Old Banjos and Eel-nados (UVP - Campaign 1 - Session 4)

 PCs:

Arc - Maker; expert in lenses

Adella - Maker; expert in gyroscopes

Adna - Vance... very much so

Bron and Naiya weren't the only ones remembering the last time they descended into a dark and dangerous place. In fact, they weren't even the only vislae on the Garbage Barge on that Summer day years ago and far away across the sea. As is the serendipitous way of vislae, several of their present companions had been there as well, unbeknownst to them. So as Bron and Naiya were sharing a glance, Arc, Adella, and Adna were taking in the half drowned room below them and remembering the last time they literally waded into a dangerous place.

Cue flashback!

The Garbage Barge had made landfall. For most vislae this meant a nuisance and cancelled seaside reservations, but for Makers? It meant trash diving! Many Makers delighted in the chance to score cheap materials and reagents, and to amp up the Barge's appeal even more, detritus from half-worlds and other Suns often made their way into the Barge's filthy hoard, so there was the potential to obtain items difficult to acquire in Satyrine.

Today was a particularly special trash day, because Adella had a lead on an item of interest that was rumored to have made it's way onto the Barge. The "Chronoscope", a spinning device that could apparently modulate the flow of time around it. Apparently it had been the favorite toy of some half-world's petty despot, until they broke it in a fit of rage and cast it away... or at least that's what Adella's source said.

The "triple A" team was slated to rendezvous at Zero's (a popular vislae bar) before hitting the Barge. Adella had told Arc about her lead as they had been an effective trash diving team in the past. Arc has invited Adna as a plus one as he was fond of her and she had a research paper on the Barge residents' cultures she needed to write. Adella got to Zero's first and reserved a booth. The place was buzzing with vislae and Makers were definitely the majority tonight; apparently many others were gearing up to hit the Barge and try their luck finding something special. As Adella waited for her companions, she overheard a conversation from the booth behind her.

"...besides, I doubt any other Maker could repair the damn thing. Timepieces are quite delicate you know. I'm sure the former owner broke it in their oafish ignorance of how these things need to be handled. It will be an act of cosmic justice for the Chronoscope to find its way into my hands."

Adella was immediately on edge. She'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Otiviger, a School of Form Maker who specialized in timepieces, and her bitter rival. Maybe their work was a little too adjacent, or maybe it was the arrogance that he wore like cologne, but she had always despised the guy, ever since they first met back as journeyman Makers. Agitated, Adella ordered a Guinness (a frothy golden drink that tastes like the feeling of being the best in the world at something) and a shot of High Water to use as a drop-in. Arc and Adna showed up as the drinks were arriving.

"Here's your pint and drop shot miss. Anything for you two?"

"Sure, I'll take a White Noise, and a glass of Red for the lovely Vance."

"Great, I'll be right back with that."

Adella wasted no time in dropping the shot into her pint and downing the roiling mixture. The combination tasted like being at the peak of your career and the most unstable point in your personal life simultaneously, like being a rockstar in their prime about to ruin their life.

"I made the wrong decision..." Adella muttered glumly, referencing the old "Hell or High Water" saying.

Arc noticed the depressive tone and the unusual drink choice.

"Easy there buddy. What's got your gears turning? I can tell you're grappling with something."

The gears in Adella's head literally were turning (a Changery alteration some years back), but she ignored the friendly jibe.

"The booth behind me. Did you get a good look at them when you came in?"

Adna sensed where this was going and cast a quick cantrip to soundproof their booth before alcohol superseded the two Makers' propriety.

"Yeah it's that cool guy Otiviger from our journeyman studies."

"..."

"What? I like his dreads. The guy's got style."

"Did you see who he was with?"

"Two other vislae. A dude with trypophobia inducing skin with a bunch of little bees flying in and out of him, and a goth looking chick with like a dozen layers of dark cloaks and charcoal raccoon eyes."

"Damn, then we don't even have a numbers advantage."

"Advantage? What are you talking about?"

The drinks had just arrived and Arc was already starting to go a bit deaf from the White Noise.

"The Chronoscope!" Adella was practically shouting. "They know too. They're probably about to head to the barge to try and find it too. I wasn't expecting competition! Who knows what they'll resort to?!"

Adna chimed in.

"If there are other interested parties then perhaps we should take our drinks to go and head down to the Barge immediately. 'Decisive action is a knife with which to cut through doubt' Pallent's Treatise on Leadership Fundamentals, paragraph 3."

The Makers gave each other a look. Vances amirite? But she was right of course. No sense in a second round if it was to be a race. They exited the booth and Adella unsuccessfully tried not to catch Otiviger's eye.

"Adella! Leaving so soon?" He flashed a smile while Adella forced one.

"Got to catch a cab. The Barge doesn't stick around forever and I'm hoping to find some erm, sprockets I can refurbish"

"How quaint. Well best run along then. I forget how hectic life can be when you're constantly... losing track of time." And even wider grin oozed haughtiness.

"Quite."

A cab ride under the Hollow Arch and down through the ruined expanses later, the AAA team found themselves in the nearly abandoned district of Zardim, boarding the Barge between two beached tugboats. The stench was a revolting admixture of baby powder, durian fruit, and soggy cardboard. Walking into the shanty town of barge worker housing near the bow, they cast about for a local to talk to. The ramshackle village was almost as abandoned as Zardim. It seems most Barge residents were taking the opportunity for some shore leave in Satyrine. The sound of banjo music drew their attention to a sagging porch and a man sitting with a large lily pad hat drooping low over his eyes. His demeanor and body language suggested he might not have noticed the three of them, but his lyrics said otherwise.

"I once was approached by two or three vis-lae / yippie-kai yippie-kai yay! / They hollered in a chorus with a voice like dooms-day / yippie-kai yippie-kai yay! One wanted treasure, another wanted secrets, all wanted it their way / Whole lotta trouble, whole lotta ruckus it might be my luck-y day! / yippie-kai yippie-kai yay! / Or I might be hexed, be a newt before sundown / yippie-kai yippie-kai yay! / Say what you want, what you want about vis-lae / I hope they're not here to stay!"

Adna took notes. This was definitely good material for her paper.

"Excuse me? Sir?" Adella ventured after what seemed like a respectful amount of time. "We're looking for a time manipulating device called a Chronoscope. Have you heard of anything like that making its way onto the Barge?"

The man tilted his head back a bit to peer out from under his massive hat.

"Maybe I have and maybe I haven't. Folks gotta be careful what they say to wizard types."

"Folks gotta eat" suggested Arc. "Here's a sandwich or several."

He tossed a crystal orb (Satyrine currency, about $10 USD) towards the man, whose hand shot out to catch it even while continuing to pick at the banjo with the other. He flicked the orb into a beaten bronze spittoon at his feet. Noticing a look from Arc,

"That's my tip jar. I just spit on the ground."

The tobacco stained porch confirmed it. Adna scribbled more notes. Adella's gears ticked faster. This was taking too long.

"And the Chronoscope??"

"Hmm, I mighta caught wind of something like that on board but we get a lot of weird shit coming and going around here. Kat down at the scrapyard armory would know more about mechanical doohickeys. She takes an interest in that type of stuff."

Adna checked her notes.

"My diagram of the barge superstructure indicates a place called Kat's Salvage Armory a few tube stops away."

Adella sighed.

"Finally, something usable. Let's go."

"Oh vislae! Before you go... I know when some of your kind come round these parts asking after some crazy wonder maguffin there's likely more to follow. For another... sandwich, you might influence the information I share with the next gaggle of fancy folk asking similar questions."

Adella furrowed her brow.

"Are we the first to ask about the Chronoscope today?"

The man grinned.

"Might be. Might not."

"Don't make me--"

"Hold up" Arc cautioned. "No need to break civility just yet. Sir, assuming you have been 'influenced' as you said to give us certain information, how much would it cost to have you renege on that and give us the real info?"

"Hmm, that there's a tall order."

"I have a tall stack of orbs."

"So do I." The man shook the spittoon a bit, and it made a sound like a hefty bag of marbles being shaken. "Maybe I'm not interested in orbs for an ask like that."

"What do you want then?"

The man seemed to grow more serious as he responded.

"My daughter... she's special. Has a real spark to her. I know she could be a vislae if she just had the chance. I want that for her. As sentimental as I am about the place, I don't want to see her spend her whole life on a floating trash-berg. Journeyman studies are not cheap, but it's connections and access to materials that's holding her back. Spellbooks can't exactly be bought with orbs as you know." He seemed to gather his confidence as he prepared for what was likely a massive overreach. "Hand over one of your spellbooks and swear me a wizard promise that you'll try and get her accepted to one of the Orders."

He had overreached. Asking a vislae to hand over a spellbook was absurd, and asking it revealed he didn't know what he was asking. He had also revealed his lack of knowledge for vislae customs. There was no such thing as a "wizard promise". Goetics could magically seal contracts, but none of them were Goetics. The vislae conversed in Invisible.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about. Just say something fancy sounding and promise you'll help. We're burning time."

"Agreed. His daughter probably doesn't even have the spark. He wouldn't be able to detect it."

Arc was all for a bit of theatre, but he wasn't thrilled by the idea of leaving a non with nothing but empty words. He took charge of the situation.

"Alright mister, if you're absolutely sure you want this for you and her. We'll be needing our spellbooks today, but you should be able to acquire one of your own with this." He handed over a mage coin (secret vislae currency) as the man gaped at it. The nickel sized coin sat unnaturally heavy in his palm. "As for connections, I'll put in a word with some Makers I know. I'll swear it. But you have to swear you'll be there for your daughter all the way through this, that you'll use that coin for a spellbook for her, and that you'll tell us the full truth about what you know of the Chronoscope."

The man nodded somberly. Arc pulled out his spellbook with some flair and placed his hand on it.

"I Arc, first degree Shaper of the Order of Makers, do hereby super serious wizard promise that I will put in a good word for this guy's daughter with some friends of mine!"

The man was beaming.

"Now you place your hand here sir."

The man touched the spellbook with some trepidation."

"Repeat after me. I, state your name--"

"I state your name!!"

"No, say your name like I did."

"Ah, sorry. I Randall!"

"Do hereby super serious wizard promise..."

"Do hereby super serious wizard promise!"

"...that I will support my daughter in her endeavors..."

"That I will support my daughter in her endeavors!!"

"...and use this mage coin to buy nothing but a spellbook for her..."

"And use this mage coin to buy nothing but a spellbook for her!!"

"...and finally that I will immediately tell the vislae before me the full truth about all I know of the Chronosphere."

"And finally that I will immediately tell the vislae before me the full truth about all I know of the Chronosphere!!"

"Very good, it is sworn."

"VERY GOOD IT IS SWORN!!!"

Adna and Adella nearly facepalmed.

"Alright, so here's what I know. The clocks on the barge--even the non-broken ones--started getting screwy a week or so ago. Kat fished some spinny thing out of the alone and traded it to the dryads of the Empire of Light. It's large swamplike garden lookin place in a big fishbowl-type thing. It was causing trouble since workers were showing up late to work or disappearing for a few minutes and acting like nothing happened. Since the dryads took it things have been more regular-like. That's all I know."

Adna checked her diagram.

"The Empire of Light is right next to Kat's Armory. Let's go."

One stomach churning pneumatic tube ride later, a slightly queasy Arc and Adna stumbled out of the tube capsule into the outskirts of a junkyard. Adella strolled out with a purpose. She was a woman with a mission and an iron constitution. She would not be deterred by stench, motion sickness, or the notion that Otiviger and his cronies might already be ahead of them. A rusted and peeling sign read "Kat's Salvage Armory", and the vislae quickly found the titular Kat bent over a workbench. She was surrounded by various imaginative contraptions in various states of assembly and disassembly, but presently she appeared to be struggling to hold down a large dog rather than tinkering with a machine.

"Hold still boy! There's only a few stingers left. Just let me get these out!"

"Need a hand or four?" Arc and Adella jumped in to help hold the dog down while Adna took notes on the proceedings. They managed to hold the canine down long enough for Kat to finish applying a pungent smelling paste to its many insect stings. As they were doing so she cursed to herself in Invisible, and Adella instinctively looked around for a Testament of Suns (the floating stone hand that marks a vislae as such) but couldn't see one on her. Then she noticed Kat was wearing a bracelet of shattered stone fragments. The remains of a Testament. She's an apostate then...

"Hrmph. Thanks for the hands strangers. I swear that dog can be stubborn." She stepped back and took a proper look at the three of them, taking in their Testaments, Adna's uniform, and Adna's Vancian forehead tattoo. "Fuck. Listen, if you're here to take me in you should know that whole thing with the kaleidoscopic beaver had nothing to do with me."

[Vance uniforms are like this minus the helmet and gun.]

The AAA team exchanged glances.

"We don't know anything about that."

"Oh... Good! In that case forget I said anything! Wait, you're probably after that damn Chronosphere aren't you. The last group to come through here wouldn't take no for an answer. They fucked up poor Snooker here" she gestured to the dog whimpering under the large tortoise shell that apparently served as its dog house.

Adella's eyes narrowed. "Were there three of them?"

"Yeah, a handsome looking guy" Adella winced "a spooky looking goth bag lady and a walking beehive freak. Hence the stings."

"We're after them as much as the Chronosphere. Any assistance would be appreciated."

Kat softened somewhat. "Fine, I can trade you guys some of my wares. Hope they help you stick it to those assholes."

Seeing the value in any edge they could acquire, the vislae took a moment to peruse Kat's current offerings. Adella traded a universal seam splitter for a multi setting glue gun. Arc traded a disorientation lens trap for some full body emergency airbag armor. Adna took notes.

A few minutes later they stood before the submarine style door of a surprisingly dark looking biosphere for a place called "The Empire of Light". A few feet outside, they could feel the temporal disturbance. Their every motion seemed slow and then suddenly fast as reality caught up with the distortion. Bolstered by the mental presence of Aothrasal's Eye and The Lock of Orabavon, Adna saw the biosphere with sight beyond sight.

"The whole place is lit up with Nightside Green energy. And that door has a lock but it's been forced. They're already inside."

The vislae readied themselves for trouble and entered the stadium sized swamp-in-a-bottle. There were sickly looking mangrove trees all around them, each piercing the surface of the knee deep brackish water in multiple places with their spidery roots. Below and among the roots, the faintly glowing silhouettes of electric eels could be glimpsed. As the vislae's eyes adjusted to the gloom, they heard screams from farther in. Arc whipped out a lens that could only see beings with a mind, and looked through the mangrove forest to spy the source of the screams. It was Otiviger and his cronies. They had a dryad strung upside down from a tree branch with some glowing red rope. The Otiviger seemed to be interrogating them, though Arc's lens didn't pick up sound. His baggy cloak goth companion was using fingers that seemed to be made of needles to manipulate a small twig doll. That was clearly what was eliciting screams from the dryad. The porous hive fellow was also present, controlling a swarm of bee-like insects to easily keep some beetle-man warriors at bay. It wasn't to hard to deduce that the Chronosphere was hidden and that the AAA team's counterparts seemed to thing the most efficient way of finding it was wringing the information from a dryad.

The vislae conferred frantically. They needed to act, but they also needed a plan. They had a small arsenal of spells to draw on, and they could feel that this biosphere was a place of magical power. That would boost their casting. But what spells to cast? How could they make the most of the element of surprise?

After a few moments they had the makings of a plan. Adella would summon a windstorm as a distraction, and while Otiviger's gang dealt with that Arc would zip over in mist form and release the dryad.

Things went wrong almost immediately. Adella's casting of Summon Weather called forth a massive tornado that began to barrel towards the center of the biosphere, picking up hundreds of eels as it went. Arc was scarcely done casting Mist Form before he was sucked into the tornado, his body dispersed among the swirling winds. In the words of Arnold K., "you have basically jumped into the Wind's lap. You poor fool." Adella stood there stunned by the monstrosity she had brought forth, but Adna wasn't about to let a good distraction go to waste. She charged forward through the water and storm with Vancian tenacity and climbed the dryad's tree, using her boot knife to sever the glowing rope holding the dryad up. Otiviger and friends where busy diving out of the way of flying eels and casting defensive spells on themselves, and for the moment the dryad was forgotten. Meanwhile Arc was coming to terms with the experience of being one with a windstorm. Could he control it? Probably, but finesse was the challenge. He could either end the mist form spell which would almost certainly disperse the tornado as well, or he could go in the opposite extreme and intensify the storm. Splitting the difference and controlling the storm would be a challenge. Arc tried his luck and failed miserably. The tornado nearly sputtered out, and a hundred eels hung suspended in the air for a moment before the winds came back double strength, whipping the waters into a frenzy and blasting everyone and everything towards the edges of the biosphere. Adna was knocked down but was able to get to her feet quicker than the rest. She hauled the dryad to its feet.

"Come on! We need to get out of here!"

The dryad was able to stand, but it didn't take a single step. Adna noticed the rope was still tied to its leg. A Red glow... Shit. That rope's probably destroying its will to escape. Getting it off without hurting the dryad would be hard in the waist deep water here near the center of the center of the biosphere. No time. Adna slung the mentally trussed dryad over her shoulders and hauled ass towards the rim. She was cut off by the goth lady. She extended her needle hand and Adna was forced to drop the dryad and roll to avoid burst of needle-fire. She was able to push the dryad towards Adella however. Adella grabbed the dryad and started working on the rope but a voice cut through the storm.

"ADELLA! This is over! Hand over the dryad and it will save you explaining to Pale magistrates how you died today!"

Otiviger. He was standing a few yards away, between Adella and the door, covered in muck and aiming a pistol right at her. Could she cast a spell before he got a shot off? It wasn't a sure thing... Adna's words echoed through her head. Decisive action is a knife with which to cut through doubt... Adella breathed deep and then unleashed a double strength sleep spell on Otiviger. Success! He slumped into the muck without firing a shot.

And that's where we cut the session! What, right at the climax? Well yeah, it was a flash back. The players can decide what happened that day later on in the narrative. For the sake of this post though I'll leave you with one possible was the adventure could have wrapped up.

Adella hurriedly untied the rope from the dryad's leg and eased the exhausted arboreal being down to sit with their back against the wall of the biosphere.

"I'm so sorry for what happened to you. If you give me the Chronosphere, I believe I can fix this mess."

The dryad looked suspicious but weary. It replied in broken Indigo.

"No friend of vislae. But spin time ball bring pain. Not worth power. You can try."

The dryad sighed in resignation and reached into the air with mossy fingers. Suddenly they were holding--no, had been holding for several minutes--a device of rings within rings surrounding a core of floating sand. Of course, thought Adella. It was hidden a few minutes in the past. Adella gingerly accepted the device. She could tell the rings were misaligned. It was indeed in a faulty state, but it was by no means trash. She wagered she just might be able to initiate a reversal. Getting the exact duration right would be tricky... She held her breath, relied on her Maker instinct, and spun the device.

Reality spun wildly like water going down a drain. For a sickening non-moment, a tornado of eels seemed positively static compared to the chaotic reality Adella found herself hurling through, dizzying even for her. And before it even began it ended.

She was back at Zero's. She could feel the Chronosphere still in her hand. Otiviger's voice was snaking through the smoky air.

"...I forget how hectic life can be when you're constantly... losing track of time."

Adella grinned wide enough to put a crack in Otiviger's haughty smirk. When she held up the Chronosphere it shattered altogether.

"Oh I think I'll be able to handle time just fine. Do try and keep up mate."

And with that the AAA team turned about face and rolled out of there like badasses, leaving Otiviger and friends stunned, without even a witty comeback!

...

Anyway, it might have gone that way for all I know.

-------------------------------------------------

That's the session! Adella was voted MVP. Whew, that was a long one but there were a lot of fun details I wanted to capture. What a fun session. I did not see eel-nado coming. Randall The banjo guy was also a totally on-the-spot character. I'll definitely add him and his daughter to my "loose ends tracker" to reincorporate later.

For this session we essentially had the inverse group from last time. Everyone who made it last time couldn't make this one, and everyone who made it last time couldn't. I gave the players a choice: head into the titan corpse of R8-By and begin the dungeon with three players, or have a flashback like the other group did, maybe even seeing what they did on that same day. They opted for the latter. It ended up working out perfectly. I didn't force or plan it this way, but the twin flashbacks basically served as a way to tutorialize some core concepts with the players. The consequences of actions. Solving (and creating!) problems with magic. Talking to NPCs with a goal in mind. Using the environment to your advantage. These folks are learning fast and will be RPG/OSR pros in no time.

UVP is also coming along swimmingly. Tonight was the first time really seeing spellcasting in action and it's working essentially as I thought it would. I've made some tiny tweaks to make it more lenient. For example, if you're in a place of power you get the extra MD until you roll 4-6 on it like a natural MD, not just for one roll.

Tonight also had a lot of influence from Chris McDowall's excellent Electric Bastionland. I mean, UVP as a whole has a lot of influence from EB what with the three core stats and the way saves and HP work, but tonight extended that influence into adventure structure and GM philosophy. I was essentially spinning up an adventure on the spot since I had been prepared to run the titan dungeon, so I grabbed the Barge setting again since I knew I could describe it colorfully, and fell back on a classic EB adventure hook. You have a lead on some specific treasure but so does a rival. Get to it. The EB derived concept of a "pick or push dilemma" also made an appearance at several points this session. The player is presented with two different things and they can pick one option to just go ahead and happen in the fiction, or they can push (make a save) to try and get both/the best elements of each. Follow the link to Chris' post since he explains it better.

Thanks again to Amanda Lee Franck for writing the Garbage Barge setting since I can't stop grinning every time I get to make up lovely trash residents and scenery.

And now a plug.

Hello reader. Did you like the story of tonight's session? Did it sound like fun? You're damn right it was fun. But sessions like that can't happen without players. More players means more voices and more perspectives, and it also means more schedules aligning which means a greater chance of having a quorum available on any given night. More sessions and more voices means a more thorough playtest, and that makes for a better final game. Do you have what it takes to be a vislae? Probably! Get your face in here and play a session with us. Head over to Discord to learn more:

https://discord.gg/hxhtMDg