A Chisel, a Moon Pool.
Reincarnation Apple - PinocchioP
くりかえし くりかえし 生まれ変わり 山積みの亡骸の上でダンシング リインカーネーション リインカーネーションの悲痛な叫び 愛して 愛して 嫌
Oh, welcome back!
This is an exploration of the sworddream Songbirds, by snow. We highly recommend buying and checking out the system for yourself!
This sworddream explicitly includes mature topics as part of its ruleset and setting.
We make no promises nor assurances of what the exploration ahead will contain. By reading beyond anything this notice, you as reader certify you are old enough, mature enough, and willing to view whatever Songbirds is capable of.
Reincarnation Apple - PinocchioP
くりかえし くりかえし 生まれ変わり きらめく似たり寄ったりのストーリー リインカーネーション リインカーネーションの果てのオーバーキル どうして どうして
The Legend, and table roles:
Administrative: aria (∃), Hikari (🌢). Players: Opal (⟡), Chrys (‷), iolite (⏻). Record-keeping and map archival: Orbit (⊙)
∃ | hello! this is a fun group we have this time.
🌢 | Are we actually calling this “Untitled”? I’m all for it, but just checking.
∃ | yeah i mean, it fits. does knock out the option for using that down the line, but… why save a good name?
🌢 | True that! Anyway, hi. Some of you out there probably know me. Hi. I don’t usually play in these, but if you think I’d pass up the chance to play with snow’s vampires, you’re short on blood yourself. I’m here for… I’d say ‘vampire consulting’, but delineating stuff like that never seems to work here.
∃ | she’s half of the game management role.
🌢 | I’m half of the game management role! It’s so fun being on this side for once.
∃ | isn’t it? alright, before we get too carried away, a couple notes.
🌢 | Caveats, my favorite!
∃ | ① of the three Songbirds being introduced this opening session, one may seem a bit familiar. this is intentional. we want to eventually get back to Wake and Songs We Sing for another visit, but stuff has to happen! and this is a good way to explore the possibility space while also trying out a different system. so, do not take this as any implication of existing ties between the worlds of these two systems, this is for the sake of our own table.
∃ | ② if you’ve read One Joyful Elegy, you’ll notice that the presentation of this is significantly different. we’ve debated a lot about whether to go back and change a few things in the past, but ultimately it’s more important that these things stay as written so that the context for things stays clear even if the layout does not. also i’m still (usually) typing in lowercase anyway and that sure as hell isn’t changing. apologies if that makes things difficult to read, but we can’t compromise on that here. speaking done in-character will be entirely highlighted in character colors, instead of using quote blocks.
∃ | ③ unlike last time, we don’t plan to figure out any specific ending point for this. it will run until all the played Songbirds are dead and buried again, however that pans out. the early focus will be equally on the songbirds and poking around with the system to see what setup is like and how the game feels to play, so we shouldn’t Game Over immediately. probably.
🌢 | Also, we will be respecting the real-time nature of this as we write, so there is going to be a lot of explicit indications of when we take breaks once the game begins.
🌢 | 👏 Now, let’s see our songbirds!
Engraving 0. Those in death cursed still with life.
songbirds 3e. Becoming a Songbird.
Once upon a time, two gods lived together in your sky: the god of love and the god of death. Two great and powerful foxes who danced as one. Until one day, in a fit of jealous rage, the god of love was killed and fell from the sky. Now there is but one god. Our sorrowful and tired god who sleeps inside the moon.
∃ | “You awake in a moon pool, an iron coin tucked into your pocket and the fading dream of an endless cave behind you.
songbirds 3e. Becoming a Songbird.
Now the dead rise. Spirits find no rest. Bones refuse to settle. Suffering become tangible. People no longer pray to Death for fear of waking her, and reach out to Love though she does not answer. A world caught between, left hanging as it too becomes a corpse that cannot slumber. Annihilation is not coming, it is here and destroying all in its path.
∃ | “Love’s fortune sketches your history in broad strokes.
songbirds 3e. Becoming a Songbird.
And then there’s you, poor thing–returned. Cursed by death, people whisper. Chosen by love, bemoan the stars. You are changed strange by your liminality. Gifted with the supernatural by your bloody sky. Raging against all that is and can’t be. You are the canary in the coal mine of the world’s nightmare. The only hope for a spirit to close its eyes. Songbirds~
∃ | “Do what you will with it. It makes no difference in this life.”
🌢 | The first. Opal.
⟡ | …
⟡ | “You were born elsewhere. Your scent is distant, almost unrecognizable. You are not from this world, in a big way. You bear a pair of shotglasses. As a child, you died.
🌢 | Ow. Not very kind to this one already, huh?
⟡ | “There was pain. So pure and so strong that the details were crushed to bits and dust. All that remains is pain. And death.
∃ | and this is why we don’t speak too soon!
⟡ | “You bear a feather from an extinct bird.” …I feel like at this point, I need to be clear. I only chose the very first one, okay? The connections make themselves.
∃ | It’s true! Does this one have a name, by the way?
⟡ | Textually, they need to carve one, but they don’t have one. For the sake of the rest of the table, this one will carve the name “RAINE”.
∃ | Very well. We will return to Raine in a moment.
🌢 | The second. Chrys.
‷ | “Born in the coldest of seasons, during the coldest month, and on the coldest day. The stolid nature digs in. Lived as a child in the shadow of someone seen as greater than you. The comparisons never ended. Expectations never die. You were dragon touched. A spiritual experience, surely. Wondrous and terrifying. They were a fire, and you cradled it for as long as you could, letting it torch the things around you. But now you have cast it aside. You are safe. You didn’t die, you sacrificed yourself. To save someone or to do something greater? Or was it just foolish hubris?”
⟡ | You really do miss out on so much when you die immediately.
‷ | Her name is Leah, her gift and curse is Tiefling. She bears as well a feather from an extinct bird, and something described as “WAR PAMPHLET, THE INSOLENT STARS”.
🌢 | Lovely! Io, the third please.
⏻| “You were born to the slow pressure of a war, pushing out and crushing all that could be yours and loved by you. You never found ‘home.’ You were always on the move. Never staying in one place for long. You were sent away, back to a place you’d been before. A place that held meaning but was different. Something happened, and you stopped looking for guidance and started taking care of yourself. Maybe for the first time. Maybe not. Your financial circumstances created a pressure so tight it brought about desperation. Your death shortly followed.”
‷ | That certainly took a couple turns.
⟡ | Didn’t it just. Though honestly, I’m more surprised how straightforward Leah’s was.
⏻| A vial of heavy metals, the name “Ember”, the job… no fucking shot it actually gave me Mail Courier.
⟡ | HAH
‷ | Oh right, Leah was an Acolyte. Is? Was.
⏻| gamers, this is so Sparks-coded. ok and her gift/curse is Jinx, and her final trinket is, get this, also a pair of shot glasses.
‷ | aria, we really should have had you make a songbird just to see what would happen.
∃ | no tempting fate!! no thanks! i did that enough last exploration! god it really is haunting our old and new friend Raine, isn’t it? i love it.
🌢 | I’ve just been informed of the timeline. Very entertainingly, it’s been 2 months since Raine awoke and carved that name in the moon pool, 3 months for Leah, and 4 for Ember. As fellow new songbirds, now, the last things to do before setup finishes are choose their roles, roll their drives, find out if they know each other, roll for money, and choose their weapons.
∃ | Shall we, then?
⟡ | Insomniac.
‷ | Lamplighter?
⏻| …Watcher, i guess?
‷ | “I’m desperate to uncover my past.” Fair enough.
⏻| “Someone took my place. I don’t know if I want to find them.” Oooh, fun.
⟡ | “I heard the most beautiful song when I died. I must find it.” I’m actually being pranked.
⏻| lmao
∃ | Well, mess with the books and they mess with you back, right? Okay, do you know each other? Also, pick a character color.
⟡ | Alright, how do we…
🌢 | Good point, do we just double up, or…?
⊙| Let me write this one out.
⊙| We go to school together in the city. We used to date, but it didn’t work. Siblings <3
∃ | horrifying, thank you. let’s all hope this doesn’t come up often, the formatting is not kind.
⊙| The gradient is nice on dark mode, anyhow. I should prep a specific background color for the in-character stuff too…, but yes.
And now, a short break while they find their gear.
🌢 | Before we get to our character descriptions, there’s actually one more thing. Where do we start? Had we something in mind, we could talk about that, but rolling from the tables is actually very fun. So, what’s the good old octarine get us?
∃ | “Legion troops hold one of you hostage”, apparently.
🌢 | Well, shit! Hikari is not responsible for any damages done to the gang as a result of dice luck. If you encounter issues, please conta—
∃ | Does anyone want to volunteer to be the hostage? This could just as easily be a different member of the gang.
⏻| can’t we just make her play the hostage herself?
∃ | …iiiiii don’t see why not.
🌢 | Throwing me to the… Wait, no. Throwing me under the… Hm?
⟡ | What are you on about this time?
🌢 | I’m trying to find a good idiom for being tossed into retroactive chains. Usually I only have to deal with concurrent events.
⟡ | Well, I don’t know, call it practice or something.
🌢 | Sold!
⏻| whatthehell
🌢 | Look, I haven’t had anything to do in… gosh it must be at least half a year now, a girl needs to get some exercise! Even if that is being hostage. It should at least burn calories from the stress and anxiety, right?
‷ | If stressing over shit counted as a workout, most people would leave or drop out of school with twice the muscles they came in with.
∃ | The Incredible Academic Hulk…
⟡ | Wait, that implies researching papers is equivalent to gamma radiation or…whatever it was.
⏻| oh i’d believe that. you seen what all nighters do to people? between that and the energy drinks it’s basically a superhero origin mill.
🌢 | And so it all comes back around to Blue Period as a battle seinen…
∃ | Edgeworth slamming the table dot gif, alright. I’ve discovered we missed birthdays. Roll those on your own. Also, while looking for the damn rules on where we start, it’s not super clear to me if dungeon delving involves taking on multiple roles or if the Gang will participate as well?
🌢 | Well, we can delve that second bridge when we come to it, at least.
∃ | . Why are you like this ← knows the answer
∃ | Ok, well, nonspecific hostage scenario is where we’ll pick up after a break, then?
👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 ☑️
Break.
🌢 | Order, bound by all three Sevens, under the Angel.1
∃ | what’s that?
🌢 | Oh, just having a bit of fun. Trying to figure out what the situation is for our little hostage. The sevens are really good, I’m glad I turned those over.
∃ | yeah, that’s… that’s a hell of a draw. lovely.
🌢 | Alright, don’t jump the gun yourself. I still need to figure out how these map to our gang here. Are you gonna be running the scenario?
∃ | i don’t see why not, but don’t stop yourself from setting the scene. i’ll show you what i have for our area once we’re getting back to the table.
🌢 | Sweet!
∃ | we did outfits, but not other appearances. anything to add there? we want to do some proper introductions this time.
⏻| …hadn’t thought about it?
⟡ | I can put one together, yeah.
‷ | uhhhhhh? Yyeas. Yeah I still have the mental image.
⏻| you gonna do appearances for everyone in the gang?
∃ | well, i was planning to. i might just steal from what hikari’s up to to make that easier.
⏻| she sure do be up to something. though, i gotta say, it feels hard to get a grasp of the aesthetic of the world for some reason.
⟡ | Pinning the Sleeping Angels up there helps, but I do agree. I do think it’s sort of the point that things are a mess? But a couple additional drawings in the rulebook might help. Who knows.
∃ | well, you know. we’ll never know if we’re wrong or right, so least we can do is try.
Rejoinder.
∃ | i think it would help to consider these callout blocks the same way Shaft does still frames.
∃ | anyhow, we talked for a while and decided to have a full introduction, since there’s very little guarantee anyone reading this is familiar with any of us in detail.
🌢 | So formal!
∃ | with that said: hi there, i go by aria ( she/they ). bnuuy witch, or magician, depending on the day. i elected to not have a character in this game because i like having the book instead, mostly. it’s a really good book! i can’t wait for the physical one to get here. gestures at hikari.
🌢 | Hi hi! Hikari (she) here. I’m something of an unlucky star, and usually I’m not one to get involved with realspace like this. However. The way vampires exist in Songbirds is deeply engaging for me, as a vampire, and as someone who exists mostly due to chronically stealing parts of other worlds to assemble into myself, there’s no way I’m passing that up! I’m here to handle the vampires, as should be obvious, and I’ve also taken up managing the rest of the gang as we go about things.
∃ | indeed! now, since we ordered it this way earlier, let’s pass it off to the players.
⟡ | Hello, Opalでござる. Why did I say that. I hate introductions. Anyway. Theys and thems. I really enjoy narratives and stories, and these playthroughs are a really good way to get some storytelling in when I’m otherwise not able to participate or run anything.
⟡ | The Songbird I follow is Raine, currently using the self-referential “this one”, prefers that one/it in third person but doesn’t usually make an audible fuss about it.
∃ | our resident Pronouns Expert. which could mean nothing.
⟡ | Which could mean nothing. Raine stands, unsteadily, just below average height, and an often vacant gaze. It wears a plain white one-piece dress, elbow-length black gloves, and high black boots, all over a pallid skin that’s appears blue-ish in shadow. It bears a one-handed blade, as if half of a giant pair of scissors, but bent slightly differently—white at its handle, with wear showing the near-black metal underneath it. In the 2 months since awakening, Raine has shown particular interest in songs as well as a remarkably strong voice, and is currently the most interested in cleansing dungeons. As mentioned, Raine and Leah go to school together in the city.
‷ | Speaking of Leah. Hello, I’m Chrysoberyl. Generally I just go by Chrys, but also, generally I don’t go by anything. She/her for now. I…don’t really have anything else to add. I guess I’m more about being active than chatting? idk.
‷ | Leah ( she/her ) is rugged, fully silver eyes, darker hair, darker skin. I have Flint’s E2 from Arknights in my head for this, kinda? Her heartbeat seems to echo around her more than normal, and a hollow smile usually sits on her face when she doesn’t need to think about making other expressions. Her outfit is a pair of wrist wraps, a light 2-layer sleeveless top, and slightly bulky pants. She wields brass knuckles, each engraved with several mementos of her time awake and things she’d rather not risk forgetting again. She used to date Ember.
⏻| hello again! i’m io, or Iolite, but nobody ever calls me that and it’s really more of a designation than anything. just “she”, if possible. i don’t have any particular traits that come to mind, but i guess i’m justifiably full of myself? anyhow.
⏻| Ember ( she/they ) is a mess. whatever clothes you give them, she finds a way to scuff up. it’s a marvel they don’t fall apart, then! she usually has a bit of a hunch to her, but she’ll straighten up in a fight, and they’re quite dedicated to scrapping if something starts. she settled on using a yo-yo as a weapon of choice, somehow figuring out how to make use of it properly for a number of things—jade and gold interlaced, flying through the air. it’s extra surprising coming from their usual getup, or so they’d say. siblings with Raine, but not as pale.
⊙| And finally, hello! Orbit here. it\he. I’m here to help with formatting, layouts, wrangling HTML, tracking maps and clocks, and other administrative stuff. This is a very busy headspace as it is, so that’s about all you’ll hear from me unless things come up.
∃ | and with that, i think we’re just about done! i’ll let hikari set the scene in a moment, but as a final note in case the subtext wasn’t clear enough; Raine is being played as the same individual who was Handspun Winds of Repose, back in Wake. in fact the start of this idea was to see what it might feel like to be thrown through a cycle of undeath and come back changed…or maybe not at all. the cards and dice have so graciously obliged that thought, so we’ll see what happens when we make our way back around! it is, after all, a different individual here, and the world too is very different, and we plan to engage with all of that earnestly.
🌢 | Mhm! We’re aware that snow has a couple pre-existing adventures written, but in the interests of throwing ourselves at a system and seeing where it takes us, this is going to be as free-form as last time. i have taken a cursory glance at the written ones to see how they’re usually structured, though. helps to have landmarks.
⟡ | One thing that is evident in retrospect (well, aside from OJE being very rough around its edges in so many ways) is that I didn’t, and mayhaps still don’t, quite understand how to engage with a roleplay setting in real-time rather than set-up.2 And conjoined with that, I really wish that we had put even more time into exploring our take on Wake than we did—even if it realistically would have ended up gargantuan. There’s more to say about names, about the different Kin, about the valley and what surrounds it, but that needs both time to percolate and a deep separation for the one who once was called Winds to return to the surface, in any form.
⟡ | This becoming a series of serieses, then, is a way for all of us to continue moving forward through different understandings of worlds, of their inhabitants, and what we all want out of things, without it feeling like the book is ever closed entirely on something.
⟡ | …I was going to add also, I don’t think that there will be that many actual instances of characters crossing world borders in the long run, but realistically… That’s something that most if not all of us do anyway, so why make that promise anyway? We’ll just have to see what happens.
Well then. It's time to dream, I think.
Engraving 1. The grip of the Legion, and those who fight it.
Legion troops hold one of you hostage.
You know these. They know of you. They have one of you. Leah is bound and guarded with several others, in the wake of a party, a festival, a dance. The Legion is always watching, always walking, and extra chaos during Oolane is as good an excuse as any for them to act. She flew too bright for them, the song was too loud, and they said it threatened to wake the dead beneath the earth. They plan to throw her there, alone, or worse.
And so you must get her back.
While the Legion is occupied, tired from their travel here in the wind and lightning, it is your time to strike and fly. Should you choose to after, the dead do still exist below—the very reason for the dance, to prepare to enter, to prepare to appease, to prepare to release. But perhaps it is not the right time, not while they are here. But perhaps again, it is still safer to hide within and emerge with time.
🌢 | …Or, you could always just kill them all. There aren’t that many of them. Maybe it’s worth the risk?
🌢 | Leah. You are bound, overnight, in a house the Legion requisitioned for stay.
🌢 | Raine, Ember. You are in two separate houses across the town, with the tacit understanding between you and the rest of the gang that you will act tonight.
⏻| well, this certainly is a start to things, isn’t it?
∃ | so say the cards! Now, if you would each in turn describe what specifically put you at where you are—not where you are, because none of you really know that at the moment.
‷ | …The dance started light, a simple celebration of spirits, of the warm season, of having a fucking breather. I jumped in and around, circling in erratic orbits between groups of the townsfolk. I enjoy getting to know people like this, in action, in the moments of fun, rather than sitting down.
‷ | She finds the warmth of the drink and companionship faded again, relegated to just memory for now, and a sullen mood replaces it, as she sits bound to a pillar in some shed or other. Two of the Legion are here, not so much watching her as watching for her gang. None of them said it in so many words, last night, as the throng swirled away in its own defense, but everyone here knows a group fights for its own (or at least pretends to, in the case of the Legion).
‷ | Shifting slightly as she wakes properly, she can tell that they didn’t take her brass knuckles (in fact, they didn’t bother to take anything off her, for some reason). But the things in her pockets certainly wouldn’t be of help getting these chains off her—and she wouldn’t be able to be quiet about it, either. The bastards. She’d have better luck snapping the support, probably.
‷ | …Next, I think?
⟡ | I’ll go.
⟡ | This one didn’t sleep, again. Or if it did, in the short time allowed, the gaps in this consciousness, the brief nightmares, are too similar to the waking worries. The song still echoes, dull and throbbing, in this head, and it arises with a groan, grasping at its attire.
⟡ | Raine picks up its weapon and other belongings, gingerly lifting the blade off the ground and then firmly grasping it to ground itself in the violence to come, already here, and after a short moment of meditation to settle the mind even slightly, raps on the wall of the chamber it sits in.
⟡ | “Are we clear?”
∃ | “Clear,” comes the reply. The partition slides away, quickly, and the resident gestures toward the dining table. “Eat quickly. You’ll need it.”
⟡ | Raine winces slightly as it escapes, from everything, but nods. “Understood. Thank you, again.”
∃ | “No need.” They pause for a moment as the partition slides back. ”…Go fuck ‘em up.”
⟡ | Another nod, and then forward. Io?
⏻| ye
⏻| She arises with the same dogged determination she always has, from a pile in the corner—her disguise, and bed. Only something that they would be able to make use of on such short notice, though there was admittedly also some luck involved. And with a quick word to the residents here to confirm where the Legion took their rest, she’s out the door.
⏻| With a quick look around, they skulk around toward the place where Leah is being kept. “Well, let’s see how we’re getting in, and then getting out.”
∃ | lovely! the rest of the town may be dead silent, but the silence of the dead is still very loud in this world, and the scattered others of the Legion here are still out causing a bit of trouble while they can.
∃ | it is a night without rest, a night of un-rest, a night to break things out of rest rather than put them to it, as everything has been disturbed.
🌢 | As you all approach the house Leah is in, a few other members of the gang can be seen also in the shadows. They are ready to distract the rest of the Legion group for a short time, but there is again the tacit understanding, the shared knowledge, that you must get this finished quickly.
∃ | as you round the last corners toward the house, io. heads or tails, where’s the legionnaire of this group?
⏻| tails says he’s gone.
∃ | 🪙
∃ | …well, that’s heads. one legionnaire, the other seems to just be one of the goons.
⏻| fuck.
∃ | you have…one action, between you, before we enter combat. whoever takes it will start closest to the guards.
⟡ | Do we want to—
⏻| i curse someone with my Jinx.
⟡ | …Yeah, no, fair enough.
∃ | alright! what’s this look like, then?
⏻| Ember sees the pair, and stiffens for a moment, before muttering something in a very low voice and moving forward. her Jinx, essentially sprite-sized by the rulebook, looks roughly humanoid as a silhouette, but any close inspection shows that it is constantly moving, shifting, its equivalent of flesh rippling like a lava flow over itself. and that is exactly what our “friend” here, the legionnaire, is going to start experiencing visions of. his skin, his weapons, will all seem to suddenly be dripping with their own substance, as he swings himself and them around, as if he himself might start to melt soon.
∃ | sick. do we know its name?
⏻| i’m still figuring that out, but i’ll have it next time this comes up.
∃ | cools. alright,
entering combat.
∃ | currently: Ember, legionnaire. Raine, goon. roll REF, easy. Leah is still restrained, and acts last.
⏻| (4+2)3. i’m using advantage here, so add 7, and i guess that’s the only one for the round? there’s no real rules as written on that.
⟡ | (5+1).
∃ | first turn falls to Ember, then. and yeah, that’s fine. the only other thing i could think of using it for is you hitting the guy, so we’ll just say you get the jump on him instead this round.
∃ | anyway. your move.
⏻| …for Limb Violence, can i wager my weapon with the disable chance?
∃ | how so?
⏻| well, what does “chance to disable” mean in the first place?
∃ | uh. good question?
⟡ | While you’re looking that up, a question. We’ve all read the book, by inevitability of circumstance, but… Do we in-character know how strong specific foes are? Maybe not the legionnaire, but at least the goon?
∃ | you know roughly where this one would fall—one good hit. one perfect hit—with a weapon—would be needed to take down a legionnaire, because they actually have some sort of guts (just using them for the wrong reasons), but the goons could go down to any number of well-placed blows from even a fist. goons are as goons do, basically.
⟡ | Makes sense.
⏻| oh i was looking at the wrong section. ranged is guaranteed to disable, but with a hard check. so that makes going for the goon here a lot worse, but i don’t want to spend a disable on the legionnaire…
⟡ | You can move toward him first, which would make it melee again, right? Raine is moving for Leah’s chains (or the pillar) when the turn comes around.
⏻| you know what you’re so entirely correct.
🌢 | When you’re right, you’re right.
⏻| this does bring us back to disable chance, but basically since Ember uses a yo-yo, i was going to have the weapon get given up if the disable chance lands. even if the goon goes down.
∃ | okay! uhm. let’s just say that’s like. 15% for now? Pick 3 numbers on a d20.
⏻| oh! uhhh. i’ll go with 3, 15, and 19?
∃ | alright. those are Ember’s disable numbers, so just write those down, and use them going forward.
⏻| sweet.
⏻| (6+3). am i allowed to roll for disable anyway?
∃ | …sure, why not. you will have to drop the weapon regardless.
⏻| that’s fine.
⏻| (2). darn. so close (????).
∃ | the yo-yo sails through the air while Ember runs up to the goon, and while it seems it gets close to entangling them, they pull away in a manner that wrests the string from your grasp, and the weapon arcs to the ground a short distance away. you may collect that on any of your following turns—neither opponent looks like they want to bother picking it up.
⏻| well, that’s a relief, innit!
∃ | the legionnaire follows you, trying his best to shake off the sensation and visuals he’s being subject to, legs and arms and weapon all threatening to slip away. 2 medium tests, you may use PHY or REF.
⏻| PHY.
⏻| (10+3), (10+3).
‷ | So that’s where all the good rolls went this turn.
⏻| this is good!?
∃ | well, since you dodge both, the descriptions pass to you.
⏻| sick. what sort of weapon does this guy have?
∃ | a staff, on the thicker side but not enough to look heavy. he swings it like a polearm.
⏻| Ember staggers to the side of the first swing, and ducks under the second, both barely missing her.
∃ | alright. keep her there, because it’s the goon’s turn now.
⏻| oh for fuck’s sake.
⟡ | I thought Leah was the one in trouble here.
‷ | Me too!
∃ | one more dodge test, please.
⏻| …
⏻| it’s another 10 plus (colon) 3.
🌢 | How does she do it!
∃ | alright! sure! this one misses too! how do you avoid getting menaced?
⏻| i’m seeing a sort of breakdance fade-away in the middle of nearly falling over, taking her just out of the way of the final attack there.
∃ | lovely. alright, turn passes to Raine.
⟡ | Still going for the chains. Can I make that in one turn?
∃ | yeah, the building’s small enough. roll me… hm. roll me Drama, just to put a number on the action. you can succeed regardless; the blade is big enough and the target is easy enough.
⟡ | Ah, the flair for the dramatic. Alright then.
⟡ | oh that’s a (15+1).
⟡ | Raine moves past the goon and legionnaire for the moment, brandishing its large half-scissor. The pale weapon eats through the night as it’s swung around and over, Raine itself pivoting and stabbing the tip through the open part of the chain and into the floor a small distance.
‷ | Clap clap clap clap clap.
⟡ | “On your feet. We haven’t much time to leave.”
∃ | the chains come off! Leah, with the rather makeshift cuffs still attached, you now have control of two segments of this chain as a temporary weapon. it will have to be removed later, but for now, you can use this as a +3 to your Unarmed damage number at melee distance, and a +2 at ranged.
‷ | Sweet. I think I’ll make use of that immediately.
‷ | “Let me just repay them the favor real quick, then.” She steps forward at the goon first, with an unarmed in melee.
‷ | Hey are we sure this thing isn’t weighted? I got another 10. (+2)
⟡ | The rolls earlier were quite clear about that.
‷ | Eh, fair enough. Let the chains ring true, then!
∃ | the links come around at the goon’s torso, and whether from the impact alone, or combined with the fatigue from the walk in, the shoving around earlier, and the guard shift, they crumple to the ground without much ceremony.
‷ | “Fucker. Could have just left us be for once in your damn lives.”
∃ | “No can do, missy,” says the legionnaire, grimly. “I’ll have your HEAD for that. HEY!! TO ME!!”
⏻| he sure do be yelling.
∃ | there’s no immediate indication of whether or not anyone can actually hear him, let alone whether anyone did. but you’re still very much on the clock. top of the round. let’s see when he acts.
⟡ | (12+1).
⏻| (17+2).
‷ | (7+2). Drat.
∃ | alrighty, 2 before and 1 after. pick who goes first.
⟡ | I’m wrenching the blade out and flinging it directly at him. Ranged, torso.
∃ | oh! go for it.
⟡ | (19+2). Damage is. Oh my god that’s a 10.
∃ | fucking hell you one-shot him
🌢 | HAHAHA
‷ | Oh my god??? We were gearing up to beat him down together though??
⏻| this is what happens when you she/her the it/its, chat. be careful this month.
∃ | well, uh, yeah. he’s going down nearly immediately. any specific way you want to do it?
⟡ | The floor and pillar crack with the removal of the blade from them, and then you can see Raine’s muscles tense through sections of the dress and gloves, a whoosh as the blade slings overhead again, and then a sickening mashup of the crunch of bones and armor and the tearing of flesh and fabric. The sleep-deprived eyes stare him dead. ”…What’s it like, being on that end of death?”
∃ | “…ou… …ee…won’t…” with the wind and life knocked out of him together, he staggers backwards, gurgles a few words, and then falls, never to rise again.
∃ | congratulations! now get out of here before the rest arrive.
⟡ | ”…We need to move. Now.” Raine walks forward, grasps the blade from yet another place it’s become stuck, and then nods at the other two before heading out.
‷ | “Yeah. Yeah. Right. Ember, grab your weapon.” Leah breathes out a heavy breath, and then whistles a signal to the others outside.
⏻| “Yyyes ma’am.” They scoop up the yo-yo, gesture to the Jinx (who (which?) is named Albaz, and then head out to start dismantling the cuffs on their way out of the village. “Is this why things didn’t work out between us? You more into that?”
‷ | “Aakasdhjhadsdffhds huhuhhh??? No????” She nearly trips on thin air at that statement. “It just… I don’t know. We’re not a good fit in that way, I already told you.”
⏻| “Well, you certainly did. But I’m a nosy bitch, and we’re still friends. So, tell me about it some time.”
‷ | She looks around. ”…On the road, sure. Or once we’re back.”
🌢 | The other few members of the gang quickly turn up on your way out, looking in quite decent shape, the whistle having been repeated through a couple houses. There’s the noise behind you of the Legion troops finding their leader dead and the other guard beaten up by the chains they had been using as tools.
∃ | The rest of the folk here at this settlement will be able to scare off the remaining goons, or do worse to them, now that the legionnaire is gone, but the settlement itself is likely not long for this world, with the Legion’s sights set on it.
🌢 | Congratulations! You’ve freed Leah, and without a scratch.
∃ | now, where are you running?
‷ | One vote for “the fuck away”.
⏻| seconded!
⟡ | Thirded. As tempting as it would be (for Raine) to get back to the work, doing so right where there was just a fight with the Legion is asking for trouble, even if we deliberately mess with time there.
‷ | I just think it’s also not a good omen to start the campaign messing with time. There’s so many other things to mess with!
⏻| like each other!
‷ | Like each other hey what do you mean by that
⏻| also i think that, as a first session, this is pretty good, and also with the TYVNJ2 live we are not going to have that much time this month to top tables.
⟡ | Why must you wound my ears like this. But that’s a very good point. This is… just about the same length as OJE’s opening, so it’s a good length by that admittedly baseless metric.
∃ | please can we not end up doing 15k words in one session. like i’d be fine with it but also can we just have a bunch of small sessions instead.
🌢 | I’m game!
Let's do some wrap-up, then. Shall we?
🌢 | I hereby release the flow of time. When we next pick up, these songbirds will have lived another few weeks at the very least. Are there any parting thoughts, words, or anything else?
∃ | well, we can go with live-play first impressions from a single round of combat and all of the setup, i suppose. maybe a forecast or wishes for the campaign, beyond the explicit goals rolled?
⟡ | I think… I’m still a little bit confused on the world itself. I enjoyed using the pbta Moves in Wake, and for weirdly similar reasons I’m enjoying not having any specific Moves to worry about here. The individual triggers do look fun, as well.
🌢 | I want to figure out better ways to convey the dice rolls and card draws. Maybe that doesn’t exist, but a girl can dream! And I will! Goodnight!
⏻| aren’t you a vampire? nocturnal?
🌢 | (No response. It seems to just be a corpse.)
⏻| 🆗. well, for my part, i want to mess around with the mechanics a bit, and the characters more. i will pick the Sex option at least once. mark my words.
‷ | You are going to make this the most awkward gang around.
⏻| with that attitude i sure am! lighten up, girls! unless the girls are asexual. hey what’s Raine’s orientation anyway?
⟡ | “I feel like I’ve lost something incredibly important and I need to get it back and I feel like I’ve never slept before and all there is at nighttime are nightmares”, roughly.
⏻| damn. well, nobody can fix her, but i could sure make her worse—
‷ | I’d like to dig more into the magic stuff, especially about the Demon King. I feel like that’s a very obvious and very good in-road to learning more about her past, and a decent direction to drive events from.
⟡ | Ohh, how pragmatic.
‷ | I rolled a burnt-out overdrawn beastgirl. Anyway, I also want to fill out a soda-dex, which I think involves dungeon appeasement, and I want to do dungeons anyway. They seem really neat. We should do like 5 of them minimum before ending this.
∃ | assuming none of them kill you all, sure. i figured we’d do a dungeon every 2 or 3 sessions, unless things really get off course. which, you know. we tend to do that.
⏻| shocked face.
∃ | well! thank us all for our time, and thank you reader as well for yours. it won’t be coming back. all Questions, Comments, Concerns, and Cartography Requests can be directed to any port of call we have open on the Internet at large—email and forum DMs are the most reliable, social media DMs are the least.
∃ | Sweet Sworddreams to you all.
Footnotes
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Hikari here! I didn’t end up getting into it at the time, but I decided to start using one of our oracle decks (Wormsong) for members of the gang. Running additional full Songbirds for all scenarios would get pretty exhausting, but getting a read on the vibe from a different line of cards should help quite a bit! Other decks will likely also make appearances moving forward for similar reasons, but none of us really have a solid idea of how to portray that whenever it happens. Suggestion box is open! Heart hands! ↩
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Maybe I’ve been overthinking it, but it’s one of those things that’s hard to ask about (Is this a way of asking about it? The suggestion box is open…). Perhaps it’s a matter of confidence. I tend to stay away from the worries of publicity, and with them the idea that we should talk about things more often… But also, there really was a lot of difficulty balancing everything through OJE, and while I’m quite glad with how it went, I also can’t wait to come back to it with a much better grasp of everything in light of both it and Untitled. ↩
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Hikari again! Hi. Dice rolls have been compacted to the dialog lines, but retain their (roll+modifier) formatting. The total is there to be summed up, but we just figured it’d be nice to see what we’re actually rolling, and a vague idea of the stats in the background. Please consider this as speaking the result, but logged as the components. ↩