FabU Session 11 - "To Save the Drakes"

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

Last Time …

Back in the little village.

Fight in a boarding house. Or maybe a bar. Or maybe a boarding house that serves liquor!

Sent Halti Drakesbane running off. Treated her Vanguard quite decently, and they quit Halti’s gang.

This Time …

We sleep.

Burley thanks us for the Zenits we gave him for fixing up the place.
Doc Thorne comes to check on the boy.

CUT AWAY

Halti and her medic and an Alchemist, and a Fletcher.
Halti: need to make lures out of thistle and go to the shrine where the drakes will be … bwah-ha-ha!!

/CUT AWAY

Doc Thorne - dammit! The boy has run off. Still weak.

Do we know where the shrine/temple is? Doc Thorne has a leather-bound book, her father’s journal. Hmmm. Mizzle carries it (to read, no doubt).

Journal: years of information and his own notes. Old ruin from before the Dolvain family took over. Some older families still visit. Built into the highest hill in the valley. (Matches with Zenith, goddess of the night sky and high places.

We Travel!

Hilly area .. normally d10, Mizzle drops to d8 – when searching, down to a d6.

Mizzle successfully guides us. A danger! We are going through the hills – hear an oddly familiar yell. “Anybody? Anybody out there?” Dwyer the trader, captured under a rockslide. Unmistakable that it’s our friend in the pot.

Pot foot got stuck as he was running from drakes, led to a landslide.
TBs and Mizzle give Sara a +4 boost to her roll! Success!

Dwyer is extracted without too much damage.
He’s looking for Cold Valley. Give him directions.

Off to the Shrine

Searching for the shrine. TBs lead them on a nice, boring walk.

An old stone building on the side of the hill. Amphitheater …

… but with smoke rising.
Mizzle creeps forward.
Halti and soldiers have set up a bonfire, burning the thistle.
(We don’t see the runaway boy.)

Temple of the Night Sky … hmmm, wouldn’t it be a coincidence if it started to rain on the bonfire. (Ritual with the Neko Monarch.) Major ritual, small area – 80 → 40, difficulty 13.
Grab hands.
TBs help!

Sara helps, drawing on her bonds. So +3 for Mizzle. Boom!
At the last moment, thunder! clouds! rain!

Halti is not happy.

Flames starting to fade under the rain.

Confront them, or wait? TBs want to confront, so the drakes don’t get hurt.

Sara - bring Unexpected Allies (animals around here). Floppers? Maybe something bigger?

Will soon have the amphitheater filled to the brim with Floppers, creating Battlefield Support.

Initiative: we all suck. Because the Floppers swing both ways. Halti is too on the ball. “I should have known it was you!”

Round 1

• Fletcher - shoots at the Acorn Pixie. Acorn Pizie is taken out.
• Seraid - casts a spell. Resists physical damage.
• Halti 1 - Spear at Saraid. Hits! 19 … but spends a UP … 23. Resists for half.
• TBs - taunt the Fletcher. Enraged!
• Medic - cast a spell - Reinforce, makes everyone immunte to Enrage.
• Mizzle - Neko Monarch - big hit!
• Halti 2 - Hits TBs hard!

Round 2

• Fletcher - shoot Mizzle. Hits!
• TBs - shoot at the Medic … draws on being Three Racoons! Zap! Take down the Medic.
• Halti - stab at Sara. Hits! (But resisted)
• Sara - Copper Club on the Fletcher, hits! Resistant to fire, but not with the Flopper distraction!
• Halti - stab at Sara. Hits hard! But still resisted.
• Mizzle - Elixir to regain MP.

Round 3

• Fletcher - Shoots at Saraid! Hits!
• Mizzle - Big Bang with the Neko Monarch! The Fletcher almost goes down … Halti is in crisis.
• Halti - Backup triggers from being in Crisis … Alchemist shows up! Eek! Alchemist - Throws elixirs and frightens off some Floppers. Entanglement trap! Attacks the Trimaldis! Misses! But … Strive for Perfection! Slams her fist against her helmet … +3 to the next check, and then next times she misses, -10 HP.
• Sara - heals self with Elixir. 50hp!
  Halti - Stabs at Sara! Hits! Spending an Ultima point to bring the pain down. Sara resists, and counterattacks.
• TBs - Crit on the Fletcher … and crits, and opportunity on Halti … SLOW!
• Alchemist - throws out vials … at the TBs!

Round 4

• Halti - Stabs at Sara - hits!
• TBs - Shoots Halti! Zap, with extra Adrenaline-filled damage! Halti goes down!
• Alchemist - Throws a vial at Mizzle. Poisoned and dazed.
• Sara throws a remedy potion to Mizzle. Mizzle is healed!
• Mizzle - studies the Alchemist. Zealous Sage – studies harder!
  
  
  
  
  

Round 5

• Alchemist - vial at Sara … poison and dazed.
• TBs - Zap the Alchemist.
• Sara - Bops the Alchemist.
• Mizzel - Stabs the Alchemist. He is down.

After the Battle

Halti - shouldn’t be like that! Shouldn’t lose to such shlubs!
Flopper tries to nuzzle. Get away!
Everyone should be cheering me on. I should be the champion!

ROAR

Drake lands at top of amphitheater.
Figures riding on it.

Enzo waves at us. “Hi, found the brood mother.”

Go up to the top of the amphitheater to avoid shouting.
Floppers are dismissed before drakes can eat them.
Bring Halti with us.

(skip the option of Halti Escaping and circling back later)

Enzo - found the drakes’ lair. Clutch of eggs, so okay!
What about the people around here?
Uh …
Take some time to grow thistles. And if people think the drakes are a threat, they’ll just hire more people like Halti.
Sara asks to talk to the Brood Mother.

Mizzle - wants to get in touch with the Sky Goddess. Visions, etc. … raven (storm crow)! So, getting in touch with Her messenger.

Drake hisses to Sara … “Smells like the ones who hurt mother … don’t let them near us.”
Sara - placates. We are looking for a peaceful way for people and townsfolkl to live together without conflict.

these are my hills! my territories! where we eat and feed!

S: Is there enough land for them and for you?
BM: These hunters will come back!
TB: Not if the local people do not fear you. Then they will not hire or want the hunters to come.
BM: This is the last clutch. I must ensure their protection.
S: All the more reason to be friends with your neighbors.
H: (searches for some proud boast, which dies). I don’t know if I care any more.
M: Maybe trying to be a hero in the wrong place.
H: Leaving. Not coming back again.
BM: Will protect our young, then go to sleep in the winter. Tell the folk who fear us we will be gone soon.

Mizzle seeks Oracle – what’s the most effective (interesting) way for drakes and humans to coexist?

• Use Enzo as intermediary?
• Encourage the farmers to plant more of the thistle, so they are seen of value?
• Create a potion to allow speaking Drake.

Yes, if they respect their boundaries, and make those offerings, the drakes will respect them, too.

Enzo is willing to help out. And bring the shrine back to what it once was.

Halti watches us speaking with the Drake. One of the mercs saddling up … “Hey, we could stab them in the back and take out the Brood Mother.” Halti: drops her spear. “Nah. Done playing at these games. I just need to go home.” Mercs: uh, what now? TBs: Have you considered farming?

That’s a Wrap!

XP! End of 2nd session: 5. We get +2 XP for FP. And for 4 UP, +4 = 12 XP!

Also, the Drakesbane Spear (to Sara?)

Also, 250z of stuff (indirectly) … of Alchemical Materials.
(Project. Cash) → armor? (Tinkerer master: Upgrade!)

[insomn14 (Mike)]

Other than some wrap up next time, I think this closes the book on Chapter One of the game (if everything on Harmony could be considered the prologue) and next time I’m going to want to talk about how things are going. Personally I’m enjoying myself, but I still want to check in with everyone. Some topics I’ve got ready to discuss:

• Are the fights enjoyable? Do they have too many moving parts, or are they not engaging enough?
• How about the rewards? If we look at the book, I should have given out approximately 3,750 zennit would of rewards over the last 11 sessions… and doing some accounting it looks like I’ve only given out 2,8750 zennits worth. Going to need to square that.
  • On that same note, is there anything people want? Do we have wish lists? I know armor’s been brought up, but (unless I’m mistaken) in some cases people have about the best armor they can wear without folks gaining access to Martial armor.
• How’s the spotlight been? I know we’re only a little ways into things, but does everyone feel like we’re getting our time to shine?
• How was Halti as a villain? Did we like the villain mechanics? How did we feel about the scope of her villainy? I’m planning around more big time villains in the future (while still having the occasional lighter fair), how do we feel about that?
• How have the adventures and hooks been? Are we liking them? Do we wish we were doing other things?

We still have a lot of potential sessions ahead of us (as many as 82 sessions before folks hit level 50) so this is all about level setting and making sure everyone is having a good time.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

Fights: we’re coordinating tactics to defeat enemies, e.g. taking down the Medic with focused fire. When we do that well, it works. And we can still get thrown curve-balls, like my healer pet being taken out on the first turn. I think this part is going great.

Rewards: I do have a wish list for every slot (weapon, shield, armor, accessory) totaling about 4500 zenit. I planned to make that much money via the Merchant class, and if necessary pick up the stuff once we reach the Merchant Princes’ territory. I can’t get better base armor, for example, but I can get +1 to Magic Checks on it.

Spotlight: if anything, I’d like to see the Trimaldis get a little more time.

Villains: In general I think you’re doing a good job with villain fights and using Ultima Points appropriately. For Halti specifically, I thikn she’s a great villain, the sort of person who initially seems like they’re doing something important, but won’t do anything that isn’t on their own terms.

Adventures: I’m happy with this, but of all the areas, I think this is the one where I have the most comments.

• JRPG fights tend to fall into “random encounters” or “boss fights”. Our limited session time means that really random encounters aren’t great, but fights that set up a situation are good. This is what you’ve been doing, and it’s going well - we fought wolves and drakes in two of our adventures, and they pointed us directly to the larger situation.
• The thing about the boss fights so far is that only Saevis really felt like it decided an important story moment. We fought Halti twice, once because she lost her temper, and once because she was hanging out in the temple. But beating Halti didn’t resolve the drake situation as such - that came after, with Sara talking to the brood mother. Ezra disappeared and then gave us a deus ex machina to let that happen.
• An alternative would have been for us to stop Halti as she was attacking the clutch - and then once she was defeated, to talk down the brood mother, who wouldn’t have been inclined to differentiate between humans when her kids were on the line.
• Earlier, I feel like our chasing Scaldworth around town for the blacksmiths was amusing and light-hearted, but it also felt like it ran a little longer than needed, and it would have been great if it also led to something else more meaty.

Overall I’m really having a blast with this game, and I’m happy to have it run for a good long while. If people feel like going to endgame levels, for example, I’m absolutely down for that.

[insomn14 (Mike)]

@garrett

I do have a wish list for every slot (weapon, shield, armor, accessory) totaling about 4500 zenit. I planned to make that much money via the Merchant class, and if necessary pick up the stuff once we reach the Merchant Princes’ territory. I can’t get better base armor, for example, but I can get +1 to Magic Checks on it.

Part of that is just going to be time. To pull back the curtain (which I’m sure you know but I’m stating for folks who may not be aware) the book recommends me limiting the max value of an item based on your level, which currently caps it at 500 zenit. In a level, that cap is going up to 1000 z (which I why I’ve kind of been treating that scale as “level x 100 z” until level 10, then it turns logarithmic) and then won’t increase past that until level 20 (which ups it to 1500 z).

I believe a majority of those items are ~1200 z and above, I’d say don’t expect to see any of them until somewhere around level 16 at the earliest. But in the meantime, I will try to come up with some goodies that are (hopefully) enticing regardless.

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

It’s okay I’ll talk the merchant down to 999z apiece

[Dave (***Dave Hill)]

Are the fights enjoyable?
I think the fights are fine. We were able to do some interesting tactics the last few (in terms of whom to target first, and how). The action economy of the game feels pretty intense, such that the idea of spending a round doing anything but shooting feels like it would be easy to fall behind.

(Part of that is that, at the moment, that’s the TBs’ basic thing to do: shoot stuff. And I know there are other things I could be doing, but that’s sort of the character as I figured it, and the variations will prolly largely wait until I’ve mastered the Fury track and shift to leveling in Sharpshooter.

I do kind of miss even the minimal zone movement stuff we had in MEGALOS. The combats feel a little abstract with that taken out. I don’t have a solution for that (and not sure that there is one, or that it needs one). Just an observation.

How about the rewards?
FabU seems to have been been about frequent-but-small rewards. That means advancing is steady but by tiny increments. I just need to ratchet my patience level appropriately.

We’ve not been in a real position to spend Z, so it hasn’t been that much of an issue (see next item).

On that same note, is there anything people want?

In part, I’m not sure of what I should be expecting to have in terms of damage, armor, etc. From what I’ve looked at in the book, stuff is either ghastly expensive or there’s nothing written up per se for upgrades from where I am (i.e., to do much more I really need to be drawing on level-ups to boost damage, at least).

Some of that is just reading through the book (via PDF) more carefully.

How’s the spotlight been?
Good. I’ve been feeling seen.

How was Halti as a villain?
For an Action Economy game, having extra attacks (or being able to summon extra attacks) is a killer advantage – just what I’d expect.

As to her scope/arc, it was nice to have someone who was a villain, but not necessarily a mustache-twirling bad guy. She had the sort of nuance I expect from you, Mike.

(Not that having the occasional MTBG isn’t a fine thing, too.)

How have the adventures and hooks been?
I would expect things will be different as we get into the Hundred Cities, or in each of the areas we explore. So far, it’s been imaginative and fun.

We still have a lot of potential sessions ahead of us (as many as 82 sessions before folks hit level 50) so this is all about level setting and making sure everyone is having a good time.

I am very curious to see how we and the story develop as we proceed!

[garrett (Bill Garrett)]

@Dave

In part, I’m not sure of what I should be expecting to have in terms of damage, armor, etc. From what I’ve looked at in the book, stuff is either ghastly expensive or there’s nothing written up per se for upgrades from where I am (i.e., to do much more I really need to be drawing on level-ups to boost damage, at least).

I can talk a little bit about this.

In the early levels where we are, you’re going to encounter rare items with minor (500-800z) powerups. That’s basic equipment, e.g. runic armor, plus some special quality. You can find a list of those online at CrysTools - Equipment

Next level, you’d probably benefit from a Swordbreaker (1000z) Accessory, giving you the same Physical resistance that Sara can achieve with her Chimerist magic.

The biggest boosts to damage aren’t from weapon qualities, honestly, but Vulnerability exploits. Your Tinker Magicannon means you’re super well equipped to take advantage of those, as Miz studies our enemies and identifies their weak points. There’s still stuff, like the Dual Hunter quality, that you as a Tinker might put on one or more of your weapons.

In terms of our damage output, you’re actually doing really well.

In terms of tactics, FabU works across time, not space - rather than positioning ourselves optimally on a grid, we do stuff like line up a bunch of attacks right before or right after something’s going to happen. We might Guard when we know a big hit is coming. We might Protect the Acorn Pixie to keep our main healer from going down. One person might use the Hinder action to put Slow on a target, just because another character does extra damage to Slowed targets (like the Acorn Pixie does!). And so on. It’s a bit of adjustment in thinking, but it can really pay off.