Tears of Madeira

Hello

I looked up some rule stuff that was bugging me a bit, so that next time we can do it better.

1. Explosions and other area of effect:

Roll for hit location as if it was a normal attack. We did this right when Jacob attacked with his shotgun (cone area of effect), but did it wrong when there was that huge gas-tank explosions. This avoids the pain of figuring out average armor and such.


2. On armor piercing and reduced penetration weapons:

Armor Piercing reduces defense by half for both the killing and the stun part of the damage. Reduce penetration doubles the armor vs the body damage but NOT the stun. So a weapon that is both reduced penetration AND armor piercing will do normal body damage (the 2 effects cancel each other out) but the stun part of the damage is still armor piercing.


3. On energy weapon and armor:

Most "conventional" types of armor (like say Kevlar), contrary to the little discussion we had about energy weapon, is PD/ED - this is why a flack jacket helps to survive explosions. If the GM wants energy swords (for example) to be better against armor, they should be armor piercing, half-armor piercing, piercing etc etc.

cheers!

hello

I was wondering - by people's count, how many points should we be at? Ironphoenix posted 194, but I'm counting 193. Now the session previous to last (where the council members started disappearing) I didn't give myself any XP, since it was unclear who should be getting it (Jacob or Julien?) and this could be the source of the discrepancy.

cheers

Early 2050

Reverend Parson looked up, then up some more, at the approaching figure of Jacob McNelly.
-Ah, my dear Jacob, I supposed you are still determined to go ahead?
-I am reverend, answered Jacob. J'ai etudie le Francais bien.

The reverend looked at him carefully, nodded once and added:
-I supposed there is a reason why God has granted you with your remarkable talent. Now remember when you are there, you must avoid injuring the innocents! You are going to go do God's work and smite these ... blasphemers. You must show restraint and caution - if you get caught or killed right away, your mission will be in vain. And if you kill the undeserving, you will endanger your soul and make a mockery of our righteous cause.
-When have I not showed patience Reverend? Answered Jacob.
-Granted, replied the priest, but the long time in the field may weight heavily on you, and the Old World will offer many temptations. Never cease turning to God for guidance.

The reverend reached down, and set a heavy package on the table.
-This is for you. I shall miss your presence, and to ensure that you return to us one day, I have had a special jacket commissioned for you - it is lined with some kind of armor, and I believe it may well save your life. I've also ordered a hat of the same cut. Finally, I've taken the liberty of including a travel version of the bible.
-thank you, this is very thoughtful, said Jacob
-furthermore, added the priest, if you look at each page with a number that's a multiple of four, you will find a single letter underlined. Put these together to form a message in Latin - it's contact information for Father Rodrigues, a Jesuit active in Southern France amongst other places. The Jesuits have kept true to their faith, and he may be able to help you. If you find out anything important, you can send it back to me through him.
-I will, promised Jacob

More than five years later

Jacob looked at the path leading up the mountains of northern Greece, where such an epic battle had occurred not long before he came to the continent. Europe had not been entirely what he had expected. While he had repeatedly struck against the Pretender Angels and the False church, little benefits seemed to have occurred. His actions had given many hope and he had saved civilians from arrest and probable death more than once; but they also had contributed in maintaining the oppression of the military onto the general populace.
They said that more Pretender Angels had died in this place than any other. Some whispered that the memories of the struggle lived on here. He knew the place was irradiated with magic, but his reading up on the topic seemed to indicate that a short exposure wouldn't be overly harmful.

Jacob stepped forward. Perhaps praying here would provide guidance and ease his burden.

...

I was delighted to see that my spell proved successful, even when severely assaulted by the radiation at the crater site, and that Nev returned unharmed. The uncontrolled drooling side effects seems to be specific to chickens, thankfully.

My delight proved short lived. I do not know if Nev's insistence on flying instead of sending the gull, or if we strayed too close from shore, but a rowboat was seen heading for us. It seems that some people have survived on the island for the last 27 years! How they have survived for so long is beyond me. They must be fishing or somesuch.

While the boat inched towards us, Nev describe the crater, which is littered with blue crystals we have determined are some sort of magical battery - probably a leftover from D'ange's infernal contraption. Nev also described some sort of tower that flight magical energy or electricity towards the gate. He also detailed what seems to be like a crash site - this would be revealed to be the final fate of one of the angel cities. Apparently, the explosion at the gate damaged it, and gremlins inadvertently sabotaged it beyond all repair.

This sorry delegation asked for our help and news of the outside world. One of them, a rotund simpleton by the name of Ticky, obviously suffered from horrible brain damage induced by magical radiation. Killing him would be an act of mercy. That they would bring such a buffoon along is an obvious sign of duplicity - he is obviously meant as a distraction or to make us underestimate them. Or he could be some kind of idiot-savant with a potent trick up his "sleeve". Either way, they bear close watching.

We decided to send a boat on the shore to bring the hapless mass some medical supplies. We were lead by one of the crew members. While she was prancing around like a hussy, the rest of us tried to assist the natives. I met a delightful young man who apparently was one of D'ange students! I tried to get as much information from him about the gate, but much of his equipment was damaged by the magical radiative spike. He also seems to have some knowledge of healing magic, a trick that I would be eager to learn from him. Some pathetic broken angels needed my assistance. I was magnanimous and spared their lives - I guess they had no way of knowing of their horrible crimes against my family and my person. It was this incident that showed me that my potential new friend had magical healing skills as this prompted them to provide succor to the landbound wretches. (Why had he not done so before puzzles me). I suppose these angels, survivors of the crash, were too injured to fly out to the other 2 angel cities. The fact that said cities didn't send down a craft for them speaks loudly of their lack of humanity.

While we did this, Nev and Gawen explored some more. Nev was still covered by my spell, and I warned him that I might have to remove it if I needed magic urgently, but he didn't seem to understand the concept. Thankfully, that did not prove to be problematic. He did encounter a gremlin of freakish large size (well over 2 feet!) that was eating the magical "battery-crystals". I believe I could write a tome on the implications of that! Of much more interest, he witnessed what I can only guess to be an exploration attempt from the other side - a small, damaged craft with a single angel came from the gate - the pilot did not survive the journey. Nev promptly returned to the ship, attempting to stay out of sight.

In the meantime, I decided to explore too, and used the forbidden words of changing to summon my esteemed colleague to assist. We explored the waters local to the ship, and were alarmed by the number of large, obviously mutated predatory looking beasts in the water. We were thankfully unacosted. One I saw may have been Jasper in one of his many forms... such things are hard to determine. What was not hard to determine was the deplorable state of the dimensional fabric - like cheesecloth most alarmingly!

I reported my findings, and the dead angel pilot was examined. We determined that he was not of the 2 known angel cities. This is evidence of my working theory on the workings of the trans-dimentional gate, one that I will elaborate upon at a later time. We know know that the gate is *almost* passable, and that angels on the other side are still attempting to pass.


We took onboard as many refugees as we could - a mix of representatives, persons with useful knowledge and the sick and infirm. We promised to return.

During the night, one of us overheard Jasper talking saying that the true purpose of the visit had not gone noticed by us. We are unsure if this little overhearing was staged. Discussions with the ex-student, Dingo, revealed that he could communicate with some kind of fungal organism common on the island - leaked angel biotech. While this could be of great value on our struggle against the angels - or aliens should I say, as the ex-student called them, delightfully term. However, I fear that such an organism could cause an ecological, or even pathological, disaster on earth - who knows of how many survivors on the island who perished early died due to this fungus instead of the effects of the radiation?!? I suppose thought that in the end, this is a price we must pay. The lives of hundreds of millions are but dust when compared to the utter destruction of our dimensional matrix.


We took the trip through the storm again, in a fashion I guess could be best described as skimming the edge between the dimensions. I had concerns - we were told by Kevin that because of his radiation poisoning, travel to underhill could be fatal to him. One of the refugees did pass away during the trip - ah well. It seems that the transdimentional cognitive disturbance are much more intense below deck. Some of the others were quite affected. I, being used to such travails and possessing a clear, willfull mind, was not bothered of course. I must admit that once all of this is over I must study this type of magic more, I suspect I would be well suited to it.

We reached our destination without too much trouble, but we did warn the proper authorities about the potential risk. More medical tests are in our future, alas.