Sunday, November 23, 2014

A Half Dozen Samurai Highlights

Shiba Motoko and her intrepid band of deputies head west into no-man's land to protect a nameless village from the predation of bandits. But things never turn out the way you'd expect!

Characters
A bright-eyed and curious Shiba Bushi
A grizzled and half-dead Kakita Duelist
An odd-looking Kakita Inventor with a frikkin' lightning staff
An innocent 11-year old intern training to be an Agasha Shugenja

Highlights
*Helpful Peasant urges the samurai to make it through the rain-soaked forest before dawn comes, but too late!
*The Kakita Inventor slips in the mud and comes to staring at the feet of a 7-foot tall bandit!
*The Shiba Bushi promptly attempts to hit on said bandit to learn his juicy bandit secrets. Is unsuccessful.
*The grizzled Kakita Duelist challenges the bandit leader to a duel in the rain!
*Things go south, so he switches to the ancient Shotgun to the Chest Technique. Is victorious.
*The hidden bandits attack. Things get violent.
*Heroes survive and make it to the village. It's all fucked up.
*They meet Miri, the village guardian. She's got red hair, a crystal spear, and a crazy shard-shooter. Also, weird magic mom who lived in the woods.
*The young Intern get to healing and the others get to training and building montages.
*The Shiba Bushi follows the Kakita Duelist back to his quarters to "gain some knowledge," if you know what I mean. 11-year old Intern follows along. It's awkward.
*Adults give kid sake so he passes out and they can do some vigorous learning. Poor kid.
*Bandits attack the village! Including the dead ones!
*It is determined bandits are spirits of bad dudes who died 50 years ago, returning each dawn to get their violence on.
*Spirit bandits hit with philosophy bomb and forced to question their existence. Heroes take advantage of distraction to liberally apply Shotgun-to-the-Chest Technique.
*Visit grumpy old man with a gun who serves them tea.
*Grumpy old man was leader of bandits 50 years ago before he fell in love with Miri's mom and became village protector. Is reunited with daughter. It's awkward.
*Offers his sweet magic weapons and armor to the heroes while continuing to hold them at gun-point. What a nice guy?
*Heroes descend into the bandit cave, by which I mean, a portal to Toshigoku, the Realm of Slaughter.
*Shiba Bushi looks into nothingness. It looks back. That's bad.
*Miri tells them how to stop the spirit-bandits. That's good.
*It involves the ultimate sacrifice... That's bad!
*Intern gets cracking on the ritual, while Shiba Bushi and Kakita Inventor battle the slaughter spirits. Kakita Duelist summons the bad-guy boss and they duel for their eternal souls!
*Duelist has bit off more than he can chew but is prepared to sacrifice himself.
*Suddenly, slaughter spirit comes out of nowhere and stabs Shiba Bushi through the chest, killing her!
*At the same moment, the Duelist summons the strength to beat his foe, but is too late to save the girl.
*She sacrifices herself for all of them and leads the bloody dead back to the Realm of Waiting where they can rejoin the karmic cycle.
*Victory achieved but everyone is sad. Hooray!

Now that's how you samurai!
Image property of Alderac Entertainment Group

Monday, November 10, 2014

Maze of the Fireflies Highlights

Yesterday's game put our Southern samurai on a mission to escort a convoy up a dangerous stretch of river on the way to an inventor's expo. Here are some highlights. Every single character had one or more of the following hindrances: Overconfident, Curious, Heroic. As you can imagine they were very...proactive. Here are some highlights.

* Attacked by river pirates!
* Pirate captain falls instantly in love with the dashing Mantis Bushi! Promptly loses an arm, and the battle.
* Pirate captain pledges to serve to atone for his crimes.
* Everyone but the Scorpion Shugenja makes friends with a crew of brave but distractible rat-people. * Many confusing conversations about time, fish, and shiny things ensue. Learn about monster called the Tomorrow Fish. Probably nothing.
* Crew explores creepy, rocky, lake maze filled with mist and fireflies and adjectives.
* Spoiler Alert! The mist is made of dead people!
* Ship encounters a Maze Dragon a 30 meter long gargantuan serpent capable of biting ships in half.
* Mantis Bushi promptly jumps overboard to fight said beast mano-y-dragon.
* Scorpion discovers priceless clutch of Maze Dragon eggs. Promptly doesn't tell anyone. Scorpion...
* Zaibatsu Inventor sets bait for the Tomorrow Fish by strapping super-sandals to a clockwork samurai and having him perform figure skating routine.
* Tomorrow fish appears!
* Is actually turtle-shaped ironclad submarine powered by captive elemental inferno with hull immune to cannon fire. It's probably fine.
* Tomorrow Fish cuts boat in half with one shot from mouth-cannon!
* Samurai respond by jumping straight into mecha-beast's mouth. Heroes...
* Mantis Shugenja calls upon spirits of sailors killed by the ironclad to attack!
* The two Shugenja sabotage engines while Mantis Bushi and Zaibatsu merchant engage in epic battle with steam-cyborg ironclad captain on the bridge. Is epic.
* Ship makes it to surface, but about to blow!
* Ironclad crew and hero samurai awkwardly share escape pods for two days.

Victory for the South! Sort of.

Image by Brian Wackwitz