View source for Celestial Mechanic Part One

Part One of The Celestial Mechanic

Josh and I slid into our seats at Bob's table (after finding Bob - he was talking to a Tekumel GM, and we were all tempted to merge his game with Bob's), and began creating characters. Josh created a woman warrior who was unmemorable enough that he switched characters in part two. He decided that she knew a woman mage, played by a woman who does origami. Ken played Amber, utterly inept at magic, frighteningly ept (and humble about his skill in) combat, and driven to learn whether Fate or Chance governs the spheres. Someone else played Grey Gyre, on the run from his evil father and fighting the temptation to use his powers for ill, and who had a huge bird steed.

I decided I wanted to create a raven, ala Sandman. This gave Bob some problems because a Raven should not have especially high stats, but it's a shame to bleed off points. We compromised on a raven who used to be a man. He went to warn some tribe about some foe, and died after gasping out his message. However, the tribal shaman put his spirit in a raven's body. As a man, the raven was called Page Turner. As a raven, the shaman dubbed him Teaches Lore, as the raven taught him the magic from a distant land, based on words of power. When Teaches Lore joined with the the two female PCs and a caravan, the caravan master dubbed him The Incredible Talking Raven. But everyone called him Raven. (Air 5, Fire 3, Earth 2, Water 4, 4 points of Air magic: Words of Power, 1 point power: Can fly, 1 point power: Speak with the Dead - after all, he's been dead).

We were all summoned to meet Witness Scratch of the Chamber Platinum. She had most disturbing news: Two stars had vanished. We were sent to the Glorious Empire to consult the famous astrologer, Listens to Stars. Alas, none of us bothered to do our homework and look for information about the Glorious Empire, nor did we ask for anything to prove our errand was not invented.

The Glorious Empire is a very paranoid place. Luckily, we were warned about bringing in diamonds - only the Emperor can were them. I think there was some question about the mounts. Grey Gyre had to leave his flying bird outside the city, so he stayed with it, and thus we started down the endless road to disaster.

Raven was still being intelligent, so he didn't let anyone know he could talk. We learned that Listens to Stars had been exiled, and the new astrologer was Fortune from Above, who lived in Heaven, the forbidden city - forbidden to foreigners, that is. The procedure for speaking with her was to send a messenger in with a request for an appointment. We did this, and Raven flew over Heaven to see if he could see Fortune from Above. I think this flight was fairly risk free.

Unfortunately, Grey Gyre decided to try to get Raven's attention. He likes birds, and he liked Raven. So, he took out a mirror and let it catch the sunlight, sending flashes into the city, right under the noses of guards who are ordered to be paranoid. Oops. The guards headed out towards him. He got on his bird and ran away, confirming their suspicions that he was a spy. But there was really nowhere to go, and the terrain was a featureless plain. He surrendered, and he and the bird were trussed up. The magistrate listened to his tale, informed him that the Emperor owned everything, including the air, and had him locked up.

The player asked if Grey Gyre had a cellmate. Bob drew The Priestess: Understanding Mysteries, and decided that there was a cellmate, but he was insane. Grey Gyre dubbed him Rock, because he rocked back and forth a lot.

Grey Gyre: Does the Emperor really own everything?

Rock: Nope. He doesn't own that turd.

Meanwhile, Fortune from Above agreed to meet with the others in two days time, and they learned of Grey Gyre's situation, which really worried them. Raven asked a child where the prisons were, since the guards adamantly refused to let us see him, or even know where he was. This was a mistake, but we might have gotten away with it.

We met Fortune from Above, a new, uncertain astrologer who knew nothing about the stars going out, and while she was intrigued by a talking bird, she had absolutely no intention of endangering herself. Amber explained that by questioning the Emperor's position, Raven made it impossible for Fortune to stay in the room. Raven realized that Listens to Stars had probably been banished for telling the Emperor about the vanishing stars (to Bob's dismay, as he'd spent some time working on details like that one).

Raven then made a truly dumb mistake: He flew over Heaven - now that people knew who and what he was - to spy on Fortune. He then went to the river to ask a dead body about the Crags District, which, according to Fortune, was where Listens had been exiled to. The dead body gave Raven a direction for the district, but knew no more. Raven asked what he could do to set the dead man's spirit to rest, having dragged him back just to ask a few questions and all. I figured Raven, whatever his faults, is the kind of being who likes to help others - after all, he died to bring a warning, volunteered for this star thing, and now, he wanted to carry out the dead man's last wish: pay off his wife's debt.

The debt was equal to the money we had, and the two women were delighted at the thought of paying the debt, as was Raven. We would save the woman's land! We would prove we were good foreigners, not spies! We would save Grey Gyre! We would find Listens and solve the mystery of the vanished stars! We would --

Amber: You'll sign that poor woman's death warrant!

Others: What?

Amber: Foreigners suspected of being spies give this woman a lot of money for no particular reason! Don't you see how that will look?

Dejected, we had to admit that he was right. But we kept trying to figure out something to do, and eventually, we pushed Amber past his breaking point. He yelled about wanting guards to come and just put the manacles on us right now so we'd at least have a chance to explain our actions.

Raven used a Word of Power to calm the freaking out Amber, but the damage was already done. In this city full of spies, anyone near us was running away as fast as they could, not wanting to have any connection with us. Raven went to talk to the guards at the gate so that Amber could get arrested like he wanted.

Guard #1: A talking bird? You wait right there!

Raven wasn't that dumb, so he looked for an older guard. This man heard him out, patiently.

Guard #2: The way I see it, we all have a job to do. My job is to guard that there gate. Your job is to fly around and peck at things, leaving me alone to do my job.

Meanwhile, the others went to a local eating place, and Amber explained that they were foreigners who'd gotten into trouble, and could anyone tell them how to get out of it? Someone made him an appointment with a lawyer, who listened to his story, took all the money, and told the heroes to go back to their room and stay there and not do anything. Raven joined them, and shortly after, the lawyer returned with Grey Gyre, who was set free, as was his bird, on condition that the Heroes leave at once and never return to the Glorious Empire. The Heroes agreed, except for Raven, who flew off to find the Crags district, and thus ended the session.

We totally derailed the adventure, except that Bob explained other teams had been sent out from Everway - ie, he'd run the game earlier - and everyone could learn what was known in part 2. Raven, alas, would need so much time to find Listens that by the time he returned, it would be too late. Bob was willing to twist that for me, but I decided that it would be more fun to create a new character for part two.

A lot of time was spent laughing, mostly in disbelief, as we all proceeded to hang ourselves without any help from the gm.