roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2014-09-03 09:03 pm
roseembolism) wrote2014-09-03 09:03 pm
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Actual Play: Golden Sky Stories, the Little Shrine in the Woods Part 3
So yesterday we had a picnic called on account of rabbit, an upset human girl, mysterious desecration of strawberry fields, and lots of amusing bickering.
*Part 3: In the Greenhouse*
So, big crashing in greenhouse. Tomo, Suzune and Pixel flew ahead, while I sensibly took my time. When I arrived at the greenhouse, There was a huge, tear in the plastic wall, and inside, an indistinct shape making a major mess among the plants and shelves and stuff. It was huge, black and glowing with two arms and I knew immediately what is was.
Tomo set up a barking power to intimidate it, evidently failed his Animal test, and only seemed to make things worse as it got bigger and angrier looking. Bunker then started a drum dance, the goal of which was to make the mammoth laugh by Bunker drumming on her belly. Bunker's player realized that by buying down her Child stat, she wasn't really god at this- but she spent Wonder until it succeeded. This by the way is the neat thing about GSS's Ability/Power system- success is not so much about high stats, but how much you want something to succeed. The power eventually worked, and the shape chuckled and shrank and became the form of an Ainu.
Ainu?
Sandy did a brief digression, pointing out that Ainu were the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands. She then described the Ainu as having very thick bushy hair, fierice pointed eyebrows, and wearing a rough robe made of pounded bark. Fox pointed out that this was a god. Duh. I could have said that. I, having found all of my incredibly useful powers inappropriate to the situation, asked the god respectfully: "What the hell is your problem?" The god was hungry. Starving. And, as the conversation continued, pissed off. The gist was: there used to be bear, and dear, and then humans came and killed the dear and bear and planted fields. So he was angry and hungry and was tearing the farm apart looking for food. After some back and forth on why it wasn't a good thing to raid the fields- which from the god's perspective shouldn't be there in the first place- I had to ask: OK, why start tearing up fields NOW? He stated that when the humans started killing the deer and bears he had gone to sleep. But now the deer and bears had come back, so he woke up. Sandy at this point interjected to note that this was a real life thing- thanks to conservation efforts, bear and deer were expanding their range. Which is great. But at this point, we now had to deal with a hungry local god.
Note: the "kuma" in "kumashika" means "bear."
Tanuki suggested that she teach the god how to dumpster dive for "the good stuff". I suggested we dress him up in a suit and tie so he could go to sushi restaurants with me. Fox pointed out that his outfit was perfectly correct for an ancient god. and I shot back with "Well you would know about out-of-date clothing, wouldn't you hime-sama?" (princess) We were both awarded Dream points. After which someone asked, I honestly forget who, "So where's your shrine?" Suzune the Hime-sama elaborated: gods need shrines. Kumashika said he didn't know. Questioning about where he woke up revealed it was just a cave (I was hoping I could use one of my powers to have actually been hidden near the spot, but no, it only works during my lifetime. So much for short-circuiting the game.) After more discussion, Kumashika mentioned that he could be satisfied by sacrifices to his shrine. I suggested we give him a certain fox's shrine. We came to the agreement that if we found his shrine and made sacrifices there, he would leave the strawberries alone. At this point the sun was coming up, and Kumashika started changing again, with antlers starting to sprout. Worried, we told him to leave, and he agreed, suddenly alarmed at the prospect of his antlers getting caught in the torn plastic. As he exited the greenhouse, he turned into the form of a deer, and bounded off.
Scene end. Yay, we had another contact, which, added to the two I already had, means I now had 21 points to spend. I could easily afford the cost of any ability, including my my power to call in a cat brigade (Cost: 14 Wonder points) to help find the shrine. As it is, it wasn't necessary (and as Sandy points out after game, how helpful are regular cats going to be?.)
Next: the ancient force of nature! Oh yeah, there's also a god.
*Part 3: In the Greenhouse*
So, big crashing in greenhouse. Tomo, Suzune and Pixel flew ahead, while I sensibly took my time. When I arrived at the greenhouse, There was a huge, tear in the plastic wall, and inside, an indistinct shape making a major mess among the plants and shelves and stuff. It was huge, black and glowing with two arms and I knew immediately what is was.
Tomo set up a barking power to intimidate it, evidently failed his Animal test, and only seemed to make things worse as it got bigger and angrier looking. Bunker then started a drum dance, the goal of which was to make the mammoth laugh by Bunker drumming on her belly. Bunker's player realized that by buying down her Child stat, she wasn't really god at this- but she spent Wonder until it succeeded. This by the way is the neat thing about GSS's Ability/Power system- success is not so much about high stats, but how much you want something to succeed. The power eventually worked, and the shape chuckled and shrank and became the form of an Ainu.
Ainu?
Sandy did a brief digression, pointing out that Ainu were the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands. She then described the Ainu as having very thick bushy hair, fierice pointed eyebrows, and wearing a rough robe made of pounded bark. Fox pointed out that this was a god. Duh. I could have said that. I, having found all of my incredibly useful powers inappropriate to the situation, asked the god respectfully: "What the hell is your problem?" The god was hungry. Starving. And, as the conversation continued, pissed off. The gist was: there used to be bear, and dear, and then humans came and killed the dear and bear and planted fields. So he was angry and hungry and was tearing the farm apart looking for food. After some back and forth on why it wasn't a good thing to raid the fields- which from the god's perspective shouldn't be there in the first place- I had to ask: OK, why start tearing up fields NOW? He stated that when the humans started killing the deer and bears he had gone to sleep. But now the deer and bears had come back, so he woke up. Sandy at this point interjected to note that this was a real life thing- thanks to conservation efforts, bear and deer were expanding their range. Which is great. But at this point, we now had to deal with a hungry local god.
Note: the "kuma" in "kumashika" means "bear."
Tanuki suggested that she teach the god how to dumpster dive for "the good stuff". I suggested we dress him up in a suit and tie so he could go to sushi restaurants with me. Fox pointed out that his outfit was perfectly correct for an ancient god. and I shot back with "Well you would know about out-of-date clothing, wouldn't you hime-sama?" (princess) We were both awarded Dream points. After which someone asked, I honestly forget who, "So where's your shrine?" Suzune the Hime-sama elaborated: gods need shrines. Kumashika said he didn't know. Questioning about where he woke up revealed it was just a cave (I was hoping I could use one of my powers to have actually been hidden near the spot, but no, it only works during my lifetime. So much for short-circuiting the game.) After more discussion, Kumashika mentioned that he could be satisfied by sacrifices to his shrine. I suggested we give him a certain fox's shrine. We came to the agreement that if we found his shrine and made sacrifices there, he would leave the strawberries alone. At this point the sun was coming up, and Kumashika started changing again, with antlers starting to sprout. Worried, we told him to leave, and he agreed, suddenly alarmed at the prospect of his antlers getting caught in the torn plastic. As he exited the greenhouse, he turned into the form of a deer, and bounded off.
Scene end. Yay, we had another contact, which, added to the two I already had, means I now had 21 points to spend. I could easily afford the cost of any ability, including my my power to call in a cat brigade (Cost: 14 Wonder points) to help find the shrine. As it is, it wasn't necessary (and as Sandy points out after game, how helpful are regular cats going to be?.)
Next: the ancient force of nature! Oh yeah, there's also a god.