Suihkulahde: Session Six

So we're still in the time loop introduced at the end of session four. Anneli and Nomi had fooled the Redoubt into accepting a new prophecy. In session two Anneli had been assaulted by a mysterious creature and Leviathan, an entity never before seen by the rest of the world. My pitch was that both Anneli and Nomi wound up in the water this time, as Leviathan attempted to corrupt the both of them. So I had both the players draft up Beliefs about regrets that the PCs had so far; they would be the weapons Leviathan would use against them.

Anneli

Beliefs

Giving aid to the corrupt Aloysius was my greatest shame, and I have not redeemed myself.

When I failed to see through Nomi's treachery, I failed Fingar and Thungl.

This human spirit has tormented me enough; I will cut her loose, somehow.

Instincts

Never reveal my intentions.

Always take command.

Always give Nomi a space to speak.

Traits

Call of the Island, Righteous, Mortally Wounded in the Head, Shaky Hands, Slightly Clumsy, Haunted, Commanding Aura, Driven (Pilot)

Nomi

Beliefs

I refuse to helplessly let Constantine die, and lose him all over again; I will not waste any opportunity to find a way to change the course of events

This child meant the continuation of hope not just for his Empire but for Constantine himself; I may never have planned to do this or have any idea what to do, all I know is that I will do anything to protect that hope. 

Grieving may be necessary someday but it doesn’t get things done.

Instincts

Always bend the truth for personal advantage

When in trouble always try to talk my way out first

Always disregard others’ personal feelings

Traits

Educated, Call of the Sea, Spite, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Callous, Charismatic, Memory’s Influence, Bitter, Guarded

The trip had gone as before, more or less... until the monster showed up. A naked woman, standing atop a pair of jaws that were impossibly large. Anneli and Nomi were knocked overboard. They were now both in that pitch darkness. They saw the lights below. Andy and Lena wanted to know what their parameters were. Were they in water? And if they were, how on earth were they breathing? I said they were And then the ghost appeared next to them. Anneli asked the ghost why she wouldn't she was still around. But the ghost protested, that Anneli wouldn't let her go. Nomi saw that Anneli was holding a chain, which was attached to the ghost. Nomi tried to point this out to Anneli. Andy rolled Perception for Anneli.... and failed it. Anneli saw a manacle around dail wrist and couldn't be convinced otherwise.

Constantine, Nomi's dead human husband, appeared, telling Anneli that the prostitute wasn't the only person Anneli was responsible for. Nomi demanded to know what that meant. Constantine, blood coming out of his mouth, told Nomi that Anneli had let Aloysius, the man who had killed him and staged the coup, walk free. That they had been friends at one point, even! Nomi tried to swim tackle Anneli. Power versus Power was rolled, which Andy won. So Anneli yanked Nomi as dai charged, pushing dai off to the side. Nomi screamed that Anneli's cowardice had costed Nomi and the Argentum Empire. Nomi described the night Constantine had died. Nomi had been scared of the pregnancy, of being Empress of the Argentum Empire. But Constantine saw this differently. So many of his family had died. Constantine was the youngest of seven, he had never intended to be Emperor. But here they were. And there was this baby. And Constantine couldn't be happier about it. Someone raised an alarm. And then Aloysius ran in and stabbed Constantine, right in front of  Nomi. Anneli shot back that that couldn't be dai's fault, dai was trying to not be like Nomi and dail ilk! Nomi responded said that was hollow nonsense; Anneli chose to see the world in black and white and refused to bend. Anneli asked why Constantine hadn't killed Aloysius himself, and Constantine said he couldn't find Aloysius because Anneli had made sure he was allowed to walk free! 

Now while all that was going on something in the back of my head kept telling me to ask for a roll. But I resisted. Andy and Lena were just tearing into each other and I interjected every once in a while when it made sense. They seemed to be more than happy to just rip into each other and I had only wished I had popcorn. And so I just sat back and listened.

All of a sudden Andy and Lena were asking for a roll. They wanted to move on. Okay, no problem! I told them they weren't really arguing so much as just trying to break the other sibling. If they were orcs I would have had a better idea of a skill, but these were elves! So I suggested opposing Will tests. Andy and Lena agreed.

Andy failed. Badly.

Anneli couldn't hold up to Nomi's and Constantine's verbal onslaught. Sinking down, Anneli found dailself apologizing, over and over. "You. Owe. Me." said Nomi. And Anneli agreed. They were going to save Constantine. He wasn't dead, not in this timeline, not yet. Anneli asked how they were going to do that, and Constantine said to follow him... into the jaws of Leviathan. Anneli lagged behind, trying to convince Nomi to turn back, to find another way to save Constantine. Nomi scoffed, telling Anneli seeing the world in black and white was what got them into this situation in the first place. Anneli was too rigid.

But even Nomi felt wary; dai realized it was impossibly large jaws they were descending into; that was no canyon! But Constantine assured Nomi that Leviathan was darkness itself, and that darkness was everywhere. They would get to where they needed with Leviathan's help. Nomi didn't know what else to do, so down dai went.

Anneli yelled at the prostitute to go down and save Nomi. The prostitute told Anneli dai was holding onto her and therefore she couldn't. Anneli finally saw the chain was held by dai, not the ghost. I had Andy roll another Perception check, as Let it Ride didn't seem to apply here. Yay for successes! Anneli finally saw the chain was held by dai, not the ghost. Anneli tried to release the ghost and found dai had somehow wrapped the chain around dail arm, shortening the lead.

Now, those of you who don't know Andy like I do don't know this, but Andy has this shrug and a head tilt when he decides that enough is enough. Occasionally there's a chuckle. Now, we play over the phone, so I couldn't see the shrug.

But I heard it.

Anneli grabbed the chain and swung the ghost straight into the back of Nomi's head. Lena rolled Steel, with a +5 obstacle to hesitation because it was a freaking spirit.... and failed for eight freaking heartbeats. Lena and I laughed our asses off.

Anneli grabbed Nomi by the scruff of dail neck and began to swim upward, apologizing for what was happening but dai wasn't going to try to save Constantine that way. A hand reached down from above and began to help Anneli pull.

It was an angel.

No, not a cute little cherub. An Old Testament, piss in your pants angel. You better believe Andy failed that Steel roll. Anneli fled.

Nomi came to to find an angel holding dail hand. Yup, Lena failed that Steel roll too! The angel told Nomi that the Emperor of the Restored Argentum Empire forbade Nomi from Trying to make a deal with Leviathan; the Emperor didn't want to lose his mother, too. It took Nomi a minute to understand.. .and then dai's hands went to dail belly. The angel confirmed.

Anneli, who was above them, could hear every word in dail head. Anneli looked down; Nomi's stomach glowed. The angel shone with the same light.

The angel vanished in a blink.

And then they were next to the Felicitas, being told by the crew to grab onto the extended pole before them, sot 

Dinogenesis Review

 

Right after playing with John I posted this on the Facebook:

"On turn two of Dinogenics John turned to me and asked who else I was going to kill. 

You see, I'd gotten a T-Rex on turn one but hadn't bothered to get the fence to keep him in. He ate some folks. It was a thing in the news. 

Which I covered up.

And I got a huge advantage from the whole debacle, as that T-Rex helped me dramatically throughout the rest of the game. All because of a few eaten schoolchildren.

Yes, school children. John and I couldn't have been laughing harder.

I'm a bad person. I don't care. This game is great"

But a few caveats are in order. This is not a rules-light game. There is a ton of information to process, all of it crucial, and a good deal of it are exceptions to the “normal” rules. The game does not attempt to hold your hand, although it does throw out not-so-subtle hints that being an immoral jerk is going to get you what you want. It merely tells you what's probably the best general way to go about winning... and that's it. 

By the time John and I got done we knew we'd missed a lot, and that was alright with us. We had a ton of fun, laughing for the entirety of our playthrough. But we both acknowledged we'd hardly played the game to its fullest potential. The immediate reason why we didn't in our first playthrough is obvious: there are hundreds of cards and buildings,  more than a few dinosaurs with a couple of stats on them... and it's all very small. That may be my only real complaint, honestly. There's a ton of information on these things and they're quite small, to begin with. So you have to be committed to learning each of these little bits of cardboard that are only a bit larger than my thumb. But these little buildings and the cards and whatnot are potent; once John figured out how powerful they could be he narrowed my lead from thirty points to nine, in two of the seven rounds this game exists in. I looked down at my own stuff and realized I could have been pulling similar shenanigans. 

Fortunately the core gameplay loop is a lot of fun. After you're done bringing in visitors to your park you get to place your workers in differing areas of "the mainland", which let you do various actions. There's just never enough spaces to put stuff down, particularly the space that lets you get rid of scandal tokens, which you can get for a bunch of different things but principally from letting your dinosaurs eat people. Well, that and raiding the boneyard, but we're not talking about that here. The point is, there's not enough spaces, which means going first is crucial. You go first by your reputation score, which is generated by having dinosaurs and buildings. Do not. Do NOT. Forget the buildings. John  and I did, only to find that John focusing on buying and purchasing buildings closed my lead by a significant gap. I still won, but I won by 9 points, not 30. 

This game feels huge. Yuge. John and I knew we had missed the vast majority of the game, but the theme, rules we did get right, and the sheer amount of laughter we had over the dying screams of school children sold the both of us pretty damn hard. Looking up the rules afterwards and realizing that we screwed up a lot we were relieved to discover that my win was still legitimate, more or less; we managed to recognize the game's core, even if we got a lot of the details wrong.

There are solo scenario rules in this book. I've tried one of them and found it to be fun, although not to the same extent. I've not played the others, so I can't speak to them, but that satisfaction of laying out that park is still there. It's so cool to see the fences and dinos and your park... you just can't really deny how freaking close the theme is.

Suihkulahde: Session Five

So Andy and Lena had been handed an odd situation: they had been returned to right before Session One of the campaign. Fingar and Thungal were alive, as was Fish, who didn't have his wound.

Anneli

Beliefs

The world is ending; I will create a prophecy to fulfill.

I don't know why I've returned to this moment, but this time, it will not end in blood and hatred.

It's not safe to trust Nomi with the events to come; dai can only know as much as is necessary.

Instincts

Never show uncertainty.

Always take command.

Always give Nomi a space to speak.

Traits

Call of the Island

Righteous

Mortally Wounded in the Head | Shaky Hands | Slightly Clumsy

Haunted

Commanding Aura

Driven (Pilot)

Nomi

Beliefs

Confusion is an opportunity to turn the situation more to my advantage.

Anneli cannot be trusted to be forthcoming with information yet seems to know more than just our shared memory; focusing on her tells and actions may help me work out the situation.

Grieving just prevents you from taking actions to get things done.

Instincts:

Always bend the truth for personal advantage

When in trouble always try to talk my way out first

Always disregard others’ personal feelings

Traits:

Educated

Call of the Sea

Spite

Deceptive

Compulsive Liar

Callous

Charismatic

Memory’s Influence

Bitter

Guarded

 I asked Andy what Anneli would do. Andy told me Anneli was going to try to play off the sudden shock so that Nomi wouldn't know that dai knew. They rolled it and Lena chuckled; Nomi had won by a landslide. So now Nomi knew that Anneli was lying. 

Anneli noticed Fingar and Thungal standing off to the side, scheming. Once they were done and had split up Anneli struck up a conversation with Fingar they discussed Nomi being on the Felicitas. Anneli could see there was a confusion deep within Fingar about how Nomi managed to wind up on the boat with them. Anneli tried to lie, telling Fingar that Marian had sent Nomi to them, back before they left. Didn't he remember? Nomi stepped in, agreeing with Anneli's lie, even showing Sydanelma as proof. 

But Fingar resisted, eyes glazing and staring, far away. So Lena decided to use the skill song Twisted Tongue, which allowed her to open-end a social skill. Given Nomi's gray Will and history with lying, Lena rolled to open-end Falsehood. Nomi sang the song softly, giving Anneli the shivers and causing Fingar to completely phase out for a moment. Nomi wove Anneli's lie far more skillfully, forcing Fingar to accept what Anneli had been trying to say. Fingar walked away, trying to rectify everything. Anneli let slip that this wasn't like before. Nomi didn't press the point, but hung back.

When the Felicitas got to the island the cultists came out to greet them, just like before. Anneli stepped forward to deal with the elder two cultists. Nomi was excited to see that Aloysio was there, and had no memory of seeing them. So Nomi immediately to work, making nice with Aloysio, who was quite happy that a beautiful elven lady was hanging on his every word! Aloysio began to tell Nomi about the island, how Dal the Builder, an elven mason and architect, was responsible for a string of these elven structures acrost the sea. The timeline didn't add up to Nomi, who had been alive before the Ring of Tears had formed in the atmosphere: no elf was in this ocean at the point Aloysio was talking about. But dai played along, being as charming as dai could. Anneli and Nomi both noticed that Aloysio's explanation elicited derision and sarcasm from his elder compatriots. Brutus came up to Anneli and quietly told dai about how the sun should have been up a half hour ago. Anneli made a remark about how dai expected that, which confused Brutus.

And then Anneli saw Thungal staring at Nomi making nice with Aloysio. Thungal began to get that same look on dai's face, same as Fingar. Anneli took Thungal aside and tried to get dai to focus on the moment, that Anneli didn't like that Nomi was being all nice to Aloysio either, but they were here and-

Oh you just know Andy failed the Soothing Platitudes roll!

Thungal's eyes went blank. Literally blank. 

They came back bloodshot.

Thungal's screech could be heard all the way down the beach. Anneli began pleading the cultists for help, that Thungal was clearly not well. Nomi made a "concerned" comment about how Thungal was having trouble again to Aloysio, which caused everyone to bust out laughing. Thungal went quietly suddenly, and then told Anneli that dai remembered everything. And that Anneli was a monster for sparing Nomi. Anneli said that Thungal could complain all dai liked, but dai was alive. And that was more than enough. As the cultists picked dai up Thungal remarked dai wasn't so sure.

Brutus confirmed to Anneli that the sun really wasn't coming up. Desperate, Anneli went over to Nomi... and told her everything, in Elvish, so that Aloysio couldn't understand. This was a moldbreaker moment, as Anneli spilled dai's guts about everything that had happened before: how the sun hadn't come up, how that caused a panic on the island, and how the cultists had tried to kill Anneli to fulfill their prophecy about how the sun was coming back. The sisters needed to band together.

 When they got to the castle Aloysio took Anneli and Nomi aside. he said that he trusted Nomi and felt this odd connection to Anneli. But Aloysio knew he was odd. He'd had a vision from drinking from the fountain in the courtyard (which was heartbreakingly beautiful elven make). As far as the Redoubt Cult was concerned they were the only facility Dal the Builder has constructed. But Aloysio's vision showed this not to be the case: Dal the builder had made a whole string of complexes acrost the seas. He'd been blackmarked by the rest of the cult for having these views. And Aloysio needed to see if his vision was correct. He needed to leave, and he somehow knew, felt, that his destiny was with Anneli and Nomi. The two sisters looked at each other a moment. Nomi couldn't help dailself. Neither could Anneli. Anneli told Aloysio to get familiar with the rest of the crew. They had a prophecy to go make up.

Anneli stood next to the fountain and shouted to get everyone's attention. Anneli told them the stars had vanished. But that they could, would, had to fix it. The crowd muttered blasphemy. So Nomi drew Sydanelma and dai Anneli up. Nomi declared a new time had come, the time Dal the Builder had built this structure for in the first place. But they would need help to return the light.

They were met with wild applause

The First Go Around on the Solar Cycle

 

Aesthetics is the height of morality. If you want to know who a person is ask them what their favorite bits of media are, and you'll get a very good idea of what it is they think moral. And for the most part this is fine. We read things that help us find meaning in a world that can be very difficult to navigate, sticking to them because they help us inform what to find joy, and thus meaning, in. It is pleasurable to rest in our ideas of how the world works.

But pleasure is not enough. We like it, but ultimately pleasure stifles us and helps create addiction. One must challenge oneself with things that are beyond taste. And that's what I think classics are for. Books that are inherently hard to read because they're not out to tell some plot about people going and doing the things, but are intrinsically honest to the point of discomfort. Meeting people will always shatter your expectations of reality. And that's ultimately what a classic is: it's a person, coded into written form. Some of these books get collected up into the canon of humanity that we've put together and get passed down, sometimes to referred to as Great Books.

I don't know if The Solar Cycle will ever be counted amongst that number for the rest of humanity, but it sure has been a classic to me. While it has said a lot of things that I agree with, and while I do find it enjoyable, every last book of the Solar Cycle has pushed me, forced me to re-examine my beliefs, to ask what it really means to be a human being, what being good and evil truly are, and even what the nature of reality is. And, similar to the other classics I've read, I've found that I developed a relationship with the books the way one does with a person. But, unlike most classics, The Solar Cycle has made me uncomfortable because it has told me that what I had already suspected wasn't even the half of it. That, instead of being insane, I was timid. 

That's not a word that usually gets thrown at me. And the Solar Cycle throws it at me often. I am timid for seeing what I've seen and not saying it louder. That the paradox that is reality needs to be pushed louder, harder. That to be confounded is the result of true perception. To see even a little bit of the world is to break your mind.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this news. I kinda figured I was in everyone's face as it was, but that's not really what's being asked by the books, now is it? This book doesn't fight or scream or tell people they're wrong. No, the book just presents the paradox. And asks for you to either take it or leave it. And I suck, so very badly, at that. 

So much of the world makes very little sense. It's not that the world in abstract doesn't have some sort of sense to it, only that we cannot predict what we're going to run into. It's always a question of what we're going to do with what we understand, and what we'll do when it turns out we were wrong. And we are always, always, always wrong. The world is a far more compassionately ruthless place than could ever imagine. God is kind and cruel in equal measure.

And without embracing that paradox no one will ever be their own, truly paradoxical, selves.

Damn skippy I'm rereading it. I may never find anything like this, ever again.

Perfection and Idealizing

Suihkulahde: Session Four

So it was actually a few weeks between Session Three and Four. During that time I had some time to think... and that can be a dangerous thing for a dude like me. I've always been the dude who will come up with grand and sweeping plans within moments, if left alone for any appreciable amount of time. So you know this session is going to have weird crap in it: my friends left me to my own devices too long. I mean, y''all know I'm gonna go back to Wolfe, and I got some time to look at a lot more Jewish mythology and all sorts of other things. This is recipe for disaster.

Yes, I'm blaming Andy and Lena for this. I'm an adult. I know when someone else is to blame. That's how that works!

Yup!

Anyway, I pitched that Thungal and Fingar would not let Nomi on the boat. Back in the days of the campaign Sabina's Castle Nomi had not just captured Thungal, but had tortured dai, trying to get dai to become a dark elf. Fingar had rescued Thungal from that fate. Ships are cramped places. Not a good place to put all three of them. I also threw at Lena that Nomi had a vision of dail friend, Mikansia, invited dai to the Island, as a proper member of The Council, putting Nomi on even footing with Anneli.

And this is what I got back!

Nomi

B1 I fought for the opportunity to fix the Ring for centuries- now I have the chance to do it and take out Aloysius for what he's done. The invitation doesn't come with the thrill I expected. But I am not letting anything stop me from getting on that boat.

For the record, that is the only Belief I've ever told Lena to make longer. Normally I have to make her cut and cut and cut. She was shocked. I'll never hear the end of it.

B2 I've no idea how to address our complicated history, but I don't want to Anneli further.

B3 Grieving just prevents you from taking action to get things done.

I1 Never attack Anneli.

I2 When in trouble talk my way out.

I3 Always disregard other's personal feelings.

CTs: Educated, Call of the Void, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Callous, Charismatic, Bitter, Guarded, Memory's Influence

DTs: Spite, Pregnant

Anneli

B1 The world is ending; the prophecy is our only hope.

B2 We're stuck with Nomi; I will force this situation to work if I have to.

B3 Nomi knows something about these strange events. I will learn everything I can from my sibling.

I1 never show uncertainty.

I2 Always take command.

I3 Always cover for Aloysio

CTs: Call of the Island, Righteous

DTs: Mortal Wound to the Head (Perception Cap lowered), Shaky Hands (Agility), Slightly Clumsy (Speed)

Haunted: Whenever Anneli fails a check dail must roll Steel: failing means that the human prostitute ghost who's haunting dai takes over for a section of time equal to the margin of failure

Commanding Aura

C-Os: Driven (Pilot)

During the appearance of the light pulses from last session, Nomi had a vision of Mikansia, inviting dai to the Island as a full member of the Council; Sydanelma, Mikansia's former sword, was the invitation to the Island.

The next morning Nomi and Anneli found their entrance to the Felicitas blocked by Thungal and Fingar. They told Anneli that Nomi was not welcome on the ship. Anneli was confused, as dai had given the order otherwise. But to Thungal and Fingar it was a question of morality, something higher than lawful command. Nomi had tortured Thungal and had betrayed countless souls. Nomi said that was awhile ago, that dai had changed. Thungal yanked dai shirt off: dail breasts had been mostly hacked off, with horrible scars all over dail torso. Nomi gripped Sydanelma's hilt and declare that dai was invited to The Island, courtesy of that sword. Anneli didn't believe Nomi at first. And Andy really enjoyed playing up Anneli's confusion. However the heck Nomi, former agent of the vile Lone Keep, had gotten invited to The Island was something Anneli couldn't just accept. But Nomi finally got through, and Anneli had to see that it was true. I had Andy make a Steel test, which of course was failed. Thungal and Fingar drew their weapons, ready to kill. A failed Steel test from Anneli, of course, heralded the coming of the ghost that possessed dai.

The prostitute took one look at the armed elves and fled.

We sat down and worked out the Fight! to come. I mean, it concerned several Beliefs. Andy and Lena were a bit rusty on Fight! (who isn't), but after I drafted up my actions I helped them get their strategy together. Andy didn't help with the first Volley, since Anneli would be just getting back to dailself. So they set up that Nomi would block and then strike, with the knowledge that one strike from a grey shade sword could just end the fight right there. Feint, strike, and then a tackle were also scripted. I, of course, had scripted two strikes, back to back. So Thungal and Fingar jumped at Nomi, who blocked them with Sydanelma. I'd scripted Strike, so... yeah.... the question was whether or not Fingar and Thungal's  strikes would break through.

Nope.

Anneli came back to dailself in time to watch Nomi stab Thungal right through the forehead with gray-shaded Sydanelma. Fingar was already gutted. So Anneli sat down and cried. And then knocked Nomi over, demanding to know why they were dead. Aloysio tried to pull Anneli off of, so Anneli broke his nose with her elbow. Andy deliberately left an opening to see if Nomi could get back atop dail sister. And Nomi pulled it off. They yelled at each other a minute: Ugly Truth ("THEY WERE ATTACKING ME") versus Persuasion ("You didn't have to kill them!!"). And tied. I asked them if they wanted to try to break the tie. Lena and Andy declined. So Anneli and Nomi got up, shaken up by what the other said, while still believing they were in the right.

Remus, who had lost many friends to Nomi, lay unconscious nearby. His blade lay on the sand, a few feet away. His friend Brutus stood over him. Anneli said Brutus had better have knocked out Remus for a good reason. "No one should be stabbed in the back. I don't care who it is", said Brutus. Aloysius tried to complain about his broken nose. Anneli told him to shut up and walk it off.

Lena said Nomi would be proud, that they were sisters after all! We all laughed, and I asked if that was said in character. Lena said it was. Look, I don't get to hand out the Humor point all that often. I'll take it when it comes!

I wanted to end the session, so I asked if anyone had anything to else they wanted to do. Andy did. So Anneli asked Nomi what had changed. It hadn't been that long since Anneli had seen Nomi. Where did this ridiculously powerful sword come from? And what else did Nomi know? Dai had wept while the light was pulsing acrost the world. Wept. Nomi did not weep.  Lena refused to play along, however; Anneli had poked at Nomi's issues with showing feelings. Nomi refused to tell Anneli much of anything. I asked Andy if he wanted to push, and he declined.

Anneli and Nomi found themselves atop a mountain, watching as a man, surrounded by many humans, prepared to jump into a well. His little girl Marian, future Countess of Fire, begged her father not to jump. But jump he did. A man from the crowd held Marian as she screamed oaths of vengeance against the world. At ten. (Check out Revenge of the Countess of Fire if you want more context!)

And then they were back, on the Felicitas. Fingar and Thungal were alive. The stars still shone. And they were coming up to the cultist's island, from Session One.

Nomi was with them.