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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Havoc for the Holidays: Jeff Berry's New Year's Gaming Celebration-

Reprinted from Chirine's Workbench:

Milestones, of various sorts...

This is post 200, the little meter tells me, and I'm delighted to be able to post the schedule for this coming weekend's event:“Havoc for the Holidays!”

Game Event Schedule

Please note that all times are going to have to be flexible, due to possible changes in the weather. I have put things together to do the best I can to suit peoples’ travel plans, and we will be flexible.


Wednesday, December 29th, 2010:

10:45 am
First Wave of out-of-town guests arrives; day open for socializing and shopping as required or desired.


Thursday, December 30th, 2010:

TBA
Second Wave of out-of-town guests arrives; day open for socializing and shopping as required or desired.


Friday, December 31st, 2010:

Noon:
Game room open for guests and visitors

1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Possible RPG session to be announced if there is interest

4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Third Wave of out-of-town guests arrives

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Open Buffet in the Lava Lounge

8:00 p.m. - Midnight
Tekumel Role-playing game session, Chirine to GM; characters
provided if players don’t already have one.

Midnight
Celebration of the New Year; RPG game session continues as long as players are conscious.

Saturday, Jan 1st, 2011:

8:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m.
Set game room with miniatures tables (Chirine); everybody else does breakfast.

11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m
First Sitting for Miniatures Games; two tables open for players
Game Room Table: “Saving Serqu’s Sisters”
Lava Lounge Table: “Where’d All Those Pe Choi Come From?”

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Break for food! Hurrah!


4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
Second Sitting for Miniatures games; two tables open, again.
Game Room Table: “Saving Serqu’s Sisters”
Lava Lounge Table: “Where’d All Those Pe Choi Come From?”

8:00 p.m. - onwards
Dinner; location to be determined, with socializing and sundry tomfoolery to follow in the Lava Lounge


Sunday, January 2nd, 2011:

Noon - 1:00 p.m
Tekumel Role-playing Game session; Chirine to GM, characters provided if you don’t have one.

5:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m.
Dinner break; location to be determined.


7:00 p.m. - onwards
RPG Event: our Special Guest, Timeshadows, has offered to run an adventure in her world; as Timeshadows is, in my humble opinion, this generation’s Prof. M. A. R. Barker, this will be a game session not to be missed!


Monday, January 3rd, 2011

TBA
First wave of Guest departures


Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

TBA
Second wave of Guest departures


Please feel free to contact me with any questions: chirine@aethervox.net

**********
I do want to say that I'm sorry to be getting this out to all of you so late; my only excuse for the tardiness is that we're still picking up the threads of our lives, and it's taken a lot longer then the Missus and I had expected. Starting off the new year with a house full of friends will really help us, though, and we'll looking forward to seeing you!

**********
If you're on a website or e-list that might be interested in this kind of event, please feel free to post all of this for the benefit of your friends. While we understand that it's late notice for people, we're planning on running more events like this and we'd appreciate your comments and input on how we do this kind of thing; it's our first time out, as it were, and any advice is always welcome!!!

**********
And all of us here at the Workbench, and in the Aethervoxes, would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday!!!

yours, Chirine and the Missus

Friday, December 24, 2010

Weekly Game, Pt. 20-

:: Longish, but fun ::

Having utilised the Void bubble to pierce the Aether-effect Force Fields protecting the System Ship Bay, Tyb had Ashta pass through as well. While in transit, she saw the suit of armour she had been wearing in alternate realities as Xholte, the Death Goddess, and touched it. When she appeared in the bay, she was wearing the armour (+3 Defence, 2d6 Armour || -3 AC bonus, -1d4 per Attack in AD&D terms). Tyb was surprised, having seen those alternate time streams, and noticed that she had been gone for slightly longer than normal. Tyb's Player made a comment about Ashta having received some Christmas goodness, and then decided to fiddle about in the Void bubble and grasped coniferous tree branches. At this point, the players began to smile and make their 'guesses' as to what was happening.
--Tyb passed back through the bubble, holding onto the branches as he went, and occasionally felt fur somehow intermingled with the pines. He emerged to a snowscape forest with sleigh tracks leading off in the distance to where a curious looking vehicle (minus the pulling animals) and a man wearing glossy red armour and shiny black leather boots stood ready to kick the sled.

Tyb then slid towards the shadows cast by the vehicle and man, and listened in as the fellow in the red armour was becoming increasingly flustered about his tight schedule. Other voices, over a comm unit, could be heard: I took the opportunity to include Cheech and Chong, Elf 232, and 'Rudy' as part of the sleigh-driver's network of very well informed and dimensionally-savvy remote crew.
--It seems a Void-effect passed through the sled and vaporised an entire circuit board. Imagine that.

The gang fixed it and as a test of the vehicle's repair, the fabricator produced gifts. Ahni (Tyb's eldest daughter) and the Dryvv battle maidens he carries in his shadow emerged, and Ahni was the first to open a present, while the man in the glossy red armour stood by. She opened it and was amazed at what lay within, but quickly grew half-sullen. It appears that her gift was something called, 'Good Intentions', which began to work a change in the otherwise ... salty nature of the Vae-girl. One of the Dryvv maidens opened hers and was confused by the three lumps of coal she received.
--Nick, the man in the armour, warned Tyb, Ashta, Ahni, and the maids that they were on the naughty list, and that the longer Ashta wore her new armour, the naughtier she got. Ahni seemed genuinely distraught about the change she was undergoing, and the coal girl seemed to treasure the gift although she, too, was a bit puzzled by it all.

With the sleigh repaired, the skids retracted and he admonished them again before tearing off into the sky and disappeared in a flash of glitter.

Presents were brought back through and we handed them out to the entire stable of PCs. Nyqolas' was a peppermint-flavoured mercury-looking potion that sped him up to the point that everyone else was frozen in time, and even the passing proto-stellar matter outside the ship was slowed a tad. He used the time dilation to go to the bug-hive and kill as many of them as he could reach in the very large cubic chamber filled with multi-tier jungle.

Osyl was gifted with Turkish Delight by a frosty looking woman who contacted Ahni as she was leaving the snowy forest scene (with lamp post and a pair of cloven hoof marks in the snow) ;D Lady Arctise was able to contact Osyl when she ate the sweets, and the Lady urged her to make certain to take the upcoming planetary-system detour.

The Khem PC's gift was a peculiar circular 'harmonica' that seemed to trigger genetic memories of a Human starship's destruction, and his ancestor's last-second travel to an inhabited world with that man's mate.

--After much bickering about their actual plan and how to carry it out, the System Ship was once again being explored -- this time by the Black Pearl's Void probe. An Aelbaan couple spotted the probe (which looks like a coal-black disc at any PoV), and these two activated the psychic alarm, and power on the main bridge (where everyone else was) began to shut down.

Delver began searching for a large enough interior space in the System Ship for him to pull the Black Pearl through the probe, because it seemed as though the Aelbaan were preparing to at least isolate it from the rest of the ship.
--The best calculations predict that there will be no planets in range for 3 months, ship-time.

HappyMerry folks. :D

Monday, December 20, 2010

ADnD-friendly Urutsk Holiday Offering: Ytidu -- The Mutated Pine Moose-

YTIDU (Mutated Pine Moose)-

Hit Dice: 5d8+35 (55)
Attacks: Antlers (1), Hoof (2), or Bite (1), or Kick (1)
Damage: 2d4+4BP, 1d6+3B, 1d4+3EP, 4d6+4B
Armour Class: 06
Special: Pine Resin Attack, Deafening Bellow
Move: 36”
Size: Large

Terrain: Cold to Temperate-Cool Wetlands
Frequency: Rare in Marsh and Riverine, Very Rare Elsewhere
#: 1d4 (3)
Lair: 01%
--Loot: Random

Intelligence: Sentient (06-09)
Alignment: CN (Unpredictable but Amiable)
Psionics: Yes
--Abilities/Modes: Any
Lvl/X.P. Value: 13 / 4,690

The origins of this creature are mysterious, and attributed by the Dokirin tribes-folk that know of the Ytidu to a series of ominous events. For many years it was thought to be a unique creature, but after decades of sightings, it has been determined that these mobile plants are capable of reproduction through normal plant means, but aided by the mobility and utility of limbs and antlers. In any situation where the Pine Moose is cornered or facing capture, it will first use its Deafening Bellow which affects all within a 20' Radius as a Curse (deafness) spell of Caster Level 9. If the offence persists, the Ytidu will spray its 45' long cone of Pine Resin which forces a Save v. Breath Weapon or suffer the effects of a modified Cloudkill spell (with deep and persisting unconsciousness instead of death) at a Caster Level of 9.
While the Ytidu is arguably less intelligent than the average Human, their curiosity, apparent fearlessness, and tenacity lend an air of regalness and nobility. Greedily hunted by merchants ready to ship their decorated carcasses south to Marnharnnan Vrun settlements, their numbers have thinned in the Inland Seas most populated areas. Conversely, along with the Bramble Hart, the Ytidu are revered and lovingly doted upon by many Western Isles Vrun and Yirinn, and the origins of the decoration of the creatures is derived from Yirinn/Wodic traditions long ago established in mainstream culture. The Pine Moose is treated to fertiliser-infused sweet drink, and the people surround it in dancing circles as songs are sung and festivities are had by all. Northern Druids, some Yirinn Bards, and many Rangers know of the secret for procuring sweet resin from the live Ytidu for the manufacture of a potent Imperial Stout drunk hot on cold nights, and known for its hallucinatory effects.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Weekly Game, Pt. 19-

Attempts to reach a System Ship within a launch bay proved difficult, not only due to the Seeder Ship's odd (re)arrangement of any given section of the ship (each internal section like a cargo container), gaps in the line, but also the fact that a mess of Aelbaan have taken that particular launch bay.
--Delver helped Tyb to cross through the Aether-based Force Field (using Black Pearl's Void-Effect stuff) and we held that portion there.

They also determined that the ship's trajectory was Coreward; had already travelled an enormous distance into the galaxy from the Rim; and the ship's fuel supply is condensed dreamstuff. As the Aelbaan are not a sleeping species, they also do not dream (without Tiape, the Dreaming Blend -- courtesy of Brian Penn), but instead abduct and raise dreaming species aboard their craft for the purpose of cultivating the dreamstuff.
--Kitsune entered the consensual reality of the Aelbaan Psychic Network, and found that it was piggybacking off of a much larger system network operated by an Aelbaan-like species, but much stouter and perhaps more removed from Human concerns. The individual encountered was, "watching for Dragons and Shorrannin Hive Ships.", and was too busy to really aid her except to warn Kitsune she was in danger.

Indeed, more 'bug' warriors appeared in an explosion of Smoke, accompanied by six 14Fight Die (14HD) beetles the size of small delivery trucks. Nyqolas entered into melee and was horribly abused, being literally squashed by the bug for oodles of damage. He had to rely upon aid from Prince Lucent to regain enough wherewithal to reach the gravitic field Darius was using to keep Qaya's corrosive Smoke-magick in place as an active deterrent.
--Once Delver's lighting arm device and Osyl's use of the subterranean repilmalian lightning crystal were brought to bear, the bugs started to die in satisfyingly explosive ways --save a warrior that managed to disappear elsewhere on the bridge levels.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Playtest Campaign + Mutants of Marnharnna Mashup (Pt. 18)-

The foretold Black Moon has risen, and it is the Pearl, changing from Aether-aligned to Void-aligned. The attempt to change it to anything but Void resulted in a Water-alignment, and Pearl was about to become Princess Wave's new toy, but it was reverted to Void and was piloted by Delver Denab (Ashta being unable to utilise its Void-tech).

[The Governors of Doran (Tyb and Ashta) have been ousted, and the Kherstic League has taken control of the island nation it purchased from the WICE only a year or two earlier.]

Aberrants, Dokirin warriors and shaman, and Humanoids, as well as the Blue Tree, were all pulled along into the Void, and Delver took the craft up to the Aelbaan starship in orbit in the High Aether. Being Aether-based tech, the Void craft was undetected by passive sensors, and allowed the Black Pearl and all of her occupants to become noncorporeal and slide through both Force Field and Hull. As undead, the crew and fighters acted to take control of the main bridge, and in three Turns (30 minutes) had secured that second-most important position on the ship. However, before the last Aelbaan collapsed from Vampiric fields, he was able to launch the craft on a predetermined emergency course.
--As soon as the more powerful Aether-effect drives initiated, the Black Pearl and her crew/etc. became corporeal and were taken along for the superluminal flight out of the Av system, and already unknown stars distant.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Machine Stops-

Found this over at Old School Heretic.

The Machine Stops
by E. M. Forester (1909)


Monday, December 13, 2010

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Latter Autumn Era: 2nd Tyhrean War, Lhoman Theatre-


A Steam-powered Vectored Thrust Observation and Scout Craft-
:: (c) 2010 Kyrinn S. Eis

Monday, December 6, 2010

Mutants of Marnharnna Pt. 17-

As I am busily writing and mapping for the Black Blade Publishing adventure I am co-writing with Rob Kuntz, I'll have to make this briefer than usual.

The Primary Characters are realising that their past has caught up with them in many ways: Lord Worm has challenged Tyb to a personal battle to restore his tarnished honour at Tyb's re-absconding his Vae daughters from the Black Citadel. Ashta's refusal to undergo full gene-thereapy to fully awaken her Aelbaan ancestry, as well as her continued operation of the Pearl (escape pod) has antagonised them further. Delver Denab, having managed to escape the miles-long Aelbaan ship in orbit (and in the high Aether) with a half-feral human raised on the ship, barely survived a drone fighter attack and landed on Baroness Averdyn's estate, whereupon the drone dis-integrated and tele-relocated the escape pod the two came down in.
--Meanwhile, travelling at Mach 2.75 across the Storm Ocean towards the Western Isles to fetch Delver, Ashta and Darius drew the concern of the WICE long-range defence network which fired upon them and alerted the Home-Isles of the rapidly encroaching threat. This resulted in Pearl shattering a Glass barrier erected as a safeguard, as well as the deployment of Jump Troopers throughout the metro Yovend area in an attempt to slow the attackers pending the 'heavy gear' being brought to bear.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Mutants of Marnharnna Pt. 16 ('Wait. Huh? What?')-

This session was pretty wild, and so I'll buck tradition and post a short recounting.

PCs stayed w. craft > repairs effected > left for Tshomdrys Island where they offloaded most of the rescued folk > onwards they travelled to Old Port where they picked up cargo and then proceeded towards the Smot Flood Plain > but met with difficulty as a mixed group of Aberrabts, Dokirin, and Humanoids were performing a powerful ritual, calling upon multiple Elemental Patrons.

Zalder flew off to retrieve a lifeboat, and was attacked by a giant watery hand in the form of a great Humanoid beast-paw. He contacted the Sisters who informed him that They were being courted by the others, and that he'd have to ante-up to get their assassistance. He returned to the craft and offered himself up as a vehicle for their power for a year and one day. He was possessed and flewoff, becoming an NPC until such time passes, and taking the air-sled with him. My g/f then set about making a Smoke Mage from the outskirts of Kelzsyn's Bluff as her new character. Giant sylphs, appearing as the Sisters, lifted the craft out of the frothing waters as Water Wolves manifested and attacked those aboard. The craft was lifted over the Plain, and deposited in the tidal lake immediately north of Kelzsyn's Bluff.

The cargo turned out to be a mono-tread swamp-vehicle powered by a Steam-tech engine, which the party droveto KB. The hour was late, and the guards greedy, but entry was gained nonetheless and Nyqolas went to work studding his double-dip Imperial Bloodline out to the local women quaking with wet-scripted biological imperitives (his 20+ Conviction didn't hurt, either). While that was going on, Osyl found herself arrested for her own good by a very understanding Sheriff and a Marnharnnan Defence Agency Marshal, but after her Knight's Move esacape, they were able to discern that she had an important reason for being in town, and aided her in seeing the old Primary and Secondary Characters of the Players: Tyb and Ashta, Darius and Mela Mela. Folks were happy to play their original PCs after about 4 months of real time.

The question is this: Will the Primary characters' time-travel be undone/redone/altered?