roseembolism | Actual Play: Golden Sky Stories, the Little Shrine in the Woods Part2

*Actual Play: Golden Sky Stories, The Little Shrine in the Forest*

Part 2: The First Scene

Last time, we wen't through character creation, which was very much a group effort.Now, we find a mystery, bicker a lot, and make new contacts.

*SO, THE STORY*

It started off with me, Mako hanging out at the fox's shrine, because sometimes fish or fried tofu were left as offerings, and I was totally going to get them first. But it was a nice evening in late March, so we ended up at a picnic, in a field near a strawberry patch. Bunker the Tanuki thoughtfully provided shrimp from a dumpster, and I helpfully brought some breaded fried shrimp that some chef in a restaurant had left out on a counter. Well, he obviously didn't want it, did he? We smelled a wonderful odor of strawberries, so with Bunker leading, we- make that THEY rushed to the field, and I for some reason found my path going the same way. The gorging on strawberries was interrupted by a rabbit that pleaded with us to stop and therearenomorenostrawberriesleftforusandwecan'teatthestrawberriesreallyfastpanictalk. Eventually we got the rabbit spirit, named Amasa (aka "Sweetness") to introduce herself, and got a slightly less confusing rendition of a problem of strawberries disappearing and humans and someone was eating the strawberry fields and blablahblah. Bunker, thinking Amasa was hungry, offered some shrimp that had stuck to her coat- rabbits don't like shrimp.

We were all given a chance to react. I, in human form (cat ears and tail) faded behind a tree. Bunker in tanuki form, contnued to eat strawberries. Suzune, Tomo and Pixel waited in their animal forms. the human girl appeared, saw the tanuki and rabbit, and threw a rock at them. Bunker caught the rock, and threw it back at her. This required an Animal check (the stat for physical activity)-, and Bunker had exactly high enough an Animal stat to succeed, causing the human to gain Surprise. Note: Surprise is the closest thing that the game has to a damage system. If something happens to shock or make someone uncomfortable, they get surprise. So if a cat fell into the RAGING TORRENT OF DEATH, she would get 7 Surprise, and get seriously discommoded.

So, back to the scene, the human was surprised at a tanuki throwing rocks at her, and even more at the other talking animals that insisted on introducing themselves to her. To forestall panic, Tomo the Dog ran up and used his "Licking in the face" power to remove the Surprise (and cover her in gross dog drool). Everybody started talking to her and at her, and at each other, and after a few minutes of confusion we found out the following:

1. The human's name was Emi, and she was supposed to start high school soon (Note: Japanese shools start their school years in April).

2. Her family owned the nearby Kishida farms, which specialized in strawberries.

3. Something was coming in and tearing up big patches of the strawberry field.

4. Emi's dad was blaming the rabbits for this, and was going to go buy a gun.

5. Because of the loss of crop, Emi was going to have to delay going into high school.

6. So, a deeply upset Emi was coming to the wild strawberry patch to throw rocks at the rabbits to chase them away. Because she didn't want to miss school AND she didn't want dad to shoot rabbits.

I sighed at the lack of subtlety of my friends, and started working my way around to the main strawberry patch,where I picked up a mass of vines, and sniffed deeply. Dog joined me, but his senses were no match for mine. (This was an Animal test of 3- which I made easily). I smelled age, and hugeness, and pine and water. I announced that this was no rabbit, it was something big. Emi was surprised and nonplussed at my appearance. She asked why I was wearing my school uniform during winter vacation. "Because." I said. And what school used that uniform, there's only one high school in town. "The cool one. The one you don't go to." This was my first receipt of Dreams points.

Note: we were slow to award people Dreams points in the beginning, but towards the end we were tossing them at each other for any excuse. We also really didn't end up spending them like we could at the end of scenes to raise Connections, which would have helped get us more Wonder and Feelings. As it turned out, they ended up as measures of approval more than anything else. We also awarded them to Sandy for her NPC actions in the game.

We speculated on what was causing he problem. Pixel the Bird helpfully suggested that the problem was a graboid. What. A graboid- they burrow under the earth and come up and grab people. It took some questioning to resolve that this wasn't actually a monster, but something Pixel saw on TV. As for me? I knew what it was. Deadpan look. A mammoth. My suggestion was treated with some skepticism, especially by Suzune the fox who think's she's SO special just because she has a shrine. Well. Anyway, after some more confusion and discussion, we decided on a plan. Tomorrow night- no, make that tonight, we would hang around the field and see what was coming to ravage the strawberries. I suggested to Tomo that he dig a pit to trap the whatever it is, and he, with extreme enthusiasm did so. Emi asked if the trap should have a cover or stuff. *shrug* "No, I just did it to keep Pochi occupied". And so the cool henge- Bunker, Pixel and I- went up the tree to wait, while the canines stayed on the ground. Emi was rather disturbed to see a girl in a sailor suit climbing a tree like a cat, and departed, puzzled.

I perched on a branch, while Pixel, my future meal, sat on my head, and we waited. And then an owl hooted and he ended up wrapped in my tail. The players discussed who would be likely to fall asleep on watch, and we agreed that it made sense that Pixel, Bunker and I definitely went to sleep. I think maybe Suzune was the only one awake when the NOISE happened, though if I had wanted to, I could have stayed awake even better than her. In any case, we were awoken to a major tearing and crashing noise over at the greenhouse.

At this point, Sandy said the scene had changed, so we took a moment to update our stats. In GSS any Wonder and Friendship points that are unspent in a previous scene roll over to the next scene. And, because we had gained two contacts at 1 (Emi and Amasa), we had 8 points for the next scene. So, because I had husbanded my points and not spent them, I had 14 points- which matched the most expensive power I had. Light dawned. FSS is a game where you save points early on, so you can spend for big effects in later scenes. Which matches a lot of anime I've seen. Cool.

Next: The THING in the Greenhouse!