Even Death May Die - Cute Cthulhu Cultist! (Flying Circus Quest)

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Character Sheet
  • Informational
    • 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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  • Informational
    • 3-1: The Wrong Blood
  • Threadmarks
    • CW: Discussions of self-harm, suicide.​

    Ever since you were young, very young, you had the dreams. Visions of the future, as best as it could be relayed by beings with a loose grasp on time. All your people had these dreams, but you were particularly blessed with them. They robbed you of sleep, they were almost torturous sometimes, but you always tried to gleam what meaning you could from the discordant imagery, the grating sensation.

    It had never been like this before. Never as clear, never with such horrifying detail.

    You witnessed water rushing through the heart of a vast and terrible machine. It was old, rusted, vast gears and pistons churning as it sank into the sea and water poured into the cracks and joints and filled up the engine spaces. Belts of shells were pulled through enormous weapons, generators rumbled and furnaces roared to life as it began its dark work. You were spirited through the machine, up, up up as though it were a great, shifting, living tower of steel and brass, across walkways and through cavernous chambers all rapidly flooding. You were just outrunning the water, even if sometimes it felt as though your feet weren't touching the ground and you were merely being carried through pipes and gaps by an unseen force.

    Finally, you reached the pinnacle, the heart, or the mind perhaps. Through a porthole, you could see the world outside, the dark ocean, the sea floor covered in lights, something shift and alive and scared. The machine was getting closer, each titanic footfall resonating through the metal, shaking you to your core.

    In front of you was a panel, covered in dials and switches and levers beyond your comprehension. Attached, like a parasite, was another machine, this one different. Gleaming, not rusted, brass and silver and gold, an intricate array of gears and springs and a key, like the one around your neck. It turned slowly, ticking down with each footfall.

    Embedded in the center of the bow was a green gem which glowed faintly, covered in writing you didn't comprehend.

    You gripped the key and pulled it free.

    ----

    The world came back into view slowly, fuzzy at first. You felt strange, drained, tired despite the long sleep, and the layers of sweat that clung to your skin was cloying. There was a bright light coming through a nearby window that made your eyes twitch uncomfortably, and you went to put an arm out to stop it and found you couldn't.

    "She's up! Welcome to the world." A voice to your right side. You glanced over to see Heinrich, sitting with a big book of something or other, glancing at you curiously. "How do you feel, darling?"

    "Like shit." You rasped. Your throat was incredibly dry, it was actually a little painful on the gills. "What-"

    "You're in a clinic, you had terrible blood loss, they strapped you in because they were worried you'd hurt yourself again." Heinrich explained in a single breathe, then checked his watch. "It's 2:54, we've been taking shifts waiting for you to wake up."

    "Oh." You said slowly.

    "To clarify, that's 2:45 the day after. They had you sedated for a while and you slept the rest of the way." He continued.

    You cast a glance around you, and immediately noticed the rubber tube running from your wrist up beside you. On a metal stand was a glass bottle filled with a red liquid that was running down the line. There was a brief moment of discomfort as you realized that there was red inlander blood running through your veins. There was something... blasphemous about that, or something. You weren't sure.

    "Okay. Can you undo these, please?" You asked, pulling again against what you now realized were leather straps holding you to the hospital bed. Heinrich frowned.

    "I'm sorry, sweetie, we're rather worried for you too. And before you try to make that an order, we voted to put you on leave until we figure out what's going on." He said, his voice soft.

    "... alright. How's... that going?" You said, feeling odd.

    "Minna didn't take things very well, so Arren took charge for a bit until she was ready. We stashed your plane away from onlookers, paid off the police, and smoothed things over with the client. We got paid, though no bonus, and the moment you're safe to move we're skipping town, at the request of local law enforcement."

    Urgh, stupid chain of command you'd agreed to.

    "Okay. I'm feeling a lot better now, though. Probably be good to get out before it gets dark..."

    Heinrich closed his book with a sigh, settling back in his chair.

    "Isabelle, I was a member of the Queer Society in my school for five years. Ran it for two. A lot of kids your age cycling through every year with sad stories, people thrown out of their homes, abused, hurting, trapped in abusive relationships, living lies. It was hard, and... You aren't the first friend I've had try to commit suicide." He said, his voice wavering only a moment.

    "I-" You tried to start, but Heinrich wasn't giving you room to talk.

    "I'll admit, I don't really understand any of your religion shit. But if... if it's coming to this, then something's deeply wrong. I talked to Minna and Arren about it this morning, and it sounds like you have a history of self-harm and suicidal ideation. It's not healthy, and it sounds like it's been going on for a very long time. Frankly... I don't trust you're safe, right now."

    As Heinrich talked, it was like the bottom was dropping away from the world. You were angry, a little, that he didn't understand anything about you and your people, but you also felt scared, for a moment, that he was right. You found yourself starting to panic a little, as the magnitude of that thought washed through you, and there was nothing and nobody there to catch you, nothing to pull you out of that spiral.

    You took a deep breath, and prayed for the whispers to come back.

    Please come back.

    [ ] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)​
    [ ] Try to assure Heinrich that you're doing better now. (Get real, restore his trust in you.)​
    [ ] Talk to Heinrich about your problems. Cry, let it all out. (Get real, lose 1 Stress gain 2 XP.)​
    [ ] Ask Heinrich to talk about his own history and try to find common ground. (Get real, Heinrich loses stress and may find it easier to trust you again.)​
    [ ] Tell him to please give you some space.​
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • What were we saving up our XP for? I can't remember now, but the fact that we have 13 XP means we were doing *something*, unless that's not accurate up top.
     
    [] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)

    I think so? I mean, we're going to convert the entire world to our religion eventually, right? Better start small.

    Though this is tempting too:

    [ ] Talk to Heinrich about your problems. Cry, let it all out. (Get real, lose 1 Stress gain 2 XP.)
     
    [x] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Move exchange, -4 XP)

    ...Feels in character.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
    Definitely a good option, Heinrich needs to understand what is happening.
    This is not a situation where we can really afford misunderstandings.
     
    Valmond said:
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
    Definitely a good option, Heinrich needs to understand what is happening.
    This is not a situation where we can really afford misunderstandings.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Though to note, we don't inherently regain his trust with this, unlike some of the other options. But with him no longer creeped out, it'd change the dimsnions of his objections into something more understandable/hopefully easier to deal with.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
     
    The Laurent said:
    Though to note, we don't inherently regain his trust with this, unlike some of the other options. But with him no longer creeped out, it'd change the dimsnions of his objections into something more understandable/hopefully easier to deal with.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    True, trust is important, but i think understanding is more urgent.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your problems. Cry, let it all out. (Get real, lose 1 Stress gain 2 XP.)

    We currently have 1XP per the thing up the top, we can't do a move exchange and therefore I'd prefer to wait until we can do one properly. Also, Isa is weakened in a hospital bed, has just awoken from a nightmare about her god dying and is now being told by someone she still trusts that she's a suicide risk. I'd be crying, not proselytising.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your problems. Cry, let it all out. (Get real, lose 1 Stress gain 2 XP.)

    Once we have 4 XP, we should do an actual exchange.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your problems. Cry, let it all out. (Get real, lose 1 Stress gain 2 XP.)
     
    I hate mechanical reasons for narrative choices. I don't care if we're not getting the full move exchange, this is the narrative choice I want.

    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)

    I feel like this is sacrificing what we need in favor of what the team needs. I think Isa would be okay with that. I think she'd be happier reducing stress with people who already understand her better, too.
     
    [X] Talk to Heinrich about your religion and the importance of what happened. (Get Real, Teach Heinrich a move, he is no longer creeped out)

    Yeah, this may not be mechanically efficient but narratively it feels like the best time to get this out of the way. We'll have to do it at some point if we don't want to keep breaking Trust with Heinrich going forward, and I don't picture him being too interested in a Move Exchange at just some ordinary downtime point (especially with the negative impression of Isa's faith this incident seems liable to leave him with, absent explanation).
     
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