Impact!: Session Three

Folks, what the hell is going on with this game?? I knew I was going into something new, by handling orcs and doing a new race, but I didn't anticipate the story to throw me as much as it had. I've no idea what this story is. When I threw the pitch I thought I did. 

There's "boxes" I reach into when playing. What comes out I put before the players. Usually these boxes are congruous with the pitch; what's on the tin is generally what's inside. Sometimes there's surprises, but generally what's on in the tin is at the top of the box. That's not been the case for this game, at all. What I've reached into isn't just dark, but alien, to me. Let's see how that works out this session!

LAST TIME ON....

Idiota had tried to get away from Tekoshai, who traumatized Idiota and forced him to work with the orc. Krakeru, evil departed dark elf, gave them both a pair of gauntlets that could force someone out of their own body if punched. If both Tekoshai and Idiota held their hands to someone's head they'd be permanently exorcised from their own bodies and some... thing... would take over that body. And with the both of them now capable of hulling out elves, Krakeru sprung his trap: go to Kotae Mah and destabilize the hated elves.

When Will and Lena asked me what the situation this time was, I thought: "Well, why not keep doubling down on this whole civil war thing on Kotae Mah? Send Zaina, the crazy elf who eventually becomes Yetekaida?" Something about that felt wrong, but it was the logical spot to send them to, given how things worked out last session. I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know why, and I didn't know what.

Here's what they gave me.

Tekoshai

B1. Travel around the outskirts of this place to find lone elves to begin turning, cautiously building our numbers while avoiding much notice. 

The Goal Belief. Simple, to the point, and it helps set up the limits of the fiction. I don't buck Goal Beliefs too much. I like to try to have the players set the limits of the session, so that way they have at least some security. At this point I knew there'd be sneaking around.

B2. Idiota was too foolish to respect sensible strength, but propaganda may be the ring in his nose to lead him. 

This was a bit of an unexpected Belief. Tekoshai seems to have run into some wall or something; I'd never even heard a breath from Lena about Tekoshai being that reasonable. I mean, his version of reasonable, anyway.

B3. Those sun-burnt sky devils and their arrogant condescending bullshit deserve every ounce of hell and pain we can give them.

There's sometimes a player writes a Belief and I just bust out laughing reading it, because I can hear them saying it. This was definitely one of those! I had a good chuckle, hearing this in Lena's voice.

I1. If someone challenges the hierarchy, put him in his place immediately. 

Oh, this one was written for Will. I don't need to worry about this one.

I2. Elves are always tortured more slowly/painfully

So I'm always bad about challenging Instincts, or at least I feel like I am. This is one of those that's always fun to do.... if I remember. Three guesses on whether or not I did!

I3. Once you begin trying to break someone,  always follow through

Again, a fun one! Part of the issue with Instincts is that if you're not paying constant attention to them they don't come up a lot. And I have a real issue with using them. I need to. Cause guess if this one happened? Guess!

Traits: Life is Death, Born to Rule Them All, Enemy of the Sun, Silent Hatred, Intense Hatred, Savage Consequences, Unrelenting Savagery, Where There’s a Whip, Sixth Sense, Sadistic

Idiota

B1. The claim to my throne isn't here, I'm gonna try and sneaky away from here

Again, I don't tend to challenge the fiction on Goal Beliefs all that much. I probably should? But things can twist so much just on their own that I try not to push it, at least at first. Let the players have their initial security on the first few sessions.

B2. This place is creeping me out. I will leave Tekoshai to his own devices because he doesn't deserve my respect anyway

There's a lot of talk between us players about how the heck these characters are going to stay together. When I hear that talk I always, always urge to just write out what the character would want and let it solve itself during play. Because it always does, one way or another. So I told Will to let it play out.

B3. Find a way to take out the elves some other way, because elves are bastards

And this is the one I decided was not just the common point between Idiota and Tekoshai, but the one that needed subversion. Somehow. Elves aren't bastards, even if the common minotaur conception was that elves of some sort had poisoned their race and made them unable to breed.

I1. When I encounter any elf, I kill them

Deliberately written for Lena's benefit. I think I may start encouraging players to write Instincts to each other, not to me, because those are the ones that get artha a lot of the time! Not that that's an excuse, but it is something I'm noticing as I write these up.

I2. When Tekoshai whips out his whip cower in fear

Ooh, I like this one. It's a good sign of character growth... and it's directed at Lena. Not on my plate. Yay!

I3. Run from danger when possible

Again, this is a good character growth one. I like it when Instincts begin to change in reaction to play. Idiota's been traumatized, repeatedly, and has bitten off a lot more than he can chew. Like, a lot more. It's good to see stuff like this.

Traits: Elves are bastards, All talk and no bite, Mouthy

Will asked about the light wound he'd gotten from the last session. I had him roll and he recovered just fine. 

Zaina came down in an elven flying ship, landing atop The Lone Keep. Tekoshai found there to be no real... anything... in her eyes as she smiled at Krakeru, asking if these were the folks he'd told her to come pick up. Idiota, seeing an elf, made his jump... and was tripped by Tekoshai's spear. "Are we really going to do this again?" asked the exasperated Tekoshai, rolling his eyes.

Time for Will's instinct to go off! And time for Lena to block him! Laughing about how she was keeping Will alive, Lena's vastly superior dice pool swamped him. This was a pretty simple roll, cut and dry. There's not a whole lot more to it than that, beyond Will chuckling as he saw his artha coming.

Tekoshai told his orcs and his wolf Howling Wind that they were getting on Zaina's ship. The orcs murmured in protest; they weren't going to get on any elf's flying ship, no matter who led them!  Howling Wind told Tekoshai as much. Tekoshai gave a speech about the enemy of their enemy being our friends, along with a veiled threat about what would happen if they didn't get on that ship. Idiota tried to sneak away during the speech, but he was spotted quickly and brought back. Tekoshai beat Idiota back down, asking if anyone else wanted to do something that stupid again. The demonic elf that had been hollowed out last session had gotten in before any of them, ready for the inevitable carnage.

This was actually a Command check; Lena leveraged Tekoshai's connections, threw in an Intimidate FORK, and passed with flying colors. Will didn't even ask for a roll; he simply wanted to have it in the fiction just how much he was trying to get away.  Lena, laughing described beating up Will's character with great aplomb. 

But then Lena suddenly decided to take a different tack. 

Zaina steered the ship into the sky, toward Tekoshai sat down and had a long conversation with Idiota about why he was fighting all of this so hard. He hated the elves, what was wrong with what was going on here? Idiota responded that he was uncomfortable working with a dead elf to kill elves. That didn't add up to Idiota. Tekoshai chuckled; the irony wasn't lost on him. But they had a chance to strike a blow against the wicked elves. And that wasn't to be underestimated, no matter how uncomfortable that made them. And Idiota found himself agreeing with the orc.

 This was not an expected conversation. Tekoshai had hit a wall with Idiota... and realized that repeatedly bashing Idiota just wasn't working. What I didn't anticipate was how... gently it all went down. This orc. This freaking minotaur. Talking it out. There wasn't any real coercion, no lies, no bullying. Just two folks who were in a situation they didn't like, commiserating over it. There was a genuineness that none of us had really seen between the two characters up till this point. Something changed.

And it just felt so wrong to have them wreck elves after that. And I think Lena and Will felt that, too. 

Everything, at that moment, felt so wrong. Uncomfortably so.

Zaina, currently a general in the elven military, was able to get past the zone security with no issues at all; nobody even checked her ship! She dropped the party off on the edge of the city, just inside the wall. Idiota and Tekoshai were overwhelmed by the constant howling of the wind, the cold. Most of the elves were meditating quietly within their homes. Zaina said to get however many elves hollowed out as they wished and to meet back up with her. Idiota wanted to know what Zaina got out of this. Zaina explained that she wanted to "borrow" whatever forces they assembled long enough to kickstart the civil war on Kotae Mah; fifty hulled elves should do. That was all that Zaina needed. 

Lena and Will asked what type of skill they'd need to sneak around this "quiet elven twilight". I mean, there are still folks out and about. So it was more of an Inconspicuous roll, at least in my eyes. As I type it now I find myself thinking it should have been self, cause how the hell does a minotaur "blend in" with a freaking all elven city?? 

He doesn't.

I mean, to be fair, the players burned the artha necessary for them to pass the Beginner's Luck test; they passed. I made the wrong call, flat. Such is a life. I'll do what I can the next time.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Tekoshai and Idiota managed to hull out ten elves, enduring the screams, the brimstone, and that smile as the thing took over. But the tenth was different. He looked at Idiot and Tekoshai and declared they were familiar. The pair were confused, how could this hulled elf know them? The hulled elf said he was a demon from Herna, taking over an exiled elven body. Herna, and the demons within it, are outside the time of Heranyt. And this demon had seen Tekoshai and Idiota before; in the future, stopping the elf-hulled force. The other hulled elves bristled. So Tekoshai and Idiota held that particular elf down, and Tekoshai beat the elf body into oblivion. The evil gauntlets given them by Krakeru set the body alight. The hulled elves looked on in shock. And they backed up.

So this was a decidedly hilarious scene to set up. I presented this problem to the two of them. Lena immediately brought up Brutal Intimidation. She didn't want to out-argue a demon, she just wanted to make it clear who was still in charge of the situation. Will threw out a helping die with Intimidation.

There was a victory yell as the dice clattered on the table. Brutal Intimidation is amazing; it's freaking open-ended!

As they snuck around Tekoshai and Idiota began to hear voices, whispering soothing words of welcome to them. Nobody else seemed to hear it, but the hulled elves remarked they had to be near The Grotto, a mysterious forest that was inside Kotae Mah. Idiota saw a yellow-skinned figure retreat into an alleyway. So Idiota went after what he saw. And Tekoshai saw, so he followed, especially after the whispers called him a coward.

They were all of a sudden in a beautiful and peaceful forest. The sky was blue; Idiota and Tekoshai hadn't seen a blue sky in weeks and blinked in it. The gith came from behind a tree and told them they had work to do.

Sometimes it just makes sense to just... let things play out. No rolls, just a sort of meditation on the story. The narration. The turn into something that just... sorta came out. Lena and I had developed The Grotto from the Undertow. It was an element that came in at the end and I'd always wanted to explore it more. 

Turns out this seemed to be the moment to do so. We'll see what happens!

A sincere thanks to Will for taking notes during the session.