence people trying to help them isn't worth worship. The opinions of the crowd is mixed, at best (yes, spiders are icky, yes, the Gallu are getting more violent, but like, lotus). The priest of Tanit leans in to the characters and tells them that he knows who they are. He tells them to leave Dabba - get on a ship and get out, or else. The heroes were already planning to leave, but Imani tells him that they'll be back.

Board Game: Arkham Horror

Guess what we spent all day doing!

The Game: Arkham Horror
The Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Time: All freaking day (an hour or so if you lose quickly; I've played games that last closer to 7 hours)
Players: Me, Michelle, Gus, Amanda, Megan

Game Play: Holy cats. So, Arkham Horror is a cooperative game in which a bunch of investigators try to prevent one of the Great Old Ones from waking up and eating the world. There are a few ways to win - defeat the Great Old One in combat (lol), close all of the open gates in Arkham, or seal six gates. There are also a few ways to lose, but mostly that comes down to the Old One waking up and eating everyone. 

 

Gus separating tokens, their favorite thing

 

Starting off, everyone picks and investigator and then you pick a Great Old One to be the special friend for the day (both of these choices are randomized in RAW, but picking deliberately doesn't dampen the experience at all). Characters get some starting equipment and skills, and they each start in one of the locations in Arkham. 

Megan and Hastur, our Special Friend

Every round, everyone gets to move through several phases: Upkeep (things refresh, you can adjust your stats); Movement; Encounter. And the into the Mythos Phase, at which point a new gate typically opens, which pushes the Old One ever closer to awakening. Also a new gate means more monsters coming through, and they romp around the streets of Arkham attacking investigators. 

Michelle and our Cup o' Monsters

Investigators can (and must, really) hop into gates and explore other dimensions, and then pop back through and close the gates. If you have enough clue tokens, you can seal a gate, which prevents more gates from opening. But, more gates disgorge more monsters, and more monsters can eventually raise the Terror level, which means Allies flee the city, and as it grows, businesses close.

The streets of Arkham

Businesses? OH SURE. You can spend money and monster corpses to buy various things to help you in your quest. You get monster corpses by (doy) killing monsters, which requires rolling dice and counting successes (5 or 6 on a d6). Some monsters are resistant to physical or magical damage. 

Magic? OH SURE. You can get spells as well as items and skills, all of which allow you to accomplish various things, but spells eat your Sanity. Run out of Sanity, you wake up in Arkham Asylum. Run out of Stamina (in combat with monsters, typically), you wake up in the hospital. Run out of both at the same time, you're devoured and have to pick a new character. 

Too many monsters!

Opinions: Arkham Horror has a lot going on. There are a lot of different rules to keep track of, and some of them aren't terribly obvious. Yellow-backed monsters, for instance, don't move, but they still have the symbols that other monsters use to indicate movement. Normally you just move during Movement phase, unless you wind up in the streets with a monster, in which case you have to fight it (or evade it). Fight checks and Combat checks are two different things. 

Once you've played the game for a while, it starts to flow a little better and makes more sense. Part of the issue is that the Great Old Ones all change the core game play in some way. Part of the issue is that unless you get some spectacularly bad rolls, you aren't going to lose quickly (likewise, even if the gods of randomness smile upon you heartily, you probably still aren't going to win quickly just because of how the game works). 

Sandy and Terri provide moral support

In our case, our Great Old One was Hastur. Now, Hastur's effect on moment-to-moment game play isn't terrible, except that he raises the number of clues you need to seal a gate from five to eight. As such, we almost never had enough clues to do that, so we focused on trying to close, rather than seal, gates. And it almost worked, too! We were one roll away from winning, but the player failed the roll and didn't have a way to reroll, and we weren't ever able to get a handle on the situation. A rumor card early in the game jacked the Terror level up, which fucked us out of Allies and stores, and meant that any attempt to fight Hastur once he woke up suffered a -10 to our dice pool. As a result, only two of us could even attempt it (if you don't have at least 1 die you don't roll), so we all went insane and got eaten. 

We managed to do three whole points of damage to him, though!

Arkham is a hell of a time investment, and the game going on all day doesn't necessarily mean you'll win. Add some expansions into the mix (I ain't got none), and it can get even longer, or at least more complex.

For all that, though? I really like this game. You have to understand what you're in for, but if you're willing to do it (and take breaks, and remember to eat), then it can be very satisfying. It is not a board game to play casually, however, and there are stretches of the game where you feel like you're spinning your wheels. 

(I should note, here, that I'm sure I have an older edition of the game, so the third edition might have streamlined things considerably.)

Keep? Yep