Session 4: Cracked

GM's note:
 Sorry about the extreme tardiness of the log - been pretty busy in the intervening two weeks.
 
Cast Notes:

Jack Carter: out of action, player was sick.

Choice Quotes:

Sidrophael (describing a ritual purification): But if you have placed your weight on your left foot, all was for naught.


Sergei: I wonder if you give off any detectable emissions?

Sid's player: ... I'm sorry, I just about made a fart joke.

GM to Sid: You could ask your bosses! 

Sid: (reluctantly) Yeah.
Doris' Player: They probably want to talk to you!
Sid's player: (even more reluctantly) Yeaaah.
Don's player: You have 43 new messages!

Events:
Location: Task Force Starbase

Jack Carter experienced a crushing, missing-player related migraine and retired to his quarters.

Colonel Vunot tried calling the guest quarters after Don's timely computer system reboot. He wanted to know what had happened.

The group explained the circumstances of the attack: the use of bodily possession by the Fallen, etc. They did not hold back any details.

Vunot reasoned that the Fallen had a particular interest in the party. He revealed that the Alliance had no prior practical experience fighting demons.

He said that their first step would be to move to evacuate the starbase, as it was too vulnerable to sabotage. He didn't want his people 'trapped in a tiny metal box with four nuclear reactors' if there were going to be any more attacks. He said they would be evacuating to another planet in the same solar system: Yundi IV, where the Sertai had an old munitions factory.

He asked for suggestions about how to prevent further Fallen

Don suggested using a brain scan implant to detect jumps in brainwave activity. Vunot protested that their technological base was not up to the task, although he agreed to test any gear the party could draw up plans for. He remained dubious about this possibility though, and requested it take a back seat to other research concerning the bugs.

Vunot then asked Sidrophael for help, reasoning that Angels and Fallen were natural enemies. He requested a ritual that could protect personnel against possession in the field, some kind of sanctification.

Sergei requested that the Alliance bring in Great Britain from his parallel. Vunot said that he agreed in principle, but that the practical reality was that Sergei's people would need to be able to offer something in order to get a seat the proverbial table.

Freedom Ranger requested a chance to hunt live samples of the bugs, reasoning that they still needed to be on the offensive (rather than reacting).

Vunot agreed, and offered them several suggestions about where to hunt the bugs, explaining that they could try varying ranges of infestation. Sergei suggested that they go to his world, citing the fact that it only had one they knew about. Sid corrected that, telling the story of how his host got killed when he sought the Akashic Amplifier. This only renewed Sergei's interest in returning and defending his home.

Vunot said that was fine with him.

Kay asked about why the bug fled from them in the Meteor Apocalypse Parallel, noting that they hadn't hit it yet. Sergei believed there was nothing to it, and the others were dubious.

The group joined the evacuation, then broke up to prep for their mission.

• Kay went to Dr. Egaru and asked for more information about the Akashic Amplifier. He advised her that she may or may not ever grow into further powers with it, but that she should keep trying.
• Freedom Ranger studied video of the bugs. He also asked for access to a vehicle mounted railgun for personal use, and got it approved.
• Sergei built ultrasonic/ultraviolet flashbangs and began work on a device to decode the Lemurian data archives.
• Don fixed his scanner, then set up an ad hoc reality stabilizer with some Sertai pylons, on the logic that he could maybe trap a bug inside it. (Based on his experience that they avoided the field of stable reality on Overrun Seattle Parallel #13 with Losora.) Doris stayed with Don to watch and help him calibrate his scanner.
• Sid reported in to his bosses. He admitted he was with the new bearer of the Amplifier. They told him to make sure she came down on their side. They also told him that they didn't know why the Fallen wanted the bugs to proliferate, but that he should investigate. They theorized that the Fallen might want to use the disaster to destabilize governments on various governments.

The  group got back together and used Cosmic Coffee to return to the caverns of Yel-Em-Ver. Sid was unable to find a human host within a useful distance, and took a wolf instead.

Sergei took the rest of the stones. They didn't find any bugs though, so they went to the village of the former keeper of the Amplifier... except that Cosmic Coffee couldn't land in the village due to overwhelming interference. Don landed 12 miles away.

The group approached cautiously on foot. Doris heard singing from the town. Don checked and found an open rift. The group ventured closer and found that there were no birds, no plants, nothing alive. They came upon a pair of pickup trucks headed away from the village during the attack, but the engines had been melted, the drivers burned.

When they got closer, they saw that the town had been hit by a mysterious energy weapon that burned the buildings. Kay found a burned bug body too, indicating that whatever had fired had caught the bugs as well.


They found the rift in the center of town. It was invisible to the naked eye, and deflected a rock thrown by Freedom Ranger.

Don wanted to backtrack the rift, but not at its full size. He had Freedom Ranger get the pylons, and set up a reality stabilizing field around the rift. Unfortunately, the field was designed to be powered by Cosmic Coffee, but all he had handy was his stapler... so Don set the stapler to 'overload' and fired it up.

The resulting blast flung Don through the rift, and knocked everyone off-kilter. Sid immediately discarded his wolf body and followed in incorporeal form. Doris had the rest of the group link hands, and attempted to use her powers to slide after them.

Don found himself in an oubliette with about a dozen bodies. They'd been ritually sacrificed. Sid joined him moments later, but found himself stuck in a small stone idol, in lieu of a body. He realized he'd been spirit trapped by powerful magic. They looked at the runes above and he recognized the world: Nalkim, a place of sorcery ruled by potent lich kings, and exceedingly dangerous.


Doris slid the rest of the group into the oubliette with some difficulty: everyone came out with debilitating headaches. They did arrive in one piece, and totally not merged with any solid matter, however.

They freed Sid by scratching the runes on the wardstone he was imprisoned in, and he went to find a host body. He immediately located a soldier defending the wall from an encroaching army of the bugs, and began to participate in the city's defense to get a feel for the situation.

Kay raised Freedom Ranger to the top of the pit, where he used Liberty to slash a way out. Kay easily got the group out of the hole, where they found themselves in the inside of a small black pyramid filled with oubliettes. They reasoned it was a necromantic power source for the place they were in, and that Don's attempt to close the rift had caused some kind of stress-related backfire in it.

The doors to the pyramid were barred from the outside, but Don used his multitool to unhook them and get them open. The group went outside, and found chaos.

Don didn't want to risk Doris' power again, so he scanned for rifts. He found an open one... at the top of a tower, where a lich king was hurling lightning at the enemy army. The group decided they still had to get there, lich or no.

Sid rejoined the group and warned them against the interior of the tower, as it likely had horrible stone golems guarding it.

Kay took a large piece of a wagon instead, and lifted the entire group to the tower, where the lich king demanded to know, "Why are you blocking my line of sight?" The rift was near a swirling orb of dark energy he was using in the city's defense.

They begged him to let them use the rift to flee, promising not to interfere if he let them.

The lich king agreed, if they would 'turn their power on those below.' Freedom Ranger caught that lich was being less than honest, but the rest of the group believed he was sincere. They fired on the bugs, also wanting to test their weapons. Sergei used his flashbangs, which appeared to work. Doris used her void powers. Kay hurled a heavy ballista bolt. Freedom Ranger tried his railgun, but it wouldn't fire - subject to local laws, presumably.

Don worked to open the rift, reversing the polarity of the stapler, (rather than the neutron flow), to make a gate. He told the group to go immediately. The rest of the group followed, except Freedom Ranger. Don wanted to go last, but the Ranger wouldn't let him. Don relented.

Freedom Ranger tried to steal the dark orb on his way out, (in the manner of a football), to get the lich's forces destroyed, but it shattered against him.

The group came out on train tracks, in a rural setting. Freedom Ranger came out swirling with dark energy, his eyes black and his body shaking with pain.

They got away from the tracks, bringing him with them, and Don closed the rift in time for a train to pass by.

Sid came jumping off the train in a new female local body, and told them that the world was reasonably low tech and not under attack by the bugs... yet, anyway.

Session #3: Whatever Happened to the Man of Yesterday?

Choice Quotes:


Freedom Ranger's player to GM: "I just want you to know you're evil."

___

Don: "Doris! It's good that you weren't eaten by a reality-munching bug monster! That said, we need to hunt a reality-munching bug monster!"

___

GM: "Baby, did you fall out of heaven? Because it looks like you might have consumed it with your dark power."
Doris' player (to Sergei's): "Did you write that one down?"
Sergei's player: "No I did not. Nor am I going to."



___


GM to Jack's player about Cosmic Coffee: "Everything in here is coursing with cosmic power... and also delicious flavor."
___

Kay: "So, like, what's the legal status of clones?"
Egaru: "Well, we mostly just grow organs. We don't grow them to maturity just to harvest them. That would be morally repugnant... and terrible paperwork."
___

Sidrophael: "If you ever need to talk, remember I'm your friend."
GM: "My boss works in mysterious ways."


Events:

Location: Tunguska Parallel, somewhere in Seattle 

Doris went looking for work at a pub with a 'help wanted' sign in the window that she'd seen earlier with Don. A harried looking waitress welcomed her with open arms, explaining that their last bartender had had a stroke. Doris took to the job and managed to keep up with the strange drink orders, although the presence of absinthe on the world sort of threw her.

On her break, she went rifling through the lost & found, as is her way*. She found a copper ring in the basket with a strange symbol on it that she recognized as 'special.' When she touched it, a spark of her Rift energy flew from her fingertip to the ring, which absorbed it. The symbol flashed brightly for a moment, then died down.

She pocketed the ring and went about her business.




Location: Tunguska Parallel, elsewhere in Seattle

Freedom Ranger had changed into civvies to send a message to the future, but as he wandered, he saw a number of details that did not match 1929 of his world. (He was about 8 years old for his world's 1929, so he had a sense of how it should look).

Among the dissonant details:

• This parallel had lush vegetation in Death Valley, instead of a scalding desert.
• There were zeppelins.
• His favorite chewing gum was blue, not green.
• He was having an allergic reaction to something in the air. (Likely fine particulate Element-X, but possibly also 'an evil curse.')

Freedom Ranger concluded that nobody who could put him in a full sensory hallucination would get the details wrong like that. It didn't make sense. He also did not believe he was just dreaming, as the details were too weird for his subconscious.

As he tried to decide what to do, he saw a paperboy step into the road, with a truck bearing down on him. The boy would obviously be hit - he was looking the wrong way. Freedom Ranger dove into traffic, deftly scooping him up and depositing him safely on the ground. He also snagged a paper and looked at it, only to find the headline indicated 'tensions rising between the U.S.A. and Britain,' which he found very disturbing.

The  paperboy panted and wheezed. Freedom Ranger asked if he was all right, and the boy straightened up and asked him to sign Freedom Ranger #83. Ranger protested he had no idea what the kid was talking about, though at first he wondered if he was Sidrophael.

The boy assured him it was 'okay,' speaking like a creepy adult. The 'boy' took him to a donut shop - donuts being a classic Freedom Ranger favorite - and told him that while his 'people' were not responsible for Freedom Ranger's transportation to this world, they believed he was needed. He said that this world - and the worlds nearby - lacked *real* heroes, heroes like Freedom Ranger, and that he needed to offer them an example.

The boy then gave him a silver quarter and said, "We can't help all the time, but in your hour of greatest need? Call upon us, and we will come." Then, whatever entity possessed him left, and the kid returned to selling papers without any obvious realization about what had happened.

Greatly disturbed, Ranger went looking for a library to better understand where he was. Unfortunately, no libraries were public, so he ended up going through a skylight into a private collection. He discovered many disturbing things:

• Russia underwent a catastrophe in this world after the Tunguska event, toppling the monarchy and leaving the Communists in charge of the ruins. Russia is no longer a world power, and he knows Sergei is an expat, not a Communist.
•  Catastrophes that left millions more dead in this world than his, because there were no superheroes to help save the day.

Ranger left the library hours later, heading back for Cosmic Coffee.

Location: Task Force Starbase


Vunot finished the meeting by offering them limited starbase access, equipment and quarters. Several team members took tablet computers to study with. Don expressed an interest in biological samples from the creatures. Vunot revealed that they had several dead ones in the lab, but no living creatures. They resolved to go hunting live beasts, but not until the group was together again - leaving Doris unattended was regarded as too dangerous, and going into combat without Freedom Ranger seemed unwise.

Vunot agreed to just grant docking clearance to Cosmic Coffee, but he requested that Kay remain aboard to help work on the project the Alliance had originally wanted the Akashic Amplifier for: a weapon. Kay agreed.

Vunot also asked if Sidrophael would accept a cloned host body. Sid agreed to try, next time he was around. Vunot gave him a passphrase to use to verify his identity if that failed, and he had to take another human host somewhere on base.

 The group split up.


Kay worked with a scientist named Dr. Egaru while Sergei observed. The Alliance project was a gun designed to amplify the Akashic Amplifier's transdimensionally stable energy to project a beam of energy reliably through an open Rift, destroying whatever was on the other side. Sergei deemed the weapon 'brilliant,' and tried to get a handle on how it worked.

After showing them the device, Dr. Egaru asked Kay to exercise her powers at a firing range while he scanned her to attempt a non-invasive means of channeling her energy through an Element-X plinth into the gun. Kay agreed, and gleefully destroyed numerous targets.

While she worked, Egaru expressed surprise that all she could do was telekinesis. He said that, according to legend, wielders of the Amplifier had other powers: healing, lightning bolts, etc. Kay revealed she had a motion detection ability - telekinetic sonar - but nothing else.

When they finished, Kay was disturbed by this. She asked Egaru for access to cloned tissue to experiment with healing powers on, which he said would have to wait until Sid's host body was grown. She also asked for a tablet to research the Amplifier.

Kay read about the Amplifier, discovering that the Sertai used to have one in an energy containment unit, but during an accident, it got loose and sought out a host. Apparently, Akashic Amplifiers are designed to want a human host.

Sergei continued to study technical manuals.

Location: Tunguska Parallel, somewhere in Seattle 


Sid searched for Doris in incorporeal form. He found her tending bar, introduced himself, let her know they'd need to leave in a while. She agreed to go after her shift was up, as she'd been getting great tips. Sid said that was fine, and sat down for a drink.

Don and Jack used Cosmic Coffee to back to the Tunguska parallel, parking in their old space.

Jack discovered his new power of 'True Seeing,' and used it to examine Cosmic Coffee in more detail. He also noted a strange light across the Seattle skyline, like a false dawn.

Using a Sertai scanner capable of detecting Rift energy, they were eventually able to locate Doris as well. Once together, the group realized their best method of contacting Freedom Ranger would be to hack into his communicator again at Cosmic Coffee. By the time they returned to the stand, Freedom Ranger was already back.

The five of them returned to the station. Once aboard, Sid was able to possess the cloned host body.



Location: Task Force Starbase


Jack requested a Sertai weapon. They gave him a plasma rifle and some ammunition on the condition he leave it in Cosmic Coffee while they were docked.

Vunot requested - but did not order - that Doris remain in specially shielded quarters while aboard, agreeing to send her anything she needed to be comfortable. She agreed.

The soldiers tried to get Freedom Ranger to leave Liberty in Cosmic Coffee, but finally relented because "It's really Freedom Ranger!" They harassed him for autographs and such until he hid in his quarters a while.

The group took advantage of some much needed down time.

• Kay switched from studying the Amplifier - an avenue largely exhausted by then - to  working with cloned tissue samples. 

She found herself unable to heal, but her studies indicated that the Amplifier relied on her own thoughts, so she began to study medicine to try and give herself a grounding in tissue repair.

• Sergei slept.

• Jack researched his aliens in the Alliance database. 

He learned more about the Raxomacrux: that they jealously guarded this whole domain of space, wiping out races that got too advanced, including - rumor had it - the Lemurians. He discovered that his tech probably came from a race called the Rakqua. They were enemies of the Raxomacrux who developed his probability mechanics power as a sort of 'chaos-fu' to battle the more advanced Raxomacrux. Unfortunately, it failed, and they've been extinct for thousands of years as far as the Alliance knows.

Jack also researched the starship, discovering that it belonged to an Alliance race called the Toizis.

• Sid visited Jack to try and make sure he was okay. Sid reasoned Jack is mentally disturbed in some way, and wanted to offer his help. 

• Don and Sergei went to study the bugs, while Freedom Ranger observed. They worked with a biologist named Dr. Nysver.

 Details learned about the creatures included:

- The creatures were not genetically diverse. Don reasoned that they were either clones, or from the same 'colony.' Their environmental adaptations - arctic survival, desert survival, etc. - were done after they were born, either in the form of scar-free surgery or self mutation.  Don checked for serial numbers, but didn't find any.

- The creatures had very acute senses, including broad spectrum vision, parabolic hearing and pheremone based communication. There were no indications of any ability to speak verbally.

- The creatures were incredibly tough, requiring massive firepower to defeat. Their nervous systems were broadly distributed, armor the product of exuded bio-epoxy, circulatory system self-repairing, etc. It was unlikely natural selection could produce such a perfect predator to begin with.

- They didn't find any indication of how the creatures were sensing Rift energy, but that didn't surprise Don due to the primitive nature of Alliance medical technology.

The group also studied footage of both the creatures and associated monsters, such as the tentacle beast beneath the ground that Don saw with Losora in a previous session. Vehicular weaponry was reasonably effective, while personal weaponry didn't fare well. Aerial strikes were the very best, but the bugs liked to tunnel to stay out of the way of that.

Don shared the stapler trick with the group at this time.

They discussed weapon options, including:
* Sonics. Sertai sonic weaponry is not very robust, but Don thought about looking into it.

* Flashbangs. Given the creatures possessed enhanced senses, they reasoned that it might be possible to construct flashbangs that would not impair humans.

* Acid, designed to dissolve their armor.

They decided they needed a live specimen to find out if the creatures adapted personally, or if that was done by a controlling intelligence. They feared that the creatures would simply evolve around any weapon they developed.

After this research, Sergei headed for bed, as he'd been up 30 hours straight. Don and Ranger - neither of whom slept much - continued to work.

•  Doris studied the ring she found. 

She discovered that Lerlwar (an Alliance race) social scientists had records of the symbol. It was an icon of the Cult of Myaldarr, an ancient group of demon worshipers with no presence on the Tunguska parallel... making the ring highly suspicious. The cult itself was a group of demon worshipers who believed that material reality was a prison for their saviors, and sought the end of the world to free all of humanity from the 'curse of material existence.'

Doris called Don to warn him, at which point, all hell broke loose:

A warding symbol appeared over the door of Jack's quarters to seal Sidrophael in. The doors locked, and the atmosphere began to vent. Jack tried to call for help, but the comm was down. He began to suffocate.

Jack tricked the door open through a highly improbable feat, This got him more air, but it also sounded general quarters. He saw that their entire wing was sealed.

Similar scenes happened in Kay and Sergei's quarters.

Sergei began to try and hack the system through his tablet.

Kay casually forced her doors open and stepped into the hall, miffed. She wrenched open the doors at the end of the hall.

Sid told Jack he couldn't escape even with the doors open - the ward sealed him into the room just by covering the door because it took away the means you are 'supposed' to enter and leave a room. He told Jack he needed salt to break the seal.

Jack looked up and saw a smoky demonic creature, but he ignored it. He asked Kay to hold the doors to their wing open and asked where the kitchen was. She pointed, and he ran to look for salt.

The fear demon coalesced into a clawed, humanoid form and assaulted Kay. She let go of the doors Jack wanted left open, and they slid shut.

The demon's psychic attacks were ineffectual against Kay's superior willpower. She flung it at the barrier and ended up breaking Sid's warding seal using it as a battering ram. Sid let go of his host and joined the battle, contributing while Kay bludgeoned it into nonexistence. Sid then reclaimed his host body.

Sergei tricked the doors to his quarters open and stepped out, breathing heavily.

Jack went to the kitchen, turning the place upside down to find salt. At first, all he found was soy sauce, but he eventually found salt packets. He grabbed a double fistful of them and ran back... only to find the door jammed shut again.

Don and Freedom Ranger began to run for Doris' quarters.As they did, a crewman walking down the hallway with a tablet dropped it. His eyes switched from blue to gray, he pulled a pistol and tried to shoot Don. Ranger blocked the shot with Liberty and disarmed him. Don used his multitool to instantly dismantle the pistol. The crewman blinked, eyes switching back to blue, clearly confused. Freedom Ranger decided 'better safe than sorry,' and knocked him out with a single punch. Don scooped up the tablet the possessed man had had, and found that it was displaying the icon of Myaldarr. He casually whipped it aside, warned Ranger not to look at any screens, and began investigating what was going on.

General quarters sounded and Ranger picked up Don to carry him to Doris faster. Don worked anyway, not wanting to waste any time.


Don discovered several attacks simultaneously:
- Atmospheric venting in crew quarters.
- Destruction of the bug tissue samples.
- An overload of one of the station's nuclear reactors.

Don initiated a system reset of the entire station, reasoning it was the fastest way to purge all enemy trojans/viruses/etc. This cut all power for a few seconds.


Meanwhile, Doris tried the intercom to find out what was going on. The station warned her about a venting of the atmosphere in crew quarters. She realized everybody was in trouble and rushed to help. She asked fleeing station personnel for directions to crew quarters. They pointed her to the escape pods instead, so she just ran the opposite way. The lift doors wouldn't open for her, so she blasted them open. Unfortunately, she tripped and fell into the elevator shaft. She caught herself on an emergency ladder right before the lights went out.

She blasted her way out anyway, meeting Freedom Ranger and Don.

Power returned, and the danger appeared to be averted... for now. The party regrouped in crew quarters.

Sidrophael revealed one or more of the Fallen were almost certainly behind the attack. Most demons could sense angels, and vice versa, but some demons cloaked themselves. It reduced their power in a direct confrontation, but made them extremely difficult to detect. He also revealed that he could have conducted similar sabotage if he'd tried.

The group shared what they knew about the attack, and the session ended.

Additional Notes:

• Jack developed the power "True Seeing" during this session, which needs a more detailed write-up.

• Addendum about the bug monsters: they are not carnivorous.

Sergei's Log #1

Micheal sent me this, so here it is:

Case files: Dr. Sergei Ivankov, Agent and explorer for Her Majesty's Secret Service:

  6/19/29 -- I have been sent out by the agency to seek out the Stones of Yel'Em'Ver.  Clues and a long chase have placed them in a cavern in the far northeastern area of Alaska, not terribly far from the Yukon border.  Relations between Britain and the United States have been tense, right now, so this can't be done as an official, joint mission.  To this end I am working with a chartered pilot through Canada, one James Masterman, who has agreed to drop me some miles outside the projected site.  Rumor has it that Russian forces under the Bolsheviks have been closing in on the site, as well, so there is little time.

   Masterman's flight is bumpy and turbulent, and far too low for comfort.  It is fitting for this kind of operation, but hardly comfortable.  Regardless, that part goes more or less as planned, leaving me some two miles east of the target in a trackless, snowy wasteland.  After a perfunctory joke about this being "like home for me," and the requisite toast to the Queen, I set off.

  This is not like home for me.  I grew up in Moscow and went to school in Berlin and London.

  I approach the cave, taking cover in a stand of trees.  Dawn is breaking, and the light allows me to spot a pair of guards, huddled against the cold and looking miserable and none too alert.  I make my way as best as possible around the site, and leave a flare on and very visible to distract them, then sneak in behind them as they go to investigate.  This may not have been the standard procedure, but the subtle approach seemed called for, lacking proper backup.  Besides, without identifying them as definite enemies, it seems hardly sporting to leave them unconscious from my stunner in the Alaskan outdoors.

  The caves themselves are dark, with no evidence that whomever the guards work for has set up any sort of lights or industrial equipment thus far.  This could be a good or bad sign, depending on how long they've been here ahead of me.  I turn on my lantern and make my way downward as best I can, guided mostly by luck and instincts.  And also by my Lemurian Detecting Imaging Scanner, which rather helps the luck and instincts.  This time they seem to be working well enough, as I do not end up having to retrace the path from dead ends.

  After some short while, I hear nearby screams in German and Russian.  There is also some sort of loud roar accompanying this, which sounds nothing at all like any human or earthly creature I can think of.  I hurry forward, drawing the stunner and hoping that it will be enough.

  Coming around the corner, the scene is... strange, even by the standards of my work.  As expected, near a wall opposite me is some sort of Lemurian altar containing the Stones of Yel'Em'Ver. Not far from this is a smallish purple outbuilding, clearly labelled "Cosmic Coffee," and just as clearly very much not belonging here. Nearby them is a thirtyish British looking man in a longcoat, wearing a shirt with a bow tie beneath.  He has been backed up somewhat by a two meter tall green, armored, chitinous horror, roughly humanoid in shape, with massive claws.  It also, fortuitously, has its back to me.

  As I am lining up a shot at its back, I note another brief detail about the scene.  Two more guards, dead, as well as a body which might belong to Anton Fedor, an old rival, now working for the Bolsheviks.  The shot is true, and the monster lets out an unearthly keen, and crashes down to a knee.  This is worrying, as a shot should put a grown man straight out for hours.  I do not have a backup weapon with more punch on me.  I was expecting fellow adventurers, at most, not to be fighting a war or chitinous horrors.

 The strange man shouts "hurry, we cannot kill it!" does ... something, with a strange device he produces from the coat, then dashes for the "Cosmic Coffee" building.  I grimace, noting that the creature is starting to rise again, dash around it, and grab one of the Stones, before following him into it.

  Inside is any number of odd devices, including some that do, in fact, appear to relate to coffee.  The man, taking note of the stone, says "going to the library, I assume?" as he begins fiddling with one of the devices.  Accompanying this is a strange sense of motion.

 "Yes," I reply. "That is the hope."  I explain further that I have been searching for these stones for some months, in the hopes that I could determine what happened to Lemuria, since it appears to relate to the Tunguska incident, as well as the Zeuhroth disaster.

  He smiles faintly, and says "Oh, don't worry. It isn't!", then seems to pass all of this off.  I make a mental note to press this point later, when we are not hiding in a coffee shack from a horrifying monster, and instead reply "You would be surprised how that is not at all comforting."

  At more or less this moment, the sense of motion stops, and we seem to be at rest... somewhere that is not a cave in Alaska.   Perhaps the inside of a bar?  If so, not a particularly lively one, as it is dark, and windows seem to be broken.  Even so, there are people here, a teenage girl, a young man hiding near a table,  an older man wearing a jacket that gives him the look of a stereotypical pilot, a woman who seems to be a bartender, or is at least carrying drinks, and... someone dressed as comic book hero, practically draped in the American Flag, who is swinging a sword at a familiar looking green, chitinous horror.  This has the feel of a "they walk into a bar" joke.  I am unsure of the punchline.

  Several moments of tense combat ensue.  For my part, I grab the doorframe, and flip up onto the roof of the coffee stand, taking this position to take a few potshots at the creature.  As with the previous one, this mostly serves only to annoy it, but it is an excellent vantage point to observe the confusion.

  Observations:

 The Coffee Stranger stays in the building, and engages some sort of speaker, with which he addresses us outside, asking people to get into the stand.

 The Superhero is shouting banal slogans about freedom, and assaulting the monster quite violently, if not very effectively.  It seems practically built to withstand such assaults.  The Stranger addresses him as "Freedom Ranger" and asks him not to give chase to the monster. He eventually falls back somewhat near the stand.

 The teenaged girl appears to have some sort of powerful telekinesis. She pushes the creature, then ducks into the stand.  Her power is identified as "the Akashic amplifier" by the young man.

 The bartender and the teenage boy have a brief discussion.  He shouts something about the monster being "a killing machine".  After this, she also runs into the stand.  She is clearly confused, and in over her head.

 The pilot gets a very strange look in his eye, moves near to the windows as the monster attempts to exit into the street, then throws something into the street.  Within seconds, a runaway truck of some sort goes past, and some of its cargo lands heavily on the monster.  This feels related to me, but it does not make a great deal of sense yet.  He too, withdraws near to the stand.

 The monster itself escapes into the street, seeming inclined to pursue easier prey than this lot.

 Something happens, and there is that sense of motion again, and then we are... in a lush, green field.  Idyllic, really.  The Stranger says that this is "safe" for now, and we are shortly approached by what appears to be an American Indian, who begins speaking to us all in English.

 This leads us to a round of introductions.  I spend much of this conversation atop the shop, taking this all in, though do come down after a short while to introduce myself in turn.

 The Stranger introduces himself as "Don", and gives the indication that he is from a very advanced society, and that this coffee stand, Cosmic Coffee, is his device which he uses to travel between worlds.

 The Super Hero is introduced as "Freedom Ranger", and appears to have issues involving, in no particular order, communists, Nazis, and hippies.  He refers to me as a communist, and I make it clear that I regard this as a deadly insult.  I briefly consider demanding satisfaction of him, before realizing that someone with superhuman speed and strength is probably not going to be someone I can safely duel. Codes of honor really did not take supernatural powers into account.  Must make a note of this.  Perhaps some sort of discussion with the College of Heralds is in order.

 The Native claims to be an Angel, and that he was also the young man in the bar, in that world.  He calls himself "Sidrophael", and identifies Don as a "Rax'i'ma'crux".  He seems insightful, but his claims will be difficult to verify.  Still, it is reasonable to take it at face value that he must be telling some things that are true, since there is no reason for the native to claim to have known us from the bar that he was not present at.

  The woman is named Doris, and is briefly very lost and confused, but gets distracted by some Freedom Ranger comic books (which Don had produced from somewhere in an effort to convince Freedom Ranger that he was a fictional superhero).

 The younger woman is named... Kay, I believe (though I am uncertain I heard this for certain).  Sidrophael refers to her powers as being from something called "The Akashic Amplifier".

  The pilot is named "Jack."  He disappears shortly as the conversation and confusion continues, shortly followed by Sidrophael.

  Both Sidrophael and Don feel strongly that the monsters are "something new".  Freedom Ranger also mentions an encounter with several, previously, that he believed to have been summoned by one Gottleib Hertz, a sometime nemesis of his.

 The conversation inside the stand continues in a very meandering and confusing way, as the various parties have no clear agenda, and no one is on familiar ground.  Myself included, as my more regular excursions have not, previously, involved either dimensional travel or chitinous horrors.  The eventual goal seems to be "find a way to get Freedom Ranger back to his place of origin," as he feels very strongly about this (and that we are all possibly subversive elements who are attempting to lead him astray).  Don admits that he does not really have an idea where Freedom Ranger might be from.

  It is at this point that I note that Don does, in fact, know perfectly well where my world is, and that since the monsters were on both worlds, that it might represent a useful starting point to work from.   Personally, I would also like to get the chance to examine the stone in more detail, which I have the resources for at the home lab.

  Freedom Ranger asks about the stone, but recoils as though I have attempted to expose him to radium poisoning when I produce it.  Don assists me in finding a suitable sealed container to shield it in.

  Sidrophael and Jack return, Sidrophael explains that Jack apparently constructed some sort of "locator beacon" out of his "cellular phone", and expresses worry as to what it was summoning.  Jack indicates that he does not remember doing this thing, but acknowledges that something certainly happened to the phone.  It is decided to return to my world.

  We end up on the outskirts of Seattle proper.  I resolve to go find a newspaper, to see if any indications of the monsters are becoming widespread enough to notice.  Doris requests to accompany me, and we stop, among other things, to get her suitable clothing.  This, the newspaper, and breakfast are acquired.  I also telegraph in a short report to the home office: "Stone acquired. Site remains dangerous, do not explore. Will report in depth soon."

  By our return, Don has produced some form of sensor device, and is using it to examine the group.  It fails to function and burns out on Doris. He says something about "rift energy."

 It appears repairs will be necessary to Cosmic Coffee before further explorations and investigations can occur.  The group breaks up into smaller groups for a shopping expedition into town.

Session #2: Sertai Doom

Cast Notes:
Freedom Ranger was not present for this session, so his character was MIA, presumably getting into unrelated trouble.

Choice Quotes:
Doris: I think we've picked up a tail.
Don: What? We shouldn't be mutating! The radiation on this world is..."
Doris: I meant that someone is following us!
__

(Doris suddenly develops rift energy powers of some sort.)

Don: Excuse me, don't use rift energy near...
Sergei's player: Point away from face!
__


Sidrophael is possessing a deer:

Sidrophael: I don't have a human name in this host.
Don's player: My deer name is "(bleating noises)"
__

Sidrophael (in deer form): Do you sense me?
Doris: Are you hitting on me?
__

Sergei: What do young people do for fun where you are from?
Kay: Mostly TV and video games.
Sergei: Television caught on somewhere? This makes me somehow sad.
___

(A  group of soldiers in powered armor aim rifles at Kay.)

Kay: Pfft. Please, if I wanted to kill you all, you'd already be dead.
Colonel Vunot: She is likely correct. Stand down.
___

Losora: You need more reliable friends!

Don: To be fair, I only just met her. At a bar, no less!

___

Kay: Are you, like, okay?
Sidrophael: I am ambulatory. What we -
Kay: I'm okay too!

Corrections:

I had Sergei down as "Ivanov," but it's "Ivankov." This is corrected in the prior log.


Events:

Location: Tunguska Parallel, outskirts of Seattle

Sergei and Jack remained behind at Cosmic Coffee. Sergei began to work on the Lemurian artifact recovered from the Caverns of Yel'Em'Ver. Unfortunately, all he had to work with was his scanner, which was pre-digital. No other tests were possible without causing damage to the artifact. He could tell that the artifact contained some kind of complex pattern of energy, but couldn't decipher it.

As he worked, Jack kept watch.

Sergei began to explain his findings to Jack, but as he moved the scanner over the artifact a second time, energy readings in it spiked 30-40%, and one of the coffee machines began to beep. Then, all the lights in Cosmic Coffee flickered off.

Sergei pointed his scanner around, hoping to get a clue as to what was going on, but as he aimed it out the window, it caught fire. Completely unfazed, he produced a small brass fire extinguisher from his voluminous coat and began to deal with it.

While Sergei did that, Jack noticed a man across the busy highway with what looked like a sniper rifle pointed at the coffee shop. He pointed it out.

Sergei dropped the broken scanner, opened the window and dashed across the busy highway to confront the stranger, with no concern for his personal safety. He made it to the other side and saw that the attacker was in some kind of strange full body suit (resembling a zentai suit), and that he had what looked like a blunderbuss, except that the end of the device housed a piece of refined Element-X instead of a barrel.

Sergei demanded to know why the man was pointing a gun at Cosmic Coffee. The man retorted that he didn't have a gun... but his two friends did. Two more figures with weapons appeared from thin air, flanking Sergei. They demanded he get on his knees, hands behind his head, and began to restrain him with futuristic zip ties. The first man fired a green energy beam at Cosmic Coffee, and although there was no outward effect, he seemed satisfied.

Across the street, Jack grabbed a coffee pot. He threw it at the windshield of a passing car, causing the car to spin out of control. The driver was thrown clear of the highway, and knocked unconscious. The car landed in the ditch containing Sergei and his assailants, striking two of them and rendering the third speechless.

Undeterred, Sergei produced his stunner and demanded that the remaining tech ninja surrender instead. The guy dropped his gun and accompanied Sergei back to Cosmic Coffee, but he protested that Sergei was "making a big mistake."

Sergei questioned him. The man was extremely cryptic, but he believed that Cosmic Coffee and her pilot were dangerous, possibly even responsible for the whole mess. He also scoffed at Sergei wanting to fight monsters.

Eventually, Sergei convinced the soldier that neither he nor Don were responsible for the monster incursions. The man said he could talk his people into just letting the lead drop if Sergei let him go.

Sergei did so, and the man left in peace.


Location: Tunguska Parallel, the Docks (then transit to Overrun Seattle Parallel #13)

Don and Doris had half the shopping list. They needed, among other things, non-vulcanized rubber, fish oil and extremely pure copper. Don reasoned that the best way to go about this would be to hit a chemist's shop near the docks, so that's where they went.

While Don asked a local for directions, and got a confusing set of instructions for finding a nearby shop, Doris noticed that they were being followed. Their tail was a woman in local clothing, and quite skilled.

Doris attempted to tell Don surreptitiously, but it didn't go well, and he proceeded to the shop anyway.

As they neared the shop, both of them noticed someone scanning them with an active energy beam, something Rift derived. The next thing they knew, Doris' powers flared up, transporting her, Don and their pursuer to an alternate reality. In the new environment, Seattle was still there, right down to the same chemist's shop, but the shop was on fire.

The street was filled with military personnel fighting one of the giant hulking chitinous beasts as seen previously. The monster was in the middle of the street, atop an overturned armored battle vehicle of local design.

Additionally, Doris' hands glowed with crackling red Rift energy, haloed black. Her touch reduced the portion of the shop door she was touching to ash. Fascinated by this, she turned her power on the rest of the door, causing it to crumble to dust.

Don was alarmed by this development, demanding that she not use it so close to the tear in space. Then he wanted to know if their tail was still there. Doris pointed the girl out. Don swept past, heading for their mysterious pursuer.

The soldiers fired on the monster with their old fashioned machine guns, but the bullets had little to no effect. The creature ignored them, instead pouncing on Doris.

Doris shifted through the Rift again to evade the attack. The monster's blow cracked the pavement where she'd been standing.

Don asked their pursuer, "Under the circumstances, do you think a truce might be in order?" He saw that she had cybernetic augmentation

"Yesrightthisway!" the tail agreed, bolting away from the conflict. She produced a flechette pistol and a signalling device as she ran, neither native to the world. She also used some impressive ninja moves: she ran for a tall apartment building, vaulted 10' into the air, caught the railing with her legs, swung upside down and offered Don a hand up.

Atop the rooftop, the woman complained that her signalling device didn't have the necessary power to get a distress call out. Don asked for information. She explained that she was part of a group investigating the rifts, and that her name was Losora. She wanted to know who he was. When he introduced himself, she recognized him as "the volcano guy," referencing a (made up on the spot) prior adventure wherein Don had prevented Mount St. Helens from blowing up.

She also asked how long Don had been traveling with 'it,' referring to Doris as a dangerous object rather than a person after Doris' dimensional shifting and energy projection.

As they spoke, it was clear that the human forces on the world were losing badly. The gunfire moved further off, and the city burned. Losora explained that the same scenario was taking place on numerous worlds now, and pointed at larger creature that exploded up from the earth, flinging cars at the human soldiers.


Don offered to boost the gain on her signalling device, and she agreed. He used the battery from his defunct scanner to power it.After several hours, he was successful.

Losora was able to get a signal out, but mission control informed them that the only place they could open an aperture was at the spot where Doris had traveled away. Unfortunately, the docks had been completely overrun by this point. Losora agreed anyway, as the alternative was inevitable death. She lost the local outfit, beneath which she had the same zentai camouflage worn by the men who had gone after Cosmic Coffee.

Don produced his Rift-closing stapler. She scoffed, but he protested that it was better that high technology be 'disguised as something local." Don spotted a monster near the Rift, so he fired the stapler at a spot between the monster and the Rift to create a temporary 'blind spot' before they risked opening a gate.

That worked, and they were able to leave.

Location: Tunguska Parallel, bad neighborhood

Kay and Sidrophael went looking for a Chinese herbal shop, but Sid's host didn't know where to find one. Instead, he thought to ask his friend Crazy Eddie for help. So they went to a horrible dive bar.

Sid introduced Kay as his 'niece,' but this was dismissed by the bar patrons, who leered at her. Crazy Eddie demanded a quarter for his trouble, then began to give directions to a 'Chinaman's shop' nearby,

At this point, four men in the now familiar camouflage suits turned visible and attacked. One of them fired a razor shuriken at Sidrophael, who ducked.

They fired a net and an sonic blast at Kay, while the fourth team member tried to swat her with a baton. Kay evaded their attacks by jumping to the ceiling, digging her fingers right into the wood. The sonic blast still hit her, leaving her dazed.

Sidrophael attempted to tackle one of the four and shouted for Kay to just leave. Sid and the ninja grappled, the cyborg easily besting his human host.

Kay attempted to punch through the ceiling, but she put her fist right through the ceiling and into a washbasin, soaking her as she scrambled through. The men attacked again, and the sonic weapon streaked past her as she made it upstairs, causing an explosion and a fire.

The ninjas, presuming her dead, just stunned Sidrophael and left the premises.

Much later, they both regained consciousness and returned to Cosmic Coffee, only to learn that the others had yet to return.

Sidrophael left his lumberjack host and told everyone else to wait while he tried to track them down.

Location: Task Force Starbase

Don was immediately recognized and detained by the Sertai authorities, over Losora's vocal objections. The soldier leading the squad that took him into holding was a cyborg named Sovor. Don recognized their equipment as belonging to perhaps a dozen different cultures from neighboring alternate realities.

He was taken through a weapons scanner and bioscan, but they didn't bother to remove his basic tools.

Later, he was interviewed by Colonel Vunot, who had questions about a previous occasion wherein Don had destroyed a Sertai starbase in the Thotep Sector about sixty years earlier.

Don explained that the starbase had become infested with a sentient hive minded bacteria called the Galorax, capable of possessing humanoid hosts (such as the Sertai), and that the only way to deal with them in the end had been the base self-destruct.

Colonel Vunot believed him, and had him brought a cup of tea, promising a briefing later.

Some time passed, after which Don was released from his holding cell. Don asked if they could recover Cosmic Coffee, to which Vunot explained that the ship had been tagged for easy transit.


Location: Uninhabited Ice Age Parallel #465

Doris found herself in a snowy field after transit, no sign of civilization in sight. Her hands were no longer glowing, but strange power still coursed through her body. She felt the continued power to transport herself between alternate worlds, but had no idea how to target it.

She began to walk toward a nearby tree line, cautiously looking for anybody else. Eventually, she decided no one else was there and tried to make a fire. Experimenting with her powers, she was able to disintegrate snow. Unfortunately, the wood she tried to light on fire with her power didn't last any longer than the snow... but she was able to heat rocks up by almost disintegrating them.

Sidrophael came upon her in incorporeal form. He recognized the one as a world where human life never evolved, so he was forced to take a deer host.

He got to Doris and explained the situation, then used his secret knowledge to create a path that she could 'follow' with her dimensional transit powers back to the Tunguska Parallel, where she'd originally left.

He took a newsboy host ("Jimmy Pape! It's like 'paper,' but without the r!"), and the two of them walked back to where Cosmic Coffee had been, but the shop was now missing.


Sid told Doris to wait 'here,' meaning that world, and that he would track it down. He released his host, and departed.


Location: Task Force Starbase, interior

Cosmic Coffee was brought aboard with Kay, Sergei and Jack inside. Sovor asked who they were, and tried to get Don to confirm if they were supposed to be there, but Don protested, "I didn't get all their names!"

So instead, he was brought to the transit room to check. Meanwhile, they were brought out of Cosmic Coffee, with the only hitch being Kay. They scanned her, recognized the Akashic Amplifier, and raised their weapons.

Kay rolled her eyes and explained that if she wanted them dead, they would be already.

Colonel Vunot arrived with Don in tow and told them she was probably right, and ordered them to stand down.

The group went to a conference room to share information. The group related what they knew. Don placed particular emphasis on finding Freedom Ranger, siting just how odd it was to meet someone from a universe that should be fictitious.

Vunot explained that the Sertai were now part of an alliance of high tech worlds, collaborating across universal boundaries. The monster attacks had begun 22 days ago, and 11 planets had fallen in that time. The creatures were getting into human space via existing interdimensional gateways and older Raxomacrux rifts.



Location: Task Force Starbase, exterior

Sidrophael experienced rough transit following the path Cosmic Coffee had taken. He got a host outside of a starbase, but it occurred abruptly, and he accidentally let go of the base, drifting into space.

(This was due to a badly botched roll.)

He was secured and brought back inside, where he claimed to be an extradimensional entity possessing his host, needing to speak to Colonel Vunot about Don. He was unable to persuade his coworkers and was, instead, taken to sick bay for oxygen deprivation or consumption of narcotics.

Sidrophael left the host. Now that he had his bearings, he was able to find Don and take one of the guards in the conference room.

Location: Task Force Starbase, interior


Don recognized Sidrophael's appearance, and warned Colonel Vunot about the upcoming unpleasant surprise.

As expected, Vunot was not happy about Sid taking one of the security team for a host. He requested that Sid vacate so they could get him another, but Sid (out of Fate points) said he was 'stretched to thin' to do so immediately.

Vunot told him that he couldn't take the host off base. Sid agreed readily.

Kay had a couple of questions. To begin with, she wanted to know 'just what the heck an Akashic Amplifier is anyway?' Sidrophael explained that it was a weapon supposedly forged by pagan gods for their champions, one of many, and that it was attracted to a host based on willpower. Vunot added that they had been looking for it to help in their war efforts.

Kay also wanted to know if they had ever seen one of the monsters run, as had occurred after they arrived in Meteor Apocalypse #173 Parallel at Oliver's. Vunot said that they'd never seen one of the beasts run. Don believed that Freedom Ranger had scared it off, but Kay was dubious.

Vunot proposed an alliance, offering Task Force resources, and the group was all too happy to agree.

Don pointed out that they should also pick up Doris, as she was now a danger to herself and others.

Location: Tunguska Parallel, Seattle outskirts
Doris didn't have any money or food, so she wandered away from the former location of Cosmic Coffee to look for a job. (queue Incredible Hulk theme song.)


Character Updates:

• Don earned the Aspect "Oblivious." (And an honorary award for 'Best Dr. Who impersonation.')
• Doris gained the Extra "Energy Blast: Rift Energy."

Notes:

Fate's metagame remains intriguing. Most systems I've run or played worked from the governing principle that players are responsible for only their single protagonist. Fate takes the stance that players should have some control over the narrative itself.

I am very impressed with the results so far. It requires a certain flexibility as a game master/storyteller (you need to be willing to roll with the whims of the players), but the manner in which the players are constrained seems to keep things from being too wild and unpredictable.

The only thing I remain concerned by is Fate's combat system, which is not very robust. (Fights seem to be extremely low consequence until the end, where they ramp up sharply. I may want to do... something?)

Also, apologies if I flubbed anything, doing this log a day later than usual since I was pretty wrecked yesterday night. Hopefully I got the order mostly correct, and didn't miss any important details.
 

Session #1: Meet & Greet

Cast:

• Ben: Don, aka "The Drifter"
• Chad: Jack Carter
• John: Freedom Ranger (William Washington)
• Kat: Kay Cormick
• Liz: Doris
• Micheal: Sergei Ivankov
• Tim: Sidrophael

Links of Interest :

•  Gazeteer

Rules Tweaks:

• We're going to simplify Sidrophael's 'Host Body' power. Rather than making him roll every time, which is cumbersome, I will give him 3 cards, one for each Host property. He will arrange them as he likes before I explain where he is, and what might be useful.

Choice Quotes:

"I'm pretty sure I know what murder sounds like, so try to make it not sound like that." - Freedom Ranger

 "You may attempt to dodge (any further participation) in the campaign at this time." - GM

Don: "You broke it." (his scanner)
Doris: "What'd I do?"
Sidrophael: "You were."
Doris: "I'm sorry?"
Sidrophael: "Never apologize for being."

 "Can you get him to sign it? I can't imagine how valuable that would be, on some worlds!" - Don, referring to Freedom Ranger and Freedom Ranger #79.

 Events:

~~~
Location: Earth with Secrets, Seattle

Jack woke up with strange writing on his bathroom wall and mirror, in his own handwriting. Most of it was incomprehensible, but it included the address of a prominent Seattle bar, ("Oliver's"). His business - chartered flights and flying lessons - was based out of

He decided to go there and check it out.

Meanwhile, Doris was working as a bartender at Oliver's. It was a slow day, very few customers, so she started to go through the lost and found bin to try and track down any identifying marks on lost items. She found a set of keys with a strange black fob that was cold to the touch. It had a strange character or glyph on it, and no condensation. She started examining it.

As she did so, the bar changed: her boss was there, but he had a scar across one cheek, and he berated her for not paying attention to the customers. She looked up and saw a full bar. She began to madly wait tables and take orders, trying to catch up... but she put the mysterious keys in her pocket.

A strange old man grabbed her arm. Doris pulled away. He demanded she return his keys... and then, she was returned to her own bar, a tray of drinks in hand and no customers. Her boss, sans scar, demanded to know what was going on. She said she was 'practicing making drinks.'

He shrugged it off.

Jack walked into the bar, and ordered a drink... then asked Doris why she had the key to a small alien space fighter in her possession. (He didn't explain what he was referring to, but asked about the space fighter by name. I can't find my note for what that was, so am arbitrarily referring to it as an 'Yraku Stinger.')

~~~~

Location: Tunguska Parallel, Alaskan hinterlands

Sergei was searching for the Stones of Yel'Em'Ver, an artifact of the lost civilization of Lemuria purported to contain records of the civilization's destruction. The item was in the wilds of Alaska. Lacking the legal ability to enter the U.S. in a timely fashion, Her Majesty's Secret Service dropped Sergei off in a small plane, near the location of the ruins.

He made his way through the ice and snow, only to find that someone had beaten him to the caves he sought. They had a truck, and some guards with Tommy guns.

Sergei lured the guards away with a well timed flare, and snuck into the caves while they were looking for him outside. Lacking a better way to find the correct path, he used a scanner tuned to the energies emitted by Lemurian artifacts to find his way.

As he approached, he heard a scream in German, and realized it might be one of his long time rivals, a fellow Russian archaeologist, now in the service of Germany.

He drew his neural stunner and ran for the noise.

~~~~

Location: Tunguska Parallel, deep in the Caverns of Yel'Em'Ver

Don was going down his list of functional Raxomacrux technology that he needed to deactivate to close spatial rifts cropping up throughout human-inhabited worlds. His people had been destroyed by a great and terrible enemy from beyond known space, one he has little knowledge of besides the fact that it is attracted to the remnants of their old tech. 

He knew that one of their warning beacons had been left over from their destruction of the Lemurian people, so he went to go find it. He found the Stones easily enough... but when Cosmic Coffee landed in the cave and he stepped out, there were three dead bodies on the ground, torn to pieces.

Don realized that meant trouble. He turned around to find himself toe-to-toe with a horrifying monster. The beast was 8' tall, with bug eyes, great talons and chitinous plating. Despite his vast experience with parallel worlds, he had no idea what it was.

He threw his cup of coffee in the creature's face.

~~~~

Location: Tunguska Parallel, anytown U.S.A.

Sidrophael was contacted by his superior, a deadly angel of War in the host body of a harmless grandma, who sent him looking for a trans-physical artifact weapon called the Akashic Amplifier. It was last seen in the possession of a tribe of Inuit people, being passed from parent to child by the shamans of the tribe to keep them safe.

The angels had been letting that go, as it was harmless in such a small population, one with no designs on world conquest. Now that it had gone missing, though, Sidrophael's supervisor feared that the weapon might have been taken by demons. He revealed that the armies of Hell were marshaling, gathering their forces for some unknown offensive.

Sidrophael took his host to the wilds of Alaska.

It took him some time to find the village - everyone there was dead, and their spirits clamored and screamed incoherently. As he stood among the corpses, he was attacked by a monster very like the one confronting Don.

Sidrophael did not recognize the monster.

The beast killed his host with one ferocious blow.

 ~~~~
 Location: Earth with Secrets, Pacific Northwest

Kay was at her 18th birthday party, but she decided it was lame and snuck out. She had possessed - for about two weeks - rapidly burgeoning telekinetic powers, and she didn't want to be eating snacks, she wanted to be raising hell.

So she hopped in her car and drove into Seattle, letting her GPS pick a bar.

She ended up at Oliver's, right after Jack asked Doris about the keys. Kay sensed that the keys had power of some kind, so she immediately claimed they belonged to her.

Doris was skeptical, and demanded Kay tell her details about them, but Kay was unable to. Kay demanded a drink, and produced a fake ID to back up her request.

Doris didn't believe the ID either, and went to make Kay something non-alcoholic.

Jack was informed by his aliens that Kay was armed with a trans-physical weapon of terrible power, 'operating at 113% efficiency.' He didn't comment on it.

~~~~
Location: Tunguska Parallel, deep in the Caverns of Yel'Em'Ver

Sergei came upon the monster attacking Don. The beast shrugged off hot coffee to the face, but that distracted it while Sergei shot it in the back with his his neural stunner.

The shot dazed the beast briefly. Don warned him that they couldn't kill it with the tools at hand - the beast was more than a match for native guns. However, rather than going for Cosmic Coffee, Don produced a stapler and began stapling empty air, to deactivate the Raxomacrux beacon and seal the rift.

Sergei grabbed one of four Stones of Yel'Em'Ver.

The two of them got into Cosmic Coffee and Don set the ship to leave.

Sergei expressed relief at obtaining the Stone, but Don was dismissive of the paltry Lemurian technology. He revealed the device was 'merely a data archive.' Sergei explained that was why he cared about it so much, as he feared that the apocalypse that claimed the Lemurians was coming to doom his civilization as well.

Don, familiar with the Lemurians - a casualty of the Raxomacrux - casually assured Sergei that the two events were completely unrelated, but did not explain.

Sidrophael sensed a tear in reality and flew from his location, so many miles away, 'hitching a ride' in Cosmic Coffee's transdimensional wake.

~~~~
Location: Four Color Parallel, the Mediterranean

Freedom Ranger was sent to stop the latest nefarious machinations of Gottlieb Hertz. He was air dropped over the ocean without a parachute, and swam to the fortified ruins where the mad doctor was working.

Freedom Ranger slaughtered the outer guards easily, managing to do so swiftly enough to avoid raising any alarm. He then snuck into the compound and found Gottlieb's lab in the center of it.

Gottlieb was guarded by sentry robots with built-in machineguns, and had a giant machine that crackled with power. Gottlieb told Freedom Ranger that he was a fool, and too late.

Freedom Ranger bounded past the robots before they could open fire and kicked Gottlieb into the control panel of the device. Lightning arced all over, frying the robots. One of the robots opened fire accidentally, lighting some part of the machine on fire. Gottlieb let out a big, "Noooo!"

Five of the chitinous horrors stepped from the lightning in the center of the chamber. Freedom Ranger drew Liberty and jumped to dispatch one, but to his shock, the creature raised its arm and deflected the blow in a shower of sparks.

Gottlieb collapsed to his knees and warned Freedom Ranger that 'the fool had doomed them all.' Then, Gottlieb pressed a remote control, and the world went blinding white.

~~~~

Location: Meteor Apocalypse #173 Parallel, Oliver's

As Doris handed Kay a non-alcoholic beverage, the two of them and Jack all found themselves in a burnt out version of Oliver's, most of the windows smashed, tables ruined.

Sidrophael took the son of the bar's owner, now cowering behind the bar, as a host.

Cosmic Coffee appeared in the center of the room, Sergei and Don still inside.

Freedom Ranger and one of the chitinous horrors appeared on the far side of Cosmic Coffee, still inside the ruined husk of Oliver's.

Action ensued:

• Freedom Ranger attacked the monster more cautiously, attempting to take its measure. ("Create An Advantage" tactic.) He learned that the creature was almost certainly intended - by design - to kill humans. Creatures in nature tended to have specialized hunting techniques, and instinctive responses to prey. This one was able to anticipate humans, and was armored against modern weaponry.
• The creature attempted to flee for unknown reasons.
• Doris dove behind the bar, where she found Sidrophael. She recognized the bar owner's son, but remembered him as a loser. Sid explained that his host body had never done 'the drugs.'
• Kay attempted to harm the creature with her telekinesis. She was able to injure it through its defenses, and stop it at the window. When she exercised her power, Doris recognized her as 'interesting.'  Sidrophael recognized the weapon as the Akashic Amplifier, now irreversibly bonded to Kay's essence. 
• Sergei fired his neural stunner at the creature, further impairing it.
• Jack grabbed a bar stool and ran into the street. He threw the bar stool at a parked construction vehicle, causing a piece of rebar to come loose and smack the creature in the head. When he did this, Don recognized the ability as belonging to an ancient enemy of the Raxomacrux - a sort of 'chaos math kung-fu,' unseen in his domain in thousands of years. (Don't comment: "Well, he might've been frozen!")
• Don set Cosmic Coffee's travel field wide to try and catch the people in Oliver's, and asked Jack to get back inside over his external microphone.
• Sidrophael revealed the the monster had the Aspect 'Implacable Killing Machine,' and that Kay wielded the Akashic Amplifier, but he remained under cover.
• Freedom Ranger attempted to decapitate the monster again. He hurt it, but not enough.
• The monster fled.
• Don asked Jack to get back inside, and that Freedom Ranger not chase the beast, claiming that this was a trick to trap him in this hell-realm.
• Jack and Freedom Ranger stayed in range, and the group left.

~~~~
Location: Unspoiled Earth #89 Parallel, Pacific Northwest

Don got the group to safety in a wooded glade, and the group had time to talk. Sid rejoined the group as a local hunter.

Important points learned:

• Sidrophael and Don were familiar with each others' races. 

  The angels believe the Raxomacrux to be horrible interdimensional tyrants, dangerous enough that Sid initially considered it possible that Don might be behind the alien monsters. They are unaware that the Raxomacrux are gone.

Don knew about the angels. The Raxomacrux considered their claims of angelic status delusional, reasoning that they were a parallel evolution: fellow beings of pure energy, able to take impromptu hosts instead of prepared vessels.

• Comic books of Freedom Ranger exist in many modern Earth parallels.

These comic books are chillingly accurate about many secret aspects of the Ranger's life, including his real name and his (classified) enmity with and operations against Gottlieb Hertz. Don owns The Adventures of Freedom Ranger #79-85.

Kay saw a 'shitty reboot' of his story on the big screen, in her own world.

Neither Sid nor Don knew about Freedom Ranger's world being real, though both had seen the comic books. Both were surprised he was there.

• Doris is a walking source of Rift energy.

Don broke his reality scanner on her, while checking the group over.

• Freedom Ranger believes he's in an extended hallucination.

He vacillates between the belief that he's in a mind game, and demanding to go home.

• Jack is subject to fugue states, and possibly in communication with mysterious alien forces.

While the group was talking, Jack wandered off and broke his cell phone, rewiring it to serve as a brief transdimensional flare, contacting parties unknown. Sid followed him away from Cosmic Coffee and broke the cell phone before anyone could examine it, worried that it was transmitting ongoing data to unknown enemies.

The group decided their next moves should include:

1. Figuring out where Freedom Ranger's world is, in order to return him.
2. Fixing Don's scanner so they could do anything at all.
3. Checking on Sergei's world.

They left.

~~~~
Location: Tunguska Parallel, outskirts of Seattle

Sergei went looking for a newspaper, and Doris went with him out of sheer fascination. He discovered that the world was not under mass attack by the chitinous horrors. Sergei reported back to Britain - in code - that he had one of the stones, but that the location was too dangerous for further operations. He promised to send more intel when he could.

Sid took a fresh local host, and gave a terse report to the angels. He simply said that the Akashic Amplifier was no longer on this world, but that he was pursuing it.

They returned, then Don gave everyone shopping lists, and the group broke into teams to try and get the materials needed to fix the scanner.

Teams:

• Sid and Kay. Sid's plan is to use his Cheat Codes of the Universe power to more easily obtain what Don needs.
• Don and Doris. 
• Freedom Ranger has gone off alone to try and get a message to 'the future.' (The group attempted to explain that they weren't really in the past, merely a world that resembled the past of his world, but the distinction was lost on him. Partially because he's still halfway convinced they're all figments.)
• Sergei and Jack remained behind to hold down the fort at Cosmic Coffee.

 ... and that is where the session left off.

To-Do:

• Update character sheets and tally costs, to determine unspent points available to various characters.

Power interaction

Here's that promised table.

Did some playtesting tonight...

John, Micheal, Tim, Kat and I ran a few simple encounters to get a feel for the system.

A few of the conclusions:
* I am very happy with dropping the skill pyramid back down to normal. Micheal needed a couple of milestones to reach his desired competency, but that was about it.

* We're all a little clearer on task resolution.

* I do not like that the Fate rules renamed everything. I still don't really have a good feel for the index. Fortunately, it shouldn't come up a ton.

* Keeping the High Concept and Trouble unrelated seems to be helpful.

* The failing forward thing is pretty funny in Fate.

* Everybody who attended is mostly done with character generation.

* Central has always had issues with how technology and magic work on strange new worlds. I'll make a separate blog post about my current thoughts about that shortly.