Weldun

Super glad you are running this one! It looks tre-cool when it came out.

"Knife to meet you!" - Kale, the party's kill happy assassin, every time he kills people with one of his many knives.
 
"If I make the obvious pun after I kill this guy, does that technically make this murder?" - Osric, the party mage, when he finally ran out of charges on his magic spell attack and actually succeeded at killing them with a knife, after failing every time before. 

Thank you. I have the advantage of having already sketched out the family's internal politics through two other characters and campaigns, so considering where she fits in amongst that and how it relates to the campaign was fairly simple. 
As a side note, Changelings in Pathfinder aren't shapeshifters, but the offspring of hags who are then left with humanoids (usually humans) to be raised. (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Changeling)

I'll grant you that on the illustrations, a fact that I often lament when I'm trying to source illustrations. But I'm curious as to where you feel the Male Gaze applies to Civilla and Ayva's concepts. Genuinely asking, because I don't see it but will admit to possibly being unable to see past some cultural conditioning. (BTW: I'm Civilla's player, so I really would like to know what triggered any alarm bells.)

I'm running a new Champions campaign, and it's set in a world where superpowers are brand new (no legacy heroes or villains etc.)
 
I'm introducing a new criminal organization, and it's based on something someone here posted (but the search function doesn't seem to want to work for me right now, so I can't give proper credit.  My apologies)  It's called V-Corps.
 
I explain that the V-Corp agents aren't carrying normal weapons, armor, and other gear, but that they have "special weapons, armor, and gear."  
 
One of the players turns to me and says, "So it's their swag?"  At my confused expression, he says, "Special Weapons, Armor, and Gear.  SWAG."
 
I laughed and said, "well, if they weren't calling it that before, they are now!"

Closer to the traditional meaning, nice.
 
And, thanks for doubling my knowledge of Pathfinder. I didn't even realize they weren't playing 3.5 D&D.

I was mainly thinking of the guy - there's hot fantasy art of guys out there (and there's always romance novel covers), but his concept was being old and dissipated.
And, yes, those two are less on the nose than an exotic worshipper of a lust goddess - but they're still a tattooed (former) slavegirl and a shapeshifter.  Civilla also gets points for protagonist potential and hints of an internal life, tho.
 
 

< Watching a transformation with the monster's skin bubbling as it turns back into an innocent civilian. >
 
"It's like Dr. Pepper and Mister Hyde!"

Clearly, the fun never stops. Not even for a wedding. 
 
Nice cliffhanger, DrHoz

The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cover of the Cab Calloway classic, The Ghost of Smokey Joe
 

Stated this up recently and figured that I'd share.
Fnord POS - Free Car.HTML

Current "Achtung Cthulhu  campaign:
 
Doctor at the door of his walk up, "So who's the patient? -" 
 
Player 1, "The one screaming in the back of the car! - "
 
Pllayer 3, "THE EYEEEESSSS!"

Champions : Return to Edge City : The City-Planning Conspiracy
I missed a session, where the rest of the team responded to a fire in a former maker space, turned data-storage, got into a fight with three Furies who had set the fire apparently because they objected to the Feng Shui of having a non-creative business in that location on the city map, and found clues about further mystical alignment conspiracies, and figured there is probably more of the same to come.

Flux: And I got punted through a window. Or rather a wall.
Hero Shrew OoC: And where was your team brick when you needed him?

GM: Huh - of the twelve business council members, only seven are Caucasian - I didn’t intend that.
Allana: It’s the most unrealistic thing in the setting.

Hero Shrew: Centurion isn’t on the business council, is he?
GM: No. He doesn’t actually have a presence in Edge City.
Hero Shrew: Ah, I was probably misled by the way Gareth keeps muttering about him.

GM provides us with the handles of those Sanity Liberation Front members we encountered the other week.

GM: “TURT-L", "UP-LINE", "C47CH-22", "5463", "6L00M", "FLÛK", "FURY", "H0UND", "CRYP70N1C", "PR4NK573R", "5W4N"
Hero Shrew: … what? How the hell do you pronounce 5463?
Hardlight: Sage.
Hero Shrew: Of course YOU’D know.

Hero Shrew: Do we need to tweak the Crime Computer algorithm to flag possible Feng Shui crimes?

Probably not practical, especially since if we really want to get serious about fighting Feng Shui crimes we’d have to move our own base. And since the school of mysticism doesn’t really use an idea of opposites, we can’t really paint a target around the bigger offenders. Fireflash suggests we consult an expert - and hope that they aren’t actually behind the city planning conspiracy.

Hardlight: Maybe we should go looking for the Mysterious Oriental Shop?
Flux: How much do you like living in this reality? Stay away from Mysterious Shops.

Do we know any experts? No, but we know some supervillains. But Green Dragon is a complete d*** so probably not.

Hardlight OoC: Somebody needs to take Knowledge : Feng Shui.
Hero Shrew OoC: Bags not me.
Hero Shrew: So the best we could get them with is ‘Conspiracy to Commit Arson’
Flux: But then I’d have to get a mystic expert to testify in court.
GM: On the magical side of things you only have to prove that they BELIEVE it works.
Allana: People have done all sorts of stupid stuff in the name of retarded ideas.
Hero Shrew OoC: The difference is that in a superhero setting, sometimes the retarded ideas actually work.

Hardlight: … no, too stupid.
Hero Shrew: *head swivels towards Hardlight, privately thinking ‘Gareth thinks something is TOO STUPID???’* No no, Gareth, tell us what you think.

Fireflash suggests that we lure them out by having Lowelltech build something completely inappropriate for the Feng Shui map, in the worst place possible. Flux continues his research, seeing if there’s a preponderance of Feng Shui-type crimes over the last 15 years, since S-Day. Fireflash looks for any oddities in zoning approval. Together they dig out a very suspicious pattern of burst water mains, and other convenient disasters, including a bizarrely localized rat infestation, that have strengthened the City Planning Conspiracy. They prepare a map.

Allana: All you can see are the pins - all the strings are in AR.
Fireflash: I’d have done it all in virtual reality myself.
Allana: He switched to AR after he started having trouble getting around the room.

The number of likely crimes dropped for a while 16 years ago, then spiked after the death of two early Edge City supers, Harrier and Hawkmoth, and it seems likely they were investigating the conspiracy at the time, based on sightings of the two at the time, and throwdowns with local gangs, and activity by the supervillian-for-hire Bulldozer. The crimes dropped back to a only occasional after that - perhaps the conspiracy only needed minor tweaks to stay on track.

Hero Shrew: Well of COURSE you’d hire Bulldozer if you wanted some buildings knocked down.

It’s not sure if Harrier and Hawkmoth were actually murdered by the City Planning Conspiracy, since they were murdered in their secret identities. While they were in bed. Together.

Hardlight: Why would they be sharing a bed if they were in their secret iden- oh.
GM: Humanity First sent out a very specific message - they did not kill them because they were gay. They were certainly happy to take credit for the kill, but they have nothing against same-sex relationships. Which points them at odds with some of their supporters, true.

Either way, it’s evidence that the conspiracy has been around for at least 5 years before S-Day.

Allana gets a call from her contact, the Silver Avenger.

Silver Avenger: Why is your team asking about Harrier and Hawkmoth?

Silver Avenger: Are you telling me that you’re investigating what got them killed 15 years ago? Because I’m telling you there’s NO way Humanity First figured out their secret identities back then.

Hero Shrew: With all these real estate crimes is this just Scooby-Do writ large? Do we need to pull the face off the monster to see who it really is?
Flux: Generally a bad idea Scooter. Usually what’s underneath is somebody’s skull.
Allana: But if you get a chance to pull the face off the actual Monster, feel free - there’s money riding on whatever is under the mask. My bet is some kind of ghost robot.

Allana: What we need is a psyker - we sit in a cafe near Humanity First’s offices and scan through their brains until we get the info we need.
Hero Shrew OoC: What’s Zero doing these days? If we get him on his day off he’ll be happy to commit a crime.
GM: Ah yes, the super with the flaw ‘Sense of Ethics (only in Super Identity)’. He was HAPPY to abuse his telepathy to get stock tips, but it took him FIVE YEARS to just yank the info he needed out of some thug.
Flux OoC: Supers are weird.
Hero Shrew’s player: Nope, MY CHARACTERS are weird.

Hardlight: I still don’t trust that mechanical owl.
Allana: It’s just a clockwork exoskeleton for a hamster.

There’s also a chronological sequence in the crimes, working clockwise around the Feng Shui map. That might narrow down the next target - somewhere near the Laguna Complex megamall. All the industrial, freight, and warehouse districts down there would make for a complex Feng Shui pattern, but it does it easier for Lowelltech to set up a big juicy target. Assuming the capacitor bank for the nearest windfarm isn’t a big enough target, given it has nothing to do with travel or helpful people which would me more appropriate for the area on mystical grounds.

Regarding a rabbit Moreau -

Hero Shrew: How does she maintain a blood supply to those ears?
Hardlight: *eyes drawn to another part of her anatomy* THAT’s your question? Not ‘How sore is her back?’

A subsequent bovine example is even more eye-catching.

GM: Her poor back.
Hero Shrew: And some genetic engineer was actually responsible for that.

There’s been progress on the Moreau personhood movement, too - partly due to speciesism backfiring.

GM: Some senator objected to granting the Moreaus personhood on the grounds that ‘we don’t know anything about them!’. So Doctor Silverback volunteered to lead an investigation team. The best biologist this side of the law, almost a Moreau himself, and recognised as a person under the Individual Emancipation Act.
Hero Shrew: Let me guess, the senator got all stroppy?
GM: The senator got told to sit down and shut up. By his own party. “Congratulations, you just helped expedite the process.”

Doctor Silverback has already determined that some Moraeus are templates, and others are deliberately designed constructs. With the canines showing a much higher number of deliberate designs than other species. One even has a hero shrew spine to help with his speedster abilities. Of course one human journalist tracks down a construct Moreau and asks him what it feels to know he was made.

Allana: ‘At least my designer was competent’?
Max: I would already be dead by now. Most dogs don't live longer than fifteen years. No real friends or family. No hands. No music. No language. No peanut-butter and chocolate. No CHOCOLATE! No COFFEE!
Allana: Good answer.

Scooter and Allana, and every Steiner that gets tested, is a construct. Although it seems Dr. Steiner overlaid the construct elements over a pre-existing template.

Allana: Made his own modifications to an off-the-shelf model.
GM: Maybe.

And apparently the Genex company has been investigating Laron Syndrome dwarfism to make a race of future spacers.

The speciesists seize on the difference between templates and constructs, because of course they do. ‘You don’t DESIGN people!’.

Senator: Templates might be one thing, they’re practically ordinary animals, but Constructs are clearly MADE!
Allana: So were you - at least I was made by somebody with actual qualifications.

Of course a certain group of ‘wolf-Moreaus’ are refusing testing. The fixer fox ‘Judas’ Mackie that was secretly spying for Genesys is a construct too, as is everyone else with that biochemical dependance on the drugs that kept them leashed to their creators.

Hero Shrew: For some reason I’m more annoyed about being denied personhood because I’m a Construct, than because I’m a Moraeu.

What’s worse is that the difference between template and construct is starting to take root in the Moreau community.

Hardlight: Oh joy, intra-Moreau racism, wonderful.

Even if Constructs aren’t people, what about their kids? Like the son of Judas Mackie, fox construct, and Tinker Kate, fox template?

GM: And Kate’s got some signs of psychic ability.
Hero Shrew: What, in a template?
GM: Yes, psychic abilities aren’t a construct element.
Hero Shrew: Huh.
GM: And it’s not like they were testing for psychic abilities either - but she’s a technopath and was messing with the equipment.

Hero Shrew: At some point we’re going to have to figure out which Moreaus are genetically compatible.
GM: Current consensus is there’s a fun way to find out.
Hardlight: Are you going to volunteer to find out, Scooter?
Hero Shrew: *nod vigorously*
GM: But only if Sally is involved. She’s a template incidentally. As well as a psyker.

And then there’s a third option - Greenhouse Tara is a Mutate - her plant abilities aren’t a template ability, but a novel mutation.

GM: A lot of the rat-Moreaus are refusing testing too.
Allana: They don’t want anybody to find out they’re a hivemind.
Flux: Or that they’re were-rats. You can’t tell me that any creature like that wouldn’t rush to Edge City and the Zoo.
Allana: ‘We have travelled here from the Blasted Hellscapes’ ‘Ah, New Jersey’.

The ECPD has made it abundantly clear that the police presence at the testing facility is for security only - they aren’t going to arrest anybody even if they have warrants out on them. The secret marine community don’t want to come forward either, understandably. That way they don’t have to explain where they came from. Although the Newfoundland-canine does want to know why the hell her breed had webbed toes even before they were Moreaus. The testing of Sandra Polis, a Moreau with the EPCD, might reveal where the hell Genesys got viable Thylacine DNA from.

Hero Shrew: So, how many perps wet themselves whenever Sandra yawns?

One of the Greys from the tunnels under the city does show up, when the building is otherwise mysteriously clear, to ask a few questions and express the Grey communities concerns about whatever the DNA testing might reveal. Are they actually what they believe themselves to be - Moreaus with powerful mental abilities? Allana goes to ask Dr Silverback for a private consultation, and he IS highly regarded by the Moreaus.

Doctor Silverback: Is there something unusual about your anonymous friend?
Allana: …. Welllllllll. If I’d met them on the street I’d never have guessed they were Moreaus.
Doctor Silverback: Intriguing. They appear human?
Allana: … Maybe you should meet them.
Doctor Silverback: AH! Um. I see what you mean. Moreaus?
Allana: They smell like Moreaus to me.
Grey: And we came from the same lab.
Doctor Silverback: Hmm. I was under the impression Genesys only worked from animal templates. *tests* This is puzzling. You have template markers, but I’m only finding human DNA. In fact… oh dear. Human, templated over human. And you say your people all have psychic abilities?

It seems whoever created the Grey template was deliberately reinforcing certain human traits, perhaps pursuing the theory that psychic potential is an inevitable and natural part of humanity’s future.

Doctor Silverback: And you believe the Moreau community will accept the ‘Grays’?
Allana: Welllll … of the Moreaus that have met them, 100% like them.
GM: A bigger question is what the human community will think. ‘This is probably what you’re going to turn into in a few thousand generations.’

And certain groups are going to what the Greys dead even more than they want to exterminate the animal-Moreaus.

Hardlight: We need to spin this… we need to ring The Rep.
Allana: Isn’t The Rep like Hardlight, a Horrible Hole in reality?
Hardlight: Excuse me, I’m a “moth on the fabric of space time”, not a gaping hole, make the distinction!

The Rep promptly starts spinning, framing every aspect of the Grey’s life including the various addictions they have to try and suppress their constant telepathic abilities, in a positive light.

The Rep: You’re like Little Orphan Annie and ALF rolled into one, without the annoying cackle! You’ve got the big forehead and the big eyes, what does that say to you - babies! Just let me get you on screen! As long as you keep me off - wish I’d learned that lesson myself a few years back, amirite?
Flux: He’s a sleaze but he’s our sleaze.

He even models the ad campaign after the Orphan Children In Africa ads, taking advantage of their child-like stature, pot-bellies, and wrinkled skin. He’s that much of a sleazeball, despite being a basically good man.

Lots of the names that the Moreaus’ chose for themselves are based on their professions.

Hero Shrew: So Collar Colin would be just as appropriate in the police force as a sex club.

Of course none of us noticed that Veronica Auberge & Elizabeth "Beth" Tonnelier were Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper.

At least there aren’t any genetic surprises like terminator genes in Moreau DNA, although there is an increased sensitivity to the long-term fertility suppressing drugs there were given.

Flux: At least Moreau birth control pills will be cheap.

Hero Shrew DOES want to go ask Harrier and Hawkmoth’s associates a few questions, but their secret identities are still legally protected. So it’s back to nightly patrols while we wait for our harassment of Humanity First to pay off. It’s probably not a good sign that Hardlight suddenly feels completely exhausted, to the point of passing out, mid-patrol.

Hardlight: I had too much of a long night last night… *sways on his feet*... I just need to sit down for a bit.
Flux: *after a quick medical check* Huh. You should be fine.
GM: And that’s when the shadow looms over you.
Hardlight: *looks up at the huge ogre with a giant sword* I really hope you’re friendly because I’m not in any state to deal with you right now if you aren’t.
Ogre: YOU ARE THE ONES KNOWN AS QUADRANT.
Flux: Two out of five aren’t bad.
Ogre: YOU FOUGHT THE FURIES.
Flux: Yessss?
Ogre: TELL ME WHO HIRED THEM.
Hardlight: I don’t think I was there for that fight. Flux?
Flux: I was against letting them go, but got outvoted.
Ogre: DO NOT LIE TO ME INSIGNIFICANT WORM! YOU WOULD NOT HAVE LET THEM GO IF THEY HAD NOT REVEALED THEIR EMPLOYER!
Hardlight: OK fine, it was a superhero named Centurion.
Flux: I’m pretty sure your code of ethics included ‘don’t be a dick’. Throwing another superhero under the bus counts.
Ogre: I AM Xiǎo Lǎbā AND YOU WILL TELL ME OR I WILL RIP OUT YOUR ENTRAILS THROUGH YOUR MOUTH AND READ THE TRUTH IN THEM!
Hardlight: OK, OK, do you have a Freeweb device? I’ll Airdrop you our recording of the fight.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: … Webbing? Are you trying to confuse Xiǎo Lǎbā?
Flux: It was probably on the news, you can see us get punted through a wall.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: … they made a woodcut?

Xiǎo Lǎbā: YOU WOULD NOT HAVE LET THEM GO IF THEY DID NOT TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANTED TO KNOW.
Flux: Or we didn’t know they could teleport you giant dingus.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: YOUR MEWLING OFFENDS ME BUT NOT AS MUCH AS YOUR INCOMPETENCE.
Hero Shrew OoC: Well, he’s not alone there.
Flux: Look, just watch this magic lantern show and you’ll see our incompetence on display.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: HA THAT WOMAN KICKS HIM BETWEEN THE LEGS, I LIKE HER.

For some reason the Ogre keeps looking over his shoulder. Fireflash is inbound, at top speed, and overshoots the city.

Hero Shrew OoC: God knows how the UK copes with superheroes, given how busy their airspace is.
GM: They don’t have many supers.
Hero Shrew OoC: Just as well. Can you imagine how many would get sucked into jet engines?

Hardlight is quietly scanning the ogre with N-rays, infra-red, and sonar. He’s not getting any pings, on any sensors.

Flux: That’s awesome armour - where did you get it?
Xiǎo Lǎbā: IN HONOURABLE BATTLE!

Allana arrives. Xiǎo Lǎbā is immune to her two charms.

Allana: The Furies were working for somebody that wants to set up the city as a Bagwa map.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: THERE’S ANOTHER? I, UH, MEAN *coughs in clumsy attempt at concealing the facts*
Allana: Yes.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: *apparently forgetting he was here to get information, not give it* BUT IT WAS SO CLUMSILY DONE! THE DESTRUCTION SOURED THE QI IN THE AREA! DAMN THE MEWLING INCOMPETENCE OF MORTALS!

Allana: We want to know as well - were they the only ones they hired? Were there other crimes?
Xiǎo Lǎbā: BLAST IT ALL!

Fireflash arrives:

Xiǎo Lǎbā: BAH, LIGHT! YOU WERE THE ONE I WISHED TO MEET THE LEAST! SO... REPUGNANT!
Fireflash: ...Lovely. Who’s Mister Charming?
Flux OoC: Do any of us have any social skills?
GM: Only the one still trying to get here.
Hero Shrew OoC: Yep

Flux: We are standing around on a street corner here. Do you want some coffee?
Xiǎo Lǎbā: … I must decline your kind offer.
Flux: Oh? Any reason?
Xiǎo Lǎbā: … I MUST DECLINE YOUR KIND OFFER.

Xiǎo Lǎbā: WHICH WOULD YOUR CITY SEND AGAINST ME!
Fireflash: Well, the police for a start.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: *suddenly looking worried* Police? Duly bonded forces of the law? Empowered by the magistrates?
Fireflash: Well, we’re empowered by the courts too.
GM: Now he looks alarmed.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: Please tell me if I have contravened any of your laws!
Fireflash: Well you might have to have that sword in a sheath.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: Surely you are jesting.

For some reason this ogre is really uncomfortable around Fireflash, does not want to accept any gifts from us, and is very keen on not actually breaking any laws. At least if he’s not brandishing the sword, he’s not violating weapon statutes. And if he gets some of the silver he’s carrying into local currency he can’t be arrested on vagrancy charges either.

Fireflash: Well, we’ll get your silver assayed. Shouldn’t take long.

Accomodation at the Collar Club IS a possibility, but he’d be paying by the hour. As he follows us to the hotel, he apparently forgets himself and walks right through a telegraph pole.

Flux: In this city we respect the laws of physics.
Allana: THE F*** WE DO.
GM: Hands up everybody who’s violating causality right now.

Hardlight: You’re clearly not of this world.
Xiǎo Lǎbā: I AM MORE OF THIS WORLD THAN YOU ARE!
Fireflash: That might actually be true.

He has trouble with the colours of traffic lights too, which is odd, since he can criticise fashion choices freely. Flux is getting a better idea on what this guy actually is. He’s a Chinese Infernal, a being of pure negative Qi.

Hardlight: Siri? Give me everything you have on the Celestial Bureaucracy.

He’s probably get a better answer asking Centurion’s personal AI, but like that would ever happen. Hero Shrew eventually reaches the area, doubles back after the party, and is visible coming down the street with a big grin, until he sees that there isn’t a fight happening and slows to a disappointed crawl.

Flux: Probably hoping one will start before he gets here.

Hardlight: I was just surprised my irrational fear of unnatural darkness wasn’t triggered.
GM: It wasn’t unnatural - it was a ten-foot-tall ogre with a great big sword looming over you.
Hero Shrew OoC: Which is an entirely rational thing to be afraid of.

But on the way to the Zoo, we have to go through Chinatown.

GM: Well THAT’S going to be fun - you see a whole of people take one look at who you are with and go inside in a hurry.

The only person that doesn’t get out of the way is Tabytha, the tiger-Moreau that won the martial arts contest.

Tabytha: Why are you with THAT?

Tabytha: You don’t know what he is, do you?
Hero Shrew: Well I was hoping it would be somebody I could fight, but apparently not.
Tabytha: … Why AREN’T you fighting?
Xiǎo Lǎbā: *looks uncomfortable, shuffling his feet*
Fireflash: He didn’t start anything.
Hero Shrew: By the time I got there they’d already offered him coffee.
Tabytha: *starting to grin* You’re not allowed to fight anybody unless they fight you first, aren’t you?

He also has to follow the local laws, especially since we have court-appointed powers, and he can’t directly lie.
‘
Tabytha: *sigh* Well, as long as he’s only staying in the Zoo temporarily. I’ll show you a back way through Chinatown so you don’t stir up too much trouble.
Hero Shrew: Well, I’M happy to follow her through town *leers*
Flux: *sigh* Congratulations on the tournament win by the way.
Tabytha: Whatever. The money didn’t go very far.
Flux: It never does.

At least we can find out which City Planning Crimes aren’t being organised by his lot, hopefully, although he seems to be under some kind of geas not to tell us too much. And for some reason anybody in the Zoo that can speak Chinese is sniggering at the demon’s name, which means ‘Little Horn’. Which is admittedly more amusing than trying to explain credit finance to an elemental.

Hero Shrew: You’re from China, aren’t you? Would you be interested in some junk bonds?
Allana: Every member of Quadrant but me is now banned from speaking.

Well, at least we know there’s TWO groups trying to mess with the Feng Shui of Edge City.

Hardlight: How do you even hire mercenaries anyway?
Hero Shrew: Craigslist.

Whatever is going on, we need to find out who hired the Furies. Difficult, since they operate out of Greece.

GM: Whatever happens you’ll need a licence to transport livestock.
Hero Shrew: Hey!
Flux: Well you should shower more.
Hero Shrew: *mutters* so should Allana, you know what I could get for a shower video?

Or we could wait until they show up somewhere in the world and go after them. Or even better, hire them to go somewhere we could ambush them.

There’s a giant shining pyramid hovering 500ft over Wati.

Onka: Oh good, it’s in range of an Anti-Magic field.
Zenobia: What I want to know is where he was hiding that - I can’t think of anywhere on this plane where he could have hidden a giant golden pyramid and no-one would have stumbled across it in the last few thousand years.
Onka: Space?
Zenobia: I’m pretty sure the astrologers would have noticed a giant golden pyramid floating past.
Onka: Floating in an invisibility field?
Zenobia: OK, that would do it.

Onka: We would have had more downtime if we’d just walked back across the desert. Now we have to deal with this s***.

Zenobia: Why would he bring it here, anyway? Wati is not that important. He can’t have brought it here just to get revenge on us, since he has no idea who we are. Why not go to the new capitol, or the old one?
Onka: We do still have his mask.
Zenobia: Then he should have flown the pyramid out into the desert, where we were until 50 seconds ago. Maybe he wants to find out what happened to his necromantic fountain.

The pyramid is casting a shadow, both literal and spiritual, over the city. It’s also inscribed with a sigil, not of the Forgotten Pharaoh, but of one of his generals, one Isatemkhebet.

Onka: Does it have a giant death laser?
GM: Of course.
Nemat: If this is just his general does that mean he has more than one of these things?

Onka: One strategically placed Anti-magic field and it’ll fall out of the sky. Admittedly onto the city.
GM: Oh please, it’s Shory Magitech, it won’t be that easy.
Peanut Gallery: Cast Greater Darkness over it and cut off its solar power supply.

Isatemkhebet: City of Wati! Cast aside Weapon and Tool, Armor and Cloth, for you cower before Isatemkhebet, General of the Sky Pharoah! Witness the power of the Five Pointed Sun! *Giant laser beam fires from the top of the pyramid, blasting a 200-foot wide crater in the city* The Sky Pharoah has one demand! Bring onto us the Covenant of Wati! You have one week to comply, or your city shall be destroyed!
Onka: Well, piss. Just as well we’re at the temple of Sarenrae - they’re less likely to rat us out. Everybody inside.
GM: Why are you assuming half the city will want to hand you over?
Onka: Human nature.
Asrian: We DID end the undead scourge - we’re heroes.

Zenobia: The general is also assuming we don’t just hand ourselves in to protect the town.

We receive a Sending from Ptenemib, a gentlemen we rescued from the cult weeks ago.

Ptenemib: There’s a giant floating pyramid over Wati and it’s demanding we hand your party over or it will destroy the town!
Zenobia: *taps Ptenemib on the shoulder*
Ptenemib: EEP!
Asrian: We’re aware.

Zenobia: I take it the writer wasn’t expecting the party to teleport straight back to town.

Ptenemib rushes us off to a safehouse before anybody recognises us. There are also undead harpies flying around, so flying up to the pyramid early and sabotaging stuff won’t be easy.

Peanut Gallery: And the harpies aren’t being shot down by anybody with a bow, why?
Onka: Giant death laser.

The Desecrate effect of the pyramid’s shadow is a problem, too. Using Control Weather to make it overcast so there’s no shadow probably won’t help. At least the Consecrations on the many temples in town should hold. A lot of people are fleeing town, but the harpies aren’t harassing them - but they ARE checking that none of them are the party members.

Zenobia: We need to tell your family you’re alive. Hmm. But then they’ll be worried about you being handed over to the pyramid.
Onka: ‘Hi mum and dad, I’m alive, this is my girlfriend, we’re going into the death pyramid, I love you, bye.”

At least we have a week to buy scrolls of Fly, and anything else that might be useful for sabotaging the pyramid. And we DO have that map to a possible Anti-Shory weapon, that we found in Chessisek’s tomb. Can we retrieve it within a week?

Zenobia OoC: We can always use one of those magical feathers and send the general a message saying ‘We heard you’re looking for us, we’re in the capitol’ and make it somebody else’s problem.

Asrian doesn’t see the point of the spell Switch Souls, which enables the caster to swap souls with their familiar - especially since bards don’t get familiars. And the bodies are just as vulnerable as the animal was originally.

Zenobia OoC: Clearly the spell was invented by a pervert druid.
GM: Pervert wizard. At the suggestion of pervert druid.
Peanut Gallery: Pervert druids invented Wild Shape.

So, time to cast Speak With Dead on the spirit of that dead architect we recovered. Onka has been keeping his sarcophagus shrunk and in his pocket.

Onka: Time to interrogate the tiny dead guy.

Onka wears the Pharaoh's Mask, just in case, before casting the spell.

Chessisek: Who dares wake the dead? You are not the Pharaoh Hakotep. You wear his Ka, but you are not him.
Onka: Where is the Anti-Shory Weapon?
Chessisek: Weapon? They called it a weapon? HAha ha ha ha. Tis not a weapon. Tis an apocalypse. You wished to know the whereabouts of Hakotep’s tomb?
Onka: That wasn’t an answer.
Peanut Gallery: Yes it was.
Onka: Oh dear.
Chessisek: You seek the *chokes trying to pronounce the jargon and language*
Onka: Do you need a drink, what do the dead drink anyway?
Chessisek: My apologies, my throat is a bit dry. I AM a corpse.

Chessisek is quite boastful about all the effort he put into launching the Sky Pharaoh’s tomb into space, promptly followed by the flying pyramids of all his generals, and how elaborate the mechanisms were that launched them all, and can call them back, and how it’s warded against Divination and Observation.

Peanut Gallery: But not warded against Greater Teleportation.
All: ....

Chessisek: Trenchs? Trenches! The Khepsutanem is much more than ditches and mounds of earth. Hundreds of obelisks, each containing a bound elemental spirit, adorn the paths of the Khepsutanem. Among these stand 11 great monuments,each infused with the spirit of a particularly powerful elemental. These 11 monuments are the Sekrepheres, and they must be activated in the proper order between the hours of dawn and noon on a single day to focus their energies upon the Sun Disk plaza, which can in turn call down Hakotep’s tomb.
Zenobia: Does this actually help us with the pyramid flying over Wati?
Onka: Eventually.
Peanut Gallery: The general has one flying pyramid, so you steal his bosses even bigger one.

Onka: Can we just turn the gain up on the launchpad and push Hakotep’s Tomb out into the Outer Planes and let the Great Old Ones deal with him?

It looks like dealing with the launchpad is going to take well over a week. It seems like we’ll have to deal with the one here ourselves. And using Anti-magic or Disjunction to cancel its levitation would crush most of the town.

Zenobia: My future in-laws live here!

Of course we can always teleport to a larger city to avoid being recognised, and have a wider range of stuff to buy, before we teleport back. Avoids the harpies too.

Onka purchases a permanent timeless demiplane. This is going to be quite useful for his crafting of items, and popping into, casting all his buffs, and back out to rejoin the fight. And if Zenobia learns Plane Shift we can use it as in instant hospital. Although we all get hit with the ageing when we come out again, so Onka is going to be going through a bunch of birthdays in rapid succession.

GM: … I just let a PC have access to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber

We return to Wati, kitted out the wazoo, do some telescopic surveillance on the pyramid to spot any entrance points, and fly up, invisible, with featherfall potions and magic parasols ready, at high noon. Happily, undead harpies can’t see invisible things. Unfortunately one of the ones guarding the door turns at an inopportune moment and its wing brushes Zenobia. Battle commences! And the harpies variously shatter or drop their weapons. Asrian, as usual, goes through them like a Tomahawk missile through soft butter.

The entrance chamber has a incomplete mural proclaiming that ‘those who gave the gift of uncompromised service to the sky pharaoh are known to him and blessed with BLANK’. And the room is lined to the ceiling with magical traps. Happily we’re smart enough to figure out where the disabling mechanism is, and discover that the BLANK is ‘Death’. Although you do have to wonder why you’d set it up with traps that do double damage to your own minions.

Nemat also deciphers later warning inscriptions too.

Nemat OoC: I’m finally accepting that I’m an archeologist who is exceptionally good at thumping people.
Zenobia OoC: *quietly sings the Indiana Jones theme*

Happily we can still fly over most of the traps, and Nemat also has Tomb Sight. With that, Detect Magic, and Detect Undead, we can avoid nearly everything. Especially once Nemat realises that a lot of the directions inscribed on the walls are deliberately misleading. It also seems that the general might be a woman, despite the voice broadcast over Wati. We sabotage various defences as we go.

Nemat: At least I have a good copy of the fake map to put in the Chronicles. Especially now I know what you get paid for chronicles - highest challenge rating x 100.
Zenobia: A good reason to publish in installments.

Things get weird when one corridor apparently leads into open air. At night. And we’re apparently high over the clouds. But of course Nemat has an orrery and a cosmogram and other astrological instruments in one of his bags of holding, and starts comparing the stars to what they should be. They’re thousands of years out of date. Of course the Pharaoh has his own planetarium.

Onka: Wow, everything in this pyramid really is ‘Me Me Me’ isn’t it?
Nemat: Onka, you HAVE been in pyramids before.

Peanut Gallery: So how thick do you want the doors to be, to stop the PCs using magic to look through everything?
Nemat OoC: No no no, just coat them in gold - a little Dutch filigree and we’re f***ed

GM: The floor turns Ethereal and you fall 10ft.
All: No we don’t.
GM: Godammit, the writers assume you fly up to the pyramid, but half these traps assume you’re walking around when you get there!

The Black Pudding in the pit trap is certainly ravenous, so it’s probably just as well we’re still bobbing around like helium balloons.

Zenobia OoC: Anything we need to know about Black Puddings?
Peanut Gallery: Depends on how well you can pass a Knowledge Check.
Nemat OoC: No no, I am an Inquisitor, I am the God of ‘Wot Dat?’

Nemat casts Dispel Magic on the floor and turns it solid again.

GM: The Black Pudding has been magically sustained for thousands of years, starving, and you just showed yourself as food and then sealed it away again.
Nemat: I’ll try to feel sorry for the mindless blob. But honestly, there are fungi smarter than these things.
Zenobia OoC: Do Not Taunt The Happy Fun Blob.

One of the next rooms looks like some kind of light puzzle, but the room reeks of necromantic magic. We debate resealing the door and pressing on.

Zenobia: There’s no GOOD reason why the room would be full of necromantic energy.

We seal the door and press on.

GM: Adventurers generally investigate this sort of thing.
Nemat: We’re archeologists. Well-armed archeologists, but still.
Onka: We may be the owners of this pyramid soon, stop breaking our stuff.

We find a statue of Hakotep, too. It tries to curse us, and we loot it for the Immovable Rods holding it off the ground.

Zenobia: So this is the face we’re punching later?
Nemat: Maybe. But especially if he starts looking like this again, because then we have to punch him hard and fast.

The statue falls to the floor with a noise and impact no doubt audible throughout the entire pyramid.

Nemat: Well, that IS what’s coming - DOOM.

Another reason to punch the Sky Pharoah in the snoot - a gallery of what are probably real people, turned to stone, and then had their faces ‘corrected’ with the spell Stoneshape. Restoring any of them is going to take some high-end spells. We do find a Rod of Splendor, which among other things can create a magnificent tent pavilion that can house 100 people.

Zenobia to Asrian: Well, I know what we’re doing for our wedding… of course I have to get permission from your parents first. I don’t recommend asking mine.
Onka: If we can even find them.

The next fight is brutal, despite the fact we dealt with the same kind of creatures earlier. Asrian and Nemat both lose fingers, and need emergency Healing from Zenobia to survive. In fact, it was only Onka’s Revenant Armour spell on the partie’s stuff, Zenobia’s Stone Shape, catching the last harpy in a big stone fist, that ensures the party survives at all.

Zenobia: So now we get out swords and knives out, find the gaps between the big stone fingers, and poke poke poke.
Asrian: Make a hole.
Onka: We have that Adamantium auger too. Drill a hole.
Asrian: Why stop drilling?

Onka OoC: XP probably won’t be relevant until we get out of the pyramid. Assuming we get out alive. Which we will because Overland Flight is awesome

We’d still like to take the flying pyramid intact, of course - there’s so much interesting stuff to loot. Such as the tomb of Isatemkhebet, currently occupied by someone inclined to monologue. She certainly doesn’t have the distinctly male voice that threatened the town earlier.

Isatemkhebet: Finally, you have arrived, Covenant of Wati. It would be an honor to add your forms to my gallery, as I did with the Sekpatras so long ago... Your meddling in Hakotep's affairs is over! Kor-Ahn-Tuk, Charge the leader!
Nemat: At least she got our name right.

Unfortunately she has a pet Gorgon. Fortunately, Nemat is already partly stone.

Nemat OoC: *deep inhale* Alreaady stoooooned, maaan.

Hilariously, Isatemkhebet is also the only one that succumbs to the harpy’s song. Unfortunately she's undead so it has no effect.

Isatemkhebet: Not me, you fool!

After we destroy her minions, she tries to take cover inside a sarcophagus. Which is unfortunate for her.

Nemat: As much as I’d like to make an undead feel fear for the first time in centuries, as I slowly chip away through the stone between it and me… Zenobia? Open the way.
Zenobia: *casts Shape Stone*
GM: The lid of the sarcophagus melts away. The general looks rather shocked.
Nemat: B****, we’re the Covenant of Wati.
Zenobia: I could have opened a small hole and started pouring in holy water - I’ve got 25 flasks in the haversack.

Unfortunately she’s a load-bearing boss - when we kill her the pyramid starts falling out of the sky. We scatter to try and find the control room before it crushes half of the town. Just as well we still have Overland Flight running - some of us aren’t very fast on the ground. It’s also very fortunate that Nemat is basically a Combat Archeologist, and can accurately guess where the control room should be. Happily the mechanism seems straightforward enough, and we redirect the fall to somewhere outside town, while we use Onka’s pre-prepared Teleport to get us all the hell out of there before it hits. We watch it plow a giant divot into the onion fields, Nemat wincing as he watches all that invaluable archeology get smashed to pieces.

Onka: It’s ok, we know Make Whole.
Asrian: Yes, just look at the hole we made in the onion fields.

Nemat is even more annoyed by the fact that by the time he can come back to investigate the wreckage properly, it’ll have been looted, and relics and fake relics scattered across half the continent. Onka has his own plan.

Onka: ‘Dear Royal Highness, I apologise for the pyramid illegally parked outside Wati, I’ll be back to deal with it someday. Signed Onka’
Nemat: Oh f*** off, you already have a private dimension, you’re not getting a flying pyramid too.

GM: You have dealt a dire blow to the evil that was Ancient Osirion! *plays Imperial March*
Nemat: Fair call. Humanocentric empire.
Asrian: And they had a Death Star.

GM: And somewhere else one of twelve lights on a magical display blinks out, and a mummified fist slams down on the arm of a throne.
Nemat OoC: Sounds to me like we have 11 more chances to get our own flying pyramid.

Just so people know, this is the reference image being used for low-cost housing in the campaign.

Just so people know, this is the reference image being used for low-cost housing in the campaign.

If some of these seem familiar, it's because some of them were heavily cribbed from Susano and Killer Shrike's respective sites along with a couple of adapted characters. TBH, I'm now a little muddled on which ones are which exactly, so feel free to chime in if any seem familiar.

Our heroes are running from a base and it's starting to blow up behind them. They see a helicopter and race for it, following the lead of another hero. They get in and finally ask, "Does anyone know how to pilot this?" The leading hero says, "No, but how hard can it be?"  (They get of the ground as the base blows up but later make a crash landing.)

It's worse. It's a post Shades of Black (with less than perfect resolution) Master-Villain Black Paladin. ?
 
Oh, it will become immediately apparent (like, on segment 12) that he brought friends.

Pathfinder - The Mummy's Mask : Keeping the Peace
Me: The US now has 1.2 billion pounds of excess cheese and nowhere to put it.
Hardlight’s Player: I believe the appropriate answer to that is UNDERSCONSIN

Now that our GM is over his laryngitis, we can continue dealing with the undead infesting the city of Wati. The minor priestling we saved sends us back to the main Mausoleum (thankfully not in the Necropolis) so she can get more help.

Zenobia: Would have thought that leaving the four of us to guard the gate why she goes and gets more help herself would be more sensible.
Asrian: But then she’d be abandoning her post.

Zenobia: You’ve got mobs of zombies trying to get out of the Necropolis.
Asrian: Well, not anymore.
Zenobia: They *tried* to get out of the Necropolis.

There is a shopkeeper preaching about the End of Days from on top of a stool.

Onka: We’re fully deputised, right? And he’s disturbing the peace, isn’t he?

Asrian finds a higher perch and assures the crowd that the situation IS under control. The lunatic isn’t happy, but at least we don’t have to bonk him over the head with a peacekeeping club or anything. In fact, Wati is now under sufficient control that the shopkeepers and artisans feel confident enough to re-open their doors - at least during daylight.

Nemat: What do you know, nailing the head of a Rakshasa over the city gate does discourage more from coming in.
Zenobia: We were so lucky in that fight.
Nemat: Sometimes lucky is better than good.

Random encounter time! At least there isn’t a modifier to the roll anymore, so another Rakshasa is unlikely. A horde is barreling down the street - they’re small. They have bills. They’re ducks.

Zenobia: At least they’re not geese.

Zenobia grabs one and checks its flight feathers - they’re clipped domestic ducks, and not some bizarre plague of ducks descending on Wati. They’re also pursued by horrendous amalgams of bear and crocodile. According to Nemat, they’re Esoboks, and psychopomps. So what the hells are doing in the Prime Material Plane, and why are they terrorising ducks?

Zenobia: I’ll allow that ducks are unrepentant hellbeasts, but still.

They’re probably here to feed on the undead, but they *are* causing panic. And although they supposedly intelligent, none of us can speak whatever language they use. We run along after them, warning the public to stay out the way. After all, if they have got the scent of some major undead, we will probably appreciate the help. When we catch up with them, they are indeed in combat with some kind of humanoid skeleton, half-formed from earth and soil.

We wade in after the Esoboks, and discover that one of this thing’s ability is a bite that confers bad luck. It’s also a lot more agile than something made of bones and dirt has any right to be. At least Nemat managed to smack it so hard its head spun around three or four times, and the Esobok could tear out its soul. Zenobia is suitably impressed - she can probably call down one of these Esobok things to assist during future battles.

Onka: We dealt with an undead and two psychopomps.
Zenobia: But left the ducks on their rampage.

Zenobia does find a surprise in her bed that night - it’s Asrian. Zenobia will be very happy but tired in the morning.

Nemat: You realise if Zenobia didn’t get 8 hours sleep last night you’re not getting that curse removed, right?

Asrian did insist that Zenobia blow out all the candles before she came to bed. Asrian also forgot that gnolls can see in pitch darkness anyway. But she still seemed perfectly humanoid to the joyously happy gnoll.

Asrian OoC: So you now know what Asrian looks like.
Zenobia OoC: And feels like. And tastes like.

Nemat wants to go talk to the Sphinx in the morning. Happily, both he and Zenobia can speak the language, which reduces the chance we’ll be devoured.

Asrian OoC: Or increase it if you botch Diplomacy rolls.

It doesn’t matter anyway - none of the Sphinx are in town. We go find out what problems have arisen overnight instead - apparently the old courthouse is haunted. By something carrying out its own verdicts, judging by the fresh corpses strung up outside. Every one has had their left eye removed. It’s a pretty standard ancient punishment for anything not warranting execution. Of course, these victims all died of their injuries anyway, but it’s not like they can complain about it. We enter cautiously, and find another defendant tied up and being yelled at by the master of the court, a blood red skeleton with glowing eyes.

Nemat: OBJECTION!
Judge: WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS INTERRUPTION!
Asrian: It is unseemly for the dead to preside over the living!
Nemat: You have no authority here! The Law is a living thing!
Judge: Bailiffs! Remove these people from the court!
Nemat: You wish me to speak in the defence of the living? I will do so gladly! (I AM playing a Diplomancer here)
Asrian: (And I’ll assist)
Zenobia: (And I’ll just wait over here to bash the bailiffs if they need it. )

Happily, Nemat and Asrian have exactly the skill set required to argue the judge to a legal standstill.

Zenobia OoC: “I intend to prove/beyond the shadow of a doubt/with my assistant council-” “Co-counsel, Hamilton sit down.”
Nemat: I could have solo-ed that - he’s just a judge, I’m an INQUISITOR.
GM: Congratulations, you just defeated a Dread Skeleton and his skeletal bailiffs by talking them to death.

Apparently the defendant was a merchant charged with selling the wrong kind of hat.

Nemat: That law needs to be struck from the books - that judge really missed an opportunity here.

Of course, there’s always more problems in Wati - such as somebody dragging an animated dead through the streets. We go to investigate - especially after we hear a clap of thunder from a perfectly clear sky.

Nemat: Ghost Sound. Basic illusion.
Asrian OoC: It’s the Wilhelm Scream of thunderclaps.

There’s a half-elven mage, tears streaming down her face, dragging the zombie down the street. She claims it’s her recently deceased husband, and she’s taking him to her workshop for proper resurrection. The crowd, on the other hand, would rather it destroyed immediately.

Nemat: Madam, surely you realise that the dead can only be brought back from full death? Even if you could restore his consciousness, he would live a half-life?
Zenobia: We understand your grief, but please let the church of Pharasma send him on to his eternal reward?

Nemat: Was he a good man? He has been brought back like this by whatever force means ill to Wati. Would you truly want to hurt his legacy like this?
Widow: I… I understand. Please… help him go on.
Zenobia: I swear I will make it swift and painless - you need not watch.

The elf was an instructor at the Halls of Blessed Rebirth, teaching medicine and embalming, which probably explains why she thought she could bring him back, but it was still against the rules.

Nemat: She was grieving - it’s understandable.
Zenobia: Medicine AND embalming? Either way they get paid.

Wati certainly seems to recovering, given the way the patrols stomp out any disturbances of the peace, but we still have no idea what actually happened in the Necropolis.

Zenobia OoC: But the important question is there any more commotion in Zenobia’s room tonight?
Nemat: I don’t care, I’m crafting earplugs.
Onka: Why do you need earplugs?
Nemat: My room is next to Zenobia’s - and Asrian’s room didn’t need changing this morning.

Nemat: I see I succeeded in my ‘Craft Disturbing Mental Image’ check.

Nemat spends the next day sorting out grief-counselling for people like that half-elf, Zenobia goes to buy some nice faience jewelry for her girlfriend, Asrian goes to see how her family have coped with the last few days, and the Cult of Pharasma are still trying to figure out what happened in the Necropolis, since none of their investigative teams have come back alive.

Nemat does get awoken by a bird fluttering in his face the next morning, by a bird apparently wearing a full face helmet. It’s the personal pet/psychopomp of one Ptemenib, who we saw talking to himself at the auction, and who has apparently been kidnapped by the Silver Chain, Wati’s unauthorised graverobbers.

Nemat: *sigh* Of course they did.

Nemat: *banging on Zenobia’s door* Both of you be dressed and in my room in five minutes!

Kasim, the Nosoi, can lead us to where he’s been taken. We leave a note for the innkeeper to take to the rest of the authorities.

Nemet: ‘Flappy bird, wading bird, disgruntled crocodile’

We’re led to an abandoned brickworks near Wati’s crowded harbour district. There are two people dressed as town guards posted nearby.

Asrian: Clearly someone is paying to keep it abandoned.
Kasim: Ptemenib recognised some of the Silver Chain at the auction, and followed them! And he got caught!
Guard: Sod off!
Asrian: *puts an arrow into the wall next to his ear*
Nemat: *glaring intimidatingly* We have business here.
Zenobia: Also, since my goddess requires me to give my enemies one chance, I warn you now that the Cult of Pharasma will look unfavourably on anybody accepting bribes from the Silver Chain.
GM: Well, let’s see how stupid these two are *rolls dice* Pretty stupid - they both draw punch daggers.

Nemat uses Blistering Invective.

Nemat: The original Sick Burn. I like this spell - it lets everybody know ‘I did not like this person’.

Asrian slashes the one that isn’t on fire so hard he bounces off the wall. Unfortunately a lucky stab from the guard does so much damage to Zenobia’s lover that she has to use a bunch of work with a Wand of Lesser Restoration to repair her arm. Of course, with both of the guards dead we don’t know anything about the brickworks and the Silver Chain members within.
 

At least it's better than one campaign where we were lucky to not trip each others enraged disads. And that was usually when we found out that the group vehicle's "hunted by team gadgeteer" had tripped, meaning that a random system wasn't working because he'd scavenged some component for his latest prototype. Seriously, we ended up installing a floor hatch flanked by sturdy handles because of how many times the motive systems weren't working. Yes, we had resorted to using our brick and the "flintstone-matic" drive.

At least it's better than one campaign where we were lucky to not trip each others enraged disads. And that was usually when we found out that the group vehicle's "hunted by team gadgeteer" had tripped, meaning that a random system wasn't working because he'd scavenged some component for his latest prototype. Seriously, we ended up installing a floor hatch flanked by sturdy handles because of how many times the motive systems weren't working. Yes, we had resorted to using our brick and the "flintstone-matic" drive.

At least it's better than one campaign where we were lucky to not trip each others enraged disads. And that was usually when we found out that the group vehicle's "hunted by team gadgeteer" had tripped, meaning that a random system wasn't working because he'd scavenged some component for his latest prototype. Seriously, we ended up installing a floor hatch flanked by sturdy handles because of how many times the motive systems weren't working. Yes, we had resorted to using our brick and the "flintstone-matic" drive.

At least it's better than one campaign where we were lucky to not trip each others enraged disads. And that was usually when we found out that the group vehicle's "hunted by team gadgeteer" had tripped, meaning that a random system wasn't working because he'd scavenged some component for his latest prototype. Seriously, we ended up installing a floor hatch flanked by sturdy handles because of how many times the motive systems weren't working. Yes, we had resorted to using our brick and the "flintstone-matic" drive.

My older son and I just had a game. Now I built his character but I forgot to give him resistant defenses. So when he gets hit by a gun,  and I told him my mistake, he says, “way to go Dad” in disgust.