broken worlds session two!

here's our next session of the kill six billion demons rpg we're playing! you should really read session one first if you haven't already, and remember, there are spoilers here for the scenario that comes from the rulebook!

GM Claire: Okay, everybody have their character sheets?
Ariel: Yep.
Sasha: Me too.
Elle: Of course.
Msg: I do.
Ariel: Oh, but I don’t have a pencil!
Sasha: Get me one too!
Elle: If our characters are this well prepared, I guess we’re all as good as dead.
Sasha: Hush! You’ll jinx us.
Ariel: Got one!
Sasha: One? What about mine?
Ariel: Here. I meant, got one apiece.
GM Claire: Are we ready then?
Sasha: Where are the dice?
Msg: They’re right here, hon.
Sasha: Okay, whew.
GM Claire: If that’s all, then –
Ariel: Oh my gosh, I have armor on my inventory list but I don’t have the number marked on the front of my sheet. How much is ... uh ... light armor?
Elle: For crying out loud, it’s right there in the “Gear” section pre-printed on the sheet.
Ariel: Oh. I wasn’t looking there, I was looking at the inventory I wrote down. Never mind!
GM Claire: ...
Ariel: I’m ready.
GM Claire: So. It’s the next day. The Night of Song is tonight, so you have the whole day to plan and prepare. What do you do?
Sasha: Hey, if the sun doesn’t move, how do we know when it’s getting near night?
GM Claire: Most quarters of the city have some kind of loud clock signal. A huge iron bell that rings on the hour, or a giant caged loon that warbles every other hour, that kind of thing.
Sasha: Got it.
Elle: Here’s my suggestion.
GM Claire: Wait, where are you telling them this?
Elle: Over breakfast at the Brewhouse, in the corner table I have them keep reserved for me.
GM Claire: And is everybody else there at breakfast time?
Ariel: Sure, I guess.
Sasha: Yes, but I’m not happy about it.
Msg: Yes.
GM Claire: Okay, go on then, Sin-Sing.
Elle: The Strumpets and I and all the actors we hired will go in the front as contestants and audience members. We’ll make sure the competition is especially lively and distracting. Meanwhile, the rest of you go around back and hijack one of those elevators to the third floor. If you get in without raising a big stink, you’ll be able to sneak around and find the vault. Or, if you get found out and I see the guards rushing downstairs, I can follow them with the Strumpets and hit them from behind.
Msg: I’m suspicious of the fact that if things go really wrong, you’ll be able to just walk out the way you came in and leave us all in the lurch.
Ariel: I’ve known Sin-Sing since I was very young, and she wouldn’t do that.
Elle: Sure I would, if you weren’t going to be with them, darling. But since you are, our handsomely pale sorcerer has nothing to worry about.
Msg: That hardly inspires trust.
Elle: Trust is a rare coin to begin with, and you seem to be a particularly impoverished fellow in that regard. I hardly expect you to spend your meager fund of faith in others on my account.
Msg: A lock of your hair as insurance would lessen my concern.
Elle: Like I’m going to go cutting off locks of my hair for sorcerers! But I’ll tell you what. Paghla Perfidy will be with me the whole time, and I’ll have her give you a lock of her hair.
Msg: Hmm. I suppose that will have to do.
Elle: Claire, I don’t have to make a roll to get Paghla to do that, do I?
GM Claire: No, it’s not particularly demeaning or difficult, and I assume you chose Paghla because she doesn’t know much about sorcery?
Elle: Exactly.
Sasha: I’m getting really irritated at waiting through all this.
Ariel: Not me, but shouldn’t we be worried about getting over to the dark side of the wall in time for the contest? I don’t want to have to bribe another demon!
GM Claire: It’s true – if you don’t want to pay for transportation, it will take you most of the day to make your way into position.
Msg: Do I have time to do a bit of geomancy before we leave?
GM Claire: Maybe. It depends on what it is.
Msg: I want to use the lock of Paghla’s hair to create a mental resonance with her, so that I’ll know if she’s within a certain distance – basically an area about the size of the palace.
GM Claire: That’s pretty reasonable. Let me see what I want to pick from the list of drawbacks. Mmmm ... I’m going to say you can do a lesser, more unreliable version of it. You’ll be able to sense her, but only if there’s a relatively clear path between the two of you. It won’t work if there are locked doors or sealed windows separating you from her. Doors that are closed but not locked, it can get through. Also ... you’ll need help from Sin-Sing to accomplish it, since she was the go-between who got you Paghla’s hair.
Msg: Sigh. What kind of help?
Elle (rubbing hands together): This better be good!
GM Claire: Whatever kind she’s willing to offer.
Elle: Yes!
Msg: All right. I ask her if she’ll assist me in the ritual.
Elle: Let’s discuss it in greater detail upstairs, shall we?
Sasha: Argh! More waiting!
GM Claire: Okay, the two of you retire to a room upstairs. Sin-Sing, what are you willing to do to help?
Elle: I’ll give good old Matash his choice. We can do it, dirty devil style ... or I can tickle him over his entire body with the lock of hair.
Msg: Both are undignified, but I’ll choose the tickling.
Elle: Excellent. I am determined to make him squeal with laughter through my irresistible wielding of the hair across his skin.
GM Claire: That’s a Bend Will move, and since it’s directed at another player, it’s a “broken” roll. Roll 3d6 and take the lowest 2, + Heat.
Elle: Boo. I roll a 3, 3, and 1, so that’s 4 + 2 is a total of 6.
GM Claire: Congratulations! You’ve rolled our first failure. Matash resists your merciless tickling entirely.
Ariel: Hey, if she had succeeded, could MSG have used that “Overcome” move to keep from laughing?
GM Claire: “Overcome” is for when you tempt disaster or mishap, so if he’d tried that and failed, it would have ruined his ritual – or worse!
Msg: I wouldn’t have failed.
Elle: Big talk. Humph.
Sasha: Can we GO yet?
GM Claire: Yes, the ritual is pretty quick, and Ag, Lonely Girl, and Matash are soon heading out through the city toward the wall. Elle, you and the Strumpets don’t have to leave immediately, since the way in through the front is much closer. Is there anything you want to do before you head out?
Elle: Since he had to be naked for me to tickle his whole body, I’m totally fapping it to the memory of our sorcerer's exposed flesh. How’s Matash’s endowment, MSG?
Msg: Substantial enough to make your character wish she hadn’t offered me the option of being tickled.
Elle: Ooh, dammit, you!
Sasha: Ha-ha!
Elle: Whatever. Okay, once I’ve diddled myself to satisfaction, I’ll go back over the plan with the Strumpets and the actors and then head for the Palace.
GM Claire: Okay, since Throne is a dangerous place, each group will have to roll an Overcome to avoid having something unfortunate happen during the trip to the Palace.
Elle: Hang on – Sash and Aers didn’t have to make a roll when they went to the front steps of the Palace yesterday.
GM Claire: They weren’t decked out in fancy clothes pretending to be nobles on their way through a seedy part of town.
Elle: Fine.
GM Claire: Okay, the group headed over the wall first. Who wants to roll for the group?
Msg: Aers hasn’t had a chance to roll yet.
Ariel: I don’t want to! What if I get a 6 or less?
Sasha: You’ve got to roll sometime, Aers. I vote for her to make the roll too.
Ariel: No fair ganging up on me!
GM Claire: So. As the three of you approach the gate you’ve chosen to go through, you find some thugs shaking people down for cash in exchange for access to the way down to the far side of the wall.
Sasha: Ooh, that makes me mad!
Ariel: You can roll, then – go ahead.
GM Claire: No, we already decided. Since you don’t have enough Wealth to pay them off, how are you going to get through?
Ariel: I guess ... well ... I’ll tell them we’re really tough, and they’d better let us pass or we’ll whoop them. Hey, could they be considered cruel predators? I want to defeat cruel predators for my goal, so I’d be really serious about that threat.
GM Claire: Okay, roll +Heat.
Ariel: Oh, great. That’s almost my worst one. Umm ... 8!
GM Claire: Okay, you succeed, but it causes an additional complication. The thugs yell at you as you’re heading away from the gate that you’ll regret threatening the Obsidian Eye Gang.
Sasha: I yell back at them to bring it on!
Msg: Let’s just get to the Palace, shall we?
GM Claire: There’s a very long stairwell to get down to the lower levels. Meanwhile, Sin-Sing and the Strumpets notice some figures shadowing them. You know your gang is tough enough to deal with a few thieves who think that you’re easy pickings, but you also don’t want to get in a tussle and risk messing up your costumes. What do you do?
Elle: Great. Hmm. Looking around, can I see any passersby who look a little less rich than I do, but still pretty well off?
GM Claire: Pry Secrets is +Mind.
Elle: Super. I’m setting an example for my gang, too, so if I succeed, I’ll get +1 BOSS. That’s 8 + 1 is 9.
GM Claire: Okay, ask one question from the Pry Secrets list and take +1 forward when you act on the answers.
Elle: Easy – what here could be useful to me?
GM Claire: You spot a nicely dressed, mercantile fellow – a Servant in a peach-colored robe. You notice he has a purse held close to his body.
Elle: Excellent. I’m going to stride up to him – oh, after another, “Watch and learn!” to my gang – and engage him in a loud conversation about what great fortune I’d heard he had at the gambling house, and that I hope he’s headed straight for a bank to squirrel all that Wealth away.
GM Claire: That’s +Heat because it’s a social performance.
Elle: I get 6 + 2 is 8 ... and you said I could take +1 forward acting on the info I got, so that’s 9. And because it’s a success, I get another +1 BOSS.
GM Claire: So you succeed, but with a misfortune. He stares at you like he’s memorizing your face, then growls that he has no idea what you’re talking about and stalks off. You notice the thugs shadowing you break away to follow him instead ... but the guy got a good look at you, and if they end up jumping him, he may hold a grudge and come after you.
Elle: We'll booby trap that bridge when we come to it.
GM Claire: All right. That gets you to the bottom of the stairs in front of the Palace of Night, while the other characters have reached the elevator landing that serves the Palace from the night-side. Remember how the front side of the Palace was in the River District? Well, now that you’re down on the ground, you can see that the water from the rivers up there runs through these massive pipes that open up into spillways where water-wheels are used to run the machinery of the elevators.
Ariel: That must be noisy.
Sasha: What did you say?
Ariel: I said that must be noisy.
Sasha: Speak up! You’re making me angry with your mumbling!
GM Claire: I appreciate the enthusiasm you’re putting in there, Sash, but that was obviously something Ariel said, not Lonely Girl Gazelle Grey-Eyes. Ag can’t get mad at the character for something the player said.
Sasha: Fine. Go ahead, Aers, have your character say something.
Ariel: I’m not having her say something so you can get mad and say she’s mumbling!
Sasha: You’re no fun.
Ariel: Okay, have it your way. Grey-Eyes says, IT SURE IS NOISY DOWN HERE!!!
Elle: Haha
Msg: Yeah, that was pretty good.
Sasha: OW! My ears! All you had to do was speak up, not yell! Grrr!!
Msg: Matash – at an appropriate volume – suggests that we have a look at the elevator that goes to the third level.
GM Claire: You immediately see a problem. The other elevator platforms reach ground level out in the open where stuff from the street can be loaded right on them. But the level three elevator reaches the bottom by going in through the roof of a large, windowless building. The front of the building has a heavy iron door with a peep-slot at eye level, and an even bigger door that looks like it can roll up to let wagons in.
Ariel: Grr! They must bring the slaves in using cage wagons I bet, so there’s no chance they can get away while they’re getting loaded on the elevator.
Sasha: Don’t growl! That’s my thing, and it makes me mad when people start doing my thing.
Ariel: Sorry, but I get mad at cruel predators. Growling mad, in fact, and if you don’t like it, that’s tough.
Sasha: Well, I don’t think gazelles growl, but whatever.
Msg: Is there a side of the building that’s out of view of the street?
GM Claire: There is, but it’s the spillway that turns the water-wheel for the elevator.
Msg: What’s on the other side of the spillway?
GM Claire: Looks like another building.
Msg: Is it close enough we could jump from the roof of that one across the spillway onto the roof of the elevator one?
GM Claire: It’s pretty far. You could make an Overcome roll + Body, but it will be a broken roll.
Ariel: Yikes!
Msg: Yeah, my Body is 0, so there’s no way I’m making that jump.
Sasha: You guys are such cowardly weakling cowards. I bet I can jump across carrying you both.
Msg: You’re crazy if you think I’m going to trust you to do that.
Sasha: Well do you have a better idea? If I miss, so what? We’ll land in the water and get a little wet.
Ariel: Is that all that will happen, Claire? What’s the water look like?
GM Claire: Roll Pry Secrets, + Mind.
Ariel: 9!
GM Claire: Okay, you get to ask one of these questions and take +1 forward acting on the answer.
Ariel: Uhhh ... What seems the safest path forward?
GM Claire: The water looks pretty fast, but also deep, and there are places along the canal where you could climb out. So Ag’s plan is probably pretty safe ... if he can pull off that broken roll.
Ariel: I say we do it, then, Matash.
Msg: Very well. But I reserve the right to say I told you so if we end up soaked or somebody drowns. Is there a bridge where we can cross anywhere near?
GM Claire: You see one a block or two down the street.
Msg: No sense waiting then. When we cross over and get to the building we saw, is there an easy way up to its roof? Without getting spotted?
GM Claire: Pry Secrets.
Msg: 9 + 2 is 11.
GM Claire: Ooh, you get to ask three questions.
Msg: What’s about to happen? What here could be useful to me? What seems to be the safest path forward?
GM Claire: The building looks shuttered, so it doesn’t seem like anything is about to happen. There’s a dark gap between it and a neighboring building that you could use to get out of sight. The safest path would probably be to go in that little alleyway and figure out how to get up on the roof.
Sasha: I check it out first. Anything we could climb on?
GM Claire: No, but the eaves of the building are low enough that a good jump might let you grab hold and then pull yourselves up.
Sasha: What if I boost the two puny types?
Ariel: I’m not puny! My Body is +1.
Sasha: That’s punier than me.
GM Claire: With you boosting them, it’s easy. You don’t even need to roll.
Sasha: Great! We do that, then.
GM Claire: You’re on the roof. What now?
Sasha: I’m gonna get Gazelle Girl and Mister White-braids under one arm each, then use my Power Die to Channel Flame and jump us all across the spillway to the elevator building.
GM Claire: Nice! But because the roll was broken to start with, it just becomes normal now – you don’t get to make it with 3 dice and take the best 2.
Sasha: What! Now you tell me! Okay, well, Ag still thinks he can do it, so I’m giving it a shot.
GM Claire: What did you roll?
Sasha: Urgh. I got a 4. Even +2, that’s a fail.
GM Claire: Sploosh! In the drink!
Msg: Damn it.
GM Claire: The fast-flowing water is carrying you quickly downstream!
Ariel: Wait, wait! I’m spending a power die too, to use my Mantra of Prim the Loyal to say ... yes, and fortunately Ag’s jump carried us right by the water-wheel. If we grab on, it will lift us up almost all the way to the roof!
GM Claire: Nice. Like I said, though, the water is fast, so the water-wheel is moving powerfully. You’ll have to make a +Body Overcome roll to swim into position to grab it.
Ariel: What about a +Reflex to just reach out at just the right second? I said Ag’s jump carried us right by the wheel.
GM Claire: Sure, either way.
Ariel: Reflex is my best! I get 8 + 2 is 10!
Sasha: I’ll do the swim thing using +Body for 7 + 2 equals 9.
Msg: My Reflex is better than my Body ... 10 + 1 is 11.
GM Claire: Everybody succeeds ... but Ag gets a misfortune or mishap with that 9. The paddle on the water-wheel hits you under the chin and does a point of damage. You all end up on the roof, dripping wet.
Elle: Dripping wet, huh? That reminds me, isn’t that show everybody likes about to come on?
Ariel: What show?
Elle: The one where I take off all my clothes in the bedroom.
Ariel: Oh! I like that show!
GM Claire: Are you guys saying you want to do the End of Session move already?
Sasha: So soon? We haven’t even gotten on the elevator.
Elle: I hear this episode of the show is supposed to be extra good.
Sasha: Grr. No fair!
GM Claire: I’m hearing what sounds like three votes to end the session. MSG?
Msg: Is there any point voting? Three votes out of five is already a majority.
GM Claire: Yes, but you often manage to vote very persuasively, honey. Your vote might change somebody else’s mind.
Msg: Great, so the pressure is all on me now? Why don’t you vote first?
GM Claire: Well ... because I was half hoping you’d change my mind too, since I’m leaning pretty hard toward yes.
Ariel: “Pretty hard?” That’s what she said!
Elle: Groan. Okay, MSG, are you voting, or not?
Msg: You’re kidding, right? Voting against all four of you on an Elle strip-tease? Count me out of that one.
GM Claire: Okay, then. Did the group fail in some regard?
Elle: Does my hair-lock tickle fail count?
GM Claire: That wasn’t a failure for the group as a whole ... kind of ambiguous whether that counts as a “we.”
Ariel: Falling in the water wasn’t very ambiguous though! Now we’re going to be all drippy while we’re trying to sneak around.
Sasha: And my chin hurts!
GM Claire: Yes to the first question, then. Did you expose yourselves to danger, cost, or retribution through your actions?
Elle: Do I even get to say anything, since I was by myself most of the time? I mean, with-my-gang by myself.
GM Claire: Well, unlike when you were trying to tickle Matash, the trip to the Palace was part of the group’s plan.
Elle: Okay, so when I threw the thugs off our scent and onto that orange-robed guy, you implied some retribution, as I recall.
Sasha: Also, the whole jumping across the spillway, again.
GM Claire: Cool. That’s two yesses. Like last time, there’s really no campaign story developing yet, and nobody made big goal progress, so it’s a “No” for “Did we progress our story in a meaningful way?” So everybody gets two experience points – which I think means ...
Ariel: We’re level two!
GM Claire: Not quite. You have to take downtime to train in order to advance your level.
Ariel: Oh. Poop.
Elle: What, you wanted to make a bunch of leveling-up decisions instead of heading in the other room for the show?
Sasha: Not if you put it like that!
Ariel: “That’s what she said?”
Elle: Show cancelled.
Ariel: Nooo! I didn’t mean it!
Msg: Another good job GMing, Claire.
Sasha: Yes!
Ariel: Excellent!
Elle: Kudos, Miss Worthy.
GM Claire: Thanks!