#to me tanking is only bad if the team is intentionally throwing games or messing with injury timelines to lose games and such

[erikkarlsson]

to all the sports “writers” mad that sharks winning the lottery proves that “tanking works,” i regret to inform you that this team actually tried very hard to win every game. they just suck.

[sepiadice]

3/19/2018: Oh, right, combat mechanics!

We’re getting a lot of sessions in in an alarmingly short time frame. It’s messing up my evenings. Got work early in the morning.

Sure, I could just skip a session, but then I’d miss the fun! And I couldn’t maintain my rigorous journalist ethics of reporting the events here, on this RPG blog no one follows.[1]

In other, tangential news before I actually get to the session report: Genesys. Seems like an interesting system. I bought the dice, and am resisting the urge to purchase the book itself until I know I’ve got players to test it with. From what I’ve read and hear second hand from Campaign Podcast, it has serious potential to dethrone GURPS in my heart.[2]

But first I want to try my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Set out. Then I’ll consider experimenting with Genesys.

Only time will tell.

Okay, enough distraction. Let’s summarize Session Three!

We begin with a small retcon concerning Rufus’s vanishment (there’s now ashes left behind),[3] then to our party standing on the beach.

We have a serious talk about our current motivations. Teddi and Solomon are in the ‘Don’t/can’t care about this lower world, let’s get home.’

Roseveil, a bard looking for a good story, is totally on board with seeing what’s with the new land.

Solomon compromised by suggesting the party explores the wreckage of the island we fell on and one of the craters on the way towards the general vicinity of where Golt is, for reasons explained last write-up.

As for immediate action, the party decided to go to the next town over, a place called Cherry.

Quick debate about whether we wanted to wade through the grabage sea or wait for the tank-sub drive (who is actually named Darren) to take us on his rounds in a few days so we won’t have to walk as far through the wastes.

Team immediate movement won out, and we walked to Cherry.

Cherry was a bunch of exciting events.

Entering, we’re given the options of a lighthouse, a church, a bungalow, and a library. Teddi, deciding she’s going on a subquest to collect all of Nicholas’s journal pages,[4] tries the library.

It’s a much smaller establishment than Julep’s, so Teddi finds nothing as Anaise steals the librarian’s fish. With such underwhelming results, the library team goes to wait for everyone else to return from the lighthouse and bungalow.

The lighthouse was much more exciting. First of all, climbing to the top gave those who climbed up the ability to see some unusual activity happening on the sea.[5]

Then, in the basement, were corpses of a bunch of merfolk, recognizable as the same as the blue guy we found on the beach last session. So that’s foreboding.

Those who went to the bungalow (I forgot who specifically went where)[6] return with more plot hooks: they got a drunk guy to take them to a prison under the mayor's house(? and met a jailed merfolk! There’s two submerged cities, and the one the prisoner’s from is being attacked by an evil earth elemental. So… that’s probably a good answer for who strangled the first merfolk we found.

Also, they found a random rogue lady named Lucy who comes from Alonzee, but an Alonzee that wasn’t a floating island, so that’s interesting.

Lucy easily gets out of her cell and agrees to join our group, but from a distance.

While the Bungalow faction updates the party, Lucy sneaks off and gets killed by a party of Worms.

Which is unfortunate. Lucy was one of the few leads we had.

The city guard collect her body and bring it to a building to investigate it. Teddi, Anais, and Rose sneak in to investigate themselves, but don’t really learn much new.

Gabe  checks outside the city walls, and sees an orcish man with two parasites on chains. Gabe attempts parlay, when an unseen Worm throws a dagger at him.

Combat ensues. Teddi does major damage to the two parasites, while two of the ‘Worms’ are felled by the rest of the team, a third taken hostage. Gabriel makes the final kill, and takes the man’s shortsword.

This is the first time Gabriel’s killed someone, and he throws up.[7]

The party bard, Rose, casts Charm Person on our captive, and there’s a short interrogation to learn why. Turns out, Worms are actually pretty feral people, and they killed Lucy for giggles.

Also, based on information gathering earlier in the session, most Worms are like the three we just fought, with one particularly insidiously intelligent Worm wandering about.[9]

Anyways, seeing as there was no ulterior motive to Lucy’s murder, the party discusses what to do with our prisoner.

Rose wants to kill him in fear of retaliation for Charming him, but everyone else refuses that idea. He’s tied up and no longer a threat, so killing him now would be unconscionable.

Turning him in to Cherry’s authorities would probably lead to a kangaroo court at best, but most likely the Worm would just be immediately executed.

After some convincing, Rose agrees to order the captive to walk away.

Then Gabriel retires to his tent to have a bad time processing having to kill someone.

Teddi patiently waits for a low point in his crying session before she enters the tent to talk Gabe through it.

Teddi is turning out to be a tough love sort of person. She’s not cruel or mean and sincerely wants to help, but she no reason to sugarcoat anything.

She’s clear that Gabe did start the fight by trying to confront the killers, but it was the Worms who escalated it to violence so he’s not to blame. Teddi calls on her experience as a criminal to note that killing[10] never gets easier, but the fallout Gabriel’s experiencing gets less severe.

Then she blatantly steals a bread roll or some other insubstantial object, waving it at Gabe and saying ‘I’m stealing this’ and walking away.

Y’know, as a quick goof to normalize the evening and move on.

While this is happening, the GM steps out with the two players who decided to investigate the church instead of fighting. In game, they’re gone for a long time, so Solomon and the nameless kid go to investigate.

At the church, Sol finds ash like that found in Rufus’s tent when he vanished and no sign of Anais and Silver (half-elf sorcerer). Examining a mirror inside the church, Solomon sees a man and a Tiefling in a loincloth looking back.

Solomon pulls out his own mirror and looks around the area, discovering that what’s in the mirror isn’t one-to-one with our reality.

Then, like what Dahlia did in the first session, a fold in reality opens briefly, Silver pokes her head out, then goes back behind it.

End of session!

Not much material for Teddi this time until she talks with Gabe, but that’s fine. Large group and Teddi got material last session.

Mysteries are mounting. Hopefully answers will be coming soon. Or, at least, Teddi gets home. Because it sucks down here.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

[1] Day I started writing this, someone tumblr-liked three of my anime CanvasReviews essays, which is an irregular event. [2] Considering GURPS is how I was introduced to the hobby over fifteen years ago and instilled a lot of my gaming values, that’s pretty major. [3] Which, in hindsight, the GM could’ve later handwaved as pine marten Anaise collapsing a tent on top of the evidence. [4] Have to get all the collectibles if you want the true ending! [5] I’ve forgotten what, specifically, but Teddi wasn’t there anyways, so it’s fine? [6] Lots of players. It blends together. Might even have events mixed up. [7] Probably a better reason than when Tybalt tossed cookies after being pulled off an airship.[8] [8] Still a good memory. When you can say ‘I need someone to push me off’ and have another player immediately take you up, you know you’ve got a good group dynamic. [9] Almost certainly Worm from session one. [10] I’m not sure if Teddi herself has killed anyone, but she’d never do so intentionally.