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The Emperor willing, Space Marines are go!

After last week's character gen, we finally got going with the adventure. Here's how it begun ...

Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Regarding my investigations on Ixion V. As you know, the dissapearance of Lord Midel has been most troubling. I have found out that [Comments Redacted] as you can see, the situation is most troubling. I am requesting your assisstance in this matter. As you are responsible for this sector, I defer to your experience, but would suggest that the situation may need more support.
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Commander Urien to Inquitor Valek: I will see to it. Inform me of what you need. Praise the Emperor.
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Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Praise the Emperor indeed. I need a team of marines. Quickly. Due to the anaomlies around Ixion V, I may not be able to communicate again soon. And Things have gotten worse since my last post. I have reviewed a list of names of battle-brothers I think would be suitable.
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Commander Urien to Inquistor Valek: These Astartes are very specific. I hope to the Emperor that you know what you are doing, Valek.
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Inquistor Valek to Commander Urien: Time is wasting Urien! I need those brothers. If you can see why I picked them, then you should know to send them! I'm proceeding to [Message terminated]
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: Do Not Presume to Speak to Me That Way, Inquistor. I will Send Them When I deem it fit
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: Valek?
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Commander Urien to Inqusitor Valek: I am Dispatching the Brothers

Because stereotyping Japan is FUNNY

Umm yeah, so totally forgot to mention that last session was character gen of Deathwatch and didn't get funnier than:

"When I said 'do Valentinesy things before Blood for the Blood God', I didn't mean 'imagine Dr. Doom on Chat Roulette'."

and

"There's a MASSIVE difference between being AFRAID of the colour yellow and getting TURNED ON by the colour yellow."

and that doesn't go very far. We do, however, have a few previously unreleased quotes kicking about, which we were saving for a rainy day, and that might as well be right now. So, from 14 June 2011's Changeling: The Dreaming roleplaying session at Chimera, we give you Pantry: The Carnage:

Feed the crocodiles, tuppence a Rog

So, Jack and Finn went after a merchant who had Jack's father's sword. Apparently, he had won it in a card game, off some bloke. Instead of persuading the man to part with the sword with Diplomacy, Jack stole the sword while Finn distracted the crowd with an impromptu guitar performance, and they both legged it. How are they ever going to find the bloke who lost the sword in that game?

Meanwhile, the rest of the group made it through the swamp and to the ferry ... which was already too far out in the water to catch. Our dear (?) friend (?!) Chinface the Redcap was there ... and ended up feeding some crocodiles because Set kicked his proverbial peaches. Flora made sure to loot the body (or what was left of it) for the potion bottle, so they'd have one spare, just in case.

Finn and Jack were without a guide in the swamp and had to fight a crocodile that very nearly got them. In the end, by using a couple of swords, they dispatched it. Finn decided to use swords more in the future, even though he inadvertently became a Squire by accepting the sword Jack gave him. The only Knight he can be a Squire to is Set. We'll see how that pans out ...

Finally, the potion-bearers reached the Count's Freehold, where the doors were wide open. Unusual. Redcaps were present. Set and Hugo (with Flora at a safe distance behind) went inside, only to find most of the Count's court in pieces - Ogres with chainsaws generally have that effect on people - and the Count himself at the tip of a sword, courtesy of Vinnie the Rog ... and that was the end! We will not abide being left on such a cliffhanger, so the GM has got orders to write us some more adventure to get closure.

A little bit of sick, a little bit of Slick

The swamp turned out not to be such a big deal after all. Us players were the biggest challenge. To begin, we had a big discussion as to the name of the guy from CSI: New York - not Kevin Bacon but in fact Gary Sinise, whether or not The Stand was a film or a TV series and when it was from ... and then it turned into a discussion who Gary Busey is, what he's been in, and in particular, who was in Leathal Weapon, and so on. Hence why we decided in the end that next time we're trying to think of an actor, we'll say it's Kevin Bacon and leave it at that, or we're stuck for at least half an hour before someone has the idea to use the IMDb app on their phone ...

At the same time, it was decided  that any film we also couldn't think of would be Care Bears, meaning that later on, when the question accompanying a banjo tune, was "aww, what's the film called?!" the answer was Care Bears rather than Deliverance ... and we imagined a hybrid of the two ... we completely lost it and roared with laughter for five minutes.

(You had to be there.)

In-game, we found the town of Blacktree, mainly because the GM thought better of leaving us in the swamp, what with the inbred Care Bears and the ghost of Slick roaming around below the surface, and said we reached the place in a very quick time. Huzzah! We obtained a sample of the eponymous black tree through the cunning use of squirrel, and then discovered the master healing potion maker was in fact a witch. (You should have seen the look on Set's face when the GM told him the witch was an old woman ... Priceless!)

While Jack's negotations with her didn't seem to help all that much in getting her to co-operate, Hugo's 20 gold dross quickly won her over. Flora got to see the potion being made, took notes, and is considering spending a working holiday there. After the potion was finished, we got the bottle and started heading back to Nottingham as quick as we could. As Jack saw a merchant with his missing father's sword in the crowd, he decided to chase after him, with Finn in tow, while Alysiana, Set, Flora and the bottle - and some NPCs - started in the direction of home. Quickly.

What shall we do with the drunken Sidhe?

After being assaulted by Rat Boy (again), Finn locked himself in a cupboard and completely missed Alysiana in the nude. Jack and the GM were sitting next to each other talking plot, which the rest of us didn't catch, but we were happy bunnies anyway, because even though Finn crushed his precious eggplant, perhaps Flora could restore it.

Jack decided to have turned twelve recently, which means the party in his honour was in fact his birthday party. He's now a Wilder rather than a Childling, and it has caused him to stop drinking, much to Finn's dismay. On the plus side, we entered the Dreaming, where Alysiana got very drunk on chimeric ale. Meanwhile, Flora tried her hand at drug-pushing, with Set conveniently being somewhere else entirely, being useful.

And then we tried to charter a ferry across a river, even though we didn't think to ask until afterwards if it would be big enough to take Set, seeing as he's, y'know, an enormous Troll. We left off on the shore, by a big swamp, having just been dropped off from the boat. Here's the journey up until then ...

Your recent Glamazon order has been dispatched, with a gun!

Our friend, Count Valdemar, decided to offer the princess and half of his kingdom (so to speak) to the person who can successfully find a cure for the lady in question. This appealed to the whole group, for various reasons. Flora for a chance to shine over the discovery, but as she wouldn't want to marry the Count's daughter and become a Baron, she suggested Finn marry her and Jack take the estates. The other alternative was Alysiana, who would happily take both the girl and the estates. Set was happy just to be on a quest again, bless him.

Finn won the drinking game we were about to embark on at the end of last session, and we decided to forego resting after the party and instead go have a look at the Goblin Market again, because it went so well the first time. Set got to loom over an old lady - without even hitting her (I KNOW, RIGHT?!!) - and after bargaining with a Pookah (bad idea, or, if you're a Pookah, the bestest idea ever) and Finn avoiding the overly friendly Rat Boy, we finally ended up crashing back at Alysiana's. Finn soon found himself in bed with someone far different than a beautiful woman ...

This is what we got after starting the session uncharacteristically late. If only we had started earlier, we could've set a new record. Aww.

Seasonal greetings from the six of us


No session this week, due it it bein' all Christmassy 'n' all. Have a good 'un!

Go directly to jail, do not pass Wollaton Hall!

Finn's back, falling off a chandelier when waking up from a drunken night. We all got taken to the police station because the police arrived suspiciously early because they heard a couple of drug gangs were fighting it out at the Hall, and when the police looked through the house, found a pound of drugs in a safe. Turned out Jack's event manager was responsible, so we were all let off.

After speaking with our friend the Count, we got invited to a party, to celebrate Jack being raised to Baron. Huzzah! He immediately got plastered on really strong Troll ale and had to be restored by Flora. While Finn was on the scene playing guitar, Set ran off to help when hearing a Redcap had broken into the kitchen. This turned into a showdown between him, the Redcap, Hugo (one of the Count's men) and Jack, who had come to see where Set had rushed off to.

The Redcap, as it turned out, was breaking in to attempt reading poetry at Sophia Valdemar, the Count's daugher (whose brain tumour we still haven't been able to find a cure for), but he got locked up in the toilet instead. At least he wasn't killed.

Meanwhile, at the main table, Alysiana tried flirting her way into the skirts of a beautiful Sidhe woman, and Flora sat there nursing her ale, pondering what she'd put up at the crafts fair suggested by Jack. The session ended when we were just about to enter into a full-on drinking game, so that'll be for next time ...

Meta-gaming Blues Brothers kill Jesus

Since the last Changeling session back in August, about five weeks have passed in-game. Alysiana has voluntarily locked herself in a cell while we investigate who she is - or rather, whether or not she's really evil. There has also been time to make snazzy sunglasses, allowing a person to see dark fey, and a prisoner has been interrogated ... albeit not very successfully.

And then a group of angry Redcaps showed up, broke a reinforced gate camera at Jack's place (Wollaton Hall), and tried to get in and, err, cause trouble. And while this was going on, Finn managed to have fallen asleep on a chandelier - because that's the sort of mischief that might happen to a character when their player can't make the session. (We're waiting expectantly for his waking up on Tuesday, just to see his reaction.)

Oh, and Alysiana was given a once-over by a group of Nockers. It made for very fine roleplaying indeed. Could've been another one of them French art films ...

We’re gonna need a bigger airlock

Last weekend played host to ChimeraCon 6 - a 24 hour roleplaying event at Chimera in Beeston. These are the quotes from the first session's Eclipse Phase game (3 December 2011), which was a continuation of the story from ChimeraCon 5 in September.

We didn't have a session on Tuesday night because the GM was ill and another party member was away. We should be starting the next Changeling adventure this following Tuesday, though.

Anyway, in this session's eventful Eclipse Phase, we went to a space station, fought an airlock, conversed with a big orca whale who later got sucked out of an airlock, and other crazy aliens that had read too much Animal Farm. And then we sort of turned the ship into a portable Pandora Gate, or something like that, with only a couple of original bodies actually surviving. Hats off to our fallen comrades!

Bark to the Future

After the explosion, Scraps dug a hole through the rubble to get Jackie (and a bunch of gear) out. Then we blew another hole ... in the wall, leading to the outside. Equipped with some kind of flying belt, we made our way up to the top of the mountain. Where we encountered Stone. That's right, the original harrowed himself.

AND WE PWNED HIM!

Yeah, suck on that for a bit! Okay, so Slick's Manitou took over, twice, first dropping Jackie off the edge - but luckily, he came to his senses at the last minute and rescued her. In the end, when Stone had melted through the floor - muttering something about we might have won this time, but like the Terminator, he'd be back - he did a similar thing to Reynard. Reynard answered by barbecuing him with a flamethrower on the way down, thus putting a crispy end to our trecherous friend, the homicidal alchemist.

Reynard then turned on the force field, bounced unharmed on the ground, picked up the strangely unharmed belt, which he then tried to argue with the GM about until the rest of us shouted to him to just roll with it. When the GM hands you a flight belt so you can fly back up the mountain unharmed and join your friends and live happily ever after (or die trying), you sure as hell don't argue the slight implausibility of the belt's working condition!

But yeah, we saved the day. Scraps ran toward the stone, Mary shot it away from the portal thingy it was in, Scraps picked it up by swallowing it, and ran toward her. She grabbed him and together, they flew back down to the portal room and headed to the future, closely joined by Jackie and Reynard. On the other side, the portal was sealed off, and everyone left with the conundrum of how to get the Heart of Darkness out of Scraps's belly without hurting him.

And that's all folks, thus concludes our story. The Posse is now stuck 200 years into the future. Here's how we got there:

Devil's Tower is officially worse than 'Nam

Shovember dealt a few black jokers to the party out-of-game so we were a player down. Because of that, the GM decided not to take the chips he normally does, to give us a sporting chance. We're probably only looking at one more session, and then it's The End. Quite literally, actually, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

We ventured up some stairs, opened a door, saw some baddies, threw some dynamite into the room and took cover - and blew up half that level of the cave. Including the stairs, which we're going to need to go up, seeing as how our date with Stone is set to be up top.

Instead, we worked our way down the corridor, opening random doors and encountering aliens trying to kill us (and a Chinese man being in the process of being turned into an alien in a most painful way), until we eventually found a generator room ... which also contained the portal to the future. Unfortunately, that's not where we need to go right now. Not without a certain stone ... and there's us, having blown up the staircase and everything. Way to go.

On the plus side, we found a room full of alien tech, and one of the beings we killed had a kind of translating gadget collar ... which we promptly fitted to Scraps (Reynard's dog). He turned out to be translated into a posh English accent (while he's more Deep South in Reynard's head, confusing the heck out of him) - at least until it got damaged. Now, he barks at us in Japanese instead. Kamikazeeee!!