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
    • [X] She learns how to use a high-throttle dive to trick her interrupter gear. (Overdrive)
    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)

    TBH I don't really get the combat system but I do know we have a super-duper-overcharged engine we use to dive on people, and this seems to tick those boxes?
     
    The culture clash was a delight to read.

    [X] She learns how to handle her G-Forces better. (G-Tolerant)
    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)
     
    [X] She learns how to handle her G-Forces better. (G-Tolerant)
    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)
     
    [X] She learns how to disappear into the vertical after a slashing attack. (Vanishing Act)
    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)
     
    [X] She learns how to efficiently fight in the turn. (Start Dogfight Mastery + Riding the Edge)
    [X] She learns how to fight in a formation, something that lone patrols from a Fischer village can't teach (Switch Weave)

    Alternative interpretation, +5 Handling is almost always useful and the "Dive in and fuck shit up" abilities we already have are hugely multiplied by being able to climb above the combat and then dive on any enemy threatening a friendly aircraft while they're unaware of us. We always seem to have to bail other characters out of trouble, might as well take the move for it.
     
    While I am happy that the will of people has spoekn for Marcus getting that autopilot, that does mean we now have to teach him the other one wehn we pick up the 1 in a Million shot trick. Also:

    [X] She learns how to handle her G-Forces better. (G-Tolerant)
    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)
     
    [X] She learns how to disappear into the vertical after a slashing attack. (Vanishing Act)
    [X] She learns how to fight in a formation, something that lone patrols from a Fischer village can't teach (Switch Weave)

    also, sweet christhulhu we need a geared prop
     
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    open_sketch said:
    "Basically. But also, there's a sense of solidarity among the seaplane pirates? Because if you're out there, you're somebody who's looking for freedom, and everyone can respect that." he said.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    These islands remind me of something...
    Maybe asking for actual Marco Pagot, Fio Piccolo and Mme Gina is too much, but maybe a lil cameo... Sadly pirates here cannot be as goofy as the Mamma Aiuto! Crew.
     
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    [X] She learns how to pull up while preserving speed (Back to the Clouds)
    [X] She learns how to fight in a formation, something that lone patrols from a Fischer village can't teach (Switch Weave)
     
    open_sketch said:
    Sometimes on long trips Isa lets the old man fly and comes back to cuddle with me in the gunner's seat.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

    Yanez said:
    These islands remind me of something...
    Maybe asking for actual Marco Pagot, Fio Piccolo and Mme Gina is too much, but maybe a lil cameo... Sadly pirates here cannot be as goofy as the Mamma Aiuto! Crew.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Oh my god, I love that movie. "I repeat, 'We're coming for you Isa. Ah, argh, get off me!'"
     
    Now all Marcus needs to do is find his father's lightsa- I mean Ancient sword and be part of some prophecy.
     
    6-18: Fighting the Vertical
  • Threadmarks
    • Minna had to head back to get back to work on your plane, and Arren was heading over to check on Wulf, so you headed back to the hangers yourself, to where your plane was perched on a dolly, the preferred way of taking off when there was no bodies of water to use. Captain Holms had already rolled her plane out onto the field and was walking around it, checking the wire tension. Her ammo belts were pooled on the ground beside her, removed for the training flight, and empty gascans were lined up nearly beside it. She looked up at you from under the brim of her hat and shook her head, as if disappointed.

    "What?" you asked, a little indignant.

    "I can't believe people dress like that. You look..." she said, shaking her head. "The future is ridiculous."

    You felt a little flash of shame, but also an impulse to defiance at that. As if this wasn't something you just managed to get the courage up to wear yesterday.

    "I think it's better than being conscripted into a uniform for a big dumb war." you pointed out. Nailed it.

    "Fair, though... You wouldn't have gotten conscripted, girl. At least... not while I was... in the service." she stumbled over the words a moment, "They only took women who volunteered, and only for reserve units and auxiliaries. At least in Fokker."

    "Yeah, I know. I read about it." you said. "How you had to really fight for it. I thought it was... really brave, but I didn't understand why."

    "I wanted to serve my country." she said simply, as if that explained anything. You couldn't even begin to understand what any of that meant. "It was important."

    "What was? The war? What was it... even supposed to be about?" you asked.

    "The Macchi Republic is a nation of war... was a nation of war profiteers. Their entire economy was built on it. They sold millions of marks worth of military equipment to the UWF, then sheltered their war criminals when they lost, and they would have just kept sowing war across the continent unless we stopped them." Captain Holms explained.

    "You didn't actually believe that, did you?"

    "Gods, no. It was bullshit, I figured that out pretty fast when I came here. Gotha just wanted the castor oil, and Fokker didn't want to fall behind and become next. Doesn't matter anyway, I was just a pilot." she said. "Who taught you to fly?"

    "Um... the flightmaster in my village, Herr Haugaard?" you said, half-expecting her to know him. "He was in the war too."

    "Flightmaster... so much as changed and you still have that shit. We fucking hated those guys." she spat, actually spat on the ground near you. You recoiled. "What?"

    "That's... you shouldn't do that. It's unsanitary." you said, wincing.

    "How'd you guys go through the end of the world and get so sensitive?" she asked, shaking her head in disappointment.

    "There was this big plague... no, listen. It's really gross!" you followed her around the side of her plane. "What's bad about flightmasters?"

    "That was how they snatched people. The conscription board." she explained, leaning into her cockpit for something. Her jacket, her cigarettes: you preemptively turned one down. "Fischervolk had a whole bunch of service exceptions because we basically fed the kingdom, but the Army didn't much care for that, so they sent veteran pilots down to live in the villages and teach people how to fly for the reserves. Teach kids, you know, a home defense thing. Thing was though, if you could fly, you had to go, didn't matter what exceptions you had. They'd teach these boys how to fly and then the next month have them pulled from their houses and sent to the front as 'trained pilots'."

    "Oh, well, I mean, this was nothing like... we have a militia..." you sputtered as she struck a match off the worn leather padding around her cockpit.

    "Yeah, not the same thing, I know." she muttered. "Still, these kids would show up with a couple hours of flight time at most, and they'd skip the regular training because, you know, they were already certified. And they'd just fucking die. They were cannon fodder. The only reason I did so well is because it took me a while to get in so I got a lot of training before I ever saw my first enemy plane. I had almost fifty hours."

    You winced. You had two hundred and thirty hours flight time when you left home: you were Herr Haugaard's favourite student, the only adult other than your father who'd ever believed in you. Holms blew a cloud of smoke in the air, and it was swiftly snatched by the wind playing over the airfield.

    "Still, my notes say you fly pretty good, for hauling a 13S around. But you take too many risks, you fight sloppy. Only a matter of time before somebody shoots you." she said.

    "Oh, that's already... here, look!" you said, pulling the left edge of your shirt up a little to expose the scar. "Yeah, right through and out the back! I got in a head-on with these Goth pirates..."

    "Like... Gotha troops?" she asked.

    "Not... really kinda?" you said. "Big fascist army down south, really bad, fuck those guys. But, yeah, no, getting shot sucked. Upside, I did meet my girlfriend..."

    Holms blinked at that, raising an inquiring finger, but apparently thought better of it.

    "Yeah, well, no matter how, uh, pretty the nurses are, getting shot sucks. You fight like a natural-"

    "Thanks!" you said, smiling.

    "That's not a compliment. Natural pilots do well against most pilots because they panic in the air, but one of these days you're going to get stuck in a lufbery and then fucking die when somebody with some discipline gets the energy advantage. You need to be smarter than that." she explained. "I know none of you have any formal training anymore, but eventually somebody is going to get the better of you, especially in a big heavy crate like that."

    "I would prefer not to die." you agreed. "So... what do I do?"

    "You know pilot sign?" she asked. You signed yes back, and she nodded. "Cool. I'm going to teach you how to fight in the vertical."

    "I know how to do that!" you declared, and she shook her head.

    "Properly."

    ---

    Twenty minutes later, you were circling over the town, scanning the skies.

    Captain Holms had given you a crash course on the basics, and now you were going to try to show what you learned. As per her instructions, you'd climbed to 1200 meters, and she'd be somewhere, circling, waiting. You'd have to try and engage her, wrest the energy advantage, and put her in a bad spot, and she said she was going to act as though she wasn't expecting you to come in.

    There. Just about fifty meters from your location, moving away and to the left, her little back biplane. You opened the throttle a little and shifted the plane over, setting up for an intercept, preparing to roll over into a dive.

    ---

    Roll me 2d10+3​
     
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