Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

[Tim]

Heh, Have them play Kingmaker. Someone HAS to be in change. (I'm referring to the Piazo Adventure Path)

[Drhoz]

I wish they'd been that orderly about it. All decisions had to be ratified by the rest of the group as they were made, or else there would be moans and cries of, "How dare you make decisions that affect me without giving me a say, first!"

That is a shame - all those opportunities for Monty Python quotes, missed

[Drhoz]

I have to say this is one of the most frustrating sessions I've ever run, at least since I used to try to GM for Team Demolition back in Sydney. And the worst thing about it is that a great deal of it is my fault, and stems from from what I thought was my cunning attempts to mesh together the ongoing 1920s campaign, and the playtest of the 1930s Cthulhu Apocalypse. Instead, the players and their characters had reason to believe that they were in fact, trapped in some Mi-Go Matrix-style virtual reality, instead of a rather more horrifying plan millions of years in the making, involving time travel, multiple Mythos species, and the incidental extinction of humanity. I certainly shouldn't have spent an hour and a half at Matt's going-away do, prompting Ian to recount all the kinds of bullshit he inflicted on games in the past.

And the worst thing about it was players getting argumentative with me when I tried to inflict sanity losses on them when the scale, and time scale, of events, became apparent. I was very unhappy about the session by the end of it, and the "Oh god" count reached ten. Rondale's player was keeping track.

At least my attempts to mesh the campaigns left them with the knowledge that they'll be doing something terribly important, and horribly terrifying, in New York and London in the coming year, and that it involves somebody named Jackson Elias. Oh, and the small enjoinder that the something they do will result in the extinction of their species. Unless the amnesia, mind swapping, time travel, and letters from the dead are all some cunning trans-temporal game to try and ensure that doesn't happen.

Most quotes below give away nothing of the Apocalypse plot, or relate only to my apparently incompetent welding effort.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Anyway - the apocalypse has happened ( You could probably guess as much from the title of the book we're playtesting ). Needless to say this was quite a shock to the Reverend Joe, amongst others. Professor Engeleins has apparently gone catatonic, Colonel Lancaster spends most of the session sitting muttering over the coffee can full of the ashes of the daughter he cremated in the foyer of the post office, McGinty is relishing the fact that everybody in England is apparently dead, but I note he avoids ringing Dublin to see how things fare over the Irish Channel, and Rondale has gone just slightly bonkers as well. And they've run into a woman that apparently knows them, but they've never seen before.

McGinty : Let's go steal the Crown Jewels! An Irishman with the crown jewels, they'll be rolling in their graves. I'll be walking around with my robe and the little sceptre, going 'Look at me, I'm the King!'
Me, GM : *giving him the first of many Looks that session* .... Right.

McGinty, in gas mask ( the ermine robe is acquired later ) and waving a flamethrower.

Virginia Kendall : Are you from the Government?
Paddy McGinty : .....Yes. I commandeer this property in the name of Paddy!
Virginia Kendall : Do you have any ID?

This Ms. Kendall ( ratfan's character for the duration ) has apparently known them since the mid 20s, and is trying to prod their memories about the horrible events in New York, and London. Which, thanks to the bizarre events in play, the regular party members don't know a thing about.

Pvt. Rondale : Ma'am, I have never been in London in my life.
Me, GM : Yes you have, this morning.
Pvt. Rondale : OK, apart from this morning.

McGinty puts it down to drug abuse

Paddy McGinty : Hey hey hey. Look over here. This table is full of cocaine. And there's s***loads of alcohol. This woman is clearly off her chops. She's turned vegetarian.
Me, GM : Yet she knows all your names.
Paddy McGinty : Well clearly she's taken some happy pills that let her see the fut... Where'd you get these happy pills?

McGinty's paranoia becomes alarming

Virginia Kendall :Anybody that knows you is a threat???
Paddy McGinty : Anybody that knows me, and I don't know them, is a threat
Virginia Kendall : Well, it's possible you're not in a state to remember
Paddy McGinty : Well, that's true. I'm quite often in no state to remember. *commandeers another bottle of champagne*
Pvt. Rondale : But I don't drink
Paddy McGinty : Yes you do, I proved it, eleven years ago you fell over almost dead because you'd been drinkin'
Pvt. Rondale : That's because you gave me poison

McGinty, Rondale & Reverend Joe go on a looting rampage through Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Tower of London. This fails to impress Ms. Kendall

Pvt. Rondale : Well, there could be useful ammunition and stocks in there
Virginia Kendall : That's not why you're doing it, sonny
Pvt. Rondale : Not at all, but we might as well check anyway

Various proofs that what they're in can't be reality. 1) McGinty is wearing a tux ( under the gasmask, flamethrower straps and ermine robe ). 2) McGinty is in England.

Paddy McGinty : I'm in England! I wouldn't be here unless I was dragged here by wild Byakhee!

Pvt. Rondale : Do you know anything about Innsmouth?
Me, GM : They mentioned it from time to time. And usually went very quiet.
Virginia Kendall : Something happened in a fishing town, didn't it?
Paddy McGinty : *muttering to self* Fishmen with the claws and the teeth and the murrrrrderous intentions...
Pvt. Rondale : Speak to McGinty about it. He'll keep you entertained for hours.
Paddy McGinty : ...and screaming worms in the sky. It was grand.

Reverend Joe : Where's my Bible?
Me, GM : It wasn't in your suit.
Reverend Joe : This isn't real.
Paddy McGinty : You might have left it your suitcase, numbnuts.
Me, GM : Or lost your faith at some point between 1925 and 1935.
Reverend Joe : Or lost my mind AND my faith.
Paddy McGinty : There's a high probability.

Paddy McGinty : We got to defenestrate somebody from a ground-floor window
Professor Engeleins : And I got to explain what defenestrate meant.
Paddy McGinty : I already knew what it meant! It's a great word. We just don't get to use it often, especially underground.

Definite spoilers ahead, heavily mixed with welding flux. A special no-prize to anybody that can name the cultural references I fitted into the Thing's speech.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Paddy McGinty OOC : And Dover's under the sea. *sings* Under the sea - Under the sea!/ Everything's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me!
Pvt. Rondale OOC : Would have made for a more interesting Little Mermaid.
Paddy McGinty OOC : What, having a Deep One in it?
Pvt. Rondale OOC : Yup.
Paddy McGinty OOC : *sings* Doobeedoo DooDoo beedooBEEdooRAGGHH!!!

Virginia Kendall, climbing up onto an eight-foot-tall table, and finding a paperweight and bundles of 'papers'

Paddy McGinty : What was that? What's up there?
Virginia Kendall : There's a paperweight
Paddy McGinty : Give it to me!
Virginia Kendall : *hefting the head-sized mass thoughtfully* I'm really tempted to give it to him

Some lines I came up with ( or stole ) that I'm very pleased with. Engelein's player came up with the first, though

The Unpronounceable Thing : [We] study how other species react to apocalypse. Every species encounters apocalypse. It happens to all.

Thing : We are not a cruel species. All species become extinct at one point, or another. Even on this world - the serpentmen of Valusia, the pre-human voormis, these have come and gone. You four came to our attention.
Pvt. Rondale : Well, we did set Buckingham Palace on fire.
Thing : Not for anything that unimportant. You are involved in the extinction of your species, ten years ago.
Pvt. Rondale : ........ that somewhat increases the kill count.
Virginia Kendall : That's when I met you!
Thing : Your actions drew our attention - not least because you have been involved in the manipulation of time

And the players indeed have, on four different occasions according to the Thing, but they can only think of two - their recent adventure involving Buttercup the Eldritch Cow, and that arch thing from Innsmouth. Despite their best hopes, setting Big Ben to Irish Time probably doesn't count.

Thing : As the Great Race craft our destiny and our eschaton, we can use you to shape that future - the future can take many paths, many branches - and whilst we are a gentle race sometimes we are forced to prune.
Paddy McGinty's player : *laughs* That's a nasty way of putting it.
Pvt. Rondale : So that's it?? This is all humanity has left?? This is our great End????
Thing : No! Humanity has, can and will become extinct many times! It has become extinct 300 years in your past! It will become extinct in 1945! And again in 2107!
Reverend Joe : ........ huh?
Thing : Time is, in a sense, mutable - lesser races assume time is a strict progression of linear events, but from a non-Euclidean, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a massive spheroid of elastic time-like quasimatter. Your species will, can and has discovered the means to travel in Time many times... the Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi, the devices of Kerensky & Blinovitch, the Zygma Beam of Findecker and Greel, the Time Capsules of Lambert & Newman. Your species will travel in Time - and suffer for it. Eaten by Paradox, hunted by the Tindalosi, earning the wrath of Afmogorgon...
Paddy McGinty : What the fooking hell is this thing talking about?
Thing : ...But the Great Race move on, learning all we can of the civilisations that rise and fall between the cusps of our existence.
Reverend Joe : ... aren't humans the Great Race?
GM and other players : *pause, followed by hysterical laughter*

I don't think I'll include any quotes from the third chapter - I'm that annoyed with how it went. One relevant comment about Cthulhu Apocalypse, however.

Rondale's Player : I notice that this is more pulp in tone than usual.
Me : *Nods* It's written for Trail of Cthulhu, a much pulpier system than Chaosium's original.
Rondale's Player : That's good. I like pulp.
Me : You should like what I have planned for you for the next year then. It's probably the pulpiest campaign Chaosium ever produced.
Rondale's Player : Great!
Me : It also has more ways to have a Total Party Kill than anything they've ever written.
Rondale's Player :

[Hugh Neilson]

Oh, we're not just talking about disruptive behavior. I swear, there came a point when I was expecting the party to "prepare the secret ballots" to decide whether to turn right or left at each intersection.

Now that reminds me of a very old D&D game where the group had decided to appoint a leader (happened to be my character - good choice - a highly chaotic rogue type for leader...) but then decided important matters should be put to a vote by secret ballot. In general, my character was fine with that - who cares how decisions are made, especially since that approach means I don't have to make them. However, at one point, he cared about the decision, so when the secret ballots got handed to the DM said "As I'm leader, presumably I count the ballots. There are eight characters voting. The vote is 5 in favour, 2 opposed and 1 abstention." The DM stopped for a second at my ballot, then opened up the rest of them, jotting down scribbles on a note page behind the screen, and announced the result of 5 in favour, 2 opposed and 1 abstention.

Funny...most decisions my character cared about tended to go his way after that.

As a DM, my answer to the players would simply be "You have just spent 5 minutes discussing whether to turn right or left. I wonder if there's anything close enough to hear all that discussion [roll some dice]". As a player, depending on my character, I would probably find some way to interject that spending significant time at every bend in the corridors seems less than prudent.

I do recall a party where the two fighters in the front took turns opening the doors. At one point they stopped and asked "anyone remember whose turn it was?" A discussion ensued, ending when one of the two players said "Screw it - I open the door". I recall looking at the page and thinking the room with the rather damaging trap was an interesting place to forget, told the player how much damage he took and then added "By the way, it was his turn - you opened the door to" whatever the last door had been. Too bad I was the only one who remembered that.

[Shadow Hawk]

Leadership in most of my DnD games usually devolves to 'whoever takes charge at the moment', leading to wonderful diplomatic efforts by the Bard being interupted by the Barbarian screaming "ODIN!" and wacking the negotiator in two with a greataxe.

But it reminds me of the arguement between the human Fighter, human sorcerer, and half-elf Bard (with the interjection of Five, the half-orc barbarian) about who's responsible for what. It was decided that the fighter was responsible for combat tactics, the bard would do the negotiating, the sorcerer would question prisoners, and the barbarian would divide up the treasure.

(the conversation is repeated earlier in the thread)

[Susano]

Serpent Men of Valusia sounds Robert E Howardish. "The Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi" sounds like HG Well's Time Machine. Is "the Time Capsules of Lambert & Newman" from Half-Life?

[Drhoz]

Serpent Men of Valusia sounds Robert E Howardish. "The Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi" sounds like HG Well's Time Machine. Is "the Time Capsules of Lambert & Newman" from Half-Life?

Yes, close, and not quite

[Black Ops]

Me : It also has more ways to have a Total Party Kill than anything they've ever written.
Rondale's Player : [/INDENT]

Why is he surprised about that ?
He is playing CoC after all.

[Narf the Mouse]

Why is he surprised about that ?
He is playing CoC after all.

He means, more than any other CoC adventure.

[Susano]

Yes, close, and not quite

Yes, the Serpent Men fought Kull. And I figured the HG Wells connection was some sort of sequel or follow-up book. I even read on, once, years ago. And I just realized, It's Gordon Freeman, not Newman....

[Balabanto]

So today in the San Diego Knights, they learned to question their surroundings more often.

The heroes have decided to return the Spear of Destiny to Asgard, and Odin, it's rightful weilder. Unfortunately, since they don't have the capability to easily cross dimensions, not being norsefolk or deities, they contact Norgard, the superheroes of Norway, to aid them. Valkyria agrees to accompany the heroes into Asgard proper, in order to make sure that they don't get killed.

So they wind up in Muspelheim. and avoid the beneficial black basalt castle swarming with Fire Giants. (Hooray for assuming the NPC is right! Oops.)

After crossing the mountains and being exhausted, they find a roadside inn, where they sneak in and get rooms. Sadly, the roadside inn is Loki's trap. So after bathing and cleaning up, an argument erupts over who's going to carry the Spear of Destiny. Keep in mind, it's the Spear of Destiny. None of the PC's are asking me any questions about the inn, the horses tethered outside of it, any of it. But you'll have to wait for the surprise at the end of this like everyone else.

Mesa: Baroness, I'll hold the spear while you sleep.

Gauntlet: It might be a good idea, Baroness, it's the right call.

Red Baroness: No, I don't think so. Whoever is going to take the spear probably isn't going to use physical force, he's going to use subterfuge.

(OOC: At this point, I made an EGO roll for Loki, who can, of course, see everything that's going on, and is doing his darnedest to control the illusion without cracking up and losing it. He made it by six. And he had penalties.)

So the PC's go to sleep, and are awakened suddenly by Valkyria, who shouts...

"OH MY GOD! IT'S FAFNIR! WE'RE IN HIS MOUTH! WE'RE IN HIS MOUTH!"

The illusion ends, at this point, of course, to reveal Loki, flanked by Modi on one side and Magni on the other, with a dragon's mouth eye-view of the world.

Auron: I knew this was a bad idea. I'm never sleeping in an inn again.

Loki: I think I'd like my spear back now.

[Major Tom 2009]

I have to say this is one of the most frustrating sessions I've ever run, at least since I used to try to GM for Team Demolition back in Sydney. And the worst thing about it is that a great deal of it is my fault, and stems from from what I thought was my cunning attempts to mesh together the ongoing 1920s campaign, and the playtest of the 1930s Cthulhu Apocalypse. Instead, the players and their characters had reason to believe that they were in fact, trapped in some Mi-Go Matrix-style virtual reality, instead of a rather more horrifying plan millions of years in the making, involving time travel, multiple Mythos species, and the incidental extinction of humanity. I certainly shouldn't have spent an hour and a half at Matt's going-away do, prompting Ian to recount all the kinds of bullshit he inflicted on games in the past.

And the worst thing about it was players getting argumentative with me when I tried to inflict sanity losses on them when the scale, and time scale, of events, became apparent. I was very unhappy about the session by the end of it, and the "Oh god" count reached ten. Rondale's player was keeping track.

At least my attempts to mesh the campaigns left them with the knowledge that they'll be doing something terribly important, and horribly terrifying, in New York and London in the coming year, and that it involves somebody named Jackson Elias. Oh, and the small enjoinder that the something they do will result in the extinction of their species. Unless the amnesia, mind swapping, time travel, and letters from the dead are all some cunning trans-temporal game to try and ensure that doesn't happen.

Most quotes below give away nothing of the Apocalypse plot, or relate only to my apparently incompetent welding effort.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Anyway - the apocalypse has happened ( You could probably guess as much from the title of the book we're playtesting ). Needless to say this was quite a shock to the Reverend Joe, amongst others. Professor Engeleins has apparently gone catatonic, Colonel Lancaster spends most of the session sitting muttering over the coffee can full of the ashes of the daughter he cremated in the foyer of the post office, McGinty is relishing the fact that everybody in England is apparently dead, but I note he avoids ringing Dublin to see how things fare over the Irish Channel, and Rondale has gone just slightly bonkers as well. And they've run into a woman that apparently knows them, but they've never seen before.

McGinty : Let's go steal the Crown Jewels! An Irishman with the crown jewels, they'll be rolling in their graves. I'll be walking around with my robe and the little sceptre, going 'Look at me, I'm the King!'
Me, GM : *giving him the first of many Looks that session* .... Right.

McGinty, in gas mask ( the ermine robe is acquired later ) and waving a flamethrower.

Virginia Kendall : Are you from the Government?
Paddy McGinty : .....Yes. I commandeer this property in the name of Paddy!
Virginia Kendall : Do you have any ID?

This Ms. Kendall ( ratfan's character for the duration ) has apparently known them since the mid 20s, and is trying to prod their memories about the horrible events in New York, and London. Which, thanks to the bizarre events in play, the regular party members don't know a thing about.

Pvt. Rondale : Ma'am, I have never been in London in my life.
Me, GM : Yes you have, this morning.
Pvt. Rondale : OK, apart from this morning.

McGinty puts it down to drug abuse

Paddy McGinty : Hey hey hey. Look over here. This table is full of cocaine. And there's s***loads of alcohol. This woman is clearly off her chops. She's turned vegetarian.
Me, GM : Yet she knows all your names.
Paddy McGinty : Well clearly she's taken some happy pills that let her see the fut... Where'd you get these happy pills?

McGinty's paranoia becomes alarming

Virginia Kendall :Anybody that knows you is a threat???
Paddy McGinty : Anybody that knows me, and I don't know them, is a threat
Virginia Kendall : Well, it's possible you're not in a state to remember
Paddy McGinty : Well, that's true. I'm quite often in no state to remember. *commandeers another bottle of champagne*
Pvt. Rondale : But I don't drink
Paddy McGinty : Yes you do, I proved it, eleven years ago you fell over almost dead because you'd been drinkin'
Pvt. Rondale : That's because you gave me poison

McGinty, Rondale & Reverend Joe go on a looting rampage through Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Tower of London. This fails to impress Ms. Kendall

Pvt. Rondale : Well, there could be useful ammunition and stocks in there
Virginia Kendall : That's not why you're doing it, sonny
Pvt. Rondale : Not at all, but we might as well check anyway

Various proofs that what they're in can't be reality. 1) McGinty is wearing a tux ( under the gasmask, flamethrower straps and ermine robe ). 2) McGinty is in England.

Paddy McGinty : I'm in England! I wouldn't be here unless I was dragged here by wild Byakhee!

Pvt. Rondale : Do you know anything about Innsmouth?
Me, GM : They mentioned it from time to time. And usually went very quiet.
Virginia Kendall : Something happened in a fishing town, didn't it?
Paddy McGinty : *muttering to self* Fishmen with the claws and the teeth and the murrrrrderous intentions...
Pvt. Rondale : Speak to McGinty about it. He'll keep you entertained for hours.
Paddy McGinty : ...and screaming worms in the sky. It was grand.

Reverend Joe : Where's my Bible?
Me, GM : It wasn't in your suit.
Reverend Joe : This isn't real.
Paddy McGinty : You might have left it your suitcase, numbnuts.
Me, GM : Or lost your faith at some point between 1925 and 1935.
Reverend Joe : Or lost my mind AND my faith.
Paddy McGinty : There's a high probability.

Paddy McGinty : We got to defenestrate somebody from a ground-floor window
Professor Engeleins : And I got to explain what defenestrate meant.
Paddy McGinty : I already knew what it meant! It's a great word. We just don't get to use it often, especially underground.

Definite spoilers ahead, heavily mixed with welding flux. A special no-prize to anybody that can name the cultural references I fitted into the Thing's speech.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Paddy McGinty OOC : And Dover's under the sea. *sings* Under the sea - Under the sea!/ Everything's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me!
Pvt. Rondale OOC : Would have made for a more interesting Little Mermaid.
Paddy McGinty OOC : What, having a Deep One in it?
Pvt. Rondale OOC : Yup.
Paddy McGinty OOC : *sings* Doobeedoo DooDoo beedooBEEdooRAGGHH!!!

Virginia Kendall, climbing up onto an eight-foot-tall table, and finding a paperweight and bundles of 'papers'

Paddy McGinty : What was that? What's up there?
Virginia Kendall : There's a paperweight
Paddy McGinty : Give it to me!
Virginia Kendall : *hefting the head-sized mass thoughtfully* I'm really tempted to give it to him

Some lines I came up with ( or stole ) that I'm very pleased with. Engelein's player came up with the first, though

The Unpronounceable Thing : [We] study how other species react to apocalypse. Every species encounters apocalypse. It happens to all.

Thing : We are not a cruel species. All species become extinct at one point, or another. Even on this world - the serpentmen of Valusia, the pre-human voormis, these have come and gone. You four came to our attention.
Pvt. Rondale : Well, we did set Buckingham Palace on fire.
Thing : Not for anything that unimportant. You are involved in the extinction of your species, ten years ago.
Pvt. Rondale : ........ that somewhat increases the kill count.
Virginia Kendall : That's when I met you!
Thing : Your actions drew our attention - not least because you have been involved in the manipulation of time

And the players indeed have, on four different occasions according to the Thing, but they can only think of two - their recent adventure involving Buttercup the Eldritch Cow, and that arch thing from Innsmouth. Despite their best hopes, setting Big Ben to Irish Time probably doesn't count.

Thing : As the Great Race craft our destiny and our eschaton, we can use you to shape that future - the future can take many paths, many branches - and whilst we are a gentle race sometimes we are forced to prune.
Paddy McGinty's player : *laughs* That's a nasty way of putting it.
Pvt. Rondale : So that's it?? This is all humanity has left?? This is our great End????
Thing : No! Humanity has, can and will become extinct many times! It has become extinct 300 years in your past! It will become extinct in 1945! And again in 2107!
Reverend Joe : ........ huh?
Thing : Time is, in a sense, mutable - lesser races assume time is a strict progression of linear events, but from a non-Euclidean, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a massive spheroid of elastic time-like quasimatter. Your species will, can and has discovered the means to travel in Time many times... the Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi, the devices of Kerensky & Blinovitch, the Zygma Beam of Findecker and Greel, the Time Capsules of Lambert & Newman. Your species will travel in Time - and suffer for it. Eaten by Paradox, hunted by the Tindalosi, earning the wrath of Afmogorgon...
Paddy McGinty : What the fooking hell is this thing talking about?
Thing : ...But the Great Race move on, learning all we can of the civilisations that rise and fall between the cusps of our existence.
Reverend Joe : ... aren't humans the Great Race?
GM and other players : *pause, followed by hysterical laughter*

I don't think I'll include any quotes from the third chapter - I'm that annoyed with how it went. One relevant comment about Cthulhu Apocalypse, however.

Rondale's Player : I notice that this is more pulp in tone than usual.
Me : *Nods* It's written for Trail of Cthulhu, a much pulpier system than Chaosium's original.
Rondale's Player : That's good. I like pulp.
Me : You should like what I have planned for you for the next year then. It's probably the pulpiest campaign Chaosium ever produced.
Rondale's Player : Great!
Me : It also has more ways to have a Total Party Kill than anything they've ever written.
Rondale's Player :

Oh, yes -- this party is well and truly on the path to the Land of Bohica...


Major Tom 2009

[Slowloader]

... the Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi, the devices of Kerensky & Blinovitch, the Zygma Beam of Findecker and Greel, the Time Capsules of Lambert & Newman. INDENT]

Ok, The Plattnerite Armada of the Morlokoi is from The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter; Kerensky was a time scientist in Dr. Who, that episode with Tom Baker and Multiple Mona Lisas; The Blinovitch Limitation Effect is mentioned in Dr Who; The Zygma Beams is from Dr Who as well, The Deadly Talons of Weng-Chiang, or something like that. No clue on the last one.

[Karmakaze]

A group of shady-looking types are trying to launch what's obviously a missile. When our heroes confront them, they insist that their papers are all in order and that they are launching a "weather balloon". They stick to this story in the face of any and all evidence to the contrary. Finally, as some of the heroes are about to stop the launch, the head tech loses his temper.
Tech: If you don't stop interfering, I'm going to hit detonate without launching and kill us all!
PC: How are you going to do that? All you have is a weather balloon.

Later on, the same PC makes a call to the head of the government department responsible for the fiasco. (And who has previously promised there would be no more shenanigans.)
PC: (without saying hello) Now, you're going to want to say "Happy Birthday," but just hold off on that.
Official: What? Why?
PC: Because nobody here was born yesterday!
Official: This is about the weather balloons, isn't it?

[Egyptoid]

sadly there were not much from our week here in Rogue Trader and Pathfinder.

so I leave you with this tidbit:

Your game this week moves forward by means of conveyance of the players and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on tracks. In contrast to sand-box, where vehicles may run on any prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on. Track usually consists of steel rails installed on ties,on which the pc party, usually shackled with tight fitting metal wheels, moves inexorably onward.