Character Sheet
Character Sheet
Isabelle Morgenthau
A Fisher

Isa (left) and her boyfriend Arren (right)

Hard Keen Calm Daring Wild
+4 -1 +4 +1 -1
Moves
Creepy: When a comrade sees you perform a ritual, overhears your prayers, or sees signs of your alienness, they lose Trust in you. Once they learn one of your Moves, they are no longer affected, but they gain Creepy as well.
Deep Ones:When you call out to your patrons, they give +1 forward on your next roll.
Blessing: When you dab fresh blood on an item roll +Calm. On a 16+, take both. On an 11-15, choose 1. Effects last 1 Routine.
  • Take +1 Ongoing with this item this Routine. (+5 Handling for a plane)
  • The item cannot break or be lost this Routine. (Armour 3/8+ for a plane)
On a miss, make a bigger sacrifice or the machine is damaged.
Ideomotor Response: Your plane effectively has a programmable autopilot. It does not have to be switched on and off; it "knows" when you are behind the controls.
Soul-Bound: When you paint a rune in blood on an aircraft, you are linked. While in flight, you can take incoming Structure damage as Stress, 1-1. You can take a hit that would strike a Component as Injury, or give incoming Injury to your Engine.
Written in Ink: When you get a tattoo to mark an major milestone, take 3 Stress , describe the tattoo and where it's inked, and link it to a Fisher move. Whenever you use that Move, lose 1 Stress (max 1 time per Routine per Move).
Bond: (Witch move learned from Wulf) When you hold an object of significance and make an emotional connection to it, take 1 Stress. The object becomes a magical Focus, and you learn it's Nature (Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Iron, or Blood).
Whispered Answers: You get visions.
Gifts from the Abyss: Your connection to the Deep Ones is physically changing you. Name the physically obvious mutation you have received and describe how it frightens or disgusts the unfaithful. It can be hidden, but not perfectly, and just seeing it will trigger Creepy. All XP advances now cost 1 less XP (minimum 1).
Strategist: When you lay out a plan of action, anyone following the plan (including you) can opt to use your stats on the roll if they are better, and roll Seize the Initiative with their best stat. This lasts until a comrade is wounded or events go drastically off script.

Mastery
The Bushwack
Ambush Predator: When you strike an enemy who is unaware of your presence, roll with Advantage.
Forced Evade: When you fire to scare an opponent off, spend 1 ammo and roll +Hard. On a hit, instead of dealing damage, choose one: Target dives 1, target climbs 1, target loses speed in a forced turn. On a 16+, roll attack dice on them anyway.
Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 AP.
Scissors Snip: When you disengage, give an ally +3 towards dealing with your target.

Familiar Vices
- Drinking
- Prayer
- Dancing
- Cannabis

Intimacy Move
When you are intimate with another, choose one of you to get a hold. They can spend that hold to give the other a command: if followed, then forward to their next +Stat move, they will always score at least a partial hit, regardless of what the dice say.

If you use this move in the air, there are two holds, and they can be distributed however you agree.

The Company
People
  • Isabelle (Fisher): The PC. Was once an acolyte training at her village's temple, but fled abuse at the hands of the cult leader. Possibly the mortal avatar of the dark gods, and remarkably calm and patient, Isabelle is the world's most mature 19 year old. Which isn't saying much. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • Arren (NPC- Confidant/Observer): Your cute fish boyfriend, Arren is a sweet boy in way over his head, but he loves you more than anything. Artist, deeply empathetic, quietly devoted, everyone finds him hot. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • Wulf (Witch): Your girlfriend and a former bandit leader with a fractally tragic backstory. Basically incapable of impulse control, she puts on a confident mask to hide how much she's hurting. Her dad was a wolf. The world's only transgender pansexual half-fae witch. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Hard +3, Keen +3, Calm -2, Daring +0, Wild +3 (Avenger)
  • Minna Hammerl (Soldier): Highly trained soldier from a military junta, who exiled her due to her autism. The squadron's second in command, the most beautiful woman in the world, and the only person on this crew of idiots whose life doesn't revolve around getting laid. Does not use contractions. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Hard +4, Keen +1, Calm +2, Daring -2 (Professional)
  • Heinrich Engel (Student): Political science student working on his thesis-slash-manifesto. Mentor in a queer society back home, he's the one who actually knows things about stuff. Deeply camp. "i think if heinrich tried to not say stupid things he would suffer a toxic buildup and fucking die"
    • Hard -1, Keen -1, Calm +2, Daring +2
  • Anny Meldgaard (NPC - Mechanic): A young half-Fischer, half-Himmilvolk woman from Piav, trained by the mechanics there. Looking for adventure and her origins. Blushes pink?
  • Ronja Devapala (NPC - Non-Combat Pilot): Anny's friend from Piav, descendant of Skyborn but adopted by locals, unsure who she is. Enthusiast of sarcasm and the only person on the crew with her shit mostly together.
Temporary Members
  • Marcus (Farmer): A Macchi native. He goes where Lyse goes. Flies a specialized seaplane with a precision rifle.
  • Lyse (Scion): A bastard child of a Sopwith noble family. Flies a V-engine triplane conversion.
  • Ann-Lise Holms (Revenant): The ghost of famed Great War ace Stormcloud, the best female fischer ace of the war. Flies a 200hp KW-AN.

Aircraft
  • Isa & Arren's Plane: A Teicher Möwen seaplane. Steel frame, liquid-cooled engine. Deeply possessed. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • Fang Howl: Wulf's helicopter. An experimental pre-war model. Liquid-cooled radial. Three wolf moon. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • Pup: Wulf's Kreuzer Skorpion prototype retrieved from a sealed hanger. Gets a lot out of an underpowered engine.
  • Minna's Kobra: An inline-engine powered, wood framed fighter. All around an excellent machine. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • Heinrich's Reconstruction: A canard plane with a 30mm cannon in the nose. Awkward and unstable but hits like a train. 1 thaler per Routine.
  • The Pioneer: A huge 3 engine'd cargo plane with capacity for two airplanes and an additional eight people. 3 thaler per Routine.
Stress XP Mastery
7 3 2
Cash Expenses Value
22 14 11
Vice Track: ☐☐☐☐☐
9 Victories​
You're welcome
 
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2-5: They Need Human Hands
You let the sights drift over the upper wing deck and pulsed the trigger. Solid hits, and it wasn't moving out of your gunsight, so you held the guns down until they ground to a stop, the heat from the extended burst causing misfires one after another. The upper wing deck of your target folded like a sheet of paper, and without the tension on the interplanar struts, the lower wings went a second later, leaving the dart-like body of the enemy craft plummeting towards the water, the claws of its landing gear flailing ineffectually.

You smiled to yourself. Not a wasted round.

"Um, Miss Morganthau, behind, behind us!" Aayden's voice started. You glanced back, and as expected the other aircraft was slotting in behind you. You weren't worried: the presence of your gunner, even a green one like Aayden, would prevent the enemy from getting too close or shooting too easily, giving you space to crank the throttle open and make distance. When you're forty kilometers an hour faster than almost everything else, you learn to be patient and watch for your moments.

"Weapons free, Aayden." You said calmly.

The was a shuffle behind you, weight shifting, but no gunshots.

"Weapons free, Aayden. Shoot him. Now." You repeated.

"It's not... it's not working!" He said. "The trigger won't pull!"

You realized just in time that you needed to turn: you stomped both feet down left rudder and threw the stick over, just a little too late. Dagger-like projects tore through the air, punching through your upper wing deck and embedding themselves in the curved wood of the floats, and the enemy broke off a second later. You weren't sure where they went, somewhere in your blind spot maybe.

"The safety, dummkopf! Lever above the trigger, pull it up!" Arren had shown him on the ground. It was not hard.

"I-I'm sorry, I-" He started to stammer, but you cut him off.

"Not now!" You did not have time for this. He could have gotten you killed.

===

Panel.

[ ] Scan the skies for the target.
[ ] Extend away, now. Run for home.
[ ] Write In.​
Adhoc vote count started by open_sketch on Jun 4, 2019 at 7:00 AM, finished with 492 posts and 11 votes.
 
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Yeah, there's a case to be made for running. I think we can take them, but that was pretty bad.

Now, is anyone else wondering about the chapter title? Maybe a little freaked out by it? "They need human hands". I can't help but situate that in the context of whatever the deal with the key is, in the absence of another obvious interpretation, and the picture it hints at is not one I especially like.
 
[X] Scan the skies for the target.

We're already in the fight, might as well finish it before the clockwork can jump someone else. Running away without knowing where the enemy is seems similarly risky regardless.
 
Yeah, there's a case to be made for running. I think we can take them, but that was pretty bad.

Now, is anyone else wondering about the chapter title? Maybe a little freaked out by it? "They need human hands". I can't help but situate that in the context of whatever the deal with the key is, in the absence of another obvious interpretation, and the picture it hints at is not one I especially like.

For context, the titles of the last three chapters have been:

"They Do Not Feel"
"They Do Not Serve Us"
"They Need Human Hands"

I'm not sure exactly how these all fit together but it does feel like there's a pattern which may be meaningful.
 
For context, the titles of the last three chapters have been:

"They Do Not Feel"
"They Do Not Serve Us"
"They Need Human Hands"

I'm not sure exactly how these all fit together but it does feel like there's a pattern which may be meaningful.
"They Do Not Feel. They Do Not Serve Us. They Need Human Hands To Turn The Key"
I imagine
 
Yeah, there's a case to be made for running. I think we can take them, but that was pretty bad.

Now, is anyone else wondering about the chapter title? Maybe a little freaked out by it? "They need human hands". I can't help but situate that in the context of whatever the deal with the key is, in the absence of another obvious interpretation, and the picture it hints at is not one I especially like.
My first thought is something along the lines of "Soylent Green is people," though I'm not sure how you use people to make clockwork.

No, wait, I remember now - I read a steampunk novel once where the villain had an army of robots, and the leather for their gearbelts was all human skin.

[X] Extend away, now. Run for home.
 
[X] Extend away, now. Run for home.

Run! They're after our hands!
 
[X] Scan the skies for the target.

There's just the one left, right? Let's finish it off.
 
Hm. On the one hand there's just one left, Isa's quite the talented pilot by now, and the Cthulhumobile is a brick with wings so getting shot a bit more isn't catastrophic. On the other hand, Isa's Keen is...not great, so it's very likely that when we find this thing it'll be somewhere we'd really rather it wasn't.

Still...

[X] Scan the skies for the target.

If the enemy is at all in position to shoot at us, then (based on the last iteration of the rules I know of, at least) I'm pretty sure we'll get shot at while Extending anyway. I'm willing to gamble on taking them out before they get a second round of shots off if we stick around.
 
It's not running away, it's charging in the other direction!
Besides, I don't wanna explain a wounded kid to everyone in what was supposed to be a trial run :(
 
2-6: To Turn Their Keys
"Keep your eyes open! They're going to come back around!" You said. You glanced up at the mirror to see what he was doing, but it was still shattered, the ingrained habit still useless. They were there, somewhere. Watching you.

Your plane entered a cloud, and the world went white. Condensation built up on your goggles, cold water tickled at exposed skin. Aayden shivered.

"I don't see him." He said quietly. "I can't see anything." He was scared, you could hear it, but there was some steel there now. Your outward confidence was keeping him from panicking.

"It's a cloud, Aayden." You said. You were doing your best to stay calm, but it was hard not be angry at the poor kid. "If he gets close, we'll hear him first."

"Right." He said.

A second later, you heard something. Not an engine, not roaring exhaust. Just the wind, and a click-click-click, baring audible over your own aircraft. A shadow descended over you.

Then your whole world skewed to the side, the plane jerked in the air. Aayden screamed into your intercom, a sound of pure terror, and once again you glanced uselessly at your mirror before turning in your seat.

The enemy plane had come down like a striking eagle, the talons on its landing gear clamped into the steel frame of your tail, wings rearing back to arrest your speed. Aayden, still screaming, clamped his fingers around the trigger of his gun, shots tearing through the belly of the machine, then one of the claws shifted, crushing the gun position, pinning him against the wall, talons punching through the wooden divider between your seats. One of them was slick and red. You felt transfixed, unsure of what to do, as a panel opened in the underside of the machine... no, not opened. It was a split in the skin, like a cut on the belly spilling entrails, as mechanical parts boiled forth. Something like an arm reaching out, clanking, snapping, reaching for your chest, for the key held there.

There wasn't a lot that scared you anymore, but you screamed, blind terror gripping your brain, and scrambled away, hitting the quick release on your harness, and your back pushed the stick forward, straight down. The elevator pitched and the nose dropped, a sickening weightlessness, the blood rushing to your head, and the claws scraped free of the rents in the canvas.

The one around Aayden did not let go, tearing him from the cockpit, his scream for help and mercy cut off as the intercom was ripped from his head. His safety line snapped, his static line ran out, and his parachute burst open as the clockwork aircraft pulled away, pulling the machine around into a spin. You didn't see how it happened, but a few moments later the silk was floating free, and the clockwork plane was diving away, the boy clutched in its talons.

What do you do?
 
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Now, is anyone else wondering about the chapter title? Maybe a little freaked out by it? "They need human hands". I can't help but situate that in the context of whatever the deal with the key is, in the absence of another obvious interpretation, and the picture it hints at is not one I especially like.
Yeah, they need humans to turn their keys.
They're not true AIs. They're demonic entities that have been summoned into clockwork shells off and on for a few centuries.

One of their weaknesses is that they magically cannot wind their own springs.

I'm guessing that if humans stopped winding, then they would be helpless. But good luck with that, because I think it would be super easy for them to hold some isolated town hostage, forcing the inhabitants to wind their springs.

No, wait, I remember now - I read a steampunk novel once where the villain had an army of robots, and the leather for their gearbelts was all human skin.
Oh, hey. I think I read that book too.

Also, wow, that was a delightfully painful hard move. If we're going to save the kid, we're going to have to do something desperate. I think firing the guns stands too much a risk of hitting the kid or the parachute, so...

[X] Ram the clockwork plane to break its grip on the boy.
-[X] Call on the Deep Ones for help
 
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Okay, thought. How far is the Clockwork plane diving? Like, because if we destroy it he's going to fall, and if he falls, the odds of us catching him (and the odds of it mattering) are pretty low. So the closer to the ground we do this, unless we have some way to be sure to catch him, the better...

I'm going to go and look over skills, just in case.
 
Okay, thought. How far is the Clockwork plane diving? Like, because if we destroy it he's going to fall, and if he falls, the odds of us catching him (and the odds of it mattering) are pretty low. So the closer to the ground we do this, unless we have some way to be sure to catch him, the better...

I'm going to go and look over skills, just in case.
They're fast, but you're faster. Nothing can outrun you over any kind of distance: over the course of Whispers 1 you guys put together one of the most powerful fighter engines in the world.
 
Okay, there are two possibilities that actually have us saving him. One, we shoot it down and catch him like goddamn badasses. Two, we shoot it down close enough to the ground that he might not die.

They're fast, but you're faster. Nothing can outrun you over any kind of distance: over the course of Whispers 1 you guys put together one of the most powerful fighter engines in the world.

So, do we have any idea what altitude they're diving to?
 
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