The other major element in "Alien World", was the introduction of two new PCs. Gale needed to be replaced (by the Tribal Ekaterina Mikhailova Petrova) and Midnight Storm's player brought in a new character, Max, a gunlugger. Brace's replacement was his second character Switchblade.
The cast:
- Midnight Storm (ex-Skinner Solace): teenage post apocalyptic rock star who wants to help people. He fights the Wolves of the Maelstrom who want to stop the music. He recently lost his second home, the Starlight, in his efforts to save its crew.
- Manfred (Faceless): A massive man who wears a mask fashioned from a stop sign. He used be a cook on a cattle ship and now cooks for the Starlight. He has shown himself to be brutally deadly.
- Switchblade (Maestro D'): acrobatic woman in a fool's motley who lead a traveling show called the Carnival. She is handy with a knife and friends with Midnight and Manfred.
- Max (Gunlugger): a brutal woman who crash landed on the planet Everette. She is haunted by her past and thinks of herself as a reaver. She is on the lookout for her little sister Hiccup.
- Ekaterina Mikhailova Petrova (Tribal): for generations Ekaterina's people have lived on Everette, adapting themselves to its strange psychic jungles. But the environment has grown too hostile. Ekaterina is leading her people to a place of safety, following the visions her father sees in the maelstrom.
So some more on Max.
Picture derived (with added patch) from a photo by Andres H of a female Shepard Mass Effect cosplay by Angela Bermudez.
Max wears battered space marine armor almost all of the time. She covers the burns and scars on the right side of her face by letting her shoulder length dark hair hang over it. A large black eye patch covers her missing right eye. She stares at people with her remaining pale blue eye. The damage evidently extends to other parts of her battered body, though she must have had surgery to fix most of the impairment. Her right arm is completely cybernetic and sometimes gives off mechanical noises when under stress.
Max doesn't talk about the past. She grew up on a moon called Shepherd that passes through the rings of the gas giant Empyrean. She suffered her scars in an effort to defend her people from predatory drug lords. The damage lead her down an increasingly violent path.Her community eventually sentenced her to the Pit, a nearby moon and former mining colony, claiming she was a reaver. She survived for 5 long years in that prison before escaping during a reaver attack. Her homecoming was less than pleasant.
More Mass Effect Influences from drsix777 on deviantart
Since her escape a year ago she has been searching for her sister Hiccup. She hopes to reconcile with her. Her ship crashed on Everette a few weeks ago and she is the sole remaining survivor.
Her stats were: Cool +1 Hard +2 Hot -1 Sharp +1 Weird +=0
Her starting moves were Bloodcrazed (+1 harm), Prepared for the inevitable (so we had some healing available), and NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH.
She has Space Marine armor (2-armor space suit), many knives (2-harm hand infinite), a couple of guns, and a grenade launcher (4-harm close area messy), and a high quality first aid kit.
Our other new character used the Tribal playbook.
Katya's player was very into Spartacus and based her character on the look of Naevia.
Ekaterina Mikhailova Petrova is the strong-arm of the Baikal tribe. A lithe woman in worn leather clothing, she leads the warriors of her tribe. Also known as Katya, she sports facial tattoos and moves with an animalistic grace. A long bracelet of broken teeth and shattered glass hangs from her right wrist, while her supple bow is never far from her grasp.
Her tribe descends from Russian speaking settlers who landed on Everette centuries ago. Katya has lived her whole life on Everette. Her sense of humor can be off-putting, even to those familiar with her, while her foreign mannerisms put strangers ill at ease. This is magnified by her unexplained way of knowing things she should not know. Still, she is easy to laugh and deeply protective of her tribe.
Her stats are Cool 0 Hard +1 Hot -1 Sharp +2 Weird +1
Her moves included Wasteland Survival, Quick In, and Things Speak (from her tribal options).
Her gear includes well cared for leather armor (1-armor), garrotte (2-harm, AP intimate) and bow.
Everette also adds two new threats: King, the object of the Carnival's mission, and the planet itself.
Edward "King" Williams
Kind: Grotesques: Mindfucker
Impulse: Craves Mastery
Description: A fabulously rich but dying old man from the golden age. He wants to survive and will pay handsomely for it. He lives on the planet Everette in an armored compound on the end of the town of Tradepost. King looks like he should be dead. His skin is withered and resembles thin paper. He seems too feeble to walk but does so anyway.
Cast: King, AD3000 (more advanced and functional version of Sparky)
Custom Moves:
- Money Talks: King drops a large amount of jingle for you to do something. Roll acting under fire. On a 10+ you can walk away. On a 7-9 he had 1 hold over you. You can spend this hold by doing what he wants or by taking a -1 forward. On a miss he has 3 hold over you. Used against an NPC they side with him.
- The Collector: King has use his money to buy a medium gang. They are loyal and armed (3-harm hand, 2-harm ranged 1-armor). He can make Warlord moves.
- Protect the Master: treat AD3000 as a combatant (3-harm messy 2-armor)
King has a real name since he grew up in the Golden Age.
Everette
Kind: Landscape: Mirage
Impulse: to entice and betray people
Description: Everette is a planet of psychic hazards. The land corals, skirr, flumphs, and midichlorians have all evolved into a symbiotic psychic network hostile to foreign life. Existence is a struggle between what you think is there and the horrors eating into your psyche.
Custom Moves:
- Acclimatize: When leaving Tradepost roll +Weird. On a 10+ choose 2; On a 7-9 Choose 3. On a miss answer a question from the landscape and take -1 forward:
- The whispers of alien minds distracts you, take -1 forward
- The landscape asks you a question, answer truthfully.
- You can ask the landscape one question, it will answer truthfully.
- You can ask the landscape one question, it will lie.
- Psychic Predators: when fighting the local wildlife roll +Cool. On a 10+ things go okay, just a bit of buzzing in your head. 7-9, you choose 1. On a miss choose 2:
- Nose bleed: 1 harm (ap)
- Headache: your next action is acting under fire
- Reads your mind: Take -1 forward against it
- Its in your head: answer in what ways are your character's mind and soul most vulnerable?
I also added some love letters to move along some threats.
For Switchblade: Roll +Hard. On a 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all 3.
- You know who took the fruit and someone got hurt.
- Wayward is pissed with you for suspecting someone from the carnival of stealing.
- The Freakshow performers have been spending a lot of time in the Den and refuse to talk to the rest of the crew about it.
Oh yeah and Daily is allergic to cats. He's been miserable for the last two weeks.
For Katya: Roll +Sharp. On a 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all 3.
- A Kikamora has been tracking your group for a week. What does this predator look like?
- The psychic wilderness has drunk in your secrets and learned about your weakest member, Tanya Grisha. What makes her vulnerable?
- Vikenti Aristarkh, one of your warriors is overly fond of the vices of civilized life. He is looking forward to drinking, gambling, and wenching.
There was alsoa love letter given to Midnight Storm, my character.
Dear Midnight,
Congratulations man, that was a hell of an exit you made back there. Your fans, your scene, they're happy to be with you on this new ship - there's a lot of hope for better days down the road.
That said, there's a major issue that has made itself clear after the first day or so - Withdrawal. The carnival doesn't have a whole lot of the stuff your people are used to - maybe some hay-beer and tobacco snuff at best (and even then, not a lot of it). Go ahead and roll+hot to see how well you've been helping them cope during the journey to Everette.
On a 10+, its been rough for them, but you've been helping them get through. A few of them have even said they'd put down the stuff for good. On a 7-9, its been rough for them and a number of them have been closing themselves off to you, resenting you for putting them through this. On a miss, its been rough for them, and a group of them got their hands on a stock of that garden ship fruit. Poor bastards ate the whole thing and are basically vegetables now.
Luckily Midnight Storm got a 10+.
Alien World
Switch got a soft hit on her love letter. She decides to find out who stole the fruit and to have the freaks be up to something.
"Everyone!" The murmurs died down as all eyes focused on Switchblade. "Someone broke into the safe in my room. They stole some dangerous fruit I stowed there. Whoever did it, fess up."
The carnies and Midnight's fans look at each other and began talking.
"What?" Belter exclaimed.
"I can't believe someone would steal from the captain," Daley said before sneezing. "Sorry, my allergies are acting up."
"Sorry," Midnight pulling his cat Acid away from the miserable clown.
"What the heck fruit is she talking about?" asked Snaz. "It doesn't, you know, give you a high?"
"Sorry guys," Midnight informed his downcast follower. The past week had been rough on his friends.
Hard to party without drugs.
"Maybe it was the freak show crew?" chimed Wayward. "They've been awfully preoccupied in the den recently."
"Shut your mouth," Shatterglass said.
Before further accusations could fly, two loud voices above them clarified the matter.
"Mice!" whined Kittens from the Ferris wheel. "Please! Can I have one?"
"No!" his sister said.
"But they look so pretty and purple."
"They're mine."
Mice pushed her twin off the ride. The six year old screamed in terror as he tumbled down. His arm caught a girder halfway down, slowing his way down from deadly and sending him into a pile of collapsed tents.
The carnies rushed forward as Mice cried in pain, his arm bent at an unnatural angle.
"Mice down here now!" Switch shouted as Nestor comforted his wounded boy.
They brought the Ferris wheel carriage down. Mice stood there, white-faced and holding a half empty basket of the violet fruit.
"Don't hurt me," the girl said.
"Give me that," Switch said snatching the basket. "Look at your brother."
Mice looked at her sibling without a trace of remorse.
Switch never really picked up on Mice's loss of empathy (caused by eating all of that fruit). It will be the death of her.
"You are going to clean the animal pens for the next month. I'm locking these up now."
Switch headed for her cabin and secured the fruit in a secret safe under her bed.
Several of Midnight's fans lingered in the hanger bay after Switch left.
"How are you doing?" Midnight asked. "I'm here if you need some support."
"I think we'll be okay," Toa said. "Honestly I think I might be feeling better than I have in a while. Those uppers mess you up."
"I'm glad to hear it."
In the open air kitchen a young teen stepped up to Manfred. "You are the new cook?"
"Dinner will be ready soon," he rumbled.
"I'm Hiccup," the slim girl said.
"Manfred. Now I've got to slice these onions." Manfred scanned the kitchen for a blade.
"I can help with that," she said, pulling a knife from one of the drawers. "I usually help with the cooking."
"I can handle it myself." He opened a cabinet and looked inside.
"The spices are in that drawer," she said.
Manfred looked down through his metal mask. "Okay, you can help."
The wreckage burned for three days straight. A brilliant streak of red and orange had lit the sky over half of Everette. A five-mile long furrow tore through the jungle, the final legacy of the craft's arrival. Katya and her warriors arrived a day after the destruction draw by curiosity and a sense of destiny.
By that point most of the crew hard succumbed to heat and flames. But as the Baikal reached the ashened clearing, a dislodged capsule shook.
The door shuddered then bent. After a series of powerful blows the hatch gave, crashing to the jungle floor.
A woman rose from the charred escape pod clad in a dark armored spacesuit. She hefted a bulky weapon and jumped down. A sweaty man built like a body builder clambered out behind her. He landed in a crouch, kissing the ground and feeling the earth with large calloused hands.
"We made it Max," he exclaimed looking to his companion. "We survived."
"We still need to get out of this jungle, Barns," she reminded him. "And we are not alone."
Katya gestured with one hand. Her warriors emerged from the treeline, their spears encircling these newcomers.
Barnes stumbled back against the pod. He yelped as he touched the heated metal and threw his hands up.
Max calmly leveled her weapon, which resembled rifle crossed with a revolver made for a giant. "That's close enough."
Katya stepped forward. In accented language, she said, "I am Ekaterina Mikhailova Petrova, first warrior of the Baikal tribe. We are not interested in your goods or lives. We follow the vision of my father, Mikhail Pavelovich Pertrov, chief of the Baikal. He tells us we must leave this jungle if we are to survive. We seek a red ship to take us from this world. Do you know of such a ship?"
Max maintained her stance. "No. But I also want to leave here. You can call me Max. This is Barns."
Katya nodded. "We are headed for Tradepost. Ships come there from other worlds. If you help us find the red ship, you may come with us."
"Deal."
Max lowered her weapon. The warriors lowered their spears as well and a few came over to tend to Barns's burns.
"What are you putting on me? Mud?" Barns said. "Ow! Ah! Ah. Oh that feels good. But god that stinks."
"Take your medicine Barns," Max said.
Katya led the strangers into the jungle.
I forget but I think Katya failed her roll for her love letter.
The Baikal spent the following weeks blazing a trail through the jungle and fending off the psychic hazards of Everette, One morning, Katya sat down with Max.
"We have trouble."
"Trouble?" Max raised an eyebrow. "More skirr?"
Katya shook her head. "Worse. We are being trailed by a Kikamora."
"What's that?"
"A large beast. Poisonous. Sharp claws. Hard to see. Very hungry."
"You are worried about the kids and the old folks."
Katya nodded.
"Okay, then we give it something else to eat." Max stood up and checked her weapons.
"I'll gather the warriors."
Max walked out into the jungle. "See you soon."
"Max, you need help."
"Thanks for the offer, but I didn't need it against the skirr either."
Katya caught up to Max a few minutes later. The explosions had leveled almost an acre. Shattered trees decorated with gore smoked in the new clearing.
Max stepped out of the wreckage with a bloody smile. "That Kika-thing was pretty dangerous."
And that is how we established Hx between the two new characters.
The Carnival began its descent to the lush green world below. The brilliant red ship shuddered as it thundered through the atmosphere, shedding speed and growing ever closer to the surface.
In the captain's quarters, Switch perched on her bed. Hiccup sat on the floor in front of her looking up.
"So then what?" Hiccup asked.
"Then I flipped over the wounded and dying. I cornered Emma behind a tree. Then I killed her." Switch looked away. "At the time, I was so sure she needed to die. But now, I'm not so sure."
"You said they were turning people into dirt and brainwashing people."
"That's what we thought. I never saw what really was happening. I just know what I saw in my vision. Mom turning into Emma and then suffocating me. I was so sure she was going to destroy us."
"Well I never met your mom but it doesn't sound like it was really her. My mom maybe but from what the carnies say yours was really nice. Maybe it was the maelstrom messing with you."
"Perhaps."
"Just lay off the seances Sis."
Hiccup and Switch are not really sisters but act like it. Switch saved her from her abusive parents on Shepard.
The Carnival broke through the clouds. A large clearing loomed below. A line of small structures made up the holding of Tradeport, dwarfed by a fortified complex of hemispheres and tubes beside it. The ship adjusted its course for a wide grassy field nearby.
The white armored compound gleamed in the morning light as the craft settled down. Tradeport itself, a collection of a half-dozen wooden buildings, looked shabby in comparison.
"Breakfast is up," Manfred said, spooning out eggs and fried vegetables.
Midnight grabbed a plate. "How are things Manfred?"
"Fine. Next!"
Midnight shuffled on. Hiccup slipped in next to Manfred, dishing out food to the hungry carnies and fans.
A kid with a mouth full of huge teeth ran up. "Manfred! Manfred!"
"Get in line, Lotsa-Teeth," he replied.
"Switch wants to see you!"
"Fine. Hiccup you can handle this?'
The girl nodded.
Manfred headed to the captain's quarters. He found Switch struggling to pull two suitcases out from inside a safe.
"Manfred could you help me with these? I need to get the red one out."
The giant easily picked up the suitcase. "Is that what you needed?"
Switch straightened up. "Actually I'd like you to come with me to deliver it. Bluejay wants this to go to a man named King who lives in that compound on the edge of town. I'd like to resolve this as soon as possible."
"Fine."
Switch led the way off the Carnival.She paused before stepping onto the grassy field. The thick moist air contained a strange tingling smell. Manfred lumbered behind her.
"Hey!" called a man sitting under an umbrella a couple of hundred feet away.
They walked towards the fat man in his lawn chair.
The man readied a clipboard. "So what ship is that? I'm Ham by the way. Welcome to Tradeport."
"That is the Carnival. Actually we are looking for someone. King?"
Ham pointed towards the compound. "You'll want to head that way. I'll send Till with you. He knows the guards there. Till!"
A small boy with brownish skin ran up.
"Till, show these nice people to the King compound."
Till led them along Tradeport's only road. A small market stood in the center of town. Several people were examining weapons at a knife and machete shop. Most were dressed in hand-made leather armor. Their skin shared the same deep tan as Till. A fair skin woman with dark hair also stood there, dressed in an armored space suit and carrying a small arsenal.
Bringing the party together.
Manfred stopped to take a look.
"This one is very nice," Katya said. "Old man please sharpen this for me."
The shop keeper took the blade and payment into the back of the shop. As he ran it over grinding stone, Manfred made his pick from the merchandise.
Both of them wanted to buy new weapons.
"Can I have this sharpened too?' he said.
The old man paused and hobbled back to take payment. "I'll have it ready in 15 minutes. Your's too miss."
"We need to get going," Switch said.
Max stepped into Switch's space. "You arrived in that ship?"
"Yes?" Switch steps back. "What do you want?"
"I'm looking for passage off world. Possibly for my friends as well."
"We are not exactly a passenger ship. Where are you headed?"
"It doesn't matter particularly. if you stop at a hub somewhere that will be fine."
"Fine." Switch looked closely at Max's face. "Do I know you? You look familiar."
"I doubt it. Unless you've been to Shepherd."
"I was there a few years ago."
I think we may have rolled some Read a Person rolls here and I'm pretty sure Max failed.
Max moved close to Switch. "When? Did you talk to anyone there?"
Switch's eyes flicked behind the strange woman where a small figure pulled a knife from Max's boot holster.
Max read the glance and spun, a knife flying from her hand. It lodged in the child's thigh.
Switch looked on in horror as Max strode over to the child and retrieved both blades.
"Mine," she told the boy.
"What the hell is going on!" the shop keeper shouted.
Max shrugged and walked off.
Max has issues.
Across the street, Midnight led some of his fan club into the local saloon. Fans turned slowly overhead, reducing the sweltering climate to merely miserable.
"Okay let's put up some posters," Midnight said to Foster.
The busty woman with a homemade Midnight Storm T-shirt coughed. "I think they might already heard of you."
Midnight's fans crowded the bar, filling their appetites with the local booze.
"One at a fucking time," the elderly bartender shouted.
The old man looked like he had more skin than meat on him but as he reached under the bar Midnight sprang into action. He pushed up to the bar and said, "sorry for the ruckus. They haven't had a beer in two weeks you know. I'll cover their tab."
Midnight disarms the situation. In some recently redsicovered notes, I found that he actually used Manipulated a Person with a 12+. The barkeeper is now no longer a threat and is an Ally: Confidant.
"Fine." The bartender grabbed some mugs. "I guess. Name's Crank."
"Nice to meet you Crank. I'm Midnight Storm. Actually I was hoping to perform in town while I was here. Got any favorite songs?"
Midnight quizzed him about the local music tastes. Meanwhile his fans slaked their thirsts as best they could.
A chain link fence separated King's complex from Tradeport. The air around it hummed, leaving only a single guard post as an entrance.
"We are here to see King," Switch told the guards. "Bluejay sent us."
The older guard, a dark-haired man in a gray uniform nodded. "This way."
Manfred and Switch followed him into the large geodesic structure dominating the complex. After passing through an air lock, they entered a well-appointed chamber. Water gurgled down a small water fall into a central pool, surrounded by cushy golden couches.
An ancient man perched atop one of these couches. Liver spots covered his thin skin and age rendered his hands into gnarled sticks. A bulky medical robot loomed nearby, mounted on treads.
"So you have something for me?" he rasped.
"Yes, ah, King," Switch said.
Manfred put the heavy red suitcase down.
"So Bluejay kept his part of the bargain. Excellent." King smiled and motioned with one hand. A pair of men in gray uniforms moved forward from an alcove and carried the suitcase off. "Thanks for delivering this to me. Please, would you like something to drink? Whiskey?"
Manfred looked at Switch but she said, "No thank you."
"Your outfit, you are a performer?"
"Yes, I run the Carnival. We do acrobatic shows, displays of strength, and show oddities of nature."
"I do love acrobatics. Perhaps I could entice you to perform for me? Before you go?"
"Well we really need to be going soon."
"My men need to verify the contents of that suitcase. Bluejay will want to know if he really has purchased my help. You might as well make some money while you wait for my answer."
"My job was just to deliver it. He didn't ask for an answer. If you give me a receipt for the delivery that's fine by me. I'll get out of your way and Bluejay will send someone else for his answer."
Switch Manipulates a Person and gets a 12+. Thanks to Midnight's Radiant move, King is now an ally. So much for that threat.
Next time new threats: a wolf of the maelstrom, a sanke and the dreaded kikamora.
No comments:
Post a Comment