I surprised the Weekly Crew with blank character sheets, and a request that we put the Aberrations & Powers tables through their paces.
We now have:
* A yellow-green Reptimalian-Vrun with 'super-stealth', TK Grip, Void Blast, and something else that escapes me at 2:25 AM. He has the best fighting capability, provided by his tail, to which he has affixed a double-headed hatchet.
* A Cadaverously-skinny, True Yellow-skinned, Anti-Vampire with Levitation, Dismiss Conjuration, and double-strength Elemental Defence.
* A green-skinned, Aquamarine-haired super-stealthed, conjuration-dismissing, mind-scanning, (?), glider-membrane guy.
They decided to start play in eastern central Marnharnna, roughly 1,800 miles from Kelzsyn's bluff (new territory :D ), having grown-up in the whereabouts of a former WI Vrun garrison, later conquered by the Humanoids that surrounded it. As Aberrant Vrun, the PCs were very low on the social ladder, and were more tolerated than valued. However, they were each given a document (they were told only one was genuine), and sent as a group to try and broker a martial deal with a group of nomadic Aberrants nearby (five days walk). Two other groups had left in different directions over previous days that week.
They were warned that a traitorous Half-Abbekqorru and eight of his lackeys had, ten days ago, escaped from the garrison after he had murdered his XO, and it was understood that he collaborated with Humans (using his Humanesque edge) as a mercenary, and that he would be hunting for the PCs' message(s).
A Vrun homestead was found in shambles and a dying mind was detected by Glider-guy, Zander. Upon inspection, a blunderbuss loaded with quartz shards struck True Yellow corpse-guy in the right leg for a nasty amount, while Zander avoided being entangled in a barbed and weighted net, both in the barn. The dying creature was some sort of reptilian Humanoid or Monstrous Being, dressed in WI Vrun male finery. Its dying breath were the words, "The Pearl! The Pearl!", which Zander saw as the Pearl employed by Ashta Shomel in the other game-thread. A combination Chronometric-Musical Companion was found on his body, as well as a sort of clip-on ring with an interesting sigil as its decoration.
-- A sealed chest was found in the loft with him (he had sustained multiple Abbekqorru arrows |2d6+1 damage in GW terms| ), containing two larger-than-ostrich eggs (one highly decorated, the other plain, both in some sort of advanced swamp biotech incubator that included other animals' life cycles in the process). It was resealed, but left there.
In the domicile, a grisly sight awaited them: a violated, partially eaten, and hysterectomy'd (apparently) Human splayed out upon the dining room table. Signs of three young girls abduction were also evident.
--After the yellow ghoul skinned, dressed, and started the smoking process on the reptile they had found, the PCs set out at night (under a full moon) after having discovered tracks with deep impressions leading almost perfectly South West out of the area.
Fiddling about, a secondary encounter was skipped by cloaking Yellow, and the party reached the encampment of the raiders. It became evident that the girls were alive, having been carried in a large three-sectioned work-bench/cabinet thing lifted from the barn, and they were being fed scraps of meat by a full Abbekqorru while most of the remaining five rested or actually slept. Since the super-stealth covers everything not specifically created to find that particular critter (-5 to be detected even when unconscious), the party were able to walk into their midst without detection, and then a Surprise Round of combat ensued.
--The Abbekqorru was pin-cushioned but not badly wounded, and the mysterious arrows materialising out of thin air, as it were, gave away the general location of Reptimalian, and Yellow, while Zander tried to assassinate the 'Halfsie'. That didn't go well for Zander, and he was forced prone with the creature (looking mostly human) pinning him and beginning to transform into its true form, the equivalent of a more 'mundane' Jackalwere (and not a Half-Abbekqorru at all) as his troops closed in on the party.
Uh-oh!
