King of the World VIII - Plane Panic!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 10:28:13 AM

King of the World, an Æon Society Adventure

Transcribed by Eddy Webb from the journals of Cian Hayden, published posthumously.

VIII: Plane Panic!

I HELD MY BREATH until I could no longer hear footsteps. I felt Lucy struggling next to me as I leaned over to her. “Which hand is free?”

“My left,” she muttered, continuing to struggle. “I really should train myself to be ambidextrous. But it’s just about… aha!” She pulled her hand free, and we both stared at it for a moment. Then she got to work sliding out of the rest of the ropes now that there was some slack. The room started to look misty, and I couldn’t keep myself from coughing.

“Almost there,” she said. She couldn’t push the ropes over her head, so she twisted and slid her body up against the cannister, trying to get them over her hips. The mist grew thicker, and the coughs got worse when I felt the ropes fall off me, and a firm hand pulled me up. We half-ran, half-stumbled through the gas. When Lucy opened the door and we stepped outside, even the salty air of the docks smelled sweet.

“Where… did they… go?” I gasped.

Lucy pointed at the silver Rolls pulling out of the warehouse’s parking lot. “We need a car,” she said.

I nodded. My head was finally clearing, so I ran over to a two-seater with no roof sitting on the side of the road. I hopped over the door, fiddled with the mechanics, and within a few moments it was running. Lucy opened the passenger door and sat inside.

“Stealing a car now, are we?” she said, smiling.

“Max will pay them back,” I said, returning her smile. I stepped on the accelerator, and the car jerked into traffic.

When Lucy told me back when we first worked together that she didn’t know how to drive. At the time, I mentioned that I knew how. What I didn’t tell her was that I learned it from driving my father’s old beater in night-time races. I figured she wouldn’t approve of my misspent youth among “hoodlums and ruffians” as she would say. But she never asked how I learned to dodge cars at high speed as we raced through the Bronx. She simply ducked down behind the windscreen, keeping an eye out for the silver Rolls.

Once she spotted the car, de Winter probably noticed us, as the car started weaving through traffic as well. More than once we ran through stop signs and red lights as we played chicken all through New York City and out into Westchester. Slowly but surely, I crept up. The Rolls had to dodge everything in front of it in order to get away, whereas I just had to stay behind the Rolls and catch up.

As the chase continued, we made our way out of the city and further north. There were fewer and fewer cars around, making it easier for me to get closer. “Cian, be careful,” Lucy said, the first time she spoke since we got into the chase. I glanced around quickly, to see what she was referring to, but it turned out the problem was right in front me. One of the men in bad suits (now without his mask) was stepping out of the car as it sped through the streets. He stood on the running boards of the car, and another man passed him a machine gun through the window.

“I don’t suppose you managed to find a pistol anywhere,” I said, watching the gunsel nervously.

“Nothing of the sort,” Lucy said calmly. “Can you ram them?”

I nodded, gritted my teeth, and pushed even harder on the accelerator as I heard the first shots. I heard several cracks, and the windscreen turned into a mass of spider webs, obscuring our vision. I ducked down behind the wheel and felt the car shudder as it hit something hard. The shooting stopped, and the body of the gunsel rolled past me on the concrete. The machine gun in his hands bounced and spun in the air, and I ducked as it flew at my head and landed in the back seat. Black smoke came out from the hood, but I was still moving ahead.

Lucy slid down in her seat and commenced kicking at the windscreen. After the third kick, the glass shattered completely, flying over our heads. The smoke stung at my eyes, and a few stray pieces of glass scored my cheeks, but I could see again. The Rolls was also slowing down, but not as much as our car. The driver presumably cut the wheel, as the smashed back end slid to the left before the car turned into an airfield.

“An airfield?” I yelled, trying not to cough. Between the gas and the smoke, my lungs were getting a workout.

“de Winter’s trying to take off with the jewel!” Lucy yelled back. “We need to stop her!” She reached into the back seat and gripped the machine gun.

“Hey, be careful! That thing might blow up in your face!”

Lucy stood up in the car, braced the machine gun against her shoulder, and fired a burst. I saw the gun pull up and to the right, leaving a line of bullets across the back windshield of the Rolls. The silver car made another hard turn around some buildings, and I followed suit. Lucy fell into my lap.

“I can hear a plane starting up!” Lucy said in my ear as she carefully stood back up. “We need to stop them!”

I yelled “Hang on!” and slammed on the brakes. Lucy grabbed the frame of the windscreen in one hand, holding the machine gun in the other, as I fishtailed, the back of the car sliding to the right with a squeal of rubber. Lucy, sensing what I was up to, pivoted her body to turn in line with the skid.

Once the car came to a stop, she was pointed over the right-hand door, away from the smoke, with a clear vision of the silver Rolls. It was also belching black smoke and rolling up to a large plane. A ramp was descending from the rear, and the propellers on both engines were starting to spin with a loud throbbing sound.

Lucy pulled the trigger. More bullets spat.

The rear tires of the car burst like balloons at a kid’s birthday party, and the car ground to a halt a hundred yards from the plane. More men with guns spilled out of the car. As Lucy sat down, I gunned the engine again, driving perpendicular to the plane so she could fire on them. A bullet splanged off the windscreen frame near my head, and a couple more chewed up the upholstery in the back.

I saw over my shoulder a blonde figure running for the ramp, with a small purse over her shoulder. A man in a flight suit was leaning out of the plane, reaching out his hand. She was moments away from escape. “She’s making her way to the plane with the carbuncle!” I yelled.

“Get me closer!” Lucy screamed. She sprayed more bullets, and a few of the men fell over, clutching their stomachs. I jerked the wheel hard to the right again, pointing it toward the plane. I could hear the engine knocking and pounding under the hood, like a child throwing a temper tantrum in the playpen. The front end took a few more bullets as Lucy carefully lined up a shot.

A single bullet. It raced out from the machine gun, speeding to its target. Almost as if she instinctively knew, de Winter turned and looked over her shoulder. The bullet, racing for her back, instead grazed her arm and the strap of the purse. It tumbled to the ramp, bounced, and was immediately jettisoned over our heads from the backdraft of the engines. I could see de Winter stare at it. The man in the flight suit screamed something at her, and she turned to finish the run up the ramp.

Lucy pulled the trigger again, but all we heard was a solid click. Disgusted, Lucy threw the gun out of the car as we watched the King of the World fly away into the blue sky.

To be concluded...

Backers Only - Manuscript Preview #4
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 10:27:04 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

King of the World VII - A Queen’s Tale!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 03:58:29 AM

King of the World, an Æon Society Adventure

Transcribed by Eddy Webb from the journals of Cian Hayden, published posthumously.

VII: A Queen’s Tale!

“ALL RIGHT, MISS HEBRON,” she said. Her accent was much more subtle, more authentically blurred by time living in the United States. She also abandoned her attempts to sound bored, instead speaking with a cold intensity. “Let’s hear it. Impress me.”

“I find it better to explain my deductions when I’m not tied down,” Lucy said. As she spoke, I felt her hand move near mine. The metal under us vibrated slightly with her tapping, and suddenly I realized she was tapping in Morse code. I tried to look defeated while paying attention to the dots and dashes.

“You’ll stay right where you are.” Argentine said, pointing the pistol steadily at Lucy.

“Very well,” Lucy said. She continued to tap as she spoke. I. H. A.

“Can we at least agree that all this nonsense about occult rituals is nothing more than a flimsy cover for your real goals?” she asked. “It’s really quite embarrassing.” V. E. F.

“Silence!” the man yelled.

“Shut up,” Argentine said over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off Lucy. She lowered her voice, directing her words at the detective again. “Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t make it ‘nonsense.’ What is it your mentor said? ‘Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains must be the truth?””

“He also proved a ghostly hound was nothing more than a mastiff under phosphorus paint, but I take your meaning. Let us call it ‘science we don’t yet understand’ and leave it be.” R. E. E.

“Then you may continue.”

“That man behind you is clearly an actor of some kind. I spotted it right away — his touches were far too theatrical, and not at all in line with the calculating criminal mastermind I had come to understand in my investigation.” D. M. Y.

“Perhaps my father is simply inclined to the theatrical?”

Lucy laughed. “Is that supposed to be your father? Ridiculous. His accent is all wrong for a start. I have more French in my left toe then in the entirety of that accent.” I heard the man splutter in indignation. H. A. N.

“We have lived in America for a long time. As you can tell, I have little trace of accent myself.”

“But you do have a trace. Again, the actor tries too hard. His swallowed accent has more Boston than Paris.” D. S.

Argentine’s eyes grew cold, but she said nothing. I waited for a long breath, but Lucy’s tapping had stopped. I puzzled the letters together in my head, and quickly got it. I have freed my hands. I tensed, waiting for my moment, when the man in the shadows stood up. “My lady, I did everything I could. I’m sorry I—”

Argentine spun around and pulled the trigger. The man fell to the floor. I still couldn’t see his face, but the blood slowly pooled into the light. De Winter took a step back, away from the blood, and pointed the gun back at Lucy.

“It seems everything I heard about you was true. Well played. Tell me the rest.”

“You just murdered a man, for goodness’ sake! Do you think this is a game? The master villain against the great detective?”

She pulled the hammer back on the pistol, and I saw the chamber click over, lining up another bullet in the barrel. “Tell. Me. The rest.”

I glanced over at Lucy, but she closed her eyes and turned her face away from the blood. “Your body language,” she said quietly. “All the fiddling with your nail file and crossing your legs were cues to your actor. You’ve been working with him for a while. Presumably you’re the person who started the whole ‘King of the World’ moniker, to throw everyone off the scent. If everyone’s looking for a king, no one is looking for a queen.”

“And why did I stop my man from just shooting you?”

Lucy stared at her. Her face was fixed, immobile, but I knew the look. She didn’t know and wouldn’t guess. That’s what I’m here for — the wild jumps in intuition.

“Chlorine gas!” I blurted out. The pistol shifted over to me, but the words were spilling out of my mouth. “You and your father sold chlorine gas to the Germans. Since the Great War, though, not many people want toxic gas. Makes sense you’d still have some around. And if you shoot at us, bang, either it explodes or the whole room fills with gas, killing us all.”

Argentine smiled. “Smart boy. Are you the new Watson?”

Lucy made a disgusted sound in her throat. “I am not Sherlock Holmes.”

“No, you’re not Holmes. You’re nothing like him.”

“On that we agree,” Lucy said. “I’m better.”

Argentine put the pistol back into her purse and pulled out a stone. It was a dark ruby red, nearly black, like the center of a thick pool of blood. It was maybe an inch in length, and perfectly shaped into a curved rose cut. “And yet here you are, inches away from the very gemstone you seek, about to die a slow, painful death. You crossed my path, Hebron, and I want you to suffer for it.” She gestured to the warehouse around her. “This is a large room. Once I turn the knob, the gas will slowly fill the available space. It will be quite diffuse, so it will take a long time for it to reach enough saturation in your lungs to kill you. And the experience will be most unpleasant.”

I pulled on the ropes again. “You won’t get away with this, de Winter!”

“Oh, thank you for reminding me, boy.” She carefully put the gem back into her bag, closed it tight, and then spat in my face. “I believe that is yours.” She motioned to the men. “Turn the knob and let’s get out of here. We have a ritual to attend!”

To be continued...

Super! Science!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 12:13:59 AM

Hello Continuum Community,

We've done it! We've cracked the code and we'll be able to sneak a peek inside Branch 9's secret vault!

Of course, I'm talking about our latest Stretch Goal victory!

At $85,000 in funding – The Adventure! Addendum – Startling Secrets of The Ninth Circle! – A directory for Branch 9's collection of the most dangerous and strange telluric energy weapons will be added to the Trinity Continuum: Adventure! Companion PDF.

With that goal putting Super Science top of mind, let's check out some of the rules for gear and gadgets that will be shared in the Backers-only preview coming on Tuesday!

Super Science

While the Talents, psions, and Novas of later eras have access to more advanced and reliable prosaic science, the Adventure! Age’s upheavals and its heroes’ ingenuity forges many wonders, even in the shadow of the Hammersmith Incident. In a world spinning wildly out of control, many creations and expressions of Inspired ability take outlandish and strange forms across the planet.

Artifacts of Enigmatic Power

Artifacts of enigmatic power are a step beyond the physical sciences that comprise super science artifacts. These artifacts use telluric energy to create wondrous effects that are beyond normal human capability. Many traditions across the world produce strange creations rivaling those created by cutting edge super science. Tarot decks that can reliably predict potential harm for their readers, lovingly carved arrows that strike without regard to distance or intervening objects, tales that produce physical changes in those that hear them.  From obscure backwoods redoubt to ultra-cosmopolitan drawing room, these techniques and artifacts clearly exhibit impressive powers but do not follow the paths of cutting-edge technological development or bespoke ray gun design that so much super science does.

These traditions represent generations of different knowledge bases or individual epiphany applied to Inspired Science. It’s easy for individuals in the Æon Society or similar organizations to dismiss artifacts such as spiritual artifacts and ritual tools as superstitious trappings propped up by incidentally obtained Inspired powers, but such disdain is misplaced.

Items of enigmatic power use alternative creation means typically based around ritual actions taken during the crafting, to create results on par with that of super science. Such items fall into the realm of Inspired Science. Their creators reach for effects approaching the numinous and sublime that pure material science can’t replicate. Their flaws and drawbacks tend to put more risk on the mental state of their creators and users, even as devices created by traditional super science tends to threaten material harm or effect.

Super Science Examples

What follow are merely a few of the possible inventions, discoveries, and artifacts the heroes of Adventure! might use, covet, or encounter.

Bulletproof Suit

• Rank: 2
• Enhancement: None
• Gifts: Moving Target
• Tags: Bulletproof, Concealable, Hard Armor 1, Soft Armor 2
• Flaws: None

This lightweight suit is made of fine cloth and expertly tailored to fit the character and make him look good at the same time. It provides excellent armor against incoming projectiles, without even scuffing the fabric. A suit or other such clothing such as this must be custom ordered or made from only a select number of Inspired seamstresses in the world.

Flight Harness

• Rank: 3
• Enhancement: 0
• Scale: Size 1, Speed 2
• Gifts: Daredevil
• Tags: Flight Systems, Telluric

Even in the age of the airplane, personal flight outside of a metal cocoon seems like a miracle. The Flight Harness, used by the militant Ornithopter Hoplites, allows an individual to take to the skies under their own power. Particularly talented users and veteran Winged Hoplites can maneuver between tightly packed city buildings, inside narrow canyons, and sometimes even inside buildings, the Harness’s wings folding and exerting unearthly force to allow such gravity defying feats.

Monarch-class Sky Palace

• Rank: 5
• Scale: Size 5, Speed 3
• Handling: -3
• Edges: Fame 3, Striking
• Tags: Armor 1, Cargo 4, Fast 2, Flight Systems, Hover, Massive 4, Sluggish -3, Weaponry 1 (Scale 3 Machineguns)
• Flaws: Inherent Complication 3 (International Incident)

The Monarch-class Sky Palace is one of the largest man-made vehicles ever constructed. It can simultaneously host a fancy-dress ball, coordinate an invasion, host a diplomatic fete, and ward off an aerial assault by the fiendish forces of Dr. Zorbo. If you have your own air force, it can even launch those craft from its reinforced upper deck. However, wielding such power where nation-states can see it tends to make politicians and military leaders nervous, or worse, envious of the Monarch’s owner.

Prototype Death Ray MK I

• Rank: 3
• Enhancement: 3
• Tags:  Charged, Deadly, Ranged, Ray
• Flaws: Loyal to a Fault or Limited Tolerances

Why is it always death rays? Many members of the Rational Experiments Group and unaffiliated researchers in fringe science invent such devices independently Murderous convergent evolution causes their effects to be similar even if their particular methodology to generate the effect differs considerably. Given the limitations of these early designs into ray-weapon technology, many sci-warriors and inventors of death soon move on to more refined, or at least more destructive devices.

New Flaws

These flaws are particularly appropriate for items of enigmatic power, though Storyguides and players shouldn’t hesitate to use them for traditional super science, where appropriate.

Limited Tolerances (•)

This item requires precise function within carefully calibrated tolerances to continue functioning normally. It gains the Finicky tag.

Sinister (•••)

This device, or the energies it utilizes, come off as inherently unwholesome to those who see it in operation. Its immediately creates −2 Atmosphere for the scene when used, and anyone trying to create negative attitudes towards the user with individuals who’ve ever seen the device in use gain +2 Enhancement.

New Crafting Stunts

Characters may use leftover successes on milestone rolls to buy these crafting Stunts as normal.

Energies from Beyond

Tapping into telluric energy or stranger powers still, you infuse your creation with a power source capable of reproducing miracles even without an Inspired user.

• System: Spend 4 successes to give your Item the Telluric tag, which does not count against its normal tag limit.

Made to Fit

Sometimes you just need a tank that can fit down a hallway or a diving suit that can fit the yeti.

• System: For every 3 successes spent, you may increase or decrease this items Scale for the purpose of Size.

Active Volcano

Active Volcanoes produce no shortage of deadly hazards to contend with. Characters near an active volcano are exposed to Extreme Heat whenever not sheltering in cool locations such as underground or behind adequate protection. Fires are frequent, and the destruction caused by lava flow as well as the flow itself may be Complicated Terrain with a +1-3 Complication, inflicting Injury Conditions reflecting burns or injuries caused by displaced debris and exposure to lava. Ash and smoke from fires and the volcano itself may cause characters to begin Suffocation, though adequate protection or face covering may provide Enhancements or obviate the hazard.

Occasionally during an eruption, an active volcano may unleash a supremely deadly pyroclastic flow, a fast-moving current of hot air that incinerates and ignites anything it touches. Characters some distance away from the active volcano have three rounds to seek cover in a sealed location capable of keeping the superheated gas out. Minor characters caught in the flow are immediately killed, while characters must resist the Pyroclastic Flow with a +5 Complication each round for three rounds in order to survive. Failure to buy off the Complication inflicts an Injury Condition with the Aggravated tag.

A quick preview, but now I'm thinking that I'll need to use my Flight Harness and Bulletproof Suit to travel from my group's Sky Palace to stop an evil genius developing a planet destroyer in his volcano fortress surrounded by goons with death rays. This dime store detective is ready to help out some science heroes on a pulp adventure, that's for sure!

Another Stretch Goal down, and more in sight! Let's keep up the good work! Remember to share this campaign on your social media and in your social circles! We've got a couple more chapters in our cliffhanger story this week, plus our big preview of all the Gifts coming on Tuesday.

#TrinityContinuumAdventure!

King of the World VI - The King's Court!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 03:28:10 PM

King of the World, an Æon Society Adventure

Transcribed by Eddy Webb from the journals of Cian Hayden, published posthumously.

VI: The King’s Court!

THE RED SPOTS behind my eyelids receded, and eventually I was able to pull them open with a Herculean effort. What I saw wasn’t inspiring, however. I was in a giant concrete room with high windows, but I could only see an area around me lit by a single naked light bulb hanging overhead. I felt more than saw stacks of wooden crates around me, but the floor underneath the light was clear, aside from a few chairs and a small table. I could smell salt air from somewhere.

In front me were a half-dozen men. They wore the bad suits of the guys in the Rolls, and the masks of the attackers from the theater. We’ve already seen your faces! I wanted to yell but thought better of it. Particularly since I noticed their machine guns, and the fact that I was tied to some kind of hard metal cylinder.

Sitting in one of the chairs, looking bored, was the blonde woman I saw in the Rolls. Behind her, sitting in the shadows, was the figure of a man, but I couldn’t make out much more than the fact he was large and wearing a nicely-tailored suit that was probably worth more than all other suits put together.

“Where are we?” I said, unafraid of the cliché.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” I heard next to me. Turning my head, I could just about see Lucy, tied up with me. “We’re in a shipping warehouse in the Bronx, owned by the de Winter family.”

The shadowy man slammed a heavy fist down on the arm of the chair. “There’s no way you can know that!” he said in a strong, American accent. “You were blind-folded the whole time, and your partner was unconscious. You’re bluffing!”

Lucy sniffed with irritation. “Aside from the fact you’ve just confirmed my suspicion with your outburst, it wasn’t hard to deduce. The dimensions of the building indicate it’s a warehouse, and the smell of salt air puts us close to the sea, which means it’s likely a shipping warehouse. Although I was indeed blind-folded, I have lived in New York long enough to know the turns of various streets. Given the time we spent travelling and the turns we made, the Bronx is the most likely candidate for our location.” She jerked her chin at one of the masked men, who had some plasters on his face. “Which, naturally, coincides with the accent of one of the ruffians who assaulted me last night.”

Said ruffian pointed his machine gun at Lucy. “Let me kill her, boss.”

“No,” the shadowy man said. “You’ll endanger us all.”

“How so?” I asked, struggling with the tight ropes around my arms. “Afraid Lucy will kick your boys around the block with both arms tied behind her back?”

The blonde woman crossed her legs and started filing her nails, while the shadowy man laughed. “Hardly. But you will both learn the totality of your failure before you die.”

I spat at the ground, but due to my sitting position, it didn’t go far. “Cut the crap. You’re the King of the World, and you have the Black Carbuncle. Why not just kill us and get it over with?”

The blonde smiled at this and spoke with a thick French accent. “It would not do to have corpses outside my house, non? The police tend to take quite the dim view of such things.” She sounded bored, like we were discussing the inconvenience of sudden rainfall, rather than murder.

Lucy chuckled. “Ah. Miss Argentine de Winter, I presume.”

Argentine inclined her head to Lucy. “Oui. I am the daughter of Lord de Winter.” She put her nail file away as the shadowy man gave a deep, throaty laugh.

“Enough of this,” the man said. “Lady de Winter is assisting me in my plans to take over all of New York.”

“And how do you plan to do that with a single gem?” I asked. I stopped struggling with the ropes — they were too tight. “Sure, it’s rare, but it’ll be hard to sell on the open market.”

“That is the first of your many mistakes,” the man gloated, pressing the fingertips of his hands together. “I have no desire to sell the gem. Instead, it is central to our more… grandiose plans.”

“What plans?” I asked.

“My associate’s father uncovered a strange ritual during his time in Germany. One that makes men’s minds susceptible to suggestion. All it requires is the Black Carbuncle, a couple of unwitting sacrifices, and an incantation we have already translated. By this time tomorrow, we will give ourselves to the great Baphomet, and become all-powerful!” A thick, stubby finger jabbed into the pool of light, pointing at Lucy. “What do you say to that, wench?”

Lucy yawned. “I’m surprised, Miss de Winter. I did not expect a self-made woman such as yourself to let a man do all the talking, particularly such rubbish about magical spells and occult rituals.”

The silence in the warehouse was deafening. A thousand years passed in silence as Argentine stared at Lucy. Finally, she reached into her purse and pulled out a pistol that looked like mine. It was mine.

To be continued...