A Dark And Quiet Room

This was cross-posted to the Forge. You might find the discussion there of interest.

…incoming transmission …
… Peoria Resistance Group…

Bliss Stage makes me think of this.

Gabrielle commented that she felt sorry for me. I’m gaming with my wife and sister, and so I end up with these really girly stories. She thinks that Bliss Stage is working out so well because, every so often, I can insist on a combat mission with squicky aliens and giant fighty robots. She may be right.

All of this, to set up the first part of this Actual Play report.

That’s right. We’re back at it again. Things get heated in the Peoria Resistance Group, Jude finally proves his worth as a pilot, and Marcus continues to suffer emotional trauma. So suit up, strap in, and prepare for launch!

Diapers and Briefs

Our opening action was less than enthralling. Marcus had an interlude with Renee, his baby girl, which ended up involving a really nasty diaper. I probably should have awarded Trauma for the experience. I mean, squicky alien goo has nothing on the kind of bowel eruption that babies are capable of. But Marcus took it all in stride, earning himself some Trust-Building with Renee.

Then we jumped to a briefing action. Joseph broke into Jude’s apartment to summon him for the briefing. Jared wanted to send Jude out to install a sensor package further north to act as an early warning system. However, when Jared seemed unconcerned about keeping Joseph under control, Jude stormed off, shirking the mission. So, once again, Marcus got the duty and suited up to head out into the dreamworld. Beth was off-duty and Leah was all ready, so she would anchor for him.

Deep Probe

I actually interlaced Marcus’s missions and Jude’s interludes for effect. For this report, I will describe them separately.

Before the mission, Marcus took a quick interlude with Leah, offering to talk to Jude about her. I don’t remember what we ended up calling that. Probably Trust-building.

…begin briefing…

Deep Probe
Evade patrols
If failed, fight enemy patrol
Scout location
Deploy sensor package
…end briefing…

To help the anchor player get into character, and to demonstrate our true weirdness, we have taken to assembling an anchor console on the table when we play, hacked together out of the electronic equipment that we have lying around. Here’s the photographic evidence:

”Crystal as an anchor
Another angle on Crystal as an anchor
Gabrielle as an anchor

In particular, note the red and green dice on the black box. Those aren’t dice. The green die is a “launch/dock” button, and the red die is the panic button.

Mock if you will, but it’s actually a lot of fun to set up the equipment.

Anyways, Marcus was doing pretty well. He was able to get the sensor package installed, but he was damaged by the alien goo that was dripping off everything. So he hotshotted a goal: “Gather goo sample”. He was successful in this, but Beth completely lost contact with him.

So, Marcus is alone. Things are falling apart. An alien patrol is looking for him. Two suns are burning in the sky. Now they are beginning to strobe. The aliens are stalking nearby. There’s nowhere to run. The power dies in the ANIMa. Marcus curls up into the fetal position, holding himself and repeating, “They don’t find me. They don’t find me. They don’t find me.”

They didn’t.

Leah managed to re-establish contact and hit the panic button. Marcus burst from the tank yelling, “They don’t find me!”

We called for a post-mission interlude. Leah hurried over to help clean Marcus off. He took one look at her and fainted. Trauma-Relief.

Jude takes care of business

In the meantime, Jude was taking care of business. He broke into Joseph’s …..

…break…
…re-establishing communication…

A Return Visit

As soon as we finished, the children started begging me to take them back to the Land of 1000 Kings. So, the next day, we decided to take another short trip.

This time, after a little more memory sharing, we jumped right in. We didn’t have a lot of time to work with, and I wanted to make sure that we could finish in a timely manner.

Isaac wanted to quest after the helmet. Arianna wanted to return to the fairies. Samuel wanted to go to a castle full of dragons. I wanted to scramble their expectations a bit.

See, I didn’t want them to think that everything in the game would be an easy pushover. I also wanted to encourage them to broaden their horizons. So nothing went quite right as they entered the Land this time. Arianna and Isaac ended up back in the Castle Realm. Samuel used a different entrance and found himself on top of a mountain, exploring the cavern of the Dragon King.

Samuel and Arianna were both disappointed about their locations, but I pointed out their fateright, that something would happen, regardless of where they went. Plus, if they want to go somewhere, then they should just go there!

In the meantime, Isaac heard a rumor about a Black Knight with a helmet that shoots lightning from its eyes. He was going to quest after it, but then Arianna decided to explore the castle. That seemed like a good idea to Isaac, so they went together.

It was neat to see Isaac embrace the game this time around. He was much more receptive this session. In part, I think that it’s because he understood how the game worked and was more comfortable with what he was doing.

It was during these segments that the children first faced defeat. Arianna wanted to explore the dungeon to find out if there were any fairies down there. When they tried to talk their way past the guards, it went poorly. The Castle King became angry with them and locked them in a cell in the dungeon.

At the same time, Samuel was discovering that the Castle King and the Dragon King have been feuding for some time now. The Dragon King hates the Castle King, because the Castle King keeps sending knights out to kill the dragons. So when Samuel turns to leave to go to the castle of the Castle King, the Dragon King tries to stop him. Initially Samuel defeated the Dragon King, but then he was cursed by the dragon’s hoard that he discovered. Then, he took chutzpah to a new level by going back to the Dragon King to ask for a ride to the castle. The Dragon King took to this request…poorly…and captured Samuel, dragging him off to the secret meeting place of the dragons.

Back to the castle. Isaac and Arianna were rescued by Reginald, the King of Rats, who took them back to his home in the walls of the dungeon. Reginald appealed to them, saying that the Castle King kills his people. Instead, Reginald wants to lead them away to another land. Arianna described what it means to be a pet, and Reginald said that lying around all day, being fed by someone else, sounded like an ideal existence. So, Reginald showed them to a doorway out of the Land, and they promised to help him upon their return.

Meanwhile, Samuel managed to escape from the dragons and arrive at the castle, prepared to rescue his brother and sister. Sadly, he was overwhelmed and captured. The Castle King was angry with him and ordered him to be locked in the dungeon. But, as the guards dragged him away, he made a sudden departure from the Land.

Just in time for supper.