Walking on the Dark Side

Whew! Sorry, gang. I somehow didn't realize how long it would take to recap a 3.5hr gaming session.

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Cropped by LycoRogue

I ended up summing up the session, and then realizing that "summary" was still over 12-pages long. Far too large for a blog post. So I edited, and cut, and eventually decided I had to split the 2nd session like I did the first. Between finding time to relisten to the session, typing up the summary, and editing it down into something manageable in this blog... whelp.... I clearly ran out of time last week. So I spent all of this past week working on that.

I'll need to find a way of streamlining this process, or I'll have to resolve myself to only update every other week. I'd much prefer to streamline this process....

On the plus side, sorta, Hubby had to work again the past two Mondays, so we once more had to miss a session. Session 4 won't be until the 20th now. Gives me a little bit of time to catch up on my recaps before the group furthers the story.

Speaking of stories, I'm stumbling a bit with the 3rd chapter of that mystery project (that I totally ended up talking about on Tumblr anyway... if anyone is interested). In fact, while it's been the last thing I think about when I go to bed, in hopes of maybe dreaming up something I could use or have an epiphany when I wake up or something, I haven't been thinking about it during the day at all. My focus has been solely on getting my SaV recaps done, on Adulting Things, and a little bit on getting back into Super Mario Odyssey. Honestly, a large portion of my focus this week has been on... not... focusing... and just drifting through social media because my brain is fried.

This is why I didn't want to really promote this new project until I had more of the story sorted out. Who knows when I'll have any significant advancement in this story again? I'll keep plugging along, though.

I tried putting a playlist together in hopes of finding the perfect Muse for this project; get me in the mood. We'll see if that side project will help. Same with tracking down some fanfics that might help inspire me. Some episode rewatches as well. I'm trying to not let go of this Muse that visited me in the heat of August.

However, as I mentioned, this story has slipped from priority as I instead focus on my game recaps, and this upcoming week will probably be spent on prepping for the next session.

So, without further ado, how about we talk about the shenanigans of the Stardancer crew? Since that's where my "storytelling" focus is now?

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

First and foremost, I forgot to mention before that the crew, while still undecided on a name for themselves, have managed to come up with a crew motto: "Mistakes were made; we got paid."

And boy, have they stuck to that motto.

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Edited by LycoRogue

They... do not do things the most... shall we say, refined way? But, as the motto suggests, they manage to get the job done cleanly enough to still get paid the agreed upon amount. So, that's got to count for something, right?

As for the second session, we started off recapping the first session, and trying to figure out if Demarcus does use some sort of racing gear or costume to protect his identity. That way any authorities looking for "The Captain" (Demarcus' "oh so creative and original" criminal alias) won't know that they can just camp at a RIP race to pick him up. Also, that way no one can put two-and-two together that if Demarcus is on a 3-person RIP team with one male and one female teammate, AND he's on a smuggling crew with one male and one female crewmate, MAAAAAYBE the other members of Chaos Theory are ALSO the other members of the Stardancer crew?

Hubby suggested that Demarcus goes by "Doctor" or "Doc" or "Doc Pain" while driving the Slambulance, and that his racing gear is just his old scrubs from when he assisted the Borniko Syndicate. Blood still caked on the scrubs and everything.

"He should look like one of those horror movie asylum doctors. The ones where you're not sure if he's a doctor or a patient there."

Quarthix instantly loved the idea and ran with it, but was still kind of waffling on whether or not that description should be canon. I'm running with it in the meantime, though.

Anyway, as the crew left the RIP Machine hangar - now out of their RIP costumes - they spotted the minor noble they had picked up as a potential patsy: Mevakor Nagan, and his bodyguards. They let him know that they still had one more errand to run, and that they'll meet up with him once they were done. He told them he'd spend his time at the Phoenix Casino, and the two trios parted ways.

The errand was, of course, to collect their info broker Maggie's friend Ishi from the Night side of the tidal-locked planet. There's a strange phenomenon that happens on Sonhandra. No one is sure if there's a natural reason via magnetic waves or whatnot, or if it's a product of the mystical Way (basically The Force from Star Wars), but any and all forms of light extinguish once someone steps beyond a kilometer onto the Night side of Sonhandra. Ishi purposefully made his hideout past that complete-black breaking point.

So the crew needed to figure out a way of finding him without being able to see at all. I had come up with a few ways. I spent a great deal of time talking about a little hole-in-a-wall pawn shop in Sonhandra's capital of Ugar that Maggie sent them to as a starting point. The pawn shop was by one of the town gates leading to the Night side, and Ishi was straight out from that point. Maggie told the crew to start there, head straight into the Night, and he would be nearby once they pass the kilometer mark. I had hoped the crew would go inside the pawn shop, where they would find another of Ishi's allies. If the crew could sweet-talk the shopkeep, he would take them to Ishi in a similar way to how he brought Ishi food and other supplies. If they failed to do that, they could at least buy thermal goggles from him. Assuming they would get their hands on some sort of thermal goggles (Demarcus has a thermal scanner, but wouldn't be able to read the output because of the magic darkness), Ishi had thermal plates buried around his hut that he would turn on so they could see where to go.

Alternatively, although tI'kæl's dark vision wouldn't work in the magic darkness since there is absolutely no light sources to grab at least a little bit of vision from, I had contingents set up so she could find the correct path via Attunement. Namely, the thermal plates Ishi buried were made out of Ur artifacts, which emits Way waves that she would be able to pick up. Like a bloodhound following a scent.

They could also find an AI and have it lead the way by using thermal scanning.

The crew did none of these options.

They assumed they could figure it out when they got there, told me my description of the pawn shop made it sound like it was shut down (despite me specifically saying, "You have no clue how this guy keeps his doors open since it doesn't look like any street traffic comes here" and "The only functional place of business on this street is this guy's pawn shop."), so they didn't bother going inside to scavenge or anything, and just headed out into the darkness.

TI'kæl took the lead, assuming she could see in the dark by using the glow from her tattoos. Then she passed a bunch of signs warning that they were a kilometer out and all light dies beyond that point. Ignoring the warnings, since they already knew that much, she stepped past the kilometer marker, and the tattoos on that leg instantly went out. ALL light sources extinguish on that side of the planet.

Completely blinded and with no other plan, Quinton just starts screaming Ishi's name in hopes of him finding them. Honestly, I think the group is still very much in a D&D player mindset. So they have yet to use the Flashback mechanic used in the Forged in the Dark games. Especially when they realized that Demarcus' thermal scanner wouldn't work and they probably needed thermal goggles instead. With this mechanic, they could have used a Flashback to state how they already had a pair on them, or that all three had their own pair for this trip. Alternatively, Rozsavaria keeps forgetting the main thing about her character: she's a mystic who gets in touch with the mystical Way forces. She leans into the almost Paladin-like joke of her character basically being a missionary asking if everyone she meets has heard about the glory that is The Way (as if it's a divine thing to worship), but she never remembers to actually tap INTO the Way.

So, now the trio is stranded on the dark side of this planet, completely blinded and with no real plan aside from shouting and hoping for the best. Also, fun added complication: due to this side of the planet never getting any heat from the sun, it's frosted and frozen over, making traction difficult as well. TI'kæl nervously dropped her speed because she wasn't expecting to completely lose her sight, and wasn't sure about her footing. Clueless as to why tI'kæl eased up her advancement, Demarcus took the lead.

As Quinton screamed for Ishi, the only response was a bunch of animals clicking around them (like the sound of someone quickly clicking their tongue against the roof of their mouth). The echoed clicks were similar to how crickets would call and answer each other. Since this was the only sign of life they'd encountered, they kept going straight, towards the majority of the clicks, although the sound was surrounding them slightly.

A few more minutes in, the clicks grew closer and in a tighter circle around them. Spooked, tI'kæl completely halted, but also neglected to let the guys know, so the two of them kept walking, completely leaving her behind. Meanwhile, Demarcus slipped slightly as he and Quinton walked out onto ice. Quinton quickly latched the two of them together to make sure they didn't loose each other, and only noticed how far behind tI'kæl fell when they heard her trying to click back to the creatures around them. Didn't work. It sounded more like the Memish equivalent of a dolphin.

Still not sure what other options they had (again, because they probably forgot about all of the mechanics SaV has vs D&D), the duo kept walking forward with Quinton still calling out for Ishi. In response, Quinton had something that felt like a bean bag hurled at his left shoulder. Grabbing a hold of Demarcus, Quinton directed him to the left and pushed him towards the direction the projectile came from. It wasn't long before Quinton tripped Demarcus over Ishi.

Ishi snarled for the two to shut up, and started dragging them back to his hut. As they're dragged along, Quinton tried to let tI'kæl know they found Ishi by way of communicator. Ishi promptly smacked the communicator out of his hand, and dragged the duo away faster.

Poor tI'kæl was still abandoned out in the black of the Night side of Sonhandra, with the knowledge that her crewmates found Ishi, but with (presumably) no way to find them (or they her).

As Ishi herded the guys towards his hut, Demarcus asked why Ishi was so anxious about any of them talking, and asked if Ishi could see since he was moving unhindered in the pitch black. Ishi simply hissed for them to shut up, and whisper-yelled that nothing could possibly see in that blackness. He then corralled them inside his hut. Demarcus again questioned Ishi's ability to move unhindered as if he knew exactly where he's going in the blackness. Meanwhile, all around them, the clicking changed to a more shrill shriek, and closed in.

TI'kæl nervously called out, "Hello?" into her communicator as she heard the clicks switch over to shrieks. Demarcus radioed back that they had Ishi, and that they needed to find a way to get back to Ugar, but tI'kæl should just head back to the ship. Ishi again barked at Demarcus for using his communicator, and asked if they had someone else past the kilometer point on the Night side. Demarcus kind of casually was like "yup" and Ishi cursed to himself. He then scrambled around his hut for a shotgun, cocked it, and scurried back out of the hut, leaving the guys behind.

TI'kæl tried to inch her way back towards the kilometer marker. She heard the shrieking in the not-so-far distance (about 300 yards / 274 meters). If she had actually followed the shrieking, she would have stumbled upon Ishi's house, instead, she continued back towards the twilight of the planet. About 50ft (15m) away from her, she heard the original clicking and the circling clicks close in. Suddenly, directly in front of her, something roared. It was deep, booming, and the pure vibrations from the roar rattled her bones. Immediately, tI'kæl stopped her slow retreat, and whimpered into the communicator, "Guys.... I'm scared."

She was soon shaken again by two more roars: one from her right and one from behind her as the creatures closed in. As the poor thing stood there whimpering and pleading for help, tI'kæl felt something akin to a water balloon bounce off her left shoulder. When the balloon hit the ground, it burst open and splattered blood everywhere. The creatures roared again, and despite the paralyzing effect the roars typically have, tI'kæl had enough adrenaline pumping that she sprinted towards the direction the balloon came from. As she did, she bumped hard into something that felt like a solid body of cartilage. She bounced off, but then felt the painful nip of "what feels like a single piranha bite into your left arm." She still had her arm (thanks largely to the hardened scales Memish have), and she could use it if she put in the effort, but it hurt like hell and she was bleeding out pretty badly. Still, she kept running until Ishi grabbed her arm, and yanked her in the direction of his hut. Unfortunately, he grabbed and yanked on her left arm, so she hissed in pain, and he promptly growled for her to shut up.

Pushing tI'kæl ahead of him, Ishi swung around and unloaded his shotgun. There was a loud boom, a high-pitched squeal of an animal in pain, the thump of a body hitting the frozen ground, and then flesh being rendered as the other creatures cannibalized their fallen comrade in a mini feeding frenzy. Not wasting a moment, Ishi grabbed tI'kæl and rushed her back to his hut.

Once everyone was safe inside the hut, Ishi quickly bandaged up tI'kæl's arm (we determined that Memish blood is puce). He then let the group know about the creatures that had attacked them: I had named them Krelqaks. They're basically the monsters from the movie Pitch Black. They had heightened smell and hearing to make up for their blindness. They focused on the smell of blood, and swarmed like piranha, with equally intimidating rows of teeth. Roz was all sorts of “Nope” when I showed her the pictures of the Bioraptor post-game.

Official images from the movie

Concept art by Richard Dolan

I had come up with some customizations to make these creatures a bit more unique for my game, but this was more-or-less what I was picturing.

Ishi also quickly found out how ill-prepared the crew was: no thermal goggles to see the thermal path he prepared for them, no land transport to safely ferry them back to Ugar, no research on the Krelqaks to properly prepare for them, no research on how extreme “total blackness” truly was on the Night side, not even a tether to keep the full crew together as they wandered the darkness.

As Demarcus put it: “You don't get this far in life by thinking.”

To which Ishi lamented to the sky, “I thought we were friends, Maggie! Why are you doing this to me?”

Ishi tossed a duffel bag of his “blood bombs” (blood-filled water balloons, basically) at Demarcus as the crew discussed getting back to Ugar safely. Demarcus and Quinton agreed on “Plan D,” AKA – using detonation. Ishi put earplugs in to protect his own enhanced hearing from the detonations, then scurried to a trap door in his hut's roof. Cursing out the Krelqaks, he tossed a few blood bombs behind his hut to lure the beasts away from the front door. Then he slid back to the floor of the hut, and shoved a blueprint tube into Quinton's hands. Ishi told Quinton those were his weapons blueprints and Quinton was to protect them with his life. This, of course, piqued Demarcus' interest. The crew had no prior knowledge that Ishi was a weapons designer and dealer on the lam from the Hegemony (he's basically pre-Iron-Man Tony Stark). After passing medical supplies and vegan food rations to tI'kæl (to make sure their food rations wouldn't attract the carnivorous Krelqaks), Ishi lashed her to Quinton to make sure she didn't get lost again, and then he tied himself to Demarcus in order to lead the group. Everything set and all valuable items packed to go, Ishi rushed everyone out of the hut.

Demarcus promptly blew up Ishi's hut. Since ALL forms of light are instantly extinguished, there was no pretty explosion, but there's still the concussive force from the explosion. That brought the hut down and created a deafening boom to attract the Krelqaks, killing some of them in the explosion. The remaining Krelqaks responded by roaring back. It was almost as loud as the explosion itself, and the force of the pack's chorus of roaring caused the crew's bones to vibrate.

As Ishi led the group through the dark, Demarcus tossed a few blood bombs and launched a few detonators to either side of the group. He managed to distract some of the beasts and killed others, and eventually the pack in pursuit of the crew had been taken care of. They still heard more of the Krelqaks' distinct clicking in the distance, but they passed the kilometer markers soon enough for that to not matter.

Now that they could actually see him, the crew discovered that Ishi is a Deilku, an impish-looking xeno (non-human race). He has large, bat-like ears that stick 6” (~15cm) straight up from the top of his head, a scrunched-up button nose, teeny-little beady eyes, and long 4-fingered hands. Deilku have exceptional hearing and sense of smell, but their eyes were developed as more of a secondary sensory, like most humans and their sense of smell. Normally, since most of the Hegemony is designed with humans in mind - and therefore, largely dependent on sight - Deilku wear almost comically thick glasses to better their eyesight. Since he was in the pitch black for months on end anyway, Ishi forwent his glasses. He also has leathery, hairless bluish-gray skin, and was bundled under a massive parka to try to keep warm. The tips of his ears are only about 4' off the ground, making the top of his head only about 3'6” (~ 1m) high.

Basically, he's an amalgamation of Maz Kanata from Star Wars and Gune from Titan A.E. with a little extra flavor from my own imagination.

Left: screenshot of Gune from Titan A.E.
Right: official model of Maz from Star Wars

Quinton managed to disguise Ishi as a small child: voice modulator to make him sound like a human child, hat to hide his ears flattened against his head (Ishi hates this because it hinders his hearing and is terribly uncomfortable), make-up to hide his skin tone, and gloves to hide his missing pinkies. They then came up with the ruse that Ishi is Demarcus' nephew Timmy. (Hubby originally said “cousin” but then Roz accidentally said Demarcus was his “uncle” and we ran with it.) Ishi was NOT a fan at first, but realized family members don't necessarily like each other. Knowing he didn't have to act like he liked Demarcus, he easily ran with the cover.

As tI'kael went to the Phoenix Casino to collect Mevakor and his bodyguards, Quinton and Demarcus escorted Ishi to the ship. A burly, bald dude named Rocco, whom Demarcus recognized as a money launderer for the Borniko Syndicate that is stationed on Sonhandra, was waiting at the Stardancer for the crew to return. Upon seeing Demarcus, Rocco greeted him with a bit of condescension.

The Echo Wave Riders are actually trusted allies of the Bornikos, and the Riders have been breathing down the Syndicate's collective necks about the Stardancer crew. First, the crew pissed off the Riders by sniping some experimental land transports they were excited to get their hands on, and then made it worse by seemingly targeting their RIP racing drivers. To try to smooth things over, one of the Borniko's higher-ups MaxiMillions (canon name; I didn't make that up) got in contact with Rocco to pass on a message to the Stardancer crew. Rocco then handed Demarcus a micro-SD card containing a message from the Echo Wave Riders. The crew was tasked to find a way of broadcasting the Riders' call-to-action about a system-wide race they're planning. The Riders don't care if it's broadcast through the galaxy-wide communication system - the ansible network – or if it's broadcast through the Hegemony News Network. All they care about is that the word gets out within 2 weeks (all time measured by Earth standards still). This is the mandatory Borniko Syndicate job the crew got as an entanglement in the first session.

Rocco and Demarcus had some back-and-forth, but Demarcus still accepted the job in the end (seeing he had no choice in the matter). Rocco then departed, washing his hands of the job. Demarcus and Quinton were left behind basically going, “Whoops. Didn't realize the factions were friends. Guess we should TRY to get along with the Riders.”

Upon boarding the ship, Ishi instantly grabbed for his weapons blueprints. However, Quinton convinced Ishi to let him make digital copies, “as backups.” Ishi agreed as long as he was instantly given the sole copies of his work to also keep safe. Quinton, through hacking shenanigans, managed to sneak a digital copy of the blueprints for himself while also convincing Ishi that, yes, he does have the sole digitized version of his blueprints.

Meanwhile, over at the Phoenix Casino, tI'kæl looked for Mevakor. (BTW, the image of a phoenix has been morphed throughout the centuries, and now everyone in the sector agrees that a phoenix looks more like a flame-red emu on fire.)

BEHOLD ITS MAJESTY!
(creative commons emu clipart
doctored in GIMP by LycoRogue)

I knew I didn't want a phoenix to still resemble what we think of. It didn't seem realistic that Earthen depictions of a mythical creature wouldn't change even when Earth itself is basically forgotten (or, if SaV is like Star Wars, wasn't where these humans ever originated from). I also knew that I wanted the phoenix to now resemble a dopey bird. I almost went with a dodo or kiwi bird, but I've been seeing a LOOOOT of Liberty Mutual LiMu-Emu commercials lately. So... emu. The fact that I found this even derpier clipart of an emu to use as a base is just icing on the cake.

Generated by Bitmoji

In tI'kæl's attempt to track down Mevakor, she figured it would be easier to look for his bodyguards among the sea of elites gambling. Except, she mistook at least 3 other pairs of “big, burly, human males” as Mev's bodyguards, and now tI'kæl is dealing with the realization that perhaps she's a bit racist....

Eventually she did find Mev and his bodyguards at a card table. He was lackadaisically playing some evolution of Black Jack while mostly using the poker table as a means to socialize with fellow elites. When tI'kæl walked up, she overheard Mev talking about his trip to Mem in “hushed” tones (as far as he thinks, they were), and inviting all of the other gamblers to meet up with him there. He planned out a viewing party for them all to observe the moon at its “peak.” Mev also planned for the elites to actually stay on Mem for a few days, turning the viewing party into a full festival. That way they could see the moon not at its “peak” as well, and compare the two; truly appreciate the glory that is Yuura at its greatest by observing it when it's not as well.

Dealing with the fact that Mevakor basically turned her home planet into a tourist trap for human nobility, tI'kæl collected him and his bodyguards to head back to the Stardancer. She gave him a heads up that the captain picked up his “nephew.” Mev then noticed tI'kæl's wrapped arm and asked what happened. She quickly responded with, “[Timmy's] a biter.” Mevakor already found children boring and exhausting, and wanted nothing to do with them, but to find out “Timmy” was “a biter” solidified Mev's resolve to avoid “the kid” at all costs. Perfect. Ishi's disguise and cover as Timmy was better solidified that way. Mev was also overjoyed that “Timmy” was being a brat and locked himself away in his quarters (Ishi was still cranky over the “incompetent” crew that was in charge of escorting him to the Cove, as well as the unexpected detours to bring Mevakor to Mem and then back to Vos before the crew actually took Ishi out of the star system).

And with that, the crew, plus 4 passengers, flew off to Mem. And I'll save the rest for next post.

I do appreciate how quickly the players are latching onto my NPCs of Mevakor, the other RIP racers, and Ishi. I was also shocked at how nervous Roz sounded as tI'kæl was left stranded in the darkness, and especially when she was bit by one of the creatures. I was nervous I wasn't getting the tension up enough, but that reassured me that at least she was getting worried for her character. Quarthix is also really getting into the roleplaying, usually taking the narrative lead when interacting with NPCs or deciding what to do while the crew is on a job. It's probably him evolving as a roleplayer in general, and not necessarily the way I'm running the game, but when I think back to when I first started playing RPGs with him - or even how he is just socially - seeing him take the lead is just so awesome.

Hubby also getting a bit stumped on how to get past the obstacles I come up with is equally rewarding for me. I know he's letting the other two take more of a lead since he's usually the frontman in most campaigns, but he also does swoop in and help them come up with solutions. He doesn't leave them hanging, and he typically thinks outside of the box. So I've been careful to not go over much of the story elements I'm plotting for the upcoming game with him. I figure, that way he can also have the "fun" of figuring it out cold like the other two. Then for him to not think of or stumble upon any of the solutions I came up with? For me to have to "rescue" the players by having Ishi venture out into the wild to find THEM?

It's definitely challenging, but it's such a relief to see that it all seems to be paying off. I hope the story is just as entertaining for you fine folks. I haven't had any comments on these posts yet, so, again, if you'd like me to move on to something else, or start up a separate blog to post this stuff on and just leave this blog dormant until I have writing updates again, please let me know.

Until next time!

Scum and Villainy rule book cover designed by art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha,
Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin
(Cheesy Batman-series-joke edits by LycoRogue)