War of the Worlds
Sep. 8th, 2007 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothLast night we had a session of the Golden Compass themed Shadake game I'm trying to run. The kids were forced to interact extensively with the military, and somehow managed not to piss them off and get shot. Well, except for Tiki. Well, he wasn't *shot*.
The kids huddled at the treeline as Tiki crept off to scout -- obviously something he'd practiced, and he was much better at it than any of them... but not good enough. They heard what sounded like a gunshot (but which they realized was just as likely fireworks), and then some struggling and shouting, and then, faintly, 'We should send out patrols to see if there's anyone else skulking in the woods.'
"We're not skulking!" Eric shouted back, "We're friendly! Don't shoot!" The soldiers, after all, were easily recognizable as redcoats -- Englishmen in service to the Queen. Not enemies.
They were arrested anyway -- the soldiers weren't really sure what else to do with them, since they admitted they weren't local and weird things were happening. But they agreed to take them to see the commander instead of just dumping them in a cell.
Unfortunately, the senior officer -- a lieutenant, who was trained to run a platoon and not this entire brigade -- didn't really know what was happening either, and couldn't compare notes with the kids because he wasn't sure they weren't spies or something. They told him how to contact the Order and verify their identitity, so he agreed to do that, and had them put in a 'nice cell' (which was basically a tent with a single guard) and given leftovers from the mess, since he didn't think they looked like spies.
Meanwhile, patrols were sent out to search the woods for the airship the party had let slip they'd come in (well, actually, they might have just said 'ship', but they had come from the woods) but the soldiers didn't manage to find it. One patrol spotted Jana, but she just flew off and they weren't trigger-happy enough to randomly fire at some vague movement spotted in a tree.
At any rate, in the morning the lieutenant had verified their identity and had orders from headquarters -- they were either to try to link up with Brother Wren in Glasgow to fight specters, or report to the head office in Oxford. Hearing that Wren was alive, they immediately decided that they'd go to Glasgow. Plus, it was closer.
They also were able to get the soldiers' story at last -- they'd been able to figure out that they were recent draftees, but the real story was that they were the reserve brigade based in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis [in game I misremembered it as the Isle of Stevens, d'oh], the city near the Castle where they'd first fought the seals. They'd been unexpectedly called up to go do surprise drills in Scotland Proper... and then lost all contact with their superiors. And then other reports from other people had started coming in, about strange invaders rampaging all over the island. Given Tiki's heritage, it was obvious that there were old portals to Faerie on the island -- maybe this was an invasion from Faerie, repoening their mushroom rings and such after centuries of inactivity?
As a theological matter, of course the church had priority, so while the soldiers informed the kids that they didn't own the airship (even if the owner was dead, it would belong to his heirs and not the refugees who'd abandoned ship on board it) they would lend them a truck and driver to take them directly to Glasgow. So they went to get the bear and Jana, and did that.
Unfortunately, on the way to Glasgow they were stopped at a military checkpoint set up at an old fort, and their driver didn't have the proper travel papers, the Stornoway brigade not having heard anything about needing them... so they were all put in the stockade. Along with, it seemed, every other traveller who'd tried to come by that road that day -- hundreds of people.
The most interesting prisoner (note that this isn't saying much) was Mjollnir, a panzerbjorne who *hadn't* been living in a cave all his life, who had a talk with Bear and started teaching him the basic lore of his people, after testing his integrity. "He's telling the truth. That man's a spy. Those two are trapped in an unhappy marriage..."
The party blinked at the 'spy' thing, and examined him -- Caihong was able to spot that he had the weird energy pattern that he'd seen of certain people on the ship but never managed to figure out. There were two other people in the stockade with the weird energy pattern (or at least, *a* weird energy pattern) but there was nothing special about them that he or the bears could determine by just looking. He verified that the energy pattern was *not* a form of lie-detection, at least.
Anyway, having no evidence they didn't want to just accuse him, so they spent the day mostly waiting to be released. That night, while most everyone was asleep, Jana (who'd managed to stay up) saw something moving across the stars... which shot out beams of brilliant energy, blowing up the guard towers. As the soldiers started firing randomly into the night (not seeing the attacker, which was swift and silent) one of the strange spider-robots she'd seen glided smoothly down to land in the stockade... and the spy started running towards it.
The rest of the party, awoken by the explosions and gunshots (EVERYONE was awake by then) decided to try to stop the spy. Eric interposed himself, then he and Caihong wrestled with the spy to keep him from getting to the ship while Taegan worked on unchaining Jana's wings. Eric and Caihong did manage to dislodge the spy from the ship's wings, but Eric ended up clinging to its leg instead as it rose swiftly into the air...
The leg folded and deposited Eric inside through a hatch in the bottom. "You have to be more careful, John. I really shouldn't have come to extract you, this could blow the whole mission," said the pilot, who couldn't see Eric yet because of the seat back, while his daemon was apparently asleep, wired to the control console of the ship for some reason.
Eric decided that this was obviously one of the enemy, so he snuck up and reached around to try to strangle him from behind. He was winning, but the fight was cut short when Jana caught up with the ship and wriggled in through the hatch (it was still half open when Eric started distracting the pilot), and planted her sword in the pilot's chest, killing him instantly. His daemon evaporated, and the ship started falling...
Not freefalling, though. Eric had time to hook his own daemon (which had already been in position as a boa constrictor trying to squeeze the other daemon anyway) up to the machine and grab the controls. That stopped the falling, but... well... now what?
He couldn't figure out how to fly it -- the controls didn't move, and he didn't want to let go of them to start hitting random buttons, which didn't look much like flight controls anyway -- but by releasing and regripping the control handles, he was able to crash lightly into the side of a hill.
So he ran back to the camp, while Jana was left to guard the spider-robot. He was shot at a few times before managing to surrender, but when he told them about the captured ship, that was tempting enough that they sent him out with a platoon of soldiers to secure it. Unfortunately, by the time they got back, the enemy had sent another ship to secure the first one as well, and it disintegrated two of the soldiers before they all managed to take cover under the ship.
"Wait, I recognize this," one of the soldiers said, looking inside, "It looks like an intention craft! I can probably fly it!"
And, well, he could, just not very well. There was a midair duel, in which the enemy ship managed to shear off their legs and then start firing beams through the passenger cabin. Eric took over as pilot ("Just think what you want it to do!") and crashed them into the middle of the army camp, where everyone started piling out while he traded a few more beams with the enemy ship, which was now distracted by bullets pinging off its armor.
So Jana flew up and smashed open the cockpit with her sword, while Eric put everything he had into one final shot. Jana had time to see that it was piloted by a young girl before she was disintegrated. The pilotless (and now unpilotable, as the controls were fried) intention craft drifted slowly into the side of another hill, and burst into flames.
But the kids had proved their loyalty to the soldiers' satisfaction, and when they mentioned the spy, Caihong and the bear were released from custody -- the spy, who they'd managed to tackle, had fast-talked the soldiers well enough to get EVERYONE arrested (well, MORE arrested, and more to the point interrogated).
Taegan told them he thought he might be able to fix the nearly-wrecked craft Eric had been piloting, so they put it on a larger truck (along with the kids) and sent them on to their military base at Glasgow, with papers this time. Including 'allied nonhuman' papers for the bear and Jana, which annoyed her since she was as human as anyone else, even if she did have wings.
last session | next session
The kids huddled at the treeline as Tiki crept off to scout -- obviously something he'd practiced, and he was much better at it than any of them... but not good enough. They heard what sounded like a gunshot (but which they realized was just as likely fireworks), and then some struggling and shouting, and then, faintly, 'We should send out patrols to see if there's anyone else skulking in the woods.'
"We're not skulking!" Eric shouted back, "We're friendly! Don't shoot!" The soldiers, after all, were easily recognizable as redcoats -- Englishmen in service to the Queen. Not enemies.
They were arrested anyway -- the soldiers weren't really sure what else to do with them, since they admitted they weren't local and weird things were happening. But they agreed to take them to see the commander instead of just dumping them in a cell.
Unfortunately, the senior officer -- a lieutenant, who was trained to run a platoon and not this entire brigade -- didn't really know what was happening either, and couldn't compare notes with the kids because he wasn't sure they weren't spies or something. They told him how to contact the Order and verify their identitity, so he agreed to do that, and had them put in a 'nice cell' (which was basically a tent with a single guard) and given leftovers from the mess, since he didn't think they looked like spies.
Meanwhile, patrols were sent out to search the woods for the airship the party had let slip they'd come in (well, actually, they might have just said 'ship', but they had come from the woods) but the soldiers didn't manage to find it. One patrol spotted Jana, but she just flew off and they weren't trigger-happy enough to randomly fire at some vague movement spotted in a tree.
At any rate, in the morning the lieutenant had verified their identity and had orders from headquarters -- they were either to try to link up with Brother Wren in Glasgow to fight specters, or report to the head office in Oxford. Hearing that Wren was alive, they immediately decided that they'd go to Glasgow. Plus, it was closer.
They also were able to get the soldiers' story at last -- they'd been able to figure out that they were recent draftees, but the real story was that they were the reserve brigade based in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis [in game I misremembered it as the Isle of Stevens, d'oh], the city near the Castle where they'd first fought the seals. They'd been unexpectedly called up to go do surprise drills in Scotland Proper... and then lost all contact with their superiors. And then other reports from other people had started coming in, about strange invaders rampaging all over the island. Given Tiki's heritage, it was obvious that there were old portals to Faerie on the island -- maybe this was an invasion from Faerie, repoening their mushroom rings and such after centuries of inactivity?
As a theological matter, of course the church had priority, so while the soldiers informed the kids that they didn't own the airship (even if the owner was dead, it would belong to his heirs and not the refugees who'd abandoned ship on board it) they would lend them a truck and driver to take them directly to Glasgow. So they went to get the bear and Jana, and did that.
Unfortunately, on the way to Glasgow they were stopped at a military checkpoint set up at an old fort, and their driver didn't have the proper travel papers, the Stornoway brigade not having heard anything about needing them... so they were all put in the stockade. Along with, it seemed, every other traveller who'd tried to come by that road that day -- hundreds of people.
The most interesting prisoner (note that this isn't saying much) was Mjollnir, a panzerbjorne who *hadn't* been living in a cave all his life, who had a talk with Bear and started teaching him the basic lore of his people, after testing his integrity. "He's telling the truth. That man's a spy. Those two are trapped in an unhappy marriage..."
The party blinked at the 'spy' thing, and examined him -- Caihong was able to spot that he had the weird energy pattern that he'd seen of certain people on the ship but never managed to figure out. There were two other people in the stockade with the weird energy pattern (or at least, *a* weird energy pattern) but there was nothing special about them that he or the bears could determine by just looking. He verified that the energy pattern was *not* a form of lie-detection, at least.
Anyway, having no evidence they didn't want to just accuse him, so they spent the day mostly waiting to be released. That night, while most everyone was asleep, Jana (who'd managed to stay up) saw something moving across the stars... which shot out beams of brilliant energy, blowing up the guard towers. As the soldiers started firing randomly into the night (not seeing the attacker, which was swift and silent) one of the strange spider-robots she'd seen glided smoothly down to land in the stockade... and the spy started running towards it.
The rest of the party, awoken by the explosions and gunshots (EVERYONE was awake by then) decided to try to stop the spy. Eric interposed himself, then he and Caihong wrestled with the spy to keep him from getting to the ship while Taegan worked on unchaining Jana's wings. Eric and Caihong did manage to dislodge the spy from the ship's wings, but Eric ended up clinging to its leg instead as it rose swiftly into the air...
The leg folded and deposited Eric inside through a hatch in the bottom. "You have to be more careful, John. I really shouldn't have come to extract you, this could blow the whole mission," said the pilot, who couldn't see Eric yet because of the seat back, while his daemon was apparently asleep, wired to the control console of the ship for some reason.
Eric decided that this was obviously one of the enemy, so he snuck up and reached around to try to strangle him from behind. He was winning, but the fight was cut short when Jana caught up with the ship and wriggled in through the hatch (it was still half open when Eric started distracting the pilot), and planted her sword in the pilot's chest, killing him instantly. His daemon evaporated, and the ship started falling...
Not freefalling, though. Eric had time to hook his own daemon (which had already been in position as a boa constrictor trying to squeeze the other daemon anyway) up to the machine and grab the controls. That stopped the falling, but... well... now what?
He couldn't figure out how to fly it -- the controls didn't move, and he didn't want to let go of them to start hitting random buttons, which didn't look much like flight controls anyway -- but by releasing and regripping the control handles, he was able to crash lightly into the side of a hill.
So he ran back to the camp, while Jana was left to guard the spider-robot. He was shot at a few times before managing to surrender, but when he told them about the captured ship, that was tempting enough that they sent him out with a platoon of soldiers to secure it. Unfortunately, by the time they got back, the enemy had sent another ship to secure the first one as well, and it disintegrated two of the soldiers before they all managed to take cover under the ship.
"Wait, I recognize this," one of the soldiers said, looking inside, "It looks like an intention craft! I can probably fly it!"
And, well, he could, just not very well. There was a midair duel, in which the enemy ship managed to shear off their legs and then start firing beams through the passenger cabin. Eric took over as pilot ("Just think what you want it to do!") and crashed them into the middle of the army camp, where everyone started piling out while he traded a few more beams with the enemy ship, which was now distracted by bullets pinging off its armor.
So Jana flew up and smashed open the cockpit with her sword, while Eric put everything he had into one final shot. Jana had time to see that it was piloted by a young girl before she was disintegrated. The pilotless (and now unpilotable, as the controls were fried) intention craft drifted slowly into the side of another hill, and burst into flames.
But the kids had proved their loyalty to the soldiers' satisfaction, and when they mentioned the spy, Caihong and the bear were released from custody -- the spy, who they'd managed to tackle, had fast-talked the soldiers well enough to get EVERYONE arrested (well, MORE arrested, and more to the point interrogated).
Taegan told them he thought he might be able to fix the nearly-wrecked craft Eric had been piloting, so they put it on a larger truck (along with the kids) and sent them on to their military base at Glasgow, with papers this time. Including 'allied nonhuman' papers for the bear and Jana, which annoyed her since she was as human as anyone else, even if she did have wings.
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