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

Reader mode
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
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • open_sketch said:
    You went into the same environment with one soldier, two kissable cutes, and a nerd...
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    And air support! Granted, it's a farm kid using grandpa's old tractor and a stuck-up noble who'll probably have issues with Sopwith, but we do have air support and high overwatch.
    FrangibleCover said:
    Unfortunately we've killed too many clockmen to get anything useful out of an interrogation. Now it's me, the boy, two droids and no questions.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Look, we can take them back to Alderburg, if they're willing to pay. :V
    10ebbor10 said:
    It's from the dark and mysterious lore of "I think I read this somewhere".
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Wot we know about Sopwith:
    1) It still exists, but has extremely limited power projection.
    2) It doesn't have a lot of industrial base, so wasn't really a target in the War
    3) It's like the Pacific Northwest and western Ireland combined with the Orkneys, in that it's raining more often than not.

    I... don't really have a good plan for this.
     
    [X] Plan Let's Chat
    -[X] The clockworks clump up for easy machine gunning but otherwise stay where they are Wulf and Minna keep them covered and watch out for anything the gunfire may have attracted.
    -[X] Isa, Arren and Heinrich join Florentina and the ward in "our" sub for a chat.
    -[X] Indicate a bit of what we know on the Leviathan machine to get Florentina listening, then deflect and fish for info.
    --[X] Clockwork info-dump (bringing up, you know, the whole evil feral clockwork kidnapping children thing, but maybe leaving out the god-killing for now to avoid leaking info on the machine)
    --[X] What Sopwith wants with the machine. Maybe there's a good answer that doesn't involve conquest, but I very much doubt it. If there isn't, or it's an obvious lie, get Florentina thinking about how that looks from the outside maybe.
    --[X] Why they in particular were sent to do this. Their forces are too small, and you don't send a kid for this sort of thing. Someone wants them dead. Who and why? Treat that conclusion as obvious from the facts. Maybe reference Minna's situation if there is doubt.
    --[X] What exactly they know about the leviathan machine. If the previous lines of discussion got to Florentina at all, be prepared to share more of the story to make her talk. If not, fall back on the obvious and implicit stick because we are unlikely to achieve willing cooperation on acceptable terms.

    Hey roll me a quick +Calm.
     
    Rockeye said:
    I roll.

    Is 15+ or 16+ crit?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Wait, isn't is 2d10, not 1d20?

    Edit: well assuming it is in fact 2d10, and this roll is what counts, thats 12 and a partial, which isn't bad (Assuming i'm not forgetting any wound penalties or changes from the stat switching we did with wulf that i vaguely remember being part of the pre mission stuff?)
    Abby Normal threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: Just in case Total: 8
    4 4 4 4
     
    Last edited:
    Abby Normal said:
    Wait, isn't is 2d10, not 1d20?

    Edit: well assuming it is in fact 2d10, and this roll is what counts, thats 12 and a partial, which isn't bad (Assuming i'm not forgetting any wound penalties or changes from the stat switching we did with wulf that i vaguely remember being part of the pre mission stuff?)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I believe only Wulf ended up being affected by the stat stuff (it could target either of us, not both) and I don't think we're at -2 or worse to Calm right now so yeah, that should be a partial.
     
    4-8: The von Aichhaldens
  • Apocrypha
    • You grimaced.

    "Okay, cool. Get your stupid clockworks to stand right there..." You pointed to an open area of the docks opposite, where the conning tower had a clear line of sight. "Facing the wall, hands on their heads. Wulf, Minna, if they move, destroy them."

    Florentina waved a hand and shouted the instructions, and the two missing clockworks clamoured out of the water and stood passively, their unnaturally long arms resting on their featureless heads. To your surprise, and disgust, the two downed machines also struggled to their feet despite missing pieces, shifting and convulsing as they seemed to rebuild themselves before your eyes. You were nervous, but you trusted Wulf could keep them managed.

    "Okay, get that kid and come to our boat. Now. Keep your hands where we can see them." You instructed, gesturing for Heinrich to head inside. Florentina helped a small figure in an equally small gas suit out of the hatch, and the two of them walked past their clockworks and to your sub, where you escorted them with the muzzle of your pistol down the hatch.

    "Hey babe, can you purify the air from out there?" You asked as you passed by. Wulf gave you a little thumbs up, and as soon as the hatch closed there was a rushing sound and pop of air as she did her stuff.

    You counted to ten, then pulled off your hood with Heinrich and Arren.

    "Air's clean. Take the suits off, now." You said. Florentina quickly pulled her hood and mask off, exposing the face of a woman who was maybe middle aged, dark hair and skin, struggling to get a small pair of spectacles back onto her face. The kid didn't look anything like her. He was maybe nine years old, if that, looking at you wide-eyed. He had four golden keys around his neck, just like the one you'd found on your plane's wing.

    You gestured to the mess table in the sub, and the nervously took their seats. You finally holstered your pistol, but Arren was still armed, so you weren't worried. Heinrich sat with a notebook and a pen to take notes.

    "Okay. Start talking." You said.

    "About..?" Florentina said.

    "What's with the clockworks?" Arren asked.

    "They're property of one of the noble families. They were commissioned alongside twenty others in the early 1500s, though almost half have been destroyed or lost. They... they have to follow the orders of whoever holds the keys." She explained.

    "Why is that the kid instead of you?" You asked.

    "She's not of the right family." The kid added. "We can't let her have them."

    "So they sent a kid." You said flatly.

    "No it's... okay, I'm the deputy Archivist for the Sopwith royal family, it's an extremely prestigious position. Woldemar here is... here as a symbolic gesture, of sorts..."

    "Woldemar von Aichhalden, nice to meet you." He said, beaming, clearly not fully understanding the circumstances he was in.

    "... Yes. He's the son of one of the prominent families in the court, he's studying with me for a few years. The clockworks belong to the family, it's verymuch their expedition, with the blessing of the royal family, of course."

    Heinrich showed you his notes quickly, and written and underlined in the corner was LYSE VON AICHHALDEN. Oh shit.

    "It really looks like they sent you out here to die. You got any family gunning for you, Woldemar?" You asked.

    Woldemar shrugged helplessly, and Florentina leaned forward.

    "Can we talk without the kid?" She said, pleading. You nodded and indicated for Arren to escort the kid forward, and you unholstered your pistol below the table just in case.

    "Alright, what's going on?" You asked again.

    "He's with us as a sort of insurance. A few months back, his older half-sister Lyse fled their estate, took an airplane with her. It wasn't considered much of a big deal at the time, she'd been disinherited of course. It actually tied things up quite neatly for the family."

    "Of course, a bastard." Heinrich said neutrally.

    "Indeed. Nothing was thought of it until it was noticed that she stole an heirloom from the family. A locket with the family seal on it. Priceless old thing, incredible history..."

    "What does that have to do with anything?" You asked, sharing a frustrated glance with Heinrich.

    "... The locket can be used to control the Leviathan Machine Sheeta, which was commissioned by the family for the Sopwith Royal Flying Corps." Florentina said grimly. "As Sopwith was a potential target of Gotha, despite the peace treaty, it was employed in a preemptive strike against Gotha occupation bases before their bombers could launch. It was then used to destroy several cities in Macchi that were under Gotha occupation, including this one, using it's gas projectors, then it was sunk into the ocean. We were worried that if it was known to still exist, what was left of Gotha's government might come for us."

    You noticed Heinrich gripping his pen white-knuckle, hearing this woman talk so casually about the mass death inflicted as a precautionary measure.

    "We were to check its last known location and report back, nothing more. Woldemar is with me because if Lyse is controlling the machine, it will almost certainly be used against the family that disinherited her, and the line must survive." Florentina finished.

    You glanced up at the ceiling of the sub, where somewhere above you Lyse was circling.

    "Yeah." You said, not sure where to go from here.

    What do you do?​
    ​
     
    Last edited:
  • Apocrypha
    • I'm... A little confused to be honest?

    The clockworks are acting at the behest of an outcast daughter? Knowing this thread, we'll befriend HER too, somehow.
     
    The wayward daughter might have comitted deicide. Not sure they'd get along.

    Anyway, this can not be their whole plan.
     
    I think the wayward daughter is flying overwatch for us. She has a leviathan control locket. We don't know if she has the leviathan to go with it. I'm going to guess no or she wouldn't be working for us. She's probably using this job to look for it though.

    We also don't know if Sheeta was the being that killed our god.

    Were the clockworks we fought just before that under Sopwith control? Also unknown.
     
    I feel like I need one of those pegboards with the red string, but my first impression is that this is a B plot, and not really entangled with our main quest. The clockworks are a red herring.
     
    Last edited:
    Karlito said:
    I feel like I need one of those pegboards with the red string, but my first impression is that this is a B plot, and not really entangled with our main quest. The clockworks are a red herring.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Summary of what you know so far.
    - The Clockwerks seem to be a major force up here in Macchi.
    - Isa saw her god die.
    - She had some kind of vision about a machine which may have done it. There were clockwork elements involved, but distinct from the machinery around it.
    - Heinrich's first thought when he heard about underwater machines was the scientific u-boats used by a university.
    - You've hired a fancy looking woman named Lyse von Aichhalden to be your air-cover.
    - At the u-boat hanger you found one used boat and another that was used by these Sopwith folks.
    - They said that Lyse stole the control mechanism for a Leviathan machine.
    - For context,     this is a Leviathan Machine. Some of them also walk or tracks or whatever though.

    It may be you decide to head back to the plane with some prisoners, or steal a sub to leave, or whatever, so lemme give some direction.

    Discuss a plan addressing...
    - Do you ask more questions?
    - What do you do with these two?
    - What do you do with their clockworks?
    - Is it time to leave? Do you take the plane or steal a sub?
    - When you get back home, what are you going to be doing about them, Lyse, etc?
     
    [x] Keep talking Chuckles
    - In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    - We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control?
    - we ask you this cause we have seen Lyse recently, and would like an asseseemnet of how boned we would be if she was, maybe, flying over use as we speak?
     
    Last edited:
    [x] Keep talking Chuckles
    - In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    - We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control?
    - we ask you this cause we have seen Lyse recently, and would like an asseseemnet of how boned we would be if she was, maybe, flying over use as we speak?
     
    [X] Close to the chest
    -[X] In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    -[X] We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control? How does the key control work?
    -[X] Could the Leviathan cause wounds consistent with what killed our god? (IIRC they were cut open and a three hundred metre gutting knife seems like a weird thing to fit to a city killer)

    I would really rather not reveal that we know where Lyse is. It could provoke the Sopwiths to precipitous action and suddenly we're trying to fight an exceptionally heavily armed aircraft using rifles in a heavy Chemical environment. If we end up needing to kill her I'd rather do it while we're both in the air or while we're both on the ground.

    More broadly we need more information and I don't think we can decide what to do holistically until we know what we're up against. And whether it's any of our business, like, if the Leviathan didn't do it and these submarines didn't do it then they can all murder each other or whatever.
     
    Last edited:
    Similarly, I would rather not reveal that the thing killed our god.

    [X] Somewhat Closer to the chest
    -[X] In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    -[X] We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control? How does the key control work?
    -[X] What does the Leviathan look like? What armaments does it have?
     
    [X] Somewhat Closer to the chest
    -[X] In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    -[X] We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control? How does the key control work?
    -[X] What does the Leviathan look like? What armaments does it have?
     
    "X] What does the Leviathan look like? What armaments does it have?"
    problem with that is they told us the weapons it has, when they mentioned it has Gas Projectors.

    That said, it may not be a bad idea to keep things
    [X] Close to the chest
    -[X] In case Sheeta is in enemy hands, how could it be stopped?
    -[X] We have been attacked by Clockwerks recently, can clockwerks get free of control? How does the key control work?
    -[X] Could the Leviathan cause wounds consistent with what killed our god? (IIRC they were cut open and a three hundred metre gutting knife seems like a weird thing to fit to a city killer)
     
    Last edited:
    CallmeIshma3l said:
    problem with that is they told us the weapons it has, when they mentioned it has Gas Projectors.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We can always ask for more detail.

    And I think it's quite important that we don't tell them that we're here because we suspect that it killed our God. Because if they know that, they know we'll want to destroy it, and the House of Sopwitch probably doesn't want it's superweapon blown up. Telling them that we suspect them of involvement in divine murder may make them very suspicious of us, because they'll probably fear that we'd kill them for their involvement.
     
    Last edited:
    At the minute we've got a shitload of firearms pointed at them, if they're not terrified we'll kill them now then they're hardly going to become terrified when we tell them that evidence suggest Lyse is a deicide and we're not happy. Equally there's the risk that they'll claim Lyse totally did it so that we'll let them go and chase after her.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top