Session 02 - Bandits

"Brayton, get me out of here!"

The Man stood before them, exhaust pipes whistling and innards chugging.  He appeared lifeless until Pac suggested that the Man start the engine.  Slowly the he began to move; the Man moved with a sense of purpose, though devoid of life.

Otto quickly put the Man to work. They set up the balloon, fired the engines, and were airborne in a half-hours time.  Taking a liking to the Man, Otto decided to name the machine.  Thus Brayton, the mechanical stoker, officially became a part of the crew.

The crew of the airship went to sleep in hopes of resting up for the long 20 hour flight back to Industria.  If all went according to plan they would be able to fly in under the cover of night and return everything to the workshop before the Inventor returned from vacation.

After waking to a beautiful sunrise the crew adjusted their course and took up their positions for the long haul.  Roger left the ship to scout the winds ahead and to see if he could find some food.  Pac was assigned to watch over the ship, Otto navigated, and Braden stoked.

Little more than an hour passed and a speck appeared on the horizon.  They crew was excited to see what Roger had scouted, but instead of the bird returning they were greeted by cannon fire.  7 shots were fired on the ship causing Otto to take evasive action.  Quickly they crew realized that they were being chased by a group of Raccoon bandits.

The bandits had a larger ship, and momentum on their side.  They quickly closed the gap between the two airships.  Once the Raccoons were close enough they forcefully boarded the crews airship.  Outnumbered Otto was forced to surrender after briefly resisting the bandits with the help of Brayton.

As Otto and the Man drew the attention of the bandits, Pac was able to sneak onto the Raccoons ship.  He scampered up the support ropes and made his way to the top of the bandits air balloon.  There he attempted to sabotage their ship.  Though his actions were valiant, the mouse was not able to cause enough damage to the ship to give the Raccoon pause.

The Raccoons forced Otto to surrender the Man after they searched his ship and found nothing else of value to take.  The Man was knocked over, shut off, and slung onto the bandit ship.  The bandits left quickly afterward without much fanfare, catching Pac of guard and trapping him atop the bandits airship.

Roger returned on the heels of the bandits departure.  He and Otto immediately set off to tail the bandits ship with the hope of finding some way of rescuing Brayton.  Without the Man it would be certain doom for them to return to the Inventor.

A few miles from the raid, the Raccoons set their airship down on their island base.  Pac revealed himself to the Raccoons and successfully tricked the bandits into thinking that the Man only listened to his commands.  However, Pac's luck ran out fast.  The Raccoons forced the mouse into a small empty keg and corked the top, but just before the corked sealed Pac in he was able to issue one last command to Brayton.

Session 01 - The Island

"I'm not sure what it is exactly, I just know that the Inventor called it a Man"

Otto the aeronaut left Industria with enough coal to safely return, but quickly found that the latest modification the Inventor made to the engine caused the ship to burn up the coal much quicker than he has ever seen.  In the short time that the aeronaut was flying he found the ship to be working in top shape.  In fact looking back now he can see that the ship was more responsive and faster because the engine was running so hot and hard.  He knows that an adjustment will need to be made for the return flight.

After two days at sea, the airship washed up on the shore of a remote island inhabited solely by a large clan of mice who harvest coal for the precious stone that are sometimes hidden inside.  The aeronaut meet a rather curious and strangely adventuristic mouse named Pac who was able to sneak the aeronauts ship into the coal deposit.  After quickly filling the engine room with enough coal to make their way back to Industria the strange pair left the island.

It took only a few minutes to realize that once again the aeronaut was in trouble.  His companion had misplaced his lighter, he had forgotten to stock the ship with food and water, and he couldn't manage to fill the balloon by himself.  Frustrated he put aside his labors for the evening, and set to sleep.  In the morning the mouse and the aeronaut were greeted by the aeronauts long time friend and spotter named Roger.  Roger explained why the engine ran so hot, and showed the aeronaut that the stange looking boiler sitting inside the engine room was not boiler but in fact was the latest invention the Inventor had created.  They loaded the strange contraption with coal and watched as it's bellows glowed to life.

Nobody was sure exactly what to expect from the contraption, not even Roger, except that it was supposed to take the place of a stoker and that the Inventor had referred to it as a Man.

Introduction 00 - Industria

Invention is the hand that turns the wheel of production.

 

 

Industria is a sprawling metropolis.  Chimneys litter the skies creating hazards for the airships that traverse the heavy smoke filled air.  Animals, from all walks of life, scurry along its dirty streets day and night.  Work never stops in Industria, triple shifts are worked in every factory, every warehouse, and every distribution center.

Industria is the city of progress,  the birthplace of every one of the worlds greatest innovations.  It is home to richest of the rich, and poorest of the poor.

Manufacturing is paramount.  The city is driven by its ever expanding population, creating a ever expanding need for food stuffs, housing, and wares.  The demands grow on a daily basis causing the cities largest manufacturers to scrap with one other to capture and hold the greatest market share.  New factories are built monthly. Warehouses are filled and then emptied. The cities distribution centers create queues that snake off for hundreds of feet choking the streets.  Struggle as the manufacturers do, they cannot keep up.  They look to new technologies, the latest innovations, and breakthroughs to keep up with the 'rat race' that is Industria.

Pitch Session

Last night I was trying to come up with a genre for the game. I started to latch onto this idea that the air ship was like an Ironclad that has gyrocopter propulsion. This means that the air ship is ocean worthy, and can fly. It runs on coal, much like a locomotive. This means the airship, and everyone thing on it is covered in black soot all the time. There is no such thing as being clean. You must wear goggles, you probably should wear a large overcoat to keep the soot off of you, you should wear a hat like a conductor.

That alone creates an awful amount of interest. We now know how the airship works, and have a general idea of the situation it would be like to be on one. But I still wanted to put a name to the genre so I can read a book or two about it, watch a film, or find a comic book that will help me fill in the blanks.

I found the genre, it’s called Steampunk, much like cyberpunk (The Matrix, or Neuromancer), but set in an industrial revolution (or Victorian) time period.

I still think the idea of creatures is worth keeping, and Janelle helped me out with finding some literary examples of creatures or animals in fiction. Rats of Nimh jumped to mind immediately, and she led me to the series called Redwall, there is also another classic book called Watership down which I have read half of (but put it down because it didn’t interest me all that much). All these examples use animals and then give them human emotion, features, and language. I think it may be easier to pick an animal than to create a whole species.

Example:
Rats are evil, they are dirty, scheming, vicious, and militaristic. They can also see in the dark really well and  can survive on just about any food source.

I think it would be wise to stick to woodland animal, small animals too. A raccoon or beaver is about as big as we should go. Don’t pick something smaller than a mouse, unless you have some really strong reason. Oh, and no birds! Remember the story revolves around the airship…

I need to speak with you Janz about your role. If you are going to be the islander who’s property the aeronaut crashes onto we need to figure out how you can refuel his ship. Perhaps you are a coal miner, or own a coal mine.

Below I put some links to site relating to Steampunk. The Youtube link is for a 30 minute short animated film that looks really interesting. Think about this genre, think about the stark difference between the pastoral life (clean, open fields, fresh air, working the land) in juxtaposition with city life (dirty, industrial, factories, machines). Pick an animal that suits your role, and would also have some aspects that lend themselves to being an aeronaut or miner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vORsKyopHyM