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
    • Acatalepsy said:
    [X] Take the direct route over the dead city.
    - [X] Sell or repair the gun, whichever is possible here.
    - [X] Get tools to do engine repair work.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I like this, but I think we could also maybe look for anyone who can give us a general tune-up. Plus see if we can get a new gun, if we can't repair the old one. May want to look at getting some guns for ourselves, as well, if we have to make an emergency landing in Tannbach.

    Nevill said:
    [x] Any delivery job on the way to your next destination? Might not be worth much, but it pays for the fuel!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I like this too!

    [X] Take the direct route over the dead city.
    - [X] Sell or repair the gun, whichever is possible here.
    - [X] Look at the selection of guns on offer. For our plane, but also ourselves.
    - [X] See about getting an engine tune-up.
    - [X] Get tools to do engine repair work.
    - [X] Any delivery job on the way to your next destination? Might not be worth much, but it pays for the fuel!
     
    [X] Take the direct route over the dead city.
    - [X] Sell or repair the gun, whichever is possible here.
    - [X] Look at the selection of guns on offer. For our plane, but also ourselves.
    - [X] See about getting an engine tune-up.
    - [X] Get tools to do engine repair work.
    - [X] Any delivery job on the way to your next destination? Might not be worth much, but it pays for the fuel!
     
    [X] Take the direct route over the dead city.
    - [X] Sell or repair the gun, whichever is possible here.
    - [X] Look at the selection of guns on offer. For our plane, but also ourselves.
    - [X] See about getting an engine tune-up.
    - [X] Get tools to do engine repair work.
    - [X] Any delivery job on the way to your next destination? Might not be worth much, but it pays for the fuel!
     
    [X] Take the direct route over the dead city.
    - [X] Sell or repair the gun, whichever is possible here.
    - [X] Look at the selection of guns on offer. For our plane, but also ourselves.
    - [X] See about getting an engine tune-up.
    - [X] Get tools to do engine repair work.
    - [X] Any delivery job on the way to your next destination? Might not be worth much, but it pays for the fuel!

    Okay, here goes. Roll me...

    - 2d10 for finding a job.
    - 2d10 to sell the gun.
    - 2d10-3 for finding purchasable.

    Here's how this works. Towns have stats, just like clients. Those stats are Wealth, Population, Industry, and Defense. Wealth is a measure of how much spare capital the town has, and affects the quality and quantity of jobs. You'll be more likely to find the kind of jobs you want the wealthier a town is, and they'll also be more likely to buy your surplus. Population is how many people in the town are skilled and looking to sign on to a Circus, so you roll that to hire people. Industry the ability of the town to provide technological goods; you roll it to try to make purchases or find out what's on offer. Defense is a measure of a town's ability to care for itself; its air militia, ground forces, and natural defenses, and you roll that if they are helping you or if you are attacking them.

    Mike's Outpost has Wealth 0, Population 1, Industry -3, and Defense -3. It's a shoestring operation in the middle of nowhere notable only for a fairly high volume of cargo traffic heading up the coast.
     
    Yes, this could have gone better!

    Lemme roll up your job and I'll update for you!
    open_sketch threw 1 20-faced dice. Reason: Job Type Total: 1
    1 1
    open_sketch threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: Complications Total: 14
    6 6 8 8
    open_sketch threw 1 10-faced dice. Reason: Client's Offer Total: 3
    3 3
     
    Hey, that's what makes Questing fun!

    I'm excited to see what kind of job we get. Also, it occurs to me, emergency landings for us over land are kinda more complicated... : /

    We may want to think about some kind of fix for that. Maybe little wheels that can flick out of our floats? Might be kinda difficult.

    (also i had another, much more exciting plan for the floats)
     
    1-9: Worthless Weapons
  • Threadmarks
    • "Yeah, that gun's worthless."

    Mike's Outpost had an on-site mechanic, who seemed vaguely frustrated at the idea of having to work on any aircraft, though not hesitant to take your money. You bought a kit of his spare tools for pocket change, and now you were trying to offload the gun you took off the old c.10 you'd shot down. He ran a hand over the salvaged gun, pointing out issues as he went.

    "Firing pin's worn, bolt's twisted, barrel's warped, and there's rust throughout. This thing probably jammed more often than it shot even before you put a bullet through the receiver. This is scrap."

    "Oh... is anything salvagable?" You asked, wincing. "One of my guns is sticking and..."

    The mechanic took one look at your gun, struck something with a hammer, and effortlessly worked the charger.

    "Misalignment." He said. He dropped back to the gun and, with some effort, pulled the wooden handle off the charger.

    "Look, I haven't got anything available, but when you get to Aldershof, find Irma's gun shop. She's a sucker for the original walnut furniture; this'll get you in her good books. If it shoots, she can find it or build it."

    You stashed the wooden handle in your coat. "Danke schön. One last thing. While you're check the engine, is there anything you can do to tune it up? We're a little underpowered..."

    He nodded sternly. "Yeah, there's some things I can do. I can just do a quick tune-up pass and try to get more out of what you have; depending on the state of the engine and what I got, you might get more power, fuel efficiency, or reliability, but... well, engines are delicate. Engines don't always run the same afterward. That'll run you 2 thalers and take all night, if you don't mind sticking around. The other thing I could do is install a supercharger; that'd get you about 15% more power and be weight-neutral. Expensive parts, though, and it'd take me a few days to match it up to an engine like this. 6 thalers."

    - [ ] "I'll pass."
    - [ ] "I'll take the tune-up."
    - [ ] "I'll take the supercharger."

    The supercharger is the +Power per Volume upgrade on your engine. The tune-up mechanics give a random bonus to your engine, and a chance of a downside as well.

    We'll continue with the plan after you make your choice.

    Side note: Lemme know if the random German gets annoying. Flying Circus takes place in a vaguely Germanic world and I am a sucker for the Random Language Interjection trope, but I know it irritates some people. If it helps, please imagine everyone with Hollywood German accents.    ​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • I feel like the Supercharge is prolly worth the money, even though it's pricey -our plane is our livelihood and we should be making a bit of money on this job anyway. On the other hand, I'm kind of curious to see what the Tune-Up will do.

    [X] "I'll take the supercharger."

    Ultimately, I think power is what we need the most right now. Plus I want to see our boyfriend's reaction when he realises we just blew more than half our money on a sweet new toy for our plane. :lol

    open_sketchbook said:
    Side note: Lemme know if the random German gets annoying. Flying Circus takes place in a vaguely Germanic world and I am a sucker for the Random Language Interjection trope, but I know it irritates some people. If it helps, please imagine everyone with Hollywood German accents.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I DEMAND MORE RANDOM GERMAN
     
    [X] "I'll take the tune-up."

    I'd guess there will be less expense and more options if we get some upgrades to the plane in Aldershof. Getting a major upgrade in some tiny little outpost in the middle of nowhere seems like it will inherently be far more expensive than the same upgrade in a big city.
     
    sovinnai said:
    [X] "I'll take the tune-up."

    I'd guess there will be less expense and more options if we get some upgrades to the plane in Aldershof. Getting a major upgrade in some tiny little outpost in the middle of nowhere seems like it will inherently be far more expensive than the same upgrade in a big city.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I think you're definitely right that wealthier and more developed settlements will tend to have a greater range of specialists and craftsmen; which in the general case should extend to mechanics and the kind of people who can upgrade aircraft. They should also naturally be able to make or source more stuff to put in aircraft. On the other hand, however, quite often these kind of larger communities tend to be closed shops, or close to it, a little more like a medieval economy than a modern one. Skilled artisans and craftspeople have paid in quite a lot to be able to open up shop there, precisely because they know they can charge more of a premium in a wealthier town which has more people and commerce moving through it. A village or trading post mechanic, on the other hand, may have less parts and other craftsmen* on call, but the mechanic is probably charging a lesser premium for their time, and not charging for putting fancy engraving and hallmarks on the stuff they make.

    So on balance I'd say that smaller settlements may on average have less variety to choose from, but bigger ones may be a tad more expensive to live in and buy stuff from from, although you can get much cooler stuff much more easily. There's probably a very natural way to work that into the sliding scale of Industry and Wealth for settlements; actually. I would like to add that none of this is in the rules as yet. That's why this is so valuable as a playtest, because we can get thoughtful commentary like this from playtesters. So thank you, seriously, me and @open_sketchbook really appreciate it.


    *(Upgrading a fighter plane from the WW1 to early pre-WW2ish era can actually take a surprisingly wide array of skills and trades, rather than just engineers, because of how they're built. Anything from mechanics and gunsmiths, natch, but also carpenters, people with experience with string instruments, painters, and probably tailors or sail-makers too. The fuselages of De Havliand Mosquitoes were built in former piano factories in the Second World War in Britain, for example.)
     
    1-10: Six Entire Thalers
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] "I'll take the supercharger."

    You forked over your money and watched for a few hours while the mechanic pulled the engine free and began work. The supercharger would go under the engine, and it had a wide circular intake with a fan. It didn't quite fit into the existing structure of the plane, but some chopping soon solved that problem.

    Arren came wandering down soon after, chewing on an apple. "Huh, engine was worse-off than I thought, I guess." He said. "Look's like they're replacing, like, all of it."

    Oh boy. "Uh, not quite. I bought a new part to get some more power out of it. See that bit with the fan belt?" Okay, you had to put this to him gently. Sugarcoat it.

    Arren leaned closer, as if proximity would give him magical understanding of the mechanics involved. "What does it do? Some kinda air-thing? Is it a gun?"

    Is it a gun?!? Artists! "No, babe, it's a supercharger. It forces more air into the cylinders, makes the engine faster."

    "Oh wow." He leaned back, and you giggled a little at the smudge of oil on his nose which he remained quite oblivious to. "More power is good. How much did that run you?"

    Oh great, here it goes. "It was a real steal." You said, as casually as you could.

    "I don't know engines, darling. Give me an idea."

    "... six... thalers?"

    - Roll me 2d10+3 to prevent your boyfriend from flipping out!​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • 1-11: Trust Break
  • Threadmarks
    • "Six! That's like... that's more than half of our money! Isa, what were you thinking?"

    Oh gods, why? "This thing is our livelihood, Arren! If we're going to make it out here, it has to work and we have to not die. We couldn't live off six thalers forever, but it can make us more money in the long run..."

    You realized about halfway through your explanation that you were talking to air; Arren was stomping back to the inn. Urgh, boys.

    Well, at least you had a few days to bring him around.

    - What do you do?​
    Arren has lost Trust in you! Trust is the mechanic between comrades and confidants that keeps track of, well, trust! Pilots are petty and break trust with one another over pretty much anything, while confidants want you to be safe and secure (and usually faithful...).

    Confidants don't give you any benefit while they don't trust you, and they might not want to come with you anywhere. If you want Arren to follow you anymore, and you want that sweet sweet Stress relief, you're gonna need to win him back!

    You can sever your trust in your Confidant as well, but that's always a choice on your end.    ​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • TBH I don't know what we were thinking either. I don't think we should plan to stick with this plane forever, and I'd rather get to somewhere bigger and see more options before sinking money into the plane.

    Uh. Question, are there bodies of water somewhere around here? I feel like we need to go for a swim.
     
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    Yeah sure! Let's say there's a lake really close nearby; Mike goes fishing there and its where the water for the seaplane airstrip comes from.
     
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