Whispers from the Deep - Biplanes & Bisexuality

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Character Sheets
  • Informational


    • Character Sheet
    Isabelle Morgenthau
    A Fisher

    Isa (right) and her boyfriend Arren (left)

    Hard Keen Calm Daring Wild
    +4 -2 +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: You can call on your patrons to Help you on a roll. On a 1, you Break after this mission.
    Blessing: When you dab fresh blood on a piece of working equipment, roll +Calm. On a 16+, take both. On an 11-15, choose 1.
    • Take +1 Ongoing with this item this Routine. (+1 Handling for a plane)
    • The item cannot break or be lost this Routine. (+1 Armour on 1 Section of the Plane.)
    On a miss, you need a bigger sacrifice. Don't disappoint.
    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.
    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).
    Contemplation: When you draw a ritual circle and stay within it, roll +Calm. On a 16+, you come out of it about an hour later refreshed; strike 3 Stress or 2 Injury. On an 11-15, it takes the whole night, and you're unreachable in that time.

    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

    Vice Progress
    - Breaking Stuff: ☑☐☐
    - 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. She's out to find her way in the world. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Arren (NPC- Confidant/Observer): Your cute fish boyfriend. Artist and recently trained observer. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Wulf (Witch): Former bandit leader. Actually half wolf. Hot as hell. Ex-Goth. 1 thaler per Routine.
      • Hard +3, Keen +3, Calm -2, Daring +0, Wild +3 (Avenger)
    • Minna Hammerl (Soldier): Inexperienced but highly trained soldier and passionate duelist. Speaks all formal-like. The most beautiful woman in the world. 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.
    • 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 red?
    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 thaller per Routine.
    ​
    Stress XP
    3 7
    ​
    Cash Expenses
    41 10.5
     
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  • Informational
    • 10ebbor10 said:
    Not really. It's not at all hard to follow.
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    That's a personal thing. But more importantly here, I think if Sketch wanted us to not be able to undo it, we wouldn't have access to our boyfriend right here?

    So it's a question, in my mind, of how lucid Isa is, and if she'll remember that she can ask to undo the trance. Which basically comes down to characterization.

    If we stay in it, maybe that implies we're more suggestible and hard to shake out of things, even in the heat of battle, and if we do remember, that speaks to our will somewhat?
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    can you tell me what you liked? critique a bit? that's a question for the floor really.
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    If it's not too late to give feedback, I've got some.

    I really like the setting. It's my favorite level of post-apocalyptic where you can travel to fun relatively-isolated communities that have unique flavor (I really liked the mountain dam town). Playing as traveling mercenaries also gives a great excuse to keep checking out different areas.

    The crew keeps getting interesting jobs. I don't know how much of that is well-designed job generation tables or how much is good execution on those prompts, but it's working out well

    Most of the mechanics are simple enough for me to understand. I don't quite grasp the finer points of aircraft design and the magic system, but I know when and what we need to roll for.

    If I had to critique the quest, I'd say that I'm not getting a strong narrative throughline. Until the last job, the crew was just focused on earning enough money to keep their heads above water. Now that they have money, I'm not super sure what their long term goals are. Of course, the characters probably don't know either, and their job certainly encourages living in the present, so this may be a product of the genre.

    It's very fun, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    hey, don't do this. outright dismissing the subjective and personal concerns of another person is a dick move.
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    It was not the intention to dismiss a subjective concern, as Jebodoid did not formulate it as such. He made an absolute statement, rather than a statement of personal opinion.

    NemoMarx said:
    That's a personal thing. But more importantly here, I think if Sketch wanted us to not be able to undo it, we wouldn't have access to our boyfriend right here?
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    Plot wise, it doesn't make much sense for him not to be there. We send him there, the plane crashed there, and it would be weird to engage in plot shenanigans just to preserve a minor narrative quirk.


    Anyway, back to the flaming airship. The problem is that if people use fire magic to deal with the fire, you can't use air magic to prevent the plane from falling further into the airship and causing all sorts of trouble (and possibly reigniting, if the metal is still hot).
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    It was not the intention to dismiss a subjective concern, as Jebodoid did not formulate it as such. He made an absolute statement, rather than a statement of personal opinion.
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    First of all, would be cool if you didn't misgender the other players.

    Secondly, you could extend like, the tiniest amount of charity that somebody expressing an opinion of a subjective and personal thing is probably expressing a personal opinion would be nice. Like, seriously.

    10ebbor10 said:
    Plot wise, it doesn't make much sense for him not to be there. We send him there, the plane crashed there, and it would be weird to engage in plot shenanigans just to preserve a minor narrative quirk.
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    He is right there. It's mentioned in the update. Huh, kinda sounds like maybe this was slightly confusing, huh? For some people? Weird.
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    First of all, would be cool if you didn't misgender the other players.

    Secondly, you could extend like, the tiniest amount of charity that somebody expressing an opinion of a subjective and personal thing is probably expressing a personal opinion would be nice. Like, seriously.
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    For the gender thing, I try to keep track of everyone, but I don't know everyone on this forum. Mistakes happen, and I'll try to remember. [EDIT: Just remembered, it's placed on the profile. Should have bothered to check that.]

    For the opinion thing, you can extend that same interpretation to my argument. Jebedoid made an argument that it's confusing (which can be interpreted as personal opinion), I made an argument that I don't consider it that hard to follow. It's fine to interpret either as a personal opinion. To undo remaining confusion, have a rewritten version of the argument :

    I don't agree with the idea that the absence of names is inherently confusing, given that there's only a very limited number of characters, and each character is identified with a relatively unique description, which makes it relatively easy to interpret the text.

    So, in my opinion, it's fine and understandable the way it is.

    My point was never intended to be dismissive, but it was intended to provide an alternative/contradicting point of view.

    open_sketchbook said:
    He is right there. It's mentioned in the update. Huh, kinda sounds like maybe this was slightly confusing, huh? For some people? Weird.
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    I think you missed the argument here. The argument made was this :

    NemoMarx said:
    But more importantly here, I think if Sketch wanted us to not be able to undo it, we wouldn't have access to our boyfriend right here?
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    My point is that story-wise, it would be weird for Arren to have mysteriously vanished, just to preserve such a minor narrative quirk.

    I'm not saying Arren isn't here. I'm saying that a situation where he wouldn't be there is unlikely.

    Edit :

    Before this derails further, just a recap :
    - It was not my intention to say anyone's personal opinion is invalid
    - Nor was it the intention to confuse people's genders
    - It was my intention to voice my personal opinion that the gimmick is neither excessively confusing or annoying
    ----- The wording could have been clearer on that.
     
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    [X] Plan Undo It All
    -[X] Self : Douse the Plane
    -[X] Fluffy one : Pull the plane back up using air magic, and if needed, ditch it over the side
    -[X] Other one : Extract the pilot
    -[X] Boyfriend: please give me my names back.
     
    [X] Plan Undo It All
    -[X] Self : Douse the Plane
    -[X] Fluffy one : Pull the plane back up using air magic, and if needed, ditch it over the side
    -[X] Other one : Extract the pilot
    -[X] Boyfriend: please give me my names back.

    2d10-1 for your magic and 2d10+2 for fluffy magic, please!
     
    7-9: Welcome to Town
  • Threadmarks
    • The fire was starting to spread rapidly. You pushed your friends back and grabbed your holy symbol, the bronze points sharp against your skin.

    "Isa, what are you..." Your girlfriend started, then saw your fingers poised to snap and nodded.

    "I'm gonna try to put the fire out." You explained to them, and you closed your eyes, picturing a fire snuffed out, a rush of steam bubbles as it was submerged.

    And you snapped.

    Instantly, you realized your mistake. The fire stopped dead, but in a burst of scalding steam that sent you all staggering back. You winced as the gas stung your face, tripping against the slippery canvas and falling back into your boyfriend's arms.

    The man in the cockpit screamed, a horrible sound that wretched at your soul.

    "Get him out! Get him out!" You yelled.

    Your girlfriend stepped forward, and you saw her pull something from her pouch. It looked like a bird skull with a cord wound through the eye sockets, on which feathers were hung. She gripped it in one hand, and with the other she swept her hand upward, like a conductor.

    Though the pain and horror, your brain registered that she never snapped her fingers. Were you just doing that because she did, one time?

    The steam dissipated instantly as a gust of wind billowed up from inside the envelop of the zeppelin, and then the plane was gripped as though by an invisible hand and lifted slowly out of the hole. Your boyfriend let you go of you, letting you fall back against the canvas, and ran over, knife in hand to cut loose the pilot. The man looked like he was maybe half-fischer, but it was hard to tell, his skin scalded a soft purple around his goggles. You looked away and tried to ignore his pain he was pulled by his suspenders out of the metal plane.

    The moment he was clear, the machine suddenly dropped, and your girlfriend fell to her knees, coughing violently. You reached out a hand to comfort her, and were shocked by how cold her flesh was. Colder than yours.

    "Are you okay?" You asked uselessly. She turned onto her back, wheezing, then nodded weakly.

    "Yeah, fuck. Fuck aluminium. Awful stuff." She gasped. "Do I look okay?"

    "Your nose is bleeding." You said. She touched her ungloved hand to her face and it came away red.

    "Oh, that's not good." She said weakly, then she passed out.

    ---

    You and your boyfriend got the two of them back through the hatch quickly. Your girlfriend came to within a minute, though she seemed rather weak, and you helped her down the ladder to the crew quarters and one of the bunks. She said it was "metal poisoning" or something like that, a consequence of using magic on technological things. Magic was an exchange with nature, and aluminum was basically as unnatural a material as there was, she explained.

    The pilot was brought down on a winch usually used to move guns and other heavy things to the top of the gasbags. Your boyfriend said when he pulled off his goggles, a lot of skin went with it. Bad burns on his hands, neck, and face. Poor boy. Fortunately, he was being tended to in the room across the hall.

    Your boyfriend came in a few minutes later with the soldier, dragging another casualty between them and leaving a streak of red blood across the ground. The crewmember that was hit was the young woman who had told you about the zeppelin's secret mission and lead you to the egg. She was quiet and pale, pale even for an inlander, her eyes wide open with shock.

    The zeppelin came to a halt not long after, and you heard the ramp moving. The captain and foreman rushed by the room, and a few minutes later an old woman in a cloth mask came by, a doctor, presumably, to tend to the casualties. Your girlfriend felt good to walk, so the whole team shuffled out down the ramp and into the town to get out of the doctor's way.

    It was a tiny, shitty little hamlet, notable only for the amount of concrete in the construction. There was a barricade around the airfield, and guns pointed at the ramp by a half-dozen guards. Everyone was wearing what looked like worn old business suits, and the foreman was talking to a man in a bowler hat animatedly. They paused their conversation as you came near.

    "What do you want?" The man in the bowler hat said, his face twisted into a sneer.

    "A drink." Your girlfriend said weakly. Rolling his eyes, the man in the bowler hat jerked a thumb through the barricade, and some of the guns lowered to let you through.

    You ended up at a sort of open-air bar, collapsed around a steel table that had probably once been a working surface at a factory. The only thing the bar had was some terrible beer, dark bread, greasy butter, and some wild fruits, and they also acted as a currency exchange for a pile of ceramic, triangular coins. Everyone ate and drank in silence.

    You looked around at your team, and realized you still couldn't remember their names. You poked your boyfriend's arm sheepishly.

    "Hey, babe, um... I still can't..."

    He looked at you, puzzled a moment, then he laughed, the sort of absurd laugh of somebody on the edge of breaking under pressure.

    "Hey Isa. Remember." He said. You always felt like there should be a dramatic event, when this happened, but it was more like a sort of gradual realization. It suddenly occured to you that the downed pilot was probably Karl. You wondered what had happened to the other pilot. The foreman was probably trying to negotiate a rescue mission for them right now.

    "Thanks, Arren." You said, just to test it out. Your mind clear, you looked your team over.

    Wulf was leaning heavily over the table, looking tired and a little green. She'd actually pushed her beer away and asked for some water, and when the bartender had shook her head sadly, she'd gotten some tea instead. There was still a crusted red stain under her nose.

    Anny was quiet, her ceramic mug held in both hands, staring off into the distance. She was probably still processing what had happened.

    Minna was rocking gently, back and forth in her seat. Her hands, forearms, the entire front of her jacket was stained with blood, and some of it was smeared across her face, probably from trying to wipe something away with her sleeve. When she saw you were looking at her, she stopped moving dead and dropped her eyes away.

    Arren was on his third beer, and his face was utterly neutral. You checked Minna's pocketwatch, open on the table: it took you a second to read, having 24 numbers instead of 12.

    It was 12:34.

    You felt... strangely out of place. Everyone seems to have had a much tougher time than you. Nothing that had happened to you was too bad. You were just glad that your team had made it through mostly intact. Sure, you'd almost died, but...

    Well, it would have been quick. You wouldn't have to wait long to find Arren or Wulf again. The creek you were following, the only that powered the waterwheels here, lead to the river Elba, and that emptied into the Dark Sea. A short trip to the water and the city below. A short trip to where you belonged, back to your mother's side, to the place your patrons had set aside for you. They didn't see much difference between life and death, and to be honest, neither did you.

    It was the in-between that was scary. Not the being dead, but the dying. However it happened, you hoped it would be quick.

    Not like the woman bleeding out on the bedsheets when you left.

    Not like Karl, his skin boiled by steam.

    Not like the Goth pilot whose plane had burnt with him at the seat.

    Not like you, slowly bleeding out from a gunshot wound as your got Elke to safety.

    Things could be worse.

    [ ] What do you do?

    This town is a bit of a shithole. It's Wealth -2. It'll be hard to find anything advanced here, but other the other hand things will be cheap.

    I'm giving you 3 Stress. One for combat, one for seeing the horribly wounded man, and one for the failed spell and light scalding. By contrast, all your pilot friends are about 5 Stress right now, putting them in the officially stressed category. The NPCs aren't doing great either, but don't worry, they don't have a stress track.

    We'll be using the new ground rules here. That means that Scrip is in effect; everything you buy will add to the tally, and we'll roll at the end of the routine to see what extra expenses you incur. Don't worry though, poor towns are cheap. I'll mark 1 on the tally to represent the meal.

    As your planes are safely back home, you dont need to pay upkeep on them right now. Upkeep is already deducted.

    Scrip
    I    ​
     
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    • open_sketchbook said:
    The first stopped dead, but in a burst of scalding steam that sent you all staggering back.
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    I think this should be fire, not first. Threw me for a loop for a moment.

    Anyway, IIRC, this place only interesting characteristic besides being survivalist nutjobs is that it makes ceramics.

    We should figure out some way of dealing with Stress (because if nogiations fail, we'll end up in battle once we get back), maybe aid with negotiations, maybe spy on the defenses, and probably be carefull not to be attacked because you're spying on defenses.
     
    Okay. This place is cheap, but has very limited selection.

    If we try to buy ceramics, the airship might be able to carry enough to make a profit (probably not a large profit but it might be better than leaving the zeppelin empty but for the generators).

    If the survivalists have spare guns, this would be a cheap place to get everyone their own pistol or rifle. Also, it would give Minna (the soldier) an excuse to give the others some gun advice, displaying her expertise and maybe making her feel more comfortable.

    Uh, I think there might still be some downed Talon pilots somewhere in the woods. I guess we could try to hunt them down on foot and get some intel/payback, but that might be uncomfortably close to what the Goths had Wolf do (so she wouldn't like it).

    As for stress relief, there don't seem to be many options (even the beer doesn't seem binge-worthy). Maybe Isa/Arren could lead a group prayer for the dead and/or in thanks for not being dead themselves? Foreign prayers in a town of crazed survivalists seems excessive and/or dangerous enough to count as a vice.
     
    ancusohm said:
    As for stress relief, there don't seem to be many options (even the beer doesn't seem binge-worthy). Maybe Isa/Arren could lead a group prayer for the dead and/or in thanks for not being dead themselves? Foreign prayers in a town of crazed survivalists seems excessive and/or dangerous enough to count as a vice.
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    We're unable to binge on beer. I recommend prayer with our team.
     
    ancusohm said:
    Okay. This place is cheap, but has very limited selection.

    If we try to buy ceramics, the airship might be able to carry enough to make a profit (probably not a large profit but it might be better than leaving the zeppelin empty but for the generators).

    If the survivalists have spare guns, this would be a cheap place to get everyone their own pistol or rifle. Also, it would give Minna (the soldier) an excuse to give the others some gun advice, displaying her expertise and maybe making her feel more comfortable.

    Uh, I think there might still be some downed Talon pilots somewhere in the woods. I guess we could try to hunt them down on foot and get some intel/payback, but that might be uncomfortably close to what the Goths had Wolf do (so she wouldn't like it).

    As for stress relief, there don't seem to be many options (even the beer doesn't seem binge-worthy). Maybe Isa/Arren could lead a group prayer for the dead and/or in thanks for not being dead themselves? Foreign prayers in a town of crazed survivalists seems excessive and/or dangerous enough to count as a vice.
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    I feel like crazed preppers would not be terribly willing to part with any of their guns.
     
    [X] In the neighborhood of hedonism...
    -[x] Get beds. (Two rooms, one w two and one w one large.) Get baths lined up. Get food delivery lined up for dinner.
    -[x] Get a bunch of reject and miscast ceramics and smash them on the edge of town. Vent by breaking things, and hitting them, and throwing them, and shooting them. Get out the rage.
    -[x] Pray, and offer to induct the others if they would like. Watch over the others if they have their own way of praying.
    -[x] sleep.

    So, ceramics are the cheap thing around here? We can make entertainment out of that, especially if the squad's stress is coming from adrenaline and frustration. Catharsis sort of activity.

    Then prayer, because we did both pull heavily on the magic. Maybe get Wulf out into the woods to counteract the metal poisoning, do a full set of prayers with A to center him and remind him that he still has ail the parts of home he liked most with him, then offer the soldier and the mechanic a chance for a connection. The mechanic is fischervolk, right? She might go for it out of wide-eyed wonder and heritage, soldier want to be a part of something bigger again.

    Edit: pulling x's because I think the standard moritorium is in place this time around? Isn't combat any more, so...
     
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    Well @Glau your plan looks good to me so I'm gonna just go ahead and vote for it even if you technically haven't yet.

    [X] In the neighborhood of hedonism...
    -[X] Get beds. (Two rooms, one w two and one w one large.) Get baths lined up. Get food delivery lined up for dinner.
    -[X] Get a bunch of reject and miscast ceramics and smash them on the edge of town. Vent by breaking things, and hitting them, and throwing them, and shooting them. Get out the rage.
    -[X] Pray, and offer to induct the others if they would like. Watch over the others if they have their own way of praying.
    -[X] sleep.
     
    Bed, bath, and food are good. Minna hasn't learned any of our moves yet, which means that a prayer session where she can see it is a bad idea.

    Hunting down the Talon pilots takes it from being business to being personal and bloody, so I don't want to do that.

    There are five ways to remove stress and convert it to XP, not all of which we can use:
    1) Vices! Which if you're unlucky, result in a bad thing and no reduction of stress whatsoever! Do not trust in luck
    2) Srs talks about feelings. Minna can't do this.
    3) Special moves, like Commune or the Farmer's Breeze In Your Hair
    4) Breaking trust in an obvious and loud way. This doesn't do anything about net stress through, as regaining trust costs a stress
    5) Venting. This is effective, but can only happen when you... snap. And it gives some stress to other PCs.

    So smashing stuff? By RAW, as I understand it, won't do anything about anybody's stress levels unless we use it as a chance for srs talk about feelings and such
     
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